#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Staying mentally fit and healthy in the midst of #coronavirus moderated by Roland Martin

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Staying mentally fit and healthy in the midst of #coronavirus moderated by Roland Martin featuring Susan L. Taylor, Rep. Andre Carson and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 star-studded 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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Hello, my name is Matthew Stewart. I am the president and founder of Stewart Speakers, a not-for-profit lecture series organization that brings prominent thought leaders to the Indianapolis community to educate, inspire, and invoke meaningful conversations. For over 30 years, Steward Speakers has been dedicated to enhancing the community by providing opportunities to engage with America's best leaders and brightest luminaries.

These leaders support our mission of more than just talk and allow us to live out the three pillars, education, engagement, and experience. Today, I would like to focus on engagement. Through engagement, our speakers began conversation, but storage speakers helps to keep the conversations going. Like you, we are coping with the virus that is sweeping our nation. To help us keep the conversation going, our goal tonight is to focus on how we can stay mentally fit and positive during this time of the coronavirus. I want to give a special shout out to our panelists tonight and also to you who are joining us for this conversation. And now, Roland Martin.

All right, folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of course, we normally do this every day on Facebook, Periscope, and YouTube as well. But we also, for the first time, are live streaming this special on Instagram Live. And so we want to thank all the people who are watching us on Instagram. I want to make sure that if y'all got somebody who's saying there's no sound, that has to be your phone because I can hear the sound as well. All right, folks, the whole point of this next hour is to have really a conversation that talks with some of our leaders about, again, how we are dealing with COVID-19 mentally. We've had cases of folks who have actually been struggling with this, committing suicide. We talked about, of course, on my show, folks

having to confront child abuse and domestic abuse and how people are really struggling with not being at work, folks not having jobs, you know, and all these different things. And so that's really what our discussion is about. I want to introduce our panel. Joining us right now is Congressman Andre Carson, of course, who represents a district there in Indiana. Also, Reverend Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, who joins us as well on here. Folks, let me know if we have Susan Taylor. Of course, we have Susan Taylor. She, of course, is an Emeritus, Essence Magazine leader, founder of National Cares Mentoring Project.

Glad to have all three of you here. And so before we get into, you know, explaining what everybody else needs to do, I want to start with you, Susan. How have you dealt with this moment? I've seen some of your tweets and posts where you've talked about just how to get yourself jump started in terms of, you know, being at home and not having your regular flow in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. You know, I think this is the first time since I gave birth 50 years ago that I've been home for more than maybe four days. I am enjoying the quiet. I'm enjoying the peace. ago, that I've been home for more than maybe four days. I am enjoying the quiet. I'm enjoying the peace.

I do want to be able to do more reading and to finish, like, you know, the 50 books that I started and never, you know, got through. But I'm working hard because the community that I serve, you know, children and parents who are in poverty, they're being hit hard. So it's really calling upon me and our teams to really raise money to make sure that we move our content onto virtual platforms so we can keep our healing work going. But I'm doing fine. I'm calling on the things that I've written and what I know. And it's time to practice. So I'm practicing wellness.

Congressman Carson, the House is not going to be back in session until May. I've had other members on. They said that they are on endless conference calls dealing with leadership, still trying to get work done. And so how have you, how are you operating in this new world? All right. It looks like we have issues with Congressman Carson's Skype, so we're going to come back to him. Michael Eric Dyson, how are you dealing with this? You, just like myself, we often are busy on the road speaking and traveling.

Not on planes these days. No doubt about it, Brother Martin. And first of all, I want to thank you for, you know, being such a conscientious witness for so much of the things that happen in our community that are marginalized or altogether avoided and sometimes even just plain out ignored. You know, I watch you every day and your commentary alongside of experts, medical professionals and biological professionals who otherwise would not get the light of day of high excellence and high pedigree appearing routinely on your show is a real service to this nation. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Absolutely, along with your always extraordinary

insight and commentary. Look, man, I'm having a great time in the sense of, like you, Roland, ain't got to go on the road. You know, I'm writing a couple books right now, so that helps that I can get up every day and focus on that. But I have a privilege that

so many others among us don't. You know that only 20 percent of black people really have the possibility of staying home and doing their work where the masses of African-American people are out there in the streets, forced to still go to work even when they don't feel well, even when they know that they are risking their lives. And so it's an extraordinary opportunity that I have and enjoy. And I'm conscious of that privilege and opportunity and trying to maximize that, trying to write stuff that will ultimately enable our people to have a better understanding of what we're going through, but also for those who look at us, who judge us, who scrutinize us, to have a more humane and

compassionate, you know, reflection on who we are as a people. Congressman Carson, looks like we have you back. Yeah, my apologies. It's all good. That's a bad signal. We're back. It's all good. And so, look, are you a member of Congress?

