#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Senate Close to Voting, Covid & Vaccines, Belafonte Birthday Fundraiser; André Leon Talley Tribute

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

1.19.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Senate Close to Voting, Covid & Vaccines, Belafonte Birthday Fundraiser; André Leon Talley TributeThe debate resumed in the Senate on a voting rights bill, with a vote to advance the bill scheduled for in just a few minutes. If they can't reach that 60-vote threshold, Democrats will try to change the senate rule to allow the bill to pass with a simple majority.  Texas counties are rejecting hundreds of mail-in ballot applications.In Benton Harbor, Michigan, the efforts to replace tainted water lines are progressing. We'll have an update.The Missouri man who spent over 40 years in prison for a crime he did not commit has filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit.One of the Georgia white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery has filed a motion for a new trial. We'll tell you what grounds he says he deserves a new trial.We'll have a preview of the federal trial for former Minneapolis Police officers in the George Floyd case set to begin tomorrow.Three Pennsylvania officers face multiple charges in the shooting death of a black 8-year-old girl outside a football game last fall.In our Tech Talk segment sponsored by Verizon, Sankofa.org is gearing up for is HB95 Fundraising Concert for the 95th Birthday of Founder Harry Belafonte. They are raising money for a tech reentry initiative. Executive Director Gina Belafonte will tell us all about this initiative and how it will change lives.Plus, we'll have a special tribute to Vogue Editor and Fashion Legend André Leon Talley, who has died yesterday at age 73.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3zSX7aJNissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, January 19th, 2022. Coming up, I'm Roland Martin. I'm filming live on the Black Star Network. Senators are debating on the floor regarding the voting rights bill. Joe Manchin says, I'm not going to vote in the filibuster. Senator Cory Booker lights into Republicans, especially Senator Tim Scott,

will show you some of what took place. Texas counties are rejecting hundreds of mail-in ballots, applications, and the problem is, they can't tell people and notify them of that, because they have to ask first because of the stupid voter suppression law they passed. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, the efforts to replace tainted water

lines are progressing well. We have an update. A Missouri man who spent more than 40 years in prison for a crime he did not commit has filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the state. One of the Georgia white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery has filed a motion for a new trial. We'll tell you what grounds he says he deserves that trial. Plus a preview of the federal trial for former Minneapolis

police officers in the George Floyd case set to begin tomorrow. Also, three Pennsylvania officers faced multiple charges in the shooting death of a black eight-year-old girl outside a football game last fall. Folks, in our Tech Talk 7 sponsored by Verizon, sendcoffin.org is gearing up for their HB95 fundraising concert for the 95th birthday of founder Harry Belafonte.

We'll talk with his daughter, Executive Director Gina Belafonte about the initiative. Also, we'll talk about COVID. Yesterday, last night, we had one doctor who is unvaxxed. He said don't take it. Well, we have three other doctors who say no, take the vaccine and also be careful because COVID is also causing significant issues, heart problems. We'll tell you about that.

Plus, a special tribute to a fashion icon, a fashion journalist, Andre Leon Talley, who passed away yesterday at the age of 73. Folks, it is time to bring the funk from Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

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

It's rolling Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now' Martin, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's Rollin' Martin now. Martin! This is a live look at the United States Senate where Montana Republican Steve Daines is now speaking. One of the numerous Republicans speaking out against the Democrats' voter bill, the For the People Act and the John Lewis Act. Of course, Democrats want to stop the, they want to actually end the filibuster to create a carve out to pass the voting bill. The problem is no Republicans are going to stand with them. And then, of course, you have Senators Christian Sinema and Joe Manchin who made clear they

are not going to stop it as well. Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, he stepped up today announcing he indeed would support the end of the filibusters for the purpose of passing the voter bill. It was quite interesting listening to a variety of folks today on the floor of the United States Senate talk about this here. Democrats were blasting Republicans, saying frankly they're lying about voter suppression. Republicans are saying, oh no, everything is wonderful and hunky-dory. That was quite the exchange. As I want to show you this here, so Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, he stood up and gave his perspective and he talked about, you know, oh, you know, him growing up, you know, in the South and how these things have changed and all of this. And it was just simply way too much for Senator Cory Booker.

And Booker just finally just had enough of it. And so it was quite interesting because it wasn't long until after Scott finished that Booker just jumped up and didn't even wait. And what you're seeing here, again, you're seeing Republicans do all they can to suggest that they, that voter suppression bills are not being passed. Well, actually, they are. And we know that and we see that. And so I just want to show you some of the drivel of Tim Kelly, excuse me, of Senator Tim Scott. So just listen, check out what he had to say.

If y'all got it, go ahead and roll it, folks, if y'all have it. Because I just, you know, I told y'all how I feel about listening to Senator Tim Scott. Go ahead and roll it, folks, if y'all have it. Because I just, you know, I told y'all how I feel about listening to Senator Tim Scott. Go ahead and roll that. As I listened to the president talk about the importance of stopping what he characterized as Jim Crow 2.0, I felt frustration and irritation rising in my souls as I keep hearing the references to Jim Crow. I ask myself how many Americans understand what Jim Crow was. I am so thankful, thankful that we are not living in those days.

But just for those who don't appreciate the Jim Crow that was, it was a time when my grandfather, born in 1921, would have experienced that if he was still alive. He could tell the stories of the Jim Crow South in the Jim Crow era, an era where in order for a black person to vote, you had to pass a literacy test. Now, if you could read at that point it would not just be a test on whether or not you could read, it would be a test on do you know who your governor was 20 years before you were getting ready to vote. It would include the threat of being lynched, literally killed because

those in power wanted to stop black folks from realizing and fully participating in the greatest nation on earth and exercising what I believe is a fundamental responsibility and right of Americans, the right to vote. It would include beatings and the power of intimidation, the loss of your job, if you dared to show up to vote. And so when I hear my president and your president, our president, of these United States, just a little while ago, a week or so ago,

talking about Jim Crow 2.0 and using as the poster child of this new Jim Crow South being the Georgia voting law, I rushed to read the law one more time so that I could understand what in the world is he talking about. I'm here this morning, this afternoon, because I had a conversation with the South Carolina NAACP about two hours ago. And they encouraged me to come to the floor and make my comments as public as possible so that people understand what I have read in the Georgia law and compare it to the Jim Crow South. So what we know about the Georgia law, and I've read the law, what we know about the Georgia law, and I've read the law, what we know about the

Georgia law is the controversy the president spoke about and that we heard members of Congress speak about over the weekend is it is illegal to get water while waiting to vote. Now that claim has been proven false. It is not illegal to get water while waiting in line. That is false. The only time you can't get water while waiting in line to vote, according to the Georgia law, is if there's a partisan, someone campaigning for someone, campaigning for someone, you can't bring them water.

But if you are an election... Pause, pause. That's a lie. No, leave it right there. That's a lie It won't even allow third party individuals nonpartisan groups to actually Provide hand out water They don't want people being able to access food and then dealing with water because they like those very long lines Go ahead and run, Senator Tim Scott. Go ahead and run more lines.

If you're a relative, you can, of course, bring the person water. So that was completely false. But if that is the threshold of the new Jim Crow era, it looks nothing like the past. However, even that is false. What else is in that Georgia law that is supposedly the poster child of voter suppression? It allows for early voting to include now the souls to the polls where you have Sundays where you can vote early. As a matter of fact, 17 days of early voting, more early voting than the president's own home state or New York.

It allows for mail-in ballots without an excuse. The same thing that was turned down by the voters in New York. What Senator Tim Scott did not say is that the Georgia law stipulates that, again, I can drop off my ballot, but if I have a loved one, a mother or a father, a grandmother or a grandfather, I cannot drop off their ballot in the ballot drop box. He also did not say that Georgia has reduced. They had more than 110, 120 ballot drop boxes. They reduced that to under 30. He conveniently left that out.

Y'all go ahead. No excuse. On demand. Mail-in ballots is now the law in Georgia. New drop boxes. is now the law in Georgia. New drop boxes. Pre-pandemic, it was not legal to have a drop box in Georgia. Now it is legal to have a drop box in Georgia.

And voter ID, supported by at least 60% of African Americans, 60% of Hispanics, 60% or more of the majority population. After going through point by point and realizing in South Carolina the minority turnout was stronger than the overall turnout in South Carolina, and two of the three African American senators in the United States Senate today, two of us, represent those southern states. It's hard to deny progress when two out of three come from the southern states that people say are the places where African American votes are being suppressed. Wait a minute. He is literally trying to include Pastor Raphael Warnock in his speech,

the same Raphael Warnock who has consistently spoken out in favor of passing this bill. That was a bunch of bullshit you just heard from Senator Tim Scott. In fact, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was so pissed off that he actually jumped up and spoke out of turn because he was so offended by what he heard coming out of the mouth of one of the three black U.S. senators. This is how Booker responded to Scott. Madam President. The senator from New Jersey. I have deep and tremendous respect for my friend from South Carolina. I'm not a senator from the South, but my family hails from the South.

From Monroe, Louisiana, to Alabama, to North Carolina, I know my roots and I know the challenges of Jim Crow and thank God we are not in a time of Jim Crow. The history that my friend talked to, I know I know this history and I know my colleagues in the Senate know this history. We're all not blind to what happened in terms of racial oppression going back to the founding of this nation. The Constitution that people have been waving around, it's hard not to read that and not see that many of the compromises

were based upon an acquiescence to that original sin of this nation, then slavery. We know the violence of what he said and talked about. I'm frustrated that we can agree that there has been overwrought language on both sides of the political aisle around this issue. But we should be focusing on the facts. I have a hard time listening to people that want to talk about this issue and don't talk about facts. In the United States today,

it is more difficult for the average African American to vote than the average white American. That is not rhetoric. That is fact. We know that black voters on average are forced to wait online twice as long as white voters. We began this session today swearing an oath to that flag saying that this would be a nation

of liberty and justice for all. Where is the justice in a nation that there is on average average for a black person, twice as long to vote. It's factual, but let's keep going because I heard my colleague speak. During the 2016 presidential election, residents of entirely black neighborhoods waited to vote. They were 74% more likely to spend more than 30 minutes at their polling place relative to residents of entirely white neighborhoods. That's a fact. Similar racial disparities were observed right before the pandemic.

In the 2018 midterm elections, a Brennan Center report found that Latino voters waited almost 46% longer than white voters and black voters about 45%. The report also found that Latino and black voters were more likely than white voters to wait in the longest of lines on election day. You could go into state after state and you will see who waits factually on longer lines. Georgia. Are we going to reduce this to just being about water? I find that law offensive, but that's not the thing that offends me most. You want to know what's going on in Georgia right now? They have a historical pattern of dwindling polling places in the diverse areas, with some voters in Georgia

waiting up to 10 hours in predominantly black neighborhoods. Think about this for a second. You want to talk about voter suppression? You're working a job. You're taking care of young kids. And you're going to give up a day's salary in Georgia to vote? You want to talk about a modern day poll tax? And my friends on the other side are saying that race is not an issue here? I'm going to continue with facts because I was flabbergasted that someone could stand up here and say there's not a different experience for blacks and whites from voting. I'm just going to continue to read the facts.

Since Shelby v. Holder that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act that people like Goodman, Cheney, and Schwerner died for, black voters in Georgia have faced disproportionately longer lines and fewer polling places. The average number of voters per polling place have grown 40% in diverse Atlanta Metro since 2012, and voters in Black neighborhoods waited nearly 10 times as long on average after polling places were closed in neighborhoods. I'm looking for amen from my colleague from Georgia.

I mean, in what country are we where a certain minority in predominantly minority communities has to wait 10 times as long? And so when you read, and I've heard my colleagues read these laws, they read, well, what's wrong with having no drop boxes? Because, hey, we didn't have them before the pandemic. What's wrong with not having that many days to vote by mail? What's wrong with these things is obvious because they're not designed for voter protection. They're not designed to help voters have more access to the polls. They are designed to suppress the vote and create these longer lines.

