#RolandMartinUnfiltered - T.I. demands reparations from Lloyd's of London; Fake COVID video goes viral; Biden addresses racism

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

7.28.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 'False' COVID-19 video, "America's Frontline Doctors" goes viral; Rapper/Activist T.I. demands reparations from Lloyd's of London; AG Bill Barr testifies on George Floyd protests; Joe Biden released his plan to deal with systemic racism; How is the pandemic impacting America's homeless population? Members of the "wall of vets" speak out; Hip-Hop Film festival announced. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 -#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting site 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. 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 Glott. 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 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. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Thank you. Today is Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Coming up next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, rapper T.I. will join us to talk about his open letter he sent to Lloyds of London demanding reparations for descendants of slaves because of their involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

He'll be here to tell you about this. Plus, with a word of caution about a video that's circulating that makes false claims with regards to coronavirus. Yep. Attorney General William Barr testified before the House Judiciary Committee today. It was contentious. It was hot.

And, of course, he was full of it. Vice President Joe Biden released his plan to deal with systemic racism as part of his Build Back Better campaign. We'll have those details. And staying at home during the pandemic is difficult for all of us, but particularly for those who are homeless. We'll talk about what communities are doing to combat that issue. We'll also talk with two people who are part of the Wall of Vets standing guard in Portland.

Plus, we have details about Omari Hart with Hip Hop Film Festival. Folks, it's a jam-packed show. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real. Folks, this is a live look of the U.S. Capitol where Congressman John Lewis's body is lying in state. Of course, it was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. But, of course, as a result, what happened was that because of coronavirus, the Capitol is completely closed off. And so they moved his body to the welcoming area on the East platform. People have been there all day, all day. It started yesterday. Folks are traveling there to show their to express their condolences to to the congressman. And so, again, his body is lying in state. He will be there until he will be there until tomorrow when his body will be transported to to Georgia, where his body will lie in state in the state capitol in Georgia.

And then what is going to happen then? It will be there. Then, of course, his funeral will take place on Thursday at Ebenezer Baptist Church there in Atlanta. Now, I want to play a video for you folks. I had an opportunity today to go and pay respects. And so I want to be able just to share that with you. I'm going to talk over this video. And so go right to the video, please. This, of course, is the Capitol rotunda. That's where the congressman's body. And so remember, we showed you all of this yesterday. And so that's where the congressman's body that that platform right there, that was the same one that Abraham Lincoln's body laid on. And so what happened here, we were going through and a number of the ushers there were very surprised to see me. So I took a little time to speak to them.

So just understand, I wasn't out there trying to shoot professional video. I mean, I was trying to be as discreet as possible holding my iPhone. And so, again, so this is the view of, and I had to get, obviously, special consideration to do this. The general public is actually on the platform down below. And you see there what they have, the rope that's set up right there. That's as far as you can go to be able to. So you can stand behind that rope and show your stand there and, of course, pay your respects to Congressman Lewis. And so a Capitol guard stands there. And so what they do, they switch out at various times. And so there's a moment when I

was there that actually took place. And so that took place there as well. And so there are other folks who are able to get near his casket. I'm going to show you just a second, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., who flew in from Chicago this morning to pay his respects to Congressman John Lewis. And of course, there was some video of that that was actually shown. I'm going to pull it up in a second. What I'm doing is he put of course these items on his Twitter feed and then went down and actually talked to a variety of folks who was out there. And so you guys can come back to me. I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to share these photos. Just give me one second, folks. Obviously, very solemn occasion. People have been going to this site for the past, since last night,

very long lines last night. Obviously, it's extremely hot here in Washington, D.C., and so people are not necessarily, we're not seeing the lines that we saw with Rosa Parks. Remember, those were tremendously long lines that we saw. Go back to my iPad, Anthony. And so this was a photo that Reverend Jackson had posted. He flew in with his son, Jonathan Jackson, to pay respects to Congressman John Lewis. This is one of the photos shot. They allowed Reverend Jackson to actually go beyond that roped area and be able to lay his hands on the casket. And then, so that's what, this was a video shot that was taken via C-SPAN. This right here is a photo that was on Reverend Jackson's Twitter feed as he placed his hands there on the casket. I just want to go ahead and zoom in there. I mean, this was the one who knew Congressman very well.

Reverend Jackson, of course, has been battling Parkinson's disease. That's one of the reasons why he has slowed down tremendously. A lot of people have asked me about, you know, it's very difficult to hear Reverend Jackson as well. And so, and then here is another photo right here of Reverend Jackson paying his respects to Congressman John Lewis. There are very, very few folks left who were close friends with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Jackson was one of those folks, was a young man who worked with Southern Christian Leadership Conference who took over Operation Breadbasket. Dr. King sent him to Chicago to actually run that and that's what he did. Again, an extremely emotional time for so many there in the U.S. Capitol. And so folks have been visiting

for a while now, for a while now, again, paying their respects. And like I say, lots of caution has been taking place primarily because of coronavirus. And so folks have not, they have not wanted people to actually, you know, be ill. Go back to my iPad, please. And so this was a photo when I paid my respects today to Congressman John Lewis. I purposely wore this shirt, unbossed and unbought. That, of course, that was the freight, that was the unbought and unbossed. That was the slogan of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. And so this is a photo there of the rotunda. And you see that's where his body, after visitation is over, they actually roll it back to that particular spot.

And so you see that, you know, the very gorgeous and majestic Capitol rotunda. And then these were just some other photos that I shot for y'all to be able to see what that looks like. And of course, the various wreaths there, you saw there are three wreaths there. There's one from the executive branch, there's one from the House representatives, and one from the United States Senate. And so those were the wreaths there. And that's another shot there. And so that's taking place again. It will end tonight. And then the ceremonies move on to Atlanta, Georgia, where they will conclude on Thursday. And so we will be live streaming that as well. And various times we'll be going back to that video feed of the U.S. Capitol

as people, again, are there, you know, going there, paying their respects to late Congressman John Lewis, who passed away at the age of 80. Folks, it has been 10 weeks since the murder of George Floyd, and there are so many different things that have been taking place all across the country, demanding action when it comes to racism, demanding action when it comes to companies of the issue of race and equity. Well, TI is calling out Lloyds of London in an open letter demanding that the UK insurance company pay reparations to descendants of African slaves due to the company's ties to the transatlantic slave trade. He posted this letter on Instagram saying, quote, our people have been financially impaired

and economically disabled due to the systemic oppression and institutional racism it leaves behind. Time to take what we know our ancestors deserved and died for. Joining me right now is T.I. T.I., how you doing, man? What's going on, bro? Good to see you, sir. Good to see you. So let's talk about this here. What caused you, what caused you to send this letter? Was it their admission of guilt for them insuring property during the Transatlantic slave trade? What started this whole thing for you? Well, I think it was a culmination of things.

One, I did read the article where they did, you know, and admirably so. I must give credit where credit is due because they've done more than most have. But I did see where they held themselves accountable for, I quote, their shameful role that they played in the transatlantic slave trade. Now, after that, you know, I thought at first, well, that's nice of them to make an apology. And then I thought, well, why would it stop there? If you've already acknowledged that there's shame in the role you play and you see that obviously there are effects left behind, how could you, why would you not throw yourself in the middle of this and have some actionable items

that could reverse some of the atrocities? Now, be it as it may, the travesties and atrocities that were imposed on our people are irreparable. opportunities, the lack of ability for a black man with an idea or a business plan to walk into a lending institution and get a loan with the same interest rate, with the same criteria as a white man, with the same idea and the same business plan. So there are disparities across the board from education to to health care to uh just our communities and and the conditions in which we live um and all of these things are a result of the transatlantic slave trade this is uh this is what the new york times said i don't want to read this and i got a question for you lloyds and green, which owns pubs and breweries,

each said they would invest in recruiting more black, Asian and other minority employees and provide financial support to charities that promote diversity and inclusion. Neither made a concrete monetary pledge nor referred to their commitments as reparations, but both expressed deep regret. Quote, there are some aspects of our history that we are not proud of, said a statement from Lloyd's, an insurer that traces its roots to 1686 when it pioneered the market for marine insurance. This was an appalling and shameful period of British history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period. I want to go back to what they said. They want to invest in recruiting more black, Asian and other minority employees and provide financial support to charities that promote diversity and inclusion.

You are saying no black. I'm sorry, Roland. I'm sorry, Roland. This is my thing. That's what, and that's one of the things that got me to think. If you're willing to do something, right, what makes you think that you could excuse yourself or rid yourself of the shame and the guilt that comes with your role in the transatlantic slave trade?

What makes them think that they can tell us what it will take to make amends? What they should have done in addition to that apology is say, someone come to us from this community and let us know how we can correct this wrongdoing. You cannot do me wrong and tell me how you're going to fix it. You must come and listen to, first of all, what the wrongdoing, what pain it has caused, what effects it has left behind, what damage it has done, and we must start there, and then we can begin to discuss how you can begin to fix it. You can't just come and tell me what you're going to do for me and expect for me to just nod my head in

approval and say, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's just fine, sir. No, that ain't how that's not how we work. That may be how our ancestors work, but in their honor, in their defense, on their behalf, we're coming to handle this the correct way. And you're and so at at us orse.org, you have a petition. And this is what you have on the site. First, 10% ownership of Lloyd's of London be given to us, the descendants of African slaves. The ownership will be administered by a consortium that will be created whose board of directors

will consist of African American community leaders, attorneys, financial executives, and the like. The profits dividends will be distributed in a fair manner through guidelines set up, which are mutually agreed upon by your company and the consortium. Number two, board diversification, with at least one member of the 15-seat board being occupied by an African-American. Three, accurate annual tracking of reparations, similar to your modern-day slavery and human trafficking statement.

