#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson suspended; Tokyo soul cap ban; AG halts executions; Essence Throwback

Episode Date: July 3, 2021

7.2.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson suspended; Tokyo soul cap ban; AG halts executions; U.S. adds 850k jobs; Charles Booker launches Senate bid; Justice Thomas wants to get rid of Qualified Immunity; Teacher fired over racial slur; KKK police chief resigns; New film on Showtime spotlights Dick Gregory's journey; 50Can has a new president;Get ready ... It's grilling season +#EssenceFest Throwback with Prince, Slick Rick and moreSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Folks, today is Friday, July 2nd, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered,

Sha'Carri Richardson, who was expected to compete for the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, representing the United States, has tested positive for marijuana. She will not be able to run the 100. Is it unfair that she got a 30-day suspended sentence? Lots of conversation, folks, about this. We're going to talk about this on today's show. Also on today's show, we continue the battle when it comes to voting in this country.

The latest is what will now happen? Will Democrats get even more aggressive in combating Republican voter suppression? Also in Kentucky, former State Senator Charles Booker said he is going to be running against Senator Rand Paul in next year's election. We will talk to him on today's show. Also, in our Education Matters segment, we'll talk with Darrell Bradford, who is the new president of 50 Can, the Ed Reform Group. Folks, lots to discuss on today's show.

It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the field trip. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the super fact to find. And when it breaks, he's right on it. Whatever it is, he's got the food, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Robo, y'all. It's Rolling Gro-Gro-Yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin All right, folks, let's get right to it. Our top story is Sha'Carri Richardson, the track phenom out of LSU, who hails from Dallas, Texas, was expected to compete for the gold medal for the United States in the Tokyo Olympics in 100 meters. But before the U.S. Olympic trials, she tested positive for marijuana.

The decision came down to announce today she got a 30 day ban as a result. Here's the problem. The heats for the 100 meters actually begins within that window. She will not be able to run the 100 at the Olympics. A lot of folks have been talking about this all day. Some calling this grossly unfair, saying that black athletes are being targeted. Others say rules are the rules. She broke them. That's the case. I want to go right to my panel to talk about this here. Faraji Mohammed, a radio and television host out of Baltimore. We also have Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network and Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst.

Okay, Brittany, let's start with you. Is this unfair that Sha'Carri Richardson would not be able to compete for 30 days because she failed a test. She went on the Today Show. She admitted that she did indeed do this. She said she made a mistake, has to live with the consequences. Your take? Yeah. So I'm glad that she's taking accountability for her actions. I think that was absolutely the first thing to do. But I do believe that the rules governing marijuana usage at the Olympics are both vague and extremely subjective, Roland. I think it's pretty clear that marijuana is more therapeutic than it is harmful, since we see it as medicine and it's legalized in more than 30 countries. Not to mention the recreational marijuana, although it's prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which governs this overall, their rules do state

that it can be used in competition if an athlete has an approved therapeutic use exemption. So essentially, athletes can and do use marijuana if they obtain permission in advance. So yes, Sarkari should have taken the appropriate channels to get cleared to smoke. But let's be clear, it's not steroids, and it's not a performance enhancing drug. The other reason the committee said that smoking marijuana is against the rules is because it's a violation of the spirit of the sport. And I feel like that's really a vague way of saying you need to be a role model. And I think, again, it's not their job to be role models. I think it's their ability to demonstrate their ability as an athlete when they're competing. And then, of course, lastly, can we give her some humanity? She just lost her

mother. She wouldn't be banned if she was using an antidepressant. And if we think of marijuana as a medicine that helps alleviate depression and anxiety, we should really let that girl run. The rules are subjective, outdated, and unfair. But Farasha, the rules are not subjective. The reality is this here. Every athlete knows the rules. They are given a list of banned substances that they cannot use. They are tested. They know they are tested. Anybody who also knows that when you're the run up to the U.S. Olympic trials, you're going to be tested. And so the bottom line is she knew the rules. She broke them. Absolutely, brother Roland. I mean, she knew the rules. She did break them. And it's unfortunate that she broke them because I was rooting for Shikari as well. But I think that we have to I mean, this is a slippery slope because we know, I mean, when you're talking about track and field or any other sport, marijuana, and I hear what my sister is saying, that it's kind of subjective.

It's going to be used for therapeutic. But at the end of the day, athletes cannot use marijuana a day or two or a couple of days before they're about to go and compete. It's just not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. I think that Sha'Carri did an excellent thing. She took ownership. She made herself accountable. But I don't think we should get into this part of trying to apologize and breaking rules because it goes down a slippery slope. If we say, okay, we can use, she can use it. Is it because of the emotional attachment? Is it because of the fact that, yes, I agree with you, athletes shouldn't be seen as role models, but guess what? They are role models

and they can't run away from it. Okay. So we know that they don't get paid the big bucks, LeBron James and Michael Jordan. I mean, when you go down the litany of athletes, male or female, people love role models. So at this point, it was a bad choice, a bad decision. Unfortunately, it cost her a lot, but I hope and pray that she's able to learn from the situation and kind of get back into the game.

As I said, she went on the Today Show where she talked about exactly what happened. Here's what she said. I want to take responsibility for my actions. I know what I did. I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm allowed not to do, and I still made that decision, but I'm not making an excuse or looking for any empathy in my case, but just however, being in that position of my life, finding out something like that, something that I would say is probably one of the biggest things that have impacted me

positively and negatively in my life when it comes to dealing with the relationship I have with my mother. So that definitely was a very heavy topic on me and people don't understand what it's like to have to or people do we all have our different struggles we all have our different things we deal with but to put on a face to have to go in front of the world and put on my face and hide my pain um like who I don't know who are you or who am I to tell you how to cope when you're dealing with a pain or you're dealing with a struggle that you've never experienced before or that you've never thought you would have to deal with? Like, who am I to tell you how to cope? Who am I to tell you that you're wrong for hurting. So I think just honestly just leading up to that, dealing with my mental health,

dealing with my mental as is with leading up to the games, every time stepping on the track, definitely expected to be a record-breaking time or something like that. So just with that, pressure in itself was also just another thing with this accident, my first full professional career, my first full professional circuit this year due to, you know, the pandemic. So just considering all of that, all of that put together in a long time, my agent, my sponsor, my sponsorship, my family, knowing all of this. All right. So here's what happened. So she had discovered from a reporter her biological mother had passed away.

Right. So what her folks were saying is that when, you know, for her to quote, then she actually took marijuana. Michael, obviously, anybody can empathize with that devastating news. Right. But there's also a reality. You've been running track your whole life. You've been running track in high school. You ran track at LSU. You now are a world-class sprinter. For your entire track life, marijuana has been banned. Right.

It's on the ban list. This is not. And also it's the rules of your sport. If this NFL where if you fail a drug test, you go into their program, you continue playing. They have a protocol established. The NBA has a protocol established. I understand that this is sports. I understand about healing. We've got people on talk about the therapeutic benefits of it. But the reality is the sport in which you are in, that's something that I'm allowed. I equate this and I say this to my nieces and nephews, to other people as well. Marijuana is legal in Washington state, Oregon, California, DC, but guess what? It's not legal in America. It's not, it's not marijuana is not, uh, legalized in this country.

Right. Employers out here can require you to take a drug test. And if you fail the drug test, you can't get the job. Now feel people who say man this makes no sense it's a natural plant but if everybody knows the rules and you broke the rules you suffer the consequences of the rules yeah you know rolling this is uh this is tragic and I've researched this as well. So here's my take on this. Number one, she knew the rules up front to there are extenuating circumstances with this. Now, I want people to understand she could have faced a three month suspension because that's the based upon the rules of the U.S. Anti-doping. Yeah, could have been three months months which means she's completely out of the olympics she still has an opportunity to be put on the four by 100 relay team but she's going to

miss the 100 meters which is where she was favored to win the gold medal so basically uh athletes who test positive for a substance of abuse which thc was newly classified as in 2021 usually receive a three-month suspension if they can establish that their use of the substance occurred out of competition and was unrelated to the sport performance now she entered into a uh counseling program so she is only getting a one-month suspension compare that to michael phelps in 2009 he got a three-month suspension i know people want to heroically compare this to michaelelps. Those are two different situations But also but also but also for everybody who's watching right? It ain't apples to apples right Michael Phelps a photo was shown

With a bomb that's what was six months the Olympics. He never tested positive. So, I've already seen that. Oh, no. Michael Phelps, the white boy, they let the white boy perform. This is what happens when people recycle BS memes that they didn't go research before they retweeted them and reposted them. This is what happens when you do this. Because if you had done a five minute Google search, you would have realized that Michael Phelps lost sponsorship

from Kellogg. He lost the Olympics, withdrew financial support from him. And his suspension was three times as long as Sha'Carri Richardson. Now, to make a long story short, based upon the circumstances here, she's admitted, she didn't say, oh, they lied. She accepted responsibility

and she entered into a council program. Based upon the circumstances in this specific case, I think they should do the humane thing and let her compete in the 100 meters. Based upon the circumstances and she entered into a council program also. Here's the deal. You say do the

humane thing. Okay. But there are other athletes. Sure. And again, look, I'm from Texas. Right. I would love to see the homegirl from Texas run. Right. And we all want to have empathy. We want to have compassion, Brittany. But look, there's another there's another sister I'm going to pull up in a second. Another sister who had gotten suspended. She had gotten suspended.

And what happened was she was a hurtler. And her name was Breonna McNeil. She got a five-year ban because she missed her drug test. Now, she says she had an abortion and she said she missed the drug test two days after her abortion. What happens with their rules, Brittany, is that your drug testing, you don't know where you're going to get drug tested. And so they call you and it's like we're on our way. If you don't answer, if you don't answer the phone, if you don't indicate where you are, uh, then there's a problem. And this, this happened actually, um, more than once, but now she did qualify for the Olympic team. Uh, she came in second at the trials. It was 100 meter,

uh, hurdles. And so, uh, what happened was, so she, she talked about it in terms of what happened. Uh, she said why she missed it. And there's called an at home appointment. An at home appointment. So this is this according to this story, McNeil said that the anti-doping ban derived from her missing an at home appointment with officials in January 2020. She says she was at home recovering from an abortion that she had two days prior to the appointment and that when officials arrived at her home, she didn't hear anyone. And then according to this story, she was she was banned because there were many inaccuracies found in documents that were meant to prove she had an abortion. She called it an she called it that it was a miscommunication. But, Brittany, there are other athletes who missed their at home appointment for drug testing and they've been suspended. And so they make it clear to everybody,

these are the rules. You're going to get drug tested a lot. So what, you know, what do we do? Whether it's Sha'Carri, whether this sister who said, well, I missed my at home. I had an abortion. I was at home, but I didn't hear them knock it. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. It's it's tough, Roland, because on one hand, sure, I want to say the rules are the rules. You know what they were in advance. Stick to them. Right. But I want to point out that rules are made by people. Right. And we need to think about the reason behind those rules and if those rules always make sense and if those rules are actually fair. You know, at one point, I believe it was 2011, both CBD and THC were banned. And I believe that change was made more recently where now it's just THC that's banned, the substance that was in Sha'Carri's blood. So, you know, I think it's tough. And again, I mean, based on the research that I did find and someone correct me if they saw something else, you know, they they have not definitively said that marijuana, you know, is a performance enhancing drug.