That is the obvious result. And if you can't see that, I'm flabbergasted. I'm sorry. It's hard. This is not my turn to speak, and forgive me to my colleagues, but I am flabbergasted that the Republican Party, the party of the 14th Amendment, the party that once fought for equal access to the polls is now creating this ruse that every 19 states, that the states that are passing these laws, 19 states, this is not about

voter protection. Donald Trump's own person said the last election was the safest, most secure election in American history. This is not about in-person voter fraud. Study after study has shown that you're more likely to be struck by lightning. This is about lies. I'm sorry this is about lies and they're targeting groups. I'm gonna go on with the facts but I just want to talk about students for a second. I heard my Senator Jon Tester. I've heard my colleagues from New Hampshire. And they're not hiding the ball, folks. They're not trying to tell us, oh, we're concerned about it.

As early as 2011, state Republican House speaker at the time in New Hampshire, Senators, you know William O'Brien? Can I get a hallelujah there? Promised to clamp down on unrestricted votings by students, calling them kids voting liberal. Voting their feelings with no life experience. I hear what you're saying that this is, oh, these laws are innocuous on their face.

But if you start looking at the legislative record, you see groups are being targeted in this country. Polling places are diminishing on college campuses. Voter IDs laws are being created so complex in Midwestern states that they're saying you can't use a four-year ID. It's got to be a two-year ID. That's some of the laws that are being passed. Can somebody be a witness on that? And I hear this rhetoric where people pull out one law. Well, look at this law. This is just about shrinking the days or this is so innocuous on his face. And I know there are people at home thinking to myself, hey, that doesn't sound like a big deal. Maybe Republicans have a point. No, let's return to the

facts. I'm going to go to Texas because I heard the senator from Texas accuse this body of creating rhetoric that was divisive. You want to know what's divisive to a country that says e pluribus unum, above where the presiding person is? You don't want to know what's divisive, is telling people in the Congresswoman's state that if you live in a predominantly minority area, we're going to remove polling places and change laws so that Black folks disproportionately are waiting 5, 10, 15 times longer. All right, hold tight. I'm going to go live right now to the floor of the United States Senate because you have Senator Ben Ray who was just thrashing Republicans as well.

I'm going to come back to Booker, but I want to go live to the Senate right now. Watch this. Poll workers, because of threats against their lives, due to conspiracy theories and lies pushed by the former president. The freedom to vote John R Lewis Act will protect the vote of working families across the country and only one archaic parliamentary measure prohibits all this progress. The filibuster does not increase deliberation in this chamber. It does not incentivize

compromise. So while some claim that amending the filibuster will further the country's division, I disagree. Right now it's only aiding and abetting obstructionists and opponents of progress when it comes to

voting on civil rights legislation. While the filibuster is not mentioned a single time in the Constitution it is too... Corruption. Thank you. Mr. President I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the motion to concur be at 8 p.m. Without objection. Is there objection? Without objection. Thank you I appreciate the courtesy of my colleague. Senator from New Mexico.

We had no choice but to do it at 6.30. So the importance of us being here today goes right in the face of having this conversation and have debate. And I appreciate my Republican colleagues who have come to the floor to engage in some debate and some colloquy. I, like Senator K, came to the Senate a bit naive. I thought debate happened here all the time. Just heard that. Just heard Majority Leader Chuck Schumer say initially there was supposed to be a 630 vote to end closure, which

really means end this debate and evoking the filibuster to move forward, that vote will actually take place now at 8 p.m. I want to go back to Senator Cory Booker's, go back to his speech, and then I'm going to go to my panel because he just completely destroyed Tim Scott. I mean, destroyed Tim Scott and Republicans and brought out all of the

CVS long receipts and I appreciate him using the word lie by him saying they are lying, not misstating, not misinforming. He said Republicans are lying. Go back to Booker.

Facts. The burden of long lines in polling places, closures in Texas, in the post-Shelby County area, often falls disproportionately on Black and Latino voters. Congresswoman, of the approximately 750 sites Texas has closed since Shelby v. Holder, 542 were in the 50 counties with the fastest growing black and Latino populations. Don't lecture me about Jim Crow. I know this is not 1965. That's what makes me so outraged. It's 2022.

Okay, right there, he was talking to Tim Scott. Press play. And they're blatantly removing more polling places from the counties where Black and Latinos are overrepresented. I'm not making that up. That is a fact. I'm not going to stop because I'm tired of hearing that this does not have to do about singling out certain populations in our country, students, Native Americans, and not others. I'm not accusing anybody. Please, let's not throw around the defense where we crouse into defensive postures.

I'm not accusing anybody of being racist. I'm just speaking to the facts in our country that I know motivate everybody here. 99 of my colleagues know it is wrong to create barriers for some populations and not others under the guise of a lie that there's a voter security problem. Let me continue. I'm sorry, Congresswoman, to keep talking about Texas. In the presidential primary on March 3rd, voters at the historically black Texas Southern Not an hour, not two hours, not three, four, five, waited six hours. A poll of Texas voters conducted just in 2020 election underscored the disparity of non-white

voters facing casting their ballots. I'm sorry, Senator Kaine, you were very good when you talked about that sign of 98% of people happy. I sat here stunned. I was wondering who they were polling. Because they were not polling black and Latino voters in Texas when they did that. Let me give you the facts. 48% of black voters and 55% of Latino voters in Texas found it easy to vote.

But that leaves a lot of folks that didn't think it was easy. White voters actually 65% think it's easy to vote. Everybody's not happy. People who wait in six-hour lines are not happy. I just want to give a couple more facts. Let's go to my dad's home state. North Carolina was one of the states most affected by poll closures. There were 158 fewer polling places in 40 counties with large black communities.

And African-American voter participation dropped 16%. Why? Well, my friend Bennett said this. We still live in a country where the economic disparities between blacks and whites is what it was in the 1960s. And so if you're a black struggling family and your option to vote means standing in line for 10 hours compared to predominantly white counties where the wait is longer, you don't go vote. And that's not just black folks.

The stories about disabled voters with about one in seven or one in eight pointing out that it's hard for them to vote because of physical impediments, that's discriminatory against them. That doesn't mean people here are anti-disabled. We're not throwing those labels around. I'm just talking about the facts. And so I just want my colleagues to know that I can pull story after story of these states, the 19 that are passing these laws, if you pull them out and want to read them absent context, you're going to try to obscure the larger picture that's going on in our

nation is that we are seeing entirely Republican legislatures, entirely Republican legislators passing laws that are disproportionately impacting certain groups by the facts. And so I want to close with this because I love what on the march across the Edmund Pettus Bish, they were stopped, beaten back. They tried to go again with King, then blocked by Alabama state troopers. But they finally got to their destination to protest voting rights

And I love what King said there. He talked about those people whose hearts were discouraged because we they hadn't passed voting rights and I know there's gonna be a lot of people in this day that are gonna feel that kind of discouragement but Reverend Warnock King gave one of his best speeches that day, where he asked people, how long are we going to have to wait? Not long. Because the truth, I'm thinking about the lies we're hearing now, the big lies, the lies of in-person voting, or the truth crushed to the earth will rise again.

Don't lie and say there's not a disparate voting reality for blacks and whites in this country right now. The facts speak differently. Don't lie and say that these laws are not being done in a way to make it harder for students to vote. Don't lie and say

that we are a nation that should be doing more to ease access as opposed to putting up more barriers because to go on more barriers is anti-democratic. Those lies will not live forever. I do believe still that the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends till justice. I still believe that the best of our democracy will come out if people do not give up and are not discouraged. I ask my colleagues right now to continue on the floor today, to continue to tell the truth of what's happening in your states, to continue telling the truth of what's happening in our nation.

Because we will win this fight. I don't know how long it will take, but that will be determined by how dedicated we are to the principles of this democracy. We must live in a nation where everyone is equal, not in rhetoric or in slogan or in salutes, but everyone is equal in the experience they have through participating in democracy. The vote is the bedrock of our nation, is the foundation of the country, and it does have cracks that need our repair.

Whether we get down on our knees in prayer or we stand tall, let's continue the work of this democracy so that freedom and justice does roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Forgive me, colleagues, for speaking well beyond my time. And I apologize if I demonstrated too much emotion. Now, if you want to see hashtag team whip that ass also showing up. This was a news conference that Democrats held. A reporter threw out this question. Sarah and Amy Klobuchar wasn't having any of it.

And you ought to see the way to the end, the shade of the look Schumer threw at the reporter. Mail-in ballots and drop boxes, those are among some of the provisions that are in this bill uh however those started off as pandemic related measures back in the day and they were supposed to be temporary how exactly did they fight racism at the time okay whoa whoa first of all mail-in balloting has been the way of voting in the state of utah it hasn't been temporary, and that is one red state. Could I, could you want me to, are you talking or am I? I'm talking.

And mail-in balloting has been the way of life in many, many states, red, blue, and purple. And one of the things we've learned from the pandemic is that it's actually incredibly helpful in a pandemic, but it's also made it easier for people to vote. So what has gone on in some states is they've rolled back the very things that will make it easier to vote, leading to more and more, as I pointed out, confusion. The other thing it's important to know, and the reason I use the example of Montana and same-day registration, is they are also rolling back things that have long been the law in states. They basically, to quote a North Carolina court regarding a law a few years ago,

are discriminating with surgical precision by looking at each state and figuring out, how did more people vote this way? Well, let's change that. Oh, 70,000 people registered to vote in the state of Georgia during the runoff period. So let's do two things. Let's reduce the runoff period, which they have done, Senator Warnock. And then let's not allow registration during that period. That's exactly what they've done. So I can give you numerous examples of both ways. They've rolled back things that they changed during the pandemic, like witnesses for mail-in ballots in South Carolina. Then they took that away and things that were put in place even before the

pandemic. But no matter which way they did it, it all adds up to one thing, and that is voter suppression and limiting people's freedom to vote. And voter suppression aimed not at the general population, but at particular populations, particularly people of color, urban people, etc. Oregon, just a students, young people. Oregon has had mail in voting for 30 years long before the pandemic, ma'am. It also has the highest or second highest after Minnesota percentage of people participating. Isn't it good to have a high percentage of people participating? Second highest.

Manu, you get the last question. Senator Manchin suggested to us that Democrats don't have enough money. That stare down was pretty good. Eugene Craig is CEO of X Factor Media Inc. Robert Petillo, executive Director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project. Monique Pressley, Legal Analyst, Crisis Manager. Glad to have all three of you here.

Bottom line is, Senator Cory Booker nailed it, Monique, when he said lies. Y'all are lying. And then just went down in detail lie after lie after lie. And frankly, I just think Senator Booker sat there and was like, you know what? I'm just tired of hearing this bullshit from Senator Tim Scott.

So, somebody black had to follow Senator Tim Scott to put him in check. Yes. Yes. And I originally thought, as I was watching, that he was scheduled to be the next person. Uh, and then figured out, no, as time went on, that he just couldn't take anymore and had to set the record straight. And that is exactly what he did. I don't know what I can say about Senator Scott's remarks that, I don't know what I can say about Senator Scott's remarks,

except that I am thankful that Senator Booker followed it up with facts, with truth, uh, with challenge to all of the misrepresentations, lies, generalities, excuses that were offered starting yesterday around 1 o'clock in the afternoon through tonight and-and still ongoing. excuses that were offered starting yesterday around 1 o'clock in the afternoon through tonight and still ongoing. And we needed, for no other reason, whether they get passage tonight or not, we needed to see the stark contrast between the detailed, systematic approach,

once again, of the Democrats in offering reasons, evidence for the needed legislation and the response of the Republicans, which is smoke screens, mirrors, and gaslighting. You know, Robert, to sit there and listen to this guy, oh, I went and read the Georgia bill, and it says this, it doesn't say that. I mean, it was, I don't know who they were fooling. In fact, I saw something earlier. It was

so funny because all these Republicans kept reading, well, the Constitution states that the states have jurisdiction over the elections and someone tweeted oh, they didn't read the second half where it says, and Congress can actually change the rules. Look, Roland,'t read the second half where it says, and Congress can actually change the rules.

Look, Roland, I find the Republican defense on this to be kind of comical, quite frankly, because they're arguing about it. Republicans are arguing about a bill that doesn't exist. They are fighting against something which fundamentally is not, they're fighting about things that fundamentally are not in the bills. The argument that Tim Scott was making about voter ID and voter suppression, that was the last round of voter suppression Republicans did 10 or 15 years ago. You know, the Georgia voter suppression bill from 2005. They got overturned as being a poll tax in 2006, and they had to reform that thereafter. That's what led to the last decade and a half of Republican rule in the state.