Congress is not going to be, House won't be reconvening, according to Steny Hoyer, before May 4th. And so, how are you operating now in this new world of the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, we're operating quite differently. Of course, our office is closed. We've been in the midst of six or seven or eight video conference calls

a day. We still meet as a staff. We're still meeting and engaging with constituents. I even volunteered to be a part of some food banks. But I'm also trying to stay healthy, Roland. You know, as Dr. Dyson and Madam Taylor mentioned, you know, that mental health is so important. You know, I struggle with hypertension myself. And I think during these times, we really have to look at removing kind of the stigma associated with mental health. My mother suffered from schizophrenia, as educated as she was, as brilliant as she was, so much so that we spent time in a homeless shelter as a very young

man. And my grandmother ended up having to raise me. And I know that these kinds of times create stressors. And I think it's important for people to see elected officials who get elected into office. And oftentimes, Roland, as you know, many elected officials go to churches, they go to mosques, they go to synagogues, and they petition people to vote for them. But once they get into office, they vote against the people's interest. And so now is the time where the rubber meets the road, and it's time for people to see what their elected officials are doing on their behalf. So we're trying to keep our mental health up. I'm trying to keep mine up, keep my blood pressure down. But it's been a blessing. And as Dr. Dyson stated, we're amongst the privileged who can still work from home. But I'm able to take this time to kind of read, reflect, spend some time with my daughter and family and try to do the work of the people.

Susan, that really is the issue when you talk about the fact, as Michael alluded to, only 20 percent of African-Americans can work from home. And so all of a sudden now people are really concerned. This week, the first checks are going out from Congress, those $1,200 checks. Folks are concerned about can they pay their bills? Will there be a job to even go back to? We're seeing restaurants and airlines and all these different people who are laying folks off. And so for African-Americans, when you talk about the old adage, when America gets a cold, we get the flu, America now gets coronavirus, we're dying. And even if people are not physically dying, the stress of not knowing what's going to happen and how it's impacting them economically

can really weigh down on any man or any woman that it impacts their children and their loved ones and the extended family. I mean, it's so true. And, you know, it's a need to call up faith because we have to remember that this is devastating, but it's not, I know I need to get the light out of the way, but you see, I'm the oldest one on here, so I'm not trying to show you all all my stuff. Is this okay? You're fine,

you're fine. Don't worry about it. My son is telling me to move. No, don't worry about it. You're fine, you're fine. Okay. You know, this is a moment when we really are getting to know ourselves. We're getting to know the things that stress us. We're getting to know the things that stress us. We're getting to know the things that we are addicted to or we believe we have to have. What I see is that people are purging. You know, they're refining relationships. They're making up with people who they've

been angry at for some time, that we're getting to know ourselves in ways that we don't in the everyday, because typically, you know, our bodies are in one place and our minds are far down the road. And I just want to really just say thank you to the congressman for that kind of transparency, because people really don't talk about the mental health issues in their families or even the crises that they've had themselves. And to hear you be so honest about that, it's freeing for other people to be able to know that they're not on this ledge alone. For me, I'm a student of history. I try to know everything that I can about us as a people and what we've been through. And when I look at our history and see what our ancestors suffered through,

I say this is not the rough side of the mountain. There are people three blocks from the luxury building I live in who have cups in their hands and they're on the streets. I don't know where they are now because I haven't been out there in a while. But that's really, that's devastating. And what this is showing us too is what we allow. For the first time, I would say, since the war on poverty, people are really talking about the disparities

between black people and the larger society. And what they're... But what they're not talking about is the why. Why... Why are we poor? Why are so many of us poor? It's the history that the nation won't own. And this is a time for us to really understand that we are,

you know, each other's keepers. The great Gwendolyn Brooks, you know, wrote that we are each other's keeper, we are each other's keepers. The great Gwendolyn Brooks, you know, wrote that we are each do about these crises that now the whole nation is suddenly becoming aware of? Why? Because we are really the people who are on the front line. We're the people who are moving, you know, folks on those EMS trucks. We're the ones who are cleaning those hospitals. We're the ones who are moving bodies that, you know, have transitioned when people have transitioned. We're the frontline workers who have not been given the accord, and they don't have health

insurance very often, and they're low-wage earners. This is really affecting the children we serve. Michael, when we talked, when Susan talked about what this is exposing, and I've been saying this every day, and we said it even really before this thing really began to show itself, that this coronavirus was going to truly expose every aspect of this country, not just the awful leadership from the White House, but it is exposing the major gaps in education.

People are now saying, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You mean tell me how many kids depend on school for meals? How many of these folks don't have Wi-Fi, don't have computers, don't have pads? Now all of a sudden people are going, whoa, wait, how many people are in poverty? You're seeing these massive lines of food banks in Pittsburgh and other places, and people are going, wait a minute, all these people are hungry? And so we can just go down the line. So for Trump to constantly proclaim we're the biggest and the baddest

and the richest and most prosperous nation on earth, it is showing the true haves and have-nots. Yeah, no doubt about it. And you have done an excellent job of pointing this out on a daily basis. Aside from that malignant narcissist who is our chief executive officer of this nation, the reality is that the pandemic is endemic to black people. That across the board, we are suffering low grade pandemics every day. The lack of access to food, the lack of access to high quality food in food deserts, high sugar content cereals posted up in our ghetto neighborhood stores when we can find them. Vast stretches where people have no access to food, no access to high quality education. We live with the sociologists called in concentrated poverty.

Not only is the family poor, but the community is poor, the neighborhood is poor, the schools are poor, and the entire larger network of associations that they have or don't have reflect their lack of access. They are essentially cut off. They have been socially distanced from economic inequality. They have been socially distanced as a result of the racial trauma that has been transmitted from one generation to the other. And as the great queen of black America, Susan Taylor, has indicated, we have not dealt with this. We've neglected to address this situation. And as a result of that, as what you said, Roland, when you look at the fact that if folk can't stay home, they got to go out there and work.