And if it is not, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not. It's a performance enhancing drug. It is on the list of banned substances from the anti-doping agency. Yes, exactly. But Roland, answer me this question because I hear you. But knowing that, so tell me why it's banned. Why is it banned? It's their rules. But that's what I'm saying.

Here's the deal. Every track and field athlete has to abide by it. It's a bunch of black people who made the Olympic team who didn't smoke weed. And if they do smoke weed, they didn't smoke it before the Olympic trials and they didn't test positive. I hear you. But I just,

what I'm saying is I think that we're seeing a reevaluation, not only in the United States. I mean, we just saw a Supreme Supreme court, justice, Clarence Thomas talk about how he, even he is talking about how we need to reevaluate United States on a federal level. We're seeing changes globally. And I hope that I agree. And I hope that the Olympics, I mean, if nothing else, you know, whether Sha'Carri runs or not,

I think obviously she's not going to at least for her own 100. But I do think that this is high time for us to reevaluate why that is a rule. Why is that a rule? I get it. It's a rule. It's a rule across the board, but it's time for us to reevaluate. See, Faraji, the thing for me that really jumps out here is and I look Benjamin Dixon. I'm going to pull up Benjamin's tweet and I think Benjamin is like wrong as hell

on this one. Benjamin is on the show. I like Benjamin. This is the tweet that Benjamin sent out right here. He said black athletes should just boycott Team America since Team America has such an issue with black athletes. No, I'm sorry, Ben. A whole bunch of black athletes made the team who didn't smoke weed, who didn't test positive, who didn't miss their appointments. I'm sorry. I don't see this as an attack on black athletes because one star

messed up. I just don't. I agree with you 100%. But let's look at what you pointed out. Rules are made by people. That's everything. We live in a society where rules are made by people that's everything I mean we live in a society where rules are made by people I mean yeah I mean I own the company I make rules yo ain't

gonna show yo ass gotta show up at work at 11 a.m. if you walk your ass in here consistently at 1 o'clock I mean, but that's what I'm saying. The rules are made. Now, here's the other thing. THC, we know what's on the list, but more importantly, it's also a drug. No, it doesn't enhance. It doesn't make you jump faster and all of those things. It slows you down. As an athlete, your speed is everything. Whether you're talking about football, baseball, basketball, track and field, soccer, your speed, your awareness is everything. I mean, there is a reason for this. Now, I think that the larger conversation about all of this, we have to ask this question.

Is this the example? If we're talking about push for Sha'Carri, push for Sha'Carri, what is the example that we want to set for black girls in track and field? What is the example? What do you say to a black girl, to a young black girl? Shikari is 21 years old. She is, as Roland laid out, from high school to college and the whole nine, she has been in this whole field. She's 21 years old. She still has a lot of maturity and a lot of growing to do. But for those who are looking at her and the black girls that see themselves in Sha'Carri Richardson what should we say see we talking about the now we have to look at the future

because we all should not be in a space to advocate for Sha'Carri now because then that opens the door for us to advocate for what the next black girl later? No, these are black athletes. If you're an athlete, you take care of your body. They often say your body is your temple. And if that's the message that we want to get across to young black girls and black boys in any field of sport, then we should look at this and then use this as a teachable moment to help them to see that if you break the rules, if you if you decide not to do what's what's required of you to do, you're going to suffer the consequences. I just I just think here, Michael. And we're going to talk about another story.

Sure. That has an impact that deals with black people in the Olympics which I think the Olympics they are dead wrong and this is what again I would say this to again my staff I would say it to my frat brothers I would say it

to my church members I would say this to my nieces and nephews I would say this to my nieces and nephews. I would say this to other family members. I hear you. I do believe that we have this different system. I think it's crazy that right now you've got marijuana that's a multi-billion dollar industry that's legalized in some states, but not others. I believe that you have these differing approaches to it. You've got some prosecutors who say they're not going to prosecute minor marijuana arrest. There are people who say you shouldn't be drug testing or causing people to lose jobs or not get jobs because of marijuana.

But here's what I know and understand. It ain't the law right now. I think that you can fight to change it. I think that you can fight to change with the Olympics. Football players fought for the NFL to alter their rules when it came to marijuana and they did the NBA players they fought to change the rules to alter it and they did and so it's a different approach there but what we're dealing with here is that all at all track and field athletes across the world and I think this is the most important thing that our people watching, and I've been seeing every kind of comment. Right.

Athletes across the world are giving the same list. Now, we know they're cheaters. We know the Olympics banned the Russian team because all of them were doping. We know back in the 80s and 90s, the East of Russian, hell, we ain't going to talk about how they were doping. We could go on and on and on. And we also know the number of American athletes who have been busted for doping and performance enhancing drugs. This boils down to here. How you cope with grief

is something that we have to deal with. But you are preparing for four years for this moment. The Olympics is every four years. You made the team. You performed well. But part of

performing is also the drug test they all go together you can't say well hey she could have win the gold we all let her run because every other athlete who went to the u.s olympic trial had to pee in that cup every single one come on right yeah you know um i think this whole thing is a little complicated i went and read the rules um and there is an appeals process here one she accepted responsibility it's not like she's saying oh they're lying on me they're setting me up she's accepting responsibility she told what happened uh two she entered into a counseling program as well in the appeals process. You know, based upon the circumstances, her mother died, her biological mother died.

And, you know, she's dealing with a lot. Now, if it had been a situation where she had tested positive for marijuana previously before other races and everything I read, this is the first time she's tested positive well then i would say no but in in the appeals process you know i i really hope they um have take all this into account and and let her compete based upon these circumstances but i do understand the rules i do understand the rules and i also understand you know peep they have an appeals process for a reason as well but uh this one here i think is the everything involved all uh details taken into account i think is different than maybe some other instances that we uh that we may see of doping or people purposely in a performance enhancing drugs the russians things like that okay so now let's talk about what i what i do believe is an anti-black story that we need to be dealing with right here so check this out swimming caps uh where'd it go where the story swimming caps for natural black hair ruled out of olympic games international

swimming federation rejects use of sole cap, saying it does not fit the natural form of the head. That right there, Faraji, meaning if your ass was a swimmer, use, Faraji, could not

put on a sole cap with that look you got right now. Folks, sole cap, I'm going gonna show you right now so soul cap uh they are a company out of the uk uh this is what it looks like their company out let's go full screen please they're a company out of the uk uh and uh they make swim wear and caps for all hair types i'm just going show you. And so this is the tweet that they sent out. They say, with the power of people, changing the water is possible for the first time in history. The incredible Alex Dearing will represent Team GB.

That's Great Britain. But they here say, thank you to all the swimmers who have given their thoughts and experiences. When it comes to the barriers to swimming it's time for a change hashtag uh swim for all uh and and and so uh and then here's another tweet june 30th a huge thanks to all who have supported us and our work so far we don't see this as a setback but a chance to open up a dialogue to make a bigger difference in aquatics Michael and tops Faraji not not this is bullshit this right here because These black first of all everybody watching now realize yeah black folks we swimming

Right. So what's happening is this has always been a white sport We ran the video I think last week of Cullen of cullen jones of cullen jones uh who won uh medals for the united states you're now seeing more black swimmers well black folks who wear their hair like yours veragi they they ain't wearing them no more swim caps now this is nonsense absolutely absolutely here's what i want to bring our attention to Because the sister Danielle Obie Who serves as the founding member Of the Black Swimming Association She made a very very important point It has generally been that

Speedo has been the producer Of the swimming caps She made the point saying Speedo caps don't fit our head And I can't make this up And I love the quote she says Black hair grows up and defies gravity. I want everybody to think about this.

It grows up and defies gravity. That means that thing is coming out. It's going all types of ways. With that, I think, and I'm with you on this, Brother Roland, at the end of the day and we're starting to see in this particular Olympics, there seems to be more what some might say microaggressions. There seems to be more slight on black culture, black expression. We're talking about soul cash right now. We got to talk about the situation where a couple of months ago, Black Lives Matter apparel was banned at the Summit Olympics. We got to talk about Gwendolyn Berry and how they played the Star Black Spangled Banner and how that situation turned out.

I mean, we're seeing that there is and I get what the Olympics is trying to do through the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, saying that, look, we're trying to preserve the spirit of the sport in the case of oneness and not make people distinct. But guess what? That's not reality. Black swimmers, the hair, the way the body is shaped is different for each person. And that is insane to try to put everybody in this cap, but claim that this thing is going to be inclusive when in reality, it's exclusive. It does not allow athletes to be themselves. It does not allow this this platform to allow athletes to express themselves. So this is complete BS. So here's what's going on here, Michael. And let's just be clear. There has been whiteness has defined the world. Right. Whiteness. You've had sports like swimming that have been defined by

whiteness. Now, you had white folks with their hair, and let's be real clear, you've had some other swimmers, you've had some folks from Italy. Yeah, you know, Hannibal went over there, and him and them 20,000 Africans did a whole lot of damage over there. You got some other folks,

but the reality is, because you're now seeing more black people also reject European hair standards, saying, no, hell no, I want to wear my hair natural. They are going to have to accommodate that. And I'm telling you right now, this to me, this is where a lawsuit should be filed. This is why the crown act is being passed in america and outlaws hair discrimination this ruling here is hair discrimination yeah it definitely is man you mentioned hannibal barker i think you referring to the battle of canada 216 bc but that's no i'm referring to them 20 000 africans who went over to it Italy and caused some damage. That's why you got a whole bunch of Italians got sick

of sale because they're black. Well, yeah, yeah. The Moors were in Italy also. The Moors were in Italy. But when you look at this, man, it's something very interesting that they said here, the FINA. They said that the soul cap

does not follow the natural form of the head. What? What do you follow the natural form of the head. What? What do you call the natural form? No, no, no. White people's heads. No, no, no. That's my point.

First of all, go ahead and say it. See, this is the problem. They don't want to say it, Michael. They should say it doesn't follow white people's head. But see, they need to holler. Just wait a second. What do you mean it does not follow the natural form of the head? What are you calling natural? Okay. White people are minority in the world. This is the Olympics. People come from all over the world

to compete. White people are the minority in the world. So what do you call it? The natural form of the head. They need to be lit up on this and this is designed to i think discriminate against african americans because we see their kicking butt in tennis we see okay we see the kicking butt in tennis right we know that once we come into certain sports we start taking over we know black people used to black men used to dominate horse racing and there was a concerted effort to force us out we were winning the k Kentucky Derby. Man, we got black people in the hammer throw, the shot put. You got black folks

in the high jump, the javelin. You got black... Man, look, first of all, there's one white boy on Team USA basketball team, Kevin Love, and he don't need to be on. That should be an all-black team. What they're really saying is damn

now y'all ass is swimming now y'all swimming right right so we used to be afraid of the water we used to be afraid of the water now we all in it we were swimming before you had

as long as it was white boys and African American boys swimming we were swimming it was white boys and and and african-american boys swimming that we were swimming that was all right when it started becoming co-ed and interracial now you start having a problem when you go research the history of that then you start having a problem when it was white girls swimming with white black boys now you got a problem on your hands but um yeah brother this should be highlighted, man. This is discrimination right here. They're really trying to, I think, target us and keep us from winning these golds and swimming also. This right here, Brittany, there should be a race discrimination lawsuit filed against the Swimming Federation for this ruling and and See all these black civil rights groups Y'all should be calling out all these Olympic sponsors

You say NBC is given the IOC billions of dollars We should be saying Sponsors speak up all these major corporations giving the olympic committee money we see this is how you take your power and you leverage it by saying don't be silent corporations this right here is hair discrimination britney yep no i completely agree with everything that people have said and i think um someone mentioned it earlier you know anti-blackness is a global phenomena it just isn't in the United States. It's everywhere, everywhere.

