#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TX College Campus Poll Bill,Tyre Nichols Cop Plea,SC Teacher Attacks Black Student, All-Star Weekend

Episode Date: February 18, 2023

2.17.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TX College Campus Poll Bill,Tyre Nichols Cop Plea,SC Teacher Attacks Black Student, All-Star Weekend The five former Memphis police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death have their first court appearance this morning. All plead not guilty. Roland will show you images from the courtroom and what Tyre's mother had to say following the hearing.  Texas Republicans are trying to limit access to voting again with a new proposed State Bill bans polling locations at Texas higher education facilities. Roland will explain the proposed Texas State House Bill with Texas House representative Ron Reynolds.  The FBI is opening civil rights investigations into the deaths of two men in Harris County, Texas Jail. Texas State Representative Jarvis Johnson will explain the internal investigation details and how Texas plans to improve police accountability. A White South Carolina teacher is accused of assaulting a Black Student for moving during the pledge of allegiance. Roland will hear from the parents and their attorney about how they plan to hold the school accountable for trying to cover up the incident by altering the surveillance video.   We'll show you both versions.  Covid-19 has impacted the health of Black and Hispanic Americans the most. Roland will speak to a cardiologist about the new findings that show apparent racial differences in how the disease affects the health of minorities and how a lack of access exacerbates the disease's outcome on minorities.   It's Time to Bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position.

Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Hey, folks, today is Friday, February 17th, 2023, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network from Salt Lake City. I am here for NBA All-Star Weekend. We'll be talking about the five former Memphis police officers who have been indicted on murder charges of killing Tyree Nichols.

They have appeared in court. They all pleaded non-guilty today in their first court appearance. We'll show you exactly what took place in the courtroom and what Tyree's mother had to say following the court hearing. Texas Republicans, I've been warning y'all this. Republicans are doing this. They now want to take all ballot drop boxes. That's right.

Take from state campuses. They don't want, listen to me again. They don't want any polling on college campuses in Texas. We'll talk to a member of the Texas Black Caucus about that. Also, the FBI, they are opening an investigation of the deaths of two black men in Harris County Jail. We'll also talk with a Texas state representative to explain this as well.

So a lot of drama happening there in Texas. And of course, Republicans are saying nothing. A white South Carolina teacher is accused of assaulting a black student for moving during the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll talk to the student's parents and their attorney about this strange story and how they are trying to hold the school accountable. Also, COVID-19 has impacted African Americans and Hispanics more than anybody else when it comes to long COVID.

We'll talk to a cardiologist about the new findings showing the racial disparities in COVID. Folks, that and lots more to cover. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Let's go. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all

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

Martin You can't say no one warned you. I have been telling y'all for years what Republicans are trying to do when it comes to voting. Now we have an example in Texas where a state representative wants to ban polling locations on college campuses. Yeah, that would include flagship universities like Texas A&M, the University of Texas. Yeah, seriously, y'all. Now, this is what now a similar thing, a similar bill was filed as well. Now, this bill would require county commissioners courts to designate a polling location on state funded colleges, universities, campuses with student population over 8000. Now, that's one bill. Well, another president filed another bill of the Texas County Commissioners Court would be prohibited from designating a polling location on an institution of higher education.

If passed, this would apply to all public junior colleges and general academic teaching institutions that are state funded in Texas. Yeah. Now, both bills have not been selected by consideration from the committee, but it's real clear what the impact will be. Joining us right now is Texas State Representative Ron Reynolds. Glad to have you here, Representative Reynolds. I mean, this is what I have been warning people for years. They are targeting white voters. Now, yes, they're also targeting black and Hispanic voters as well. But we saw this happen in Bryan, Texas, where Texas A&M, let's be real clear, is a conservative university. The folks there in Bresas County tried to remove the polling location claiming it wasn't getting a lot of turnout, which was an absolute lie. It was an absolute lie. It was one of the highest polling locations in the entire county.

Republicans do not want to see young voters who likely will vote Democrat casting ballots. That's what this is all about. Brett, it's great to be back on your show. And you're absolutely right. Republicans are afraid of young voters just like they're afraid of black and Hispanic voters. Texas is a majority minority state. The 2020 census showed that 95 percent of the growth was because of Asians, blacks and Hispanics. And then we got voter suppression, Jim Crow 2.0, which, you know, we led. We fled to D.C. to try to fight.

The Congress, unfortunately, didn't get it done because of the damn Senate and the filibuster. But I digress. Here we are where Representative Isaac, a Republican, is doing her best to make sure that college kids can no longer vote on campus, which is Prairie View, Texas Southern University. They've been utilizing that at TSU. And UT, Austin, is a big, big polling site for young people.

Representative Hinojosa, the first bill that you read was a bill to increase polling locations on college campuses. And Representative Isaac's bill is just that. It's anti-democratic. It's another form of voter suppression. And this is the bill is just that. It's anti-democratic. It's another form of voter suppression. And this is the Republican playbook in 2023. If we can't beat them by ideas, we will beat them by making it more difficult for them to vote. And again, you know, what you're saying is they want to be able to say, hey, if Republicans are controlling the commissioners court, this is a one way to exercise the power. That's just simply what it boils down to. And and I've been warning folks for years.

And I told some civil rights advocates in the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, AOC, probably 2011, 2012. I said, hey, I think we're making a mistake by only talking about voter suppression specific to blacks and Hispanics. I said, then we better start sounding the alarm to these young white folks to say they also are targeting you. This is what this is all about. Roland, you're absolutely right. I'll tell you, go back. When Obama won in 2008, 2010, that was the first time that we had the voter ID bill. Why? Because we had a record number of college students voting and been able to use their college IDs.

Guess what? They eliminated that ability. So no longer in Texas can you use a college ID to vote, no matter if it's state issued by the University of Texas, Texas Southern, any college ID, you cannot use it to vote. But guess what? If you got a concealed handgun license, yes, you can use that. If you have a passport, you can use that. But college IDs, sorry, you can't use it. So that was the first iteration of it right there. And then it's gotten progressively worse. So you were right to sound the alarm bell. A lot of people didn't see this coming.

I would not be at all surprised, Roland, if my Republican colleagues passed this legislative session, because they know that they control the U.S. Supreme Court, and it would likely be upheld. They know that they need to continue to chip away and make it more difficult to vote in Texas because African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians are voting more likely Democrat. And instead of trying to appeal to them with new ideas,

they're doing their level best to make it more difficult to vote. So this is the latest effort of voter suppression. Instead of making it easier to vote, like online voter registration, online voting, and things like that, they're making it more difficult to vote. Easier to purchase guns, harder to vote. Indeed.

State Representative Ron Reynolds, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Brad. All right, folks, got to pay some bills. I'll be right back. Roland Martin, unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not be black. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because

of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network.

Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, let's talk about what they're doing there in Texas with my Friday panel. We have Michael Imhotep host the African History Network show. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney there in Texas and also Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney as well. Matt, I'll start with you. You know. This is the thing that people have to understand.

They can't just go, you know what, they're really not going to do this whole deal. Yeah, it could actually pass. Because again, what Republicans are trying to do is they are trying to lay the groundwork to steal elections. They saw what happened with the Roe v. Wade decision. They saw young voters turn the GOP away in 2022. If it was not for young voters, you would not have had Democrats being able to withstand what should have been a red wave. This is a direct assault on voters between 18 and 25 years old. And folks had better understand,

you're going to see this happen all across the country because what they want to do is they want to make it harder. And so if you make it harder for young folks to vote, they're thinking they're not going to travel a far distance away. I remember in, I think it was 2012 2012, I believe that a County clerk in Wisconsin admitted to moving an early voting location off of a college campus to a location far out that had bad parking. Uh, and so, because she said all them young kids, they won't vote in Democrat. This is what they do. This is about

rigging and stealing elections for Republicans. It absolutely is. And what I think is especially important in terms of context in this situation is Kerry Isaac is the representative for Hayes County, which is just south of Austin, right where I grew up. Hayes County is the county where Texas State University is. So there may be an even deeper political thing here because Texas State University in San Marcos, the city it's in, has exploded in the last 10 or 15 years. And they actually just elected their first blue DA there in a very long time. So this is exactly what you're saying.

