#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump campaigns amid pandemic; #45: No duty to understand Black experience; Megyn Kelly slams Kamala

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

9.10.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered:Trump campaigns in Michigan amid pandemic; Trump says he feels no responsibility to understand Black experience; Nation's liar-in-chief confronted about COVID-19 lies; Megyn Kelly slams Kamala Harris; Depression skyrocketed amid pandemic; School calls cops on Black 7th grader; In Memoriam: Ronald Bell Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 Census In America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov. #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting 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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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, September 10th, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Donald Trump is campaigning in the battleground state of Michigan today. He continues to lie about his lies in a news conference. One of the revelations in Bob Woodward's book

is that he feels no responsibility to understand black pain. Yeah, we already knew that. A new study shows that depression is skyrocketing during the pandemic. We'll talk about that with a psychologist also. Megyn Kelly slammed Senator Kamala Harris for saying she's proud of Jacob Blake.

Really? Is Santa still white? And a black seventh grader in Colorado played with a toy gun during a virtual class and his school called the police and then suspended him. Plus more anti-Trump ads and the best of Roland Martin unfiltered. Folks, you also remember Ronald Bell,

co-founder of Kool and the Gang, who passed away today in St. Thomas. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin unfiltered. Let's go. He's rolling, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah

Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martel. Martel. All right, y'all. Donald Trump is in Freeland, Michigan today trying to rally his supporters. The state he won in 2016 and won his campaign considers a must-win in 2020.

Now he's holding his rally at an airport hangar, an outdoor alternative to his indoor rallies that have been made nearly impossible by the pandemic. Governor Gretchen Whitmer calls the visit very distressing because Trump hasn't embraced wearing a mask. Well, no shock. That's what he's done. But he also lies about everything as well. Of course, today in a news conference, ABC's Jonathan Karl. You know what? Since, of course, it's time for Trump Lives Matter, go ahead and run it. Well, again, John Karl of ABC News had, you know had the guts to ask Donald Trump today about that Bob Woodward book where he admitted downplaying coronavirus. But then the rest of the public, oh, everything is fine.

We got it under control. Watch this exchange and just count the lies. Mr. President, why did you lie to the American people and why should we trust what you have to say now? the president's calls that we had, mostly phone calls. And Bob Woodward is somebody that I respect just from hearing the name for many, many years, not knowing too much about his work and not caring about his work. But I thought it would be interesting to talk to him for a period of, you know, calls.

So we did that. I don't know if it's good or bad. I don't even know if the book is good or bad. But certainly, if he thought that was a bad statement, he would have reported it because he thinks that, you know, you don't want to have anybody that is going to suffer medically because of some fact.

And he didn't report it because he didn't think it was bad. Nobody thought it was bad. The Press": Yes. The President": Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And your question, the way you phrase that is such a disgrace.

It's a disgrace to ABC Television Network. It's a disgrace to your employer. And that's the answer. You ready? Because I love. Of course, I didn't. Of course, I didn't. No, no, no, no, no. And then you went out and told the American public that this was just like the flu. I mean, we've had years. and you pulled everybody else something else. The President No. And five times, right? Five times. You ever hear the expression, five times?

We've had flu years where we lost 100,000 people. The flu is a very serious problem for this country also, and we've been losing them. Scott, what kind of a number have we lost over the years with flus into the hundreds of thousands? Dr. Well, I mean, the last five years have been something like 35 to 80,000 per year, every year, even with antiviral drugs and even

with that. The President The President The flu is a very serious problem. But just so you know, I'm- The Press This is worse than the most strenu-dentlier than the most strenuous flu. The President Okay. The President And then you went out and said,

it's just like the flu. The President What I went out and said is very simple. The President You want to go back? The President Listen, what I went out and said is very simple. I want to show a is very simple. I want to show a level of confidence and I want to show strength as a leader and I want to

show that our country is going to be fine one way or the other. Whether we lose one person, we shouldn't lose any because this shouldn't have happened. This is China's fault. This is nobody's fault but China. China should not have allowed it to happen. Whether you have one person, 180,000 people, or two and a half or three million people, which it could have been very seriously if we didn't make the moves. And when you look at the opposition where they said, oh, why did he put the ban on? Dr. Fauci said we saved hundreds of thousands of lives by putting the ban on China and then ultimately putting the ban on Europe. There was no lie here. What we're doing is we're leading, and we're leading

in a proper way. And if, frankly, somebody else was leading it, they wouldn't have closed it. If you look at Nancy Pelosi, you look at Cuomo, you look at de Blasio, you look at Biden, months later, they said, there's no problem. They're talking about me. Months later. they said there's no problem. They're talking about me. Months later. And before any statement was made, you have to remember, I put the ban on China.

So obviously, outwardly, I said it's a very serious problem and it's always a serious problem. That doesn't mean I'm going to jump up and down in the air and start saying people are going to die. People are going to die. No, no, I'm not going to do that. We're going to get through this. And we're right now, I hope, really think we're going to, we're rounding the final turn. And a lot of good things are happening with vaccines and with therapeutics. But there's no lying. And the way you asked that question is very disgraceful. Bill, go ahead, please. Go ahead. I think we did a great job. I think we did a great job. And the people that did such are generals, our admirals, Mike Pence, all of the people that have worked so hard.

And now Dr. Atlas and all of the Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, they should be respected for the job they've done. So you won't downplay it again? You won't downplay it again? Because you said you downplayed it. That's what you told me. All I'm doing is no, I don't want to jump up and down and start screaming death, death. they've done. The Press So you won't downplay it again? The President You won't downplay it again? Because you said you downplayed it. That's what you told me. The President All I'm doing is, no, I don't want

to jump up and down and start screaming, death, death, because that's not what it's about. We have to lead a country. We're leading a great country, and we're doing a great job. And the people that have done such a good job should be given the kind of credit that they deserve.

We possibly have done the best jobs when you start looking at what we're doing with the vaccines and therapeutics and ventilators. We had no ventilators, John. We make thousands of ventilators now a month and we're supplying them to the whole world. The job we've done is the best job. And don't give me any credit. Give the people that have done this the credit they've done a great job yeah phil go ahead his ass was lying first of all to say we had no general no uh ventilators is a damn lie it's just 100 lie i mean does that look that's what you're gonna get if donald trump's lips are moving he's lying joining me this week erica savage wilson host savage politics podcast dr greg car chair department of afro-amer Studies at Howard University.

And Recy Colbert, Black Women in Views. Just straight up ass lying, Erica. As simple as that. I mean, my line is, oh no, that question is horrible. That's just a disgraceful question. No, you're a disgrace. Because you said something to Bob Woodward and you were lying publicly. Yes, the same Bob Woodward that has written 19 books about American politics.

But I will tell you, Roland, where he was telling the truth, that the United States is, in fact, leading. We're leading in covid infections at six point three nine million. We're leading in deaths worldwide right now at just under 192,000. So if people want to continue on with a leader who could really care less, who believes that when he steps to that diet, that he's actually presenting himself as a strong man, what he's doing is really furthering the fact that he is a pathological narcissistic liar, that he has no strategy, that he has no plan, and that what he does every time he steps up to address the American public, as he disgracefully did today at three o'clock interrupting our days, was to really prove the point that the level of incompetency that this

particular regime has demonstrated is not something that we can continue to hold on to for the remainder of 2020 and definitely not into 2021 um and the bottom line here uh reesey again when you look at what he said he oh i wasn't jumping up and down i wasn't trying to scare people but you sure as hell try to scare about the caravan and yeah ain't want to scare uh suburban white women about Cory Booker's going to come to your house when hell a lot of them wouldn't mind Cory Booker dropping by their house uh then Antifa and everything else and oh here come the scary black people black lives movement yeah I mean the bottom line is Donald Trump has always been the chaos president and the notion that he is somehow has

an aversion to panic he didn't want the stock market to panic because that's how he measures success and economic success in this country. But he absolutely has no problem playing to people's fears and to chaos and creating panic, even where there is none. But the problem is not just a matter of his rhetoric being lying and dangerous. The problem is his actions. We know how he refused to act on actually addressing coronavirus. We had ventilators that were out of date because he did being dangerous. This is a matter of his inaction, his deliberate abdication of his responsibility, as well as his administration's responsibility to have a national response. And to me, the most damning part about all of this is that he thinks this is a good job. That alone is damning. Do you guys think it's a good job that most of us that are responsible

are still stuck in our house? That we're retreating when it comes to testing, no longer testing people who are coming in from outside of the country? That we are opening up schools unsafely where schools have to close down multiple times? What about this response is competent and encouraging? Do you guys want another year, four years of this kind of great governance? I don't think so. People really need to wake up and realize that regardless of all of his lies, the actions and the fact that he thinks this is a good job is reason enough to vote his ass out. So here's what I find to be really interesting. Greg, so Bob Woodward should have called the authorities.

Like who? I mean, to say, oh, he was concerned, he should have called the authorities. Idiot, you occupy the White House. Right. I mean, what I keep trying to explain to people, Greg, about this and especially these people who say, oh, Trump and Biden, they're the same. If you think you've seen insane. In the last four years, you do not want to see insanity if Trump gets another four years. You're right, Roland. By the way, I guess we went out tonight with black and gold.

Yes, sir. Looking good, guys. Looking good. I really did. But, you know, it's funny. We're finally getting to the point maybe in this country where we are reframing the point maybe in this country where we

are reframing the narrative. Donald Trump is only interested in one human being. That's Donald John Trump. He's tried to shrink the entire country down to one man, and he's successfully, he's worked, that's worked for a few people in this country. I like what Seth Meyers said the other night. Seth Meyers said every time Donald Trump opened his mouth, it's like, listen, the slam poetry night at the head trauma injury ward.

In other words, we have to stop treating this man as if he is mentally well and anything other, as Reese said, than a narcissist. He's only interested in himself. At this point, he is desperately trying to figure out a pathway to re-election. He's collapsed the post office. He has culled anyone with any credibility or competence from his leadership there in the White House. He has bought all in on Stephen Miller's ultra-uber-racist white nationalist terrorist agenda. And in that exchange we saw today, that's the latest member of his playpen, that fool Scott Atlas out of the Hoover Institute at Stanford. And his own colleagues out there at Stanford said, don't listen to this guy. A radiologist telling people masks don't work, children can't get coronavirus.

A snake oil salesman is saying herd immunity is the way to go. Donald Trump has gone all in on the reality that only exists between those orange ears in his addled skull. So as a result, it was interesting today, Roland, to hear the word lie given to him in the White House. Perhaps we are at an event horizon at a moment when we can no longer, we don't need to talk about how many times he lies. The man is mentally ill, a narcissist, and determined to hold on to power by any means necessary. With that as the point of departure, we can now approach everything that happens. And again, it's just people who don't understand what we're dealing with and people say,

oh, you ship me focusing too much attention. I'm trying to tell y'all, early this week, Mitch McConnell moved on another federal judge. They plan on moving on four. They have four other federal judges queued up. They plan on, so that's going to move them to about 207 or 208 federal judges that are lifetime appointments. Y'all need to understand. And so understand the okey-doke that these people are trying to play. And when people also sit out here and say, well, you know, we should be making demands, we should be making demands.

