#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump admin using pandemic to make $; Demanding equity in virus treatment; No relief for Black biz

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

4.13.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID-19 update; Trump admin using pandemic to make money; African Americans demanding equity in virus treatment; Florida inmates are being used to make masks for guards; Black owned small businesses face challenges in getting federal assistance during the lockdown; Black doctor who was helping homeless people gets handcuffed. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, April 13th, 2020. Coming up next on Roland Martin on the filter, the latest when it comes to COVID-19. We'll be joined by Congresswoman Yvette Clark to discuss how the immigrant community in her district is being impacted. How the Trump administration are sending back folks to Haiti and other African nations.

Folks, wait until you hear the Trump administration, how they are using the pandemic to make money. It is shameless what they're doing. A huge scoop of the New York Times also reveals how this administration absolutely failed America when it came to handling this pandemic. Also, more on why the African American community is contracting the virus at a higher rate

and how to assure equity in treatment. Florida inmates are being used to make masks, but they won't be allowed to use them. So they're making masks for guards, but they can't use the very mask that they are making. Plus, Black-owned businesses are facing major challenges in getting federal assistance during the lockdown. We'll talk about ways around it.

And a Black doctor who was helping homeless people gets handcuffed by cops in Florida in front of his house. We'll explain why. Time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. -♪ He's got it, whatever the piss, he's on it We'll explain why. 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 rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. It's on go' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo

Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know He's rolling, Martin Now

Martin Folks, the White House is currently holding their coronavirus press conference. Donald Trump is speaking. You know we're not going to carry it because he's frankly lying all the time. So it's not going to happen. As of today, there are 566,654 cases of COVID-19 in the United States and three U.S. territories. At least 22,877 patients with the virus have died, as 4,843 more than at this time on Friday.

33,743 people have recovered. In his daily briefing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo talked about the reopening. Where do we go from here? Question of reopening, which everyone wants to do and everybody wants to do yesterday. And I am at the top of that list.

We have to understand on the reopening, as much as we have this emotion, we want it to happen and we want it to happen now and we can't take this anymore and everyone feels the same, it is a delicate balance. Remember what we have to do on reopening and remember it has never been done before.

None of this has been done before. So anyone who says to you, oh, I know what we should do. I know. Yeah, you don't know because nobody knows. And that's the one thing that we have learned over and over again. And this place has never done this before. Also, you look around the world, you see warning signs from countries who have opened. And my point is to our team, I want to learn from those other countries, frankly. And I want to make sure we know from our studying and assessment of what's going on in other

countries that what worked, what didn't work, and let's learn from those lessons. You can now go back and look at Wuhan province and look at Italy and look at South Korea and see what they did and see what worked and what didn't work, so let's learn. Folks, civil rights groups sent a letter to members of Congress asking that they address two major provisions of the proposed COVID-19 relief bill

that would exclude millions of immigrant families, including U.S. citizen children. Immigrants are frontline workers leading the response to the pandemic in places like public health, agriculture, food prep and delivery, and cleaning and maintenance. Joining me right now is New York Congresswoman Yvette Clark. She is the chair of the Immigration Task Force

in whose Brooklyn district is largely made up of immigrants. Before I talk about that, Congresswoman Clark, right now, happening at the White House, it's one of the most shameful, despicable things that we have seen. Donald Trump is literally bitching and moaning about media coverage. Now they're playing a video as we speak

where he is complaining about the media's coverage. There's not been, so far yet, a single update on the coronavirus. It's all about his ego. It's all about this back and forth with Dr. Fauci, whether or not he will fire him, even though he retweeted something this weekend. I mean, I have never seen a more shameless, despicable human being occupy the Oval Office than Donald Trump. And what's happening right now is beyond shameful. Roland, you know, we have to do all of the work for our communities despite what Donald Trump is saying and what he is not doing. It is critical right now that we focus our attention on saving lives in our community. We cannot be distracted by the Donald Trump show.

He is inept. He is out of step. He is out of his league and he's in over his head. We have to look to the leadership of others within the administration, outside of the administration, and in the communities in which we live because right now, again, he is purely a distraction in this time of an emergency crisis. Well, there's a reason why we do not show,

when he is talking, we do not waste our time showing anything from his news conference because it serves no value whatsoever. If Dr. Birx or Dr. Fauci are not at that podium, then we don't play it. And so that's why we do that on Roller Martin Unfiltered. That will always be the case. If anyone disagrees with that, that's tough.

It's my show. But that's the call we'll make because this man lies way too much for us to keep giving out the information to our audience. One of the things that has happened... It's dangerous, Roland. If he continues to be misleading to the American people, lives are on

the line as we speak. Every hour that goes by in New York City, I'm hearing more and more sirens racing through the streets of my community, out there on the front lines trying to save lives. We don't have time to deal with this man's narcissism. We have to focus our energies on saving human life

in the very neighborhoods and communities in which we live. Um, one of the things that is happening is the impact on immigrants. We had a guest on Friday, Johanna LeBlanc, talked about what is happening where they're sending people back to African nations.

They sent back 68 Haitians as well. Members of Congress have said, stop doing this because you could potentially be spreading the virus there. They're not actually checking these folks before they leave. And so how they are treating immigrants

during this crisis just goes to show you this anti-immigrant administration. Well, this has been part and parcel of what we have witnessed from the day that Donald Trump was sworn in and even before then when he came down the golden escalator. But now it has far more implications beyond just, you know, the rhetoric, the ice raids and everything else.

It really means literally life and death. And as long as we have this virus in the Western Hemisphere, whether it's the United States, it's the Caribbean, it's Latin America, we will never be rid of the surge of COVID-19. So it's foolhardy for him to do through his administration what he is doing. The sad part of it is, is that real lives are on the line. And at any point in time, we send individuals who are infected with COVID-19 into these very fragile, developing nations that don't have a fraction of the health care infrastructure that we have here in the United States. We are in for a disaster in the making. to the State Department and those people of goodwill to really address this issue of deportations at this stage while we are still combating this virus,

while we are still looking for vaccinations, a vaccine that could perhaps make sure that we can save lives. There's so much work that we need to do in terms of focusing on the United States population, those within our families and our communities, and making them well enough so that traveling doesn't become a dynamic

where we are actually exporting and importing people, infected persons in and out of the United States of America. One of the things that we talked about is that the reality is there are a number of people who are immigrants who are working on the front lines, who are essential workers, who are working at grocery stores, who are working at convenience stores. All of these people who are working in the medical field, all of these people who have ignored folks like this, have trashed them.

It's amazing how millions of Americans are coming to depend on them. Well, you know, again, our economy is fully integrated. And we've just been in denial about who provides essential services in the United States of America, what the makeup and demographic of that workforce looks like, sounds like, and how they're able to be effective in our society. And we've not given them the credit nor the status that they deserve in our civil society. And now we are all paying a price for it. Because again, as you stated in the opening

of your show, Roland, these are individuals that live in blended communities and blended families. Someone in the family is a citizen, could be a child, could be a sibling. Someone in the family is a resident of the United States. They have a green card, in other words. Someone may be a DACA recipient,

a recipient of temporary protected status, or just be in between status, period. Someone is filed for them. They're here in the United States awaiting for that filing adjustment. There's so many ways in which we have not addressed residents of our communities who are immigrants, who are in between status,

and who are the most vulnerable. We have vulnerabilities, but when it gets to the point where you have a program being rolled out that has no provision whatsoever for the health and wellbeing of individuals we know live and work within our communities, we are opening ourselves up for the constant spread and circulation of this virus because these individuals will be hardest hit, will be hesitant to go and seek treatment, will be

food insecure because, indeed, if they don't work, they don't get paid. And those that are getting, those that are working as essential employees are not getting health care benefits, are not receiving PPE, the personally protected equipment, to be able to interface with the public. And we have, again, a circular disaster that is taking place with respect to the health and well-being of these individuals in particular, but our entire communities in its totality. Last question for you. New York Times had a big piece over the weekend

detailing the faults and failures of this administration. What was stunning to read is how they are essentially actually NBC News had another piece talking about how they're basically aiding and abetting corporations where the United States is paying for chartered flights for DuPont to get their material overseas a lot quicker and then bringing it back on charter flights paid by taxpayers, PPE would normally be costing $5 and then they're selling it to the federal, to the United States for $15.

And then so how in the world can taxpayers be footing the bill to make PPE faster and be paying three times more? It's a criminality at a whole nother level, Roland. Unfortunately, the Congress is not in session to be able to do the type of official oversight

that we need to do to make sure that we hold the Trump administration accountable for taxpayer dollars. We were actually just talking about that on one of our caucus calls just a few minutes ago. The issue is profiteering. We're seeing it across this nation, how the Trump administration is using the private sector to essentially drive up the cost of products that we need in order to arrest this virus, whether it's PPE, whether it's testing materials, so that they can profit from this before it even hits the ground and hits our communities. Draining the coffers of states and localities that cannot afford to purchase these products because they're being price gouged,

it's really a sin. And we know that this is typical of what we can expect from a Trump administration. through which private interests are benefiting tenfold over taxpayer dollars for essential materials that we need to save life, to preserve life, and to get through this crisis. It's really a shame and it's a disgrace. We can't say that enough,

but we're going to have to hold this administration accountable. Right now, we are in the midst of this pandemic. We are still in the midst of this pandemic. We are still in the emergency crisis phase. We're trying to move to the relief phase, and that phase is being corrupted, unfortunately, by the Trump administration. Collins, we're going to the event clock in New York.

We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me, Roland. All right, folks. I want to go right now to our panel, Robert Petillo. He is the executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project, Amisha Cross, political analyst and Democratic strategist Michael Brown, former vice chair of the DNC. those two stories over the weekend, to read the NBC report, to read the New York Times report, to see that DuPont, in order to speed up the process, the United States taxpayers are paying for private charters that cost a million dollars

when we actually have access to Department of Defense planes that cost $10,000 an hour to fly these Tyvek, the material to be have them assembled in another country. And they were flying them back. And then the federal government is letting DuPont keep 60 percent of what we're helping to pay for, and only 40% is going to the government, but we're actually paying $15 per PPE that normally costs $5. How in the hell is the federal government,

Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Mike Pence, they are aiding and abetting American companies ripping off taxpayers in the middle of an international pandemic. Well, as you know, Roland, we probably should not be surprised by any of this. This is how this administration acts. This is how they conduct themselves. And with all due respect to my good friend from New York, the oversight to this administration, they ignore oversight. There's nothing you can do. They're not going to provide any documents. They're not going to be honest about how they've run their administration. You're going to have to, as we've talked about many times, when you're talking about bringing a knife to a gunfight,

you're always going to lose. We have to bring a gun to a gunfight when it comes to oversight. Start turning off their money when it comes to their offices. Start doing things that they will feel, but they don't care when they get a subpoena. But this is how they act. This is how they're going to act for the next, I guess, nine months or so.

And then they're going to be out of office because President Biden will be coming in. Amisha, here's an actual quote from the NBC News story. Here we go to my iPad. We actually helped get raw materials supplied from Richmond, Virginia, and we flew that shit to Vietnam all so that DuPont could sell us their products, said a senior official involved in the coronavirus effort. Just circumventing the process. What Donald Trump could have done

and what I think any president worthy of their salt would have done right now is to convert a lot of our private sector leaders to actually going and interfering and getting supplies from other nations, literally having them taken off of boats as they were being shipped to other places. So I think that this president, he's showcasing exactly who he is. We're watching day in and day out him totally create an even stronger mess of what is COVID-19, and nobody should really feel at ease right now.

Robert, to watch what is happening is stunning. The nobody should really feel at ease right now. Robert, to watch what is happening is stunning. The New York Times had a big piece over the weekend that showed the levels of incompetence where they got the emails of many of these folks who were corresponding back and forth who were saying in mid-January,

this is going to explode. This is going to explode. We have a problem. Then they even had one email where a CDC official said, wait a minute, if this is correct, our models are completely wrong. To watch right now, Donald Trump is at the podium whining, complaining, showing some crazy video. He is trying to rewrite history. It is undeniable. It is undeniable that these people absolutely positively failed the American people. 22, more than 22,000 people are dead and they think it's a success if less than a hundred thousand people die. Well, to, to do a quick throwback, remember the articles of impeachment versus

President Trump. One of them was failure to cooperate with Congress, obstruction of Congress. What this administration learned from that process was they have absolutely no reason to turn over documents. There is no congressional oversight over anything that they do. There's nothing that Congress can do to constrain anything that they attempt to do. They can rule by fiat. So right now we're seeing an intercept between Keynesian economics and Friedman's concept on a large free market, where the free market is able to use government spending to stay afloat and line their pockets at the expense of the American taxpayer, running up massive deficits, which do nothing to increase employment and simply line corporate stockpiles. So we have to have a Congress which is ready

to hold these people accountable, to have hearings, to not be afraid of being on a video at President Trump's press conference, but to really have oversight over what's going on. We just gave the president a $1.5 trillion blank check where we don't know where any of the money is about to go, and we're ready to hammer through another $500 billion in spending.