It's part and parcel with the assault that we've seen Republicans very brazenly commit as it relates to voting. And the thing about this that's so indefensible is that there is really no logical reason that you would do this. So many people vote on college campuses. It's a place that even non-students go to vote because people know it's customarily where you can go to vote. So the only reason you do this is to suppress votes and to suppress participation. And even if the Republicans don you do this is to suppress votes and to suppress participation. And even if the Republicans don't think this will actually pass, this is to signal, hey, we're going to keep pushing the bounds out further and make it exceedingly clear that we're playing for keeps. And we want to rig the rest of, you know, the generations going forward as it relates to the courts, as it relates to everything. And all of that happens via the ballot box. You know, Joe, again, I think what people have to people have to stop underestimating how evil works. This is about power. And they know if we can knock off three, four, five, six,

seven, eight thousand, ten thousand votes. Hey, that's the margin for victory. Let me remind people. Biden Harris wins Georgia by twelve thousand votes. They barely won Arizona by a similar margin. It ain't that hard to do this. Right. And, you know, it's all about dividing and conquering. And one of the things that you want to be able to do, you know, the power of a suggestion is very prevalent here. What they want to do is suggest to you young voters, suggest to you young voter of color, that you shouldn't be voting by just making it more difficult.

You know, things in the media, things that are said, you know, you see what's happening in Florida, even with, you know, degrading the importance of African-American history. They want to suggest that you don't belong and that your voice doesn't count. But at the same time, they've got to make it harder for you to vote because, in fact, your voice does count. And if you make it heard, they're going to be outnumbered. So they're not going to win on numbers. They're not going to win on ideas. And divide-and-conquer is getting harder because there's more people to divide-and-conquer because they're getting ready to get outnumbered. And so what they want to do is make it as hard to vote as they possibly can without

dealing with ideas, without appealing to people, particularly in places that are getting more black and brown. Now, Texas has been a little bit more fortunate because as California got majority minority, California is very liberal, right? Texas, not so much. You know, more of your Hispanic audience is not so likely to automatically go Democratic as black folks are. But that being said, that time is coming too. Go back to Beto's campaign, where he got a lot closer than a lot of people thought he would. There's these Democrats that are coming out of nowhere. No, they're getting ready to be outnumbered. And so you have to get

that young segment, because this young segment, college-educated, Trump does good with people that don't go to college. Republicans do good with people that don't go to college. Republicans do good with people that don't go to college and people that don't have critical thinking skills with all due respect to those that do have critical thinking skills. And so that's the battleground. Divide and conquer is getting harder. But if we can keep them from voting,

then we can hang in there just a little bit longer. And again, Michael, they understand if you make it, see, this is what people don't understand. If you make it harder, you can knock the numbers down. That's the whole deal. They want to make it harder. Exactly, and Republicans are masters at this. Now, we need to outsmart them at their own game.

And to pick up what Joe just said, and I'm going to reference back to something you and I have talked about, Roland, Joe talked about critical thinking skills. And people who go to college, college students are much more likely to also have taken a political science class, which means they can see through a lot of the nonsense that Republicans are trying to feed to them as well. But, you know, Roland, we've talked about this numerous times before, and I've talked about how I think a lot of the civil rights leaders, I think they're very committed. They mean well. I think they made a tactical mistake by not expanding who was harmed by voter suppression

bills. It's not just African-Americans. It's white college students. It's Latinos, Asian Asian Americans, white women. And I've talked about how they needed to link up when they were trying to get the voting rights bill passed, the John Lewis voting rights bill. You need to link up with

the women's reproductive movement, women's reproductive rights movement, white women. You have 48 million disabled Americans who are registered to vote. When you talk about taking away drop boxes, ballot drop boxes, things like this, or mail-in ballots, that hurts them of all different races. So a lot of the civil rights leaders, we love them, but they keep acting like this is 1965, some Alabama. No, you, Republicans are trying

to suppress the vote of people who are more likely to vote Democratic, regardless of race, even though we're the number one target. And you talk about Texas. Lastly, Smith versus Allwright, 1944, U.S. Supreme Court case. You studied the history of Texas. Texas had all-white Democratic primaries, where African-Americans were not even allowed to vote in those primaries. So you study the history of Texas, you understand the voter suppression laws. We can see this coming. So this is another reason why elections have consequences, and it's we have to vote strategically and vote these people out of power. You know, and Matt, again, what people have to understand is just like with textbooks, California, Texas, Florida. So goes those states. So goes the nation. And so we saw what happened with Georgia in the last cycle.

People are going to be looking at Texas and then other legislators going to be saying, hmm, let's look at the numbers. The exact same thing in our state. I need people watching to listen to me very clearly. Ron DeSantis doesn't give a damn if black people are angry with AP classes in Florida. He's not talking to us. This is about electoral map. This is about trying to appeal, to ratchet up white voters, get your voters up, shrink

your people voting against you to win. That is what the strategy is, Matt. That's the exact strategy. And in addition to that, what's happening with Ron DeSantis and particularly here with Greg Abbott is they're trying to do that against each other to try to, you know, get their level up for when they run for president, because we know Greg Abbott is likely going to run. So you're exactly right. And they're not speaking to us and they don't care. And we're going to continue to see attacks on more and more things that they've identified as being woke or being identified with the Black community or being identified as something that they think middle-aged white people who they're trying to speak to are offended by. And they're going to continue trying to attack those things to not

only further marginalize us, but to further build that galvanized base for when they decide to run for president. So I think with Greg Abbott, you know, kind of indicating we all know that he wants to run for president. Ron DeSantis, it's just going to get worse and it's going to continue to run up to the election. We're going to see them trying to out crazy each other, frankly, to prove that they're the more conservative person. Indeed. All right, folks, I hold tight one second. I got to go to a break, folks. Don't forget to support us by downloading the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Watch us on Amazon News. If you've got the Amazon Fire TV, go to Amazon News. Our 24-hour, 24-7 streaming channel is right there along with everybody else.

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I'm Shantae Moore. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, the five former Memphis police officers who beat Tyree Nichols to death made their first public appearance today in court, flanked by their attorneys, Tadarius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith, stood before a judge in Shelby County Criminal Court. Through their attorneys, all five of them pled not guilty to the charges related to Tyree Nichols' death. We have a case. We have a case with the indictment number 2300241. Are you ready for the case? Yes, sir.

All right, gentlemen, each of you appear to have retained counsel. I'm going to go down the line of the attorneys. Mr. Massey, are you prepared to ring the time? I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team

that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple 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. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them.

Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to reach 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. And just for the purpose of the record, your client is staying. It's David Lamarcus. I see Mr. Stengel. Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Dmitry Stengel. It's my client, the president of the courtroom.

I await formal reading of the indictment and for a not guilty plea. May I speak to the court? Mr. Perry. Good morning, Your Honor. John Perry, on behalf of Mr. Cedarius Bean, at this time we wait for the formal reading of the indictment. Also, to the court, a plea of not guilty. Mr. Summers, I see you back there. Yes, Your Honor. On behalf of Mr. McClellan, Justice Smith, Charles Summers, we wait for the reading of the indictment and we plead not guilty on behalf of Mr. Smith.

Attorney, Judge, on behalf of Mr. Mills, we wait like to make an indictment if you are not guilty, please. Gentlemen, each of your attorneys have entered pleas of not guilty on your behalf. Understand that despite everyone's best effort, this case may take some time. Your attorneys are going to be receiving a discovery. Depending on how voluminous the discovery is, it may take some time for the state to collect it all and turn it over to your attorneys. For your attorneys to review that discovery, to prepare their motions, to prepare their case. So be patient.