But let me be real clear. He ain't listening. He don't care about nobody black. In fact, in in the about what we're, he was, if we have that video, let me know if we have the video, where he was asked about the whole issue of black pain and suffering and about white privilege. He was like, I'm sorry, you drank the Kool-Aid, Bob. Listen to this. But let me ask you this. I mean, we share one thing in common. We're white, privileged, who my father privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent? have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain particularly black people feel in this country do you know you you really drank the cooler didn't you just listen to you wow now i don't feel that at all of course he doesn't feel that way reesey because he's benefited from white privilege.

He is the embodiment of white privilege. He's a white supremacist. I'm not going to steal Erica's line because I think she says it better than anybody. But, I mean, he is the white nationalist president. This is a person who actually has tried to roll back diversity training in the federal government. He calls anti-racism curriculums anti-American. Okay. So are you saying that it's American to be racist? I mean, obviously Dr. Carr would say absolutely. And we would all agree on that. But this is a person

who was all about white nationalist power. The privilege is something that he believes is his birthright. So this notion that privilege is something that he is insulated from or some sort of negative is completely foreign to him. And he has conducted himself in that way. He truly believes that he is superior because he's white and that there's no need to understand the plight of black people because black people are inferior to Donald Trump. And he has, like I said, through his racist housing, through his treatment of his employees, through his actual policies like child separation, the Muslim ban, his racist criminal justice policies. He has made it clear that he does not give a damn about black people or Mexican people or anybody who is not a white male? It's understanding how a person, first of all, how they lead, what their perspective is. There's a piece right here in the New York Times, Erica. Go to my iPad.

It says, in encounters with black leaders, you should, guys, you should be able to see it. It says, in encounters with black leaders Trump has chosen photo ops over substance the president claims he's a champion of black Americans but those who have tried to work with him tell a different story yeah I mean I've sat in two meetings with him Donald Trump don't give a damn about black people yeah never has and I think Recy laid it out so plainly, you know, for people that need to really hear kind of broadly how he's demonstrated that outside of his own words. And we must remember that Donald John Trump,

the son of a Klansman, because his father was in fact arrested at a Klan rally, is the same person that entered the body politic in the early 1970s because he, along with his father, the Trump organization, refused to rent their particular units to people who were Black or brown or people of color, even going as far as having people to note that on these applications, whether or not that person was colored, so to speak, meaning black, that that would be noted on their application so they would not have to run out to that person or they wouldn't run out to that person. So he was taken to task by the Nixon administration's Department of Justice in the 70s at that time. So when we think about that and we roll it into when he took out ads in

New York publications to say that he was calling for the death penalty to come back, and specifically around five young Black children, teenagers, who were exonerated, having said to have done harm to a white woman in Central Park. And now here we are. This is the same person that has always been. And so for him to say that he does care about the blacks, he cares about those two or three, that small percentage that will do his bidding, that will say, well, he's been a good master. And we saw that during the Republican National Convention a couple of weeks ago with their select blacks that were featured throughout programming. So bringing it back home, Recy said it. He is a white supremacist. He believes himself to be supreme and all other white males to be supreme over anybody else. It's not hard at this point. What we're talking about is common sense or willful ignorance on the part

of people who don't believe that Donald Trump is in fact a proven racist. This interest, this is an interesting story in the New York Times here, Greg. Guys, do you all have the iPad now? Okay, let's get it up, please. This is very interesting. Mr. Trump continued to reach out after he was elected. In March of 2017, Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former Prentiss star-turned White House advisor,

invited members of the Congressional Black Caucus to the White House to discuss their policy agenda. Mr. Trump ushered them cheerfully into the Cabinet room. They sat across the table grimly with blue binders. Representative James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, recalled that Mr. Trump interrupted three times to suggest they relocate to the Oval Office. Finally, as Mr. Clyburn began his pitch for a national infrastructure and broadband plan, Greg, Vice President Mike Pence popped in to announce that they needed to vacate the room to make way for another meeting. Mr. Clyburn said, let's go, Mr. Trump said.

The group followed him into the Oval Office, but congregated near the fireplace. Representative Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who chaired the caucus, turned down Mr. Trump's request for a photo, but he agreed to photographs showing the caucus negotiating far from Mr. Trump's favorite snapshot destination, the Resolute Desk. I'm sorry. You mean to tell me what no other room available.

Whose house is it? Not Greg. I'm sorry. Not Greg. Let's just be real clear, Greg. This is my show. Yes, sir. And if I was in

a conference room with a high level meeting, yes, I guarantee to go because there's another meeting taking place. I'm just I'm just letting you know y'all wouldn't be seeing them any further after that. Matter of fact, I would fire them over text. Like Donald Trump did on The Apprentice because he was too much of a punk to do it in real life. That's what the word on the street is. This is exactly how that

would have gone. Did this month... Oh my God. Y'all just ignore that. I deal with you in a second. And literally, I would pick my phone up and say, yo, ass fired. Greg, go ahead.

No, but see, I think, well, there's a couple of things at play there. The reason I'm laughing, I'm sure, I suspect we all may be laughing a little bit. This is the disrespect shown to black elected officials. And some of it is because we allow ourselves to be disrespected. Donald Trump is clearly addled. His mind is gone. It's been eaten. It was never sharp when he had his full faculties. To me, how to handle that, it would have been very simple to manipulate him if that hadn't been set up in the beginning.

To say, oh, Mr. Vice President, Mr. President, I thought this was your house. But I mean, we'll leave if the vice president has control. At that point, Trump probably would have humiliated Pence just to make a point. I mean, he's a child. You can't talk to him. Any teacher knows that. You talk to a child like a child. If you wanted to stay in the room, all you had to do was make Trump think that Pence was showing him up. Smiling Mike, I love him. I do. You know, y'all know how much I love Smiling Mike Pence, because he's a cold-blooded racist.

And this is the kind of thing that at that point, you know, everybody in the CBC got to do a gut check. Y'all going to let this punk-ass white boy from Indiana talk to you like that? And so and then they get up and go in the room. I'm laughing because I'm playing this in my mind almost like a situation comedy, the black elected officials moving around in the place like I'm laughing because I'm playing this in my mind almost like a situation comedy. The black elected officials moving around in the place like the hell. They are a separate branch of government. And that building is controlled by the people of the United States. I wouldn't have gotten up. But anyway, but to the point you raised a minute ago that really reinforces where

we are in this moment. Today in New York, a three panel district court judge said that you've got to tell Wilbur Ross, you have to count those who are in this country illegally in the census count that the courts are important. If you look at, there's been a recent study looking at the decisions of the Trump appointees and saying that they are to the right of even all the other Republican reportees. And I believe the Dallas News today had an article mentioning that John Cornyn wants even more judges, to your point about Mitch McConnell. While we are allowing these people to embrace their hee-haw, green acres, naked racism style in these interactions, the people who understand that they are useful

idiots are running their playbook. Now, here's where the thing is really going to go off the rails, I'm afraid. If they continue, and they are going to continue if they retain power, if they continue this trajectory, they're going to break the framework of the United States of America. Because even when you treat people that way, there's only a certain amount of disrespect people will take before communications completely shut off. And then we go to the mats.

And for every one of Trump's little black flunkies that he got into photo ops, for every attempt for folks like Omarosa, who we all know, to try to bridge a gap and maneuver, you're dealing with an unstable person. You're dealing with a racist in the second in command who should never have been anywhere near national elective office.

You're dealing with a stone cold racist and that 35-year-old punk that's in there writing all the policy. And they are going to take this to the mat if it means the whole place burns. And the only thing we have to decide is whether or not we're just going to stand there or sit there in the case of the cbc and let them do it the reason i i keep i keep making this point to people about these trump judges um and understanding where we are with power. I keep trying to explain to people.

I don't know why they don't listen. I've been saying this, y'all, for now 11 years, that what we're operating in is this period of white fear. We're operating in this period of white folks in this country trying to, again, hold on to power. So I got this alert. This was a few moments ago. I got this alert right here on my iPad. And this is what it said. New York Times, we reviewed 922 of America's top leaders. 80% are white. See the faces of power behind Hollywood, the justice system, big businesses, and more.

That's what it said. Now, if you go into the story, so this is what they do. It's a photographic here. So go back to my iPad, please. You see faces of power, 80% are white. So you go through this here. 25 people command the largest police forces. Fourteen are black or Hispanic. OK, then it says twenty nine prosecutors charge people with crimes in those jurisdictions.

Twelve are Asian, black or Hispanic. Then it says twenty four people lead the Trump administration. Three are Asian, black or Hispanic. Nine justices on the Supreme Court. Two are black or Hispanic. Eight men are military chiefs. Just one is black. The other eight of the other seven are white. Of the people at the top 25 highest valued companies, six are Asian or black,

but let me fix that. This is five are Asian. One is black. Okay. So let me just go ahead and fix that. Of the people who hit universities in the top 25, one is Hispanic. Nobody is black. 15 people direct major news organizations. It says here three are black or Hispanic. Let me correct that. is black Dean Beckett right here right there with the New York Times okay

everybody else not the case everybody else is white okay the only the person who isn't is uh he just took over uh at um let's see here, at NBC, leading their group. And so I'm trying to pull it up right here. See who is it? That's Norman Pearlstein, Nicholas Carlson, Alexander Wallace. Then you have right here, Marthel Perez. She's USA Today Gannett. Only Latino.

Okay. So what's this three? So, OK, let's go through here. The five people who have the most influence over book publishing, all white. The people who edit the 10 most read magazines, all white. Fourteen people oversee most of the music that is produced and played not I hope now they are not see some of y'all need to get 14 people oversee most of the music that is produced and played to or black or Hispanic hmm who is the black guy right here is John Platt, Sony, ATV. That's it. That's the only black person. Oh, yeah. All that music y'all listen to. These are the people who control the music.

Twenty five people run the top TV networks in Hollywood studios. Three are black or Hispanic. Really? So, okay. Now right here. Okay. So I got to even challenge even this list. So Wanya Lucas crown media family networks, Hallmark. She used to be the CEO of TV one. Uh, you have down here, uh, she just got this job, Perlina Igbokwe, NBC Universal Television Studios. She just got that particular job. And then then you have someone who is. But again, y'all, let's be clear. We're on top TV networks. I got a question. So you got the one sister with NBC. I got a question in Crown Media got the one sister with NBC. I got a question in Crown Media

how they came up with that determination. But again, TV studios, Hollywood studios, nobody black. Uh, are the people in charge of the 25 highest valued fashion companies, three are Asian or Hispanic, no black people. 99 people own professional baseball, basketball and football teams. Six are Asian, black or Hispanic. It's only one black person on this list. And that is Michael Jordan. That's it. I'm looking here. Ain't nobody else. So really. So ninety three of the ninety nine are white. One hundred people write laws in the United States Senate.