And if we don't have oversight, we're going to be paying this off from our grandchildren and great-grandchildren going forward. To watch all of this play out makes it perfectly clear that if you vote for Donald Trump in November, you have no brain whatsoever.

That what you're seeing is a true thug. What he did here was he got with it. The Chamber of Commerce said, no, no, no, no. Do not employ the National Defense Production Act. Don't do that. Basically, what they're saying is let big business make all the money that they can.

Here we have nurses in New York and Massachusetts complaining about lack of ventilators. And what Donald Trump is doing, he is using the federal stockpile like pork barrel projects by saying, okay, they told Colorado not to stop your request for ventilators. Then he turns right around and says,

oh, after getting a phone call from Senator Cory Gardner, Republican, I am sending 100 ventilators. And then he doles out another set of ventilators, Michael, to the senator from Arizona who is in a very tough re-election. He literally is playing with the lives of Americans

based upon who I can dole them out to as if they are pork barrel projects. You're right, Roland. And first also let me apologize to you and to your listeners. The pollen has wrapped around my vocal cords. It's that time of year, so I apologize. I understand to your listeners. The pollen has wrapped around my vocal cords.

It's that time of year, so I apologize. I understand. We understand. I think you can hear me okay. Yeah, we got you. As we talked about last time I happened to be on, we talked about that he's playing red state and blue state politics. He does that with everything, whether it's impeachment, whether it's an infrastructure, which has not gotten off the ground. Now, with COVID-19, everything is about who's a red governor, who's a blue governor. Andrew Cuomo keeps talking about me. But if you notice, there are a lot of Republican governors who are also not pleased with how he has been conducting himself. Now, the ones deep in the trenches with him, they will always defend him.

They won't keep people at home. They want to keep their businesses open because they want their economies to be okay come November. So we can say, look, in Kentucky, well, Kentucky is a bad example because you have a Democratic governor. But the governors you just mentioned that happen to be Republican, they can say to their voters, support Donald Trump. The economy's great in our state. Don't worry about what's going on

in the rest of the country. Focus on what's happening here. We can just simply not deny what is happening here. He can play all the videos that he wants to, Robert. He can push this stuff out. But what Donald Trump cannot do, now, granted, let's be honest, he throws out fake news.

In fact, it was hilarious to watch the White House blame the media for the fire Fauci stuff when it was Donald Trump who was the one who retweeted somebody who was saying fire Fauci. And what you have here is somebody who is a he's not just a known liar. He will lie about a lie. And there's nothing you can trust that comes out of his mouth. And so he is going to play this game.

And unfortunately, his supporters are some of the most gullible people you've ever seen. And they will fall for the lie and the okey-doke every single time and swear he is the greatest thing since Jesus. In fact, they might, they actually believe that he's probably even more important than Jesus. Well, one point I wanted to circle back to is when you were discussing the patronage with the ventilators. I don't think we've done a great job explaining to people why the ventilators are so important. The way that the COVID-19 disease works is that you have a RNA strain which reproduces and therefore attacks the alveoli in the lungs, which triggers a cytokine storm, which triggers inflammation and fluid within the lungs. As the lungs try to push the fluid through the system,

just like when you're lifting weights with any muscle, they wear out and can no longer operate on their own. Without these ventilators, which cost between $25,000 and $50,000, and now with intrastate bidding, sometimes up to $75,000 per unit, per ventilator, the only thing that can allow a person to maintain respiration long enough for their immune system to fight off the virus are these ventilators. And even with that, 70% of people worldwide who go on to ventilators end up dying from the virus, of the number of people who have recovered thus far. So when we talk about giving out ventilators based on political preference, you are literally deciding life or death. It's not as if these people just want this as a luxury item or if it's something nice to have. And then there's these discussions about manual ventilation, which causes a barrel disease where the entire,

you rip the lining of the lungs and the person dies anyway. Or when they talk about splitting the ventilators, what you have to do is put both parties into a comatose state so that their bodies can be on the same rhythm with the ventilator in order for them to split that ventilator. So we have to have these apparatuses in production. We have the Defense Production Act, what we could have put in place in January, to allow some of these industries that have the ability to take publicly available plans, retool and get them out there to the public. But instead, we're doing this dog chases a tail thing, where we, for some reason,

do not wanna believe in medical science, do not wanna believe the research that comes out. And we're so busy talking about magical pills and voodoo prescriptions that are gonna magically save everybody, that we aren't doing what we know is actually effective. Amisha, what people need to understand is that what we are facing right now is a dysfunctional government that is favoring the rich over those who are in need. We have a government

led by Donald Trump that truly does not care about people. This is a man who will stand at that podium, will not say anything comforting to the people who have lost lives. 4,000 more people died since this point Friday. That means a 9-11 tragedy happened over the weekend and all this man can do is to stand at a podium and bitch about his media coverage. Like right now, this has been, they started, I believe this briefing started at five o'clock. The tweet said, the briefing was at five o'clock Eastern. Right now, it is 6.31 Eastern,

which means they have been talking for an hour and a half and no real coronavirus update. It's all about his ego. The numbers are what they are, and this president cannot reshape or redefine what's happening in this country. So he would rather use his attacks on the media. That has been his focus for a very long time. It was his focus when he was running for election. It's been his focus since he got to the White House.

His favorite news channel is now OANN, One America News. He is no longer a fan of Fox. And he is utilizing them and their platform to help to rally his base. He wants to take as much attention off of his poor leadership and his response to COVID-19 as possible. He is attacking, and as you stated earlier with his retweets, that was a direct attack and a level of support for the removal of Dr. Fauci. He is someone who does not want to, one, give the governorship in the governor states where it's actually working. He doesn't want to give them credit for the work that they're doing. He also doesn't want, he wants these states to have to compete for federal attention. He wants to be the president who only helps those who he considers his friends. If you are a Republican who has fundraised, who has said nice things about him,

you can expect to see your ventilators. If you are not someone who has been on that side, then you can expect to suffer and your people will die. That is essentially what President Trump is telling America. He gets to pick and choose who is worthy of living and who is worthy of dying. And right now, he feels as though if you're not a Republican who has stood by him and who will carry his water, then you don't matter. If you're a Democrat, you definitely don't matter. And we're watching the fallout across communities of color, immigrant communities, and communities across the United States.

All right, folks. And again, an ad posted on social media reminds us who we're dealing with in the Oval Office right now. Midnight in Washington. The lights are finally going out in the Capitol after a long day in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. You can't trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can't. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can't.

He will not change. And you know it. History will not be kind to Donald Trump. I think we all know that. Not because it will be written by never Trumpers, but because whenever we have departed from the values of our nation, we have come to regret it. And that regret is written all over the pages of our history. If you find that the House has proved its case and still vote to acquit,

your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history. He has betrayed our national security. He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less. And decency matters not at all. We have proven Donald Trump guilty. Now do impartial justice and convict him. and convicted. While we air that, well, Donald Trump is actually suing local TV stations for airing ads such as that because he doesn't want the people to actually

see and know what he's actually done. As we've been saying on this show, the documented health disparities between racial groups in the U.S., including higher rates of chronic diseases and lower access to health care among blacks compared with whites, is making some African Americans

more vulnerable to COVID-19. Joining me right now is Dr. Sidney Coupe, internal medicine physician and founder and CEO of Coupe Quality Clinic in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And so, Dr. Coupe, you've been studying, working on these type of issues all across the world. And so just what makes it different

when it comes to African-Americans? What's happening here? Yeah, well, Roland, thank you so much for the opportunity and the platform to share with everyone. You know, as you know, health disparities is not something that's new to us. It's something that we've been dealing with for decades, actually. And we are aware, we know a lot what's causing health disparities. And it's important for

us to understand what health disparities is, because a lot of times we throw these sexy words out there and we just don't really get a good sense of what they are. But for me in the front lines, what that means is this, is that there are people who are dying, that there are a group of individuals, African-Americans, for instance, and Latinos, they're dying more than their counterparts in the same situation. They're getting sick more than their counterparts in the same situation. And I'll give you an example. Someone with high blood pressure. We know that high blood pressure causes kidney disease, heart disease, strokes. And in the African-American community, I mean,

we're almost at 40% more likely to suffer from high blood pressure than our counterparts in America. So this is definitely something that's concerning. And so when you're looking at it in the spectrum of the COVID-19 pandemic, all it does is it shines a light on the disparities that we have already had in our country. So for me, as a primary care doctor and Roland, you know, I deal with this every day.

The fact that I'm a Black physician in this community in itself is addressing health disparity because I'm likely to provide the best care and the quality care for someone who looks like me. And studies have shown this already. And so there are other things that we need to look at in terms of addressing health disparities. But in the setting of COVID-19,

the issue is that we expected to know that us in African-American community, as well as Latinos, we would probably be the ones suffering a lot more because of these existing health disparities and health care disparities specifically, which is the services that's provided to them. And it's sad to say is that because of our race and ethnic background, it's proven that, you know, we don't get the best care that we deserve. And so when I hear about this health disparity discussion, you know, it's a very complicated and complex conversation that requires a lot of different disciplines. But for a physician, I believe that what we can do is making sure that every single African-American Latino that comes to our office, or I see in the office or in the hospital needs to get the best care that they can get.

And so, Roland, for me, you know, health disparities is something that I think we can address. And that's the culprit on why a lot of our people are dying in the community from this COVID-19 infection. And a lot of them are getting more sick than they really need to be. And so when you have diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes in our community, therefore, this put these people at higher risk of getting infected, and worse,

getting into severe illness with the infection. Do you think... I mean, you heard Dr. Anthony Fauci. You heard the Surgeon General, Jerome Adams. You heard them talk last week. Do you actually think that this country has the guts to actually deal with this issue? It's no different than what we're seeing

with coronavirus that's exposed to everybody when it comes to the gaps in our education system. It's no different than what we're seeing when it comes to people who in our education system. It's no different than what we're seeing when it comes to people who are now depending upon essential workers who are not even getting paid a living wage. It's no different than what we're seeing when it comes to so many things that this coronavirus

has shown us. Will this nation use this moment to deal with this issue? Do you actually have faith that leaders will? Well, you know, Roland, I have no choice but to have faith. Okay. I have no choice but to have faith. In fact, if we don't have faith, then there's no point. I do believe that this is an opportunity that we have. We have an opportunity to look at these disparities that we're noticing. We have an opportunity to look at the folks who are more vulnerable in these situations

and to actually do something about them. You know, I can tell you from where I stand, I try not to wait for others to do for us. We have to do for ourselves. And so for me, in my community here in Fort Lauderdale, you know, we decided to take matters into our own hands. And we started our own task force to address where are the needs and where are the gaps around testing, around people

getting the treatments that they need. And access to healthcare in general is a big issue in our country. You know, there's a lot of people who are uninsured, people who don't have or underinsured, who don't have all the care that they need. And there are people who have, you know, no documentation for them to even exist in our country so they can get the care they need. So there's a lot of issues in terms of access in healthcare. So for us here, we decided to develop a membership model, which we call direct primary care.

And this model gives people access to basic primary care that they need for them to live a quality life. And because I'm able to do that here in my small ecosystem, that's how we begin. And, you know, previously the representative talked about communities, focusing on our communities. This is how we have to be able to win this game against health disparity and ultimately against COVID-19 pandemic, is to look at our communities. What are we doing? You know, supporting the folks down there on the front lines,

either the local policymakers or local, you know, health techs, doctors, nurses. We need to support them. And looking at how they can better do their work more effectively and more efficiently. And if we do this one person at a time,

one community at a time, I believe we can address health disparities. And if we do this one person at a time, one community at a time, I believe we can address health disparities. And as I mentioned before, you know, here in Fort Lauderdale, we've been addressing this for quite some time. I've been working for over 10 years with an ethnically and linguistically diverse community here in Florida. And so to be able to support them in the way that I do, to provide them the quality level of care that they need and they deserve, this is exactly what we need more of in order for us to address this long term. and I want to support them in the way that I do, to provide them the quality level of care that they need and they deserve, this is exactly what we need more of in order for us to address this long term.