And we know that this decision is part of just a longer history of discriminations against Black people, but specifically Black hair. And I know you mentioned earlier rolling the Crown Act. And, you know, just just eight years ago, the number one complaint filed by Black women in the United States with the EEOC was discrimination based on hair. So, you know, I'm not surprised that this is something that's going on at the Olympics. And I can probably guarantee you that the bulk, if not all the people that made the decision, are certainly not us.

Because we know the idea that, you know, the caps don't need a certain size and configuration. Elite athletes don't need caps of this size and configuration. It's a complete racist, discriminatory BS. All right, folks, I i gotta go to a break we come back we're gonna talk to uh former kentucky state senator charles booker he announced he is running against ran paul and already senator ran paul has sent out a racist email i'm gonna show it to you and chuck this literally, it went out, Charles sent the email, sent the tweet out 34 minutes ago. The email went out at 1 19 PM. Charles is going to give

his first response to us right here, live on Roland Martin Unfiltered. That's next. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them, but I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany, I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones.

The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner and I approve this message. George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protests. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Right. What's up?

This is Aldis Hodge and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hey, everybody. It's your girl, Sherri Shepherd, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hey, Roland. This is Tim Story, director of Chad. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. What up, y'all? This is Method Man, Mighty Mutant Clan. You're watching Uncle Roland Martin, and the show is Unfiltered. Make sure y'all tune in. Laura Ingraham, you suck! Say hi!

Hi! Go secret, go secret, go! Go secret, Rick! Go Slick Rick! Go! Go Slick Rick! Go Slick Rick! Go! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Ay, yo, I'm done with the rally zone! You know what? You want some money, then that's your ball! Oh, yeah! Talk to Duke! Talk to her about the pool!

Six one! Six one! Six minutes! Okay, hey! Six minutes! You ready? Here's a little song that means to me, heard them, I was going downtown, it worked. All along no one to leave except on the G-string two hundred and five, so pretty girl So I sat beside her, then she went, and she just told me to tie girl Hold on kids, great little steak, how do you manage to make that for us?

The old lady called, she's raking hell, she said my money making it, call me Michelle Michelle, my man, someday my dream will changemin' on soul, dribbin' on soul She's sweet, and that's how she knows it We're the one and only, dear woman, I'm the lion Pasta moon, we shower, and y'all talk She's jammin' the groove This one's called Body Daddy Old School Remix, huh, yo? Come on, come on, come on. This one's called La Di Da Di Old School. Remix, huh, yo?

Speed it up, kid. Check, check, check, check. Old school, listen. These eyes are crying. I'm sad to see my mother's out, but I never gonna see another one. I'm going away. La Di Da Di! Hit it like, fire! We don see another love. I'm going away. Daddy, daddy.

He like, what? We don't talk trouble. We don't bother nobody. We just have a mess on the mic. Can we wrap up on the mic? We have to go. Oh, and y'all keep me yawning. Well, it's a thing you smell, kid.

Because it's cool when you cause a cozy condition that we create. So listen to what we say. I was up and down trying to come in the morning. It was so much better to go to the bathroom to wash up. I had soap on my face and my hands were covered in soap. I said, remember? Who is top dresser? There was a rumble double. Five minutes in the last intermission. You can see it back here. You are the best. You are the best.

You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best.

You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. You are in the last hit, the moves are all you can see. Yo. One, two, three. Yo, yo.

One, two, three, yo. Awesome. Have a good time. All right, everyone. have a good time y'all better ask somebody uh ain't nobody got uh kind of footage except Uncle Roro. Slick Rick on stage at the Coca-Cola booth on their main stage at Essence Festival. Yeah, that's how we roll, y'all. This is a live look right now of the Essence Festival, a live loud virtual experience happening. You can go to Essence Festival. You essence calm essence studios calm actually check it out But y'all don't do that until y'all finish watching roller mud unfiltered. So y'all can watch the replay But again, this is a live look right here of the virtual essence festival happening right now We got we got so all weekend. We're gonna be showing you all concert clips throwback footage you name it

We're gonna be showing you this is happening all weekend And so the concerts start the concert starts and then of course you're gonna have All weekend till Friday Saturday Sunday Virtual festival essence and we so appreciate coca-cola partnering with us to be able to bring you these essence festival throwbacks. All right, y'all today Charles Booker dropped the news that he is running against Rand Paul. Remember, he ran for the Democratic nomination to face Mitch McConnell in 2020. Amy McGrath, she won. She got destroyed in the general election. Booker came within 30, votes of winning uh that primary

now he's taking on uh senator rand paul this is the campaign video that charles dropped freedom it's been the story of America, or so they say. Because we know the truth. For so many people across Kentucky and across the country, freedom hasn't been freedom for us. I come from a long line of Kentuckians. I've had ancestors who were enslaved in this commonwealth, lynched in this commonwealth, fought for desegregation in this commonwealth because we knew freedom wasn't something that was going to just be given to us. We had to struggle for it. What we have are these politicians who have been free to exploit us.

Yeah. Freedom to rob us. Freedom to tell us that we don't deserve better. And all we can ever afford to have are politicians who don't care whether we live or die. That's not freedom. The people of Kentucky are my family. One thing I was taught early on

is that you fight for family. We can make freedom ring true. We can make it ring for everyone. We can make freedom ring true. Absolutely. Yeah. We can make it ring for everyone. Yes, sir. We can build a future where Breonna's door isn't kicked in. Yeah. We can make freedom mean

that every community across Kentucky is thriving. Yeah. With a good paying union job. Yeah. That we're not just working to struggle less, but that we're owning.

Yeah. We're creating. We're building pathways to wealth all over Kentucky. We're going to take this message from the hood to the heart. And so as we go into this day where we celebrate our independence, let's commit to making it mean something. And I'm not just asking that of you. I'm going to lead by example. And it's with that understanding that of you. I'm going to lead by example. Okay.

All right. And it's with that understanding that we have to lead ourselves that I'm going to run for United States Senate. All right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Woo! We're going to make it ring because Kentucky deserves it. All right. I believe we're ready for this moment.

Yes! If you're ready to prove the doubt is wrong, let me hear you say yeah. Yeah! I believe we're ready for this moment. Yes! If you're ready to prove the doubters wrong, let me hear you say yes. Yes! I believe we're ready to heal and grow and thrive and make sure the opportunity rings true for everybody in this commonwealth. Yes! Are you with me? Yes!

Are you with me? Yes! Are you with me? Well, Charles Booker is with us right now. I'm glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Charles. It's good to be with you again, brother. Thank you for having me. All right.

Your opponent has already started his racial BS. Folks, watch this. This email. Charles posted this on his Twitter feed about 40 minutes ago. This is what Rand Paul sent out today. And it said, dear so-and-so. Yesterday, I got an act blue backed racial left opponent for my reelection. A racial left opponent. So Charles, would he have said, I have a white candidate? Well, Roland, I think you and I both know very well what he was trying to say there. I think he has something that he's feeling. He can't get past the color of my skin and he knows that we're coming to take his seat. And so he's relying on racism as they always do and the book Kentucky see through it and so do I and we're calling it out

look here's the deal this is not me this was an actual campaign email it says It says from Rand at Rand Paul dot com dated today, 1 19 p.m. And y'all black out the name. So that means that it was sent to someone. So clearly your campaign staff is on the email list. So this literally went out from the Rand Paul campaign. So you are a racial left opponent. That's Rand Paul's way of saying white folks in Kentucky, I got a Negro running against me.

That's exactly right. And you know, the sad part about it is, that's all we're hearing from Rand Paul. Every time he talks about me, he's talking about defund the police and reparations that are rolling. You got to ask yourself, why is he talking about defunding the police when he's not talking about investingund the police and reparations that rolling, you got to ask yourself, why is he talking about defunding the police when he's not talking about investing in community safety?

He's trying to distract from the fact that he's failed Kentuckians. He doesn't care whether we live or die. All he wants to do is chase conspiracy theories because he's a clown. And we're standing now and I lost this Senate race because I believe in the people of Kentucky. Now, I come from the western Louisville, one of the most segregated cities in the country. The issues I've seen growing up as a young Black man are not limited to my community. We have common bonds across Kentucky. And if we stand together, we can win together. And we're ready to stand right now and show that we're going to get him out of office. You ran against Amy McGrath for the Democratic nomination to face Senator Mitch McConnell. She raised a ton of money. She was the Democratic darling.

They said, oh, she was center right. She talked in the campaign about how she can work with Republicans. You lost to her by 30,000 votes and she got her ass whooped in the general election. What did you learn in that campaign? How are you going to craft a strategy? If you get the Democratic nomination, how are you going to beat Rand Paul in the general election? Well, I will win the Democratic nomination and we will be Rand Paul. In fact, we're going to blow him out. The thing that was affirmed for me in the last cycle is what I always knew to be true. You cannot ignore the people. It doesn't matter how much money you have. If you don't have a vision, if you can't inspire people to believe things can be different.

There's a lot of cynicism that's very real in our politics because all we've had are these corrupt politicians who are playing and laughing to the bank while we suffer with poverty or ration or insulin. And there's a reason that people have given up in a lot of respects. And I'm trying to lead by example to say that if we lean into organizing, if we lift up our common bonds, if we actually listen to folks in urban and rural areas alike, black, white, and brown, if you listen to folks, you'll hear that they want a vision where everyone has healthcare, where people have clean water and clean air and good paying union jobs. You'll hear that we don't listen to the people. And so I'm building this campaign focused on Kentuckians first, and we're leveraging the resources that it'll take to do the organizing to win. And I'm proud of that. Look, in the first 24 hours, we have received

contributions from nearly all 120 counties. We've raised over a million dollars towards this primary. And we're seeing the majority of our support coming from Kentucky. And it's not partisan because these issues aren't partisan. And I'm excited. We're going to make history. I said this on yesterday's show. I was talking with Matthew Dowd. We were talking about what Democrats should be doing. And I've had this conversation with Reverend Dr. William J. Bartle with the Poor People's Campaign, how they have been mobilizing, organizing, and how they have been very clear speaking to white people and saying white and saying poor white people and not using euphemisms, oh, the working class and things along those lines. And so how

are you going to go to those broke white folks in Kentucky? And we're talking about some broke people. These are the people who elected a Republican governor, but they were yelling, man, I don't want to lose my Affordable Care Act, but I hate the Obamacare. These are the people who were yelling Trump, Trump, Trump, but then they were getting cut. Then you had coal miners who Mitch McConnell would not meet with. He was completely ignoring them. And so are you going to be that in your face by going to white folks in Kentucky by saying, hey, folks, I know I'm black, y'all white, but guess what? In your county, y'all some of the sickest people

in the state. These people are trying to stop Medicare expansion. These laws are being passed for you. How are you going to get them to break from pulling that Republican lever and voting against their own interest to support you? Roland, you actually just laid it out.