Nine are Asian, black or Hispanic. Think about that, y'all that means 90 percent of the united state 91 percent of the united states senate white americans it's going down here 50 people are state governors three are asian hispanic or native american not a single african- American. That means that when you start breaking this thing down again, who is running the country? Yep, 90% white governors. 431 people currently write laws in the House. 112 are Asian, black, Hispanic, or Native American, or otherwise identify as a person of color.

Now, here's the deal. The Congressional Black Caucus, they make up more than half of those 112. They have the largest caucus on the Democratic side. Okay? Let me go down here. And all this is important because y'all see the faces. You see this is power. This is power this is power and this is the thing Reesey that I keep

trying to get people to understand and I posted something on on Twitter and Instagram today and people which was which was really a follow-up to the commentary I gave last night when I was talking about Boosie, I was talking about Instagram and I was talking about that. And people were really started. They start getting tripping. So I want you to explain this here. This is what I said. I hope you all are paying attention. Look at all of these major media companies announcing deals with black content creators. But who is getting the lion's share of the money? Who is owning the content? Or are we just better paid sharecroppers? Look, black folks are America's trendsetters and

tastemakers. But if someone is giving you $1 million, how much are they making? Are you licensing the content or do they own it? Are we also sharing in the revenue? My fear is that what is happening today is similar to when black music artists sign awful radio deals. We get hyped about the attention and adulation, but get screwed on the business end. Ray Charles said, own your masters. And that is still true. When I look at that list of power, that's the issue. That's the real issue. Can you green light? can you approve a contract can you are you the final arbiter of power when it comes to making decisions and that

reesey is what we better be thinking about and what donald trump is doing three people's administration they are desperately trying to hold onto power. And let me go ahead and extend this. These white corporate executives in Hollywood, in television, in digital media, on Wall Street, when it comes to the people who control hedge funds, when it comes to people who control pension funds, they want to hold onto the levers of power. And I've said this, that America is going to be just like South Africa, where black people are the majority in South Africa. Yet when Nelson Mandela became president, he allowed them to keep the land and keep the businesses. And you have a vast economic imbalance in South

Africa today. And 23 years from now, when this nation becomes a nation majority of people of color at the current rate, you're going to have the same economic imbalance because people of color will not hold positions of power. Right. And, you know, I just want to be clear too, that power is not a result of merit. A lot of, a lot of the, one of the biggest scams of white supremacy is convincing people that this is a meritocracy and that, you know, all of these white folks that end up in these positions of power got there by pure merit, by working hard. And that all you have to do is pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you too can be a CEO. Well, that's complete bullshit. And we know that. And the problem is, unfortunately,

what we do as black people, we have more smoke for the few black people that we have in power than we do for all the white folks that are sitting up there running us into the ground. You know, I see people making more demands of the CBC, and I say this probably every week, than I see of them making of Donald Trump. The bottom line is we do have to harness our considerable trillions of dollars of economic buying power. We have to harness our voting power, which there's still debate from people as to whether or not we should vote or don't let people tell you that you're obligated to vote. We are out of power, but we have power that we can harness a lot better to actually start to move the needle on these things. And where we can't be a part, we can't necessarily ascend to power as quickly in these mainstream or in these white dominateddominated companies do what Roland Martin did,

which is create your own shit. Then you run it, and then you build it, and you demand that you get access to revenue, like, for instance, what you've done with the census and what I saw that you tweeted about the DCC and other Democratic organizations. Oh, right. That's using the power.

I mean, I sent emails to the DCCC, the DSCC, the DOCC, to Emily's List. I sent it to American Priorities, Priorities USA, the big super PAC. I sent another email to what is it, American Bridge or whatever it's called. Same thing. And this this is exactly what I asked. Yeah, American Bridge or whatever it's called? Same thing. And this is exactly what I asked. Yeah, American Bridge. This is the question. I'm trying to understand how much American Bridge is spending on black-owned media.

Also, what black pollsters, consultants, and vendors is American Bridge using this election season. Because these folks, outside of the Biden campaign, they are going to spend more than $1 billion on this whole campaign. And I want to know, are black people going to get any of that? Or are they going to do exactly what they did even when Obama was there, where they control the levers of power? And when you have individuals who can make six and eight hundred thousand and a million dollars and two million dollars on these campaigns, hell, that's what they can live the life and open up their shops and then do whatever they do. But but then but the question is, but a Cornell Belcher who is a poster, he got to get out there and scrap for contracts. Yet, let me be real clear, him and Ron Lester got to do that.

But you got white boys out there. They just give contracts to when the black ad agency like Fuse or or like Burrell or Carol H. Williams. Oh, we need you to come in and pitch. Well, you ain't had a white firm come in and pitch. And not only that, why is it if you do use a black advertising agency? Why they got a handle the black part? They're creative can just as handle the entire media campaign as everybody else Oh because you also know and whoever has the agency contract is gonna get they 15 to 20 percent off the top And then what they gonna do is they gonna kick parts parts of the contract to the digital company and see what's gonna happen is The digital camp company that

they also own is going to get they 15 20 administrative fee and then they're going to kick another part to the people who handle uh traditional media then another company that handles radio and all three are getting pieces i keep telling people you better follow the money if you want to understand power in America. And we're black voters. We're the base of the damn party. Why are we why are we fighting for scraps? As you pointed out in this whole apparatus that's built off the backs of black voters, giving 90 plus percent, 60 percent turnout to the Democrats. I think that what you're doing is absolutely important and we have to continue to harness our power, not just on elected

officials, but as you point out, these Democratic organizations that are happy to take our votes, but don't want to have us have a seat at the table and get money like everybody else is getting paid. They don't want to give us the money, but they want our votes. No. That's where we need to be making these demands. So, for instance, and again,

I know what my lane is, Erica, and why want our votes. No. That's where we need to be making these demands. So, Frances, and again, I know what my lane is, Erica, and why I created this. Two years ago, the Congressional Black Caucus demanded a report from the GAO on federal government spending on advertising. The federal government in 2018 spent $5 billion

annually on advertising. Black people, Erica, Black owned media got less than 1% of 5 billion. I've already made it perfectly clear. Okay. Biden Harris y'all win. I want to see a minimum of 10% of that 5 billion, not going to black targeted. Let me repeat that. Not black targeted, black owned. For all y'all people listening, do y'all understand what I'm saying? Everybody at home, that means we would go from literally less than 50 million, not even that, we ain't even getting that, to all of a sudden 500 million advertising.

That's how then we were able to have 20 and 30 and 50 and 100 employees in different countries, excuse me, different cities. Oh, yeah, we can have people overseas as well. But it's the power dynamic, Erica. That means that the person who is in control of power is deciding who gets the money. And that's the game we will be playing at understanding power. Absolutely. And we have to pivot quickly. So two points, Roland. When you talk about the Senate, we have to think about the Senate made it very, very definitive that they were not going to step back into D.C. until September the 8th at 3 o'clock p.m.

And that was to do what you already just said, continue the process of confirming federal judges that the relief bill that is so desperately needed by millions and millions of Americans be damned. What they're most concerned with is continuing to stack the court. So when we're hearing you talk about and how you continue to talk about over your journalistic career, connecting the dots, we have to see that because that term that you identified, the modern day sharecroppers, I think that kind of the class of people that, you know, we're saying and I have to bring it

forward because it was something that really got under my skin and just language we have to get away from. Well, people were saying, well, I'm not my grandparents. You can catch these hands. Catch your hands for what? This is a power graph. And a power graph really is about consolidating what we have and saying this is, in fact, what we want, not settling for what seems to be a lot in exchange for intellectual property that is ours. You talked about the swag, the natural bellwethers that we are as Black people, that we are the very people that came to this country enslaved, and we built financial systems that still continue to uphold and provide wealth for white families generation after generation.

So when we start thinking about power, we have to also start thinking about position. And we have to also understand that all of those different faces that you showed us, that when we look at the high percentages where white faces are dominant, which is in every area, and then when we look at us, who are 13 percent of this population, but that we, you know, over, we're 40 percent of the labor force in this nation. When we look at all of the different categories that we swell and feel when you're talking about prison populations, all of those different things are things that are put into place, designed to keep us in place, so we can't fully exert all of the power that we have.

So I believe that the pivot to understanding that this is a power play is now that we definitely are capable. But we just have to look at the long road us and any other person that is in this country that is not white and that is not male. And see, the thing, Greg, and the thing and let my next guest, I'm going to go to her in just a minute. But the thing that. I want our people to understand. And when I say our people, I'm also talking about our organizations that hold power. When we at NABJ went after CNN, I knew exactly what we were doing.

I was real clear. The fact that they had no black executive vice, no executive producers, no black vice presidents, no black senior vice presidents, no black executive vice presidents and no black direct reports to CNN CEO Jeff Zucker. That meant there was no one in the pipeline for any promotion that opened up to get elevated. And we said, no, hell no. Now, they didn't want to meet with me because when Donald Brazil passed on one of my questions to the Hillary Clinton campaign, which is interesting now that the audio is out of Jeff Zucker giving Donald Trump debate advice in 2016,

it's amazing how mainstream media want to ignore that. But here's what I told them, what I said to NABJ. One, we don't meet with underlings. We meet with CEOs. They got to be at the table because power meets with power. And I made it perfectly clear. If a CEO of a media company is not going to be at the meeting, Roland's not going to be at the meeting. I told our president, Dorothy Tucker, you're the president of NABJ. If their president is not there, you don't come to the meeting. That's how it works. But I need black people to start reassessing how we operate.

Go to my iPad. Bojangles, in its 43-year history, for the first time now, just hired its first black senior executive. They hired this sister, Monica Salls, who is going to be over. She's going to focus on the company's culture as well as diversity and inclusion. OK, they also are going to hire more than 30,000 new employees due to expected growth and demand over the next 12 months. And quote, build on our commitment to diversity and inclusion to create a culture where all employees are respected and valued. So let me break that down. That means that black people in Charlotte, North Carolina and all throughout the South, y'all have been eating Bojangles chicken. And Bojangles pies and Bojangles food,

and they have never had an African-American in a senior leadership position, which means that no African-American has ever had an opportunity to get stock options, to earn seven figure salaries, to determine the fate of others. So in 2020, she's the first one. Now, I'm not I am not disrespecting the H.R. position or D&I diversity and inclusion positions. But let me go ahead and lay this down to you. You will rarely, if ever, see somebody go from a D&I position, diversity and inclusion, to eventually becoming CEO. Let me just let that marinate for y'all. Very rarely will you see a D&I person, Greg, go from that to CEO. Why?