We have already seen evidence that the police are highly insensitive to black people and through this pandemic as well. If they ain't got a mask, you got to get off the bus. If they go in with a mask into the store, they get kicked out because they look like criminals. What is really at root of all of this is an anti-blackness that is deeply entrenched into American society. And as you say, this plague, this pandemic is exposing the ways in which black people have been living far from the central operations of power, of economic ability, and of social stability and educational attainment in this country. So as a result of that, what we've got to do is figure out a way that after the pandemic is over, we don't forget about those who are lost. We forget about those grocery store people who bring us our food,

or those nurses who are on the front line, or those people who continue to try to render service to us in the midst of this. If we don't forget them, and we use this pandemic as a means to really rejigger the social relations of society, then we'll have done something. After the Black Plague, something big happened.

After many of the earlier plagues and pandemics across the world, social relations sometimes got better, but sometimes they got worse. Look at the people who don't have access to unions. Look at the way in which non-union workers are forced to work at high levels. Look at the way in which even Amazon has added 75,000 more jobs, but the people who are working there can't get PPE and other resources to protect them. So unless we're willing to examine the structural issues that undergird our contemporary plague, this plague will have really not benefited us in the long run. Congressman Carson, we have you back via FaceTime.

Do you get the sense that your colleagues on the other side really understand this moment and understand what this is exposing? You know, the Congress passes this $2 trillion package. Literally, the moment they passed it, folks were saying, not enough. The Federal Reserve comes back and says, we're going to inject $2.3 trillion into the economy. And a significant amount is going to be for small businesses. The money, the $2 trillion bill, people say that wasn't enough for hospitals. It wasn't enough for universities.

And so do you, are they getting it? Are they actually seeing that? Because every time we see an election it's all the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. Are they now seeing that the people who are not in the middle class are the ones who are cashiers at grocery stores, who we need

also stocking shelves? Do you think they're getting it? One wonders, Roland, I mean, after all of the rhetoric and all of the fighting that they've done, now that this pandemic has gone to rule America at their very front doors. Unfortunately, we're seeing some of their own relatives and loved ones impacted by this pandemic. We're seeing some of the folks that they grew up with, went to school with, impacted by this pandemic.

And it's unfortunate that as much as they fought against the Democratic Party, as much as they fight to keep the republic, if you will, we negotiated funding for SNAP, which benefits their own constituents. We negotiated over $130 billion to go to hospitals where immediate needs can be addressed. Guess what? It benefits their constituents. And so all of their rhetoric about reining in our deficit, pulling back on excessive spending, it still impacts their constituents. If they want to quote scripture and talk about the Bible, then the Bible highlights the least of these. It seems to me that they're so fearful of a president who could tweet against

them, and one tweet against them could jeopardize their re-election efforts. They refuse to be bold and speak out against a president who is not only a tyrant and a demagogue, he is in fact, he wants to be a dictator. I say to the Republican Party, work with the Democrats, because the very legislation that you speak against impacts your own constituents. And so in the CARES II Act, Roland, that we hope to seal the deal on and negotiate, we want to talk about criminal justice reform. We want to talk about ways in which monies can get to the Bureau of Prisons and that money can get to state jails and state facilities where prisoners can flatten the curve as well, where prisoners are protected. We already have seen, especially in urban centers and rural parts of our country, a deficit in PPE, personal

protective gear. We want to make sure the money not only goes to the banks, because as you and I know, there are a lot of folks who are filling out W-9s or independent contractors. Can they get protected? Can they get the same kind of protection as some of these bigger businesses get? They're not getting the loans from the banks. And so there are alternative measures. We've been working with the fintech space, Pave Howell and other platforms about ways in which smaller businesses can benefit from this. And when I say smaller businesses, I especially mean black-owned and black-and-brown businesses of color. that we have to press the Republican Party and those members of Congress and threaten them by leveraging our voting bloc against them so when they want to run for office,

we need to see what they've done to stand up against Donald Trump and his destructive agenda. Susan, when you hear... First of all, and also to our panelists, you don't have to wait for me to call on you. You can jump in if you want to. That's not a problem. Susan, when we look at what's happening when we look at you're really about dealing with children but also with your parents University as well I mean the toll that this is taking on real people when you

see these stories of suicide when you see these stories of suicide, when you see these stories of folks just, I mean, these videos of people lashing out, you know, with videos on Instagram or Twitter, that's people who are screaming out for help. And I think part of the problem in this country is that we have so severely cut back our mental health services that we have so severely cut back our mental health services that we have such a deficit,

people have no idea where to even go. Well, you know, because there aren't places to go. Because the mental health hospitals have been shut down. There was the promise of community mental health support that never arrived. But you know something? I'm not even looking outside of us at them.

I'm looking at us. And I'm saying, we don't have an agenda. You know, Michael, you and I, Michael Dyson and I, in 2008 went to Denver, and Melanie Campbell said, if you come, I'm having a breakfast for leaders, and if you come, I'll give you 10 minutes to Denver. And Melanie Campbell said, if you come, I'm having a breakfast for leaders. And if you come, I'll give you 10 minutes to speak. And I said, you know, I don't have to be at the table.