What they don't like to address, however, is the fact that what this new legislation is doing, what it is doing, stripping local boards of election from the power to oversee their own elections. So you can take an area, let's say Fulton County in Georgia, where Atlanta is located, or DeKalb County, something like that, the counties that won the presidential election for Joe Biden. Well, now the Republican legislature can come in, take over those boards of election, and then they will be the ones administering those elections. election for Joe Biden, well, now the Republican legislature can come in, take over those boards of election, and then they will be the ones administering those elections. That doesn't sound like voter suppression to anybody. The fact that now they can go into the secretary of state

and take away his power to oversee elections. So if they can't get it done on the county level, now they can get it done on the state level so the Republican legislature can put their own person in charge to oversee the statewide elections, to make sure that they can suppress and get rid of and only count the votes of the people that they want to count. President Trump made it very clear. He could not have spelled it out any better. I need you to find me 11,280 votes, whatever it was, and this was their way of doing exactly that. You look at the Texas voter suppression bill, saying that any random person can call and challenge your electoral status, that a judge can throw out the election basically and force them to rerun it. These are anti-democratic.

These are the things that you see in banana republics around the world. This is how Saddam Hussein ran elections because it's not that Donald Trump telegraphed it in 2020. It's not about who votes anymore for Republicans. It's about picking your own voters, picking what votes count, picking the people who get to count the votes. So the entire Republican argument about mail-in ballots and dead people voting and some of this other malarkey is just not bore out by the facts. They are fighting against something that doesn't exist because, simply put, they can't come out and say, we are in support of making sure a few people vote as possible

because when fewer people vote, that's how we win. Eugene, you've been a longtime Republican as you sit here and listen to them just going on and on and on and on and on. And the reality is they know what their colleagues are doing across the country. They know what's happening in state legislatures. They all is, oh, the federal government is going to be in charge of the elections. This is an abomination. No, you simply don't want to see the end of partisan gerrymandering.

You don't want the fact that, and remember, when they say taking over these elections, the Constitution clearly states Congress has the authority. Yeah, look, the thing is this. I agree with you. They're full of shit. I got to start with that. You know, this is what this has come down to is that if you have fair rules of the game, right, if, you know, members of Congress, Republicans, Democrats aren't allowed to pick their voters. If you're able to check gerrymandering, if you're able to, you know, have a clear playing field and actually come to casting ballots, you know, Republicans know they're in trouble. They're in a Democrat. They're in demographic trouble. They spent so much time not treating people as people, not treating voters as people,

and essentially trying to pick their voters and just pandering to the far right, white racists, among others, that at that point, they know that, hey, if you get actual real election reform, election protections, that is trouble. You know, what you saw in 2020 with Georgia and Arizona, you'll see in Texas, you'll see in Florida, you'll see in a couple other places. And so, you know, this is literally the last stand, you know. You know, it's the last stand. I mean, this is what probably, you know, Team Biden should have led with rather than infrastructure. This is the probably, you know, team Biden should have led with rather than infrastructure. This is the real last stand.

Well, and of course, and then you have people like Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, who stands up and, oh my goodness, this is just not right. Yeah, this is the same Jerry Moran, who's one of 16 folks when he was in Congress, go to my computer, please, who voted for the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 2006.

It's amazing, 12 years later, he isn't. I'm just trying to understand why. Oh, what changed? The election of that black dude in 2008. I think that's actually what changed it. No, go back to it, please, because you need to see the names. McConnell, Grassley, Shelby, Crapo, Collins, Burr, Graham, Blunt, Capito, Thune, Cornyn, Boozman, Wicker, Blackburn, Moran, Inhofe. Oh yeah,

that same fool from Tennessee, Marshall Blackburn, yeah, that's her. Yep, that same traitor, that idiot, that Trump suck-up, Lindsey Graham, yep, he's on the list too. And Susan Collins, who just, I don't know what the hell. They want to question the cognitive ability of Biden. How about I question her cognitive ability?

All right. Okay. Yep, she's there. Oh, and Richard Shelby from Alabama. That's the same guy who's Republican, but actually remember he won the United States Senate as a Democrat because Reverend Jesse Jackson put all those black folks on the rolls in 84 and 88.

Yeah, same guy. And yeah, McConnell as well. They all voted to extend the voting rights, had to reauthorize it in 2006. Oh, but so much has changed. I wonder what. Alright, folks, gotta go to a break. We come back, we're gonna talk COVID in terms of what's happening.

We have three doctors who are on who will talk about different areas, but one of them, three doctors who are on, who will talk about different areas, but one of them, the impact. Folks are having heart issues as a result of COVID. We talked about this two years ago, and Dr. Ebony Hilton, Dr. Tyson Bell was saying that. A cardiologist says this is a fundamental problem

that we're seeing, and it should be of concern. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. НАПРЯЖЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. star mirrors and dressed in white and getting ready to perform. And she was standing up and she saw my reflection

in the mirror and she gave a little, ah, you know, and I gave a little, ah. The mutual admiration. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. She expressed at that time that she wanted to, she had moved to California and she wanted to take lessons in acting. She wanted to, she had moved to California and she wanted to take lessons in acting. She wanted to do some acting.

And I was, like I said, I teach. Right. I've been teaching for 12 years. And so I said, well, I teach acting. And if you want, come down to my classes. One evening, class was very disruptive. They were all at the window. You know, I go, get back here.

You know, come on, we got a class. What are you doing? A limousine just pulled up. You know, a lady got out in a fur coat. She walked into the class. And my first reaction was, you're late. You told the queen she was late. She was.

You wouldn't let her know I'm the teacher. And I'm serious. And I think that's what she came to find out. Was I serious? And, uh, I was. And so we became serious. Serious enough where you got married. That's as serious as it gets.

I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, but before we talk about COVID conversations, some breaking news. The Supreme Court has turned down Donald Trump's request has turned it down, Donald Trump's request to block the release of January 6th files. Robert, your thoughts on that? You know, Trump did not want his January 6th files

to be given over to the January 6th select committee. He was hoping this conservative Supreme Court would stand with him. Nope. Well, you know, it's interesting because the 6-3 majority on the Republican Supreme Court really has been a mixed bag. You know, Roberts has been a swing vote on that court. And I think Donald Trump was really hoping that he had some arch-staunch conservatives and pro-Trumpers in there that would really be puppets to him.

I think that it's going to be very important to get this information out to the public. That's why they've been fighting so hard for the last year to prevent it from going forward. We've seen people like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon be willing to go to prison to prevent their information from coming out. So hopefully we'll get this information out to the public and we will know exactly what the role was of the administration, what the role was of many members of Congress, the United States Senate, Capitol Police, other law enforcement, National Guard, and allowing this to take place because we have to cut that rot out of our government. Otherwise, we're going to have no faith in the integrity of the things that happen

within the walls of Congress. So who's going to try to sue now, Monique, to keep these files from going to Congress? He's at the end of the road on that. He's at the end of the road, and the files don't belong. The files belong to the office. The files do not end of the road, and the files don't belong. The files belong to the office. The files do not belong to the person. And that's what they were establishing. So they did comment

just a little bit that I've read that what the Court of Appeals said about the president not having the right to invoke the privilege under certain circumstances, they said is not true, but the privilege does not survive you. So it doesn't survive your personal position once you are out of the office. Well, in fact, they even said, Eugene, because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump's claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former president necessarily made no difference to the court's decision. Okay, I'm sorry, I don't have Eugene there. Monique, respond to that. Right, and that's what they're saying. They're saying two different things, and what I see,

you know, obviously the one dissenter was Thomas. There's one, there's a separate statement by Kavanaugh that he disagreed with their comments on certain portions of it. But the bottom line is that the type of privilege that he was trying to invoke was not proper. They're saying in certain instances it wouldn't have been proper for him to do so, even if he was able to keep the office. And they're saying it certainly is not the case once he is out of the office. So once Biden took his, well, kept his hands off of it, that's the end of the road on this. So I think we should see some things very soon between this

and Letitia James and all of the other things that are happening, prayerfully something will give. Absolutely. And hopefully he'll get his ass indicted. All right, folks, let's talk about COVID. Last night we had a doctor on, Dr. Lane Rowling, discussing COVID vaccine, talking about also a variety of issues regarding COVID, where we stay in Omicron, things along those lines.

Now, folks, hospitals and medical facilities are still struggling to handle the influx of patients battling COVID. Why are we zooming out? Guys, please don't do that while I'm talking. All right. Today, there are over 68 million reported cases and more than 877,000 deaths. Despite vaccines being free, effective and authorized by the FDA and CDC, only 63% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. All right. I told you we're going to have a conversation tonight discussing this with, again, folks who are experts. I keep telling y'all, we focus on experts, not people who read medical journals, but people who actually live it, practice it. Dr. Christy McDowell is a microbiologist and CEO,

founder of Baby Scientist, Inc., vascular cardiologist, Dr. Bernard Ashby from Miami, and an infectious disease specialist, Dr. Alexia Gaffney. So we're going to ask each one of you, and I'll start with you, Dr. McDowell. Last night, of course, we had Dr. Rowling on, and he made several claims. A lot of our people who were in our chat room,

they were saying, okay, now I'm confused. He said that he is not vaccinated. The fact the vaccines simply don't work. He argued that people can take precautions without getting vaccinated. You saw the comments from last night, your assessment. I did, Roland. And, you know, I respect the brother and his thoughts and his background, but I respectfully disagree. I agree. I believe that the vaccines work. I believe, although we have some numbers that have increased recently with hospitals and infections, they are not at the level in which they were back in 2019 and early 2020. We don't see refrigerated trucks outside of hospitals with dead bodies in them. So that, to some effect, lets us know that the vaccines do work. The one thing that I did agree with him was that masks work.

He wanted to emphasize masks that, you know, prevent viral transmission. I don't think many of us have access to those. You know, you have to be in a very specialized laboratory or medical facility to have access to those. We have access to KN95s, N95 masks, or just regular cloth masks. And the one thing that he did say was masks work as a barrier to prevent. And so if we cannot afford, you know, a Mercedes mask, then a cloth mask or double masking will do. It will help prevent the transmission and infection of the disease. And so, you know, I, like I said, I respect his credentials and all, but I respectfully disagree. And I hate that, you know, he said the things that he said, because it is, you know, people out here who aren't scientists and who aren't in the medical field who don't understand these things, you know, on a regular basis and everything that's coming out.

And it gets so confusing. And so to have someone, you know, say these things to the Black community is very frustrating because, you know, we are, our numbers are some of the highest, you know, who are dying from this virus. And, you know, my heart goes out to everyone, and I just want everyone to be safe and to be careful and to continue to wear their mask. And if you have no, you know, alert allergy to the vaccines, please get the vaccine because they do work because, you know, we, we, even though everyone isn't vaccinated as they should be, you know, it does, you know, give protection to the virus. And so, you know, I, and another thing is like, you know, when he, when he says things like that in the black community, you know, that, that denigrates,

you know, one, one of the sisters who worked on the Moderna, Dr. Kizimiki Corbett, who worked on the Moderna vaccine, that sister, you know, put her blood, sweat and tears into the, into the creation of that vaccine and other scientists at the FDA and other pharmaceutical places around. You know, and you just want to tip your hat to them because those people worked hard to, you know, to help us try to get through this pandemic as best as we can. And so the vaccines work, you know.

Men lie, women lie, numbers don't, you know. I've got some people sitting here. Before I go to Dr. Gaffney. So guy goes, Roland, the woman speaking, she's not a doctor. And I'm like, she's a microbiologist. Do you even know what the hell that is? And so for the people who have no clue what the hell a microbiologist is, can you just go ahead and just tell them? Yes, a microbiologist. I have my Ph.D. in microbiology immunology from Meharry Medical College, which is an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee. Meharry Medical College only gives out graduate degrees, M.D.s, Ph.D.s, dental degrees and master's degrees. And so microbiologists, we study microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, and

other organisms. And so I also have a concentration in molecular biology. And I've studied other infectious diseases such as prion diseases and things of that nature at the FDA and NIH. So that is...