Work with your attorneys, cooperate with them, meet with them, go over the discovery. Make sure that if there are any delays, that these delays aren't on account of any of your actions. To those also in attendance, as I've explained to the defendants, this case can take some time. So we do ask for your patience, your continued patience, your continued civility in this case.

We understand that there may be some high emotions in this case, but we ask that you continue to be patient with us everyone involved wants this case to be concluded as quickly as possible but it's important for you all to understand that the state of Tennessee as well as each one of these defendants have a absolute right to a fair trial and I will not allow any behavior that could jeopardize that right. So with that being said, we thank you all for being present. State, understanding that there may be some discovery that needs to be collected, we are going to continue this case out a little bit further to make sure the discovery is concluded.

We're going to reset this matter until May 1st, 9 a.m. state? Is there anything else? Governor, the only other thing on behalf of the state is I have a protective order as to each of the defendants to allow certain digital discovery video evidence to be provided. Any objections? No objections. Thank you, Your Honor. Mr. Massey, is there anything else on behalf of your client?

No, Your Honor. We did file our motion for discovery this morning. All right. Mr. Bowne, anything on behalf of your client? No, Your Honor. Mr. Perry? No, Your Honor, but we did file a motion for a bill in particular to sort the rule 7C, the Tennessee rule, but that will be seen. Mr. Stangler, anything else? Nothing further this morning, Your Honor.

Thank you. Mr. Stangler? Nothing further, I'm happy to say. All right, gentlemen, we'll see you back here May 1st on that date. And we will now excuse the defendants and their defense counsel. We're asking everyone else in the courtroom to remain in the courtroom and remain seated until you're excused. And with regard to everybody else, I would let the court know that the family is here. $400. Thank you. You're all excused.

Thank you. Now, the former officers faced multiple felonies, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. Tyree's mother, Ravonne Wells, sat in the courtroom as the attorneys for each defendant spoke. Afterwards, she said they're nothing but cowards. I want each and every one of those police officers to be able to look me in the face. They haven't done that yet. They couldn't even do that today.

They didn't even have the courage to look at me in my face after what they did to my son. So they're going to see me at every court date, everyone, until we get justice for my son. Now, the five former officers are all out on bond. They will appear next in court on May 1st. Joe, the thing here, I saw a lot of people on social media going, you know, where are the white cops? Where are the others? First of all, remember, these two have been charged with a different crime. Other folks have been fired. So people need to understand, again, that's why you saw these five appearing in court today. They were hit immediately with the second degree murder charges. Yes, they were. And so they're all going to kind of run together as it pertains to their hearings with the things that they were charged from,

because these are the these are the five that were there, pulled him out of the car, you know, chased him down, did what they did, treated him worse than they treat a dog. These were the five that did that. As it turns out, the investigations were ongoing. And so therefore, other people were let go later, et cetera. And they run on a little bit of a different train. So, you know, we just have to buckle up. This is all going to take some time. Before long, they will start to argue a bit against each other. Already, Mr. Dean's attorney is like, well, my guy just did his job. He didn't hit anybody. You know, Desmond Mills' attorney says, remember that, you know, I'm representing a black man, you know, in a criminal justice system. So,

you know, he's going to play that victim thing. But they weren't thinking about any of that when what happened happened. So it's going to be a long road. Our hearts, of course, go out to this family. But everybody's watching on this one. And when everybody is watching, it makes it a little less likely that there would be fumbles as it pertains to the process, so that once you get to a result, it's a result, even if you're not crazy about it, you can live with. They have charged them the right way. They charged them second degree. They absolutely should have charged them a second degree. They probably would not have gotten first degree.

They should have done it the way that they've done it. And so we'll see. They're out on the street, but it's going to take some time for this to work all this way through. The thing here, Matt, again, and I get people and their emotions and they want to see everyone held accountable. There are different stages here. These five have the most serious charges. There are other individuals who have been fired.

And so, again, the district attorney has a different decision there as it as it relates to the role that they actually played in this. People also have to understand the district attorney may be looking at giving folks immunity to possibly testify against the other five as well. Perhaps, but you know, Roland, actually in this instance, I don't think immunity would make any sense because everything's caught on video. So you don't need to leverage anyone against someone else here, right? Because you have the actual offense on video. As it relates to Joe's comment, I actually disagree. I think this is a first degree murder situation every day of the week. I think it would be very difficult to argue that they were not intentionally, at least in Texas, where I practice, that they were intentionally trying to cause harm to Tyree Nichols. I think they could at least have charged that and gotten a lesser

included offense. I think there are a couple other things that are pretty important about this, though. This really brings up a question about a few things. First, the ability to get a fair trial in the age of everything being publicized. I mean, I'm a lawyer. I'm sitting here talking about this instance. I'm also a criminal defense lawyer. And these days, it's difficult to get a fair trial. So this is interesting because I'm wondering when the lawyers are going to start playing that card in terms of getting a fair trial. And I think that's why you heard the judge say that. I also think what's interesting about this situation is that I think if the jury in Tennessee is able to do punishment, that's going to be a really important barometer for civil rights cases like this going forward.

And this is obviously a criminal case, but cases like this going forward, because this carries a range of punishment of 15 to 60 years. I think 50 to 60 years is plausible under these facts and under the heinousness of it. But I think that's really going to be important to show the community and the country at large what jurors are thinking that, you know, a case like this is worth. So I don't think you're wrong in terms of people, you know, feeling like the district attorney is maybe moving too slowly on the other cases. But as you heard the judge say, there's going to be so much evidence in this case that I think it's smart for him to set it out a couple months and let them really work through it methodically so that when the appeals process inevitably comes and these guys are convicted, there's not any question as to whether they got a fair trial in due process.

You know, what often happens in these cases, Michael, are folks who don't really have an understanding of how the law works and unclear. I remember when I was in Texas and people were yelling for first degree murder charges for the officer who killed Botham Jean. And Ben Crump was trying to explain to people, hey, you need to understand when you're demanding something, you don't actually know how the law works in different states in terms of what the penalties are. And so I've had other lawyers say that what we might think is a lower charge actually might carry a higher penalty. And again, it's just understanding how the law works.

And again, for folk who don't do this every single day, they don't fully get that. You're right, Roland. They don't get it. And one of the things they don't get is the reason why these five officers were charged first, because these were the five officers who were at both scenes. There were two incidences that took place that night. These officers were at both incidences, whereas Preston Hemfield, the white officer, he was only at the first incident. He was not at the second one. So when you go through and look at the investigation, you go look at what statements from the police chief, she talked about how these were the officers who had both incidences. They have the most culpability. You just had in the last

couple of days or so, you just had two deputy sheriffs who were, I think they were suspended or something like that. So it goes through a process, suspension, being fired. Then once they're fired from the department, then you're going to usually find some type of, you may find criminal charges being filed, but it goes through a whole process. So this is going to take a lot of time. And we've had this discussion before. Unfortunately, many of our people don't understand law and everything that we want is tied to law and politics. Okay. So all this is tied to law, politics, economics, history, and understanding how all this works. So we definitely

have to understand law. So some people say that, well, this is the white man's law, things like this. Well, if they use the law to trap you, shouldn't we know all the booby traps are? Shouldn't we know all the pitfalls are so we don't get caught up in it? I would argue we need to understand the law better than they understand the law so we can disarm them of that weapon and use it against them. We have to understand political self-defense. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Got to go to a break. Folks, be sure to support us in what we do by downloading our Blackstripe Network app,

Apple phone, Android phone, Apple. I know a lot of cops and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit,

man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill,

NHL enforcer Riley Cote, Marine Corps vet, MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple 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. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. We'll be right back on World of Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Next on Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Listen to this. Women of color are starting 90% of the businesses in this country. That's the good news. The bad news? As a rule, we're not making nearly as much as everyone else.