But what is the agenda? If you ask the average African-American, what is it that your leaders are asking of you? You know what? To vote. But beyond that, we can't articulate. What I want is a three or four, maybe five-point program. This is what we are asking of those who represent us. And we keep a report card,

I think, as the congressman was saying, so that we understand where do you stand on community development? Where do you stand on education? The disparity in education is the very thing that has concretized poverty. I left Essence when I realized that 80% of black fourth graders were reading below grade level. I didn't believe it. I called Marian Wright-Edelman, and she said, we're losing ground when it comes to literacy.

We're working in a school in Brooklyn where they are actually graduating young people from high school reading at a second grade level. You have never anywhere in this country, you've never heard a commercial, nor have you seen a billboard. And like, you know, everybody on this phone, I've traveled the back roads of America and the highways. I've never seen anything that said, come and learn to read, nor have I ever seen a commercial that invited people to come and learn to read. It is a huge barrier.

It's a great shame. And I'm saying we can fix this. As long as we keep looking out and having conversations and not have a plan, we're not going to see ourselves move out of this quagmire. And that's what we're caught in. It's a quagmire. And that's what we're caught in. It's a quagmire, but it's one that we can fix. So I hope that coming out of this pandemic,

that we will emerge a different people, that we will emerge a people who really do care about one another, who realize that most of us have more than enough, that we will really push from the pews toward the pulpit, demanding that our churches and our temples and our mosques really not allow poverty and children around the corner while we're raising, you know, thousands of dollars for the minister's anniversary, and the kids around the corner don't even know what a computer looks like. And they're in schools. So this is on us.

What is the agenda? We need leadership, and we need to know what we're all supposed to be thinking about. You know, what I say is preachers can preach about whatever they want to, you know, on Saturdays and Sundays and Wednesday nights. But what is the agenda? Here's the agenda. This is what we're asking the congregants to stand for. And then let me give you the word.

We get the word, but we don't have the agenda. You know, Michael, here's what I think. And we, of course, did the State of Black America in Indianapolis along with the Stewart speakers. It was Susan, Michael, Reverend Sharpton, and I moderated the whole deal. And as somebody who's covered, Michael, Reverend Sharpton, and I moderated the whole deal. And as somebody who's covered, look, every time they have one of these events,

the CBC, of course, had their emergency meeting when it came to... just a few weeks ago. But here's what I think is the fundamental issue, and Susan, I believe, is half correct. She says, where's the agenda? But after the agenda, where's the accountability? See, I remember when the book,

the Tavis book came out, The Covenant, and I had Tavis on my show. And I said, Tavis on my show. And I said, Tavis, you gotta come back in six months for the six-month follow-up. And then after that,

the next six months, because see, for me, I'm always about, okay, what do we do? The first two or three years that Reverend Sharpton had his Measuring the Movement in New York tied to his conference. We aired it on TV One. When he called me, he said, I know the only way you're going to

participate if there's a measuring. I'm like, absolutely. I'm not trying to have another conversation. I said, hell, I'm tired of them panels. It was about when you come, no, no, what did you do? And it was interesting, Michael, because and I'm going to go ahead and say it. I ain't got a problem saying it because it was a public show.

We told everybody up front, if you make a commitment, we're going to follow up. What did you do? Who's the contact? All this sort of stuff. So I remember we did a follow-up. And whoever was a National Urban League contact, we emailed, we called, we did everything.

Brother did not get back with us. And so we put we said it on Sunday. So Mark Morial called me and he was like, Roland, what happened? I said, Mark. We say it here, the ground rules. He didn't respond. We didn't hear back accountability. And so they nearly got back to me.

And my whole deal is you got to have accountability. We got to have folk who say, OK, what are we going to do on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. What are the markers keeping people abreast? Accountability. We're great at discussions. We're great at actually, I think, writing down agendas, but not that accountability part on what are we achieving and okay, check, check, check, check. That to me is really where people fall off. What do you do after the list and after the meeting? No, no, absolutely right.

I mean, Susan Taylor is one of the greatest leaders this nation has produced. She's speaking out of her own extraordinary experience. Absolutely. Understanding that, first of all, to focus on what those particular points are is critical. I remember I was on a panel with Taylor Branch once at the University of North Carolina. And, you know, he had written these three books, massive tones, Pulitzer Prize winning tones about Dr. King and the movement. And he said, you know, he had written these three books, massive tones, Pulitzer Prize winning tones about Dr. King and the movement. And he said, you know, a lot of people talk about what went on. But for the most part, Martin Luther King Jr. did what we're doing in this room now, sitting down, talking, thinking, arguing, going back and forth to get it right, which

is why I think, for instance, your show as a daily intervention of both high intellectual pedigree, but also deeply and profoundly political grappling with the issues is necessary. I never want to downplay that. So, yes, the agenda is extremely important. The accountability, the follow up, because I couldn't be a professor. I got to have accountability. What classes did you teach? Right, right. How many folk did you, how many students did you reach? What kind of, and then they judge me too.