Four, $1 million cash loan with 1% interest as financial recompense made available to every African-American adult once in their lifetime for the next 200 years. A time equivalent to the 18th and 19th century where your company financed slave ships and insured the human cargo. Now, how did you arrive at those four particular points? Okay. Well, I think the, let's see, the one board seat for an African-American, that kind of is already, you know, of the spirit of what they've already suggested that they would do. It's just, you know, it enhances it and gives it more gravitas, if you will. Because we've been accepting trinkets for too long. People have been coming to us, giving us crumbs in exchange for our pain for too long.

We need some real actionable items, some things that can actually allow us and assist us in making a difference in the matters that plague our communities and have plagued our communities and our people for generations. Now, as far as the 10 percent, OK, so Lloyd's London is worth roughly fifty six point eight billion dollars. That empire was built on the backs of our ancestors. They became a lucrative, valuable financial entity the day the first ship made it from Africa to America, full of our people, that they insured as cargo. Okay?

Now, from then to now, African Americans make up roughly 14% of America's population with the least amount of ownership, least amount of inclusion, least amount

of general respect for our human rights. Okay? So by 14% that we make up, black people. Now, some of us migrated, you know? Some of us migrated here, and, you know, some of our parents may have already been born somewhere else,

like Africa or somewhere else, where they are not necessarily descendants of slaves, but they're still black and they still live in America. And, of course, the slave trade dropped folks off in Brazil, in Jamaica, in the Bahamas, in other areas all throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Well, what I'm trying to do is I round it down from that 14% that represents African-Americans in America. Right. I round it down to 10%.

I think that's a fair representation of the percentage in equity in that company. Got it. they were insuring and lending to allow to happen, the effects from then to now led to us being 14% of the population. Now, I want people to understand. Rounded down, that guy got to the 10% in equity of the company. Now, I want people to understand this here. And first, just for folks to know, you and I communicate often. You didn't just throw this thing out just for the hell of it.

You've been talking to others. You also understand that you need to have infrastructure to put this thing together in order to follow through, make sure these things are happening. So if this is not, I'm saying that I want people to understand this is not T.I. just posting something on Twitter and just popping off and let's just see what happens. No, you've been talking to others saying, no, we need to have the creation of an entity with the infrastructure to make this viable. Absolutely, and I've spoken to the likes of Robert Smith. I've spoken to Puff. I've spoken to Jay. I've spoken to Killer Mike, Tamika Mallory.

Really, this is a vision that came to me, a strategy or an idea that I was the vessel to present it. But it is not mine and mine alone. This is for us. I mean, I live a pretty good life already. So my kids are set. My grandkids are set. However, if I'm not using my influence to make the world a better place for my children and grandchildren to live in, then everything that I've gained for myself is in vain. So that is the spirit in which I present this idea or this call to action to the people. Any holes that are in the plan, I welcome. Anyone who has more of a financial background, which is I'm depending on Robert Smith as of right now, and he's done pretty well.

Yeah, he's the only richest African-American in the country worth $5 billion. That's it. That's it. You know what I'm saying? That's it. And we speak every other day or so. He's kind of monitoring the progress of the movement. And, you know, the last time we spoke was about a week ago on FaceTime, and I just received a text from him, which I did not answer yet, this morning. So I'm locked in with everybody who I can surround myself with who's smarter than me, who has the information that I may not, and who can guide and direct us, not just me, us on a path from A to Z to completion. I think that we've spent too much time asking America, other governments, and other entities,

asking them to recognize the plight that we are experiencing and expecting them to do the right thing out of the goodness of their hearts. That's not going to work. Life is about leverage. Okay? So right now, if we have not created the kind of leverage that would force anyone's hand to do the right thing on our behalf, it's never going to happen. Now, this is leverage simply because there are still companies that are still earning money in business,

counting profits today, like Lloyd's of London. They are still here and they can be directly connected to the transatlantic slave trade. And the effects of the transatlantic slave trade can be directly connected to our communities and our people today. That is what we use. That is what we need. That is how we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, the way the far rights have been saying for generations. Last question for you. To that particular point, Ice Cube has put together his agenda for black America. I'll be talking to him on the show soon as well. I'm talking to others as well.

But the thing that I keep saying to folks is that you cannot achieve any of this with folks just one person over here, one person over here, one person over here. is that you cannot achieve any of this with folks just one person over here, one person over here, one person over here. It's taking advantage of, to what you just said, the intellect, the genius that exists within our people to say, how do you make it happen? I have, give me one second,

I meant to have it sitting next to me, but I don't. So for instance, I talk about this book all the time. And it's about Operation Breadbasket. Dr. King laid out exactly the strategy when they went after companies and he laid it out. It was a six point strategy and economic boycott was the last one. I keep telling people who how a boycott. I was like, no, no, no, no. That's the last thing. He said, you sit down with them, you lay out the terms, you present your plans, you negotiate. If they don't want to negotiate, then you say, now it's time for us to bring the pain. Absolutely. And that's, I think that's

where we are. And I'm in support of Ice Cube and his agenda. I'm in support of Robert Smith, and he has a 2% agenda. I'm in support of that. I'm in support of it because this is not a monolithic problem that we have. We have a very diverse set of multilayered issues that plague our community. So a monolithic approach to a solution will not do. It must be very diverse.

It must be multifaceted. But it must require action to be taken. Like I'm working on a plan right now. I'm talking to these ad companies saying, black media, we're not getting our fair share of air dollars, and that needs to be annually anywhere from $10 to $13

billion. And we ain't getting it, but again, and we're working with folks on that. T.I., man, I appreciate you. Go ahead. Commensurate to the $1.25 to $1.3 trillion we spend every year. We spend more money than anyone

and own less than anyone else. Right. So I think that whatever our strategy, it must be commensurate to our consumer base. And which brings me to how I came to the $1 million loan at 1% interest for every black American who was a descendant of a slave. If Lords of London saw fit and deemed it appropriate to lend to colonizers in Europe, to lend them money to build and buy ships, to sail from Europe to Africa to capture, kill, rape, and enslave our people, and they could insure our ancestors as cargo on this voyage, and should some of our ancestors not make it, then they paid a deductible.

The colonizer paid Lords of London a deductible, and they were reimbursed for their loss of property. If they can insure those people for that many years, surely the black people in America who walk into banks and who are ostracized and the black people in these communities in America who have been marginalized for generations, surely if they accept the responsibility in correcting the effects of their shameful role, surely they can lend $1 million to one African American, excuse me, they can lend $1 million at 1% interest to every African American for 200 years. If you saw fit to do what you did in the 1600s, surely sitting on a $56 billion empire in 2020, you can correct those wrongs by doing these things

that we've suggested for you to do. All right. Or else your apology was empty. Or else you didn't really mean it. Your deadline is when? Your deadline to Law to London is when? Say it again? Your deadline to Law to London is when?

Well, I gave them 10 business days from the time that the letter was released, and that is Friday. This upcoming Friday makes 10 business days have you heard from them so this upcoming friday have you heard from them i have not heard from them and i have sent the ceo of lords of london i sent the letter to him personally as well as making get an open letter i've done two interviews with forbes i've been on bill. I mean, they can't miss us. So they're intentionally

ignoring us at this point. And after Friday comes, we must go into phase two, which is, I guess, and that is approaching their clients. One of which is 20th Century Fox.

Okay? David Beckham. I think he's a part of a company who is insured and who does business with lawyers. There's a whole bunch of companies they insure. There's a whole lot of them. There's a whole list of them. But we must approach them. And we must then use our consumer base, the $1.3 trillion that people depend on us to spend every year to reach their quota and to cover their losses and earn their profits.

We must approach them and say, hey, are you aware of this now that you are? Well, what do you think? Do you think that it is right for them to have participated in the transatlantic slave trade, knowing the atrocities, the ways that it affected our people, knowing that what we're going through right now, do you not think that they should hold themselves accountable and rectify it with some actionable items, holding themselves financially equitably responsible?

Absolutely. And either they will pull their contracts from Lloyds of London or they will persist that Lloyds of London answer to our call to action. All right. Well, keep us abreast. We're certainly right there with you. And we'll keep covering this as well. Absolutely.

Go to us or else.org to sign the petition. It's power in numbers. The more we unite, the more we stand together, the more we achieve. Love. T.I., appreciate it, bro. Take care. I know. All right, folks, and now I want to introduce our panel. Kelly Bethea, communication strategist. Michael Brown, former vice chair of the DNC Finance Committee. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor, environmental justice EPA. I'll start with you, Mustafa. I talked about those six steps. The book I'm referring to, y'all, is called Operation Breadbasket, an untold story of civil rights in

Chicago, 1966 to 1971 by Martin Depp. He was one of the pastors. He was one of the pastors who was on the committee. Now, first of all, let me give some history to this. It was Reverend Leon Sullivan who employed this tactic in Philadelphia. Dr. King heard about it. Dr. King asked Reverend Sullivan to come present it to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He did so, and they adopted this as an official policy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Operation Breadbasket later morphed into Rainbow Push Coalition. But this is what they outlined, Mustafa.