Because in corporate America, you got to have a P&L responsibility. For everybody watching at home, it's called profit and loss. That means you've got to be over a major company division that contributes to the company's bottom line for them to put you in the pipeline to be over a major company division that contributes to the company's bottom line for them to put you in the pipeline to be CEO.

So in the wake of the death of George Floyd, more than 80 companies had D&I positions available on LinkedIn. Greg, everybody and their mama all of a sudden is looking to hire folk for D&I positions. But the leadership of companies will not come from D&I positions. It will come from if you have a P&L responsible position. So I'm just trying to get our people to understand what power is and how you must make demands of power, Greg. Why should they concede anything, Roland? I mean, why should they?

They don't have to. The United States of America was founded as a criminal enterprise in a state of violence. European colonies that came here dispossessed the First Nations peoples of their land and then brought us in to the death camps, the plantations, the labor camps, to generate the wealth that built the continuing criminal enterprise. During the Civil War, when the North thought it might lose, the Africans who became first contraband in the South in places like the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Davis Bend, Mississippi, were offered a deal. If you will continue to grow cotton, if you continue to work these death camps, former death camps that you were on, we will create a situation where you can get ownership of this land. betrayal, which took place, roughly speaking, from 1861 really through 1865 or 6 when Andrew

Johnson took over as president and restored the land rights to the people who had been in rebellion against the United States and even compensated them for the land that they had sold off to Northern land speculators, thereby rewarding them for treason. That betrayal really locked black people into the system that laid the foundation for where we are today. You ask, when can we start thinking differently? We can't, Roland, because what happened in that moment was the pathway to ownership was, it seems to me perhaps, permanently blocked.

You see, land was the basis of full economic rights to match the political rights in a capitalist society through by which our rights are really only as good as our capacity to protect them. And that has everything to do with our economic power. So I fast forward to 2020 and the list that you show, the New York Times article of those 922. It's really much worse than that. Of the 180 non-whites, I don't call them people of color, but white people have color too. You know, unmasking whiteness is something we have to start doing. Everybody has a color. What they mean is non-white. Right. But but of those 180 non-whites, 120 of them were in the United States House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, meaning non-white hands and some white hands had a say in electing them to the federal legislature.

Why is that important? Ninety-nine major franchises, football, basketball, baseball, these are overwhelmingly non-white sports once you count the Afro-Latinos, and there's only one Black owner, and that's Michael Jordan. Forget the Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills. Talk about Black. A labor force that is overwhelmingly Black and it's 1% ownership. But we are not going to change the ownership structure in this country with some employees. We're not talking about, that's not ownership, they're just employees. Right. And so finally, the important thing is this, cultivating a mentality that says representation, demographic representation translates into power is the flawed thinking that extends directly from the betrayal of the reconstruction.

Yeah. And it has led us now to say, when you see, let's say half those people were black, if the material conditions of black people haven't changed, Mitch McConnell and them, their little skinny bill failed today in the Senate that was stripped out of the unemployment benefits, they tried to put in protection against getting sued to their corporate partners. Representation has to translate into collective empowerment. And when you mentioned South Africa, Roland, I think that was very powerful, brother. That's why this show and this platform that you own is so important. That map that you show today would have been almost 100% white in the 1920s and 30s and 40s when there was a black press, when the HBCUs were

educating folks. With all the flaws of Jim Crow, we're not saying go back to the days of apartheid, but when black people had their own institutions and were fighting for the type of access some of us have today, we understood the value of institutions differently than we do now. And when you mentioned South Africa, brother, in 1985, the government of South Africa, with the backing of racists like Ronald Reagan and Bush, supported what they called the state of emergency. The country had become ungovernable. That is what's going to happen in the United States. When the majority of this population is nonwhite and these white folks have decided they're going to run into the wheels, the country will become ungovernable.

At that point, the violence will increase. And finally, the resolution of a settler state that was founded in violence might finally come to a head. They betrayed us in the middle of the 19th century. And that bill is coming due. Don't think that those white faces are going to be protected for what's coming due, brother. It's coming due. Absolutely. We're going to continue with more of this to get you to understand again. Power. Folks love shouting black power. People love talking about, you know, what's up with Carmichael. No, no, no, no, no, no.

But you better understand, black power ain't how you feel. Black power is what you actually control. Coming up next, we're going to talk about coronavirus and depression. What the hell was Skip Bayless saying today that Dak Prescott should not have talked about going through depression after his brother's suicide? We're going to unpack that with, yes, a black doctor.

Next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice. I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure... Now, folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted

new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the US House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. A recent study published shows that we are in a mental health epidemic.

Depression has skyrocketed. Three times as many Americans met criteria to be diagnosed with depression during the pandemic than before it began. A pre-pandemic survey of about 5,000 American adults found that 8.5% of them showed strong signs of depression. That number rose to almost 28% when researchers surveyed almost 1,500 Americans from March to April. Remember, even Michelle Obama said that she was suffering from low-grade depression.

Joining us now is Dr. Alfie Breland Noble. She's a psychologist. Glad to have you on the show. Before we get into it, I just saw this clip, Doc, which is stunning. Dak Prescott, who plays quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Of course. In the offseason, his brother, 31 years old, died.

Dak revealed that his brother died of a suicide. He talked about what his brother was enduring, having to care for their mother, being the lone provider for their mother who had suffered from colon cancer and who had passed away. And he opened up about how he went through moments of depression during this coronavirus crisis on a national television show. The Undisputed on Fox Sports 1. This is what Skip Bayless actually said about Dak Prescott opening up about depression. I'm going to ask our audience to feel free

to go ahead and condemn me if you choose as cold-blooded and insensitive on this issue. I have deep compassion for clinical depression. But when it comes to

the quarterback of an NFL team, you know this as well as I, better than I do, it's the ultimate leadership position in sports. Am I right about that? You are commanding an entire franchise. What's the roster now? Is it 53 still?

53, but I think they got like 15 practice squad guys. But you're commanding a lot of young men and some older men and they're all looking to you to be their ceo to be in charge of the football team because of all that i don't have sympathy for him going public with i got depressed i suffered depression early in covid to the point that I couldn't even go work out. Look, he's the quarterback of America's team. That, Doc, is an abomination because that's actually what leaders are supposed to do. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

It's infuriating more than anything because it speaks directly to the issues that prevent people from getting care. I have to say it because of the platform that I'm on right now with that being a biracial black man and skip not being of color. I do like that phrasing of color. It has a very specific meaning. It is, as you said, an abomination for him to think that he could understand what Dak's experience is. He's not a man of color. He doesn't know what this is like. He doesn't know what those relationships are like in that man's family. I know that Dak lost his mother a long time ago and that his brothers have been a very important part of his life. So, you know, frankly, I have to say, how dare anybody suggest that someone should hide from a real expression of what they're experiencing, particularly when it relates to mental illness?

I don't care what your job is. We have a responsibility to be open and honest about these kinds of things so that other people won't feel that they have to hide. So I'm sorry for my anger, but it is really infuriating that anybody would think they have the right to express their opinion about another person's pain. The thing that, um, this issue, I mean, I, I've had, um, several friends I know, men and women who have talked about going through depression during coronavirus and just not being able to deal with it. I've, uh, uh, you know, my niece is struggling with, with, with the same thing because your whole world changes and you used to go into school and seeing friends and going out and doing those things. And now all of a sudden that's completely shut down and you're in changes and you used to go into school and seeing friends and going out and doing those things.

And now all of a sudden that's completely shut down and you're in home and you can't see people. You can't hug people. I mean, I haven't seen my parents since Thanksgiving. And normally I would have flown back home for I would have seen them four or five times because of graduations and holidays. And it hasn't happened. And and folks. And folks are dealing with this, and the reality is if folk don't say anything, then they're suffering in silence. And I've got to find the name, but there was a young brother who was a star reporter for The Washington Post,

killed himself just a couple of months ago. Because, again, folks are dealing with this and many have no idea where all of a sudden it even comes from. Right. Yeah, I agree. And I think some of this. So I have to say today is World Suicide Prevention Day. So this is a topic I'm so happy that you all are covering this topic on your show because you and I both know as black people, this is not something that we as black people talk about, which leads to some of these horrible outcomes, as you've just described, for this brother who died by suicide. So, you know, it's really critical that we talk about things like signs and symptoms so that people understand and that there's an awareness, particularly in our community as Black people. I run a nonprofit, the Acoma Project.

That's part of our work is talking with people about what are signs and symptoms that you need to be looking for so that when it's time for you to get some help, you recognize that it's time to get some help. What I often will say is I don't say we want to educate Black people because Black people are not stupid. What I want to say is we want to bring it into black people's awareness. We want to bring it into the awareness of people of color so that as you describe your family members, yeah, I would imagine I have children. I have two high schoolers, a ninth grader and an 11th grader, and this is unprecedented for them. This is unprecedented for all of us. So we all need to have a real clear awareness of what signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, all of these things affect us because,

you know, mental illness doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care what color we are. It's going to show up. So you having the opportunity to give me an opportunity to talk about these issues is really critical. And, you know, it's really, really important for people to understand that there are many different colors of faces and many different colors of people who are out there and willing to help them. Before I go to my pound with questions, a friend of mine sent me this. It was a young woman, African-American, was a star sports journalist. I mean, I'm talking about was a star.

Five years ago on Labor Day, she at the time was 26 years old. Go to my iPad, people. This is what she posted. She posted it is National Suicide Prevention Week. She said it's also the week of my 31st birthday, five years ago this week on my 26th birthday. I was supposed to die. I didn't want to die. I wanted out of my abusive marriage, but getting out would have required asking for help and acknowledging that I couldn't do it alone. I had too much pride. I had reassured my friends. I was happy too many times to turn around and tell them about the reality of what I was experiencing in my marriage. So I tried to get out on my own. When I couldn't, I resorted to something unimaginable. In the moment, ending it all seemed easier than asking for help and admitting that my marriage was a mistake. In a span of 12 hours, I went from drinking and grilling with my husband on Labor Day

to another miserable night to lighting myself on fire. I suffered burns to more than 85% of my body. And somehow, thanks to a ton of incredible medical professionals, I survived. I survived to tell you that suicide is never the answer, no matter how impossible your situation feels. I survived to tell you that in overcoming your most difficult moments, you can learn so many wonderful things about yourself. I survived to tell you that when those closest to you ask how you are, you should be honest. We have to normalize that it is okay to not be okay. In doing so, we can feel less alone because we all struggle at times. I survived to tell you that now is the best time to ask for help. I never considered suicide or had suicidal ideations. One day I was fighting

with a smile on my face, trying to save face. The next, I didn't know how I could continue to save face and it almost cost me my life. I survived to tell you that there can be so much joy and happiness and light after the darkest moments in your life. I know this. I've lived it. Honestly, I wasn't supposed to survive and experience all of this to obtain this type of peace. I almost missed it. Please learn from me.