You know, one thing that's true. I'll come to Kentucky and talk to the white folks for you. I'm sorry, go ahead. You just laid the strategy out. Look, in Kentucky, in our politics, we have. I mean, they expect us to vote Democrats, but they don't come to us either until it's time for us to vote. When you go actually sit down with folks and I'm telling you, I went to areas where they were all Trump supporters, 90 plus percent white. And I would tell them my story. Then I'd listen to them and it would never fail, never fail.

We'd see how much we have in common. But it goes to your point. We got to tell the truth. When you go talk to those minors in eastern Kentucky, they know those jobs are gone. They know they're not coming back. When you talk to those small farmers that are suffering with poverty, too, they know they need health care. They know they need more money in their pocket. We need to talk about the real issues and not be afraid to tell the truth. And this email that Rand Paul sent out today saying that I'm a racial left candidate, we know what he's saying. Look, Republicans will weaponize hate and racism. And in a lot of ways, Democrats have tried to run away from it. We have to go to

it and call it out and disarm it with love and unity and the power of coming together. This is not new. And if we lead now, we will win now. And we absolutely will do that. Got questions from our panel. Brittany, you're first for Charles Booker. Congratulations. I pray that you get elected. But with that being said, what would you say is your number one priority going forward? I know that you have type 1 diabetes, so can we expect you to take on big pharma? What's the main issue that's motivating you? Absolutely. My overarching platform is ending poverty, which truthfully means we have to pull up the roots of racism. And so that's why I lift up

Medicare for All. That's why I lift up universal basic income. I've said we not only need a green new deal in Kentucky, we need a Kentucky new deal. We need to own it. And I also lift up reparations because we have to get to the core of why inequity is structural. And so that's what you'll see out of me in the United States Senate. The Senate is blocking all of our progress as a country right now. It's clear. And we need leaders that are going to fight for us because they see us. Rand Paul's an eye doctor, at least he calls himself that, but he cannot see the people of Kentucky. And we're going to change that. Baraja Muhammad, your question for Charles Booker. Raji, you're on mute.

There we go. Mr. Booker, real quick question. How do you plan to engage the next generation? And really, you talked about the level of cynicism that exists right now just across the board in politics. I mean, I don't envy you in wanting to run for public office. I mean, I admire the spirit, but there is a lot of cynicism, especially like in the state of Kentucky with Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell and everything. So how do you really plan to engage Black folks in a way to keep their hope, to keep our hope alive in this process? Because I feel like there are, and based upon some of the recent data, black people are walking away from political parties in general. So this is a very, very critical time to get folks

to believe in this system. How do you plan to make that happen? You know, a lot of my plan and my vision for this race really comes from growing up in the hood. And there is so much power in us talking to one another, in us connecting with one another, in us building our capacity. And so while I'm running myself, I want to use my resources in this campaign to train more folks to not only be on campaigns, but to run for office themselves. I've talked to some of my own family who hadn't voted in a long time. And they told me, well, I would vote, but what difference does it make? Part of what I'm trying to do now is lead by example to say that we have so much power that we are not seizing, especially in the United States Senate, because we have these folks that are disconnected from us making every decision about our lives, but we're not in the room. And when I was elected in 2018 to the state house, I became the youngest Black state legislator in Kentucky since the first one. I'm

talking to a lot of folks in my community that have never seen someone like me stand up on the biggest stages and talk to folks like you all and speak the truth. That's contagious. And we're building a campaign that is rooted in relational organizing. We're building capacity for folks so that they can lead themselves, become citizen lobbyists. We do this work. We will do so much more than win one race. We're going to transform our future. One of the things that we talk about the issues you mentioned um you know in those rural parts of kentucky uh obviously uh health care is going to be a big issue you are running against someone who is a doctor who claims that he is such an expert on these things um but one of the things that we talk about medic expansion we talk about, you know

These health issues we keep seeing it in these red states how they keep fighting it and I'm sitting there going to all again To these broke white people. I'm like, what are you doing? You are sick. These things help you Reverend barber told a story when they were years ago when they were campaigning against for the issue, when it was campaigning against the closing of rural hospitals. They were at some parade and he said some redneck walked up to him with a Confederate flag around his neck, tears in his eyes saying, thank you for fight. Thank you for fighting for our hospitals. I just think that this is what this is, just one of those moments where where we've got to put it all on the table, and I use this phrase all the time. Hey, black folks, a lot of black folks broke, a lot of white folks broke. When you broke,

you broke. As Dr. Barber said, he said, when your lights get cut off, we all black. That's right. That's absolutely right. One of the things that I believe is really important in this message I lift up from the hood to the holler, you know, talking about our common bonds is speaking that truth and really helping folks to understand what's happening. Now, in addition to,

if you look at every metric that would determine a good quality of life, Kentucky is at the bottom and damn near all of them. Kentucky has also been one of the most disenfranchised states and so you're dealing with a whole population of folks that have been robbed of the ability to know what's happening and to know how to change it and and when we show up and speak that truth i'm telling you it doesn't take long for folks to realize oh i'm rationing my insulin and i don't have to do that because these big pharmaceutical companies are making money hand over fist while I die. Oh, OK, I'm working night, sun up to sun down, and I'm not getting paid good money while these coal companies are left to the bank, filing bankruptcy, leaving us high and dry.

We have to speak that truth. And I'm training folks across Kentucky to talk to their neighbors, to their friends, not along partisan lines, not dealing with the national buzzwords. I don't need you to call it a Green New Deal. Talk about what it means to take a shower and the water's irritating your skin because it's dirty. You know, talk about what your lived experiences are and we can get to a common ground of building together. We're trying to rebuild community and I'm proud to help tell that story in Kentucky because we're going to shock the world. Well, I can't wait until next year.

We're going to be on the road covering these elections. I can't wait to come to... I'll go ahead and do this here. I'll put it on the line. I'll be happy to come to Kentucky and do a town hall and we'll live stream it.

Look, I ain't afraid of nobody. Broke people white, black, I ain't afraid of nobody. Broke people white, black. I ain't afraid of nobody. And the difference is I own my show, so I ain't got to ask nobody's opinion. We ain't got to go get permission to do this. So we'll be happy to come to Kentucky, live stream a town hall, moderate that thing, a conversation with voters with Charles Booker. Well, you know, I'll be there and I need everybody to go to Charles Booker dot org to support me right now so we can make sure that I'm there, which.

All right, then, Charles Booker, thank you so very much, folks, running for the United States Senate in 2022 against longtime Senator Rand Paul. Thank you so very much for joining us. Absolutely. All right, folks, let's go to our next story, where Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced a federal moratorium on executions. Remember, he had had executions for a very long time, but those folks in the previous administration, they were rushing to kill people. Now, Merrick Garland said, we're going to slow that down. Here's a quote that he said. He said the continued use of the death penalty raises serious concerns, including the arbitrariness in his application, disparate impact on people of color and the troubling number of exonerations in capital and other serious punishments. He is prohibiting the scheduling of federal executions until the Justice Department reviews his policies and procedures related to capital cases.

Among those being halted includes his order, the allowance of prisons to use a powerful sedative to execute people on federal death row, which was approved by Attorney General William Barr. So of all these people, Michael, who keep saying elections don't matter, this is the difference between Trump being in charge and Biden being in charge. A huge difference, Roland. And all you have to do is look at what the Supreme Court ruled dealing with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Look at the ruling from yesterday. All you have to do is look at almost 400 bills that Republicans are pushing in 48 state legislatures. If your vote didn't matter, why are they working to suppress your vote so hard? Okay. So yeah, this is critical. And if we go back to Jeff Sessions, when Jeff Sessions was Trump's first attorney general. There was a commission that President Obama put together under the Obama administration, the Department of Justice put together this commission

to, it was designed to make sure people were not convicted based upon junk science. It consisted of scientists, law enforcement, different things like this, because they were looking at the fact that the death penalty was used disproportionately against African-Americans. Well, when Jeff Sessions became attorney general, he disbanded that commission. And then we looked at the last few, let me last maybe month or two of the Trump era, E-R-R-O-R, we look at that, we saw him starting up the federal executions again, and disproportionately, these were African Americans being executed. So this is an example of how elections have consequences. I'm glad Mary Garland is doing this. Absolutely, Brittany. And again, this is a major issue. And I just keep telling people, y'all

can sit your asses at home and not vote, but you'll get Trump. Look, there were several people who were executed and they were rushing to kill the people. Yes. And they were, I mean, they were like, oh, we were scheduling. They were trying to schedule executions up until his last days. And most of the people were black. Absolutely. We know innocent people are too often sentenced to death. I saw a statistic that said since 1973, over 156 people have been released from death row in 26 states because of innocence. And nationally, at least one person is exonerated for every 10 that are executed. And we know disproportionately it's us. You know, the whole concept is applied extremely arbitrarily. A lot of

it has to do with how much money you have, the skill of your attorneys, the race of the victim, where the crime took place. And we know, unfortunately, people of color are far more likely to be executed than white folks, especially if the victim is white. And also, you know, tons of studies show that the death penalty doesn't stop or curb a crime, let alone murder. So it's about time we have a change. And I'm definitely glad that he is taking a step. Roger. Yeah, I mean, I think this is I think this is a big issue. And I would agree that this is the big difference. These are the type of issues where you don't see them, quote unquote, on the on on the on your ballot.

But if you don't put the right people in place, then they're going to happen. You know, the Trump administration, they executed 13 people within a six month period. That's a lot. That's that's a lot of people. And so when you're talking about this type of issue, not just from the racial implications, but you're also talking about just the whole idea of capital punishment. We are still, which some people would say that this is one of the most barbaric ways or means of punishment of any quote unquote civilized state or civilized nation. So we're still in a space where this is happening. And so I'm happy that a moratorium has been placed. I'm happy as A.G. Garland mentioned that there's going to be some real evaluation. But the other question

becomes, and I think Brother Roland, you talk about this, you're from the state of Texas. Texas has always been number one when it comes to executing people. How much of this moratorium will impact state of state laws on execution in Texas They just executed a man back just a couple of days ago for killing his family back in 2009 So will this moratorium spill over it and to having conversations about executions across the state lines? That's a very good point this only applies to to the federal level, and that's what we have. All right, y'all. Y'all know what time it is! On my property. Whoa! Hey! Give him your ID. You don't live here. I'm uncomfortable. I have mercy.