And the National Cancer Institute, I have also studied there. So that's why I keep saying you got to be aware of all of these YouTube TikTok doctors. All right. Dr. Gaffney, you are infectious disease specialist. You also assess what you heard last night, your analysis. I'm deeply disturbed by the presentation of the notion that us being vaccinated is resulting in the appearance of variants or new strains of the COVID-19 virus. Mutations or variations are inherent to all viruses and bacteria as well. Microorganisms can mutate. They're not sophisticated like we are as humans with our multiple spell checks to make sure we make normal cells every time or most of

the time. So the idea that new variants are coming up because people are being vaccinated is absolutely false. We saw variants before vaccines were widely available, and I can give you the dates of them. So the beta strain was or beta variant was found in South Africa in May of 2020, long before we had a vaccine. The alpha strain was in September 2020 in the UK, long before we had a vaccine. Gamma was out of Brazil and we saw the havoc that it wreaked on the Brazilian population in November of 2020. And big, bad Delta. We cannot forget what Delta did to India and what it did to the rest of the world once it spread. And Delta began to spread in October 2020, long before we had a vaccine. So vaccines do not result in the appearance of new strains or new variants that is inherent to viruses.

So that is something that has to be, that's a thought or a notion that has to be absolutely disrupted. And then when we look at what's happening with the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, and I even hate to state it that way, because we have this divide in the country of vaccinated versus unvaccinated people, and it does not need to be that way. But when you look at who is being hospitalized right now, who is dying in the, which can affect pretty much every system of the body and really is dramatically impacting people's quality of life and hits about one in 10 people. So we really, really, really have to be careful and mindful about where we're getting our information, what is the motive of the people who are spreading this information,

and how the information is being presented. And then for those of us who are on the receiving end of the information who aren't PhDs, but yet question the credentials of a PhD, you have to understand what you know and what you don't know. And you have to understand, um, you know,

what the people who are even sharing this information and disinformation and, you know, who are spreading, um, you know, anti-vax information, you have to be really mindful of what do those people know and what don't they know? So we have to make sure we're seeking information from credible sources. We have to understand what the consequences

of our action and inaction is, especially for Black people, right? We are, men are more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection, right? But Black women are four times more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection. So how do Black women are four times more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection. So how do we as a people with the least amount of vaccine uptake accept this kind of information and misinformation from people? The people are not looking out for us. They're not

looking at the data and they're not talking to people who are on the front lines, who are in the hospitals, who are in the emergency rooms, who are in the doctor's offices, taking care of people who look like us, right? The medical system has routinely failed us. Why are we setting ourselves up to go into a healthcare system that is completely overwhelmed, in some instances, rationing care and picking and choosing who gets a vet or who gets what limited resources are available and expecting them to choose us. I refuse to place my health in the hands of somebody else, especially not someone who is saying things that do not serve me and do not serve my community and people who look like me.

Dr. Ashby, I want to now go to you. I saw a series of tweets that you sent out over the last couple of days that certainly caught my attention. When we were discussing COVID back in 2020, and we saw different stories talking about the impact on the heart, Dr. Ebony Hilton, Dr. Tyson Bell, other people were on then saying, hey, it's something that we have to watch out for. Again, as somebody who got COVID last month, it was like, yo, that was of concern. And so you were talking about, again, the impact of this on folks increasing strokes, increasing heart attacks, and also just your assessment of what you heard last night.

Well, let me tell you what Dr. Ashby said. I'm just kidding. I'm referencing a buddy last night, referencing talking about himself in the third person. That was interesting. Yeah. Yeah, what was that about? But anyways, so basically what I was trying to get across

with those series of tweets was trying to reframe the discourse or the discussion around Omicron. And what I found was that there was this narrative out there of incidental Omicron, meaning that people are in the hospital and they just happen to test positive for Omicron. And what I found was that that was inherently insufficient and just, frankly, deficient, for lack of a better word. What I noticed, and I'm actually on call tonight, I'm in my clinic right now across the street from the ER. And as I've been treating patients, what I found is that a

lot of these patients who are presenting are coming in with various conditions like acute kidney injury, which is, you know, damage to the kidneys or heart failure or, you know, hyperglycemia where their sugar is higher and they're diabetics. And they're being presented as such, but they then test positive for Omicron. And what I felt we were ignoring was the fact that Omicron at the end of the day is a virus that causes inflammation. And let me just be clear with some of the semantics here. You cannot test positive for COVID-19. And, you know, many, I said it all the time, but the media always just says, you know,

they just say you test positive for COVID-19. But you can only test positive for the virus. Just like how you test positive or just how you can get infected with HIV and you go on to develop AIDS, you can get Omicron and then develop COVID-19 or any of the other variants. But that's a brief digression.

What I've noticed is that these patients are not coming in just because of their illness and testing positive. It was the fact that they had the infection and it tipped them over the edge. And in the U.S., we have a huge amount of chronic medical illnesses, right? we have a huge amount of chronic medical illnesses, right? We have a ton of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and we have lack of access to care. So there's a ton of people who are being mismanaged or

don't have any access. There's a lot of diabetics walking around they don't even know. And so you just slap a virus on there and that leads to inflammation, these people present with various conditions. And to me, that part of the discourse is missing. And as a cardiologist, I've seen it time and time again in previous variants, and I'm seeing it now where patients are coming in with heart attacks, for example, and they just happen to test positive for Omicron. But we know that COVID-19 is an inflammatory disease. And so not only does it directly infect multiple organs, including the heart and the blood vessels, but it elicits an immune response that causes inflammation and does a bunch of things, including causing hypercoagulability, which is

causing the blood to clot or thrombose. And that can lead to ruptured plaques or blocked arteries, which are essentially heart attacks if it's in the coronary arteries, or it can lead to a rupture of a plaque that's in the carotid artery. So, you know, the prerequisite is to have plaque lining the artery. Then you throw some inflammation on top of that plaque, which then gets activated and clots, and then it can cause a stroke. So that's the mechanistic, you know, foundation behind that. And that's just something that we were ignoring. And, you know, how do you explain, and this is why I was getting frustrated,

how do you explain the surge in hospitalizations? Yes, there's a decoupling of the hospitalizations with Omicron as compared to prior variants, but you're still seeing a surge in hospitalizations. And to simply say that most of those patients have incidental Omicron is just insufficient. And one last point is, I think, a much better indicator of the impact of Omicron is just insufficient. And one last point is I think a much better indicator of the impact of Omicron or the Omicron effect is excess mortality as opposed to just looking at mortality directly related to Omicron. And so what we saw in South Africa is that the excess mortality increased by roughly 34 percent. I strongly suspect that it's going to be higher in the U.S. I've seen it firsthand anecdotally, but obviously we have to remain scientific in our

analysis. But it's the way we let the this particular variant rip through our population, and, you know, we're reaching nearly a million cases a day, that puts additional stress on our health care system, which is already short, you know, has staff shortages, in addition to the fact, again, that we have a lot of individuals with chronic medical illnesses who are presenting to our ER and unfortunately not getting adequate care because of, again, multiple factors. I'm going to pull a panel into this in a moment if I ask some questions. But I've got to ask each one of you because this is the most basic

thing I keep getting. Okay, what do we do? What do we do? How are we supposed to proceed? How are we supposed to move forward? Look, when I tested positive last month, I had a staffer who tested positive. And then what we did was we went, we went virtual, uh, for two weeks. It was around Christmas and New Year's anyway. And so it made sense. And so, okay, fine. We come back, we're here two weeks. Then one staffer test positive, you know, send her home. And so then it's like, whoa, you know, do, do, do we not go back, go back to isolation? And what do we do? You hear from the CDC. Then of course you, now, now, uh, there are conferences and there are concerts and people are going to football games and whatever. You've got Mardi Gras that took place. You've got the Essence

Festival. The NAACP Image Awards were supposed to be at the end of February. They announced it was going to be live, but there's going to be no studio audience, presenters in person, no one else. The Grammys, they postponed it from the Grammys. They moved to Las Vegas. And so people are just sitting here going, okay, fine. What do we do? How are we to proceed? Should we be wearing gloves? Should we be wearing masks? Should we be covering our eyes? What in the world, how should we be proceeding in 2022 to deal with this? Dr. McDowell, you first. Very, very carefully. Now...

Um, you know, I say, um, you know, proceed as we did before. You know, nothing is 100 proof, you know? Um, the masks, the hand sanitizing, the distance. Um, you know, all of these, um, concerts and... and, uh, concerts and events, I deem them dangerous. I would not attend them myself. You know, I'm a little shaky going into my classroom with 24 students. So, you know, just be cautious, wear your mask, hand sanitize, and keep your distance. And stay away from mass crowds.

Only go to the grocery stores and other stores when 100% necessary, if you have to. Still utilize different apps that can bring your food and things. And I know we want to go to restaurants. I know we want to go to these things I know we want to go to these things, but we are still in a pandemic and people are still dying. And, you know, and it also, you know, I say err on the side of caution at all times. And if you value your life, you know, do it.

Take precaution. You know, don't take, you know, those chances because, you know, the chances you take, you may not get another chance to make it. Dr. Gaffney. So, um, we have to remember that there's lots of decisions to be... being made right now, and some of those are public health decisions

and some of those are financial decisions in good old capitalistic America. So, you know, when concerts are allowed to go on and sporting events and all of these mass gatherings, that has nothing to do with public health. It's actually not at all in the interest of public health. And I think we have to be very mindful of that. We shouldn't feel like, oh, you know, the doctors and, you know, whoever else is allowing us to do these things, it must be safe. No. As someone's infectious disease doctor or primary care doctor, high risk, low risk, no risk at all, I am telling people, do not take chances with this virus. Do not say, well, I'm just counting on my immune

system. I think I could beat it. You know what? There's parents of children who probably felt the same about their children. There are healthy young adults and older adults and even vaccinated people who felt like they could just beat it and they took a chance

and they're not here to see something, to see another day and see parts of their lives that are so much more important than sitting at a restaurant or a bar or going to a concert right now we will be able to do those things eventually but right now we need to proceed with the utmost precaution um double mask you know wash your hands i don't agree with uh wearing of of gloves outside in public. And that is because I have observed people with gloves touching any and everything, including their face, their eyes.

I've seen people, you know, take the glove off with their teeth and all kinds of crazy things because we're just not mindful of what we're doing. But people tend to be a little more mindful of the fact that they went up and down the aisles of the grocery store and touched the car and they will clean their hands

when they get back in the car. But those gloves are just picking up germs and taking them with you. So definitely double mask. If you have a plain surgical mask, put a cloth mask on top of it. If you are double masking, uh, put your better mask closest to your face.

So, if that's a surgical mask, or a KN95, or a N95, if somehow you have your hands on that, then you put that on first, and then you might put a surgical mask or a cloth mask on top of that. Does the general public need to cover their eyes? There's probably no harm in it, but the reason I wear a face shield in my office or

the reason Dr. Ashby would have a face shield on or be covering his eyes in the emergency room is very different than being out in the grocery store. We certainly don't want to get the false idea that if- How about an airplane? How about an airplane? On an airplane, I would. I would on an airplane. There's nothing that is important to eat or drink on an airplane that would make me take my mask off. I had to fly to California recently, and I was double-masked.

I didn't drink a thing. In fact, I closed my eyes, put a hood over my head, and went to sleep. I didn't look at anybody. I didn't drink a thing. In fact, I closed my eyes, put a hood over my head, and went to sleep. I didn't look at anybody. I didn't talk to anybody. I didn't open the vent. I just sat there and sweated. Well, Doc, Doc, you were...

I'm going to take chances. Well, I'm going to have to figure something out, Doc, because I'm supposed to be going to Liberia. That's a 25-hour flight. So I'm going to eat something. So I'm going to have to figure... Maybe I'm going to get me, like's a 25 hour flight. So I'm going to eat something. So I might have to figure, maybe I'm going to get me like a portable, you know, hood or something.

I don't know. You're going to have to send me some suggestions because I don't think I'm going to sit here and go 25 hours and not eat or drink. No, on a 25 hour flight, you better hydrate so you don't get a blood clot. But you'll be tested before you get on that flight, unlike domestic flights where we just come in and go and ask me, please. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. First of all, I got to massage you.

I'll be walking. I'll be drinking as well. But we're going to eat something. So you just let me know how we work that whole thing out. You definitely will. Dr. Ashby, on that point, as Dr. Gaffrey was talking about when we're in stores and stuff like that, again, I think what people are also looking at is like, okay, so what do I do? So if I'm going into a store and I'm touching packages or whatever, I mean, do I sit here and am I constantly cleansing?