Please ask for help. Oh, that just breaks my heart. There's so much that she's unpacking with what she's saying. I would say the most important thing is that she made it. That the other important thing is that she's really telling people that there is a way out, that there's light at the end of the tunnel, but we have to be willing to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. And I think the struggle is for many of us, particularly those of us who are Black, I'm going to tie this thread back to how we opened with that ignorance that Skip Bayless said. I'm sorry, I just have to say it. That was ridiculous.

And I think a part of it is there's a direct line between when you are a person of color, when you are Black, and this idea that you have to be above reproach all the time. You don't want anybody to see that there's any crack or fissure in the facade, because I think for many of us, we think that if people find any little way to go in and attack us, they're going to pull us apart. And often, let's be honest, in many of our workspaces for our young people in school, that's what happens. If people find one thing wrong, they go in for the kill, so to speak. And so that prevents us from demonstrating or showing any vulnerability, because as we saw with Skip, he criticized Dak for being open about not wanting to go to work because he was grieving. It's not just depression. He was experiencing grief at the loss of someone who was very dear to him. And so it makes sense to me that she would share that she felt like that.

The one other thing I do feel like is important to unpack is when we as black people, this is not a criticism, it's an observation. Say things like I've heard other people say, well, I had no idea that that person was struggling. I didn't see any signs or symptoms. I think it's important for us to raise awareness about what signs and symptoms look like. Suicide law ideation is not always just about in the moment thinking, I want to take my life. That's not what it's always about. Sometimes it is, I wish I were not here anymore. So one of the things we do when we treat people and what we train people is we ask a person to respond to the question, is there any part of you that wants to die? Is there any

part of you that no longer wants to be here because you're really trying to get at getting people off of this idea that 100 of who i am needs to be ready to die for me to feel that i'm experiencing suicidal ideation so i'm just so heartbroken by the pain and the experience um and i do as she shared i want people to know they're not alone because there's so many people out here struggling. Yeah. And this and this was a sister. I'm going to show you all these photos. I mean, this is a sister, I said, who was a star journalist. And here's the deal. When you're a journalist, you work for a newspaper. These are your weapons.

This is this is these are your that she took, but you see her hands and you see the impact of that decision of, again, of lighting herself on fire. This is a photo that she shared of her in the hospital. This is a photo of her, you know, with her press pass. And so, you know, again, people have to understand how we are going with people who are suffering from depression, who, and we all handle things a lot differently. I was asked by somebody, they said, man, you know, how are you coping? I said, I'm good. And they thought, they said, yeah, but you know, but you're used to traveling. I said, I am, but this is the most I haven't traveled in 16 years. Everybody handles stuff differently. Let's go to my panel for questions.

Erica, you're first up. Thank you, Roland, and thank you so much, Dr. Noble, for being on today. Appreciate you and all of the work that you do. My question to you is specifically with us being in a public health crisis, we have black folks who are essential workers. We have Black folks that are working from home and folks who unfortunately have been laid off and cannot find a job. And then people who are already suffering with some of the things that you named, anxiety, PTSD, perhaps suicidal ideation. What are some of the tools that you would be able to provide

to the general public when it seems as though this is something that everybody is experiencing, not being able to grieve people that we've lost the COVID-19 in the way that we're accustomed to, particularly in the Black community. So for these conditions that may be exacerbated for some people that are already suffering and perhaps taking medications, what do you offer for people not to get to a place, hopefully, where some of the experiences that Roland brought forth with the journalists and perhaps even make it? What are some things that we can do? Sure. So I appreciate the kind words, my sister, and I appreciate the question. There are a couple of different things. One, I will say upfront for anybody who wants to go to therapy, it's all virtual for the most part right now. And there are many organizations right now, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't say this,

that are offering free mental health supports, free sessions of therapy for people. The Loveland Foundation, the Acoma Project, there's a beam.org. There's so many organizations who are really working to try to support people who want to receive care. The Sad Girls Club is another one to give them an opportunity to have exposure. So that's one. So if you can take advantage of those, I would encourage anybody to do that. Secondly, if you're not ready to go to therapy, you're not ready to go see a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a social worker, any of the alphabet soup of folks who provide the care, there are a couple different things.

The first thing is we have to acknowledge and recognize that mental illness is a thing that impacts us as Black people. There's no such thing as, you know, we don't have those issues, mental illness is white folks' problems. It's really not. It's everybody's issue. Once we acknowledge that mental illness is an issue that impacts us as Black people, we have to recognize and understand signs and symptoms.

Again, I talk about awareness. Do we know what anxiety looks like? Do we know how depression feels? Do we know what the cluster of symptoms are that we need to be paying attention to? Do we know what it means to be exposed to trauma and have the resulting anxiety and depression as a result of being exposed to trauma? Earlier this month or last month, our sister Gabrielle Union talked about the recurrence of symptoms of PTSD related to a sexual assault that she experienced when she was much younger. She was 19, 20 years old because we are in this condition of coronavirus and being stuck in the house. So it's the ability to understand and recognize when we're not feeling quite right and being able to associate that with signs and symptoms of psychological distress and mental illness. Then I would say, once you have an idea that you might be dealing with something, it is taking active steps. I talk about active coping all the time.

Get off of social media. Don't stay on social media all day. Curate your news. Don't sit and watch all the news all the time. Yes, you need to be informed because that's a good one. People say, yeah, but I need to be informed, Dr. Alford. Okay, that's all fine and good. But you don't need to sit and watch the same stuff over and over and over. There was a young man who died by suicide, and that thing was circulating on TikTok. Like, I'm horrified that anybody would want to watch something like that. You just stay away from that. I am an avid meditator.

I meditate daily. I've been doing it for 17, 18 years, daily for about four or five. Exercise. Now I'm going to sound like people's mom, get some sleep, right? You need good sleep because if you're tired, you can't manage your health. Well, uh, you need to eat better. All of us need to eat better. Myself included. I need to lay off the French fries. Um, and you need to find people to talk to, right? The other thing about talking to each other, one thing that we do as black people, and I promise I'm almost done is we share

our stress. So I i'd like to show people it's like a pot think a visual of a big cooking pot everybody dumps their stress in that pot and everybody's eating out the pot at the same time sometimes we just need to be a listening ear and not trade stresses with each other sometimes we need to just talk and not allow the other person to give us whatever stress they're dealing with. So those are some of the things that I would say. Thank you. Uh, Reese. Thank you, Dr. Brieley Noble. Those are really, um, amazing points that you made. My question is how important is it to you, um, that we kind of properly identify those things? Cause to me, depression is a, is a heavy word. Mental illness is a heavy word.

And sometimes you don't feel well. And that time I've had moments where I've struggled and I felt like depression is probably what I'm suffering from. But then also I'm like, well, that sounds a little bit like overkill for, you know, having a moment here and there. How much does the, the timing in terms of the, the persistence of anxiety, depression, or however it's characterized play into how it's, you know, characterized? Or is it more so about if you're feeling a certain way that you take these different steps that you've laid out? Sure. So the first, I think it's a wonderful question. I really appreciate it. It's very thoughtful. It gives me an opportunity to really talk a little bit about unpacking this issue of mental illness and stigma. Because one of the things that happens is, again, going back to what Skip said, when people hear people like Skip Bayless criticize and say things like that,

what a lot of us do, myself included, is we want to be as far away from any mental illness label as we can possibly get. God forbid I have that. I don't want that because I don't want people like Skip talking about me like that. And so it really sometimes puts people in a bind because even if they're actually struggling with something that's diagnosable, let's be clear about diagnosis. Most of the diagnosis that we have were not created with Black people or people of color in mind. However, that's what we have for now. I think that if you have a culturally competent provider like myself, we are the kind of people who can help you sort of unpack what it is that you're feeling, whoever it is, and give a label to it that feels appropriate and that feels

what I call culturally relevant. So for example, when you're talking about depression, you want to be looking for a cluster. I'm so appreciative of the wording that you use, a cluster of three to four symptoms that persist over a two-week period. Maybe you don't feel it every day, but more often than not, if you come in my office or anyone comes into my office and we start having a conversation,

I'm starting to think depression if I hear significant changes in sleeping habits. You sleep a lot more, you sleep a lot less. Significant changes in eating habits, a lot more or a lot less. Significant changes in your mood. Your mood is low. Maybe you're not just down in the dumps all the time, but it's pretty low. Low grade, like Michelle Obama described, the wonderful Michelle Obama, I love her, that low grade, bad, low mood. One thing that we don't often talk about that is often a symptom that shows up for our brothers, Black and Latinx in particular, is irritability and anger. Right. A lot of times underneath that irritability, excuse me, and anger, that's depression. Because what's more acceptable, bucking up to somebody or looking, right, sad and pitiful? It's not acceptable for our young men

and our men to look sad and pitiful. So you look angry. It serves the same purpose. You want to keep people away. So if I'm angry and fussing at everybody and snapping, nobody wants to get close to me. And that's what I want. People who cry a lot, right? You're crying for no, you know, for unknown reasons. All of those things, if you see clusters of these that last, like I said, over about a two week period, that's when it's time to pay attention. So if it's up and down and it's not persistent, you'll have a low mood Monday. You don't have another low mood for two weeks. You probably are not dealing with depression, but if it's hanging around and you can't really lift yourself out of it, that might be time to talk to somebody. The final thing I'll say is we have something called

persistent depressive disorder. We used to call it dysthymia. It's a low grade, low mood that just hangs out for a really long time. Maybe it's not as high as depression, but as Michelle Obama described, I would say that that's probably what she was dealing with, persistent depressive disorder. Greg Carr. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Dr. Alfie, not only for your expertise and years of work, but for your spirit. And I mean, the love for our people is evident. And I'm interested in this kind of continues in the vein of part of the answer you gave to Recy, your collective coma, I think that means heart in

Akkad, in tree. I'm wondering, and you kind of answered this in part when you said that a lot of these assessments were not built with us in mind, with our people. How important is it for us to think about culture and cultural resources when How important is it for us to think about culture

and cultural resources when it comes to trying to really craft solutions to a challenge like depression when it comes to Black people? Oh, my goodness. So first of all, I have to say, H-U, you know, I am a Howard University graduate. I'm proud of it, yes. And I think that Acoma, as you said, I have two A's in mind because that's what fit the acronym.