A police chief has resigned because he actually, this really happened. He put a KKK sign on a black police officers jacket, you know So y'all, this is surveillance video. This is police. This is in Ohio. Police Chief Anthony Campo. You see him. He's putting a KKK sign on the jacket of a black police officer. He stepped down Tuesday after Sheffield Lake Mayor

Dennis Brain appeared at his office to address the video. Mayor Bing said when he went to the office, Campo was standing there with a smile on his face and said, "'So am I fired?' Well, the mayor told him he was being replaced on administrative leave and had 10 minutes to leave the office. Campo quit."

Well, guess what? That's what's gonna happen to your dumb ass, Faraji. If you're going to put a KKK sign on the jacket. Yeah. Am I fired? Hell yeah, you're punk ass fired. You took the words really out of my mouth. I was like, what a dumb ass.

He's a police chief. No one ain't got cameras everywhere. And you're going to do this. Like, what's the point? Like, did you want to get fired at this point i don't know i i'm not understanding the rationale behind the action look look look brittany the mayor should have walked in you about to lose your job that's how the mayor should have walked in. He already knew, though. He walked in and said, so am I fired? Like, he knew what time it was.

And I love the mayor's statement regarding the situation because he literally said what all of us were already thinking when we heard the story. How in the hell can somebody be that stupid? Like, it's really outrageous, man. And a stupid prank. Real stupid. It really, it really cracks me up when you, when you see these idiots, I mean, when you see these idiots and they, and they really, really, really, uh, are some damn idiots. Uhael i i just sit here uh and just like like y'all y'all really just you know are that dumb in fact you know what michael in fact if i was the police chief

it probably if i was the mayor it would have went down something like this I love this. I listen to me a little bitch. I'm going to ask you some real simple questions and I want some real simple answers. You understand? Let me get this right. That's what, that's how I would have, that's about what happened. You know, Roland. That's how I would have filed. You know, you know, you know, you know

Yeah People gonna get fired man. They need to investigate cases where he got black people convicted. They need to go research them because he could have set some people up. I know. I agree. I agree.

Y'all know that's funny. I'm sorry. That's funny. I'm sorry. Y'all, when we come back, we're going to talk to uh daryl bradford who is the new president of an education reform group 50k in our education matters segment also uh we're going to talk to an expert on barbecue and dick gregory the documentary on dick gregory airs on showtime on july 4th we will talk with the director of that documentary y'all we still got a whole lot to go right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

We'll be back in a moment. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. We got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict.

You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's gonna happen. Every time the life of an unarmed black man is cut short by police violence, we're outraged. When it happened here, I said enough is enough. Not as a state senator, but as the mother of a black son. I led Ohio's first bipartisan community police task force to stop racial profiling and address police brutality.

We establish standards for accountability, hiring, and use of force. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message to be a voice for change. Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grownups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. Thanks for watching! Welcome to the World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis

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World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis World of Tennis oh oh We'll be right back. having it right now the 2021 essence Essence Festival of Culture Live Loud Virtual Experience. EssenceStudios.com, Essence.com. Take your place today, Saturday and Sunday. All right, folks. This Sunday is the premiere of a documentary on my man, Dick Gregory, the great Dick Gregory. Of course, the comedian, the activist. Folks, it is an unbelievable documentary. I saw it two series ago on the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Here is a clip. When they say this show features living color, you better believe it.

Dick Gregory was one of the greatest political comedians to ever live. In about six more months, they're going to be forced to hire Negro bus drivers in Mississippi. So we're growing steering wheels so they can drive from the back of the bus. His stage presence was so smooth. Dick Gregory changed the entire landscape with stand-up comedy. Football is a fair sport for my people.

Only sport in the world a Negro can chase a white man and 40,000 people stand up and cheer. Damn, he's talking to these white people like that. He just spoke his truth. What's overlooked is how unafraid he was. Are you out to give people a good laugh? Are you out to make a very definite point? I happen to believe that you can't laugh social problems out of existence. Dick knew how to take a heated issue, bring humor, and move forward. It encouraged people. I think people get confused and think that he was an activist who decided to be funny. No, no, no. His soul was out of a stand-up comic. He just could not do that in a world that was falling down around him.

I ran from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to dramatize that there's a need to feed hungry people. He ran for Native Americans. He ran for women. He gave so much of himself to a movement, to a people. He wanted to be a part of the change. And he always fought for that change. My goal is to really help change the priorities in this country no man has given more asked less or been more needed ladies and gentlemen

dick gregory dr beer's call the one and only dick gregory joining us right now is the director andre games andre how you doing good good to see you. How are you doing? Great. How did you get involved in this particular project? Did it start with you? Did it start with Dick Gregory and his family? How did this whole thing start? It really started with me as an idea. I mean, you know, I saw Dick Gregory on the State of the Union back in 2008 when President Obama first ran. And I just was like, I've got to do something, you know, to tell this man's story. I mean, he was on this whole panel. You know, you remember it is just a panel of every great black. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was.

It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was Taylor Smiley, state of black America and state of black America. Yes. Black Union. Yep. State of the Black Union is on C-SPAN. And he was on there with all of these dignitaries and politicians and just everyone who does not share the mic very well. And he managed to completely bring down the house. And I was like, wow, this this guy is extraordinary. I mean, when I grew up in the 80s, I didn't know him as my contemporary comedian. That was Bill Cosby, to be honest. That was maybe Richard Pryor. We'd sneak away and see some of Eddie Murphy's stuff. But Dick Gregory, I knew as the guy who had the Bahamian diet, who had the shakes. So I didn't really know him as a comedian. And so when I got a chance to actually see him do his work as a as a comedian it was it was astounding I was like wow this this has got to be a story to

somebody to tell and I really wasn't prepared to tell that story until about 2015 and that's that's when I first reached out to him cold call like so many of my other relationships in Hollywood have been established just by picking up the phone and Luckily, nobody's hung up the fate hung up the phone in my face So he managed to actually fly out to LA and we started filming him and He was it His son Christian told the story at Tribeca It ain't like he was easy on you.

No, no, no, no. He he did answer the phone and he and we did have multiple conversations before actually meeting him in person. And then when I sat him down and interviewed him, you know, it was one of the most difficult interviews that I've ever done. I mean, I've been producing documentaries for a long time. This is my directorial debut. But I just know that sometimes subjects can be a bit hard. He was amongst the hardest, probably, if not the hardest. He just would not answer any questions. He just was not interested in kind of sort of following the leader.

He was the leader. So- But Andre, was he testing you? Did he wanna see how tough you were? And do you wanna see how serious you were? I mean, I didn't know that. I didn't know that at the time. At the time, I just thought he was angry or, you know, upset. I mean, at that time in 2015, that was actually like the first time any of this major news about Cosby had come out. It literally came out on the day we were filming Dick Gregory. So he was already a bit upset about that. And then just sort of the

line of questioning as it relates to his history, you know, he's probably answered this stuff a billion times. So I was like, you know, we've got to shift the focus a bit here. And the next day, that's exactly what we did. We just had him directly address the camera and it made it feel more like a larger audience. And he just sort of turned on and so i didn't realize that i mean i remember going and whining to my parents about it that night saying you know this man just just like you know uh haze me with his voice and they were like well just you know that's he's just tested you you gotta hang in hang in there. And that's what I did. And thank God I did. Now we have a movie about him. A lot of folks though, did not, do not understand, did not understand the relationship between Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby. I know that on the day Dick Gregory died,

Bill Cosby called that morning. And in fact, they were Bill was cracking jokes and Dick was laughing. And in fact, his family actually thought Dick was getting better. But really, it was after that phone call. It was the last it was one of the last phone calls Dick Gregory had. So Cosby talked on that day he died. I remember I was in Atlanta because I was getting the Hank Aaron Award and I was actually at the baseball game when I got the news of his passing. And so a lot of people really don't understand how close the two of them were. And of course, Bill Cosby and his wife Camille were there at Dick Gregory's funeral in Maryland. Yeah, they were right there in the front seat. I was at that funeral. I think you and I had

met originally there when you were recording your show. And they were right there in the front seat. And, yes, he was one of the last people to call him. It was Bill Cosby. It was Minister Farrakhan who called Dick Gregory, kind of eulogized him while he was still alive on his deathbed. And I remember flying into D.C. only a couple of days after Dick Gregory passed away because I had a personal relationship with him. It wasn't just, you know, like some subject. I mean, I started filming him in 2015. It sort of sat on a shelf for a couple of years right up

until the time that he died. And we were starting to start the project back up a couple of months prior to his death. But we got really close over that period of time. And I got close with the family, especially. And I remember his son, Christian, picking me up from the airport, driving me around. And, you know, we just cried like babies. We listened to that eulogy from Bill Cosby. We listened to it from Mr. Farrakhan. And it was powerful. And I think that when we get a chance, when people get a chance to see this movie, they'll have a better understanding of how Dick Gregory's sacrifice of quitting, of going to marches in Birmingham and Greenwood, Mississippi, and actually abandoning the gigs that he was supposed to be doing. Those club owners and managers and those types of folks literally filled those spots with Bill Cosby and filled it with Richard Pryor. And so he literally opened up the door for Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor and subsequently kind of every major black comedian after that. So that's really the story behind that. And they were close ever since. When we talk about people giving it all for the sake of the community,

this documentary really details that. And it's a whole lot y'all couldn't get into. Y'all didn't even get into him running for president, and it was just a whole lot of stuff that you just could not cover. I mean, frankly, to be perfectly honest, Dick Gregory's life was so stunning and amazing. It's probably worth a docuseries because of just the amount of stuff that he did and was involved with. But financially, I mean, he really said black folk will take care of me if I keep representing black folk.

Yeah, he did. I mean, I don't think people really understand even the contemporary comedians that were so heavily influenced by him, like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, you know, Kevin Hart, who's one of our executive producers, really, really understand what that means, like that level of sacrifice. I mean, I've talked, you know, with Kevin Hart before about it's like, it would be like him leaving his huge career and going and exclusively, you know, working for and joining the Black Lives Matter movement, of which, you know, activists are not rich people. I mean, they're sort of not associated with the same level of wealth that an entertainer or, you know, somebody in Hollywood is.

And so for Dick Gregory to do that, I mean, that had a lot of consequences. And one of the interesting things that I said during the Tribeca Q&A is that he's not one of these entertainers. You know, we hear these stories all the time, entertainers, musicians, especially comedians and musicians. You hear the story all the time that they squandered their money on booze or drugs or gambling or women or whatever it is. He didn't fall into any of those categories. I had somebody ask me, well, why didn't you talk about this or talk about that? I'm like, he wasn't a scandalous person. He was scandal free. He wasn't mistake free. He wasn't, you know, he was a human being. He had his foibles, but they weren't the type of dramatic foibles that you expect in these types of stories.

This is somebody who literally said, here, I'm going to give it away instead of paying my kids college tuition. I'm going to give it away instead of paying my kids' college tuition. I'm going to give it away instead of paying my mortgage. That's something that we can aspire to. It still had a lot of consequences, but it's something we can aspire to, really. I got more questions, but I want my panel opportunity to ask some questions. Brittany Lewis, your question is 400. Yeah, of course.