Am I constantly putting on, you know, gel or whatever? Do I do it, you know, before I walk in and then do I do it when I leave? Because I think that's what people are trying to figure out, exactly what is that process? Because we talk about even with gathering. It's like in December, I was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. I got folks who want to do an event for me in Houston where I'm from.

So the question is, do you do an event? If you do an event, what do you do? Are you checking temperatures? Are you doing on-site COVID testing? Well, somebody may have gotten infected but not showing any symptoms. And so folks are sort of, and I think a lot of this frustration

that people have is that they're sort of like, you know, handcuffed, if you will, from being able to do stuff. And then people, if they guard down, like, man, look, I'm going out, I'm going eating. So they're looking for strong direction just to be able to just get through this. Doc, ask me your thoughts.

Yeah. So, Roland, I actually have a different take than probably many of the professionals, including the panel here. What I've said from the beginning is that COVID-19 was a societal shifting event, okay? Indeed, indeed. Okay? Indeed. Fundamentally. And I don't think people or our policymakers have wrapped their mind around it. And even Dr. Rowland,

it's one of the things that he did say that was correct. He said a lot of things that were correct, but some of the things... Anyways. The virus ain't going anywhere. It's going to be here for the rest of our lives. We need to really wrap our mind around that. The coronavirus isn't going anywhere. It's going to be here for the rest of our lives. We need to really wrap our mind around that. The coronavirus isn't going anywhere. And the question is, how are we going to structure society with the virus?

There is going to be other variants, for sure. Hopefully, it's going to be less virulent. But we don't know because this virus is throwing all kinds of curveballs left and right with us. But we need to understand at what point are we going to transition from being in this reactionary phase to operating in our new reality, so to speak. And it's important to understand that there's a couple of things. And I preface this by saying that I am very big on Ubuntu, right? I am because we are, and what I do affects my neighbor, and that's very important. But I also, it's also important to assess your own risk, okay? Meaning that if you have multiple

comorbidities, if you're obese, if you have COPD, whatever, you're at a much higher risk than someone who is young and otherwise healthy. Yes, we could talk about anecdotes of, you know, someone, you know, getting a clot or thrombus or whatever, but we have to look at it in the totality in terms of the actual data. And those risks are very low, particularly if you're vaccinated. And you have to add on to the fact that Omicron is a very different virus than Delta and the previous variants. Virulence is very different. It's an upper airway disease. It doesn't affect your lungs like the other variants do. So the likelihood of you developing a COVID-19 pneumonia are much less.

With that said, again, it's nothing to dismiss. I mean, meaning that people can get very sick. And even if you don't have any risk factors, you can get very sick. So you have to, again, factor in your own risk. So my overall point is that, yes, you know, you've got to take mitigation measures. And yes, you know, you've got to take mitigation measures. And, yes, you know, you should try to prevent getting this virus, but it's pretty hard to do. I mean, as I was saying, if you're in the same room with somebody with Omicron, you likely have it spreading like the measles. But, again, it's much less virulent. In terms of the actual spread, yes, you know, you can spread it via contact, but it's primarily airborne, okay, and it's primarily also aerosolized. So the vast majority of infections are being spread that way.

The people who are getting it from, you know, fecal or oral route or touching things, it's much lower. So the yield in cleaning your hands and wearing gloves is very low, whereas, again, protecting your nose and your mouth is much higher. And one last point is that why are we not talking about treatment? I mean, the advances that we've made in treatments are monumental. I mean, we have monoclonal antibodies, some of which are not as effective against the Omicron variant, but we have quite a few that are. And we also recently EUA approved two new oral antiviral, molupanavir, the Merck drug. If you can't say it, I damn sure can't say it.

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure my ID colleague will be able to say it. And we have the Pfizer drug, the Paxlovid. Paxlovid is a much more superior medication, and it's an oral medication. Why are we not talking about this? And this is unique to the Black community. Like, most Black folks I know don't know anything about monoclonal.

They don't know anything about oral therapies. And these are therapies that should be given early on. As far as I'm concerned, COVID-19 is an outpatient disease, okay? If you're getting hospitalized, if you're dying from COVID-19 at this particular juncture in the pandemic, that represents a failure of our system, which, you know, we all knew it was failing before. I mean, I'm a cardiologist, and just look at heart disease and cardiovascular disease in general. Eighty percent of that's preventable, yet people are still getting it left and right. That's a whole other discussion. My point is that we need to, you know, start figuring out a way, how do we function in society with this virus here?

And one very important aspect of that is deploying early therapy and linking that to even getting tests, because you don't even want to wait until you get symptomatic. You want to get the therapy early on. The earlier you get it, the more effective it is. And not only is it helpful for you in terms of decreasing your risk of hospitalization and death, it's also a public health good, meaning that it decreases your transmissibility, meaning the amount of virus that you transmit and the period at which you're infected. So I just think we need to stop, you know, being in these two different categories because, you know, yes, we need to get vaccinated, but we've got to stop beating a dead horse. I mean, the people have pretty much decided whether or not they're going to get vaccinated.

And we can still talk about it. We can still educate folks on it. But to talk about vaccination at the expense of early intervention, to me, is doing everybody a disservice, because that could save a lot of lives, particularly in the folks who have put their foot down. And what you're seeing in the white population, particularly Trump supporters, especially in Florida, because Ron DeSantis is promoting monoclonal antibody therapy, a lot of those people who are against vaccines are getting this synthetic monoclonal antibody, which makes no sense, you know, based on a logic, but at least they're getting the therapy and we are not. And the numbers are dismal. And it's unfortunate that the CDC is not tracking this at all. And I can only reference

one small study, which basically showed that less than 4% of Blacks were getting monoclonal therapy. And there's also a systemic barriers related to it, given how it's distributed, mainly at the hospitals, which, who put these owners barriers in access. And that's something that New York tried to circumvent and that's, you know, and Trump, you know, attacked them for that. But there really is some disparities there in terms of race and obviously economic status. Questions, Monique Presley, she has a question. And she sent me a text. She's like, I'm confused what the hell going on. Monique, go ahead.

Yes. And I had an expletive. Thank you for trying to cover for me. Um... Listen, I get... I'm... I'm... I'm vaxxed, right? I'm boosted. I'm wearing my mask. I get that you all agree that those things should be happening. But it sounds after that like something of a crapshoot.

And I'm trying to assess based on each of you, your individual device, where there is consensus, where there isn't, where you disagree with the CDC. I don't even pretend. I mean, my friends call me WebMD, but that's just because I look things up before I say go to the doctor. I don't pretend. I do law. But when people come to me for advice, I give it. And what I feel like in this entire process, which I understand is a process in a situation that nobody's ever been in before. But what I feel like we don't get is just advice. Do this. Don't do this. Do this.

And we get you saying from your best medical opinion and that nothing is foolproof. But for instance, I thought I heard one of you say, now isn't the time to be at the concerts or at the restaurants or, and if that's true, in the middle, I'm sorry, I forgot your name. Dr. Gaffney. Dr. Gaffney. Is that churches too? Should people not be going there? And is that schools too? I have three teens. Should they not be going there? Or should people be going all those places masked? Or is it a question of social distancing? What are the thoughts? School, church, work, social events. What do we do? Yeah, absolutely. And it's such an important question that you're asking. And I am speaking from the standpoint of being a person who has a very low risk tolerance and as an infectious disease doctor and someone who's on the front lines in the first wave of the pandemic when we

had absolutely nothing. So if I was, I am a vaccinated person and I am boosted and I have eaten inside of a restaurant. I'm selective though about which restaurants I will eat in. And so when I make a decision to go out to eat, I think about what is the positivity rate in the community that I'm going out to eat in. Is it out here where I live in the suburbs of New York City, outside of New York City, where nobody's checking to see if people wear masks or if people are vaccinated when they come into a restaurant versus eating in the middle of Manhattan, where there's a higher uptake of the vaccine and people have to produce a vaccine card in order to go into the restaurant. I find that those are folks that are probably like me

and may be less likely to take a risk. And so I will eat inside of a restaurant. Anyone else want to jump in? Yeah, yeah, Roland. I would like to jump in really quick. Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, Dr. Gaffney froze, so go ahead. Yeah, yeah. So assuming that you don't have any chronic medical illnesses,

your risk of having a severe, a poor outcome or severe disease is incredibly low, especially with Omicron. Okay. Yes, you may get sick and that's, you know, very possible, but we have to, again, put things in the context. Okay. The vast majority of individuals that are getting hospitalized or going to the ICU are those with chronic medical illnesses. And if you have those kind of medical illnesses and you're unvaccinated, you have a much higher risk. Okay. And so, again, we have to figure out how are we going to live our lives. And as far as you're concerned, the lawyer, I forget your name, I didn't catch it. That's Monique. Monique, your risks are incredibly low. Like, you have to, again, assess the fear or the actual risk

and not let fear, you know, overstate that. You have to live your life. And now, if you were living at home with somebody who is, you know, on chemotherapy and, you know, very, you know, on dialysis, it's a different risk-benefit analysis for you. But on top of that, you have to also understand what your options are. And, like, for me, like, my concern for getting Omicron is super low. Like, my concern for my two-year-old getting Omicron

is super low. But again, if you look at it on a mass scale, it becomes an issue, okay? It becomes a real issue. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So is your concern it's super low because of this protective barrier that you sort of created? No, it's because I'm vaccinated and I'm otherwise healthy. My risk of having a poor outcome for Omicron is much lower than somebody who's 80 years old, has heart failure, and is unvaccinated.

And so I'm fully vaccinated. I'm otherwise healthy. And I know Omicron ain't Delta, okay? It changed the equation. And that's why I try to look at things from an outcome and a policy level. And that's also my background. And sometimes you have to understand you don't want to have policies in place that could actually make problems worse, and that was actually a factor in the CDC's decision because they also understood this. The CDC understood that, again, Omicron and Delta, and then, you know, besides the fact that there's capitalists and all these other things going on, that was certainly a factor. Got it. But we have to understand that in the hospital setting, we were short-staffed.

And if you have people quarantining for 10 days and you have a hospital surge, people are dying because of high nurse-to-patient ratios. They're dying because of staying in the ER all day and getting infected there. And so you have to, again, do a more sophisticated risk-benefit analysis and you can't just look at the direct impact. So again, this is where policy and immunology and virology and all of this comes together in addition to political ideology and all these other factors that are going on.

And that's why I mentioned early COVID-19 treatment is incredibly important. Just before I go to Eugene, Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to the Capitol to oversee the 8 p.m. vote on the freedom to vote in the John Lewis Act. So I just want to let you know that, as Senator Chuck Schumer said,

the vote for closure is supposed to start at 8 p.m. We'll have it live. Eugene, question. What's your question for the panel? I guess my question for the panel is this. Outside's open. Outside's open at this point. But we're still dealing with the situation, at least here in Maryland,

where 3,500 people are hospitalized right now, most of them unvaccinated. I mean, what is it going to take to slow this down at this point, besides for mandating the vaccine flat out, right? Let's see here. Dr. McDowell, you want to start? You know, that's a tough question. That's a tough question because, you know, the virus is its own entity. And we can only do what we can do. And if the virus, you know, innately is going to mutate and try to avoid, you know, vaccinations and whatever drugs that we throw at it. So, you know, to me, that's hard to answer.

It's like, you know, the only thing that I can say is just try to continue doing what you're doing and be safe and wear your masks and, you know, social distance and, you know, just take precautions based upon, you know, how you feel, you know. Got it. And such, yes. Dr how you feel, you know. Got it. And such, yes. Dr. Ashby, real quick. So what I mentioned, I mentioned a bunch of things, but early on when Omicron came about, I was very clear that the majority of the U.S. population was going to get this virus and get exposed to it at some point. That's very important.