First was information gathering. After initially contacting a company, they would meet with the CEO to request their EEOC numbers. The second thing was what they call a committee evaluation. Their own team would then evaluate the information. They will then go into negotiation and education. And that is not only negotiating with the company, but also educating the people, educating the parishioners of these various churches. The fourth thing was this here. If CEOs refuse to share information or to continue discussions, the pastors went to the pulpits

to announce the injustice. That was economic withdrawal. The fifth piece was the agreement covenant. So typically what happened was those companies, after the protest, entered into an agreement and a covenant. And then number six, which he said was the weak link it was monitoring. After the euphoria of an agreement, we moved on to other targets. But the need to monitor the PACs became clear when early reports usually revealed foot dragging. Mustafa, the reason I'm laying those six things out is because what we have seen recently, folk are real quick to stand up at a news conference or to put on social media, boycott. You ain't informed nobody.

You've educated nobody. You have established your target. You've done no research. So when T.I. says go there to us or else.org, sign the petition, his whole point is, I need to be able to walk into Lords of London and say, 8 million people have signed the petition, 10 million have signed the petition. But if he walks in there and says, I got 1,500, Lords of London says, you ain't even getting a meeting. Right. Yeah. No, I appreciate everything that Tip and everybody else is moving forward on. And those steps that Dr. King and others laid out are the steps that one business can understand

because they understand a systemic sort of process that if you do this, then this will happen. And if you don't do this, this is going to happen. And the other part that you raise is the accountability. I can't tell you how many times I've seen communities engage with business and industry and they would say, okay, yeah, we're going to do X, Y, and Z. And then, you know, when the cameras went away or whatever the situation was, then three years, two months, whatever the timeframe is, people are not living up to the, you know, the letter of the agreement or of the understanding that was pulled together. And the other part is the education. If you want to really mobilize people, you have to help them

to be educated. And then you can actually see real leverage happen because people understand they are now vested in the process. And when they're vested in the process with education, then you can really hold people accountable because people will understand, you know, what are the steps and then they will also understand, you know, what are the outcomes supposed to look like? And if we don't get those outcomes, then here's the next step. Here's the next step. Here's the next step. Again, the process, the ability to be able to walk through these all these different moving parts, that's what's important, Kelly, but also having that infrastructure in place is also critical to make it a reality. Absolutely. Like T.I. laid out, you need a plan in order for

anything to happen, right? Even when it came to the slave trade, there was a plan for that. There was a plan to go to Africa, kidnap our African ancestors, ship them to America, et cetera, et cetera, and then to build wealth upon that. All of that took a plan. Likewise, it'll take a plan to dismantle of the wrongs that we incurred hundreds of years later. So you can't just, like you said, you can't just go up to somebody and be like, hey, we want this, this, and this, and not have a plan for it.

Everything requires a plan. And TI, along with the people that he named, Robert Smith, Jay-Z, Nas, everyone, they all have a piece of a plan in place that all it needs is a better infrastructure, more people behind it. And that's why you have petitions. That's why you have boycotts and the like, but specifically petitions, because those are documented things. It doesn't come off as brash. It doesn't come off as impromptu or rash. It comes off as logical. It comes off as, hey, we have a plan for you to rectify this, and this is how you want us to do

it. With protesting, not so much. That's the first step. But we've gone beyond that. So I applaud TI for bringing this to the table. What we are seeing, Michael, again, we are seeing folks who understand the world and America understands money. At the end of the day, money. And so protest is one thing. But the protest has to result in something. One, obviously, public policy changes to also seeing these companies make changes in their policies and also in their spending commitments. That's what we're talking about now. In this case, what he is saying is you need to be repairing, offering reparations for how your company was built. But other efforts that you're seeing where billion-dollar-plus demands are being made is really the same thing. How are you going to end equality in this country and in the world?

Well, I think if we use some of what John Lewis and obviously may he rest in peace and Roland, good job on covering that today. And I paid my respects as well. That is important that my father used to use this word with me all the time, Roland, called stick-to-itiveness. And it's going to take more than a couple of weeks for this kind of change, a couple of months, a couple of years. And John Lewis, I think, made it very clear it sometimes can take a lifetime. And when he started in the late 50s, early 60s, up until the day he died, we're still not at a perfect union.

We still have a long way to go. And so when, as you and I've talked about before, Roland, when I worked with Puffy on his vote or die campaign, one of the first things we talked about was you got to stick with this. It can't be just a one election cycle thing. Yeah, you're going to sell some T-shirts. No one's saying you can't make money off it. Do good and do well at the same time. But you got to go through every election cycle, even for city council and for mayor and for governor, of course, for president or county executive. And I think what has happened is, and only a test of time will tell, if after the George Floyd murder, after these incredible protests, we'll see what happens, because Mitch McConnell certainly

is not listening to protesters. And so it's going to take that. If you really want change, you have to change the laws, which means legislative activity, which means keep working. And it's not going to happen overnight. In fact, yesterday, Reverend Jim Lawson was on yesterday.

He said, look, this is not going to happen in your lifetime. He said, but you have to, it's building blocks. You've got to keep building on top of that. Absolutely. And that's what John Lewis talked about. And that's what has to continue. We can't get frustrated, take our ball and go home if that change doesn't happen overnight. Folks, let's talk about one of the issues that we'll be impacted by that stems from this long history, of course, COVID-19. African-Americans are dying at a rate higher than everyone else. Also, though, local and state governments across the country have set various social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home measures. But what

happens if you're homeless? That's the issue. This is particularly true for people of color who are living on the streets in places like L.A. and other cities across the country. Joining me now to talk about what community organizations are doing to help is John Masseri, CEO for L.A.-based The People Concern. John, glad to have you in Roller Mark Unfiltered. Huge problem there in Los Angeles. They're moving people out of different places. This is happening in other cities where they're displacing the homeless. But, look, they are also impacted by COVID-19.

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thank you, Roland, for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you. And, you know, what we're seeing in Los Angeles is that black and brown people are two times as likely to die from COVID-19 as the general population. We see in Angelino's experiencing homelessness that while Black people make up 8% of the county's population, they comprise 34% of people experiencing homelessness. So we have seen the structural racism in our community play out in very real ways. So the pandemic has really laid bare the structural issues and inequalities that have been existing in communities of color, particularly black and brown communities, for

a very long time. And that's the reason why six of my colleagues here in Los Angeles joined me in sending a letter to our congressional delegation, and particularly working with Congresswoman Waters on working with local on-the-ground service providers who are working in these communities every single day and working on these disparities. And we have really lifted up the real issues and the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. And so what we've been appealing to our government as these billions and hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing into states and counties to not forget that on the ground service providers like the people concerned and others are working every day to move people indoors as quickly as possible so that we can address the negative impacts of COVID-19. Folks, look, the numbers are real. 4.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. Guys, pull the graphic up, please. 2.14 million people have recovered and 151,000 have died. That number continues to go up. Some places, John, they are actually moving people into

hotels that are empty, moving them into other places. You've got lots of downtown buildings. You've got parking structures that are empty. We saw something that was just shameful in in Las Vegas where they were marking off spots in a parking lot. And you had these thousand plus rooms, several thousand room hotels that were wide open. And they were not we all can't come in here, but they were marking off spots in parking lots, open air parking lots, not even parking garages. Yes. Yes. So here in Los Angeles, we've been involved lots, not even parking garages. Yes, yes. So here in Los Angeles, we've been involved in an effort called Project Room Key with the goal of moving 15,000 people across the state inside. And in Los Angeles, we actually set a very ambitious goal to move 15,000 people indoors.

So, so far, Project Roomkey has brought in about four thousand people and we've been operating two sites. And what I can tell you is that these efforts have targeted the most vulnerable in Los Angeles. So these are people over 65, people with underlying health conditions who are highly susceptible to COVID-19 and the vast majority of them being people of color. And so we have seen in real time when there's a sense of urgency what government can do to actually move quickly and get thousands of people sheltered indoors. So there's no reason for us to be leaving people unsheltered outside

when we have empty hotel rooms that can be repurposed to bring people in into safe and sanitary conditions where they have their own room, their own bathroom, they have access to food, to medical services, and then ultimately, of course, being able to connect them to permanent housing. Last question for you. Are they even testing the homeless? Oh, yes. There's wide-scale testing that's going on in Los Angeles. Our street outreach teams in Skid Row and across the county, but particularly in the Skid Row area, have been working on concentrated testing efforts for people experiencing homelessness, along with our

partners at the Department of Public Health and Department of Health Services for the last several months. In addition to that, there have been wide-scale testing efforts in all of our interim housing facilities, which are congregate living facilities, as well as the test sites that are set up throughout the city and county of Los Angeles. All right then, John MacCeary, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for your work. Thank you, thank you for having me.

All right, folks, many of you may have seen this viral video that has been spreading. A group of doctors who came to Washington, D.C., brought here by Tea Party activists in Texas that contains a ton of misleading information about the coronavirus. But as you expect, it has gotten huge numbers. More than 13 million people viewed this video before it was pulled from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube YouTube, was created by, it was really sent out by the folks at Breitbart. They covered this event, the right-wing website.

And again, it includes this black doctor. And it shows a group of people dressed in white lab coats calling themselves America's frontline doctors. They held a news conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court in D.C. In the video, they claim that the anti-malaria drug hydrochloroquine is a cure for COVID and you don't need a mask to slow the spread of the virus. But the FDA last month ended the emergency use authorization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, saying the drugs were unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19. Masks are also widely accepted to be a reliable safety measure

that helps to reduce the spread of the virus. Again, this is what happens in terms of all of these conspiracy theories that are running out here, Michael, and people latch on to this. You've got people out there who are saying it's a hoax. Forget it. I'm not wearing a mask. There's a reason it continues to spread. And I keep warning people. The Spanish flu lasted two years.