Congratulations, first and foremost. I can't wait to see the documentary. Thank you. But I do want to know, you know, Dick Gregory was such an important figure, not only to the Black community, but to the world. Was it difficult trying to capture the entirety of his life? Like you're talking about a comedian, an activist, you know, how could you do that without making the documentary like several hours, if not a day long. Well it was. Yeah I mean I managed to get it you know kind of just under two hours which was at the request of Showtime but we did have what you know Roland is talking about we did have the presidential run in there we had a couple other things and it just there from a narrative

storytelling standpoint there's some of these things you just unfortunately have to take out. It was very, very difficult. Any filmmaker would tell you every movie breaks your heart just a little bit. The reason why is because you have to abandon certain things. You have to cut out certain things. It's like the audience has only so much of an attention span. And in this situation, I mean, I produce series as well. I did another series earlier this year called The Lady and the Dale that was on HBO. That was a four-part series.

But the goal here was really to make one good film, one great film that could live on in the annals and the lexicon of film history. That was ultimately the goal. At the end of the day, you just got to suck it up, wipe away a couple of tears, and say, yeah, we're going to take out a few things. Baraji.

Andre, first and foremost, I'm really excited about seeing this film. I had the opportunity to work with Miss Kathy Hughes, and she often talked about Dick Gregory and their relationship when they were on air back in D.C., back in the day. So this is going to be really, really cool. And I had the opportunity to meet him when we did the Justice or Else movement.

And he was working with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. So he was at a couple of some of those like larger meetings. And he would I can all I can say, Andre, is I understand that he tested you because he tested us. We were just saying hi. We just want to take a picture. But I do want to know, is there anything about his life and legacy that surprised you that you might believe may surprise us as the viewers of this documentary? I think it frankly surprised a lot of people. I mean, you know, Cappy Hughes is a dear friend. She was a huge supporter of this project from the very beginning and so many others.

I mean, you know, yourself too, Roland and Joe Madison. I mean, you kind of go down the whole list and folks that were with him. You know, I bring these names up specifically because the folks that were with him, even that worked closely with him, colleagues, agents, managers, business partners, friends, even they looked at the film and other iterations of the film because we sort of showed it along the way to a couple of different folks here and there as it came together. And they were like, wow, I didn't know all of this stuff. I didn't know that these things happened. And even Dick Gregory himself, when we were making some progress of the film, you know, would look at it and say to his son, like, like, did I do that? You know, I remember, I totally remember doing this, that or the other thing. And so there was a lot of parts and pieces

like that, that people were able to take away, and that they didn't realize were part of his life. For me, you know, when you condense it like this and you put it into a film, it's kind of like, what are we doing? You know, like somebody like him is just the amount of productivity that he was able to yield in a single life. I mean, we're talking about a comedian. We're talking about a activist. We're talking about a health pioneer, a genius, icon, legend. I mean, these are an extraordinary set of circumstances for one life to have. I mean, we'd be lucky if we're able to live any one of those things. And so I think that that's a huge, huge takeaway from the film. And hopefully, you know, people experience that when they see it

Michael mo tap Andre Thanks for participating in this documentary. Congratulations on it. Thank you question for you I had a chance of meeting Dick Gregory here in Detroit some years ago and also interviewed him when I was a guest host in the One Valentine's Show one time. But Dick Gregory marched with Dr. King. He was friends with Dr. King, but he also knew Malcolm X as well. And toward the end of both of their lives, Dr. King and Malcolm X, we know their ideologies were converging. James H. Cone details this in Martin, Malcolm in America, Dream or Nightmare.

Because Dick Gregory was involved in the civil rights movement and knew both of these men? What did how did Dick Gregory see or what or how did he conceive or what did he see as the ultimate goal of the modern day civil rights movement? He you know, he was this kind of connective tissue in a way to a singular philosophy of human rights and he would talk about this all the time I mean he was friends really with everybody especially movement you know dr. King Malcolm X I mean that we got tons of pictures of him and Malcolm X that we just couldn't find the place the proper place to you know to fit into the story because we sort of had this thread of him and Dr. King. And we have this awesome photo in the film that we were able to get our hands on through the National Archives of Dr. King just cracking up, laughing at Dick Gregory while he's

standing up at the podium. And it's like, you know that he's killing as a comedian because he got this picture of Dr. King, which we rarely ever see him so relaxed sitting there just cracking up. And so that's what he saw as the ultimate goal. It was it was really human rights. It was it was an important part of the equation when it came to seeing civil rights and the modern civil rights movement of the time actually succeed. And had he not done that, I think that Dick Gregory would have felt there was a large piece of him that was missing. I mean, any time that there was something to fight for, he was there. I mean, there's this fabulous story of him and the women's rights movement, the national organization of women now, and him showing up to speak there. They asked him to speak. He's flying across the country.

He was speaking at someplace else. They asked him to speak and they get there. He gets there and they say, we're running out of time. We don't think we're going to have you to be able to speak. And I think it was Jane Fonda or one of the other women that were there actually just brings Dick Gregory up on stage and has him go up there and speak with them. And people literally start turning around that were leaving this rally because they heard him over the loud speaker.

And it's just small examples like that. I mean, it was women, Native Americans, it was black folks, it was Latinos, it was gay Americans. I mean, it was women, Native Americans. It was, you know, black folks. It was Latinos. It was, you know, gay Americans. I mean, you just name it. He was fighting for everybody, and that threat of human rights is what persists today. Wow. Folks, it is

called The One and Only Dick Gregory. It premieres on Showtime on July 4th. Andre Gaines, the director, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. It is a fantastic documentary. Thank you so much for having me on. All right, folks. Education is an issue that we always talk about here on this show and the Group 50 can. They have been very much involved in it reform in this country i'm on their board directors and also they we've asked we've been sharing an office space with for the past three

years the rap for is the new president of 50 can he joins us right now real glad to have you back on the show uh first and foremost uh what's your goal as president of 50 can what do you want to accomplish uh don't mess it up uh i you very much for having me. And obviously, thank you for being involved with everything that we do and carrying this message to your audience in a way that only you can. I guess the three things I'm working on primarily, one of them is that we need a better vision for how, how, for the education system that we want in this, in this country. And so we built a sort of a, like a marketing platform that we call Believe in Better, which is just about the way that, you know, the education

system should work, like about what you should be entitled to and what you should have as a family, about the sort of freedoms and flexibility that you deserve as like, you know, somebody who's trying to help a kid become the best version of themselves. And it's great to talk about it, but the actual work of 50CAN, as you know, is to help pass laws in states. And so my first and maybe most important project is to take that vision and turn it into actual policies that people can, you know, talk to state legislators about or governors or people in their communities and get off the ground and hopefully, you know, improve the quality of

education for all kids in the country. So I guess that's the first thing. The second thing is that, and you know this, right? Like we're a nonprofit and, you know, now we're like a quasi black led nonprofit. And we're working, you know, in 10 states and many of our executive directors are people of color. And to do this work, you know, you can't do it for free. And so the, you know, the next thing is kind of like, how do we continue to make it sustainable?

Like, how do we continue to get people to understand that, like, education doesn't just improve itself. Like, charter schools didn't just happen. Like, somebody had to pass a law to do that. So like a group of people had to lobby to do that. And, you know, like many other issues, it's not free to do that. So that's really the second thing. And then the third, and I guess maybe like the final one,

I'm succeeding a person who was extraordinary and a former elected official and just like a wonderful mind on policy and strategy. And I just wanna figure out what about 50 Can is different with me as its president than with her as its president? And she really got us to this place that we are now. And we're all incredibly grateful for the work that she did. But it's like, what's that next phase? Is it louder? Is it harder? You know, is it is it more nuanced?

Is it more interesting? I got to figure that out. I got to figure it out soon. I've made this point that the aid reform movement has been all too often a white led, white run. And the reality is that you can't change education in America if you don't have black folks at the positions of power. Yeah. I mean, one of the, I almost take it for granted, you know, the amount of people who were like, I can't believe you, I can't believe you're the president of 50K. And it was like the the the outpouring from, you know, other black folks who work in the movement and who have jobs like mine was sort of was shocking. There's a real, you know, underrepresentation at the decision making level. And it is just different to be at the decision making level, like when you're not just deciding for you, but you're deciding for lots of folks. I think the other thing too, is just like, you know, I mean, power works the

way it works, right? Like people have money, they have connections and they do things. And like the first group of people 25 years ago, whatever, that were like doing ed reform were basically white people who went to Ivy league colleges, right? And so those are the people that were doing it. It is not in the political interests of anybody to have a movement that is narrow in that way and that isn't diverse, right? And so you'll see now, I mean, it's like late to the party and I don't need to tell you, but finally people are focusing on the fact that like, look, we built all these systems up. We don't have enough black- schools right i mean they like the independent school sector is basically the place where you see the black light schools it's like how come we don't have any more why don't we have more community-based charter schools right like uh why are you know why is it that the american teaching

force is 80 white like what's the policy agenda around that you know we have states that are working on on those kind of issues too so so just from a practical standpoint, even if you didn't care about whether or not Black people or people of color were involved at leadership level or whatever, their people care, right? Like, voters care. And, you know, diverse coalitions are better. You go back to our fledgling candidate from from Kentucky. He's he's going and he's talking to everybody. And that has been something that the the education reform movement has not done well either.

So last question I have for you in terms of this next year, what specifically do you want our audience to be doing when it comes to ant reform? You know, what should they be advocating for? Yeah. So I could think of 10 things, but I'm only going to give you three because allegedly that's what a good speech is. So the first one is be ready for the fall to be crazy, because I think people believe that with this huge infusion of money from Washington, D.C., $190 billion for K-12 education over the last, like, you know, 12 or 15 months or something, that everybody's sort of on a glide path back to school, and that is not true. Like, they're already, like, teacher union leaders in particular who are who are like stoking up kind of discontent and anxiety around around Delta variant and everything else.

Right. So. So just be prepared for an incredibly disrupted start to the school year. That's the first thing. The second thing I would just say, and I mentioned that money. And I know the last time I had a chance to talk to you, we brought it up then. Like more money than has ever been spent in a single year, right, is being spent on American K-12 education right now. And nobody knows anything about it. So like there's a woman who runs this thing called the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown. And she's like, school districts, they're not working on hiring a bunch of new tutors, right? They're not working on an extended day or like a huge summer program. So the kids who've been inside for a year can go out and run around or go to museums or anything, right?

They're giving everybody raises, right? They're taking on long-term projects that are like capital projects that have nothing to do with intervening in the next year and a half for kids who are wildly behind. And in Texas, your home state, they released a bunch of data about this last year. I mean, we're talking about like two, three grades worth of learning loss in English, I mean, in language arts and math, like it is it is serious. And so the second thing is just like be involved in that, like go pull yourself down a school board member, grab up, grab an elected official, tell them to be a part of it. Here's the third thing. Don't don't wait. Right.