He was there. He wasn't there. He was able to break down some important stuff for us and make it available. So there's a constant accountability. I hold students accountable by giving them grades. The students hold me accountable by reflecting on what I've done well and what I have done so well so that there's an outcome. So I think that's important. But let me say this. As much as I believe in what both of you have said, and both of those are critical aspects, I'd put it in thirds. Agenda, accountability, and we got to talk about the access. The reality is this. We put money into

this economy. We pay taxes. We deserve that the government, I don't want to just make this a black thing, because black folk ain't created the problem, ain't got enough resources to solve it. We do not possess the requisite financial wherewithal to address the staggering poverty that has been a result of slavery, Jim Crow, and anti-Black sentiment that has directed the economic resources of America away from us, even as we pay taxes to support this nation. So I don't want to let America off the hook

for what it's got to do to address our situation. So the accountability, in part, is to ask our leaders to make certain that they are constantly arguing on behalf of those of us who are out here. And as Susan Taylor said, articulating a two or three or four point agenda. And let me say this. Every black person ain't a guy. We're going to get down with Ben Carson for the most part. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You're actually your signal. So it went out. We said every black person now pick it up from there.

Every black person ain't got to agree with every black person for black people to have an agenda. Right. We got to get with the black people we agree with. Ben Carson ain't on our... Ben Carson and I ain't on the same side, right? Candace Owens and I, we ain't on the same side. They Black, they doing what they do. So we got to find enough Black people who agree with what we're doing. We don't have to have massive unity.

What we have to have is functional solidarity. Martin Luther King Jr. had about 4% to 5% of Black America in his corner, working with him on a daily basis. The masses of black people never got on the street corners. They never got into the marches. They never physically participated in the civil rights movement. So that remnant, that small contingent of people were able to revolutionize American society. So I think that what we have to give up on is the illusion that we will have massive solidarity. And what we've got to do

instead is to have ad hoc solidarity. Those like Susan Taylor, Roland Martin, Andre Carson, Michael Eric Dyson, Maxine Waters, and those of us who agree, get our forces together, do what we feel is necessary, and make a demand on our leaders, on ourselves. But I am not letting a government off that takes so much of my check, every check, of Susan Taylor's check, of Yochek, of Carson's check. We have to make sure that the poor, the least of these, have the wherewithal to survive. And black folks' pockets ain't deep enough. If every rich black person in America gave money, we would never be able to solve this problem. This is white supremacy intervening with economic lack of opportunity that has rendered our black communities barren and destitute in some areas. And we've got to address that. So all three of those, I think, are critical to making sure that we revolutionize our communities

and then reconstitute them and then bring the kind of healing that we need to have. Congressman Carson, I have long argued that it amazes me when I hear people. Roland, you are lacking because you're defending the CBC. I said, no. I said, unlike you, I am aware of the political process and how the changing of one sentence can alter an entire bill. I think a lot of people, when I hear people say, oh, the CBC ain't shit.

They ain't doing nothing. Sure. And then I go, so what do you think they do? Yeah, but this ain't changed and this ain't changed. And then you go, well, you know, they're now in control in the House, but they don't control the Senate and 400 bills got passed in the House and Mitch McConnell won't take any of the bills up. And you go through this whole deal. Then I began to explain to people examples of, well,

I know when Congresswoman Alma Adams put this in a bill, don't have a name on it, but she inserted this in a bill that changed and it results in this here. And so for a lot of people just don't understand the process. But I also argue that part of the problem from a political standpoint is you're fighting battles, but you need to have troops who also show up having your back when you're fighting the battles.

When Loretta Lynch, when black women were going to Capitol Hill saying, confirm here. I was going, where in the hell are the men's groups? I was like, fraternities, where y'all at? So Jamal Bryant, Jeff Johnson, and myself, we said, fine. We're just going to call black men.

So about 200 brothers showed up. You and Congresswoman Beatty walked us in. First of all, cops came all out of nowhere. Because, you know, with 200 black men walking anywhere as a group, they just, Susan, they all freaked out. They were like, what the hell? This ain't the Million Man March. What happened? But the thing that was amazing, Kyron, is when a lot

of these brothers for the first time, they had never been to Capitol Hill before. But you also saw the reaction of, frankly, white political leaders who were like, what the hell is going on with 200 black men? The reason I'm saying that is they needed to see black men also standing up for Loretta Lynch and not just black women. You have to have troops who are in the fight with you

and not just have a bunch of generals who then say, where y'all at? Y'all didn't show up. So you need them at the school board meeting, the city council meeting, the county commissioner's meeting, putting pressure. So y'all, you sitting there saying, I told y'all they were interested.

Now there's 300 people showing up. But it can't be you sitting there alone and the people not showing up. That's right. That's right. That's so important. You know, the Congressional Black Caucus is composed of 50 plus members.

That's a huge voting block. Many of us are chairs of committees and subcommittees. Many of us come from different backgrounds and experiences. We're fighting every day. You have the leadership of Jim Clyburn, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Karen Bass, Emanuel Cleaver, so many, Benny Thompson, Hakeem Jeffries. There are so many Black members of Congress who work each and every day. I tell people all the time, Roland, if you're putting

all of your hopes, dreams, and aspirations on any politician, let alone a human being, you're setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. The Congressional Black Caucus is a legislative body. We provide legislative remedies. This can't be done by politicians alone. You're going to need the

Dr. Dysons. You're going to need the Madam Taylors. You're definitely going to need the Roland Martins to give us a perspective with Black brilliance and Black ingenuity and Black scholarship to highlight where other platforms would probably decline to do so. But the Congressional Black Caucus, when Donald Trump first got into office, I was on the executive team of the Congressional Black Caucus, and we met with President Trump. Because his motto at that time was, what do you have to lose, Black people? So we met with him, and we laid out an agenda. He has yet to follow through with that agenda. He has symbolic meetings with Black leaders. But if you want to get the work done, you need representation in public office.