500 million people worldwide were infected. Anywhere from 17 to 50 million died because of it. If you look at these people here, and not only this video, but of course you had a plandemic. Sinclair was set to air this on all of their stations. They're the largest TV station group in the country, but because of the protests and the outrage, it was pulled. This is the kind of nonsense, and you got a significant number of people who buy into

the conspiracies. They hear people even saying that this is a hoax. So we're joking about 151,000 people dying. We're joking about the funerals that actually took place. That's a huge problem in this country. It is. And, you know, there's no reason in the world not to wear a mask. Frankly, I think we're probably going to be wearing masks certainly through the rest of this year and possibly through 2021.

Oh, not possibly. Not possibly. Not possibly. Okay, I'm saying it again. Spanish flu lasted two years. Y'all, we're only six months into this. I'm telling you right now, you might as well get ready.

We're going to be wearing masks until 2022. Easy. And even if the vaccine does come in early next year, there aren't going to be 350 million doses to take care of everybody. And that's just here in this country, having nothing to do around the world. So it's going to take a minute. There's no reason not to wear a mask. And frankly, I don't know how one of the ways to deter people. And I don't know about, you know, 45 supporters. They may never wear masks on GP. But for other folks, you know, you can give them a dirty look because all they're doing, I understand. oh, I'm not going to get it, but you could give it to somebody else that you care about. And that's the point. So why not put the mask on if we're inconvenienced for a couple of years, better for our country than worse. Kelly, the other issue

is this here, even if you get a vaccine, these crazies are going to say, I'm not going to take it. I mean, so, hell, they already won't wear a mask. The fact that being well has been politicized to this extent is baffling to me. It should not be a political issue to be healthy, to follow health guidelines,

to follow a doctor's order, several doctors' orders. It is insane to me, the fact that as a country, we are this narcissistic, this self-centered, this just ignorant overall of knowledge. Because it's out there. Like, actual knowledge is out there

that has been given to us for months on how to combat this virus, how to protect yourself, how to not infect anybody else. And at the end of the day, with all that information, it all boils down to putting a piece of cloth over your face so that you don't breathe on somebody. It does not make sense that a piece of cloth

has been politicized to the point of even further polarizing our community, our country, when it comes to our health. It does not make sense. And with these videos that have come out, like Pandemic and the one that you just mentioned, all it takes is going to a trusted news source And with these videos that have come out, like Pandemic and the one that you just mentioned, all it takes is going to a trusted news source that has already been vetted time and time again to disprove to you, to disabuse you of the notion that any of the stuff in these videos are true.

And yet we are so hungry for something larger than just wearing a mask. We are so hungry for the conspiracy. We are so hungry for the big thing. But it's really simple. Wear a mask, wash your hands, stay home. It does not make sense that these things are hard for you. It shouldn't be. Here's what's crazy, Mustafa.

One of the doctors, this woman named Stella Emanuel out of Houston. Go to my iPad, please. Daily Beast has this story. Donald Trump has actually retweeted this video. Donald Trump Jr. has called it a must-watch video. You even have Jack Del Rio, NFL coach, saying, hey, this all makes sense. This woman here, this is crazy, she, this woman

here has said sexual visitations by demons and alien DNA are the root of America's common health concerns. That right there says all I need to know. Well, I don't know if these folks ever took the Hippocratic Oath, which means do no harm.

You know, Trump has continued to surround himself with doctors who would say and do whatever he wanted. People remember early on with his physical and people talking about a person who was significantly overweight, somewhat more elder, being in the condition of a 20-year-old. So we're used to this type of stuff. But folks have to take some own personal responsibility, along with our government officials, of course, have responsibility in telling the truth and making sure that folks are protected. Trump feeds off of people's desperation. He always has. You see it play out in all of the policies that he manipulates and that he health background, because some of the things that they tout, you know, when we talk about hydroxy, you know, we know that it causes liver toxicity.

It's been studied for a long time, so to tell people that it's safe to go out there and utilize it, knowing, one, that that is a serious problem, along with the cardiac-related things that are also associated with it, shows, one, that this administration continues to play with people's lives. They play with people's lives when they tell folks you don't have to wear a mask, or even when they don't say it, but when they don't do it,

you know, when they do a number of other things of pulling people, you know, into these small spaces with multiple folks being there. And then, of course, you know, the actions that we've seen when they try and get some political traction by having events and then the spread that happens from those events. So the reality is they don't care about people. They don't really care about Republican brothers and sisters either, although they continue to try

and pump that into them. And they definitely don't care about, you know, black and brown people across this country. Well, that is certainly the case. It is just, again, just total, total craziness here. Speaking of craziness, William Barr testified today on Capitol Hill. All right, folks, Barr faced the House Judiciary Committee for the first time. The hearing covered a range of topics involving the Department of Justice, the federal response to protests in D.C., important election integrity, vote by mail, Roger Stone. Barr began this thing by saying this. On behalf of the Department of Justice,

I want to pay my respects to your colleague, Congressman John Lewis, an indomitable champion of civil rights and the rule of law. I think it is especially important to remember today that he pursued his cause passionately and successfully with unwavering commitment to nonviolence. As I said in my confirmation hearing, the Attorney General has a unique obligation. He holds in trust the fair and impartial administration of justice. He must ensure that there is one standard of justice that applies to everyone equally, and that criminal cases are handled even-handedly based on the law and the facts and without regard to political or personal considerations.

And I can tell you that I've handled criminal matters that have come to me for decision in this way. The President has not attempted to interfere in these decisions. On the contrary, he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right. And that is precisely what I've done. Now, that did not sit well with Congressman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana. Attorney General Barr, you started your testimony with eloquent words about the life and legacy of John Lewis, fighting systematic racism, voter intimidation, civil rights. The one thing that you have in common with your two predecessors, both Attorney General Sessions and Attorney General Whitaker, is that when you all came here and brought your top staff, you brought no black people.

That, sir, is systematic racism. That is exactly what John Lewis spent his life fighting. And so I would just suggest that actions speak louder than words. And you really should keep the name of the Honorable John Lewis out of the Department of Justice's mouth. Let me also say, you mentioned bogus Russiagate. In your opinion, as the Attorney General of the United States of America, did Russia interfere or attempt to interfere in the 2016 election? Yes.

In your position as the Attorney General of the United States, is Russia attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election? I think we have to assume that they are. Thank you, sir. Now, let's talk about the integrity of the election, which is also something Congressman Lewis fought for. Jared Kushner implied that the president could move the election day. Can a sitting U.S.

president move an election day? Actually, I haven't looked into that question under the Constitution. Well, two U.S. codes, section seven says federal election day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. So if you take that as correct statute, is there any executive action by a president? I've never been asked the question before. I've never looked into it. As Attorney General of the United States, do you believe that this 2020 presidential election will be rigged? I have no reason to think it will be. President Trump tweeted that the election will be rigged, but he also tweeted that when he was losing to Hillary Clinton, and he tweeted that the day after Fox showed that he was losing to Trump.

But I don't want to be too political. Do you believe, as the Attorney General of the United States, that mail-in voting will lead to massive voter fraud? I think there's a high risk that it will. Do you ever vote by mail-in ballot? lead to massive voter fraud? I think there's a high risk that it will. Do you ever vote by mail-in ballot? Apparently I did once at least. But you believe that other people voting by mail could lead to massive fraud?

No. What I've talked about, made very clear, is that I'm not talking about accommodations to people who have to be out of the state or have some particular need not to inability to go and vote. What I'm talking about is the wholesale conversion of election to mail-in voting. You do understand that African Americans disproportionately do not survive COVID-19 coronavirus. You are aware of that. I didn't hear the question. You are aware that

African Americans, black people disproportionately die from covid-19 coronavirus. Correct. Yes, I think that's right. And not that it would be the first time that African-Americans would risk their lives to vote in this country to preserve its democracy. But the suggestion is that them having the ability to vote by mail would somehow lead to massive voter fraud. But I won't stick to that. No, I didn't say that. I just state, I think, what is a reality, which is that if you have wholesale mail-in voting, it substantially increases the risk of fraud. But it doesn't make it likely. See, this is the complete bullshit, Michael,

that these folks love to lay out. They are, what Barr's doing is what Trump is doing. They are lying. They are liars. Trump is voted by mail. Barr is voted by mail. Kelly, what's her name? McEnany, all the people that voted by mail.

You know, what's interesting is as a legislator, and as you know, Rowan, I was a legislator for a little while, and it's so hard. You have your list of questions. I love Cedric Rickstrom, good friend. And you have your list of questions and you want to get through them in those five minutes. And that five minutes goes very quickly. But you also have to listen to the answer of the person in the hot seat. And so when he starts talking about that, the natural question should be, what is your evidence of voter fraud? He doesn't have any. And he would have to say, I don't have any, because there isn't any. Even the defunct voter fraud commission that 45 put in place couldn't make anything stick.

So they collapsed. So listen to your witness. And Cedric did a good job. I mean, he laid it out from the John Lewis, keep his name out of your mouth. And I thought that was fabulous. But you got to listen so you can ask that follow-up question that puts them in that box. That box being, what's your evidence? Amendment. You're absolutely right. Kelly, look, first of all, you have these hearings, you're going to have craziness from both sides, people interrupting whatever.