So the best thing, if there can be any best thing about the last year and a half, is that we've seen lots of folks, Black folks, brown folks, white folks, all kinds of folks, right, solving problems of education themselves in a way that we have not normally seen. You know, part of that, I think, came out of the realization that, you know, whatever formers were saying was true, right? Like, we've been telling people forever that big urban school bureaucracies, they treat you bad unless you can move around. And folks are like, yeah, it can't be that bad. And now people are like, oh my God, it's really that bad. I have this amazing mortgage. I can't get my kid into school. What is going on here? And that just

brought lots of different people to the table. And so this whole movement now that we see, which is like community-led, right? It's like it's pods, like it's micro schools. It's like having an individual teacher who comes to you and a small group of people and teaches your kid. Like, you know, those are the kinds of things we should be embracing, right? Like let's make the disruptions of the past year and a half that gave us good things Let's make those things permanent while we try to build a better system for everybody All right, then the real Bradford 50 can if you want more information, where do they go? 50 can.org or you can you can find me online. I'm at d y r n w y n and it's a big green eye That's me. It is my eye. So and thank for having me, sir. All right, Darrell.

I appreciate it, man. Thanks a bunch. Looking forward to working with you. Absolutely. All right, then. All right, y'all. Fourth of July is on Sunday. But our next topic really applies to whether or not we're talking about Fourth of July,

whether we're talking about Juneteenth, or look, I'm Texas. We don't need no damn reason to barbecue my next guest the author of the book black smoke african americans and the united states of barbecue go ahead and show that book please show the book show the book thank you right now uh that is uh adrian miller a food historian adrian how you doing i'm good how are you all right man let's get right into it i'm gonna put my panel in this thing as well. And so black smoke. What what what's so different about us barbecuing? Do we barbecue differently from white folks? Yeah. So I've been I've been asked what's the difference between white barbecue and black barbecue?

And the short answer is black barbecue tastes better. But the reason I wrote this book is because if you look at TV shows, newspaper articles, magazines, you know, black people are bit players in the barbecue story or left out entirely. And I thought that was whack. So this is a celebration of African-American barbecue culture. And just a reminder that African-Americans have been key to the barbecue story in the United States. And so you're absolutely right, man. When United States. And so, and you're absolutely right, man. When you look at these stories, when you talk about, you know, pit masters and you like, well, I know what y'all could have found some black people who know how to barbecue. Really?

Like, really? Yeah. So, so what go get, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh, no. I was going to say one of the pivotal moment for me as I was watching the Food Network in 2004, there was Paula Deen Southern Barbecue and it was an hour long special. No black people at all. And so when the credit. Hold on, hold on. You did say Paula Deen. I did. Yes, I know. But I thought there might be a couple of brothers and sisters. Right. So, you know, I was sitting there going, first of all, how's this happen? And then secondly, I thought, well, maybe I got it twisted. Maybe it was Paula Deen's Scandinavian barbecue sponsored by Alabama white sauce. You know, maybe I got it twisted. But that was just like the perfect example of what's going on. The so so is there anything.

What have we done differently? We look, no pun intended. We we bring a little extra flavor to everything. Yeah. So when it comes to barbecue, what did we bring in particular that everybody else can't really try to touch? Well, you know, you get the nail on the head, right? It's all about seasoning. So we're the ones that have brought our depth skill at seasoning. And so, you know, barbecue today, like when African-Americans barbecue, you know, we're going to have spare ribs, pork shoulder. You know, in Texas, you don't have brisket, but

usually chicken and sausage. Oh, you say in Texas we don't have brisket? No, no. In Texas, we do have brisket. Oh, I'm about to say, I'm about to cuss you out. My bad. I'm sorry. Go ahead. My bad. Go ahead. Go ahead. My bad. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, with our with our barbecue, we're going to have some good sauce because, you know, there's this conventional wisdom that's emerging that barbecue shouldn't be sauced. You know, a lot of I don't know who the hell came up with that. That's dumb as hell. I know. Right. Yeah. So, yeah.

So we're going to have a good sauce because, you know, often for a black barbecue joint The sauce is really the calling card For what they do But the seasoning, you know, the Salmon sauce, also the next level Side dishes, so yeah We bring that extra flavor And, you know, a lot of African Americans are Cooking with charcoal and wood

So this idea that Barbecue should be low and slow Indirect cooking cooking you know that's one way to do it but a lot of people cook hot fast then slow uh when they're cooking ribs or chicken or sausage things like that so i wanted to explore kind of what is uh you know what is our the signature dishes of african-american barbecue culture number number four i go to my panelists uh with the barbecue questions i gotta ask you look you wrote a book you wrote a book called black smoke you know i got negroes in kansas city who swear they the best i

got my my uncle marvin when we first went to kansas city he was talking about yeah this is how we do it i was like man sit your ass down uh and so my daddy had to show him how we do that thing uh and you know they everybody talk about gates What's the other place in Kansas City that we talked about? Arthur Bryant. I had both of them. Then Memphis. What kills me are Negroes from North Carolina.

I said, y'all ain't in no barbecue conversation. Stop. If you had to say top five cities slash states in terms of king of barbecue,

what's your top five? All right, so some of this is going to make you mad, but I would say Kansas City, Memphis, and I would say East Texas. Oh, stop, stop. Are you saying KC is one? See, we rank it. Are you going five, four, three, two So we rank it are you going five four three two one or you going one two three four five one two three four five So, you know growing up in Kansas was the strongest

So you go one two three four five so you got Casey one why one because I'm a spy I'm a spare ribs guy. And Gates is my favorite commercial. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you for backing me up, my sister. So, yeah. That's bullshit. Go ahead.

Go ahead. And then Memphis, because I also like ribs, but also they got the slamming pork shoulder sandwich. They've got barbecue bologna and spaghetti. Yeah, right there. See, right spaghetti. So, you know, Memphis. Yeah, right there. See, right now. See, you can keep that damn barbecue.

You can keep that bologna. Shit, you might as well say spam as far as I'm concerned. But anyway, go on here. Okay, Kansas City won. You got Memphis too. Who you got? Three. Three is East Texas. Because, you know, when people say Texas barbecue, they automatically go to Central Texas and they think about, you know, the Central European immigrants the way they did it.

But I like the way they do it in East Texas. I'm glad you made the distinction. People don't understand is there literally are four or five distinct barbecue standards in Texas. And you're right. What has become known as Texas barbecue is European. But you literally have, you got that, you got your black folks with actually, with the infusion of the Creole migration from Louisiana. I mean, you got how Mexicans barbecue. So you got different styles of barbecue in Texas because it's a big ass state. Yeah, exactly. That's why I wanted to break it down.

So you got East Texas three. You're wrong. But go ahead. Who's four and five? Four is Southside Chicago, which gets no love as a regional style. Okay, Southside. I lived in Chicago six years because part of that is like, so what's the definitive place to go get Southside barbecue in Chicago?

So I would say Honey One. I think that's a good place. Alice's is a good place. And there's this new place I like called Q's Tips and Wings because he's doing turkey. So he's doing like turkey tips, turkey legs, stuff like that. It's kind of like one of the big trends in barbecue right now in African-American barbecue. So those are first of all, first of all in barbecue right now in African-American barbecue. First of all, turkey leg Hutton Houston is killing everybody. Okay, that's four. Southside Chicago is four. Who's fifth?

All right, this is really going to make you mad, but I'm going to give love to East North Carolina, man. There's some brothers still doing whole hog, like Ed Mitchell and his son, Ryan Mitchell. Oh, he's leaving. Then you get Rodney Scott and Malcolm O'Reilly doing more hard, man. Rodney Scott.

Y'all can have, hey, Brittany, Brittany, and Michael, y'all can go ahead and ask whatever y'all want. His ass has lost his damn mind. Y'all can go ahead and talk to his ass. I'm done. Well, I was with you with Gates Bar ass. I'm done. Well, I was with you with Gates

Barbecue. I'm biased. I lived out in Kansas City for about two months when I was Miss Black America and the Gates family took care of me. I learned all about four generations of their barbecue history. Hey, I'm North Carolina. So I'm biased.

Brittany, go on here and ask your damn question. I might as well. Right. This book called Black Smoke, you blowing smoke up. Go on here. Go on. Come on. You like this smoke, man.

You know you like this smoke. Got to get love to all the styles. Yeah. All right. Go ahead. I'm curious. Is there a specific person that you've met or pit master that you've uncovered in your research that really stuck with you? Yeah, so this person is somebody I discovered historical, but I found a woman named Mary John who was in 1840s Arkansas.

And her birth name is Marie John because she was born when Arkansas was in French territory. But there's a newspaper article about her superintending a barbecue in 1840 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. And superintending is the word that they used back then, which is the equivalent of being a pit master. And so dig this, an enslaved woman telling dudes what to do with barbecue in the 1840s. She ends up buying her freedom because she was loaned out to do barbecues. And she stays in Arkansas. It was called the Arkansas Post. That was the name of the place where she stayed.

And she ran a restaurant. And then when she dies, the white newspaper eulogizes her like they would any great white chef. And I just thought that was next level. I was blown away by that story. All right, then. All right. Michael, you know, ain't nobody talking about Detroit. Well, we have Parks Barbecue here in Detroit. I'm a vegetarian and I know that.

Ain't nobody talked about Detroit. Adrian, quick question for you. When we study the history of slavery, we see that Africans are bringing techniques to cook food, season food, things like this. And it's changing the palates of white people across the country. Talk about some of the techniques, some of the seasoning techniques, et cetera, that Africans used when cooking barbecue and changing the way white people ate barbecue. Yeah. So, you know, the unfortunate thing is not a lot of this is not documented, but what we do see is we see a lot of articles about people complaining that the barbecue was too hot, too spicy. And that was Africans and later African-Americans taking that vinegar and red pepper sauce, which red pepper kind of sauce. That was the earliest barbecue sauce. And that's how it was seasoned for.

So for two centuries, that's how people made barbecue. It was really only later that we started to get tomato sauces and other things. So I think not only that, you know, seasoning with with red chilies, with red pepper, but also just Africans bringing their their familiarity and expertise with smoking that gets all thrown into the mix. That that leads to this delicious thing that we so love today. All right. Thanks. All right. Faraji, Baltimore, you know, thanks. Mm-hmm. All right, Faraji. Yes. Baltimore, you know this, Baltimore didn't come up.

All right, so here's my question. Is there a healthy way to barbecue? I'm vegan, so I'm looking and I hear- Oh, damn, I got two damn vegan- Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. What hold up hold up hold up what the hell y'all barbecuing mushrooms that's what we ain't been talking about right you can barbecue vegetables yeah what the hell what the hell y'all get oh I got some tofu on the pit no not tofu no not tofu no no I'm I Look, I'm just asking a brother.

Faraji and Mike, what the hell do y'all keep? Look, man, you can put some. I know y'all can laugh at me. You can grill some carrots. You can grill a lot of vegetables. Faraji, Faraji, Faraji. My sound can't cut off. Right now, your ass just

say barbecue some carrots. Real talk. I'm going to call your ass Barraggie. You are not named Barraggie. I don't know. All right, Adrian, go ahead. No, but real talk. Okay, hold on.