But joining us on the next Get Wealthy episode is Betty Hines. She's a business strategist and she's showing women how to elevate other women. I don't like to say this openly, but we're getting better at it. Women struggle with collaborating with each other. And for that reason, one of the things that I demonstrate in the sessions that I have is that you can go further together if you collaborate. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge

part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. 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. All right, folks, let's go to South Carolina, where a South Carolina freshman says that a teacher attacked her in the hallway because she was walking during the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, the teacher is still working. The parents have filed a civil lawsuit against the Lexington School District 1 and that teacher, Nicole Livingston.

Now, the minor, known as MB, was walking in the hallway of River Bluff High School on November 29th when Livingston approached and appeared to pin the 15-year-old up against the wall. According to M.B.'s parents, parents Livingston has yet to be reprimanded. Now get this, there are two videos of the same incident telling different stories. Joining me now is Fennell Harrington and Chevelle Barnwell, the parents of the same incident telling different stories. Joining me now is Fennell Harrington and Chevelle Barnwell, the parents of the student and their attorney, Tyler Bailey. Okay, so let's just start here. Let's start here.

And either one of you can let me know this here. Is this a daily thing where the students in all of the school must recite the Pledge of Allegiance? So, Roland, here in South Carolina, every morning schools announce the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. But the law does allow for students to not participate in Pledge of Allegiance in a non-disruptive manner. So on this day, what you see, the Barlow's daughter's walking, and there's a teacher saying, stop, stop, she's minding her business

walking through school like she does every day. So every day in South Carolina, it's in our constitution that you do, they do announce the Pledge of Allegiance, but students have a right to participate or refuse to participate in a non-disruptive manner. Now, again, according to this story, Fidel and Chevelle, MB was walking down the hallway. So when this happens, like, so what happens?

Did your child leave the classroom? So exactly what happened there? Because if you're in the classroom, how is she then walking down the hallway? So explain to me that circumstance. She's walking to her class at this time. So if you look at the video, you see other students walking, right? And she's walking to her class. So she's not the only person walking here.

But for some reason, the teacher zero in on her when she's walking. Obviously, you see their daughter. We're all African-Americans here. She's a young black freshman student. The teacher, Ms. Lipsnay, is a white teacher. And she sees their child walking in the hallway along with other students, but she only stops our client here, puts her hands on her, demands that she stop, and she was minding her own business, and she had a right to. She had a right to continue walking.

She did not have to stop for the Pledge of Allegiance if she didn't want to. So the video that we're seeing right now, Chevelle, this is, so the Pledge of Allegiance is happening, so all of these students are walking? Yes, it's early in the morning when school starts and

once school starts, they start with the morning announcements and that is when they do the announcements and they do a moment of silence along with the Pledge of Allegiance. And at that time, that is when my daughter was walking down the hall going to class. And for some reason, I'm not sure why this teacher decided to target my daughter. She was the only African-American child walking in that area. You can see other students are walking as well. She didn't make an effort to say stop everyone.

It seems like she just targeted my child only. And as you can see, she attacked my daughter, pushing her up against the wall. And in the video, you may not can hear the audio now, but my daughter was telling her, please don't put your hands on me. And she continued to attack my daughter. And unfortunately, to this day, this teacher is still employed with the school district.

I am not pleased with the police department in this area. Based off of this video, they indicate they did not see an assault or an attack occur. Unless you're turning a blind eye, there's no way you can say that this is not an assault. So at this point, we're very pleased with what is going on with the situation. I'm just confused here. Why in the hell is she putting her hands on a student? Yeah. We couldn't believe it.

And then on top of that, they didn't even call me to tell me what happened. I got a call from my daughter, basically in tears, telling me that she's been attacked by a teacher. So I immediately came up there to see what was going on. And the only thing they told us was that at this point, it would be under investigation. However, a week later, I found out that this teacher

was still at school working. Yeah, there's really no reason for a teacher to put their hands on a student for exercising the First Amendment right. And on top of that, if this was a student who did it. Well, hold on one second. Have y'all filed assault charges against the teacher? Yes, I went to the police department as well as let the school officials know that I wanted charges pressed and I wanted her prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And I was advised by the police department that based off of their investigation, an assault did not occur. So to me, it seems that they did

not properly investigate. I let the police department know there were witnesses as well, along with the video, and they still refuse to press charges at this point. Wow. Tyler, you finished a comment there. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm saying if you take this same incident, you have two students, right? If you have a student put their hands on another student,

they would immediately put the student in principal's office, call that student's parents. They probably would call called law enforcement. And they may have even arrested the child for putting their hands on another student and assaulting them in that manner. Now, this situation with the teacher, unfortunately, they act like nothing happened. This was handled poorly, I believe, from the jump. Once it started, they even called the Barnwells. They didn't take it seriously. They don't believe an assault occurred. The police department declined to press charges as of today.

And this lawsuit is really the only way for the Barnwells to receive some sort of justice and accountability. And thankful for your platform for giving this case, their daughter and the parents, a platform to tell their story, and hopefully some more justice and accountability come out of this. But they're not stopping, as you see. They try to do everything. They talk to the school board. They talk to the principals. They talk to law enforcement before they even took the steps to file this lawsuit. But unfortunately, the school

district and those involved did not take this seriously seriously and now they've got to take this in their own hands and uh i would also like to add uh so mr tyler bailey that when uh we went to the school the principal said that he didn't you stop? Aren't you proud of your country? You know, and at that point, I feel like, you know, a call to me and my wife should have been done at that time. You know, we shouldn't have to hear from my daughter calling, letting us know what had just occurred, the attack that occurred on her that day. I feel like the school has done nothing to help with the situation. We've reached out to them, to the Lexington County School District.

We couldn't talk to no one there. And basically, at this point, there's no resolve. They don't want to speak to anyone about the assault. And it's basically, they're basically standing on the attack on my daughter, saying, you know, that they didn't see an assault. I mean, you can clearly see that an assault took place. If you watch the video, you can see, and you can hear the distress in her voice. Get your hands off of me, get your hands off of me. And the teacher continued to hold on to her and she didn't let her go.

Like when she asked for her to get her hands off of her, she continued to hold on to her aggressively, pushing her to the wall. And then she also snatched her school ID from off of her and told her that we're going to the office. I feel like, you know, at this point, some accountability need to be held, the teacher need to be held accountable. And as my wife stated,

we will hope that the school will do the right thing. And at this point, nothing has been done. And I'd like to also say that we demand respect and accountability. At this point, the school has not even apologized to my daughter for this incident. They continue to act high and mighty as if nothing never occurred. And at this point, justice needs to be served by the school district as well as the police department. I'm not sure why or what we need to do to get charges pressed. And I'm not sure why this teacher would still be employed at this point. That certainly makes absolutely no sense to me. Well, we certainly appreciate all three of you joining us. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season

One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got

B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple 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. Set up goals.

Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org brought to you by AARP and the ad council. Let us know what happens next in this story. Um, you know, you know, it's, it's, it it's it's crazy to me how how the how these folks respond um uh joe with this with this so you just gonna make somebody do the pledge of allegiance are you gonna put your hands on on a student? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Trust me. I remember I had a middle school teacher, Ms. Hart,

accused me of using drugs because my eyes were red. And she had the security search me. So, man, I got home, told my dad. My dad said, go get the – to all y'all millennials and Gen Z folk, my dad said, go get the phone book. Y'all used to have a thing called the white pages, so you couldn't just Google it. And so I went and got the white pages, brought it back. He called the school. He called for the principal, Mr. Broussard, and said point blank, he said,

none of my kids have ever used drugs. I fully expect her to apologize tomorrow. And if my son comes home tomorrow and tells me she has not apologized, I will be in your office in 15 minutes. That's right. You better say that. He said, do you understand what I'm telling you? He said, and then what happened? I went in the next day. Ms. Hart was apologizing.