The issue with Omicron is how many people are getting it at the same time. And so you're getting this big bolus of people who are infected, and a subsegment of those people are going to get hospitalized because they have, again, chronic medical illnesses. And so you made a statement that the majority of patients in the Maryland system that are hospitalized are vaccinated. Did I hear you correct? No, no, no. They're unvaccinated. Unvaccinated.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. What was that about? But it is important to look at data in that appropriate way. And there's a ton of people who are saying people who are vaccinated are the ones getting sick. And that just couldn't be further from the truth. But, you know, one of the big issues that people have with doctors who are, you know, traditional medicine physicians is that we are basically parroting whatever the CDC says. And it's important to realize that natural immunity counts for something, okay? And there's

a ton of studies out there that show that once infected, that you do have a protection. Now, we could talk about that forever, but it's just very interesting that the CDC doesn't report on national immunity. And it actually makes the vaccines look not as good as they do, because if you're comparing vaccinated to someone with no immunity, vaccines are going to look amazing. But if you're comparing the vaccinated to a mixed population of those who are infected, previously infected, and those who have no immunity, then it's not going to look as effective as it is.

It's just important that we look at all the data together because we want to be straight up genuine when we're discussing things. And that's one of the points that I try to get across to my patients. And that's why we have multiple segments dealing with the issue of COVID.

We appreciate Dr. Ashby, we appreciate you, Dr. McDowell, and also Dr. Alexia McGaffney for joining us. Thanks a lot, folks. When we come back, we'll talk with Gina Belafonte about the celebration for her father, Harry Belafonte's 95th birthday, and we'll pay tribute tribute to fashion icon Andre Leon Talley. We've got a huge number of people who wanna pay tribute to Andre Leon Talley.

And after today's show, folks, my rolling with Roland, sitting down with actor Glenn Turman. Man, he's been in the business more than 50 years and he is still holding it down. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm sorry. You know how some carriers give you so little for your old or busted phone you just end up living with it? I don't think so.

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And with plans starting at just $35, better cost less than you think. Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. In honor of Harry Belafonte's 95th birthday, Sankofa is holding a fundraiser birthday bash. The Star Study 95th birthday celebration and fundraising concert will take place on March 1st. And the fundraiser will go to an alternative reality technology and arts reentry program to help returning citizens

successfully transition back into the community. Gina Belafonte is the executive director of Sankofa, who joins us right now. Hey, what up, Gina? Peace, yo. What's up? All good. Glad to see you, first and foremost. How is your dad?

I know, of course, he lost his longtime running buddy, Sidney Poitier. How's he doing? He's hanging in there, and as he said, it's better than hanging up. So he's doing all right. He's doing all right. All right. Well, glad to hear that. I did call him.

Matter of fact, it was weird. That night I called him just to tell him about us, of course, with our new studio. And, of course, you see the photo behind me that we dated in the studio. Yes. Beautiful. And so it was just, of course, then we found the next day that Mr. Poitier had passed away. So certainly glad to have you here. Give him our best and our love. So tell us about this celebration, Forrest's 95th birthday, benefiting Sankofa, and also this virtual reality program.

Yes. So we're having a live event, which I'm really excited to say is live, at the Town Hall Theater in New York City on March 1st, which is his actual birthday. And not only celebrating 95 years of him, we're also celebrating 10 years of Sankofa. And one in particular that we're highlighting at this event and raising funds for is a VR reentry program where we take an arts-based curriculum and practice along with virtual reality inside prison. And we work with incarcerated men or women who are sort of soon to be released. And when I say soon, I mean in the next couple of years so that we can work with them on trauma triggers. And the clients we work with inside are usually those who have been incarcerated for very long periods of time. So coming home for them is a real shock. And there's a lot of things that have shifted and changed. And when you are, it's almost like, you know, like when you go on vacation for like a few weeks, and then you come home or even a week and you come home and you're like, whoa, it takes you a minute to sort of get back into it. And that's when you're on vacation. So imagine if you've been incarcerated for upwards of 20 years, you've been told what to eat, told when to sleep, told when you can go outside.

And now all of a sudden you have your freedom and there's a lot to get reacclimated toward. So is this like, what's that game young people be playing? My nieces play it all the time. What's that life game? What do they call it? Sims, yeah. So is that a... Yeah, I don't know. My niece is always playing

that damn thing. So, essentially, is that what this is like? It's sort of like a program that that's what? Walking them through, hey, you're going to be getting out, and this is what you're about to face? Sure, sure. I mean, well, it's a combination

of things. First, when we go inside, we take them through different virtual reality experiences that allows them an opportunity to get used to the technology and how to handle the handheld, you know, remotes and all that stuff. Then we take them actually to places where they've never been. We take them to Thailand. We take them... Got it. At least we're assuming they've never been. We take them to Thailand. We take them, at least we're assuming they've never been. We take them to Thailand. We take them to Europe. We take them deep sea fishing. We go underwater. We go into outer space. So they see and they begin to see what the technology can do. Then we begin to introduce segments for them that are trauma, potential trauma triggers, ordering food in a restaurant, checking out at a grocery store, all the options at a grocery store, being on a crowded street.

Oh, cool. Bumping into people, conflict resolution. And in the opportunities that we've had so far to not only bring the program inside, but also work with formerly incarcerated men and women and hear their feedback, because it's those who are directly systems impacted that we want to curate toward. So in asking them, what are the trauma triggers? What are you most nervous about coming home? A lot of it has to do with relationships and conflict resolution there, also how to get IDs, how to get employment. So we're creating scenarios that puts them in the position so that they can begin to get used to it. And then also through different arts-based practices, because we don't spend the

whole time in VR, otherwise you really get disoriented. We use poetry, drawing, different theater games that all have a philosophy and a psychology behind them to help them start to break down some of the walls that they've put up, to begin to discuss what some of these triggers are, and to begin to open up their view on how they have other options and ways in which to deal with these issues. We work with a psychologist on site with us who comes in with us at the beginning and toward the end. And then we have follow-ups. So it's a really exciting program. And, And, you know, it costs so much to incarcerate folks. We have over 2 million people in prison.

Right. And we want to reduce recidivism, right? We want to make sure that when folks come home, they stay home and they feel that they can acclimate and be productive and create new experiences and a new life for themselves. So we're really excited about the program. Our feedback from our clients has been overwhelmingly positive, both those inside and those already out. Those out have said, you know, if I had only had this when I was coming out. So we're very excited. So where can folks go to sign up to get ready for the celebration on March 1st? Well, that's a very good question.

I would go to the Town Hall Theater website, also at Ticketmaster. It's HB95. And we're just so excited. We're starting to, like, sell. Like, the announcement went out yesterday. We've already sold over 500 tickets. We're really excited. So make sure everybody gets

in there and get their tickets. HB95. So go to Ticketmaster and look up HB95. All right. Yes. We'll also go to the Sankofa website as well if folks want to get more information about that. Absolutely. Sankofa.org. We'll have all the information there as well. All right. Gina, we appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. And again, give the best to your well. All right. Gina, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. And again, give the best to your family. Peace and blessings to you all. All right. Thanks a lot. All right, folks, we come back. We'll pay tribute to fashion icon Andre Leon Talley, who passed away yesterday at the age of 73. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.. Thank you. SILENT PRAYER ¶¶ Last night we all learned that renowned fashion journalist and former creative director for Vogue magazine,

Andre Leon Talley, passed away at the age of 73. Tributes have been pulling in all across the country as well as the globe. He was an iconic figure, a 6'6 man who hailed from North Carolina, who brought his amazing knowledge of fashion, but also his race into a place that in elite circles where it's mostly been white folks who have been controlling what you see and what you hear.

He brought that, of course, he was the one who dressed First Lady Michelle Obama, offered advice, mentored Naomi Campbell, had an impact on so many people in a tremendous way. We've got a number of folks who are lined up to pay tribute to you, Andre Leon Talley. First up is Robin Gavon, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The Washington Post. Robin, how are you? I'm good. How are you, Rowan?

Great. Always good to see you. So just share with us just your thoughts about Andre, who he was, Andre was one of a kind for so many years. He was alone at the level of status of creative director at a major fashion glossy, particularly American Vogue, which I should mention has not had a Black person at that level since Andre. And he was someone who had an astonishing knowledge of European history, the history of fashion. That's one of the things that editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, once said about him, that he sort of balanced her out

because while she was adept at sort of the business side of fashion and certainly the popular culture side of fashion, he really understood the context and the history of it. To some degree, even more so than the very people who were the gatekeepers when he first came to fashion. So his loss is really a loss of an incredible amount of institutional knowledge, and it's the loss of someone who really opened doors in ways that can be seen by the numbers of Black models who are now working,

and by the presence of a Black editor-in-chief at British Vogue. And he had to, in the realities, he had to deal with the issue of race in this field, not just in the magazine industry, but the fashion industry itself. And so someone had to walk through those doors and he had to confront it head on.

Yeah, I mean, I think people don't really sort of understand just how different the industry was back when he started in the 70s. I mean, it really was an industry that was dominated by white socialites and people who had sort of aristocratic background and what we now would refer to as sort of limousine liberals. I mean, he really was this sort of odd duck, this sort of this tall, skinny black kid from the segregated South. And what I think is especially striking is that he came into this world armed with intelligence, armed with his faith that had been instilled in him by his grandmother who raised him and who he was devoted to. But he also had an incredible amount of optimism and just joy in the glamour and wonder of fashion.

And despite all of the issues that he had to deal with, whether we'd call them microaggressions now. Back then, it was just daily life. You know, he overcame it. He shrugged it off. I'm sure he had to internalize some of it, and it was quite difficult. But he continued to move forward, and he never let those barriers stand in the way of what he ultimately wanted to accomplish.

Last question for you. I never got a chance to actually meet Andre. I don't think, our paths cross, but everything that I've read, documentaries that I've seen, this is somebody who also absolutely loved life to the fullest and had a ridiculous sense of humor. Andre was majestic and imperious and funny and cutting.

And when he decided that he was going to open his heart to you and be generous, he gushed forth with a kind of generosity that just made you feel that you had been seen by the world. All right, Robin Gavon, the Pulitzer Prize winner of Washington Post. We certainly appreciate you joining us, sharing your thoughts about the passing of Andre Leon Talley.

My pleasure. Folks, this was the statement from Anna Wintour, the leader at Vogue. The loss of Andre is felt by so many of us today. The designers he enthusiastically cheered on every season and who leader at Vogue. The loss of Andres is felt by so many of us today. The designers he enthusiastically cheered on every season and who loved him for it. The generations he inspired to work in the industry. Seeing a figure who broke boundaries while never forgetting where he started from.

Those who knew fashion and Vogue simply because of him and not forgetting the multitude of colleagues over the years who were consistently bio-ed by every new discovery of Andre's, which he would discuss loudly and volutely. No one can make people more excited about the most seemingly insignificant fashion details than him. Even a stream of colorful faxes and emails were a highly anticipated event, something we all look forward to. Yet it's the loss of Andre as my colleague and friend that I think of now.

It's immeasurable. He was magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny, and Mercurial, too. Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments, but all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend to me and to my family for many, many years and who we will all miss. Folks, Anthony Mark Hankins is a fashion designer. Of course, I met Anthony when we were in Dallas. He's now... Anthony, where are you? You in LA? I saw you with your aunt in Savannah, Georgia, posting all the photos and videos. So where are you these days?

I'm in Savannah, Georgia. I moved here about six months ago. Wow. I'm enjoying it. Wow. It's good for me. Gotcha. Gotcha.

All right. Well, good. Now I know that. So when I roll back through Georgia, I'll certainly stop by. Share with us just your thoughts, interactions, perspective about the icon himself, Andre Leontali. Well, you know, as a fashion designer, Andre was more than just an editor. He was a friend and a confidant, someone that designers could go to as a safe place for feedback. And I think a lot of times, you know, when a fashion designer is presenting a collection, they're afraid of what the press will say. Andre was the kind of person that would come in

through the back door, look at your designs and talk to you one-on-one. And Marc Jacobs and Donna Karen and so many of my colleagues would say that he was a friend. And when you're a timid designer and you're putting together your collection, you're really unsure what to present. And like Robin was saying, he was an encyclopedia of fashion. He knew about every trend. He could take you back to the Doric peplos and Grecian culture. And he was so personable. I remember when I first met him at East St. Laurent, he was with Eunice Johnson of Ebony, you know, Ebony Magazine. And Eunice Johnson and Andre were hand-in-hand going from couture show to couture show, and Andre took the time to talk to me,

and he didn't have to. And so as a young designer back then, I remember that, and I remember the smile on his face and the eye-to-eye contact he gave me. And if you look on Instagram, so many fashion designers around the world had that intimacy with Andre. Manon Obl on Instagram, so many fashion designers around the world had that intimacy with Andre. Manolo Blahnik, Easton LaRocque was a personal friend of his.