Well, and also what has to happen, this is the final point for you, what has to happen is you need nation's leaders listening to Black doctors, listening to people who are quite familiar with this here. We had a doctor from Harry on last week when Dr. Fauci said they were just learning that asthma was an underlying threat

or condition for coronavirus. And we came back from the news conference and the doctor said, they could have asked any black doctor anywhere in America and they would have told him that. And this guy said, we've been yelling that for five weeks here in Nashville. He's like, maybe next time

listen to a Meharry Medical School. He's like, maybe next time listen to him at Harry Medical School. You know something, Roland? Great point. One of my theories is that I don't speak to people who don't have skin in the game, right? So these folks who go out there and theorize and give them their opinions, that's fine. But for right now, I can tell you, your platform is giving us an opportunity to share, an opportunity to speak up. Because what's happening as practitioners, we're the ones that have the unique perspective that will address, eventually address some of these concerns and these gaps that exist.

And so absolutely, I think, you know, you could ask any Black doctor working in a diverse community, we'll tell you, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, those are the things that's running rampant. And one last thing, you know, when you think about prevention and when you hear data such as, you know, close to 30%, over 30% of black women die from breast cancer more than white women do. That's staggering.

That's disturbing for a doctor, for someone who's in healthcare. And so what can I do? And what I've done for that is that I've screened all the black women in my practices. So these are some of the things that I can do in my ecosystem. But again, Roland, as you previously alluded to,

this problem of health disparity, it requires multiple disciplines, requires policy makers, require business folks. We all need to work together as a multidisciplinary unit in order for us to address this. But again, we need to start somewhere. And if everyone does their part and you create these platforms for us to speak of in what we see in the front lines, and this is how I think ultimately we will win this game against health disparities.

Well, Dr. Goupet, we probably had in the last five weeks some 60 different guests on this show. Nearly all of them have been African-American. Y'all are not hard to find. I have no idea why MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, and the rest of these people seem to make it so hard. But when the White House last week talked about what's happening with the black people, and then the New York Times put it on the front page, oh, it was real easy to find black doctors. Part of that, and let's

just call it what it is, part of it also deals with the bigotry and the racism that exists in mainstream media, where they only see us when it's a black story. But they don't think to actually have black experts who could have been talking about these things because y'all

can also still talk about just stuff beyond black people. I mean, the body is the body. Health is health. And I think had mainstream media done that, it would have hurt African-American physicians and doctors and scientists raising these issues in February and March and not waiting for a White House news conference in April. You know, Roland, great point.

And I have to tell you, and I'll share this personal story about you, about me, for instance. I'm Haitian-American. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, by Haitian immigrants. My parents sacrificed their entire life to give me and my family, my brothers and sister, a great education in America.

And I've devoted my entire career in terms of believing in creating a possibility that did not exist from my lens, which is that everyone deserves quality care no matter where they live. And that is where I stand. And so you can tell based on my track record and everything that I've done, I've studied, and I've got a public health degree,

I have health policy degrees, you know, I've educated myself appropriately to be able to understand the issues. And so absolutely, I can certainly talk about the issues from different perspectives, but again, I think this is about humanity. And if we cannot address issues about humanity and identifying people for who they are

in terms of what they can bring into the conversation without actually identifying them with a race or an ethnic group, I think we could probably do ourselves a favor. And so I absolutely agree with you, Roland. I think you made a very good point. I think we need to look at what is the issues around why isn't there a representative of the people that look like us? And, you know, as a doctor, I'm a role model. You know, I remember going back to Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, New York,

you know, speaking to the kids there and letting them know that they too can become a doctor. And so as a role model, it's important for me to be visible. And again, I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we are, what we're doing in the world and the impact that we're having, Roland. Well, that's why we do it. Dr. Capay, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Thanks a lot. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, folks. And again, for those of you, this is why we do what we do. We need you to, of course, to support what we do. Our cash app is dollar sign RM unfiltered.

PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartin unfiltered. Your support is critically important for us to keep doing what we do every day. We're not here just to do a one-time special or just to do it every now and then. Every single day, we are here giving you the kind of coverage that you're not finding anywhere else. One of the issues we've also been focused on is what happens when it comes to black business having access to various contracts. Well, there's equity in that treatment. Remember, we get the story where Congresswoman Bonnie Coleman, as well as the National Urban League and others, complained that the Trump administration was suspending the affirmative action provisions in place in the Department of Labor.

Well, there are black-owned companies who are providing services, but they can't even get access to what's happening in the federal government. But, of course, if you're DuPont, you can make millions and millions because you got access. Joining us right now is Reginald Swift. He's founder and CEO of Rubik's Life Sciences. And Reginald, glad to have you here. You have been having difficulty trying to get access to procurement, and you have products that can actually help people in this moment.

Please share with us what you've been dealing with. Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Roland, for having me on the show. I definitely agree with the sentiments about the coupé of making sure that we have a continuum of care. And that starts with the innovation itself, right? We are an innovative company. Our research

and development, and we focus on really how do we make sure that we design personalized care for people of color and minorities to efficaciously create better health outcomes? So what we are looking to do, right, not just from a service side, but also product side, is being able to support many of the physicians, the doctors, NIH, federal agencies on specific activities and products and consumables that they actually need to be able to mobilize their ways of testing. And we've been, yeah,

having our struggles early on with the CDC when we first detected the coronavirus that came up from overseas to the U.S. And many of our struggles have been really tied up, not just informing the federal agencies, but also mobilizing in ways that we can stand up policy and devices that can actually put these things together. Mind you, we actually created a specific mask that could detect two strains of the coronavirus back in January. And this was when we first started

identifying the strain level from what we saw from the animal models. Hold on, hold on. You say your company has created a mask that you can put this mask on and it will detect the two strains of the coronavirus? That's correct, yes. Wow.

We've done that. We actually retrofitted one of our devices that we actually had back to protect the two strains of the coronavirus? That's correct, yes. Wow. We actually retrofitted one of our devices that we actually had back when a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer, lymphatic cancer. He unfortunately passed away before we actually had the opportunity to get it into clinical trials. But we used that platform to retrofit the innovation to then target towards COVID-19 or coronavirus

for as many people know. And many of what we actually are doing is to say, not just we are able to invent these things, but we're also able to source consumable product that 3M is making, that many other organizations are making that are on the market and we can help communities of color at the same time. And just as Dr. Coupe said, we mobilize our own way to make things happen for us,

not just wait for them to drop down the bullet to say, now we're ready to give you some opportunities. We're just doing it on ourselves. What about testing? Any luck whatsoever there in trying to get to the CDC to get on the federal level to assist with that? So I'm glad that you asked. So many of what we're actually accomplishing is not just being able to just network with the CDC, but we're also focusing on obtaining material. We actually have one million tests available that we can actually go into the communities right now and test one million people.

So we're not waiting for the CDC to come to us to say, OK, can you disperse your product to many of the communities that need it? Because what we saw is that many of the resources that they do have for the Defense Production Act aren't going to Michigan. They're not going to Chicago. They're not going to Louisiana. They're not going to many of the majority states that have the majority of African-Americans. So we're mobilizing our ways to get into these, you know, Department of Public Health groups to say we're here and we're here to help you. And we can stand up a million tests.

So y'all have, okay, so explain. So you say you have a million tests. You have the ability to administer and process them? So, yes, we can actually mobilize both from a processing standpoint and as well as a detection standpoint on being able to say whether you have COVID-19 or not. And it was actually, you know, we got lucky because it actually came from a connection of ours from the Air Force in which we were able to source a million of these test kits. So we're able to we have a million in our shelf right now that we're ready to just19 that you can be that you can administer and process. That's correct. Yes. Wow. That's right. And and and you haven't and you haven't been.

So what happened? Do you need to get approval from CDC or so? No. So, you know, I'm glad that you asked. So the products in themselves are already approved by the FDA. So we don't need to have any specific direction from the CDC to mobilize any contingency to stand anything up. All we need is to have collaboration between a physician network, you know, healthcare provider network, and just people who actually want to mobilize people to really get tested. That's all we're waiting for. Wow.

And so when you hear Donald Trump a month ago in the Rose Garden say, oh, we're going to have drive-through testing at CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart parking lots, but then we don't see it, that surely you're like, wait a minute, we're ready. What are y'all going to do? That's right. And what we, I mean, one of the things that we realized up front, and as we even became on the, as we logged on and we became a part of the White House Task Force,

and yeah, we're on the task forces as well, we realized that many of the sentiment and the intent of what we expected to happen wasn't going to go in that direction. So we wanted to then shift our gears to say, let's mobilize community action and community groups that want to be able to say, listen, from a person that is actually on the ground, boots on the ground, that have done this work before, we've actually done this type of mobilization overseas. We did this in India. We did this in Nigeria. We did this in Morocco for infectious disease. So when we're looking at the issues here, we're confused as to how we can even get in front of the right people to really help mobilize these tests because we've done it effectively overseas for infectious disease, for even ones that you have to put a suit on.

We're talking about the whole suit from head to toe. Questions from my panel. Who wants to be up? Amisha, Robert, and Michael, who's got a question? I do. I'll go. Amisha, go first. I think I'm extremely interested. Well, first of all, thanks for all of your work.

I'm extremely interested in the testing project you're doing with the mask specifically. Why hasn't that... Is that something that you're looking to have mainstream to catch on with some of the national organizations? Is that something that you've had conversation with around pushing with the CDC?

How does it work beyond the work that you're doing? No, of course, of course. So we actually have one prototype and this was of the mask, right? So one of the things that we actually did back in January was we sent this mask out to the Philippines and we got enough data points to say from a efficacy level, or how much does it work towards detecting this strain or two strains,

we saw from 44 different patients that it did, at least from 96% of the time, it detected it correctly, and it detected it accurately. So once we got enough of those data sets, we're compiling the report as we speak right now so we can send it to the FDA so we can get this prototype approved for Emergency Use Act. So once we are able to do that, we're looking to scale up the manufacturing of our prototype to then design it in a way that many, many other groups can use across the nation,

not just focusing on what we're doing here, because it's no good on the shelf. Michael. First, congratulations for all the great work you have done. Thank you. How do you do your, how have you monetized the kits? Is it proprietary? You can't tell us how much you charge or how does that part work? As far as the kits that we're able to source, it's as competitive as many of the other kits that we have right now, I mean, as you can see on the market. So it's not really proprietary. It's really just the same amount that we could charge. But, again, these were already bought and paid for because of our connection with the U.S. Air Force. And because there was a direct link to say they were actually going to try to mobilize these test kits, but eventually that became a part of the surplus, we now have a million in stock that we just need to use.

Robert. Got it. Thank you. Yeah, with regards to your supply chain issues and regulatory issues, who have been the partners you've worked with in both the legislature and the regulatory offices in order to try to fast track this? What we saw is when the president heard about hydrochloroquine and chloroquine on Twitter, for example, all of a sudden he was able to push that through into wide scale testing almost immediately. Who have you been working with and who would you like to work with in order to put more pressure to get this fast tracked? Well, I'm glad that you asked. So we have a lot of great collaborators. We actually, I made some great collaborators, made some great friends from UVA, Dr. Ebony Hilton

and Dr. Leanne Webb. They're helping us mobilize opportunities within the hospital provider supply chain, within the Virginia legislator and the groups down there. For us, it's been a struggle because we've actually tried to interface with Dr. Ayanna, I mean, with Ayanna Pressley and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Yet, you know, it seems to be a slow traction of trying to be able to get them in front of us and say, listen, this is what we did. Hold on. You're trying to reach Congresswoman Presley as well as Senator Warren to do exactly what? So we're trying to be able to mobilize from their standpoint how they can help push our vehicle forward so we can get into many other states, as well as being able to use the resources of Massachusetts

so we can use our testing kits to get into communities like Lawrence, Massachusetts, or Dorchester, Massachusetts, or, you know, Jamaica Plain, to really stand up programs to get our testing kits available to these guys that are in need. So you've been able to get into other states, but you have issues getting into Massachusetts? Yeah, ironic, isn't it?

No, no, that's fine. First of all, you got to understand, that ain't nothing but a text message. So I just want to be clear, you're trying to get into Massachusetts and you're trying to get access to Congresswoman Pressley as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren, right? That's correct, yes.