Have you had any good fake ass barbecue vegan? Give me, come on. You got anything for us? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So if you've ever had jackfruit, jackfruit is a fruit from Asia that people are making, and it's one of the biggest trends in black barbecue. I was just in Oakland. There was a place called Vegan Mob, and I had some jackfruit. And if you go to a place where somebody knows what they're doing, they can make jackfruit look, taste,

and have the texture of pork. Here's the thing. I don't want the texture of pork. It's cool that I don't have the texture, but here's my question, though. Hold on. I know y'all as Muslims. We said the texture of pork.

It ain't pork. I don we said the texture of pork. It ain't pork. Right. I don't need the texture of pork. Right. Come on, man. Yeah. So, you know, but I meant to say, like, you know, where you're seeing it is like chopped pork and pulled pork sandwiches. They're mimicking that by using jackfruit.

But, yeah, it's fruit, so it's not pork. But, no, I get that. I get that. I get that. But I'm wondering in terms of just the health and just in terms of the varying diets that black people have from lactose free to celiac to being gluten free, how has all of the varying diets impacted how black people barbecue in this country? It's messed every damn thing up. Yeah. No, you can't have...

Hell no. I'm going to go ahead and say it right now. You can't have get-togethers no more. You got to have all this special shit. Okay, you're going to have beef. Can you have turkey? I need vegan. I'm gluten-free. How much cholesterol? Bring your own goddamn food.

Okay? Bring your own damn food. I your own damn food. I'm tired of this. It used to be you had black cookouts. Everybody ate the same damn thing. Now you got to cook five, six, seven different. Hell no. One barbecue pit.

That's it. No, no, no. Come on. This is 2021. Black people don't all eat the same way. Bring your own damn food. You know it and I know it. So, yeah.

Can we let the author speak? Can we let Mr. Black Smoke speak, please? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, no, no. People are adjusting, right? They're being hosted. But, you know, to Roland's point, right, it's becoming more like a cookout where people are bringing stuff more like a potluck situation because of all the different, you know, dietary, dietary restrictions and think what's going on. But I can just tell you more and more people are trying to do plant-based barbecue. And, you know, I know a lot of people don't think that's a real

thing, but, uh, you know, that's one of the big trends right now in, uh, African-American barbecue. You're just seeing it more and more, uh, especially in the big cities. So, uh, you know, jackfruit, mushrooms, things like that. Yeah. That's what I want. That's the last question. Last question. Last question. Last question.

Last question. OK, Adrian, what constitutes a real barbecue? What is required to be on the pit for a real barbecue. What is required to be on the pit for a real barbecue? Now, before you answer, Adrian, let me warn you. If you get this wrong, I will

not post this segment on YouTube. I am not going to recommend your book. Now, you can ask Gerald Horne. I sell a lot of books. So I need you to think, because you already messed up that North Carolina bullshit. So I need you to think real careful. What constitutes what is required to be on a pit for a real, I ain't say cookout.

I said a barbecue. You invite the folk to a, we having a barbecue. This is the last question. Go. All right, for me, it's pork spare ribs, hot links, like a spicy hot link sausage, and some chicken. That's the basics. And then in terms

of side dishes, you know, some coleslaw and potato salad without raisins stop hold on hold on hold on stop stop stop stop hold up hold up i said the pit i said the pit i ain't having no damn sides okay all right so lit so uh and sausage because look not everybody can pull off a pork shoulder and brisket. You got to have some skill to do that. Hey man, I ain't saying what everybody can't do. I said, what is...

I said, what is required? Now at least you got three out of the four right. Because see, I'm talking about these people. And some of y'all going to do this tomorrow and Sunday. Don't call that bullshit no barbecue

if your ass got some hamburgers and hot dogs. No, I agree with you. 100%. Let me be clear. Hamburgers and hot dogs, that's the pre-ass barbecue snack. The snack.

Okay? Don't come with that. I'm telling y'all right now. Your asses invite me to a barbecue and you tell me y'all got hamburger. Don't. I got invited to a damn barbecue when I was

living and probably because his sister sister she's married to a white boy and they were all healthy and shit y'all they lived y'all they had hamburgers hot dogs and portobello mushrooms on the grill I said this is some bullshit we would have had 20 minutes

20 minutes did you eat the potato salad roll Nichelle 20 minutes. Did you eat the potato salad roll? Nichelle, you know I'm talking about you and your ex-husband. Y'all invited people to come out. We having a barbecue, had some bullshit hamburgers, hot dogs, and some portobello mushroom. Man, let me tell you something. Ain't lying.

Growing up, one of my, I think my Aunt Betty, God rest her soul, she recently passed, invited us to a damn cookout barbecue. Man, we got to their house. My daddy was like, what's this bullshit? Hamburgers and hot dogs. My daddy said, man, pack this shit up. We going home. That's what happened.

Straight up. My daddy said, pack this shit up. We going home. I'm curious. When you came to our house, Adrian, we had chicken, links, ribs, brisket. Okay. That's the basic. That's the four.

If you have the Holy Trinity of gumbo. Yep. And if y'all know what that means, the Holy Trinity of gumbo. That's the Holy Trinity of barbecue. Chicken, brisket, links, ribs. Now, you got three out of four, so I'm going to go ahead and post your book on social.

All right. Thank you. But don't make that mistake again, leaving off brisket. All right. All right. Yo! I'm going to make my first brisket tomorrow on an old oil drum smoker. So y'all wish me luck. Hey, hey, hey, listen, look, look, there's a brother in Houston as a brother in Houston who goes to goes to our church, man. Dog, I'm serious when I say how he literally makes brisket. You do not need a knife.

Whoa. No, you don't understand. I'm talking about that brisket literally. If you pick that brisket up, that brisket literally just shreds. Cecil

and see Cecil, you bullshititting cecil i've been asking you to let me videotape it it's up this is like now that's my secret look cecil i'm gonna call your wife shirley and say get it done hey i ain't lying this brisket is off the chain i'm talking about you could you do not need a knife or fork that brisket is off the chain so see so in houston church without walls see so i'm gonna call you when the show over i'm telling you you need to go ahead and let a brother know how that done y'all the book is called Black Smoke, African Americans and the United States

of Barbecue. That's the book. It also has 22 great recipes. What you should do, Adrian, you should shoot a video. Let us see how your first brisket came out because you can't be writing no damn book on barbecuing

your ass can't barbecue fair enough man fair enough all right i appreciate it thanks a lot y'all that is that is it uh michael barraji and brittany bullshit ass put some on it. Sit and live and win. That's how we roll. Farajit, if you came to my crib and asked me if we have any barbecue cats on that grill, Farajit, I'm telling you

right now, honest to God, y'all, I'm trying to be as I would smack the shit out of you. I would give you a perm right there on the spot if you ask me do y'all got y'all got some carrots on the pit don't don't do that don't do that don't do that you better keep that crap in baltimore you bring that up you damn right you did you damn right

bring your own tupperware with some charred ass carrots you done michael what michael what the hell you got on your vegan ass pit? Well, you know what, man? I'm teaching online classes this weekend, man. I'm dealing with African history, so I probably won't even... I'll probably have some salad with some garbanzo beans

unless the system wants to bite me over, man. But I'm teaching online classes Saturday and Sunday, brother. Check out africanhistorynetwork.com Check out africanhistorynetwork.com system wants to invite me over man but I'm teaching online classes at in Sunday brother check out check out African history network comm check out African history network com I'm teaching online classes can you please say I'm a wedding to Negroes came from I don't know where these two hotel Negroes came from? I don't know where these two hotel Negroes came from. I've been a vegetarian 16 years.

Brittany gone. I'm going to have some chicken, some ribs, some brisket. I'm going to have some real barbecue, y'all. Come on, cook salad. You sound like Erica Sandwich Wilson. Well, not cook salad.

No, hell no. No, you can't walk it back. You're going to have barbecue salad. You're going to have barbecue salad. You're going to put the lettuce, tomato, and the cucumber on the grill right next to Farage's damn carrots. I'm done. I got to go.

Y'all, that's it. I gotta go. Y'all, please, if y'all want to support Roller Mart Unfiltered, not these carrot salad-eating-ass barbecue-smoking pit people, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support our show. We, of course, in our new office space,

we want y'all to support what we do. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans to get 50 bucks each over the course of a year for all the 19 cents a month, 13 cents a day. You can give by cash at dollar sign RM unfiltered paper dot me for slash R Martin unfiltered demo dot com forward slash RM unfiltered. Zell is rolling at rolling as Martin dot com rolling at rolling Martin on the filter dot com. That's it, y'all. We will not have a show on Monday. Don't forget, Essence Festival Virtual Fest today, tomorrow, Saturday, excuse me, today, tomorrow,

Sunday, we will have a recap of the final weekend on Tuesday's show. Again, we thank Coca-Cola for being a sponsor for that. Folks, we always end the show, of course, with our Toronto members of our fan club. That's it. I hope y'all enjoy the weekend, spend some good time enjoy the weekend. Spend some good time with the family. Cherish every

single moment because they all matter. And so I shall see y'all on Tuesday. Y'all know how we end it. This is where we have, you know, we support real black barbecue, not carrot and

smoked lettuce, smoked tomatoes and smoked cucumbers. No. We need a segment on colon cancer too after this, brother. Yeah. And some of y'all who eat y'all salad, they got pesticides in it as well. So don't be trying to see me and trying to be all like you want to be all bougie and shit. I don't like being bougie. I'll do this. Yep. Yep.

Whatever. Yep. Whatever. Uh-huh. Some shit in early for y'all. Vegans too. So whatever. I'm going to see y'all on Tuesday.

Oh! So whatever I'ma see y'all on Tuesday The He can sing if you call him. Oh yeah. Everybody calls you Everybody calls you I want to go down to the secret land Come on, come on All I need is one more step Give me five All I need is one more step Come on, come on

That's what I want for a dream Oh, yeah, that's what I want for a dream I don't wanna be your friend Have I got a friend tonight? Baby, I could never see you Oh no, no, no I've got to stay, I've got to stay Cause friends ain't friends Such a shame That's written for nothing Sing it

Oh Oh Come on Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh I only want to see you.

Where? I only want to see you. I only want to betray you. No. It's time to die. It's time to go to trouble for you. I know about me. I know about you.

Say you're a leader. You got to think of the things you might do. You got to know how to do it. And you got the big, the big, the big man, you got it, you got it, you got it, you got it. Baby, let's go, let's all go, shall we? Where we going? Come on, let's go. I'm a leader, I'm a leader, I'm a leader, I'm a leader, I'm a leader. Thank you. I'm a I'm a I'm a Terima kasih telah menonton! Sampai jumpa di video selanjutnya. so Thank you. Sampai jumpa. Ketika dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, dikot, di Kampung Kampung I hope you're all ready to drink it. I need to hear everybody drink it. Athletes, are you ready to drink it?

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Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung

Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Kampung Sampai jumpa di video selanjutnya. Tengah-Tengah Kampung Kampung Thank you. Outro Music I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from

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