Most of the things that we do, you know, Roland, are impacted or are a result of a political decision. You drive on the road, the road is paved. That's a result of some city council making a decision about that road. You hit a pothole, you call your city councilor. You want a church built, a school built, a mosque built, a temple built. We need representation on zoning boards.

You wanna talk about school reform. You need to talk to your state legislator, assemblyman, or delegate. You want to impact the way Social Security is distributed and making cost of living adjustments. You have to have an impact on your member of Congress. Look, it disappoints me sometimes the narratives that are out there in our community. And I know everyone on this panel has to dispute some of those narratives. And I think some of those narratives are quite healthy. But if we're depending on some mythological Illuminati and saying we're just going to give it up and we're not going to participate in America's activist

life and political life. You need both. I was arrested, Roland, at the age of 17 outside of a mosque. And at that time, I thought you needed outside agitation. Protest the system. Protest the system. You need that. But as I grew older, I realized you need outside agitation and inside

instigation to have the right friction to produce legislation that impacts the lives of everyday people. And so for those who want to be dismissive of the Congressional Black Caucus, if we were to list the legislation that was produced as a result of advocacy and input from that great caucus, people would be surprised. We don't tell our story enough. We're not a monolithic group. We come from different regions. We have different life experiences. But those experiences combine to make a voting bloc that is so influential, everyone who runs for president comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Every sitting president

comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Every sitting Speaker of the House comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Governors and senators all come to the Congressional Black Caucus, not because we're so special, but because we're a group of legislators. That doesn't mean we don't listen to the Dr. Dysons and accept those critiques and get his insight and wisdom.

That doesn't mean we don't listen to the Madam Taylors and get her insight and wisdom. That doesn't mean we don't let the Roland Martins inform us, educate us, and critique us and grow as a result of those critiques. It takes all of us to come together for the good of our community and our people. Susan, when you talk about the agenda, but also I think what comes out and when you talk about hopefully what people realize in the midst of this is there is nothing like understanding regular ordinary people actually made the black freedom movement what it is regular ordinary

people sure we talk a lot about Dr. King we talk about Ralph Abernathy we talk about Van Lou Hamer who was a regular sharecropper in Mississippi and I think I think part of the thing that we have to do, and we try to do it as much as we can on this show, is to get people to understand,

stop walking around thinking that you are powerless. You actually have power. It's just not being used and tapped into. How would you walk? So let's say you were having a conversation with one person, and they said, Ms. Taylor, I can't do anything. I don't have any power.

No one will ever listen to me. What would you say to that of a sister or brother and you were talking to them? I would say, you know what, we're going to push the congregations to have Saturday schools. The system is not teaching our children how to think.

Come on. They don't know how government really works. And there's no push from the community to ensure that that happens. You know, you're talking about if we go back to the civil rights movement, those folks really understood what they were doing. They had leadership that broke it down. They met. The division between the haves and the have-nots have really deepened. I love that I feel like I'm a bridge between the high and the humble, that I have access to people like, you know, the three of you gentlemen. But I grew up in

the neighborhood and I'm not afraid of us. So what we've done is we've distanced ourselves because we have a few accoutrements from the people. What I want to see, and I think I said it, maybe I didn't say it clearly enough, because it's a plan that, you know, some of us agree on and that we're going to move forward. And it's a report card. I think you do have to hold, you have, some of us agree on and that we're going to move forward. And it's a report card. I think you do have to hold, you have to hold people accountable. This is what we are asking for. And this is how you measure the people who are holding political office against this three, four, five point agenda report card. What we do is we have to, we know that black folk love entertainment. Everybody does. But look at what our young people are looking at.

I can't even turn on the television. It's all violence. If we had something going on in our sanctuaries, they're empty 95% of the time. Bring the folks together, and let's start educating us in a way, with dynamic speakers like the three of you. You are three brilliant men.

If we knew we were going to go and hear Roland Martin and not have to pay anything, because we've got to bring you there, let me not even talk about that. But the fact that we don't have a place where the community can gather and learn about who we are, what our history is, and what that agenda is and how we move it forward. That's what I think is critical and I think is missing and that I'd like to see. So that person who said to me, I'm powerless, if you knew anything about history, you would know that's not true. And nobody's going to teach you that in PS09. You've got to come to the community and the community has to show you the history. When we didn't even have the rights or the resources that we have today we did much more than we are doing today so we're

it's time for re reorganizing ourselves re-articulating who we are coming into the power that the holy spirit has like imbued in each and every one of us and giving, you know, our people the confidence, not giving it to them, but what? Inspiring it in them so that they know that they can use what they have to really create a better future for themselves and for our children. See, Michael, when I listen to Susan talk about that, I mean, I'm just thinking about, I mean, that's just, those are freedom schools. And in fact, I was speaking to a group and somebody said oh that's a great idea how do we do it i said y'all um i said that's still what mary and right edelman's group does they actually still teach they have a if you go to their website they have the Freedom School kit that any church can download to turn just what Susan just said, to turn their churches into freedom schools to teach those of those very things.