Karl Lagerfeld made clothes for him. I mean, he was bigger than life, loving and caring. And as Diane von Furstenberg said today, she felt as though she lost her brother. And he was, he was a brother to all designers. When say bigger than life first of all this brother was 6'6 and of course I mean later in life he talked about his struggle with weight at the end the different type of outfits that he later began to wear the caftans and others and you're right you would sit there and you would listen again when I watched a documentary how he would just sort of just describe this outfit and the shoes and where it came from and where it first started.

I mean, so you're sitting here and, again, listening to someone dissect clothes sort of like when you watch a coach dissect a play in sports. Absolutely. And you know what's really loving about him is that he embraced his stature. He embraced his size. He didn't shame himself because he was a fuller figure guy. He really embraced fashion no matter, you know, before, you know, size shaming was in fashion. He really, really stepped up and showed how you could be a full figured man and look elegant. And he has such a flair for color and texture. And I used to

say to him, you could have been a fashion designer. He says, no, no, no, no, no. I love books too much. He did. He read all the greats from Shakespeare. He could recite a Shakespeare poem. I mean, that's how intelligent this man was. And like Robin said, we lost a leader. He opened doors for so many African-Americans. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Andre and Willie Smith. And, you know, Diane Breland gave him the opportunity to work at the Met. But Andre showed up. And I tell young people, when you show up hungry

and willing to learn and not the first one out the door, Andre would be the last one out the door back in the day when he was working for Madame Breland. So, I mean, that's what it takes to get to that level, doing your homework, showing up. And Andre put in the time and it didn't happen overnight for him. And he really, really dedicated his life to what he loved. And that's why he was a true success. Well, and that's also why it's important for us to really understand and respect the work that people put in,

how they got there, but also creating the space for the next generation. Because as Robin said, he comes in at a time where you did not have African-Americans who were at any of these magazines in these spaces. And even though he ascended, he still dealt with a lot of the BS even in terms of no longer having a position at Vogue.

You would think that someone of his stature would have never sort of left one of those places. But even he still had to deal with sort of being pushed out, pushed away. But he never stopped that from letting everybody know, I still got a place in this game. Exactly, exactly. You know, it's really, really lovely, his relationship with Dyer and Breeland.

I hope, you know, our people will go and research Andre and learn about his, just, he was really charming, and that Southern charm took him all the way to the top. And, you know, you can come from anywhere in the United States, but there's something really special about the South. You know, his grandmother was a hardworking woman. She cleaned bathrooms. And he said she wore a diadem in his mind. When he looked at his grandmother, he didn't see her as a cleaning lady. He saw her as a princess, as a queen, as royalty.

And it's something that we take from our African-American women, you know, from our grandmothers and our mothers who are strong, our aunts who are strong, and we carry that, you know, that sense of knowing who we are, our faith value into the workplace. You know, we don't need to leave that back at home. We need to take that with us when we go to work. All the things that our grandmothers and our mothers instilled in us, we need to use that every day because that's what's going to get you

to the next level of life. And top of all your dreams is by listening to your grandmothers and our mothers instilled in us, we need to use that every day because that's what's going to get you to the next level of life. And top of all your dreams is by listening to your grandmothers, you know, and having that faith system instilled in you, carrying it with you all the way. All right. Fashion designer, Anthony Mark Hankins. And also, I wore the right outfit for today. That wasn't planned. You look fabulous.

I can't dismay when I was in Ghana, so I had to go ahead and rock this one. I should have wore the full length one in honor of Andre with the outfits that he wore. Anthony Mark Hank, it's good to see you, man. I hope to see you soon. Thank you so much for having me. Take care, Roland. Thanks a lot. All right, folks, let's now go to Terry Egan.

She's a longtime fashion writer, been in the business for quite some time, and also Brandis Daniels. She is the CEO, founder of Harlem Fashion Rogue. Glad to have both of you. How y'all doing? Hi, Roland. Great to see you. Absolutely. And, well, you know, what a day. I think about, you know, when I think about Andre, I probably have known him the longest, because we started working, when I started working at Fairchild Publications at DNR in 1977, I was the only black female reporter there. And he was the black reporter at Women's Word Daily. He was a European editor. And I was in the Chicago Bureau. I happened to be in New York. He was in town.

Andre blew through the office, and he was, you know, he had on the Savile Row suit and he was just impeccable. And I was so nervous and in awe. And, you know, he had that really grand way of talking. Hello. And, you know, nice to meet you. And he also welcomed me very warmly, happy to see me, welcomed me in, told me I was going to have a great time. And then through the years, you know, I did other jobs. But then when I started working at the Wall Street Journal and then I started on the Fashion Beat, that's when our paths collided again. And when I was in Paris doing some research for my first book, The End of Fashion, Andre was holding court at the Ritz Hotel.

He actually had an apartment at the Ritz Hotel, paid for by Karl Lagerfeld, and he invited me, come on over and have lunch with me. And so that was a lot of fun. And he was just, you know, he was just a mentor to everyone. And, you know, Andre was glamorous and fun and everything, but I remember him as a reporter. He was an incredible writer.

And I really would think a lot of young people, if you really want to see Andre's real genius at a very young age, you go back and look at those features that he did on Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy in Women's Wear Daily, in the W magazine. At that time, it was a broadsheet. And those stories were not just like a reporter showing up and interviewing a designer. This was a reporter who spoke French, who was steeped in the culture. So you really got this whole sense of, I mean, he really gave you a rich story that was not only about fashion, but design. He was a bon vivant, and all that was in his copy. So those stories were just magnificent.

Brandice? Yeah, you know, for me, I'm from Memphis, Tennessee. So coming from the South, moving to New York, having this dream of working in fashion, Andre Leontali, like so many other people, stood as a beacon of hope because he was from the South, because he was a Black man and he was in these incredible positions

and incredible places. It made me feel like, oh, this is possible for me. And I think that was the sentiment of, you know, every editor friends of mine that I spoke to today over the phone about Mr. Talley, every stylist that I spoke with, everyone had the same sentiment that because he was in his role impact that he had on this next generation of African-American professionals that are in fashion. But he had an immeasurable impact on all of us. Mickey Taylor, editor-at-large of Essence magazine. Mickey, people might hear Andre.

They might see him speak and see his whole persona, but this was a North Carolina boy. This was someone who attended North Carolina Central before moving on to study other places as well. Just share with us your reflections, Andre Leontali. Well, he was an unprecedented human being, a fashion storyteller, an icon who was passionate about fashion, who had a strong sense of self from his Southern humble upbringing, you know the stuff dreams are made of. But lest anyone forget, he worked hard to get there. He was informed. He was well-educated. He spoke meticulous French. And so whether you were

talking with him on the front row of Fashion in New York or talking with him in Paris and, you know, realizing what an honor it was to be in his presence because he blazed a trail to get there and a trail that wasn't always welcoming of someone like him. But he was so informed they couldn't deny him. They couldn't deny his presence, his grandiosity, and even though they may have hated his skin color. And so it was just quite a takeaway. Every time you were in his presence, you were in a master class of information and what it meant to be Black wherever you are in the world. And so I just admired him so. I cherish those moments together. And, you know, to just see him even across the floor, hello, Mickey, and just so excited to see one another,

especially when you could count those of us in fashion and beauty on one hand that were of African descent. And so today I'm just reflecting on the genius that he was, how he defied the odds, how he mastered his purpose with such distinction in a world and at a time where we were invisible. Just nothing, no one like him, that dashing figure cutting across the landscape.

Loved me some Andre. Terry, I always say you can be present or have presence. I think it's safe to say Andre Leon Talley had presence. He absolutely had presence. And he was just someone who inspired us all. And, you know, I just, you know, as a journalist, and I was listening to everyone talk. Also, be sure to

check out Robin's excellent article today in The Washington Post. You really see this is someone who just took command of, you know, anything, when he was on a stage, when he was I'm looking at this video here where he's talking on the red carpet to different celebrities. I mean, everyone loved to talk to him because he was so smart. I mean, he really got, you know, an education in addition to his, you know, his joy of fashion. I mean, this man could talk about,

he was a connoisseur of clothing and food and everything that was about fine living. And this was something that we don't see anymore. You're not going to see this is an end of an era. You're not going to see anyone like this who's got all this. This is not fast fashion. This is the old school couture that is that, you know, is really the the the the fascination of fashion, the dream that so many young people have always thought about. And so, you know, you can learn a lot through Andre. And the main thing that you can learn, as Anthony Mark Hangers was saying, about showing up,

because this is a guy who really worked hard. I mean, he made it look fun and fabulous, but Andre was an incredibly hard worker. And he came prepared, and that's why he was accepted. Brandis, go ahead, go ahead. I'm just gonna say, this is just really something that I always like to instill in people, because getting there early, staying late, and really knowing your subject,

and Andre did this, and so he will he's been he'll be missed by everyone. Brandis, the thing that I think is also important to to the point that Terry was just making is that. People would see people see these events and they're thinking, oh, my goodness, these are just all fun times. But it's also work. And so this was someone who was working, who was not, it wasn't just, hey, we're just at the party.

It might look that way in photos and things along those lines. But putting that work in to be able to rise to the level that he did at Vogue and in this industry? I don't think any of us, Roland, will ever understand the work that Andre put in to get to the place that he was in. And what I love is, you know, he also mentored so many young designers. I think about Mimi Plange. She was an incredible mentor for her. I remember him being at Laquan Smith's very first fashion show that he had ever had. And him and just, you know, I wasn't even at that event. But hearing that Andre Leon Talley was there at Laquan Smith's very first show, I think it made everyone look at Laquan Smith differently and take him a lot

more serious. That's how important his presence was for young designers. Mickey, we talk a lot on this show about opening spaces for African-Americans in front of the camera, behind the camera, individuals on boards of directors, but also in the C-suite as well. To the point that Brandon's just made, when we're talking about fashion, we're not just talking about those who are on the journalist side, those who are working for the magazines.

We also are talking about the individuals who are able to build their companies, to create their empires, to be able to employ hundreds or thousands of people. And so to have an individual who literally had that level of influence, that level of power, and who understood it's not for and no more or I'm happy to be the only one sitting at the table because there are some people who look like all of us who it is all about just them being the

only one and so he also was deliberate intentional in saying it can't just be me here. Exactly. And so he opened the doors for models. He took time to mentor designers. He would come to designer shows that, you know, maybe many of the other white editors wouldn't come to. And because he knew it was important, he knew his presence was important there. And then he would go backstage and in these bold pronouncements that you're used to hearing him make, he would teach you a lesson. He would pour into that designer. He would make time to meet with that designer back at the showroom or in the studio.

And because I, you know, he had that Southern upbringing. And what those of us who had a Southern upbringing understand is that you crawl before you walk. So if you understood what it took for you to get where you are, you understand the importance of making way for someone else. Let's not forget that when he first came to New York, he volunteered at the Costume Institute with Diana Freeland. Stayed there late, was hungry on Christmas Eve. He told, he will tell you about that in a heartbeat, you know, the sacrifices he made. And though he did the work that many others would not have done to get where he was. And so it was in his soul to give back, to make deposits into others.