You know, it's interesting, the ways in which privilege shows up. There's a whole lot of people walking down the hall, apparently, during the Pledge of Allegiance, particularly if the Pledge of Allegiance is at the beginning of the day. You know, some of us were early people. I was an early guy, but we all had friends when we went to school

that always came late, or their mamas may have brought them a little later. They get in a little late, get off the bus or whatever the case may be. There was a whole lot of people that were walking down the hallway at the time of the Pledge of Allegiance. But somehow, some way, this teacher felt that this black child was the one to target and to pull aside. So even when it comes to privilege, and that frankly is one of the reasons we have the problems that we do in this country where we would look the other way at a January 6th,

for instance, because white people did the blowing up and did the tearing down and did the malfeasance. But if black folk had done it, it would be a whole different thing. So now you're going after the black girl because I guess she's just a big winner. But the issue is that privilege even shows up in a situation like that where they will overlook,

they'll walk past three or four black white people to get at the black person to stop her from doing something that apparently she had every right to do. She had every right to get at the black person uh to stop her from doing something that apparently she had every right to do she had every right to walk down the hallway she was not being disruptive per their own rules she was probably just on her way to class and we don't hear anything from the parents saying well you know she was protesting and you know whatever else and so that's what she does and then she takes a knee and knee. Free Colin Kaepernick. It wasn't necessarily anything like that.

She was just walking down the hall like a lot of the white kids were. And she still finds a way to get rolled up just because she's the lucky one. But at the end of the day, probably happened because she was the black one. And hopefully, these guys stay the course so that they get the justice that they need. And then even at that, now they're asking her questions out of the presence of her parents.

Aren't you proud of your country? And all of these other things. I bet you if you ask the same people, they had an opinion about Kaepernick. They tell you one thing. Got it. For sure. And go consistent with that. To me, it's crazy.

All right, got to go to break. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch.

A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network. A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie.

Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. So people don't really want to have this conversation.

No, they don't. Hi, everybody. This is Jonathan Nelson. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, let's go back to Texas where the FBI is opening an investigation at the deaths of two men in the Harris County Jail. Ja'Quari Simmons died in February 2021, Jacoby Pillow in January of this year. Both of those deaths are going to be reviewed in an internal investigation

into Simmons's death, uncovered staff policy violations resulting in the sheriff in the Harris County to determine 11 employees and suspend six others in May of 2021. Now, the Houston Police Department conducted a criminal investigation into the death of Simmons, leading to the recent manslaughter indictment of former detention officer Eric Niles Morales. Pillow was in the process of being released from jail on bond on January 3rd when he was accused of assaulting a detention officer. Jail staff used force to restrain Pillow to regain control of him. He was evaluated by medical staff and returned to a cell. He was later found unresponsive in his cell and taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. His cause of death is

still pending. Joining me right now is Texas State Representative Jarvis Johnson. Representative Johnson, glad to have you. The Department of Justice has been very aggressive in sending jail officials, wardens and others to prison for the beating and the deaths of inmates. This says a lot in the first case where inmate dies and the sheriff fires 11 people. But firing is one thing, holding them accountable is another. Absolutely. And when you start to see this happen more and more often, then you'll start to see that these officers have more restraint. They have more conscience about what's happening. I think what we have in this country is a systemic image problem when it comes to certain individuals.

When you have people that are in prison and you have law enforcement that simply want to take the law into their own hands to be the judge, jury, and executioner all at the same time by simply assuming that everybody is guilty simply because they're sitting in jail and then treating them inhumanely. And so as a member of appropriations, as we deal with the money and as vice chair of Homeland Security, one of the things that I'm going to be looking at this year is looking at law enforcement and looking at some of the consequences that go along with them. I support law enforcement 100 percent, as all of us do, but we have to send a clear and strong message to those that want to take the law into their own hands and treat people as they see fit, as opposed to what the law says. And so we're going to move forward and we're going to move quickly

to make sure that we send, on my behalf, and certainly I can't speak for the rest of the caucus and the rest of the committees, but I certainly will be fighting to make sure that we're holding accountable officers to make sure that, and again, and when these type of things happen, what happens after that serves into a lawsuit that then taxpayers have to pay. That then, you know, so instead of taxpayers having to pay that, law enforcement needs to pay that. That in itself is going to start being a deterrent to some of these officers because they're going to start understanding their pension is going to be in jeopardy.

And so these are the things that I think are going to be important and to make sure that we hold people accountable. When you talk about, again, holding accountable, I remember, again, growing up in Houston, and the name Justice William Wayne Justice is just seared into my head. It was a federal judge who oversaw the Texas criminal justice system for a very long time because of widespread abuses in the prison system in that particular state. And so it's not like Texas has not had these issues before when it comes to conditions. That was state prisons. But here we're talking about what's happening there in the county. And this is where the county commissioners need to be making demands as well, because guess what? It's going to be taxpayers of Harris County who will have to be paying settlements if there are civil lawsuits. Absolutely. And that's why we have to make sure, you know, when you look at, Roland, when you look at what we're dealing with, these

are still law enforcement officers. In this country, we have a real issue with law enforcement. Not all, some. We're dealing with trainings and we're dealing with imagery. We're dealing with how some of these officers are trained and then the imagery that they have perceived to be what they think that they should be doing to go out and then do this on their own, to handle the law and take the law into their own hands. We have to get a handle on that. But when you look at officers that are patrolling the streets versus officers that are patrolling the jail cells, the mentality is the same. And certainly the consequences have to be the same.

And so I'm glad that we're looking at the FBI moving quickly on this. I hope that we can do the same for officers that are on the beat, that we can have quick and swift action taken by these individuals. Me as a taxpayer, I don't feel like it's necessary for me to have to be able to pay for somebody's mistake simply because. And then this officer gets off. Even though we're settling some of these cases, the officers oftentimes have moved to another department. They move to another city and they still have their T-code. They still have their license to do the same thing in another city. And so people will say, well, there's such a shortage of officers, it's hard to get.

No, you have to get rid of these officers. Maybe if we got rid of the bad apples, then more people want to join this fraternal organization that they call police. Maybe more young people want to join and say, I want to be a part of something good. But right now, unfortunately, the bad have made a horrible, horrible image of what police officers are in this country today. So we have to send a clear message that this type of behavior won't be accepted. I'll be bringing my panel here. Questions. Michael, first. All right. Thanks for shedding light on this. And I was looking at the article from National Public Radio.

So can you shed some light on this? So we see 21 inmates died in 2021 in this county and then 28 died in 2022, and then so far four have died in 2023. What has been the—so obviously this is not like all these people, 50-plus, committed suicide. So what has been the explanation from the county? You know, I don't think there is an explanation. I think what we have is an uptick in deaths inside of these prisons. I think when you look at some of the numbers that I'm looking at here, the numbers have constantly gone up since 2005. You've had a kind of an ebb and flow of numbers going up and down. But since 2012, those numbers have constantly gone up

of people that are dying in jail. And I think what we have is a cultural problem in law enforcement, because I don't believe that this is just simply dealing with the jails. I think this is just law enforcement, period, because a lot of the officers that are inside, the jailers are actually officers. And so, you know, I think this is a mentality that has been going on for far too long. And I think it's a mentality that we see has been excused every time that there is a shooting of an unarmed citizen, every time that there is the death of an individual by the hands of police, that there's only a slap on the wrist. Yes, there's some anxiety. Yes, there's some high feelings. But at the end of the day, there's no consequences for the action. And so you're sending a message to those same,

that same fraternal organization that, hey, you're OK. You get to do this over and over again, and nobody's going to be mad at you because, you know what, you're patriots and you're serving this country. And I think that's where we get it all wrong. And that's the stuff that we got to stop. They're not patriots. They're officers doing the job. And so let's not get it confused. So they get a pension. They get insurance. They get a salary. So let's make sure that we don't confuse the two by giving them a pass simply because they have accepted the role and responsibility of simply doing what they said that they would go out to do. You guys, as commentators, as reporters, you know, and some of these others, then, you know, you'll think looking very closely on some consequences for what we need to be doing to send messages, clear messages, to protect citizens as well as law enforcement. Right. All right. Thank you.