And people when I travel, people ask me, well, you know, well, you know, how do you talk about organizing? But you're a journalist. I'm like, no, no, no. you forgot. I said my mom and daddy never went to college Okay, high school graduate Jackie's high school in Houston But they were co-founders of our Clinton Park Civic Club and so having five kids ain't like we had a choice We couldn't vote damn it. They made us go pass our flyers and put up signs and stuff Watching it ordinary people who say it we care about our community, so we want to get an overgrown lot cut, or we want to get a crack house torn down, or we want new streets and new lights and new sewer systems. That thing grew and grew and grew because regular people just said, hey, you know what? We got problems here.

And what ended up happening was the haters were like, man, y'all not going to do anything. And they said, don't worry about them. We just stay focused on what we're doing. And I think that's where we have to be. So I saw basic community organizing from regular people, from what my parents did. And so, but you have to have

the willingness to do it. And I think, Michael, that's really, when you talk about where people are mentally, where we have to get people out of this brain lock, brain freeze, where they say, I simply can't do it. I don't have a degree. I don't have enough money. I don't know of enough important people. Just go. Why can't Oprah do it or Robert Smith do it? But nothing that black people have ever gotten came because folk at the top made it happen. It was regular, ordinary people

who did extraordinary things. No, it's a useful history lesson. I mean, look at Stewart Speakers tonight, which are sponsoring what we're doing here tonight. They took the opportunity during this pandemic to team with you to broadcast this particular panel for an hour to the world that will tune in so we can use what's available. You talk about freedom schools. I was thinking to myself laughing when Ms. Taylor said,

you know, put up a sign to say, come here and read. Well, they couldn't read it if they saw it, you know, and that's her point. The point is, how can we... No, that's not my point. Excuse me. Go ahead. Anybody can... If I'm in the car with you and I can't read,

read question mark, learn to read. People can figure that out. My sister has dyslexia. She could read that. No, she can't sit down and read, you know, the document and understand how to file for something. But most people can figure out some stuff. So that's not what I'm saying. And not even that, Michael, it's really about even television commercials. You don't see it. You've never seen a commercial that said, come learn to read. That is a huge barrier.

The barrier is education. The three of you are highly educated men. And with that, you've been able to move yourself forward further than your parents were. Our children, this is intergenerational uneducation, you know, miseducation. Intergenerational, the same schools that are really like, what are they? They're dead-end schools. Jonathan Kozol, what did he call them? The shame of the nation. That's what they are. And we're doing nothing about it. Don't tell me we can't fix that with our own tax dollars demanding that they, what? What creates, what has concretized poverty is the lack of education. And as long as property taxes fuel education budgets,

there'll never be equity in education because people in no home ownership or low home ownership communities will never have the money to to give students in poverty areas what suburban students have. It breaks down to something that it's not simple, but it's true. So, OK, well, thank you for correcting me, Susan. I'm going to pay for this later on. Story to get to a bigger point, but thank you so much for that. And my bigger point was about the structural issues that prohibit the flourishing of education in our communities and the depth of the illiteracy is astonishing. So what I was

trying to joke about a little bit by saying they couldn't read it if they saw it. The point is that the vast reaches of illiteracy in our communities is a result of deliberate de-education, defunding of education, public schooling, especially you go out to the suburbs, you get 60 and 70, $80 million schools where they have, you know, Aquaria with Planaria, and you come into the inner city and you can't even get running water or the toilets are working, and you still got secondhand books.

The savage inequalities that Jonathan Kozol talked about, but many more theoreticians from our own community have tried to talk about Christopher Emden in terms of hip-hop education and other people who have been trying to speak about Christopher Emden in terms of hip hop education and other people who have been trying to speak about the degree to which we link literacy. It's not that we are illiterate. We're literate in so many other languages that can then be used to transfer over to what we need to do. So to take your point and Roland's point about the Freedom School,

look at what we have available on the internet. If we would take less time trying to cancel each other out, trying to call each other to and use words that are nasty and vicious, and then organize the enormous reach we have on frigging Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook, you talking about a Freedom school that could be organized, the distribution of agendas and also of syllabi that could help people make a difference in their lives. So we could do it virtually in a way that we can't necessarily physically do in the old school. If Martin Luther King Jr. had Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, my God, the ability to mobilize and transform those masses in the ways you are talking about, education and access. But education is the fundamental principle of access, that and ownership of homes and property that allows people to have the American dream.

If we had those two pillars, education and ownership of property, then black people would be exponentially advanced in our quest for freedom. Well, we do have to deal with this, Congressman Carson, that I want Susan definitely jump in this, is that we also have to recognize that. And Michael, you made an excellent point early in terms of if every black person gave what it wouldn't do. But we also, though, have to fund things that are within our control. So when, so perfect example, National Cares Mentoring Gala, congressman had the National Cares Mentoring Move,

had their gala in February. And about, we got $350,000 in commitments. But guess what? What we can't have are them killing themselves to try to get the commitments. If you make a commitment, you've got to honor it. I have people who literally say, well,

why should I have to give to your show? I say, first of all, you don't have to give to my show. I say, we have a fan club. I say, but guess what? You can't do this five days a week. I said, and not pay for You can't do this five days a week. I said, and not pay for the office space and pay for the staff and pay for the robotic cameras

and we can't travel to go cover an event somewhere and you don't pay for the plane ticket or the train ticket. And I'm like, so guess what? Fox makes $1.25 billion in profit. CNN makes $800 million in profit. I'm like, that ain't us. But in the last