Okay, all right. Well, that ain't nothing but a text message. But go ahead with. Okay, all right. Well, they know I'm a text message, but go ahead with your answer. Go ahead. Okay, no, I definitely appreciate it. And we actually tried to mobilize an opportunity within Detroit and as well as Chicago, but yet we face a lot of higher scrutiny

to be able to mobilize the same drive-thru types of activities that 3M and many other pharmaceuticals companies are able to mobilize the same drive-thru types of activities that 3M and many other pharmaceutical companies are able to do. But for us, it seems to have that slow walk to approval. So one of the things that we've been able to do is to try to find a way to work with many of our collaborators to help mobilize ways to get in front of individuals such as yourself and many of your panelists.

Well, here's what we'll do. This is just real simple. What we'll simply do is we'll just simply connect you with Congresswoman Karen Bass, who's chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and then, again, all the CDC members are there, and so that's very easy to do. I appreciate it. Thank you

so much, Roman. Okay. All right. Panelists, any more questions? I would just like to say if he needs any assistance, the Rainbow Push Coalition, of course, we would be glad to speak with him and make any connections that we can. So if he would like to reach out to me, I'll send him my email address and contact information

on the back end. Alrighty. Sounds good. Reginald Swift, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Roland. It's been a pleasure. All right, folks. Got to goinald Swift, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Roland. It's been a pleasure. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, more Roller Martin Unfiltered. We're going to talk about this crazy story out of Florida.

Inmates making masks for correction officers and not for themselves? This country has lost its damn mind. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roller 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 Roller Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roller 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. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now,

I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago and I saw This guy who had this this pocket square here and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square This is how the Japanese Manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect So I'm gonna take it out and then place it in my hand So you see what it looks like and I said man, this is pretty cool And so I tracked down that it took me a year to find a company that did it.

And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, it gives you that flower effect like that but if I wanted to also unlike other because if I flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture so therefore it gives me a different look so there you go so you actually want to

get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this Martin shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather

pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, that goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club.

Folks, as the number of positive coronavirus cases among inmates in Florida's prisons continues to climb, some inmates who remain in good health are being assigned to make masks to prevent the spread of the virus, but not for each other, at least not at first. What's crazy, Michael, the guards get them first. Well, I don't think that should shock any of us.

Again, this is how folks have been conducting themselves. And I don't want to make it seem like it's only people of color, because it's not a race issue. It's a socioeconomic issue. So if you are incarcerated, it doesn't matter necessarily what you look like. The fact that you're in jail, you're less than anybody else. In particular, a guard.

A guard needs to be protected, but the inmates don't. That's clearly the philosophy. And by the way, on your pocket squares, Roland, that's the first time I've seen that commercial. Very nice. On your website, is there like a catalog of colors? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they got the colors. But trust me, ain't that many purple and gold. I mean, there's a purple, there's a gold. And so you can buy two if you want to have your little frat colors.

Amisha, what's nuts about this whole deal is if you're in prison, why can't you buy some damn mask? This is... this is outrageous, but not more outrageous than a few months ago. Well, a few weeks ago, I guess, we also saw prisoners making hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer they also were not allowed to use. So we're... we've been using prison labor for a long time to provide for things that are great for,

you know, human necessities and things that we need in times of crisis that prisoners themselves were barred from having. So this is par for the course in jails and prisons across this country. It's just really sad considering how coronavirus is running rampant amongst that population. Bottom line, what we're seeing is...

We're seeing, Robert, people taking advantage of others in a situation like this as well. I'm sorry, if you're the state of Florida and you're supposed to be buddy-buddy with Trump, Governor DeSantis, you should be able to get masks for corrections officers. Let's call this what it is, a slavery. We have a group of people who are captive, who cannot leave, who cannot seek other employment. And for that reason, they're exploited for low-paid labor. No different than being paid a small amount for picking cotton

or for being paid a room and board for working a sugar cane plantation. This is modern-day slavery, which is going on. And we have to understand that many of these people, when we think of inmates, we think of rapists and murderers and robbers. There are a lot of people who are in jail on nonviolent drug offenses for financial crimes, for all sorts of other crimes. So the idea that they should simply be stripped of all human rights as a result of them being in a state of involuntary servitude is against the fundamental natures of America. And I do think that a congressional black caucus can step in on many of these things because most police departments and sheriff departments are dependent on federal funds.

They are dependent on federal funds in order to have federal equipment, to have training and other aspects of running their local departments. And if they demand that all nonviolent offenders be released, put on the ankle monitors during the duration of this outbreak, or else these jurisdictions will not get federal funds, I think we'll see these things go away a lot quicker. Folks, a doctor who's been testing the homeless in downtown Miami for COVID-19 said he was handcuffed by police outside of his Miami home on Friday morning while he was placing old boxes on the curbside for pickup.

Watch this video. Nå er det en av de fleste som har kastet seg i denne filmen. Now keep the video going. Keep the video going. Keep the video going. Dr. Armand Henderson was highlighted in a Miami Herald story two weeks ago for his work with the homeless during the pandemic. He said the officer released him from the handcuffs and went on his way after the doctor screamed for his wife who came outside

with identification. I mean, this is the craziness, Robert, that black people have to deal with for some reason. So you are questioning who this guy is who's doing these various tests.

Under what authority do you have? Well, we have to understand that we have never decriminalized blackness in this country. No number of degrees, no number of articles, or no amount of work can change the fact

that you are a black man in America. I've told this story on air before where I was coming home from class in law school and they'd have a gun to my head on the hood of a Chicago police department car until they saw my law school ID. So this happens to black men in this country. It's a level of dehumanization, which is meant to ultimately

keep people in their place. And that is the whole goal of over-policing, to keep people in their place. Amisha, the police chief has ordered a probe into this handcuffing of Dr. Armin Henderson, who's an internal medicine physician at the University of Miami Health System. And now here's what's crazy. Here we go to my iPad. Henderson said, quote,

his biggest concern about the up-close encounter was that the cop, the Miami-Dade police sergeant, wasn't wearing a protective mask when Henderson said the sergeant got all up in my face. And this is after the police chief in Miami-Dade announced that six cops tested positive for coronavirus. Amisha, go ahead. This is just completely ridiculous.

First and foremost, the officer was out of line in terms of not being equipped himself, recognizing that across that policing unit, there were several people who had already contracted coronavirus. But in addition to that, I was just speaking with someone last week who was a student. There are student groups across the country that are doing street medicine. And the majority of these student groups are led by white students who are medical students who are actually working and

trying to help and provide some levels of care for the homeless population. They don't encounter any of what we're seeing happen here. So I think that we do have to hone in on the fact that he was targeted because he is an African-American male, that he himself was putting himself at risk. We all know this because you never know when you're, you know, encountering and you're doing these donations and you're building up to help people whether or not you're going to contract this yourself. He is out here trying to be a do-gooder to do things for a population that most people have forgotten, a population that continues to grow across America,

a population that in Miami has one of the largest homeless populations in the country that is not being seen or taken care of. So I think that there's a lot at play here. And with all respect to the doctor for being able to even take it upon himself to do this type of work, it's really upsetting that even when you're trying to do good in the midst of a global pandemic, you're targeted by the police. Michael, let me read this here. The police chief said, let me provide a little bit of context of what was going on here. We have had a litany of

complaints pertaining to illegal dumping. Now, also, I want y'all to play the video from the beginning. The commissioner from that area has received many complaints as well from the constituents. There is a, go ahead and play the video, please. There is a cargo van that's parked in front of that home where there appears to be trash that's being offloaded.

That is the genesis of the stop. Now, what's happened after that was being discussed. The action is taken, et cetera. All that needs to be investigated and it will be investigated. OK, but here's I'm trying to understand. We are watching the video from the beginning. I'm sorry. How does the officer who's coming from...

Go back to the beginning of the video, Mike. Go to the beginning of the video, folks. Michael, here's what I find to be interesting. I find it to be interesting. The officer is coming from another direction. He cannot see what's in the back of the van. So how do he know this guy's taking out trash? Michael?

He doesn't. As usual, we just don't get the benefit of the doubt. You can imagine, if that was a person of another persuasion, clearly things may have happened differently. But we don't get the benefit of the doubt here in America, as Robert was talking about. And that's pretty much what happened to this doctor. And it's a shame. And you know what's even more of a shame? Every day when you do your show, you have these crazy videos of police, of white people treating black folks unfairly.

It's just the nature of what's going on in America in 2020, and it's a damn shame. Yep. It's a shame. Absolutely that. All right, folks, here we go to my iPad. Friday, we have Reverend Dr. Freddie Haynes on the show. This is the graphic we have of our video

that's on our YouTube channel. Don't tempt God. This is Dr. Freddie Haynes to black churches. Don't tempt God and end up conspiring with our own death. Have hashtag Easter at home, okay? Now, I talked about how I encourage folks to check your parents, check anybody, to get them not to go to church,

not to tempt this whole thing. That's what I said. But I told y'all some hard-headed people. This is the headline on the New York Post. Virginia pastor who defiantly held church service dies of coronavirus. And yes, he's black. And I called him an idiot on Twitter. And I got a couple of people who are taking exception. They're like, Roland, you shouldn't call him an idiot on Twitter. And I got a couple of people who are taking exception.

They're like, Roland, you shouldn't call him an idiot. That's not fair to his family. No, I'm going to call you an idiot. Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of Richmond's New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, who is now dead because this was the quote i firmly believe that god is larger than this dreaded virus you can quote me on that repeating it a second time to clap saying that people are healed in his church. Robert, he dead. Now, here's the deal.

Somebody tweeted me, said, Roland, you can't call that man an idiot for his beliefs. Yes, I can. Because there are numerous other diseases that people get. And you can't say, well, God's still bigger than those diseases. You also can't ignore the knowledge

of the doctors and the nurses and the scientists in your congregation as if that don't matter. I'm sorry. If you are a black preacher and you are a preacher of any color and you are holding church service, Robert, are a preacher of any color, and you are holding church service, Robert, in the midst

of an international pandemic, you are a fool and an idiot, and you are threatening the lives of your congregation. Well, Rome, because of my relationship with sin, I cannot agree with you on calling people idiots, because I'm right on that borderline between

and right now, you know, no one would know which way we're going to go, depending on how the weekend goes. But one thing Reverend Jackson has pushed for the last several weeks leading up to Easter is our hashtag, which was worship in place. Trying to get pastors to understand that, look, if you have to set up an iPhone, an iPad, if you have to get young people in your ministry to go to some of the elder people's houses to set up technology for them to be able to access their church services. It is important that we protect the most vulnerable in our community, the sick and shut in, the elderly, from this virus. Because despite what the news media has said in the beginning, despite much of the propaganda,

black people are dying at a rate far higher than any other group. If you look at Chicago, where you have 70 percent of deaths being black folks, New Orleans, where 70% of the deaths are black people, St. Louis, where 100% of the deaths are black people, this is a deadly serious pandemic. Just last week, we've had coronavirus become the number one cause of death in America, passing heart disease and cancer on a day-to-day basis. So many people have for a long time thought that somehow our melanin would shield us from certain viruses. But if you look at the underlying conditions in our community, the comorbidity with obesity and diabetes and heart disease associated with it, the respiratory effects of it, we look at the rates of smoking in our community,

both tobacco and marijuana. This was a perfect storm to kill people in the black community. And I think we've had something like six or seven pastors in the last two weeks die in the black church from COVID-19 related complications. This should be a wake up call to all the look, the money in the collection plate

is not going to be any use to you if you're in a casket. And people won't be able to attend your funeral at this point because they won't be able to congregate. They'll have to watch on the live stream, them putting you in the ground, which means you could just have the live stream and you've been alive in the first place. Amisha, he announced that he happily violated the state order of convening with more than 10 people. He said, quote, I am essential. I'm a preacher. I talk to God. This was his church

talking to the congregation on Sunday. Good morning. Should I just say morning? My NBC family and all my brothers and sisters in Christ. All right, y'all, we're trying. The volume is extremely low.

Let me see if I can try to crank it up. So this is the announcement. Go ahead. It's with an exceedingly sorrowful and heavy heart that I come to you this morning and regret to inform you that on last night, April the 11th, at 9 p.m., our father, Bishop Gerald Glenn, transitioned from labor to reward. Since I can't lie, the first thing I asked God was why.