But to me, yeah, versus trying to get there, you nail them down. In fact, in a moment, I'm going to play Jaya Pal. Karina's woman, Jaya Pal, her, she asked me to be admitted into the record that spells out how much of a joke this voter fraud deal is. But just your thoughts on today's hearing. I just think that when it comes to hearings, I feel like everybody knows what the answers are going to be. They just want it on the congressional record so that, you know, five, 10, 50 years from now, we can look back on it and see how stupid William Barr sounded under oath, no less. It is no question that voting by mail is not fraudulent. There's no risk of increased fraud by voting by mail. There have been several states for years that have always been voting by mail, specifically in the West. this is dumb. This is absolutely dumb. And and Barr included. Like, I just it's just frustrating to me how how propaganda and and and gaslighting has just infiltrated itself into our political culture and our standing in the world to the point where we have to have hearings like

this to dispel it all. But it is clear that Barr is lying. It is clear that he's a crony for the Trump administration. And we just need to do everything in our power as citizens to vote them out come November. Yes, I did. Well, one of the things, one of the things, Mustafa, as I look at this whole hearing again, I mean, you know, Barr's like, oh, no, no, I'm not sitting here. I go by the rule of law, things along those lines. But he was jammed up when it came to Portland protesters. Oh, no, we're protecting federal property. No, bottom line is you got a thug president who's thugging cheap and he's got a thug attorney general. protests in Portland had shrunk considerably before they decided to push these federal

troops, these federal law enforcement folks, into this space so that they could fan the flames. And, you know, we know what this is all about. This is about them having the pictures and the video that's necessary to go into the political campaigns so that they think that they can then stand a chance. It has been about race, race, race for years now since he first came in. He came down the escalator talking about race, and he's actually going to have race that is going to actually take him back up that escalator when folks vote in November.

I'm going to pick up what the congresswoman had to say, and so let me go ahead and play this here. Go to my iPad, please. The top cop in this country. When white men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to, quote, activate you, because they're getting the president's personal agenda done. to quote activate you because they're getting the president's personal agenda done but when black people and people of color protest police brutality systemic racism and the president's very own lack of response to those critical issues

then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers pepper bombs because they are considered terrorists by the president. You take an aggressive approach to Black Lives Matter protests, but not to right-wing extremists threatening to lynch a governor if it's for the president's benefit. Did I get it right, Mr. Barr? I have responsibility for the federal government, and the White House is the seat of the executive branch. Mr. Barr, let me just make it clear. You are supposed to represent the people of the United States of America, not violate people's First Amendment rights.

You are supposed to uphold democracy and secure equal justice under the law, not violently dismantle certain protesters based on the president's personal agenda. The gentlelady's time is expired. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask unanimous consent to also introduce into the record a report from the MIT election data and science lab which says that over the past 20 years, more than 250 million ballots have been cast by mail and the the fraud rate is 0.00006%. Without objection, Mr. Eshenthaler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And thank you, AGP. Again, some of that hearing right there. I want to go to my next guest right here, and that is we talk about what's been going on in Portland. Of course, that was a large part of today's hearing. We want to talk about in terms of what they're dealing with there in terms of these protests. Have you seen the wall of vets, a group of veterans who have come out there, joined the protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland and created again this wall of vets to protect protesters from federal law

enforcement agents earlier this week? Joining me right now are two people who are part of the wall of vets in Portland, Tessa and LaShawn Terry. How y'all doing? Good. How are you? Yeah, doing great. And so how did how did this whole wall of vets thing start? You know, how did it begin and then to mushroom to the point where they decided to come out to the protest? So me and my husband have been protesting for the Black Lives Matter movement for the past four years here in Portland. When the call from the veteran that was beat and pepper sprayed came out saying we need a wall of vets, you know, we were thinking of how we can contribute best to this movement. And that was our call. So what I did was I gathered as many people as I could at first on Facebook, but then noticed that there was a larger gathering on Twitter. I contacted

the person who organized the Twitter account. They thought that I was the me and my husband were the best representatives for this wall of vets. And so they put us in charge of the Bhutan ground here. And so what so this obviously has gotten lots of attention. And how many veterans have signed up to be a part of all events? Nationally, we have thousands of members, but in Portland, we've seen a number skyrocket from me and my wife starting a chapter here, from two people up to 3,000 members. So the need is critical

and the awareness is just getting out there, you know? Yeah, we just started this movement, like, literally on July 23rd at midnight. And we've had the numbers just skyrocket. But, you know, I keep reminding everyone that we're not the wall of moms. We don't have hundreds of moms or millions of moms. We don't have a whole population. You know, we don't have those numbers. So as many veterans

as we can possibly get, specifically veterans of color, Black leadership, that we can get into this movement. That's the main focus right now. To support Black Lives Matter. Well, and I got to ask you this here, because I've had different media people call me asking about this. We've talked about this here. There are some folks who are saying that there are provocateurs who are a part of these protests who are purposely trying to change the storyline. Others have said that white folks in Portland should stop centering these themselves and make sure that this is about Black Lives Matter. And of course, you see the response from fellow authorities as well. And so first off, who's actually in charge of these protests? Is it organized? And how are people

checking others in terms of their behavior? We had Ambassador Andrew Young on yesterday and Reverend Jim Lawson, folks who are very much involved in the civil rights movement. And they said, look, I don't care who you are. You're fighting with cops. He said they got too many of them and they got too many guns. And so how are you dealing with that to monitor or patrol this whole deal to ensure that you don't have people who are there to deliberately disrupt the march to take away from what the goal is so there's two things that we're doing right now we have a code of conduct that we're about to put out to the group like i said this is um we're right at the beginning of the you know the beginning of the center stone we're putting everything in place to make sure that we prevent these things from

happening we have a code of conduct um yes we we do organize. So me, myself, my husband, other people have been helping us organize this. And what we do every night, first leadership has been vetted to verify that we do have a military background. The other step that we've taken is to read out our expectation and our mission statement. You know, as military members, we are used to organizing quickly and being efficient at that. And I think that all of us together have been taking as many steps as we can to make sure that, first of all, our focus is Black lives. Second of all, that we are checking each other. And I think that's part of the call to leadership of color, specifically black leadership. You know, we are trying to find,

we're trying to align ourselves and also find alliances, form alliances with other black veteran groups so that we can contact them so they can join our movement. You know, Oregon in general is a very white state. So, you know, I think we represent a percentage, just literally me and my husband, the right amount of percentage out of all the vets. I think we're like less than 10 percent, you know, people of color. We represent that number. But in other states where the number is much higher, I know that the call is being put out to reach out to those right organizations so that this does not the focus of our group does not become that, how historically it has become the fight of white people,

or white people have taken charge of the fight. We want to make sure that that doesn't happen. No, it's not that. And these people in Portland have literally protested for 54 days. You know, and it's not all black people. Right. The majority of white people,

and they're having their civil liberties violated. So the narrative that there's everybody out there, they're causing a ruckus, they're trying to burn down a federal building, that's just not true. You know, we stand at parade rest to show that we are being pepper-sprayed in the front of protecting the people who we took an oath to protect. So that narrative is false. And the times when veterans are being attacked, what made us infuriated about this was that on two occasions, an older white veteran is just standing like this, being attacked, being pepper sprayed.

What provoked those federal agents? It's not the Portland Public Police. Those federal agents to treat that veteran that way. And again, it's come up, a medic, who was also pepper sprayed, point blank in the face. They are not burning a building. They're not setting a building on fire. But I think, you know, one of the main points that we try to call out as well is that, you know, just because it's white veterans that are being attacked now, that's not

the point. No. You know, it's the fact that we were called out as a wall of vets and, you know, we were always looking a way to contribute, you know, and I think a wall of vets. And, you know, we were always looking a way to contribute. You know, and I think a lot of vets are progressive vets are looking for ways to contribute. Right. And this was the right call. You know, whether it be, whatever race was that called, it doesn't matter, right?

But we just felt that call and that need. And what better way than people who have fought for this country put their lives on the line to do it? Well, it sort of reminds me of all of these right wingers who were out here who were like, oh, veterans, how dare you insult veterans with the Kaepernick kneel. Then you had vets for Kaepernick who came out and said, wait a minute, you don't speak for all of us. Here's an ad that was put out by the folks at Vote Vets that deals specifically with what y'all have deal with in Portland. Check this out.

This is not the enemy. This is not the military. This is Donald Trump's video game fantasy world, where he gets to play tough guy dictator, except real people are getting hurt. He's dressing up federal law enforcement like they're on the streets of Kabul. He's ordered them to attack American citizens like they're Taliban insurgents. He's got federal shock forces detaining people without evidence of a crime. Mr. President, here's something you'd know if you paid any attention in those briefings

or if instead of playing dress-up, you'd actually served when you were called. The United States military is sworn to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, all enemies of our Constitution, like you. To that point, you also, that was one of your veterans in Portland who talked about being gassed by these federal troops. This is what she had to say. I'm seeing, I'm not seeing any of the violence and the criminality that is coming off on left-wing news. I've been told all these things about how there was, and there may have been some small amounts of rioting and criminality. I'm not saying that it's impossible.

Obviously, there has been some. In July, there was a little bit. But the responses that I'm seeing here tonight, there are none of them. There are people who are peacefully protesting. They are executing their constitutional rights to peacefully protest. The military has spent thousands of lives. We spend our time, we serve and protect. We do not serve a king or a regime.