So I really, of course, you're a Howard person, so you would catch that. And it's exactly what you said. And we created it that way when we started it. The full acronym is African-American Knowledge Optimized for Mindfully Healthy Adolescents. And now we just go by a coma because my mission and my goal was to do exactly what you said in your question, which is to center Blackness, to center the cultural wisdom and knowledge, to center the aspects of resilience that come from our culture, because I feel like they can benefit everybody. They really can benefit us as Black people, but beyond that, they can benefit everybody. They really can benefit us as Black people, but beyond that, they can benefit everybody. And so the idea that you really have to have people who are culturally competent providing your care. It's nice if people are kind, but kindness is not the only thing that you need if you're a Black person or a person of color who's struggling with mental illness. You need somebody who understands who you are as a cultural being. You need someone who understands and can

sit with you so that you don't have to explain every single aspect of your lived experience when you're trying to engage in therapy with them. You know, this whole concept of what it means to be a Black person and have these issues around lightness or darkness of skin. If I'm coming into therapy, I don't want to explain that to you. You need to understand where that comes from so that I can get to the business of healing, not educating you about my people. So my passion for this really comes out of this idea that the fields of psychology and psychiatry, when we started, we certainly were not at the forefront or even the center of people's minds. But over time, you think about the Clark, Dr. Clark, who came up with the doll studies. You think about over the years, Linda James Myers, the doctor who came up with this concept of an Afrocentric worldview.

I think about all these kinds of folks who have Dr. Cheryl Grills, who's part of the American, I'm sorry, Black Psychologists of America out in California, who came up with this concept of healing circles, even the language. This is why culture is important, because for Black people, we might not want to go to someone and call it therapy. That's fine. Some people are okay with that. Other people want to talk about healing, because that's really the journey that we're on. So this concept of cultural competence, this concept of cultural relevance, that's central to my work and is central to the work of other similar organizations that I've mentioned. Because for so long, we as black people, our unique needs, our unique experiences, the whole idea of racial trauma. I can remember when I started about 20 years ago, you couldn't even say racial trauma because nobody knew what you were talking about, or they would poo-poo it and

tell you that you were wrong. Or this concept of acceptable means of expressing depressive illness or depressive symptoms among Black people and young brothers, the anger piece. I remember getting into a flat-out argument with a white colleague at the time who was supposed to be a mentor because he told me that was ridiculous. That didn't make any sense. And so now we're in a time, in a moment, where we have the ability through a show just like this to be able to say to people, yeah, Black people have unique mental health issues and experiences which require unique people and unique scholars and unique professionals who have cultural competence and knowledge of our

lived experience to be able to help. So that's what we're about with the COMA, these other organizations that I've mentioned. It's really all about the other thing. The final thing I'll say is with the COMA, we produce research. So it's not just about using what other people have said. We produce the content that informs the work that we use so that we can create what we call a culturally relevant evidence base because one size truly does not fit all. All right, then, Doc, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for your vice counsel and wisdom. Thanks a lot. My pleasure. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. Young African-American boy. Virtual classroom. Brandishes a toy gun. And a school called the cops to go to that boy's house.

He gets suspended. That's next. The Roller Mark unfiltered. You want support? Roller Mark unfiltered. Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUniltric.com is a black-owned company founded by Mary Spiel.

They have a couple of great products for you. First of all, they see these. They're amazing headphones right here. These particular headphones are Bluetooth, tremendous bass, 360 degree headphones, 4D. You can use this for gaming. If you're playing video games, also, of course, listen to music videos, you name it. And Greg, yeah, they're great because they're in our colors, black and old gold. So that's kind of important. Then, of course, they have that virtual reality headset here, which allows for you to pop your cell phone right into here. You can watch the content, the virtual reality content right there on Seek.com.

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we certainly appreciate them being a partner here with Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, y'all. I don't even understand this next story. A vice principal called the police on a seventh grade black boy for playing with a toy gun doing a virtual art class. Y'all, he was at home. The art teacher notified the vice principal that Isaiah Elliott was distracted and playing with a gun. It was a toy gun. This is it right here. It's green with an orange tip. Y'all, he was suspended for five days. He also now has a record

with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and a mark on his school disciplinary paperwork. Put the photo of him up, please. It says he brought a facet of a firearm to school. When Isaiah's father viewed the tape of his son's class, it only showed him sitting on the couch, moving the toy gun from one side to the other he was not waving it as a teacher alleged Isaiah is the same age as Tamir

Rice the 12 year old boy who was shot and killed in 2014 by Cleveland police for playing with a BB gun. This is how stupid some of these people are, Recy. Unbelievable. And again, remember when John Crawford III, they called the cops, oh, he was waving a gun in the store? Video show he wasn't even doing that here. Teach a lie.

They got video of actually what happened. This isn't stupidity, though. This is insidious, racist vice principal, and then turn around to have the cops show up at the house of a black family with the notion that there is a gun in the presence, that is incredibly dangerous and sinister. So I will not excuse it as stupid behavior. This is very sinister, insidious stuff. And they need to apologize. They need to sue the system. They need to remove this from his record because this is just targeting and furthering the trauma of young black kids and the criminalization of black kids. And it's unacceptable.

Greg? Yeah, I'm encouraged as usual, because I believe that these contradictions are going to have to eventually come down to a straight up fight. I hope they get a lawyer. I actually went and looked at the student suspension, expulsion, denial of admissions process for the Colorado Springs District 11. And they say that you can be suspended from school property for behavior like this.

And they define school property here. If I look at it again, they define school property as using this policy is any school building, school grounds, district property. And the last part, it says, or any school and any school or district sponsored activity, regardless of where the activity occurs. What I would do is turn on my laptop. And the minute they don't let me have access to the school, well, actually, they pull him out. I guess the parents have decided to disenroll him from there. But I would test the definition of school property by saying I'm in my house. So you will suspend me from my house if I turn on the laptop. I would have all their money, brother. of this plague that's going on to test the definition of school property and suspension

from school property when you're talking about a crisis-related emergency remote learning situation where this laptop is at my house. I think there's a case to be pursued in the courts, and I'd love to see how the judges would decide on this one. Erica.

It's deliberate. Having raised a young black male, I can say very confidently that the number of times that I actually had to go to the school outnumbered some of the times that I should have just been there to do observations or to be a part of different organizations. And this is particularly true with black children. This is deliberate. I agree with Recy with talking about the insidious nature of it. And then when you consider the step further that the school took and actually making sure that he now has a record with the sheriff's department. One of the things that I'm thinking about is that, you know, whatever tools that this family uses in order to hope to render a reverse decision that now the sheriff's department has awareness of a young black child, 12 years old, and they have this address. So if they're going to be in the same

neighborhood, if they're going to be in the same area, it concerns me that they have this information about a disruptive child, a child that was, you know, to kind of like frame it in their words that, you know, had a gun when that was just not the case. It was blown out of proportion. So I would say and hope that the parents are definitely going to fight it, particularly concerning as it looks with the way that his name is now being entered into this judicial system at the young age of 12 years old. And even when you brought forward Tamir Rice, you know, he should have been a part of this graduating class this year. So I'm really hoping that, you know, these are kind of instances that we're used to seeing, hearing, and talking about that the family will get some really good resolve around it. All right, folks, a big loss in the entertainment community. Ronald Bell, a co-founder, songwriter, saxophonist, vocalist, and producer of the group Kool and the Gang, passed away Wednesday

morning at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was 68 years old. He founded the only vocalist and producer of the group Kool and the Gang. He passed away Wednesday morning at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was 68 years old. He founded the group with his brother, Robert Kool Bell. Kool and the Gang chose that name in 1969. From that point on, the group released eight top 40 albums, 12 top 10 singles, including Jungle Boogie, Ladies' Night, Too Hot in Celebration. They have 12 gold and five platinum records, grammy for album of the year for the soundtrack to saturday night fever and were inducted into the songwriters hall of fame the music has been sampled more than a thousand times we certainly

send our condolences to his family and friends the passing of again ronald bell ORCHESTRA PLAYS Hey everybody, this your man Fred Hammond and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. Hi, this is Essence Atkins and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Hey yo, peace world, what's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb,

and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. If you ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfilteredtered. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching

Roland Martin, unfiltered. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really. It's Roland Martin. It's rough out there. People are looking for change, for answers. One answer is at your fingertips, the 2020 Census.

Census takers will be visiting households to make sure we are counted. Because an undercounted community could miss out on billions of funding for schools, health care, and job assistance each year for the next 10 years. Too much is at stake. Respond online today. Shape your future. Start here at 2020census.gov. All right, y'all. So Greg, Recy, and Erica, we've been, of course, playing back some of our favorites on the show. This is our second anniversary. Of course, the anniversary was on Friday, September 4th. It has been quite interesting. So before I play this, I want to ask y'all, just

on top of your head, your favorite show memory over the last year. Oh, my. My favorite. Oh, my gosh. Any night you and Scott is in there giving each other that work.

Well, you know, I got, I got a smack, I got a smack around a little capper. I got a smack around a little capper.

Recy, Erica, your favorite. There's so many. I mean, but some of the, I will be honest, the shows that I really do enjoy some of the I'll be honest the shows that I really do enjoy some of the

ones with Malik on there because Malik is so dead now and shout out I love you Malik so shout out to is nothing personal some of the beliefs that Malik holds the way that Roland then deconstructs those beliefs

and then kind of you know gives kind of Malik an opportunity for an on-ramp. And Malik is like, nope, I'm going to stay right over here on this side. I think those are some of my favorite moments because you really can't hear the spirit of debate

and just kind of, you know, where some people do lean, unfortunately. But yeah, those are some of my favorite ones. Recy? It took a second to come up with it, but I have to say, being on your show the day that Senator Kamala Harris was announced as VP,

it just, it doesn't get any better than that for me. So I'm going to be selfish. I'm not going to be humble like y'all, and I'm going to say, me being on your show the day that Senator Kamala Harris is announced as our next VP.

That's righteous, Recy. So I was going to skip it, but I guess I go ahead. Somebody asked on YouTube. I really was going to skip this story because, I mean, I don't really give a damn what she thinks. So did y'all hear Megyn Kelly having her little drama? She got a little upset with Senator Kamala Harris for praising Jacob Blake. And so she sent out, she sent a tweet out.

Y'all got the tweet. Go ahead and have it ready. Come on, pull it up. Pull the tweet up. Now, this was so Megan Kelly, proud of him. He's accused of breaking into a sleeping woman's house, sexually assaulting her, humiliating her, and later returning to harass her. Then the cops she called for help say he resisted arrest, assaulted them, and went for his knife. How about a word for his victim, Senator? Recy, take it away. You know what? You know, these white women

losing their damn mind, okay? Let's just be clear. Kamala Harris's record when it comes to sexual assault victims and crimes is completely unimpeachable. But let's also be clear that Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times for something that had absolutely nothing to do with that case that is working its way through the criminal justice system. don't think there's anything wrong with uh senator kamala harris offering encouragement for a man who was nearly executed who is fighting through this debilitating uh you know illness or or result of this um you know execute near execution from the cops there's absolutely nothing wrong with that megan kelly needs to shut the hell up she doesn't even know she's she's the same person that has a problem with with santa claus being black and she she doesn't think that blackface is the problem so she is absolutely nobody who's a moral authority on any situation and she's unemployed so she needs to go ahead and keep her mouth shut

girl come on come on reesey erica go ahead listen you don't have. You cannot get a job at Fox. NBC doesn't want you. So this is what you have really committed to. And I'm not sure. You know, this is the same person that had an interview that met with Vladimir Putin. This five part sorry interview that she did. It's over. So really, this echo chamber that she's yelling out of on Twitter is just really kind of a way to say, hey, I'm still here. I'm still relevant. Girl, go and watch that podcast and go somewhere and sit down.