Because there were those who poured into him, either willingly or not, but he never forgot that. You know, for all that grandiosity, I will always say he had both feet on the ground, and he was always intentional about whatever it was that he did. Terry, final thoughts. Yeah, my final thought was, I remember when I wrote The End of Fashion

and I wanted Andre to write a blurb on the back of the book. And I wanted him not to just say, oh, this is fabulous or whatever, but I wanted Andre to write a blurb because I knew that it would be something that would show his scholarship. He would, he would show the appreciation of the scholarship of the type of work that I was doing. And I just feel like that's, that's what he was about. He was not

shallow. This is a man who was very deep and, and really, you know, and he was, he was so absolutely committed to fashion. I mean, in a way that, in a way that you really don't see at all. And we're just gonna miss him. We're gonna miss, I think the reason why this incredible outpouring today was because we're all remembering how fashion was when it was so, when we had dress codes and when things were really formal

and things have gotten very casual now. And I see Andre who's formal and just fabulous. And it just, it really, this today has really touched me as I think back at all those wonderful moments with him. But rest in peace, great Andre. You're up there with Carl, hanging out with, you know, Manolo. But he was hanging out with all

the fashion, Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent. And, you know, we're thinking about you and remembering you and honoring you. Brandis, your final thoughts. I do have this. Real quick, and remembering you and honoring you. Brandis, your final thoughts. I do have this real quick before your final thoughts

for all three of you. If you knew you were coming across Andre, did you double check to see what you were wearing to make sure everything was straight? Was anybody ever lovingly admonished by Andre? No. No, thank God, no. I was not lovingly admonished,

but the last time I saw him was at Dapper Dan's Atelier. It was right after they had shown his documentary at the Schomburg. And, you know, he was definitely looking and checking and trying to see what we all had on for sure. But he, for us, represented hope. And I think Mickey Taylor said, which by the way, I'm so honored to be here with Mickey Taylor and Terry Agans, my biggest supporters, both of them. But, you know, he was, he allowed us to dream. You know, I call myself a proud fashion outsider. I didn't work for Vogue. I didn't, you know, come up the luxury ranks. And for someone like me who moved to New York from the South with this dream, Andre's life represented possibility.

And that's what it represented for so many of us. So he will be dearly missed. And, you know, there's no one who could ever replace his impact. Mickey. I agree with everything that has been said. He was quoted once as saying, none of my contemporaries have seen the world through the black lens. And when I think about him and with all the throws, if you will, that were against him on every continent as a black man,

as a man who was informed, as a man who you couldn't, you had to try to reckon with to at least hold your own. I remember John Fairchild, when he worked at Women Wear Daily, John Fairchild turned to him one day and said, you know, I'm the boss. He told Andre that because he was threatened by the presence and the knowledge of Andre.

So yeah, I'm bowing in spirit to all that he was, to what he stood up against, to be all that. And he is forever a symbol of the achievable possibilities, as Brandis said. So we have no chance at the win if we don't use our voice and if we don't stand up in all our splendor like Andre did? Well, that is certainly a proper way to pay tribute to Andre Leontali. And one of the reasons why we've done this, we've done these for numerous African-Americans who passed away, and because, frankly, as far as I'm concerned, whether it was Sidney Poitier passed, since the Cicely Tyson passed, I personally did not think that we saw the proper tributes being paid.

And in fact, last night I was talking to one of my former colleagues at TV One. And if there's something that really probably drives me crazy is that the state that we're in right now with black media is that when we're losing our icons our perspectives are not fully being presented so 20 30 years from now when somebody is reading about Andre Leon Talley or Sidney Poitier and they're looking on YouTube or they're looking at different places, they're actually not going to see our real-time reflections

because unfortunately too many of our outlets are just doing business as usual and not taking the time to actually pay proper tribute. And so that's why I thank all three of you for being with us and being able to share your thoughts about Andre as well. Thank you. Thank you. Folks, as we said, I mean, all across the world,

people have been weighing in talking about Andre Leon Talley. Kerry Washington tweeted this, Oh Andre, heaven is going to be too fabulous now, sir. You blessed us with your charm, wit, and taste for the exceptional. You'll shine so brightly from the heavens that we'll know what true stardom looks like. We'll gaze up at you always in awe and with

gratitude. Constance White, former top editor at Essence Magazine, she tweeted this. He lit up fashion. He lit up my life in ways he knew and didn't know. He was a giant, an intellect, She tweeted this, I'll miss you. Hashtag Andre Leon Talley. Comedian Liz Winstead posted, Andre Leon Talley has passed. I'm heartbroken. He was someone whose heart was as big as his personality. What an icon.

What a trailblazer. What a legend. What patriot. What a teddy bear. Rest in power, sir. You will be missed. Those were, again, some of the tributes that have been on social media. Folks have been, again, men and women have been posting numerous different statements regarding Andre Leon Talley.

As I said, born and raised in North Carolina, grew up in the church, goes to HBCU North Carolina Central, then goes on to two incredible heights in this industry. One of the folks who has been in the fashion industry for quite some time is Harriet Cole. She's a journalist. We actually work together at Savoy Magazine. Harriet, how are you doing? I'm, you know, celebrating our brother's life. You know, it's happy, it's sad, it's everything, but I'm honored to be here with you today.

So talk about that. When did you first meet Andre? And just share for our audience, what was it like to be in his presence? Well, actually, Roland, I say I've had 39 lives. I started my career at Essence Magazine, and I was running the lifestyle department. The art director, Gregory Gray, who's also from Baltimore like me, said, we have to do apartment, you know, with silk curtains. And what was interesting about his apartment, Roland, is that he had two of everything.

He had two fabulous coffee table books, but maybe there were a hundred of them, but they were in twos. Even back then, he had custom-made Manolo Blahnik shoes, and he had two of everything. So I said, why do you have two? And he had learned, it was either from Jeffrey Bean or Oscar de la Renta, had told him, well, you know, you have to have two.

One for town and one for country. And at this point, he didn't have two homes yet, Roland, but he was ready. So when it came time, he could separate those two and have one in the city and one in the country. He was a sponge. He was always learning and always figuring out what he could apply knowledge-wise to the whole, the world of understanding, of culture, of creativity, of style, of potential. I've told this story several times. I played in the Jeffrey Osborne Golf Tournament one year. It was rained out.

Massive storm came through. And we were sitting at the table, and I was sitting there and Ahmad Rashad was to my right. Eddie LaVert was sitting there. Barry Bonds was sitting there. And Sugar Ray Leonard was sitting there. And we started just talking about the craft.

So like I had asked Eddie a question about singing and when, matter of fact, at Oprah's Legends Ball in the show, she talked about how she went up and told them she only wanted fast-paced songs. And I brought up to Eddie, and he was not happy about that night. And I remember, remember seeing, watching him like he pissed. Um, and so I asked him about that particular night.

And so we ended up, so we started talking about being on stage and being in Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. And then Ahmad Rashad started talking about, you know, for football. And Barry Bonds started talking about being on stage and being a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. And then Ahmad Rashad started talking about, you know, for football and Barry Bonds started talking about baseball and Sugar Ray Leonard. And I started talking about television and journalism. And so we're just sitting here trading all of these different stories. And it was great because it literally was a conversation

about how do you talk about and define greatness in your particular area. And so for me, watching the documentary or reading these stories and listening to him talk about fashion, I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but again, listening to it, you understand someone who did not have a small sense of knowledge on this, but who was who was a genius in his area, in his lane, in his space. He was immersed in the space. Now, let's think about this role.

And we all black folks, we have all been taught. You have to be 10 times better, right, in order to have whatever the opportunity is in order to build your career. Andre Leon Talley had exponential knowledge, exponentially more probably than anyone else. He was a French major in college. He lived in France for a long time. What many people don't know is that he started his career at Ebony magazine. He was really by side with Eunice Johnson at the shows in Paris. He he brought that southern sensibility and grounding, which Mickey talked about having his feet on the ground into his whole life. But the other thing that he had, he had a vision.

He had a dream that was bigger than anyone could shut down. He dreamed about fashion from a kid. He believed that he could build a world for himself that was in this international world of fashion. He studied it. He owned it. He was a big Black man. He brought that size and stature with him as a badge of honor

rather than anything that anyone could possibly be ashamed of. And I interviewed him, Roland, a year ago for a show that I do for AARP, Real Conversations With Him. We talked about his book, The Chiffon Trenches, his memoir. And what I think is so important about that book, and he's written others, is that he documented behind the scenes. You know, what it was like to navigate in this rarefied air that our dear friend Beth Ann Hardison often says, fashion is an island and most people never go to, get to even get a glimpse into it.

Because he wrote this book, because he wrote so much in Vogue magazine, and because he mentored so many people behind the scenes, we have his legacy to live on. And as one other very important thing I want to say about him as a Southern Black man who was reared by his grandmother, he grew up in the church. And we know that he was very active at Abyssinian for many, many years up until his departure from this earth. What you learn in church, what you learn as a person of God is

you are supposed to do good. You're supposed to help others. You are supposed to give as much as you receive and not talk about it. Just do it. Andre anointed so many people with his knowledge and support, as others have said. He helped many Black people in the industry quietly because, you know, Vogue, wonderful magazine, but Vogue magazine is not a magazine for Black folk. He helped so many Black people have a chance. And talk about inclusivity, he dressed Jennifer Hudson when she was a curvy girl. You know, that was before inclusivity was a thing. And he dressed her for the red carpet. As we know, he was there to support Michelle Obama

and so many others behind the scenes to ensure that if there was an opportunity, and they were ready, you had to be ready. If they were ready, he was going to help them have that runway in order to soar. And I think this is something that he will be remembered for. And it's that combination of all the love and faith and grounding that his grandmother and his faith gave him and his vision that set him on a course to fulfill his dream. Your funniest Andre Leon Talley story. Oh, funny.

Ooh, that's a hard one, Roland, but I'm going to... Here's how I'm going to put it, because I don't necessarily have funny, but I'll say, you had asked earlier, did Andre ever call people out on how they were dressed? Mm-hmm. And I actually saw the opposite. Andre, what I watched him, and even with me,

when I would see him places, he would pick something that he liked about what you were wearing and point it out. And one time, we were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Egyptian wing, and it was so beautiful, in the Temple of Dender. And I had on a brooch. And I had on like a cape.

This is not like his, but I had on a cape and a brooch. And he acknowledged the brooch and, you know, whispered it, oh, I love your brooch. And it was brooch and you know whispered it oh i love your brooch and it was something that was my grandmother's so not funny but but lovely and i found as in as cutting as andre could be is as loving and thoughtful as andre could be and he offered me a lot of love and support over the years har Harry Cole, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch for just sharing your thoughts with us about the, people say this a lot, hey, who's the next?

Who's the next Michael Jordan? Who's the next LeBron James? Who's this? I keep trying to explain to people, there's only one Bill Russell. There's only one Magic Johnson. There's only one Michael Jordan. There's only one Bill Russell. There's only one Magic Johnson. There's only one Michael Jordan. There's only one Andre Leon Talley. You cannot replicate any of that in any way whatsoever.

Blessings to you, Roland. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, I want to thank everybody who joined us. There were so many others we had also reached out to. Many people are still mourning his passing. There's been no cause of death that has been released.

TMZ reported that he passed away in a hospital in White Plains, New York where he was living. And also, a good friend of his who runs the Ford Foundation said that he had been, had several illnesses recently. But again, Andre Leon Talley, native of North Carolina, North Carolina Central graduate. Again, fashion icon, legend, renowned fashion journalist. They're at the age of 73.

Folks, we have been watching what's taking place in the United States Senate. I'm going to walk over to the other desk, so cameras, y'all can follow me as I walk over. And so we have been, like I say, following what's been going on, what's been happening in the Senate where they are voting on the closures. I told you, Vice President Kamala Harris, she is in the United States Senate. Let's go to the Senate right now. I would like to do nothing less than to discourage and prevent certain kinds of Americans, black and brown Americans, young Americans, elderly Americans, low-income Americans, from participating

in the democratic process. My colleagues, my colleagues, we can begin to put a stop to these attacks tonight by voting to proceed to the final passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. These are good bills. These are effective bills. And they should be passed by this chamber as soon as possible. And if cloture is not invoked, we must change the rules of the Senate so we can pass these bills into law. All right, folks, we have a live stream going on the Black Star Network of what's happening in the United States Senate,

so you can certainly watch that. That is it for us with the show. Now, coming up next, we're gonna also, we'll end the show, but we're gonna have a livestream. A conversation with actor Glenn Turman. We talk about all sorts of things, going his history, going back to Raisin in the Sun, and how in the world did a boy from Harlem

all of a sudden become a huge cowboy? Yeah. Trust me, you don't want to miss that conversation. And also, how did he and Aretha Franklin hook up and get married? Y'all, it's a fantastic conversation with one of our fantastic elders, the actor Glenn Turman. And so we'll have that live stream going. We'll have the live stream going of what's happening in the United States Senate as well.

We got you fully covered. You're not going to miss anything. I want to thank everybody for joining us. Don't forget, if you want to support us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, please do so by downloading our Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One and Samsung Smart TV as well. And of course, you can join our Bring the Funk fan club.

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