Indeed. Representative Jarvis Johnson, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Always, Roe. You see, I don't have my Omega behind me because I'm trying to respect you, brother. I love you. I knew you was going to give me a hard time. So, bro. You see, I don't have my Omega behind me because I'm trying to respect your brother. I love you. I knew you was going to give me hard times. So my homeboy from Houston, we still got love for you, though. But at the end of the day, I love you, brother. That's wise.

That's wise you did that. But remember, any time you're in the presence of an alpha, always kiss the ring. Kiss the ring. Email will move that. Always kiss the ring. I love you, brother. Appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Thank you, brother. All right, y'all. I got to go to a break. We come back more on Rolling By the Unfiltered. Don't forget, support us in what we do. Folks, your dollars make it possible for us to be able to travel this country covering the stories. I'm going to be in Los Angeles on monday we're shooting new episodes of rolling with rolling we also be there for the naacp image awards uh see your check and money orders to peel box 57196 washington dc 20037-0196 cash app is dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal is r martin

unfiltered venmo is rm unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland S Martin.com. Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered.com. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. The book is available at bookstores everywhere, including Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books A Million, Target.

You can also download a copy on Audible. And don't forget, folks, download our app, Bookshop, Chapters, Books A Million, Target. You can also download a copy on Audible. And don't forget, folks, download our app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. I'll be right back. Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in.

I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple 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.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Join the conversation only on the black star network hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting

increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Mm-hmm. New research from the National Institutes of Health shows Black and Hispanics are being impacted at a higher rate for long COVID.

The study looked at the health records of 62,339 people who received a positive COVID-19 test between March 2020 and October 2021. The evidence shows that of those who suffered severe COVID and require hospitalization, disproportionately impacted blacks and Hispanics. Now, months after their initial infection, those same blacks and Hispanic adults with severe COVID were more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and develop long-haul symptoms such as headaches, chest pain, anemia, and joint pain. Black adults are more likely to have blood clots as well as malnourishment. Hispanics more likely to experience

dementia. Joining us right now from Atlanta, Dr. Jane Morgan, cardiologist and executive director of the Piedmont Healthcare Corporation COVID Task Force. Doc, glad to have you here. And of course, this is here's the thing here that what COVID showed COVID, first of all, exposed for a hell of a lot of people who were not paying any attention whatsoever about the how disproportionate our health care system is. Now we're seeing every day how COVID is impacting people much differently, which also, I dare say, goes back to all of those other factors that determine how white folks were having a different level of health care in this country compared to blacks and Hispanics. So what's really interesting, too, about these studies is that they are self-reported. And when we look at studies where there's an actual

diagnosis of long COVID, we see the majority of those diagnoses have been made in white women, and generally white women who are in a higher socioeconomic status. So these are self-reported episodes of long COVID. And the reason that that is concerning is that we see shades of racism in the types of impairments that we see in Blacks versus whites. So in Blacks, chest pain and joint pain and diabetes, but whites have more subtle cognitive impairment

and fatigue that requires some judgment and also some conversation. And it also can also be an implicit suggestion that the cognition of a black person may not be high enough to determine that it is lowered. For instance, that's exactly what we saw in the NFL with their concussion protocols, right? So their level of intelligence was deemed to be slightly lower,

so they were not able to qualify for disability for concussions when white players were. And so some of this is concerning. We will certainly have to tweeze this out. We saw lots and, you know, obviously lots and lots of black people being infected with COVID. And when we see long COVID, we certainly see long COVID impact, but a lot of that is self-reported. Does that mean because there are different demographics

who are not having access to health care or who have access but are not being heard, or who are working in jobs where they cannot leave and get the health care that they need, even though they have access. So all of this is going to have to be teased out. Indeed, and I think what is, I think, look, people also have to understand this, and this is where I think many of these nutcases on the right don't really understand what's going on. Folks like you are learning new stuff every single day. I mean, COVID is uncovering all sorts of things. Something somebody may have thought six months ago, it then changes. And so this notion that, well, I mean, you said this six months ago. Yeah, stuff changed. And so there's an evolving that's going on here, which is why the research matters. And it's not just so just

clear cut off. Hey, a year ago, you said this and it's the same today. You know, research really does matter. And we see with COVID, again, sort of an underdiagnosis of these long COVID symptoms in Black patients. And we know that some of these medical algorithms and devices that are used to help assess a person's medical status have some racial bias in them. So, for instance, the pulse oximeters, a little clip that we put on the end of your finger to measure the amount of oxygen you have to determine if your oxygen level is low, if you are suffering from COVID or any other number of diseases where you might have a low oxygen level. That works by light passing through the skin. The more pigmentation or the more melanin you have, the less accurate is that device.

And so you can have a low oxygen level in an emergency room and be feeling poorly, but actually that device reads as being normal. And then you are triaged to a lower level of care and concern. We are not concerned about you. Your oxygen level is normal. We need to treat other patients ahead of you. Why don't you wait? And like anything, your status will continue to deteriorate. We have spirometry, where you actually blow into a tube and a machine measures your lung capacity, how much air you can expire in a certain period of time, gives you an idea of your lung function. And we know that in the software of that machine itself is a reading that calculates

a Black person's lung capacity inferior to that of a white person's at about 15 to 20 percent. And so it automatically will downgrade if that person is Black and will give them a normal value that would be an abnormal value for a white person who then would be guided and referred on for higher therapy and higher medications. And so we see that as well in COVID and probably that is going to catapult over into long COVID and what these actual diagnoses are and who's going to actually get treatment and who isn't. Questions from the panel. Matt, you're first.

The question I had, Dr. Morgan, was just how do you think we increase access as it relates to Black people and getting diagnosed for post-COVID? Because when I read this, that's what jumped out to me most, especially with you, you know, indicating that this is primarily self-reported. So what do we get from this in terms of how we can increase access in our communities to get these diagnoses? A couple of things. We need to advocate for ourselves, but we also know, and certainly in a paper that I published two years ago, looking at a number of COVID patients, we certainly know that the type of insurance that you have actually matters, right? That's going to determine whether or not you have access to generics, whether or not you'll need permission to see a specialist, how many visits you'll actually get with that specialist. So insurance, unfortunately, in this country is tiered, and it does make a difference between what type of health care you receive and what type that you don't. You should try to advocate for yourselves, educate yourselves, get good information.

I'm trying to give good information tonight, right, to arm yourselves. And then not necessarily challenge your physician, but bring that information forward to say, I am concerned that you are not listening to me. You don't hear what I'm saying. And I would like to try again because I'm not feeling well. Joe? Dr. Borgen, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate what it is that you're doing. I wonder, you know, we had the question about how we advocate for ourselves. How well do you think in the medical field itself there is a recognition that these biases take place? And I'm sure you must feel like, you know, you're trudging in

quicksand all the time and sound like a broken record in terms of the things that you're pointing out. But how well is this known and recognized as an issue by people in the field themselves in the medical field and how outcomes are affected by insurance, et cetera, and how perhaps these other biases come in a way where two people that look different have a different tier diagnosis, different tier treatment. How much recognition is there of people that are in the field that are actually making these decisions that set some people on these roads and other people on others? And so there are some areas that are gaining ground faster than others. One of those is kidney function. We have something called the EGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate.

It is a calculation that lets us know how well your kidneys are functioning. The higher that value, the better your kidney function. Well, in those formulas, there are generally two main formulas that we use to make those calculations, and it's done in the pathology lab. Those formulas both have a multiplication factor for African-Americans. It's actually called the AA factor, African-American. And so at the end of the formula, if you are black, and they recommended that these formulas no longer contain this factor. And just this month, a year and a half later, it has been determined that Black people, by using this EGFR formula, were delayed access to kidney transplant lists because you have to have a certain degree of disease

in order to qualify for these transplant lists. Well, if the formula that they're using always artificially makes you appear healthier than you are, then you're actually deteriorating but not able to get access to that kidney transplant list. And all medical facilities have been notified that they have within one year to now both identify and contact Black patients who should have been on these kidney transplant lists. So really, it's no longer a matter of how long have you been waiting on this transplant list.