It is over, Megyn Kelly. So I was waiting for Reepy to eviscerate her. And yeah, when she said she's unemployed, she is very much so unemployed. And irrelevant. Yeah, but remember, it must be mighty nice and white of them, Greg, when you're able

to work for 18 months and get $69 million. Go ahead with your comment. Well, they had to pay her, brother. I mean, you know, listen, we heard the evisceration. That's it, man. I mean, you know, she played the white woman card and wrote her little payday, and she's gone on. But what did Miss Angelou say many years ago, our great ancestor, when people show you who they are, believe them?

Megyn Kelly been a racist since the early days. That's how she made her little bones. And then, you know, she turned around because the white men were who they showed her to be. And she got a little check. And look, just like Reeseese said you know she's unemployed and just like erica said go and sit down because you know go and spend your little money but that's okay that's okay you know haters gonna hate yeah as you say roland that's what haters do all right all right then uh that's what they do uh that's that's it for the panel but here but i

am gonna play this here y'allall. This was our look back. We were trying to figure out what is it that we wanted to play today that really was quite interesting. Y'all remember when Paris Denard came on here? Oh, my God. Y'all remember all that lying that took place over the course of 25 minutes. Matter of fact, before I play this Paris Denard, look back, throwback, roll please,

the Trump lies matter stinger, cause there's a whole bunch of Trump lying that went on in this segment. So roll that right now and then and here is Lyon Paris lying down Trump folks right now is Paris Denard. He is head of African-American outreach for the Trump campaign. Paris, you sent out a tweet today, excuse me, an email that said,

Charlemagne Tha God rips Biden for avoiding his radio show, saying he owes black people his political life. Just curious, has Donald Trump done the Breakfast Club? I don't know if the president has been invited to the Breakfast Club. Well, has he done any of the nationally syndicated black radio shows? Not to my knowledge. I don't know if he has, but I certainly know that people in his administration- No, no, but has he? Has he? Because this, obviously, Biden is a candidate. I can tell you right now on this show. Well, first of all, my news one now show and this one we've tried. And it was actually Trump's idea to do a sit down. But they haven't even done that.

And so if if if a team Trump is talking about Biden, his comments to black media, but Trump hasn't made any effort to talk to black media, any of these national shows. Don't you think you sound pretty hypocritical? Because you haven't answered. Trump hasn't answered any of these questions from black media folks. Well, I know, Roland, you've been invited to the White House to talk to the president before the State of the Union several times. No, twice. Twice. No, twice, twice. So but again, and in one of those meetings, in one of those meetings, in one of those meetings, Trump said that he would do it. He would do a do he would sit down with me and Ben Carson.

I've seen multiple emails to Mercedes Schlapp, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as well as Hogan Gidley. Hasn't happened. That's been three years. Well, it looks like he's tying the record with President Obama. But I think at the end of the day— Actually, no, that's actually not true. First of all, President Obama was sworn in on January 2009. I interviewed President Barack Obama in January 2010. So, no, you're wrong. I think he's tying the record with President Obama in terms of engagement with black media. but I think based upon what based upon what based upon a whole host of

people complaining for multiple years about the lack of access that was given to the black press the black media no no no I can tell but I can tell you that's an absolute lie. Because first of all, again, one year in, I sat down with President Barack Obama. I know for a fact that I also helped set the interview with President Barack Obama on the Tom Jordan Morning Show. Donald Trump hasn't done any of these black media outlets.

So what I'm saying is, y'all really shouldn't try to even talk about that because you have no record. Well, actually we do. I'm glad you brought up a record because we do have a record to run on, and that's what we're proud to do. What record? That's what we're going to do. What's the record? Well, the record is very clear. The record of unprecedented HBCU support, the record on criminal justice reform, the record on his executive order on kidney disease and kidney health, the record on supporting school choice, which I know is something that you support as well as HBCU.

Let me ask you this question. Let me ask you a question. You talked about record. Does the Trump administration also endorse stopping consent decrees of police departments from the Department of Justice? Yes or no? I'm not here to speak on behalf of the Trump administration. No, no, no, hold on, but that's what you are. You just said the Trump administration has a record,

and you're talking about that whole issue in terms of what they've done for African Americans. One of the first actions of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General was to go against the consent decree in Baltimore. In fact, a federal judge overruled him. He went against the consent decree in Chicago. Then he gave a speech before the very law enforcement groups saying they were pulling back on consent decrees because they were hurting the morale of police officers. Attorney General William Barr endorsed that. Donald Trump endorsed that. Second, he talked about the whole issue of

First Step Act. Also, the Trump Department of Justice to reverse the rules of Eric Holder saying go for the maximum sentences that you can when Eric Holder was trying to slow down mass incarceration by saying you don't have to go for the maximum sentences. The Trump administration brought back private prisons on the federal level. Do those things count in your criminal justice plan? Roland, you can try to give cover to Joe Biden. No, no, no, no, no, no, hold on. I haven't mentioned Joe Biden. No, no, I haven't mentioned Joe Biden.

I'm specifically talking about the Trump plan for black people. Did any of those things I just tell you happen? Yes or no? Did any of the things that I just described happen? Let me ask you yes or no. Yes, but hold on. But you offered that.

The fact of the matter is that it's yes. The fact of the matter is- Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold. But you are. But the fact of the matter is that it's yes. The fact of the matter is. Well, I answer your question. The things that I mentioned, did they happen? Yes or no. The things that I mentioned, did they happen? Yes or no. I answered yours. Can you answer mine? I am sure because you are an astute journalist that those things did happen. Yes, they did. But those things do not take away the fact that Joe Biden says bigoted things, like he said today, that was insulting, things that should have never been said, that Ambassador Patrick Gaspard said that he wouldn't have said even in jest. But it doesn't take away from President Trump's impressive record for the black community that any Democrat or any Republican running for the

second term would love to have. Actually, I would disagree with that one. But I got to ask you this here. I got to ask you this here. Can you respond to the rollback of civil rights protections in various departments in the Trump administration? Can you respond to the Department of Labor suspending the affirmative action rules, which have been imposed by the National Urban League, Mark Morial, imposed by Congresswoman Bonnie Coleman, even during the middle of COVID? Can you respond to any of that? What I can respond to is the fact that the Department of Labor did a rule change that made it so that the millions of people that looked like you and me that were left out of the health care system because of Obamacare, who still cannot afford health care, were given the ability to pull themselves together from geography or by industry and tap into health

care and receive it at a more affordable price like a big company would be able to do. Are y'all taking, you trying to take credit from the Affordable Care Act? No, by no means. I'm glad we got rid of the individual mandate. What I'm saying is because of the Obama, in spite of Obamacare, there were still millions of Americans that were small business owners, more specifically, that were left out of the system

and still could not afford healthcare because of a rule change from the Department of Labor under the Trump administration. They made it possible for these small businesses to pull together by geography and by industry and then get access to affordable health care because they were left out and couldn't afford it even under Obamacare. So I got to ask you, African-American uninsured rate dropped by more than a third because of the Affordable Care Act. But y'all want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, but you have no replacement. And so how can you say you want to improve the health of African-Americans when you have no plan to do so? And if you have a plan, where is it? Because I

haven't seen it. Well, the Congress has put forth multiple plans. Who? But the most... Hold on, which Congress? The Republican Congress, when this was taken up, I believe the last Congress had multiple plans for it. No, no, no, no, they actually, no, they haven't. In fact, they've been waiting for Trump because he keeps saying he has one, but it hasn't been shown.

So what's the plan? Well, the first thing was to get rid of the individual mandate. The second thing was to make sure that as we look at COVID-19, that any black American, any American, period, who cannot afford to go into the hospital should not use economics as or socioeconomics as an excuse or a reason to not go. Because of the CARES Act support about the president and moves by the administration, if you want to get a test, you can get a test. If you want to get sick.

Yes, Roland, coronavirus. Hold on, that's not true. There are African-Americans who I know who still can't get tests. So you're actually trying to tell me right now that if any American wants a coronavirus test, they can get one right now? I'm going to take it a step further, Roland, and help educate you and your audience. If anybody right now, especially in the Black community, needs to get a coronavirus test, they can do so, number one. Where?

Number two, if you – Where? The Trump administration has put forth tons of resources as it relates to community centers and testing. If you saw that over 100,000 through FEMA testings were sent to Detroit specifically. Well, I was told we're supposed to have drive by testing. And there's a big old news conference in the Rose Garden with Walgreens and CVS and Walmart that none of that has actually happened. Roland, what has happened is if anybody that needs to be tested or anybody who is hospitalized for COVID-19, any COVID-19-related health issues, you do not have to worry about paying for it if you cannot afford it. So you're saying, hold on, hold on.

No, no, no. I'm going to go back to what you said. So you're saying that if anybody out there who wants a COVID-19 test anywhere in the country, they can get it right now. Yes. And. Wow. That's breaking news. That is not breaking news.

Actually, it is. It's not. Well, I'm glad to break it to you. And I'll also break it to you and your audience that if you can't afford it, you can still go and get care for COVID-19. So let's not use economics as a reason why we don't go and get the care that we need because of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. You spoke about... Go ahead. But at the end of the day, what I was brought on to talk about and to address is the bigoted comments of Joe Biden today that were insulting and disgusting to any free-thinking,

independent-minding Black American out there. Joe Biden, a 77-year-old white man in quarantine in his basement, is telling us how we have to vote and what we need to vote. And if we dare vote outside of how he wants us to vote, he's taking away our Black card. It's despicable. It's disgusting. And we should not tolerate that. It was offensive. Question. Were you offended when Ralph Reed said that Christians, is there moral obligation to vote for Trump in 2020? All Christians. I don't find that to be an offensive comment. It's not? So if you're a Christian and then you don't support Trump, he said, Ralph Reed literally said, it's the moral obligation of all Christians to render to God and render to Trump. Well, I don't know if he said render to God and render to Trump.