But Bishop has taught us that God is big enough to handle our why Bishop has touched our lives in so many ways we in NDC share so many of life's most important memories with Bishop and mother Michael how you gonna ask God why Easy! Your bishop ignored the advice of doctors and scientists, and he chose to have service. Now he dead, and his wife got COVID-19. Well, all I can do, Roland, is co-sign with what Robert said and co-sign with what you said.

And it's a shame all the way around. Clearly, we hope he rests in peace. Godspeed to his family and to his parishioners at his church. But we have to hold him to a higher standard, and he should have known better. Just real simple.

I need everybody who's watching me right now. If your pastor is dumb enough to hold church in the middle of this, you do not follow your pastor. If he wants to, if he or she wants to kill themselves,

knock yourself out. Don't you go to church, go online, pray with people on the phone you can video you can do all that sort of stuff but do not put your life on the line because some hard-headed preacher wants to say that the blood of jesus covers me what's to be covering you is a body bag if you test God. This isn't even about God at this point. This is pastors

who are purposely ignoring CDC guidelines, who are ignoring rules and regulations, who are ignoring social distancing. These are pastors who refuse to go online either because they're not as tech savvy or because they honestly don't know how to turn this into a profiteering instrument. Many pastors

are very afraid that if they go online, they're not going to get money in their coffers like they would in the church. And that's essentially what this is. Period. Robert, Amisha, Michael, I appreciate y'all being on our panel today. Thank you so very much. Thanks, Roland.

Y'all, I have no idea. I appreciate you. You've been on my panel today. Thank you so very much. Thanks, Roland. Y'all, I have no idea. I can't deal with this. I can't. We do not have to die unnecessarily. That bitch is going to get to heaven and God is going to be like,

you ain't listen to all the doctors I sent you. You ain't listen to all the scientists I sent you? You ain't listen to all the scientists I sent you? Then you just ignore what the governors eat it. So the nurses in your congregation, you ain't listen to them. The doctors in your congregation, you ain't listen to them. I sent you all of these people.

I sent you everybody, but you still hard-headed. That's what St. Peter gonna say at the gate. That's what Jesus, everybody in heaven gonna be like, why you hear this early? Because you hard-headed. Yeah, I said it. I'm telling y'all right now, do not listen to your preacher or anybody else.

And also, let me go ahead and say it. All you black people who are in Pensacola, Florida, who are out like it's some big-ass picnic, take your ass home. I'm not understanding what's going on. People are dying. Y'all need to be snatching your kids. We played you that video of that cop in Uganda.

He ain't lying. This is crazy what is going on. It's crazy. And we've got to get people. Look, if everybody else want to do that, but black people, keep your ass at home and be congregating. Because this makes no sense whatsoever. We should not be burying people early

because they stupid when it comes to coronavirus. All right, folks, let's talk about minority businesses having a difficult time securing the bank, getting with the banks to participate in the federal bailout for small businesses. Now, remember, $350 billion was passed by Congress. We know it's not enough, but minority businesses are having an even more difficult time accessing this

because of the lack of relationships with banks. Joining us right now is John Rogers Jr. He's the co-chief executive of Ariel Investments. John, always good to talk with you. It's great to talk with you. John, one of the things, look, my brother is with the Texas Restaurant Association in Texas. I have a small business.

I know many others. And part of the thing that we're seeing is you got black businesses who have business, but we don't necessarily have loans with banks. We have accounts, but like, for instance, I don't have loans. And so I don't have a loan relationship with my bank. And what's happening is these banks are favoring their customers who actually have

loans, things along those lines. And so how can you be a black business and participate in this bailout if the banks are now getting in the way? I know it's just another challenge for our minority business community. You know, as you and I have talked about it, everywhere we turn, we don't get treated fairly. There's no economic justice, you know, in this country, no equal economic opportunity for any of us. And our businesses are so much smaller than the major white firms.

We've gotten smaller and smaller over the last 40 years relative to the white firms, and we've been treated so extraordinarily unfairly. And then because we're so much smaller, we don't have the clout with the big banks. And as you know, working here in Chicago, we used to have the two largest black banks in the country here in Chicago, and they're both gone, Independence Bank and Seaway National Bank. We used to have our own, but we've been had

that taken away from us too. So what advice you give? So what happens? I mean, do we just just sit back and take it? What should African-Americans, what should black businesses be doing to ensure that we're getting our fair share of these dollars. Congress is probably going to have to approve another $250 or $500 billion for small businesses because the $350 billion simply isn't enough. You know, we have to do the things that we did when we were stronger as a community. We had Harold Washington as mayor here, and we had Maynard Jackson in Atlanta, and Coleman Young in Detroit. We had political power that was forcing these anchor institutions in our community to deal with us and do business with us.

And as we lost those leaders, we haven't been able to keep it going. We need to support our progressive political candidates. You know, job one, when we have people like Maxine Waters, you know, in the House, chairing the Financial Services Committee, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, chairing the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, they're there pushing Bank of America and Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase and Citibank to do the right things, because they are in positions of power. We need to have more dynamic women like that in Congress that can be fighting for us. I was on a call today with Reverend Jackson, and he's out there organizing, but he's trying to get people to support PUSH, and, you know, people aren't signing up.

People aren't writing the checks. We have to support our civil rights organizations like PUSH, like NAN, like the Urban League, so that we can be able to force these institutions to treat us fairly. Well, and again, you're absolutely right. That's one of the things that you have done. I've often talked about you in my speeches and other places, commending that you were there.

You did the exact same thing that folks did when Dr. King was in Chicago working with Operation Breadbasket, where they understood they had to fund and finance the movement, where people are out here fighting on our behalf. So yes, your political leaders, your civil rights organizations. I also think that this is where, look, people are at home, okay?

They gotta be on their computers. They gotta be sitting here, putting this stuff on social media, blasting out emails, calling Capitol Hill, because the reality is this here. There are 2.6 million black-owned businesses in America. 2.5 million only have one employee. To your point about us being smaller,

when we had 1.9 million black-owned businesses, they were doing an average revenue of $110,000. Now they're doing an average revenue of $54,000. And so if COVID-19 doesn't just kill black people disproportionately, it could kill black business disproportionately. That's absolutely for sure. And because we are so, so small, we're already on the edge half the time. This is the kind of thing that's going to close down so many of our African American businesses. I know in our industry, in money management and mutual funds, a lot of the black money managers are going to have to disappear.

And that's what's been happening the last several years, and this will be the last nail in the coffin. So, you know, we lost Earl Graves last week. Black Enterprise has been so, so important voice for black business and economic opportunity. I'm so worried. We're not getting the opportunities to manage money for our large institutions. And what I've been talking about to leaders around the country is that you look at this bill now for the virus and all the stimulus that's out there.

You know, they're stimulating the airlines, right? Well, it's almost impossible for black businesses to do business with United or Delta or American Airlines. And they gave money to the Kennedy Center. Kennedy Center. We've tried to call on the Kennedy Center to see whether they want to do business with black folks, and they basically had no interest. It was like no interest.

So they're taking our taxpayer dollars to bail out these big giant institutions who don't want to work with us. We can't grow our businesses unless we have customers. You know that. And it's just like people have lost sight of that. We have good role models who have done it well. McDonald's probably being the one that's been the best throughout, for the longest period of time, of supporting black franchisees, supporting black suppliers, having black executives, even African-American CEO there. We've got to have more and more of those types of institutions that realize by partnering with the black community, it makes all of us stronger.

As we create wealth in our community, it makes our country stronger. You know, it's just as Reverend Jackson always says, when baseball started, including Jackie Robinson and then Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks, baseball became a better sport. Our business community would be stronger broadly if African Americans are allowed to fully participate

in all aspects of our capitalist democracy. Yes, indeed. John Rodgers, Jr., co-chief executive, Aerial Investments. John, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Well, thanks so much, Raul. All right, folks. Appreciate it.

All right, folks. We now have a special. We're going to come back from break. We partnered with Stuart Speakers to talk about how do we get through this moment, this whole issue of COVID-19, mentally strong, physically strong. Michael Eric Dyson will join us.

Susan Taylor, of course, National Cares mentoring will join us. Congressman Andre Carson will join us. It's gonna be a fascinating conversation. So we're gonna go to a break. We're gonna come back, Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment're gonna come back, Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment. Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

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I am the president and founder of Stewart Speakers, a not-for-profit lecture series organization Hello, my name is Matthew Stewart. I am the president and founder of Stewart Speakers, a not-for-profit lecture series organization that brings prominent thought leaders to the Indianapolis community to educate, inspire, and invoke meaningful conversations. For over 30 years, Stewart Speakers has been dedicated to enhancing the community by providing opportunities to engage with America's best leaders and brightest luminaries. These leaders support our mission of more than just talk and allow us to live out the three pillars, education, engagement, and experience. Today I would like to focus on engagement. Through engagement our speakers began conversation but Steward speakers helps

to keep the conversations going. Like you, we are coping with the virus that is sweeping our nation. To help us keep the conversation going, our goal tonight is to focus on how we can stay mentally fit and positive during this time of the coronavirus. I want to give a special shout out to our panelists tonight and also to you who are joining us for this conversation. And now, Roland Martin. All right, folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfil conversation. And now, Roland Martin. Alright, folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of course, we normally do this every day on Facebook, Periscope,

and YouTube as well, but we also, for the first time, are live streaming this special on Instagram Live, and so we want to thank all the people who are watching us on Instagram. Want to make sure that if y'all got, make sure you let,all got somebody who's saying there's no sound, that has to be your phone because I can hear the sound as well.

All right, folks. The whole point of this next hour is to have really a conversation that talks with some of our leaders about, again, how we are dealing with COVID-19 mentally. We've had cases of folks who have actually been struggling with this, committing suicide. We talked about, of course, on my show, folks having to confront child abuse and domestic abuse and how people are really struggling with not being at work, folks not having jobs, and all these different things. And so that's really what our discussion is about. I want to introduce our panel. Joining us right now is Congressman

Andre Carson, of course, who represents a district there in Indiana. Also, Reverend Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, who joins us as well on here. Folks, let me know if we have Susan Taylor. Of course, we have Susan Taylor. She, of course, is an editor emeritus, Essence Magazine, leader, founder of National Cares Mentoring Project. Glad to have all three of you here. And so before we get into explaining what everybody else needs to do, I want to start with you, Susan. How have you dealt with this moment? I've seen some of your tweets and posts where you've talked about just how to get yourself jump-started in terms of being at home and not having your regular flow

in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. You know, I think this is the first time since I gave birth 50 years ago that I've been home for more than maybe four days. I am enjoying the quiet. I'm enjoying the peace. I do want to be able to do more reading and to finish, like, you know,

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

So I'm practicing wellness. Congressman Carson, the House is not going to be back in session until May. I've had other members on. They said that they are on endless conference calls dealing with leadership, still trying to get work done. And so how have you how are you operating in this new world? All right. Look, it looks like we have issues with Congressman Carson's Skype. So we're going to come back to him.

Michael Eric Dyson, how are you dealing with this? You, just like myself, we often are busy on the road speaking and traveling. Not on planes these days. No doubt about it, Brother Martin. And first of all, I want to thank you for, medical professionals, and biological professionals who otherwise would not get the light of day of high excellence and high pedigree appearing routinely on your show is a real service to this nation. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Along with your always extraordinary insight and commentary. Look, man, I'm having a

great time in the sense of like you, Roland, ain't got to go on the road. You know, I'm having a great time in the sense of, like you, Rowan, ain't got to go on the road. You know, I'm writing a couple books right now, so that helps that I can get up every day and focus on that. But I have a privilege that so many others among us don't. You know that only 20 percent of black people really have the possibility of staying home and doing their work where the masses of African-American people are out there in the streets, forced to still go to work even when they don't feel well, even when they know that they are risking their lives. And so it's an extraordinary opportunity that I have and enjoy, and I'm conscious of that privilege and opportunity, and trying to maximize that, trying to write stuff that will ultimately enable our people to have a better understanding of what we're going through,

but also for those who look at us, who judge us, who scrutinize us, to have a more humane and compassionate reflection on who we are as a people. Congressman Carson, it looks like we have you back. My apologies. It's all good. I had a bad signal. We're back. It's all good. I had a bad signal. We're back. It's all good. And so, look, are you a member of Congress?

