#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Stop Questioning Folks' Blackness: Roland Schools Marcellus Wiley & Others On THE Black Experience

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

"We are idiotic by continuing to allow individuals to play this game of defining the Black experience as being one thing. There is no one Black experience in America." - Roland Martin In the wake of Roland's deconstruction of Marcellus Wiley's commentary of Colin Kaepernick, the host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered explained in great detail why questioning the "Blackness" of others is foolish. Roland asked, "Who else is actually having these silly-ass conversations? What other groups are having these dumb ass discussions as to who really is more authentic?" Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You can make this possible. But yesterday, here on Rollerball Unfiltered, I did a deconstruction of some recent comments by Marcellus Wiley on Fox Sports with regards to Colin Kaepernick and Jay-Z and Kyle's girlfriend, Nessa, and Eric Reid and Kenny Stills, all surrounding protests in the NFL and all sorts of stuff along those lines. And so the reason I was, some people said, dang, man, you went in hard because I was greatly bothered by what Marcellus had to say when he was talking about the identity of the individuals who were involved. really blacker than Colin Kaepernick because Colin Kaepernick is biracial and raised by white parents and was in Wisconsin moved to central California as opposed to Jay-Z growing up in the projects there in New York so for some of y'all who missed it here are some of the comments of Marcellus Wiley and then I'm going to come back with my comment this is an identity issue you know why the identity of this movement has been lost you know why the identity

has been lost in this platform of kneeling and what does it really mean because the identity of those who are leaving it has always been in question let's keep it 1000 up here because my past is hot my past has expired for this the past has expired i've been going back and forth with this from day one at espPN. Let's go. Kaepernick comes from a situation where he's never felt the full weight of these injustices. This is a mixed race guy who was raised by a white family from Wisconsin to Central California. Respect. That does not disqualify you from talking for us.

But when you make missteps and miscalculations, oh, it comes back into play. And he never spoke on this when Black Lives Matter's movement was at its height. Think about it. 2013, 2014, Ferguson, where Jay-Z is bailing prisoners out and doing protesters out and taking pictures and supporting Trayvon Martin and that family. What was happening? You know who he was? Taking his shirt off, bro. I knew Kaepernick back then. He was never talking about this. He meets Nessa in 2015. All of a sudden, 2016, he gets benched. Flip-flop.

Not mad. That still doesn't disqualify you. But Nessa comes into play now. And we all know Nessa. Respect to her and her ethnicity. But it's not black. Okay? So now we got two leaders who don't even feel the weight of the consequences. We all know Nessa. Respect to her and her ethnicity, but it's not black. Okay?

So now we got two leaders who don't even feel the weight of the consequences. So guess what you are allowed to do right now? Preach. Have convenience. Ain't no cosmetics here, bro. When I'm in Compton, when I'm in South Central and Harlem, that's my childhood to manhood. Zero to 22 years old. Those three places, i know what it feels like when you're talking to jay-z who've been through marcy projects brooklyn and all his

successes he's seen this we both said go cap or nick go and let the cause blindly support the man but the character is now coming to question and then now eric reed is taking it and giving them cover eric reed is taking kenny stills another guy respect guys another mixed race individual who's not felt the full weight of this so when you want to take this movement and i hate to play the race card against my own race usually you play the race card against other races right but when i have to see these missteps and these issues all manifest i get back to the identity of those who are leading it, which has always been in question. And now Jay-Z has answered that question. Let somebody who really knows what this is about handle it. So his was interesting with that particular commentary.

And so allow me to have part two of deconstruction. First and foremost, Marcellus responded to that commentary by saying that, you got it wrong. I grew up in Compton. I didn't grow up in Harlem. Well, actually, if you actually heard that comment, he said from zero to 22, his life was Compton, South Central and Harlem. So that's why I included Harlem in that. And so, yes, Marcellus, you grew up in Compton, but you invoked Harlem, which is why I brought up the cases that took place in New York, which you were very quiet about when you played in the NFL. But see, if you listened closely to what Marcellus said there, he was saying that this whole notion that Jay-Z can speak to these issues more so than Colin Kaepernick can because of how Jay-Z grew up. Also in the commentary, he talked about Jay-Z growing up in a public housing complex there in New York City and what he experienced and what

he went through. Let me explain to you what that is. That's actually the code for you're blacker. See, in the 70s, what happened was if you were black and you were in school, they would say you talk white or you talk too proper where you come from. Then in the 80s and 90s, it was, oh, you wanted them suburban Negroes. You didn't grow up in the hood. Now in the 2000s, we've now evolved. Now the whole issue of being biracial. So now we are criticizing folks and we're establishing this sort of these levels of blackness. What has happened in this country, unfortunately for black folks who have fallen victim to white supremacy, who don't even understand what they are saying, is that we have defined blackness as actually meaning coming from broken homes, impoverished, public housing, rats and roaches, single mama, daddy not home, broke, destitute, and we had to