Actually, he did. It's actually in his book. Congratulations. I didn't read his book, but I will tell you. No, but he's a white conservative evangelical. So if you're criticizing Joe Biden for this. When you have a governor of Virginia who is proudly putting on blackface and supports a fantasize and late term abortions. And when you have it and when you have things like that, yes, morally, I'm against it. And so are you also as a black conservative? Do you stand with Donald Trump or black conservative Colin Powell when it comes to voter suppression house being specifically targeted as African-Americans? Have you called out Donald Trump and the Republican Party for their full embracing of voter suppression,

which is what we've seen in North Carolina, where federal judges rule there was a laser like laser like targeting of black voters. Have you done that? I have. Is that morally offensive? Is it morally offensive for Republicans to have a laser-like targeting of black voters to suppress their vote? Yes or no? I don't—well, I disagree that Republicans have a laser-like focus on trying to suppress the black voters.

Paris, a panel of federal judges. Paris, that wasn't an actual ruling. Republicans in North Carolina literally asked, when are African Americans voting in early voting? They were shown that 70% voted during the first week of early voting, and they changed the rules to keep black folks from voting during that period. A federal judge has rule that there was a laser-like targeting of black voters so are you actually so i'm just we're curious is that morally offensive to you as a black man as a pentecostal black man that white republicans would target black voters like that in north carolina yes or no is it offensive to you that the Democrat Party is the party of infanticide and continues to be the leading cause of death?

Actually, you don't answer a question with a question. But I'll be more than happy to answer your question. But can you answer my question? Actually, Roland, I am able to do that because I'm a free-thinking black man and I can do whatever I think will please. Okay, but if it's morally offensive it's more offensive. Answer the question. Freedom and opportunity. Answer the question. And what Joe Biden did.

Are you offended, are you offended that Republicans in North Carolina had a laser-like targeting of black voters trying to keep them from voting? Does that offend you? I'm offended by the efforts right now of Democrats that are trying to make

mail-in voting the thing of what we're doing, knowing that it is not only dangerous for black Americans, not only that there are several accounts of many blacks on the left side of the political aisle who raise the problems with mail-in voting. That's why the RNC has put out protectthevote.com. First of all, if I recall, the greatest for us to not have a all mail-in ballot system. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hold on. Nice try trying to flip it. But the greatest example of voter fraud with the hoarding of ballots took place by Republicans in North Carolina where the Republican Party had to admit there need to be a whole new election. That actually happened.

What I still don't understand is this here. What I still don't understand is why is it? Because here's the deal. When you say free thinking, see, free thinking black man has the ability to call out stuff on the left or on the right, in the middle, it doesn't matter. But see, you're actually being a partisan black Republican when you're afraid to even stand with Colin Powell, who gave a speech and the governor of North Carolina, a Republican, was sitting in the audience and he called them out for their attacks on black people voting. But you can't even say that the laser-like targeting on black voters was morally wrong. I am not going to allow you or Joe Biden to offend me or the millions of black people like me

that we can think for ourselves. Yes, I'm a partisan, but I'm also a free thinker. And it's offensive for many people out there, young black Americans especially, who want to look and examine the records of both sides, look at the parties, and have a fair and open mind to determine who they want to vote for and to do so by looking at their interests. And for them to say, and for you and for others to then question their blackness or... No, I'm sorry. First of all, hold on, hold on, stop. See, parents, hold on. See, parents, see right here, parents. See, this is the mistake that you know. Because the reality, parents, you would have never signed your CNN contract if I didn't

put you on the air. And here's the deal. You know this. I never, I never allowed anybody to call you a sellout, to call you a coon, to call you Uncle Tom. I do not allow people to use that language to any black person, whether they are Republican or Democrat, whether they are whole tip, whether they are Christian. It does not matter. I don't allow it. So one, that's a lie. It's a lie for you to sit here and say what you just said, because I don't allow it. So one, that's a lie. It's a lie for you to sit here and say what you just said, because I don't allow it. Now, we want to have a free black man conversation again as a black man, as a black as a black man.

Here's what I want to know. Again, when you talk about standing up for something, when you talk about what's right, you talked about there are Democrats who are pro-choice, Republicans who are pro-life. I've been highly critical of Republicans who call themselves pro-life but say nothing when black men get gunned down, who say nothing when they get shot. See, here's the whole piece. Either you're pro-life or you're pro-life only in the womb. Now, see, do you want to have that conversation? I'm more than willing to have it with you because here's what I do know. The man you're supporting has stood before and has criticized progressive district attorneys, black DAs who are trying to end mass incarceration. He has said we're going to pull back on consent decrees.

And so again, I will roll in that you did to sit here to your audience and ignore Joe Biden's despicable effect on mass incarceration and try to flip it and put it on Donald Trump. See, here's what you're wrong. Here's what you're wrong. Criminal justice reform that is actually impacting thousands of black men and reuniting with their families, our communities, and our citizens. See, Parrish, Parrish, Parrish, Parrish, do yourself a favor. Parrish, do yourself a favor and go to YouTube.

Go to YouTube, Parrish. Parrish, do yourself a favor. Parrish, Parrish, do yourself a favor. Parrish, do yourself a favor. And let me inform your audience of something. On what? What's that? In my CNN contract, and your producers knew that,

I made it very clear that I wanted a carve-out for TV and your show. I know, I got that. No, and so it was not because of you, because I was doing media long before your show. Paris, Paris, not Paris, come on. of you because I was doing media long before your show. It was out of respect to you and your platform that I asked for a carve out which didn't happen. But because of your ego

and because of your ego and getting fired from CNN and being jealous of progress, you refused to put me back on the show after I had the contract knowing full well I had a carve out for your show. No, no, no, Parrish on the show. That's not true. I have a contract knowing full well. No, that's not true. I have to park out for your show.

No, no, no, Paris, Paris, that's not true. Paris, it's not true. You don't want to have the truth. Paris, it's not true. You don't want to stand up against the Democrats. Paris, I'm still against Democrats. You want to flip the script and not talk about Joe Biden tonight. No, Paris, Paris, here's why you're wrong.

Paris, here's why you're wrong. See, Paris, let me where you're wrong. Paris, here's where you're wrong. See, Paris, let me break this down for you. You can go to YouTube and see the number of conversations we've had about Joe Biden and his criminal justice plan. We've actually done that. Hold up, hold up. Let me also help you out. Let me help you out, Paris.

I have a two-hour show. And guess what? I'm not going to be here for two hours. Paris, you're not going to be here two hours because I'm not going to waste that time. I have Latasha Brown from Black Voters Matter. Let's go. I have a panel of three people.

I have a panel of three people who are going to be discussing all of that. So trust me, you don't program the show. But I will say this here. If you are going to dare to criticize Joe Biden for not doing black media, your boss has done. That's not what I criticized him for. I'm sorry, it's on your email. In the email you sent out, your boss hasn't done black media. Your boss hasn't consented.

Your boss has. The Trump campaign, when we launched Black Voices for Trump, we made a significant effort with money, quite frankly, to have paid. No, no, no, that's not what I asked. Has Donald Trump... No, no, no, answer the question. Did Donald Trump sit down with Tom Joyner before he retired?

Has Donald Trump talked to Steve Harvey, D.O. Hughley, Erica Campbell, Ricky Smiley, Joe Madison? Has Donald Trump talked to any of them? I'm glad, yes. The answer is yes. And when he did meet with Steve Harvey, the black community came after him so viciously.

Has Donald Trump done an interview with Steve Harvey on his radio show? Yes or no? No, but he hasn't met with Steve Harvey. That's not what I asked. I asked you, has Donald Trump done interviews on the air with Steve Harvey, Tom Dun Jones before he retired, Ricky Smiley, Dio Hughley, Joe Madison, Erica Campbell, Didi, all the nationally black syndicated

radio shows. Has he done any of them? No, but he has met with black journalists. Okay. And he has on a local level. So he won't talk to any of these national syndicated radio shows, which actually are the largest reaching black audiences. He hasn't done any of those. Right. He hasn't done it yet. OK. Oh, but he will. He has. Will he? Will he? Well, he's not afraid. No, no, no. But will he? I can't speak for the campaign. OK, so how about this here? Why is it that in three years, Donald Trump hasn't bothered to even speak in the National Urban League or the NAACP?

He's been invited. Just, you see, that's the problem. No, I'm just asking the question. I'm asking you the question. Why hasn't Donald Trump, why hasn't Donald Trump, president... Stop talking and let somebody respond. Why hasn't he done it?

The answer is just because he doesn't go to a convention doesn't mean that he's not speaking with and working with the Urban League. I would like to know. That's not what I asked. I first of all, that's the old tired way of thinking. No, it's actually it's not a 40 minute. George W. Bush. George W. Bush spoke to the Urban League five times in eight years. I was responsible for him going to the NAACP with Bruce Gordon.

So when it comes down to giving a five to 10 minute speech or actually having real policy and working together, that's what this administration has been doing from day one, reaching out, working with the National Action Network, the National Urban League, the NAACP, working with the National Association of the National Bankers Association, which is all of our black owned banks. This is what this administration is doing behind the scenes because they won't give credit for it, but it's fine. But they are working long before COVID-19, but during COVID-19 and before through the Opportunity Revitalization Council

and other leaders within the administration and the cabinet. That is how you get things done for the community. So, Roland, if you want somebody to give a 10-minute speech, congratulations. No, actually, actually, actually, actually, actually, actually, it's not a 10-minute speech. It's not for the community. It's what this administration is doing. Actually, it's not a 10-minute speech. but again, I outline. So you continue to give cover to Joe Biden and his bigoted comments.

I want to know. I want to know. And I understand what Bob Johnson said, and he said he should spend the rest of his campaign apologizing to every black person he meets because he represents the arrogant, out of touch attitude of paternalistic white candidates who have the audacity to tell black people that they are not black unless they vote. And I'll tell you what also was arrogant is when you have somebody who sits here and wants to tout, first of all, who calls the first black president incompetent. Somebody who stands here and talks about criminal justice reform, but does not, I'm not done, but does not want to own up to the fact that he has chosen not to stand up for black folks and brown folks in these cities when it comes to these police departments, who is giving law enforcement cover. That's what he has done. A Department of Justice that has done nothing when it comes to voter suppression, who that stands on the side of those who want to keep

folks from voting. When the Obama Department of Justice stood with the black and brown people in Texas, when it came to their voter ID, Trump wins, and they completely go to the other side and stand with the folks who want, even though five federal judges said that voter ID in Texas was discriminatory. So, see, here's the deal. We can talk record, but we're going to talk about the whole record,

not a little bit, because also on this show, we talk about the whole record of Joe Biden as well, because, see, nobody gets a pass, including your guy Pam thanks president. No, actually no, no, no, maybe we'll clear with you. I don't know I don't know actually the history of though. I said this here. I said this is February 2017 It's doing I said it. I said it Please

I said it in February. Oh, please. I said it in February 2017. That's the truth. Here's the deal. I will never call somebody president who can't even respect the office of president. So, no, he's Donald Trump. Thank you. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. 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 star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

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