Congress is not going to be reconvening, according to Steny Hoyer, before May 4th. And so, how are you operating now in this new world of the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, we're operating quite differently. Of course, our office is closed. We've been in the midst of six or seven or eight video conference calls a day. We still meet as a staff. We're still meeting and engaging with constituents. I even volunteered to be a part of some food banks. But I'm also trying to stay healthy, Roland. You know, as Dr. Dyson and Madam Taylor

mentioned, you know, that mental health is so important. You know, I struggle with hypertension myself. And I think during these times, we really have to look at removing kind of the stigma associated with mental health. My mother suffered from schizophrenia, as educated as she was, as brilliant as she was, so much so that we spent time in a homeless shelter as a very young man, and my grandmother ended up having to raise me. And I know that these kinds of times create stressors. And I think it's important for people to see elected officials who get elected into office,

and oftentimes, Roland, as you know, many elected officials go to churches, they go to mosques, they go to synagogues, and they petition people to vote for them. But once they get into office, they vote against the people's interest. And so now is the time where the rubber meets the road and it's time for people to see what their elected officials are doing on their behalf. So we're trying to keep our mental health up. I'm trying to keep mine up, keep my blood pressure down. But it's been a blessing, and as Dr. Dyson stated, we're amongst

the privileged who can still work from home. But I'm able to take this time to kind of read, reflect, spend some time with my daughter and family, and try to do the work of the people, brother. Susan, that really is the issue when you talk about the fact, as Michael alluded to, only 20 percent of African-Americans can work from home.

And so all of a sudden now people are really concerned. This week, the first first checks are going out from Congress. Those twelve hundred dollar checks folks are concerned about. Can they pay their bills? Will there be a job to even go back to? We're seeing restaurants and airlines and all these different people who are laying folks off. And so for African Americans, when you talk about the old adage, when America gets a cold, we get the flu,

America now gets coronavirus, we're dying. And even if people are not physically dying, the stress of not knowing what's going to happen and how it's impacting them economically can really weigh down on any man or any woman that it impacts their children and their

loved ones and the extended family. I mean, it's so true. And, you know, it's a need to call up faith because we have to remember that this is devastating, but it's not... I know I need to get the light out of the way, but you see, I'm the oldest one on here,

so I'm not trying to show you all all my stuff. Is this okay? You're fine. You're fine. Don't worry about it. My son is telling me to move. No, don't worry about it. You're fine. You're fine. Okay. You know, this is a moment when we really are getting to know ourselves. We're getting to know the things that stress us.

We're getting to know the things that we are addicted to or we believe we have to have. What I see is that people are purging. You know, they're refining relationships. They're making up with people who they've been angry at for some time. That we're getting to know ourselves in ways that we don't in the everyday, because typically, you know, our bodies are in one place and our minds are far down the road.

And I just want to really just say thank you to the congressman for that kind of transparency, because people really don't talk about the mental health issues in their families or even the crises that they've had themselves. And to hear you be so honest about that, it's freeing for other people to be able to know that they're not on this ledge alone. For me, I'm a student of history.

I try to know everything that I can about us as a people and what we've been through. And when I look at our history and see what our ancestors suffered through, I say, this is not the rough side of the mountain. There are people three blocks from the luxury building I live in what our ancestors suffered through, I said, this is not the rough side of the mountain. There are people three blocks from the luxury building I live in who have cups in their hands and they're on the streets. I don't know where they are now

because I haven't been out there in a while. But that's really, that's devastating. And what this is showing us, too, is what we allow. For the first time, I would say, since the war on poverty, people are really talking about the disparities between black people and the larger society. But what they're not talking about is the why. Why are we poor? Why are so many of us poor? It's the history that the nation won't own.

And this is a time for us to really understand that we are, you know, each other's keepers. The great Gwendolyn Brooks, you know, wrote that we are each other's keeper. We are each other's harvest. We are each other's magnitude and bond. And there should be no person in our community who is homeless and who is hungry. And the question is, rather than pointing the finger, are we looking in the mirror and asking ourselves, what are we going to do about these crises that now the whole nation is suddenly becoming aware of? Why? Because we are really the people who are on the front line. We're the people who are moving, you know, folks on those EMS trucks. We're the ones who are on the front line. We're the people who are moving, you know, folks on

those EMS trucks. We're the ones who are cleaning those hospitals. We're the ones who are moving bodies that, you know, have transitioned when people have transitioned. We're the front line workers who have not been given the accord and they don't have health insurance very often and they're low wage earners. This is really affecting the children we serve. Michael, when we talked... When Susan talked about what this is exposing, and I've been saying this every day, and we said it even really before this thing

really began to show itself, that this coronavirus was going to truly expose every aspect of this country, not just the awful leadership from the White House, but it is exposing the major gaps in education. People are now seeing, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, you mean tell me how many kids depend on school for meals? How many of these folks don't have Wi-Fi,

don't have computers, don't have pads? Now all of a sudden people are going, how many people are in poverty? You're seeing these massive lines of food banks in Pittsburgh and other places, and people are going, wait a minute, all these people are hungry? And so we just go down the line. So for Trump to constantly proclaim we're the biggest and the baddest and the richest and most prosperous nation on earth, it is showing the true haves and have-nots. Yeah, no doubt about it. And you have done an excellent job of pointing this out on a daily basis. Aside from that malignant narcissist who is our chief executive officer of this nation, the reality is that the pandemic is endemic to black people.

That across the board, we are suffering low-grade pandemics every day. the lack of access to high-quality food in food deserts, high-sugar content cereals posted up in our ghetto neighborhood stores when we can find them, vast stretches where people have no access to food, no access to high-quality education. You know, we live what the sociologists call in concentrated poverty. Not only is the family poor, but the community is poor, the neighborhood is poor, the schools are poor, and the entire larger network of associations that they have or don't have reflect their lack of access.

They are essentially cut off. They have been socially distanced from economic inequality. They have been socially distanced as a result of the racial trauma that has been transmitted from one generation to the other. And as the great queen of black America, Susan Taylor, has indicated, we have not dealt with this. We've neglected to address this situation. And as a result of that, as what you said, Roland,

when you look at the fact that if folk can't stay home, they got to go out there and work, we have already seen evidence that the police are highly insensitive to black people and through this pandemic as well. If they ain't got a mask, you got to get off the bus. If they go in with a mask into the store, they get kicked out because they look like criminals.

What is really at root of all of this is an anti-blackness that is deeply entrenched into American society. And as you say, this plague, this pandemic is exposing the ways in which black people have been living far from the central operations of power, of economic ability, and of social stability and educational attainment in this country. So as a result of that, what we've got to do is figure out a way that after the pandemic is over, we don't forget about those who are lost. We forget about those grocery store people who bring us our food, or those nurses who are on the front line, or those people who continue

to try to render service to us in the midst of this. If we don't forget them and we use this pandemic as a means to really rejigger the social relations of society, then we'll have done something. After the Black Plague, something big happened. After many of the earlier plagues and pandemics across the world, social relations sometimes got better, but sometimes they got worse.

Look at the people who don't have access to unions. Look at the way in which non-union workers are forced to work at high levels. Look at the way in which even Amazon has added 75,000 more jobs, but the people who are working there can't get PPE and other resources to protect them. So unless we're willing to examine the structural issues that undergird our contemporary plague, this plague will have really not benefited us in the long run. Congressman Carson, we have you back via FaceTime. I have... Do you get the sense that your colleagues

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

that? Because every time we see an election is all the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. Are they now seeing that the people who not in the middle class are the ones who are cashiers at grocery stores who we need also stocking shelves? I mean, do you think they're getting it? One wonders, Roland. I mean, after all of the rhetoric and all of the fighting that they've done now that this pandemic has gone to rule America at their very front doors. Unfortunately, we're seeing some of their own relatives and loved ones impacted by this pandemic. We're seeing some of the folks that they grew up with, went to school with, impacted by this pandemic. And it's unfortunate that as

much as they fought against the Democratic Party, as much as they fight to keep the republic, if you will, we negotiated funding for SNAP, which benefits their own constituents. We negotiated over $130 billion to go to hospitals where immediate needs can be addressed. Guess what? It benefits their constituents. And so all of their rhetoric about reining in our deficit, pulling back on excessive spending, it still impacts their constituents. If they want to quote scripture and talk about the Bible, then the Bible highlights the least of these. It seems to me that they're so fearful of a president who could tweet against them, and one tweet against them could jeopardize their reelection efforts. They refuse to be bold and speak out against a president who is not only a tyrant and a demagogue. He is, in fact, he wants to be a dictator. I say to the Republican Party,

work with the Democrats, because the very legislation that you speak against impacts your own constituents. And so in the CARES II Act, Roland, that we hope to seal the deal on and negotiate, we want to talk about criminal justice reform. We want to talk about ways in which monies can get to the Bureau of Prisons, and that money can get to state jails and state facilities where prisoners can flatten the curve as well, where prisoners are protected. We already have seen, especially in urban centers and rural parts of our country, a deficit in PPE, personal protective gear. We want to make sure the money not only goes to the

banks, because as you and I know, there are a lot of folks who are filling out W-9s or independent contractors. Can they get protected? Can they get the same kind of protection as some of these bigger businesses get? They're not getting the loans from the banks. And so there are alternative measures. We've been working with the fintech space, Pave Howell and other platforms about ways in which smaller businesses can benefit from this. And when I say smaller businesses, I especially mean Black-owned and Black and brown businesses of color. What this means, Roland,

is that we have to press the Republican Party and those members of Congress and threaten them by leveraging our voting bloc against them so when they want to run for office, we need to see what they've done to stand up against Donald Trump and his destructive agenda. Susan, when you hear, first of office, we need to see what they've done to stand up against Donald Trump and his destructive agenda. Susan, when you hear, first of all, and also to our panelists, you don't have to wait for me to call on you.

You can jump in if you want to. That's not a problem. Susan, when we look at what's happening, when we look at, you're really about dealing with children, but also with your parents' university as well. I mean, the toll that this is taking on real people, when you see these stories of suicide, when you see these stories of folks just... I mean, these videos of people lashing out, you know, with videos on Instagram or Twitter. That's people who are screaming out for help.

And I think part of the problem in this country is that we have so severely cut back our mental health services that we have such a deficit, people have no idea where to even go. Well, you know, because there aren't places to go. Because the mental health hospitals have been shut down. There was the promise of community mental health support

that never arrived. But you know something? I'm not even looking... outside of us at them. I'm looking at us. And I'm saying, we don't have an agenda. You know, Michael, you and I, Michael Dyson and I, in 2008, went to Denver. And Melanie Campbell said,

if you come, I'm having a breakfast for leaders. And if you come, I'll give you 10 minutes to speak. And I said, you know, I don't have to be at the table. But what is the agenda? If you ask the average African American, what is it that your leaders are asking of you? You know what? They want to vote.

But beyond that, we can't articulate what I want is a three or four, maybe five-point program. This is what we are asking of those who represent us. And we keep a report card, I think, as the Congressman was saying, so that we understand where do you stand on community development, where do you stand on education. The disparity in education is the very thing that has concretized poverty. I left Essence when I realized that 80% of black fourth graders were reading below grade level. I didn't believe it. I called Mary Wright Edelman. She said, we're losing ground when it comes to literacy. We're working in a school in Brooklyn where they are actually graduating young

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

It's a great shame. And I'm saying we can fix this. As long as we keep looking out and having conversations and not have a plan, we're not going to see ourselves move out of this quagmire. And that's what we're caught in. It's a quagmire, but it's one that we can fix. So I hope that coming out of this pandemic, that we will emerge a different people, that we will emerge a people who really do care about one another, who realize that we have, most of us,

have more than enough, that we will really push from the pews toward the pulpit, demanding that our churches and our temples and our mosques really not allow poverty and children around the corner while we're raising, you know, thousands of dollars for the minister's anniversary and the kids around the corner don't even know what a computer looks like. And they're in schools. So this is on us. What is the agenda? We need leadership and we need to know what we're all supposed to be thinking

about. You know, what I say is, preachers can preach about whatever they want to. You know, on Saturdays and Sundays and Wednesday nights. But what is the agenda? Here's the agenda. This is what we're asking the congregants to stand for. And then let me give you the word. We get the word, but we don't have the agenda.

You know, Michael, here's what I think. And we, of course, did the state of Black America in Indianapolis along with the Stewart speakers. It was Susan, Michael, Reverend Sharpton, and I moderated the whole deal. And as somebody who's covered, look,

every time they have one of these events, the CBC, of course, had their emergency meeting when it came to... just a few weeks ago. But here's what I think is the fundamental issue, and Susan, I believe, is half correct. She says, where's the agenda?