The question is, how long have you been kept off of it? Wow. Great. Thank you, Doctor. Michael. Hey, Dr. Morgan. Thanks for this valuable information. In April of 2021, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated that racism was a serious public health threat, okay? And she talked about how COVID-19

disproportionately impacted communities of color. So when we look at your research here, we look at the information from the National Institute of Health, talk about understanding racism as something that's systemic. Talk about how those two relate, number one. And number two, what are some things

that you recommend that can be done to fight against how the African-American community is disproportionately harmed by COVID-19 and long COVID? So many lessons. Doc, that's a lot Mike wants you to do. But you got by 30. No, no, no, Mike, I got this.

Doc, you got 30 seconds. That's my point. I know you got one, two things, but we got 30 seconds left No, no, no, Mike, Mike, Mike, I got this. Doc, you got 30 seconds. That's my point. I know you got one, two things, but we got 30 seconds left in the segment. Doc, go. So many things to unpack during COVID with regard to lessons learned. One of those, though, is early in the COVID, when we saw the alpha, the beta, the delta surges, we saw disproportionate impact in Black communities. And that was because, by and large, we were unable to step away from jobs. These are jobs that were, we call them essential workers. You live in multigenerational households, don't have access to pharmacies within five miles.

We saw that pendulum swing in the last part of the COVID pandemic, where we see the majority of people now hospitalized and dying are white. And it's mostly because of the type of ideology that they're following. And so it does. COVID is a great lesson in what our societal, infrastructural, racial construct is here in the United States. All right, then. Doc, I got to do this here. So you had a birthday about five days ago. And you, oh, you didn't think I was going to do this. Come on, y'all. Come on. hurry up yeah uh-huh oh yeah so you post you posted this you posted this uh on your twitter account you like well you know i might i might take it down i was like no so look so now was this from the party was this for a previous uh a party i was at the party i had a surprise

birthday party my sister threw for me so this was at the party. I had a surprise birthday party. My sister threw for me. So this was at my party. All right, then. Well, first of all, happy belated. And then you and so see, even though you said you try to take the photo down. Well, this is going to live forever with us showing it there. So that's why I want to go ahead and do that. Yeah. And you can see in the background, you see my oldest son, Omar Jimenez. He's the CNN national correspondent back in the background there. All right, then. Well, look, happy birthday. And I hope you had a great time there. Thanks a lot for coming on.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Bye. All right, folks. I have you on YouTube. Hit the like button All right, folks. Hey, you too. Hit the like button, y'all. We should easily be at 1,000 likes. I don't know why I have to do this every single day.

Y'all should log on. Before you start commenting, hit the like button so we can go ahead and hit 1,000 likes. Do that. When we come back from break, we should be at 1,000, all right? I'm going to the break. I'll be back in a moment. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have.

We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie,

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Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One.

Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple 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. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

Dominic Anderson has not been seen since December 27th. Last seen in Derby, Connecticut. The 17-year-old is 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Dominic Anderson should call the Derby, Connecticut Police Department at 203-735-7811. 203-735-7811. The family of an unarmed 20-year-old black man killed in his bed in Columbus, Ohio. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officer who shot him.

Donovan Lewis was shot and killed by Officer Ricky Anderson on August 30th when officers arrived to serve a warrant at 2 in the morning. The family wants Anderson fired. He has been on the payroll since the fatal shooting. A 21-page complaint does not include the city of Columbus because the family believes the city needs to be sued in federal court. The white man in Kansas City, Missouri is suspected of kidnapping black women, has been indicted. Timothy Hazlitt Jr. has been indicted on several charges related to the kidnapping and rape

of a 22-year-old black woman. In October, a woman who escaped from Hazlitt's home told police she had been held captive for about a month. She said her friends did not make it out, meaning Hazlitt killed them. Prominent black Kansas City community leaders voiced their concern about several missing black women, but they say police ignored their pleas. The investigation continues into the allegations other women were involved. This story out of

Missouri, folks, is just unbelievable. A Missouri judge has overturned the conviction of a black man who spent nearly 28 years behind bars for a murder he has always denied committing. Tuesday, Lamar Johnson walked out of a St. Louis courtroom a free man. Play the video, folks. You ought to hear this. The conviction of Lamar Johnson and state v. Lam Johnson, calls 22941-37068. You're sure about to set a sign. And the judge, David Mason, ruled two witnesses provided clear and convincing evidence Johnson was innocent. He had been convicted of murdering Marcus Boyd in 1994.

Johnson claimed he was with his girlfriend miles away when Boyd was killed years later. The state's only witness recanted his identification of Johnson and Campbell as the shooters. Two other men have since confessed and said Johnson was not involved. Here was crazy. Lamar will not receive any compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned. His exoneration did not rely on DNA. That right there, Matt, is just stupid. This man spent 28 years in prison and no compensation? Yeah, I think Congress needs to address this because this is a state issue. And in Texas, for instance, if you know the story of Richard Miles, very similar story.

I went to a seminar that he did not long ago. And what I learned there was that in Texas, if you even get an award, they can basically tax you for the time that they spent incarcerating you, even though it was wrongful. So to that end, Congress has to address this because what people need to know who are listening to this case is actual innocence means the judge. And in this case, the prosecutor, shout out to Kim Gardner, who's been in battle and has done good work in that area. Nonetheless, the prosecutor said we looked at this case and the evidence is not there. So this isn't a matter of he won on a technicality. He won because he should win, because the evidence shows he's not guilty of the offense. So the reason that's important is it's kind of just insane that we as a society have not required that everybody in this instance get compensated at a fair amount. And the state should not be paid back

for putting you in prison improperly. So this is a good story, but it's a sad story because this brother lost 30 years of his life. And this is precisely why I do not believe in the death penalty, because we get it wrong too often. There are too many people, too many Lamar Johnsons who have lost their life behind false accusations or faulty evidence or, you know, malice on the side of the police. And we never get them back. And this is precisely why I think the death penalty is problematic, because stories like this show us that it happens. And unfortunately, it happens too frequently that cases do have faulty evidence.

It just, to me, again, to me, it's about 28 years, Joe. And these legislators are kind of like, yeah, okay, no, you know, I'm fine, whatever now. Okay, go and go start your life. I mean, I need people to understand when you're talking about almost three decades. Um, it's interesting. I'm here in salt Lake, uh, for the NBA all-star game. This is 2023. The last time I was in the salt Lake city was for the Olympics in 2002. That was 21 years ago. This man was in prison an additional an additional seven years. Yeah, he was in prison since around the Olympics in 1996. And so he's been in prison for a long time. And the most valuable commodity that there is that we have, I think, is time. And he lost so much of it.

And so there shouldn't be this technicality that if we got it wrong for this reason, if DNA is what uncovered it, then we'll pay you. And if it wasn't for some other reason, then we won't. Fundamentally, this gets back to how we value people that are human beings who may be in prison, and in this case didn't even make a mistake warranting them getting in prison. And to Matt's point, this happens far too often. For every one of this brother, there's probably 10 or 15 of them back there with the same situation and just aren't able to undo it. And so we have to be able to address this somehow.

But, fundamentally, this often exonerates black men. This often exonerates. And every time, of course, it would exonerate somebody that's in prison, right, who on some level in society's eyes is devalued anyway. And so, you know, the sympathy and the urgency is not there to change this because the fact of the matter is, in order for the urgency to be there to change it, this would have to be undone often enough that it would actually shape the foundations of the criminal justice system, because the biggest suggestion in the system is that, by and large, the system gets it right. And the system, by and large, doesn't necessarily get it right, and it certainly doesn't get it right as often as it needs to.