We serve the Constitution of the United States. That's exactly what I'm saying. This kind of heavy-handedness by the DHS is unacceptable. These are peaceful protesters. There's no criminality going on here. I've worked in security. I've been in military intelligence, and I would know what right looks like. This is fine. But I'm seeing the tear gas now, and I'm seeing people starting to, you know, DHS starting to come out. And if people are going to get beaten, that's unacceptable.

Your thoughts? So I can, so I want to be real, right? So it's like, there is kids there. There's, I mean, they're kids, right? They're like in their teens. And you see them out there and they, and they'll push up against the gate and they have these shields and they'll push up on it and they and they have these shields, and they'll push up on it, and they'll hit it, they'll climb it. There is nothing that these kids are doing that is going

to end up hurting those federal agents that are in there, that are fully dressed in combat, you know, combat dress. There's nothing. And, and even when they do that, they, most of the time, it's like, they begin by hitting the wall with their little, with their, uh, with their shields. They're chanting, you know, and, and that is maybe that's a side group. So that's not Black Lives Matter just to clarify that Black Lives Matter is on the opposite side holding their own individual protest and speaking um but they get the gas you know they throw that gas indiscriminately and it's not one or two and it's not provoked i mean every time veterans come out there sometimes they have they have to pause and they you know they get a little like, am I going to be part of something I don't want to be a part of?

But then they see the reality of it. And it's most of these attacks, if not all of them that we have seen for sure the past couple nights that we have been going, they're not provoked. Well, LaShawn, isn't that where y'all describe this code of conduct, but isn't that also

where, again, look, you don't, what you just described, Tessa, is that action over here actually is distracting from over here, because if they're doing that, cameras are going to be rolling. And that's what the right wing wants to play up. That's what Trump wants to play up. And so will this code of conduct, LaShawn, is that all about saying, look, if you come out here and you want to protest, you better be in line with what Black Lives Matter is trying to do and not out here for whatever your own little game, because what you're doing is actually distracting from what the real goal is. And that's what Trump wants wants trump wants to unleash those federal those uh those federal

agents right but i think that's with any group right you have you always have people that have their own agenda in their in any group and right which is what which is look not which is why march organizers always say we have to control the march so it doesn't get out of hand. Right. And that's something that we can definitely work towards doing because it's not all the wall of veterans. Right. Right. The wall of moms.

It's the, what's the other group? Wall of dads. Yeah. Wall of dads, you know, and they, they trying to,

I mean, it's, it's self-policing. It's self-policing. That's what, and that's, that's something that from this interview, we can work towards doing, you know, and that, that's something that, from this interview, we can work towards doing.

And that's something we control on our part. But what we need as a people is to have our elected officials control what the police officers are doing so that we don't end up in situations like this in the first place. Absolutely. This is all a response from the killing of George Floyd. Having his neck kneeled on, being protected by police officers while they killed that man. You know, this is not out of nowhere. And this anger and frustration is, I think, is justified.

You know, it is justified. 54 days for one life. And it's just baffling. This is our history in this country. It took us 400 years to get here and we're still trying to say, we're still trying to justify what a small amount of people are doing

to the rest of the world, where you can't do that no more here in Portland because these white people are here protecting the black people. If the media would show what happened, what is going on from the hours of 12 o'clock up until 1.30 and 1 o'clock in the morning, that's all peaceful protests. You know, but this very small time frame of aggravation and rage is justified to me because those police officers took a man's life. But here's the deal. But here's the deal. And I can just tell you, as somebody who's been in media my entire life, that is what is going to become the story.

That's why that video was played today in the hearing by Republicans, because it's about controlling the narrative. And that's the piece. It's all about controlling the narrative. Tessa and LaShawn, we certainly appreciate it. We look forward to having you back as we continue to monitor what happens there in Portland. Thank you so much, Roland. All right. Thank you very much. I'll go back to my panel. Kelly, I want to start with you. I mean, what they're saying, they're absolutely right. I go back, I go back to the march that took place in Memphis, Dr. King, when, so what happens is front of the march, march is going fine. Then all of a sudden, some young folks in the back of the march started smashing windows, tearing up stuff,

march all of a sudden, cops rush in, they grab Dr. King, you know, throw him into, you know, rush him into a hotel and throw him in, you know, for his safety. But this is the thing that protesters and organizers are always afraid of, a small group of people creating mayhem. There's a story out there in Minneapolis, the police say that this white guy who was seen busting windows was a white supremacist. I mean, yeah, like this happens, like you said, it happens all the time with many, almost every protest and demonstration that you see in this country. You always have that small sect that is unrelated, that has absolutely nothing to do with the core of the movement itself,

basically being a distraction. Now, sometimes it is, like the example that you just stated, it was a white supremacist doing it. Sometimes those are tactics from the other side to thwart the efforts of those who are really just trying to bring light to a specific issue. Other times it's just people who, like the previous guest said, are just frustrated youth who do not comprehend the grovement of the offense yet, who are just expressing themselves in the best way that they know how, which is just pure frustration, whether it's hitting the officer, hitting the building, graffiti, whatever. Whether the onus is on the core of the core people in that protest to mitigate that, that's up for debate. But at the end of the day, what media will do, especially people who want to capitalize on the opposite end of the spectrum, what they'll do

is they'll take those pieces of like the white supremacist covertly acting like he's part of the protest destroying property or the youth for those 20 minutes looking like they're causing mayhem. They'll take those pieces and compile it so that it looks like it's a much bigger deal than it is when it's not, which is why you need to get your information from trusted resources like this one, from trusted people, people who are on the ground, who are documenting everything through all throughout the day. Right. So that narratives like that don't hold as much strength. Michael, here's a story from the Minneapolis St. Tribune. Go to my iPad, please. Police umbrella man was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting. Police say the suspect has been identified, but no charges have been filed as of Tuesday

afternoon. I remember seeing this video and this white guy had this umbrella and he's just he's just sitting here just knocking out windows, knocking out windows. And in other videos in other cities, you had black folks who were running up to these white folks like, hey, hey, hey, we ain't doing all that. Y'all ain't representing us. And that's where, again, the self-policing comes in because you're going to have these people who are doing exactly what they want to do.

They want that video. See, there they go tearing up stuff. When? That's by design. And so that's where I keep saying to the white folks in Portland, y'all got to snatch some other white folks who you see acting a fool who's saying, yo, we ain't doing that here. And then the challenge is, clearly, when brothers and sisters see white folks not acting right, they run up to them,

and there have been countless videos of that. The question is, when you see brothers and sisters doing the same thing, you need to snatch them. And I don't think that should be considered snitching in this situation because it's hurting the larger goal of your message. And sometimes you just need to say, hey, man, you need to snatch them. They need to be snatched. But folks won't do that. They'll do it to the white folks, but they don't seem to want to do it to brothers and sisters. Well, that again, that Mustafa, I think what them are saying, we're going to have a code of conduct,

because I think what Tess and LaShawn realize is you don't want that to overshadow what the overarching message is. Yeah, and it goes back to what we always discuss. You've got to have infrastructure. People have got to know their role, and people have got to follow it. And when people don't, then you've got to check them. And when you don't check them, you allow all kinds of folks to kind of slide into your movement. And we've seen over the decades how that is never a good formula.

If you know you've got folks out there with the boogaloo seen over the decades how that is never a good formula. If you know you got folks out there with the Boogaloo or whatever the heck that movement is, and you got these other anarchists and other folks who have their own agenda, then you got to be really mindful of that, because it very easily then begins to change the dynamics, both of the narrative and of the sets of priorities that you're trying to reach. So we need to just make sure that we got ourselves in check and that we are checking the folks who say that they want to stand in solidarity with us. All right, folks, there are 97 days until the election. And today, Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, detailed a proposal to advance racial equity in the United States.

Here's what he had to say. We're going to take $30 billion of our made-in-America investment I announced earlier this year and put it into this fund. It will allow the expanded federal support for the most effective state, local, and nonprofit programs to provide venture capital and financing for minority business owners and communities in need. It will also allow us to support community development banks that have a proven record of investing

in minority small businesses. That $30 billion is estimated to leverage $150 billion in new financing and equity for more black and brown small businesses. So our Small Business Opportunity Fund supports an investment in a small manufacturer of color seeking to commercialize a new technology, for example. That helps the manufacturer get started. Then private investors, we know, notice the promise of that business and invest their private dollars as well. That helps manufacturers scale and grow. That's how we'll make sure that those with the best ideas are not denied the venture capital or financing they need because of race or zip code.

And here's why it matters. Right now, we're in the midst of one of the greatest threats to small businesses our country has ever seen. What's Donald Trump doing about it? Well, he's given big banks the green light to loan millions of dollars that they're covered for by the federal government and make millions of dollars in fees by favoring their most well-off and well-connected clients while shutting the door on smaller black and brown business without these connections.