fight our way to school every day and the way back home, and we made it through. See, that's how we literally define this idea of what it means to be black. I was in the Cincinnati Music Festival and that was a t-shirt and it said, I'm mixed with hood and some other stuff. And somebody said, hey, you want that shirt? I'm like, hell no, because I ain't mixed with hood. Do you know why? Did I grow up in the Clinton Park neighborhood in Houston? Yes. The problem is when you say the word hood, you left off the neighbor part. And so the word hood has now meant one thing in the minds of the person who you're talking to. See, the reason I brought these books out today is because we need to understand

that there is no one black experience. This book here is called African Americans on Martha's Vineyard, From Enslavement to Presidential Visit by Thomas Dresser. Now, that's actually the black experience. Is that every black person? No, but it's also the black experience. Jill Nelson, Washington Post writer,

actually wrote about this called "'Finding Martha's Vineyard, "'African Americans at Home on an Island.'" That's what this book is. This is also the black experience. I got a book right here. My man, James Prince from Houston, Rap-A-Lot Records, The Art and Science of Respect.

Oh, he talks about being one of the baddest thugs in Houston and talks about all the legal stuff that he was involved in. Guess what? This is James Prince's experience. He talks about Fifth Ward and Third Ward in Houston and how he was one of the baddest cats on on the streets there. Yes, this is his experience. Is it the black experience?

It's not. Here's a book called This African-American Life by Hugh Price. Hugh Price, smart brother, which became the CEO of the National Urban League, talks about his African-American life growing up in a household family focused on education, him rising to major positions in corporate America and then running that National Urban League. Very interesting book here called Negroland, a memoir by Margo Jefferson. She talks about being black and bougie. She talks about being a black woman of privilege and how she was raised and how folks saw her differently than other black folks. Guess what? That that that's also the black experience. Let's talk

about W.B. DuBois. Oh, the similar book on black reconstruction. If you want to understand the black experience, you might want to read this particular book here. Oh, yeah, it's about 700 pages. But trust me, y'all can get through it. But he talks about, again, the period of reconstruction after the Civil War and talks about black folks in the South, also in the North, and what Reconstruction meant for African-Americans. If you really want to understand, talk about this whole idea of what's the black experience. A lot of black people who are critical of the civil rights movement because they said, oh, that's really the middle class Negroes who really fight in this movement. So guess what? You have the editors of the book, The Eyes on the Prize, civil rights reader. Of course, Henry Hampton had an Academy Award winning, excuse me, Academy Award nominated documentary on the civil rights

movement, The Eyes on the Prize. Even during that movement, he had the back and forth, well, y'all don't really care about us folks who are sharecroppers versus y'all city folk. You heard all that sort of stuff going on, even though, guess what? Jim Crow was smacking city folk and sharecroppers. But have you ever heard this book here called The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty, The Senator and the Socialite by Lawrence Otis Graham? Oh, yeah. It talks about one of the first black United States senators and how they had generational wealth, how they threw these exquisite parties all in the north in Washington,

D.C. Yeah, it was called the Senator and the Socialite. This also is the black experience. Of course, Alison Stewart had her book on first class, The Legacy of Dunbar, America's first black public high school, talking about the black experience. Here's this great book that I also pulled from In Search of Black America, Discovering African-American Dream. But his brother literally went all across the country, going to various black neighborhoods, trying to search for what exactly is black America. Then, of course, you have Isabel Wilkerson, who had her great book called The Warmth of Other Sons, won all kinds of awards, talking about the great migration of black folks from the south to the north. That's also the black experience. Then, of course, you have this great book

called Black Families in White America by Andrew Billingsley, the 20th anniversary edition of a modern classic by a preeminent Afro-American sociologist. What does it mean to be a black family in white America? Then, of course, my man Gerald Horne, University of Houston, one of the top historians out there.

He really explains this whole thing in the book called White Supremacy Confronted, U.S. imperialism and anti-communism versus liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela. If you want to understand where a lot of this came from, right here, white supremacy. But why all of this important? Why is my last book easy? Dr. King's book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, where he literally talks about where we stay in this black folks and talks about the various experiences. He talks about the issue of poverty, talks about the Negroes, of course, who didn't necessarily experience the this game of defining the black experience as being one thing.

There is no one black experience in America. Here we are this week celebrating or commemorating 400 years since the first 20-odd Africans arrived in Virginia in August of 1619. And in these 400 years, there have been numerous experiences of black folks. The reality is you can grow up in a black family, in a black neighborhood and go to black schools and go to black churches and belong to black organizations. And when you become an adult, don't give a damn about black people and you can be a biracial african person who grew up in a white family who live across the country and the world and you know what you commit yourself to the issues that impact black people see who else is actually having these silly ass conversations

what other groups are having these dumb ass discussions as to who really is more authentic, who's really more hood, who's really more black. That's how stupid this stuff is. I remember when I, after I had pledged Alpha Phi Alpha, we were at a party and we had a brother who was from Sam Houston State walk up to me. He's like, oh yeah. Oh, y'all think y'all some, this is not going to be the six. Y'all don't use the word. Oh, y'all think y'all some smart niggas. Cause y'all go to Texas A&M. But see, but y'all, this is how we do it at this school. Had a brother who's at Prairie View who said the same thing. And they were talking all this trash.