But after the agenda, where's the accountability? See, I remember when the agenda, where's the accountability? See, I remember when the book, the Tavis book came out, The Covenant, and I had Tavis on my show. And I said, Tavis, you got to come back in six months for the six-month follow-up. And then after that, the next six months, because, see, for me, I'm always about,

okay, what do we do? The first two or three years, and Reverend Sharpton had his Measuring the Movement in New York tied to his conference. We aired it on TV One. When he called me, he said, I know the only way you're going to participate, if there's a measuring.

I'm like, absolutely. I'm not trying to have another conversation I said hell I'm tired of them panels it was about when you come to know what did you do and it was interesting Michael because And I'm gonna go in and say it ain't got a problem said it cuz it was a public show We told everybody up front if you make a commitment we gonna follow up What did you do? Who's the contact all All this sort of stuff.

So I remember we did a follow-up, uh, and whoever was a National Urban League contact, we emailed, we called, we did everything. Brother did not get back with us, and so we put... we said it on Sunday. So Mark Morial called me, and he was like, Roland, what happened? I said, Mark... we said, here are the ground rules.

He didn't respond. We didn't hear back. Accountability. And so they immediately got back to me. And my whole deal is, you got to have accountability. We got to have folk who say, okay, what are we going to do on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, and Thursday, and then Friday, then Saturday, and Sunday? Then the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

what are the markers keeping people abreast? Accountability. We're great at discussions. We're great at actually, I think, writing down agendas, but not that accountability part on what are we achieving. Okay, check, check, check, check. That, to me, is really where people fall off. What do you do after the list and after the meeting? No, no, absolutely right.

I mean, Susan Taylor is one of the greatest leaders this nation has produced. She's speaking out of her own extraordinary experience. Absolutely. Understanding that, first of all, to focus on what those particular points are is critical. I remember I was on a panel with Taylor Branch once at the University of North Carolina.

And, you know, he had written these three books, massive tomes, Pulitzer Prize-winning tomes about Dr. King and the movement. And he said, you know, a lot of people talk about what went on. And he said, but for the most part, Martin Luther King Jr. did what we're doing in this room now, sitting down, talking, thinking, arguing, going back and forth to get it right, which is why I think, for the instance, your show is a daily intervention of both high intellectual

pedigree, but also deeply and profoundly political grappling with the issues as necessary. I never want to downplay that. So yes, the agenda is extremely important. The accountability, the follow-up, because I couldn't be a professor. I got to have accountability. What classes did you teach? Right, right. How many students did you reach? And then they judge me too. He was there, he wasn't there. He was able to break down some important stuff for us and make it available. So there's a constant accountability. I hold students accountable by giving them grades. The students hold me accountable by reflecting on what I've done well and what I have done so well so that there's an outcome. So I think that's important. But let

me say this. As much as I believe in what both of you have said, and both of those are critical aspects, I'd put it in thirds. Agenda, accountability, and we got to talk about the access. The reality is this. We put money into this economy. We pay taxes. We deserve that the government, I don't want to just make this a black thing, because black folk ain't created the problem and ain't got enough resources to solve it. We do not possess the requisite financial wherewithal to address the staggering poverty that has been a result of slavery, Jim Crow,

and anti-black sentiment that has directed the economic resources of America away from us, even as we pay taxes to support this nation. So I don't want to let America off the hook for what it's got to do to address our situation. So the accountability, in part, is to ask our leaders to make certain that they are constantly arguing on behalf of those of us who are out here. And as Susan Taylor said, articulating a two or three or four point agenda. And let me say this. Every black person ain't a guy. We're going to get out with Ben Carson for the most part.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You're actually your signal. So it went out. You said every black person. Now pick it up from there. Every black person ain't got to agree with every black person for black people to have an agenda. Right. We got to get with the black people we agree with. Ben Carson ain't on our. Ben Carson and I ain't on the same side.

Right. Candace Owens and I, we ain't on the same side. They black. They doing what they do. So we got to find enough black people who agree with what we're doing. We don't have to have massive unity. What we have to have is functional solidarity. Martin Luther King Jr. had about 4% to 5% of black America in his corner, working with him on a daily basis. The masses of black people never got on the street corners. They never got into the marches. They never physically participated

in the civil rights movement. So that remnant, that small contingent of people were able to revolutionize American society. So I think that what we have to give up on is the illusion that we will have massive solidarity. And what we've got to do instead is to have ad hoc solidarity. Those like Susan Taylor, Roland Martin, Andre Carson, Michael Eric Dyson, Maxine Waters, and those of us who agree, get our forces together, do what we feel is necessary, and make a demand on our leaders, on ourselves. But I am not letting a government off that takes so much of my check, every check, of Susan Taylor's check,

of Yochek, of Carson's check. We have to make sure that the poor, the least of these, have the wherewithal to survive. And black folks' pockets ain't deep enough. If every rich black person in America gave money, we would never be able to solve this problem. This is white supremacy intervening with economic lack of opportunity that has rendered our black communities barren and destitute in some areas. And we've got to address that. So all three of those, I think, are critical to making sure that we revolutionize our communities and then reconstitute them and then bring the kind of healing that we need to have. Congressman Carson, I have long argued that the I it amazes me when I hear people. Roland, you are lacking because you're defending the CBC.

I said, no. I said, unlike you, I am aware of the political process and how the changing of one sentence can alter an entire bill. I think a lot of people, when I hear people say, oh, the CBC ain't shit. They ain't doing nothing.

Sure. And then I go, so what do you think they do? Yeah, but this ain't changed and this ain't changed. And then you go, well, you know, they're now in control in the House, but they don't control the Senate and 400 bills got passed in the House and Mitch McConnell won't take any of the bills up. And you go through this whole deal.

Then I began to explain to people examples of, well, I know when Congresswoman Alma Adams put this in a bill, don't have her name on it, but she inserted this in a bill that changed and it results in this here. And so for a lot of people who just don't understand the process. But I also argue that part of the problem from a political standpoint is

you're fighting battles, but you need to have troops who also show up having your back when you're fighting the battles. When Loretta Lynch, when black women were going to Capitol Hill saying, confirm here. I was going, where in the hell are the men's

groups? I was like, fraternities, where y'all at? So Jamal Bryant, Jeff Johnson and myself, we said, fine. We're just going to call black men. So about 200 brothers showed Jeff Johnson, and myself, we said, fine, we're just going to call black men. So about 200 brothers showed up. You and Congresswoman Beatty walked us in. First of all, cops came

all out of nowhere, because you know, with 200 black men walking anywhere as a group, Susan, they all freaked out. They were like, what the hell? This ain't the Million Man March. What happened? But the thing that was amazing, Congresswoman, a lot of these brothers for the first time, they had never been to Capitol Hill before. But you also saw the reaction of, frankly,

white political leaders who were like, what the hell is going on with 200 black men? The reason I'm saying that is they needed to see black men also standing up for Loretta Lynch and not just black women. You have to have troops who are in the fight with you and not just have a bunch of generals who then say, where y'all at?

Y'all didn't show up. So you need them at the school board meeting, the city council meeting, the county commissioner's meeting, putting pressure. So y'all, you sitting there saying, I told y'all they were interested. Now there's 300 people showing up.

But it can't be you sitting there alone and the people not showing up. That's right's right that's so important you know the congressional Black caucus is composed of 50 plus members that's a huge voting block many of us are chairs of committees and subcommittees many of us come from different backgrounds and experiences we're fighting every day you have the leadership of Jim Clyburn, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Karen Bass, Emanuel Cleaver, so many, Benny Thompson, Hakeem Jeffries. There are so many Black members of Congress who work each and every day. I tell people all the time, Roland, if you're putting all of your hopes, dreams, and aspirations on any politician, let alone a human being, you're setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. The Congressional Black Caucus is a legislative body.

We provide legislative remedies. This can't be done by politicians alone. You're going to need the Dr. Dysons. You're going to need the Dr. Dysons. You're going to need the Madam Taylors. You're definitely going to need the Roland Martins to give us a perspective with Black brilliance and Black ingenuity and Black scholarship to highlight where other platforms would probably decline to do so. But the Congressional Black Caucus, when Donald Trump first got into office, I was on the executive team of the Congressional Black Caucus, and we met with President Trump. Because his motto at that time was, what do you have to lose, Black people?

So we met with him, and we laid out an agenda. He has yet to follow through with that agenda. He has symbolic meetings with Black leaders. But if you want to get the work done, you need representation in public office. Most of the things that we do, you know, Roland, are impacted or are a result of a political decision. You drive on the road. The road is paved. That's a result of some city council making a decision about that road. You hit a pothole. You call your city council.

You want a church built, a school built, a mosque built, a temple built. We need representation on zoning boards. You want to talk about school reform. You need to talk to your state legislator, assemblyman, or delegate. You want to impact the way social Security is distributed and making cost of living adjustments, you have to have an impact on your member of Congress. Look, it disappoints me sometimes the narratives that are out there in our community. And I know everyone on this panel has to dispute some of those narratives. And I think some of those narratives are quite healthy. But if we're depending on some mythological Illuminati and saying we're just going to give it up and we're not going to participate in America's activist life and political life, you need both. I was arrested, Roland, at the age of 17 outside of a mosque. And at that time, I thought you needed outside agitation,

protest the system, protest the system. You need that. But as I grew older, I realized you need outside agitation and inside instigation to have the right friction to produce legislation that impacts the lives of everyday people. And so for those who want to be dismissive of the Congressional Black Caucus, if we were to list the legislation that was produced as a result of advocacy and input from that great caucus, people would be surprised. We don't tell our story enough. We're not a monolithic group. We come from different regions. We have different life experiences. But those experiences combine to make a voting bloc that is so influential.

Everyone who runs for president comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Every sitting president comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Every sitting speaker of the House comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Governors and senators all come to the Congressional Black Caucus. Every sitting Speaker of the House comes to the Congressional Black Caucus. Governors and senators all come to the Congressional Black Caucus, not because we're so special, but because we're a group of legislators. That doesn't mean we don't listen to the Dr. Dysons and accept those critiques and get his insight and wisdom. That doesn't mean we don't listen to the Madam Taylors and get her insight and wisdom. That doesn't mean we don't let the Roland Martins inform us, educate us, and critique us and grow as a result of those

critiques. It takes all of us to come together for the good of our community and our people. Susan, when you talk about the agenda, but also I think what comes out and when you talk about hopefully what people realize

in the midst of this is there is nothing like people power. There's nothing like understanding regular, ordinary people actually made the Black Freedom Movement

what it is. Regular, ordinary people. Sure, we talk a lot about Dr. King. We talk about Ralph Abernathy. We talk about Van Lou Hamer. What's up? Regular sharecropping Mississippi. And I think part of the thing that we have to do,

and we try to do it as much as we can on this show, is to get people to understand, stop walking around thinking that you are powerless. You actually have power. It's just not being used and tapped into. How would you walk... So let's say you were

having a conversation with one person and they said, Miss Taylor, I can't do anything. I don't have any power. No one will ever listen to me. What would you say to that of a sister or brother and you were talking to them? I would say, you know what? I we're going to push the congregations to have Saturday schools. The system is not teaching our children how to think. Come on.

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

the three of you gentlemen. But I grew up in the neighborhood, and I'm not afraid of us. So what we've done is we've distanced ourselves because we have a few accoutrements from the people. What I want to see, and I think I said it, maybe I didn't say it clearly enough, because it's a plan

that, you know, some of us agree on and that we're going to move forward, and it's a report card. I think you do have to hold, you have to hold people accountable. This is what we are asking for, and this is how you measure the people who are holding political office

against this three, four, five-point agenda report card. What we do is we have to—we know that black folk love entertainment. Everybody does. But look at what our young people are looking at. I can't even turn on the television. It's all violence. If we had something going on in our sanctuaries, They're empty 95 percent of the time. Bring the folks together and let's start educating us in a way with dynamic speakers like the three of you. You

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

When we didn't even have the rights or the resources that we have today, we did much more than we are doing today. So it's time for reorganizing ourselves, rearticulating who we are, coming into the power that the Holy Spirit has, like, imbued in each and every one of us and giving, you know, our people the confidence, not giving it to them, but what?