You all remember, some of you covered when I first laid out what I thought needed to be done in the first recovery plan put forward by the Congress. I said we should use — the President should use the authority he has under the Defense Production Act to force big banks to have to lend to small businesses. They're guaranteed the loan. We bailed them out before, forced them to lend. But what did they do? Do you have a credit card with us? Have you established credit they do? Do you have a credit card with us? Have you established credit with us? Do you have a bank account with us? The list goes on. And they're

denied. The result? Billions of dollars in COVID relief programs for small businesses benefit ones who had lawyers and accountants to help them better connect to businesses, jumped at the head of the line line and the big banks accommodated. Black and brown small businesses that needed the help most got shut out. In fact, just 12 percent, 12 percent of black and brown businesses surveyed seeking help got the aid they asked for. Now, half of them say they're going to have to close up shop. And they're a major source of employment in America. Our economy can't afford for them to close. Their families can't afford for them to close. Under my plan, 50% of emergency small business relief would be reserved for the smallest businesses of 50 or fewer employers.

Right now we're talking 500. They are small business compared to the Fortune 500, but do you think most people think the neighborhood stores have 500 employees that are small business? Ride down the main streets of so many small towns around America, big towns, and see them shuttered. This would help minority-owned businesses get life-saving loans before the well-connected businesses jump to the head of the line. Michael, bottom line is, of course, the end of July, of course, the reality is that speech got overshadowed by so much today, but he is doing his best to lay out his economic plan.

Is that going to capture folks' minds, or do you think you're just getting lost in everything, and that at the end of the day, this election is going to be a referendum more on Trump than Biden? I mean, I think, you know, with a lot of voters rolling, you're probably right, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have a plan, a plan that we haven't heard in the last three and a half years about helping black and brown business. I was proud of my law school professor today. And you're right. Obviously, it hurts sometimes when you're competing against, obviously, the attorney general getting hammered on Capitol Hill. Obviously, you still have COVID-19 raging our country or ravaging our country.

But he's put his plan on the record. And keep in mind, as a surrogate, we get our talking points for the campaign. This is just step one. It's not the last you'll hear about this plan. It needs more work. And that's now he'll start getting incoming. Hey, Mr. Vice President, what about this idea? How about expanding this?

And that's what leadership is all about. You lay out a plan, and then you accept either criticism, compliments, edits, changes, expansion, whatever you need to do. It's a great first step. Kelly. To answer your specific question, whether it will gain traction or get lost in the South, unfortunately, I do feel like this particular time it will get lost, given everything that's happened today between John Lewis's viewing, Barr's hearings, what's going on in Portland. Things that actually matter, unfortunately, become irrelevant when everything else is so sensationalized. However, if his team is able to just keep honing in

on the points that matter, pushing out that message as much as they can, considering we are less than 100 days away from the election itself. I think that it will gain traction on some level and people will start to listen. Mustafa. Well, let's start with here. Communication directors, know your landscape. You know what the major events are

that are going to be coming up, that's going to be on a day. So you make sure you choose your spot well so that your message is maximized, you know, to the greatest amount that it possibly can be. You know, this particular plan is one that is beginning to walk in the direction of building power back into Black communities, Black and brown communities. So how do you do that? One of them is access to wealth, access to capital, being able to create your own businesses, housing and education. Those are the pillars that are necessary inside of a community for it to begin to garner strength. So we know that Trump, and I almost said the other word,

you know, if you look at the things that he says, if you look at the things that he says that he was going to be able to accomplish, there are two things he points to. One is that little bit of business that he did in helping some brothers and sisters come home, and the other one is the opportunity zones. And when you actually look at what's going on in our communities, there's been very little benefit from the opportunity zones. So for Vice President Biden

to begin to put a plan together to actually help people to access, you know, the wealth, the money that's necessary to make changes happen in our community is a move in the right direction. And as Michael said, you know, people will continue to build upon the bones of that to make sure by the time that he gets to election day, that it is reflective of what the needs are in black America. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk several different things. First, we're going to talk about the latest anti-Trump online ads. We're also going to talk about Omari Hartwick's upcoming hip hop film festival.

That is next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live you'll know it i don't company seek they have of course a couple of products that are really popping that is they have their virtual reality headset right here which you can also get you can just pop your phone in and check out of course VR videos you can do that also when you go to seek calm you can watch their VR video they have their course they're also their headsets, 360-degree headphones, 4D. Gamers love these. Also, Bluetooth. Amazing bass and sound to these headphones. If you want to get these, go to Seek.com, C-E-E-K.com.

Use the promo code RMVIP2020. Seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. The promo code is RMVIP2020. All right, folks. Lots of online ads jamming up Donald Trump. Roll them and let's talk about it. These are the memories COVID took from us. A child's birthday.

Time spent with friends. A first kiss. Or the big day. A homecoming game on a cool fall evening, the first day of college, or a proud graduation. Dreams of starting a business and building a legacy. Lifting our hearts in prayer and sharing our faith in God together. The blessing of a peaceful passing of an elderly parent surrounded by family. COVID has robbed America of so much.

None of this had to happen. We have suffered needlessly because Trump is a fool, a liar, and a failure. Most countries stopped it. Trump refused. It's Trump's virus now. And before it's over, a million of us could die. What we've lost reminds us of the stakes this November. It truly is a choice, America or Trump. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Texas is opening up and I'm not sure that we even have a choice. I think we have to do it. Abbott's stay at home order expired on Friday, hours after Texas reported its largest single-day total of COVID-19 deaths. I want to commend the governor for your decisive action, reopening this economy. Are you willing to take a chance on your survival for your children and grandchildren? I'm all in. Texas is in crisis mode. You flattened the curve here in Texas.

Demand is overwhelming COVID testing sites. An hour's long wait. A major federal testing site in Texas. Demand is overwhelming COVID testing sites, an hour's long wait. A major federal testing site in Texas set to close tomorrow. Even though coronavirus cases there are still surging. In the hard-hit Rio Grande Valley, the largest hospital system says they are near capacity. Since May, the state's case count has exploded. Now they have set up a panel to decide who gets treatment and who gets to just go home and die with their family. Governor Abbott, when you look at the job he's done in Texas,

I rely on his judgment. Like you'll go for Putin, Russia, Taliban, kill. Our military. The most deceptive lying president in history finally told the truth. Somehow, it was more shocking than all his deceptions. When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people. You're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. Slow the testing down?

Slow down our chance to save tens of thousands of lives. Slow down our understanding of where COVID is and how it's spreading. Slow down the steps to reopen the economy. Every single expert told him to test more and test faster. And now we know his response. Slow the testing down, please. That's why this November, more than ever, the choice is clear. It's America or Trump. The indictment of accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell reads. In some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse herself. I just wish her well. Frankly, I've met her numerous times

over the years. She pretended to be a woman they could trust all the while she was setting them up to be sexually abused by Epstein and in some cases by Maxwell herself. I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years. Maxwell would discuss sexual topics with the victim and undress in front of the victim or be present for sex acts. I just wish her well, frankly. A woman accused of being at the center of an international child rape ring. And the president of the United States says, I just wish her well, frankly.

Had enough. On November 3rd, it's time to return honor and dignity to the White House. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. So help me God. There's a television mermaid.

There's a riot in the street. If you have been waiting to break glass in case of emergency, we are there. Lying at their feet. We felt the change, it changed, but ain't it a shame how it all turned out. You know what I am? I'm a nationalist. It was a long time coming. It's a little late now I will teach my grandparents to hang on to one They don't stack up to dead till they block out the sun These white boys with money make the whole world run Can anyone on the Republican side say unequivocally black lives matter?

You and me, brother, we're the dangerous ones You and me, brother, we're the dead Let it burn, let it burn Let the motherfucker burn It's election day We have to fight until the end, though, brother. We gotta go down swinging. We are the first generation to be able to say.

I guess it's going to burn either way. You can't tell me nothing. Well, the shots been fired, but the war ain't won. These white boys with money better learn how to run. The wall hit you back, the blood hit your tongue. You and me, baby, we're the dangerous ones. You and me, baby, we're the dangerous ones. My daughter said if I was 18, I would have been out there doing it.

So get your butt out there and vote. She's 17. She's telling me what to do. So I had to do it. Black voters matter. That fed my spirit. You know what? I'm grateful that I came out.

Because I matter. Malik, excuse me, Mustafa, you've seen a lot of these folks, a lot of these ads. I mean, Don Winslow's dropping his own ads. You've seen these groups, former Republicans who are sick and tired of Donald Trump. I mean, really going at the core. They're just tired of the madness. These are extremely powerful. I mean, they're game changers, really,ers really because you know as we've said on

the show before there are other folks who should have been creating these uh and sharing a truthful narrative uh in uh trump's own words you know trump is the pied piper of death i mean i don't know how else you do how else you actually frame it out if you think about you know bounties on the heads of our soldiers and that didn't motivate people to say, what is wrong with this person? You know, now approaching 150,000 people dying from coronavirus. And because, because he actually kept putting out to folks, you don't have to worry, hurry up and open up, you know, and get people back to work. You don't have to worry about being in close contact with each other. You don't have to worry about wearing masks.

And now calling for our children to come back into these petri dishes and these crumbling infrastructures in certain schools. So that's why these ads are so important, because it puts it front and center for voters about, does this person actually care about you? Does this person have the character and the humanity that is necessary to actually lead our country? Kelly, what are you making of these ads? I'm sorry? What are you making of these ads? I'm sorry? What are you making of these ads? I echo the sentiments of Mustafa. They're definitely powerful. I just hope that they're enough, frankly, because for four years we have been inundated with lies, and it's going to take a lot more than just, you know, powerful ads. And they are very powerful ads to combat the mass misinformation that this administration has

given to the American public. We definitely need to debunk a lot of myths. We need to abuse a lot of notions. And I just hope that come November, it'll be enough. At this juncture, it's hard to say whether it is. I'm kind of skeptical in that regard but i really really hope that it is enough to to sway the american public to do the right thing and vote him out of office michael you worked with the dnc what the hell is going on does the dnc know how to do ads i mean i've literally got nothing from the dnc on anything i mean, what? Do they not have Final Cut Pro and editing? I don't get it, man. Can you explain?