Michael? Yeah, you know, I echo Matt. I'm against the death penalty because it's disproportionately used against African Americans, especially African American men. When we look at this case here, progressive attorney, progressive St. Louis Circuit attorney Kim Gardner, she agreed with the Innocence Project, and she filed a motion in August of 2022 seeking Lamar Johnson's release. And you would not have an attorney, Kim Gardner, without people voting her into office. Okay? So, once again, this goes back to the importance of voting the right people

in the office. And you have those in the state legislature, like Representative Lakeisha Bosley, who are putting forth legislation to give restitution to people who are wrongfully convicted and who are innocent, things of this nature. But, you know, this is I'm good. I'm glad he's out of prison. But there are far too many cases like this, you know. And once again, I can't stress enough the importance of having the right people in political office. Indeed, indeed. So it's just, again, look, as Joe said, bottom line is you can't get back. You simply cannot get back time. I mean, 28 years, 28 years, folks. That's nearly three decades that this man has been in prison. And to say no restitution,

nothing, that to me is simply an abomination. And it goes to show you what happens in this society in terms of how folks are treated. And unfortunately, many of them are indeed African-American. All right, folks, I'm here in Salt Lake City, NBA All-Star Weekend. Looking forward to the various activities here. But I got to go to break. We come back. I'm going to talk about this Clarence Thomas statue in Georgia. Boy, it was a heated discussion on the floor of the Georgia legislature where one black rep said, call this man an Uncle Tom. He went off on Clarence thomas we're going to play it for you we come back on roland martin unfiltered don't forget folks

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Let's see. My Konami, Dahlia Byfield-Williams, Cheryl Denise Flemings, Nurse Linda Whitesell, Robert Jackson, Michael Potts, Monique Taylor, Theron Lane, Joan Griffin, Darnita Lee, DeJuan Rubin, Marjorie Sands, Terry Brooks, Lawrence Scott, LaWanda Bivens, Terrence Bridges, Jacquez, Roxanna Deshawn, Samantha Piggy, Christine Yolanda, Donald Rush, Regina Davis, Carl Haas, Carl Lewis, Keith Jones, Dick C., Anna King Cole, Chanel Foray, Ida Trier, Ruben Moultrie. Also, get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Mind. Available at bookstores nationwide.

And download or copy on Audible. We'll be right back. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not be white. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's how the Proud Boys died. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources,

they're taking our women. This is white fear. Bye-bye, Papa. This is White Fiat. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell. Hi, I'm Carl Painting. Hey, everybody. This is Sherri Shepherd.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. So Republican lawmakers in Georgia want to build a statue of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Democrats are like, we'd rather keep Confederate statues up. State Senator Emanuel Jones went off on Clarence Thomas on the floor in the legislature. Listen to this. I know it's very, very sensitive to talk about race in this body. But any time that we have a resolution, legislation proposing to place a statue of Clarence Thomas on this grounds, we cannot avoid that conversation, so I'm not going to avoid it either. In the black community, we have an expression, and I don't want to use this label too deeply

here because I'm just trying to tell you what we have in African-American community. When we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to days of slavery and that person betraying his own community, we have a term in the black community. That term that we use is called Uncle Tom. And Uncle Tom is either a fictional or non-fictional character. I don't really know the origin of Uncle Tom, but it talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters. That's the story of the fictitious of the story of an Uncle Tom. So when we think about a person in the black community who's accomplished but yet policies seek to subvert, some may even say suppress,

the achievements and accomplishments of people of color, I couldn't help but to think about that term and expressing my dissatisfaction with this particular legislation. Folks, as I said last year, y'all just don't get it. And I don't expect people of non-color to get the sensitivity that we feel about a person of color whose policies and practices and decisions and votes that we've rallied and fought against? Well, now, he was clear how he feels bad. Look, I don't, I don't allow, I don't use the term Uncle Tom. I don't use Oreo. I don't use those phrases. I can criticize somebody without using names, but I can tell you right now, I don't use Oreo. I don't use those phrases. I can criticize somebody without using

names, but I can tell you right now, I don't know that many black people who like Clarence Thomas. And I know a lot of black people. So in your first year of law school in torts class, you would learn a phrase, race ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself. I would say we needn't call him an Uncle Tom because we know what the policies look like. And jokes aside, with Clarence Thomas, the problem is he's so often loud and wrong, if you ask me, on his reading of the Constitution. He's what you call an originalist. He looks at the words written in the Constitution to determine his decisions, which is ironic because the words written in the Constitution originally wouldn't even have him be a full person.

Right. So he just seems to be loud and wrong on everything. And what we extrapolate from that is this one. I think the Republicans in Georgia are not only playing a game of politics as it relates to parties, but with race. Right. We see Herschel Walker as their candidate, and it seems like some of these state legislators are trying to prop him up to say, see, look, it's not about race. We've got this black guy that we're calling the paragon of progress.

But Clarence Thomas has made some really terrible decisions, and it's a concern, particularly when we know about the nexus between his wife and the January 6th insurrectionist and the fact that there's no recusal and no ethics with the Supreme Court. It's extremely problematic because, I mean, if you look at him objectively, he could be an incredibly impressive person with his education and his background, but he has used it to our detriment. So I don't like to use that label, but I mean, the reality is he has not done any helping of us in his position,

which is such an important position as we talk about on the show so often. As a Supreme Court justice, they set the tenor of so much of what happens in our country, and he is so often the loudest and wrongest in the position that he takes. About 90 seconds left. Joe, you got 45 seconds to go. You know, from the very beginning when he was appointed, he is the one that talks about it not being about race and those types of things, but he was ready to call it a high-tech lynching as soon as Anita Hill came around. And he's been determined to antagonize us ever since. So he shouldn't be awarded with anybody's statue for sure. But it's interesting

the things that Georgia is arguing about nowadays. I thought it was interesting. You don't have to call him Uncle Tom because you know what he's doing. He's living it. And so hopefully we can talk about things that are more useful in the Georgia state legislature in the future. Michael, 45 seconds, go. The real Uncle Tom's name was Josiah Henson. Josiah Henson was a runaway slave from Maryland. He ran away in 1830. He published his autobiography in 1849. Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Based upon his autobiography, the real Uncle Tom in the story was a hero who refused to be Black women, who refused to tell what runaway slaves were. The traitor in the story, Uncle Tom's cabin, his name was Sambo. So if anything, we should call Clarence Thomas a Sambo, not Uncle Tom. Study the real Uncle Tom, whose name was Josiah Hansen.

All right, then. And y'all know I do a lot of traveling around the country. Oftentimes, I would take photos of monuments to African-Americans. I can guarantee you this. If Georgia erects the statue of Clarence Thomas, I ain't nowhere in hell I'm taking that picture. At all. I think I met the man twice. Got absolutely no respect for Clarence Thomas whatsoever. And when he was all upset, conservatives were upset when he wasn't included in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Didn't bother me one second.

Period. All right, folks, that's it. I got to go. Matt, Joe, Mike, thanks a bunch. I will see you guys on Monday from Los Angeles. But we'll be there for the NAACP Image Awards. Of course, we're nominated. We'll also be shooting episodes of Rolling with Roland.

And so look at my social media stuff. We're going to have some stuff here from Salt Lake. Looking forward to that good content as well. Shout out to Mark Tatum, Deputy Commissioner of the NBA. Here, Kappa. But glad to be a guest of Mark at NBA All-Star Game. Folks, that's it. Don't forget, get my book, White Fear.

Download the Black Star Network app. Support us by joining our Brena Funk fan club. Everything's at RolandMartinOnFilter.com or RolandSMartin.com. I'll see y'all on Monday. Holla! សូវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា� Thank you. Thank you. The សូវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបាវបានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប I'm Martin. Thank you. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា� 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.

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