And I said, next, your question. What's your chapter graduation rate? Then they got silent. I said, oh, y'all ass can't talk. I said, see, you want to challenge me because I went to Texas A&M and pledged Alpha. And you went to Sam Houston State, not at HBCU. Another brother went to Prairie View, that is at HBCU. So you want to question my blackness and question whether I'm real.

I said, when our chapter and our history only had one brother who did not graduate and he's not authorized to come to any of our events. I said, so let me ask you a question. What does it mean to be an Alpha? Is it a matter if you go to a black school or does it matter? You actually graduate and do the things that alpha men are required to do. He got real silent. I even had a sister when I went to the Fort Worth Telegram. And I joke with her about today because I jacked ass that when she said it, we were standing by the photographer's table. And so she was a sister. And somebody said she's somebody introduced me to her.

She says, oh, oh, you're the brother who didn't know who he was, who went to a white school. I said, oh, really? I said, where did you go? She said, I went to Southern. I said, oh, so what you're saying is you need to go to HBCU to figure out that your ass was black. I said I grew up in a black neighborhood, black family, all that sort of black. I said, I knew I was black by the time I was 18. Now, when I talked about that one day, people, some folks went to the HBCUs, got real upset with me. But what they understand was what she was trying to do was denigrate me because I didn't go to an HBCU. And I said, boo, you can go to an HBCU and still be clueless about black people. Just like you can go to a PWI and be clueless about black people. The black experience in America is wide.

It is diverse. It is broad. And what we have to stop doing is playing these silly games of questioning somebody's blackness. And what we should be asking very simply, are you doing the work? Are you doing the work? And I disagree with the people who call Jay-Z a sellout. Just like I don't allow people on my show to call black Republicans sellout or call them Uncle Tom's or call them Oreos, any of those names. Just like I don't let anybody come on this show and call somebody the N-word or call them a coon. Because see, that's offensive. But what we better understand is that we have a

generation of black kids who are not growing up in hoods, a generation of black kids who are growing up biracial. So what are we saying to them by saying, well, you really don't have a black experience. That's not really a black experience. Well, what is it? Then when we use the phrases, you haven't felt the full oppression, the full weight of what it means to be black. Well, actually, how many people have? I mean, Marcellus went from Compton to the Ivy League school. I'm quite sure there was some black people who said, why you didn't

go to HBCU? Oh, I heard that. I had a brother who challenged me when I was a senior in high school. I can't believe, see, that's my problem. All y'all Negroes are going to the white schools. I said, really? Where you going? I'm going to TSU, Texas Southern University, which is right across the street from my high school. And you know what I told him? I said, that's interesting. The Texas Southern University has a school of communications and they literally are right across the street. And I was actually named the best student in my high school in my four years there. And they never actually recruited me. I was across the street. I said, so I'm gonna follow the money. Because you know why? My parents are going to have three kids in college at one time.

And damn it, I'm not trying to be broke. My brother went to A&M. My sister went to A&M. And I went to A&M. All three have graduated. All three are doing well. And guess what? We ain't got no damn student loan. Debt has all been paid off. But the point I'm making is that's the black experience. HBCUs, the black experience. Community college, the black experience. Growing up in South Central or Watts or Compton or Harlem or Lithonia or Prince George's County, that's all the black experience. But we are the only ones who are playing this stupid game where who can be blacker than the other person as opposed to what's the work we're focused on. That's why I did the commentary. That's what offended me the most. even black who give a damn about our issues than a whole bunch of black folks who will turn their

back and don't care and say it's all about me myself and I as opposed to the issues at hand watch what you say around your children watch what you do around your children because if we are putting the wrong things in their heads they're going to carry that stuff forth and repeat those things in school repeat those things at church repeat those things to their friends and we have another generation of black folks who are questioning the blackness of somebody else. Alright folks back to y'all brother Mark unfiltered video in just one moment. Life Lux Jazz is the experience of a lifetime delivering top-notch music in an upscale

destination. The week-long event is held at the Omnia Day Club Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. This is also a black experience. The Life Luxe Jazz Experience offers the ultimate getaway for discerning jazz aficionados by pairing an upscale international destination with luxury accommodations, fine hot cuisine, top-shelf libations, meaning liquor, breathtaking golf, exhilarating spa, health and wellness options, and much more, while showcasing some of the biggest names in entertainment. The second annual Life Luxe Jazz Experience continues to build upon its success and heritage with Jazzing Round Los Cabos, a celebratory expansion of accomplishing its goal of sharing all the findings and destinations

as they offer, including daytime excursions and many concerts, including the Spirit of Jazz Gospel Brunch and Jazz Sunset Cruise. Confirmed guests, comedian actor Mark Curry, Gerald Albright, Alex Bunyan, Raul Madon, Incognito, Pieces of a Dream, Kirk Whalum, Average White Band, Donnie McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Tom Brown, Ronnie Laws, and Ernest Quarles. Folks, I'll be broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered from Los Cabos those two days.

Go to lifeluxjazz.com, lifeluxjazz.com for more information. Love to see y'all there. Now back to your Roland Martin Unfiltered video. This is an iHeart Podcast.