No, I really can't, and I'll try not to spin too hard. My guess is that an educated speculation guess is that they have a lot of money. They've been raising crazy money over the last several quarters, beating the RNC or certainly competing with them on money raised. And so I'm hoping that one of the two things they could be doing, one is they're obviously waiting for the final 90 days. That's A. B, in some cases, usually after the conventions, you turn the bank accounts

and everything over to the candidate. And maybe they don't want to spend a lot and they want to give as much to Biden as possible. Again, just guessing. But I tell you what, these ads are powerful. And I think, frankly, at this stage, they have a lot of credibility because these are Republican groups. And so the Lincoln Project is more Republicans. Yes, I'm sure there are obviously some Democrats and independents involved. But the fact that it's his own team that are putting up these ads, it will make a difference on the fringes. Keep in mind, we know 45 has his solid, I guess we could certainly debate whether it's 30% or 32%, 33%. And then you have the solid Democratic base, which is maybe 40. And then you have the folks in the middle. And these abs are going to make a

difference or hope, I guess that's the hope, that they make a difference on the fringes and in the middle. All right, then. All right, folks. I certainly appreciate all three of you, Kelly, Mustafa, Michael. Thank you so very much for being on the pound today. All right, folks. Got to go to a break.

When we come back, we'll talk Amari Hartway's Hip Hop Festival right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Y'all, you're too early. Control room, you're too early. I ain't done. Now, play it. You want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered. Y'all, you're too early. Control room, you're too early. I ain't done. Now, play it. If you want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered, be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, election. All right, folks, election time.

That is we need to make sure that you are registered to vote. So what you do go to my iPad, go to vote.org, go to vote.org, V-O-T-E dot O-R-G, where you can check right now whether or not you are registered to vote. Here, what you can also do, you can check your registration, you can register to vote, you can vote by mail, you can get election reminders, you can pledge to register. You also have polling place locator as well as sign up for the 2020 census. All you got to do is go to vote.org. Folks, if you want to do that, don't forget the election is November 3rd. I don't know whether the clock is not going.

Let me see if I can go ahead and refresh that. I'm not sure. Yeah, here we go. Ninety seven days until the election. And we need to make sure that you are registered to vote. So please go to vote.org and do me a favor. I want every single one of my followers who are watching the show right now, I want you to ask 10 people close to you, are they registered to vote? Ask your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, mom, dads, ask your cousin, nieces, nephews, ask your neighbor, church members, frat brothers, sorority sisters, organizational members.

It don't matter. Ask them if they're ready to vote and make sure that we jack up our numbers. It was a 2.4% drop of black voter turnout in 2016. That should never happen. If you want to honor the late Congressman John Lewis, if you want to honor the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who actually had this phrase unbought and unbossed, if you want to honor the folks who are out there in the streets fighting for Black Lives Matter, then you need to be sure that you are registered to vote and you exercise your power. And so please, we can start by going to vote.org. Share it with other people as well so we can increase the numbers. Coronavirus has impacted a lot of stuff, but it doesn't mean that it has to impact our ability to exercise our power.

All right, folks, this is the fifth year for the Hip Hop Film Festival. It features stories from filmmakers who were raised in hip hop culture and highlights the importance of ownership for black filmmakers, as well as the cultural impact of hip hop culture has on a film industry.

Amari Hartwick will receive this year's Icon Living Award for his contributions to the industry. Check this out. All right, I'm going to play the video in a second. Joining me is C.R. Capers, founder of the Hip Hop Film Festival. C.R., glad to have you here. So where did this originate from? I'm sorry, say that one more time. Where did this originate from? So why did you have to start it? It got started because I am a filmmaker and I was tired of not having equitable opportunity

within the film industry. And I was also tired of my friends and other content creators who needed an opportunity to have their work picked up, distributed, put on TV screens, or even feed their families, not being able to have that opportunity. And I wanted something different than the film festivals that exist today. So that's how it started.

I started in 2016 was the first festival, And we've been growing and growing ever since and allowing for equitable distribution of our content. We've been teaching ownership and how to secure the bag with our content, especially now since content is king. So when you say it's different, how so? What makes it different? Well, number one, it's different because we actually educate our filmmakers to combine their business mind with their creative side. So one of the problems that I found

was that filmmakers didn't understand that marketing and distribution is key to the process. When they start writing that script, they have to make sure that they have budgeted out so that people understand that the movie's happening, so that they get people to come to the theaters, or so that they get picked up. A lot of content creators say, you know,

the first thing they wanna do is go to Netflix. Well, they don't understand that once they land on that platform, they still have to say, you know, the first thing they want to do is go to Netflix. So they don't understand that once they land on that platform, they still have to promote. They still have to get that message out there. They still have to bring subscribers. It's called the business in a show business. Facts. You understand

what I'm saying to you? This is the thing that is not taught to filmmakers from the culture, filmmakers of color. And we've been going all around the world every year and teaching this. So I started this festival in New York City. We've grown and now we do a world tour after New York City. So I go to West Africa, East Africa, South Africa, Europe. I go all around the world. I take the festival, I truncate it into two days, and I go out to these countries into film deserts. And we go and support filmmakers where they are. And then we

bring everybody back to New York City for an amazing celebration. Four days afresh. You can't find it nowhere else. And we're from the culture. We were born and raised in this culture, which is hip-hop. So, you know, we got the baddest festival on the block. So will this be in person or will it be virtual this year? It is.

Well, I hate the word virtual. That's a horrible word to a filmmaker. So we are coming to you live, meaning we are alive. We've survived COVID. So we're coming to you live from wherever you are, baby. We are in your homes. The filmmakers are coming from their homes. We have musical performance. We have a global rap battle for entertainment purposes, obviously. But all of these rappers from around the world are coming to entertain the filmmakers and all of our festival attendees right from where they are.

So everybody will be able to enjoy from the comfort of their home, but we're coming to you live, channel live. All right folks, then this is the actual video we were talking about. We help build this nation. Just as much as anybody else. I'm just a melanin American on a journey to accumulate wealth.

Hey, what it do, good world and beautiful fans of mine. First and foremost, God bless each and every one of you and your families. From the bottom of my heart, I mean that. I come to you with humility to share that in the midst of easily our most groundbreaking year and the truest sense of the word groundbreaking in centuries, I have been named the Icon Living Award recipient for the 2020 Hip Hop Film Festival. Yay, super honored, super humble. And if you're not too busy that night

or handling more important things, obviously I'm inviting each and every one of you to join me and Mr. Theo Rossi for what will prove to be an insightful and cool-ass conversation. Proceeds from this cipher of sorts will prove to be an insightful and cool-ass conversation. Proceeds from this cipher of sorts will go to the Harlem Film House to continue to fund and support, of course, filmmakers in front of the camera and, of course, behind. For more information, go to

hiphopfilmfestival.org. Again, hiphopfilmfestival.org. God bless all of you cool-ass fans and hip-hop heads. Peace. Our last question for you, C.R., again, give us the dates of the festival and where people can actually check it out. The festival is happening August, it begins August 6th, and we're going to be running through the end of the month, so make sure you

go to hip-hopfilmfestival.org, support stories that matter, support stories from the culture. We're dealing with enormous issues within the content as well. We also, also, Roland, just really quickly, we have the first-ever movie that is done on Africa Bambaataa since the charges dropped. It is very important that these stories are told. It is very important that it's seen from all aspects. So Hip Hop Film Festival,

this is where the stories from the culture matter and where you can see it. Please support Hip Hop Film Festival and Harlem Film House. All right, Sierra Capers, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, folks, don't forget, we want you to support

what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Joining our Bring the Funk fan club. All you got to do is go. You can support us this way. Go to Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal, which is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, vidmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. You can also send a money order to New Vision Media,, N-U-Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. I'm going to shout out the folks who have contributed to our Brenda Funk Fan Club. If you give 50 bucks or more, you get a shout out. Aaron Burrell, Jr Best to Succeed, Beverly Newsome, Brenda Evans, Carol Randolph, Casey Pitts, Clarence Stiegel Boswell, Claudia Bias, Danorne, Love to Praise Ministries, Monet Jones, Nanette Buckner, Paul Ranciere, Portia Bright, Stani, Tangler Irby,

Terry Warren, Tyrone Pettifer, Vi, Brandon, Wanda Coleman. Don't forget, again, support our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of you contributing 50 bucks or more over the course of the year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. All you got to do is simply hit us up. We've got a little more than 10,000 folks. Our goal is to get 8,800 more folks by the end of the year.

And so that's the way you can give right there. Yes, shout out to my brother, his wife, Miranda. Her birthday was yesterday. And today, my sister, LaVita, she go to iPad, please. She joins the 50 Club. And so that's my sister, LaVita Martin Marshall, right there, rocking one of the dresses I got her when she was in Ghana. And so happy birthday to my sister, LaVita.

All right, folks, I got to go. I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. We're a black owned and unbought and unbossed. Shout out, Conklin Mishulichism. Ha! 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. Music and sports. This kind of starts that in 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. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game we gotta make moves

and make them early set up goals don't worry about a setback just save up and stack up to reach them let's put ourselves in the right position pre-game to greater things start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.