five weeks, we probably had more black experts on in five weeks than all those networks have had combined. And so we also have to say to our people, we also got to fund it and fund our institutions. John Rodgers was just on talking about black businesses. He said, if we don't fund our civil rights groups, hell, who going to be there to fight for funding for black business when it comes to the $2 trillion plan that was passed? And so all of this is about what,

to Susan's point earlier, Congressman, what can we do? Not, okay, y'all figure it out, but what we can do in the midst of this to be able to rebuild and restore. And so when we come on the other side of coronavirus, then we coming out swinging. Absolutely. I think you're right. You know, I'm one of those who needs to to commit to my fifty dollars a year to your platform. I have a YouTube subscription that I watch the Roland Martin show on. I certainly

can commit my and do my part. You know, a lot of times we like to talk to talk, but we don't walk the walk. We can pay, and I don't knock what someone does to get by, but we can pay to turn up and we'll spend 50, 100, and $150 to turn up, but we refuse to use that same money to donate to the UNCF. Speaking of UNCF, a part of the negotiation with the Congressional Black Caucus and the CARES Act, too, is to get funding for historically black colleges and universities, which are suffering right now. So I think I think we make a big mistake by putting too much on entertainers, actors, and sometimes, dare I say, politicians, when we have the power to mobilize and support those platforms that work. I was so proud when I saw Brother Jay-Z and Meek Mill commit to giving over 130 masks to prison,

our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated. I was pleased to see Brother Diddy raise millions of dollars on his IG platform. I think now we're in a different space where we can use social media and we can use the digital age to really fund efforts, Black efforts, because the environment is changing and has changed so rapidly. And so ways in which we can be creative, Roland, in terms of funding these in the educational space like Dr. Dyson, in the wellness space like Madam Taylor for just a few bucks a month or even a year, if you have enough numbers to fund those efforts, I think we'll see a change quite rapidly. Susan, this is about us. And when you you mentioned it, I don't think people really understand. You saw what happened after Katrina.

You could have kept doing Essence. You could have kept, you could have said, oh, man, me and Kefra, we about to travel. I'll put the work in. But again, you said, no, no, we've got to create this mentoring movement for our children, and it's gone from that single idea to something far bigger than a lot of people would ever imagine after

a handful of years, but you made the commitment to do it, and then you decided to go to work. Well, you know, how about people saying, have you lost your mind? This is not going to happen. Right. But I know that when you're doing God's work, and you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and it's the right thing for the people, things give way and what you need comes into your hands. What I do want to say about, you know, black people not supporting our institutions, we don't. When you think about the college presidents who go out to raise money, black college presidents, and then the foundations want to know, well, what about the alums? You know,

how are they supporting? It's embarrassing. Average is 5%. Talk about the little that black people who graduated from our great institutions give back. 5%. But you know what? This is why we have to come together for our healing. Yes. If we understand what happened to us over these

past 400 years, what happened to us in enslavement, we do not trust one another. We don't like putting money in black peoplelavement. We do not trust one another. We don't like putting money in black people's hands. We just don't do it. You know, but we have to come to an understanding of it. So if we could come together and have those kinds of, what, lectures and panels that really help us

to see ourselves, what did it do to black men to have an overseer come into his cabin and take his daughter, his wife, his children, rape them, throw them back, and then have half-white children that he then raised and treated as his own? I mean, what we have withstood is so deep. The brutality is just so vicious. We have to understand it. We have to understand it. We have to heal it. Then we can really look in the mirror

and see our behaviors and begin to love ourselves again and to love one another again. But until we come to an understanding of our history and what happened to us, we're not going to get there. I think that's a big part of it. Michael, final comment, about 60 seconds.

Well, what Susan Taylor has just indicated is so extremely important. The pandemic is also inside of us. The refusal to acknowledge our humanity, the refusal to acknowledge that white water ain't wetter than black water, the refusal to embrace each other and to see the good, the powerful,

the enduring, the intelligent, the beautiful in each other. And when we do that, when we deal with the fundamental reality that we are worthy of every sacrifice that should be made on our behalf, then we will begin to demand the kind of resources, not only from ourselves, which is extremely important, but also from the society that we have done so much to build up. It doesn't have to be an either or. It's got to be both us from within and demanding that the structures that we have supported through our work, through our brilliance, and through our monies also be recycled back

to us. Congressman Carson, final word. No, I agree. I think on that note, I want to encourage folks to complete the census. Those dollars can go to our communities, communities of color. We need to get our fair share and a part of getting that fair share during apportionment and redistricting and how they determine how congressional maps are drawn and what your representation looks like. Please fill out the census. What an honor, Roland. I want to commend the Stewart Speaker Series, Brother Matt, you, Dr. Dyson, and Madam Taylor for your powerful words. I'm truly inspired.

Well, echoing that, actually, Matt Stewart, thank you so much. And, Roland, you're just brilliant. The way that you just manage these kinds of forums, really amazing to me. Mine is very simple. You know, reward the people who love us and support us and punish those who don't. Be conscious consumers. Don't spend your money among people who show they have no interest in you, our children, our community. Wake up. Certainly want to thank Matthew Stewart and Stewart's

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Our goal is to get 20,000 by the end of the year at 50 bucks a year, $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. That's what it costs for us to do it. We can make it happen. So I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, $0.13 a day. That's what it costs for us to do it. We can make it happen, so I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, folks. We shall see you tomorrow. Roland Martin Unfiltered, Michael Larry Dyson,

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