Inspiring it in them so that they know that they can use what they have to really create a better future for themselves and for our children. See, Michael, when I listen to Susan talk about that, I mean, I'm just thinking about, I mean, that's just, those are freedom schools. And in fact, I was speaking to a group and somebody said, oh, that's a great idea. How do we do it? I said, y'all, I said, that's still what Mary and Wright Edelman's group does.

They actually still teach. If you go to their website, they have the Freedom School kit that any church can download to turn just what Susan just said, to turn their churches into Freedom

Schools to teach those very things. And people when I travel, people ask me, well, you know, how do you talk about organizing? But you're a journalist. I'm like, no, no, no. You forgot. I said, my mom and daddy never went to college.

High school graduate, Jack Case High School in Houston. But they were co-founders of our Clinton Park Civic Club. And so, having five kids, it ain't like we had a choice. We couldn't vote. Damn it, they made us go pass out flyers and put up signs and stuff, watching it ordinary people who said

we care about our community, so we want to get an overgrown lot cut, or we want to get a crack house torn down, or we want new streets and new lights and new sewer systems. That thing grew and grew and grew because regular people just said, hey, you know what?

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

from what my parents did. But you have to have the willingness to do it and i think michael that's really we talk about where people are mentally where we have to get people out of this brain lock brain freeze where they say i simply can't do it i don't have a degree i don't have a degree. I don't have enough money. I don't know enough important people. Just go, why can't Oprah do it or Robert Smith do it? But nothing that black people have ever gotten came

because folk at the top made it happen. It was regular ordinary people who did extraordinary things. No, it's a useful history lesson. I mean, look at Stewart Speakers tonight, which are sponsoring what we're doing here tonight.

They took the opportunity during this pandemic to team with you to broadcast this particular panel for an hour to the world that will tune in so we can use what's available. You talk about freedom schools. I was,

I was thinking to myself laughing when Ms. Taylor said, you know, uh, put up a sign to say, come here and read, but they couldn't read it if they saw it, you know, and that's her point. The point is how can we- No, that's not my point. Excuse me. Go ahead. Anybody can, anybody can, can, can, if I'm in the car with you and I can't read, read question mark, learn to read. People can figure that out. My sister has dyslexia. She could read that. No, she can't sit down and read, you know, the document and understand how to file for something.

But most people can figure out some stuff. So that's not what I'm saying. And not even that, Michael. It's really about even television commercials. You don't see, you've never seen a commercial that, come learn to read. That is a huge barrier. The barrier is education. The three of you are highly educated men. And with that, you've been able to move yourself forward further than your parents were. Our children, this is intergenerational uneducation, you know, miseducation. Intergenerational uneducation,

you know, miseducation. Intergenerational. The same schools that are really like, what are they? They're dead-end schools. Jonathan Kozol, what did he call them? The shame of the nation. That's what they are. And we're doing nothing about it.

Don't tell me we can't fix that with our own tax dollars? Demanding that they, what? What creates, what has concretized poverty is the lack of education. And as long as property taxes fuel education budgets, there'll never be equity in education because people in no home ownership or low home ownership communities will never have the money to give students in poverty areas what suburban students have. It breaks down to something that is not simple, but it's true. Okay. Well, thank you for correcting me, Susan.

I'm going to pay for this later on. I'm not going to tell a whole tank story to get to a bigger point, but thank you so much for that. And my bigger point was about the structural issues that prohibit the flourishing of education in our communities. And the depth of the illiteracy is astonishing. So what I was trying to joke about a little bit by saying they couldn't read it if they saw it. The point is that the vast reaches of illiteracy in our communities is a result of deliberate de-education, defunding of education, public schooling especially. You go out to the suburbs, you get 60 and 70, 80 million dollar schools where they have, you know, Aquaria with Planaria. And you come into the inner city, you can't even get running water or the toilets are working and you still got secondhand books. The savage inequalities that Jonathan Kozol talked about, but many more theoreticians from our own community have tried to talk about Christopher Emden in terms of hip hop education and other people who have been trying to speak about the degree to which we link literacy. It's not that we are

illiterate. We're literate in so many other languages that can then be used to transfer over to what we need to do. So to take your point and Roland's point about the Freedom then organize the enormous reach we have on friggin' Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. You're talking about a freedom school that could be organized, the distribution of agendas, and also of syllabi that could help people make a difference in their lives.

So we could do it virtually in a way that we can't necessarily physically do in the old school. If Martin Luther King Jr. had Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, my God, the ability to mobilize and transform those masses in the ways you are talking about, education and access. But education is the fundamental principle of access. That and ownership of homes and property that allows people to have the American dream. If we had those two pillars, education and ownership of property, then black people would be exponentially advanced in our quest for freedom. Well, we do have to deal with this, Congressman Carson. I want Susan to to jump in this, is that we also

have to recognize that, and Michael, you made an excellent point early in terms of if every black person gave what it wouldn't do. But we also, though, have to fund things that are within our control. So, perfect example,

National Cares Mentoring Gala, Congressman, National Cares Mentoring had their g congressman had the National Cares Mentoring Movement had their gala in February. And about, we got $350,000 in commitments. But guess what? What we can't have are them killing themselves to try to get the commitments. If you make a commitment, you got to honor it. That's right. I have people who literally say, well, why should I have to give to your show?

I said, first of all, you don't have to give to my show. I said, we have a fan club. I said, but guess what? You can't do this five days a week. I said, and not pay for the office space and pay for the staff and pay for the robotic cameras. And we can't travel to go cover an event somewhere. And you don't pay for the plane ticket or the train ticket. And I'm like, so guess what? Fox makes one point two five billion dollars in profit.

CNN makes eight hundred million in profit. I'm like, that ain't us. But in the last five weeks, we probably have more black experts on in five weeks than all those networks have had combined. And so we also have to say to our people, we also got to fund it and fund our institutions. John Rodgers was just on talking about black businesses. He said, if we don't fund our civil rights groups, hell, who going to be there to fight for funding for black business when it comes to the $2 trillion plan that was passed. And so all of this is about what, to Susan's point earlier, Congressman, what can we do? Okay, y'all figured it out, but what we can do in the midst of this to be able to rebuild and restore.

And so when we come on the other side of coronavirus, then we coming out swinging. Absolutely. I think you're right. You know, I'm one of those who needs to commit to my $50 a year to your platform. I have a YouTube subscription that I watch the Roland Martin show on. I certainly can commit my and do my part. You know, a lot of times we like to talk to talk, but we don't walk the walk. We can pay, and I don't knock what someone does to get by, but we

can pay to turn up and we'll spend 50, 100, $150 to turn up, but we refuse to use that same money to donate to the UNCF. Speaking of UNCF, a part of the negotiations with the Congressional Black Caucus and the CARES Act too, is to get funding for historically black colleges and universities which are suffering right now so i think i think we make a big mistake by putting too much on entertainers actors and sometimes dare i say politicians when we have the power to mobilize and support those platforms that work i was so proud when i saw brother jay-Z and Meek Mill commit to giving over 130 masks to prison our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated. I was pleased to see Brother Diddy raise millions of dollars on his IG platform. I think now we're in a different space where we can use social media and we can use the digital age to really fund efforts, Black efforts, because the

environment is changing and has changed so rapidly. And so ways in which we can be creative, Roland, in terms of funding these movements, I think it's a low-cost effort. If we could give to presidential candidates $1 here, $5 here, $7 here, certainly we can give that same kind of commitment to Black folks who are doing work in the entertainment space, in the NGO space, in the educational space like Dr. Dyson, in the wellness space like Madam Taylor for just a few bucks a month or even a year. If you have enough numbers to fund those efforts,

I think we'll see a change quite rapidly. Susan, this is about us. And when you mention it, and I don't think people really understand, you saw what happened after Katrina. You could have kept doing Essence. You could have kept... You could have said,

oh, man, me and Kefra, we about to travel. I'll put the work in. But again, you said, no, no, we've got to create this'll put the work in. But again, you said, no, no, we've got to create this mentoring movement for our children. And it's gone from that single idea to something far bigger than a lot of people would ever imagine after a handful of years. But you made the commitment to do it. And then you decided to go to work. Well, you know, how about people saying, have you lost your mind? This is not going to happen.

Right. But I know that when you're doing God's work, and you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and it's the right thing for the people, things give way, and what you need comes into your hands. What I do want to say about, you know, black people not supporting our institutions, we

don't. When you think about the college presidents who go out When you think about the college presidents who go out to raise money, black college presidents, and then the foundations want to know, well, what about the alums? You know, how are they supporting? It's embarrassing. Average is 5%.

We talk about the little that black people who graduated from our great institutions give back. 5%. But you know what? This is why we have to come together for our healing. Yes. If we know what? This is why we have to come together for our healing. If we understand what happened to us over these past 400 years, what happened to us in enslavement, we do not trust one another. We don't like putting money in black people's hands. We just don't do it.

You know, but we have to come to an understanding of it. So if we could come together and have those kinds of, what, lectures and panels that really help us to see ourselves, what did it do to black men to have an overseer come into his cabin and take his daughter, his wife, his children, rape them, throw them back, and then have half-white children that he then raised and treated as his own. I mean, what we have withstood is so deep. The brutality is just so vicious. We have to understand it. We have to heal it. Then we can really look in the mirror and see our behaviors and begin to love ourselves

again, and to love one another again. But until we come to an understanding of our history and what happened to us, we're not going to get there. I think that's a big part of it. Michael, final comment, about 60 seconds. Well, what Susan Taylor has just indicated is so extremely important. The pandemic is also inside of us.

The refusal to acknowledge our humanity, the refusal to acknowledge that white water ain't wetter than black water, the refusal to acknowledge our humanity, the refusal to acknowledge that white water ain't wetter than black water, the refusal to embrace each other and to see the good, the powerful, the enduring, the intelligent, the beautiful in each other. And when we do that,

when we deal with the fundamental reality that we are worthy of every sacrifice that should be made on our behalf, then we will begin to demand the kind of resources, not only from ourselves, which is extremely important, but also from the society that we have done so much to build up. It doesn't have to be an either-or. It's got to be both us from within

and demanding that the structures that we have supported through our work, through our brilliance, and through our monies also be recycled back to us. Congressman Carson, final word. No, I agree. I think on that note, I want to encourage folks to complete the census. Those dollars can go to our communities, communities of color. We need to get our fair share and a part of getting that fair share during apportionment and redistricting and how they determine how congressional maps are drawn and what your representation looks like. Please fill out the census. What an honor, Roland.

I want to commend the Stewart Speaker Series, Brother Matt, you, Dr. Dyson, and Madam Taylor for your powerful words. I'm truly inspired. Well, echoing that, actually, Matt Stewart, thank you so much. And Roland, you're just brilliant. The way that you just manage these kinds of forums is really amazing to me. Mine is very simple. You know, reward the people who love us and support us and punish those who don't. Be conscious consumers.

Don't spend your money among people who show they have no interest in you, our children, our community. Wake up. Certainly want to thank Matthew Stewart and Stewart's speakers of reaching out to us to hold this conversation. We created

this digital platform so we didn't have to ask other people permission to have this conversation. We created this digital platform so we didn't have to ask other people permission to have these conversations. And that's why we do this every single day. That's one of the reasons why we've had more than 150 million views of our videos since we launched September 4th, 2018. This is about being unapologetically black,

and that's why, and unfiltered. And so we certainly want to thank all of you who watched us on Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, as well as Instagram. If you want to support what we do, we're here every single day. We don't do gossip. We don't spend our time focused on entertainment.

This is about news and information that's empowering our people, that's engaging with our people. And look, we can be entertaining, but we also need us to understand information is indeed power. So please support us on Cash App. Dollar sign RM unfiltered.

PayPal.me forward slash R Martin unfiltered. The reality is this here. We have been greatly impacted by coronavirus. I've made it clear. I don't want to have to lay off staff or furlough people, but we want to be here every single day. So we certainly need your support to join our Bring the Funk fan club. About 5,000 people have already joined. Our goal is to get 20,000 by the end of the year

at 50 bucks a year, $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. That's what it costs for us to do it. We can make it happen, so I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, folks. We shall see you tomorrow. Roland Martin Unfiltered, Michael A. Dyson,

Congressman Andre Carson, Susan Taylor, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much, Stewart Speakers. We appreciate it. We got to go. Holla! Congressman Andre Carson, Susan Taylor, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much, Stuart's speakers. We appreciate it. We got to go.

Holler! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. Small but important ways from tech billionaires to the bond market to yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chaston. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

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

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads

I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way you gotta pray for yourself as well as for everybody else but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.