#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TX Lt. Gov. blames COVID surge on Blacks; 20k students quarantined; Texas Dems return home

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

TX Lt. Gov. blames COVID surge on Blacks; 20k students quarantined; Texas Dems return home Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. It's Friday, August 20, 2021. Coming up on Willamette Unfiltered, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. He joins black people? Am I supposed to hear him? In Texas?

No, that's actually not what's going on there. We'll talk about that. Also, cases are exploding in Mississippi where 20,000 students are being quarantined folks this is going out of control all across the country and it's impacting water in Orlando yes Kovac is impacting whether they're gonna be rationing water in Orlando huh how about that also in today's show the trial of R Kelly continues as well we give the latest on that it's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin on the field trip.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the food, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's the Go-Go-Go-Go, y'all. It's Rolling Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Now.

Martel. All right, the tried and true strategy of Fox News. Blame black people when things aren't going so well. Last night on Laura Ingraham's show, that is exactly what Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick did, blaming African-Americans for the increase of COVID in Texas. Watch this. Coming after your state really quickly here as a response. Coming after your state because the increased COVID numbers hospitalizations deaths are up in texas uh and there's a direct

assault on your governor's policies and your state's policies very brief response yeah well laura the the covid is spreading particularly most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and the democrats like to blame republicans on that well the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated. The last time I checked, over 90% of them vote for Democrats in their major cities and major counties. So it's up to the Democrats to get, just as it's up to Republicans to try to get as many people vaccinated. But we respect the fact that if people don't want the vaccination, we're not going to force it on them. That's their individual right. But in terms of criticizing the Republicans for this, we're encouraging people who want to take it to take it.

But they're doing nothing for the African-American community that has a significant high number of unvaccinated people. TikTok videos. We got a lot of TikTok videos. Go ahead and deal with this with our panel. It's a whole lot. I want to unpack Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst, Kelly Bethea, communications strategist, Dr. Jason Nichols, Department of African American Studies at University of Maryland. Okay, Brittany. So let's now deal with this. 29 million Texans. Black people represent 3.5 million Texans. If you actually look at the hardcore numbers, white folks being unvaccinated is the problem in that particular state. There were a number of doctors who dropped information showing hospitalizations, largely white folks in Texas as well.

But this is the one that jumps out to me the most here, Brittany. Dan Patrick is a lieutenant governor of Texas. All Texans. He sounded as if he was saying, our job is to get Republicans vaccinated. Democrats, your job is to get your people vaccinated. Yeah, I mean, absolutely, Roland. Just wow. I mean, first and foremost, this actually reminds me of Governor Abbott when he was trying to blame immigrants for the spread.

And we know Black people, immigrants, we are being used as scapegoats for really, really horrible leadership at the end of the day. And all of this, unfortunately, the pandemic in its entirety has been politicized, causing millions of deaths at this point in hospitals that are being completely flooded with sick individuals. So it's really unfortunate. But I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. So, Jason, it's now on Black people. To Brittany's point, at first, you had Governor Greg Abbott, who was trying to get the state troopers to arrest migrants. They were blaming them for COVID. Now they're blaming black people. There are more white people in Texas than black people. Jason? I think we lost Jason there. Let me go to Kelly. Kelly?

Yes, can you repeat the question? I just got in. Yeah, that is, you have more white folks in Texas. Governor Greg Abbott, as Brittany said, initially blamed migrants. Now they're trying to blame black people. I guess they don't want to blame white folks for nothing dealing with COVID, huh? Right. They never do. And that's really the problem with all of this. The fact that it's a majority of white people who don't want to get vaccinated. It's a majority of

white people who are in the hospital. They are the majority in this country. So naturally, they are going to be the majority who's acting a fool in these streets. So for me, for a governor to blame his constituents as opposed to his own leadership, as opposed to his own administration, as opposed to his own rhetoric on this issue, it's the caucasity for me, frankly, but it's definitely expected coming from a governor who has basically bent over backwards to not follow the science for the sake of politics. It was we're trying to get Jason's signal back. It was quite interesting last night, Brittany. I was looking at a number of people who were just blasting Patrick, who were actually putting up various information, showing the actual numbers, showing exactly what the problem there is with with the number of vaccinations. And and the thing is, I go back to still the most basic thing. If you are the lieutenant governor of Texas, you should have a plan of action as vaccinating people.

That's the responsibility. And what Texas did was they were so screwed up. They were like, oh, we'll leave it up to y'all. But let me remind people of something that actually happened. Brittany. Dallas County, when they initially had their vaccination plan, it looked like we got Jason back. Jason, you there? Is Jason there? Can you hear me? Cool.

All right, Jason, I got you. We got you. Actually, I'm going to go to you, Jason, and then come back to Brittany. So, Jason, Dallas County wanted to give the vaccine to the hardest-hit groups first, blacks and Latinos. Abbott, his folks said, said no you can't do that so it's a little disingenuous for dan patrick to now and say oh black people they're the problem when abbott and the republicans like patrick refused to let the local leaders do what they

wanted to do to solve the problem well i mean disingenuous and dan patrick go go hand in hand so that doesn't surprise me at all uh we know for for a fact you know up to i believe it was july 1st that when you look at counties uh that uh voted for donald trump it was 35 percent were vaccinated in counties that voted for joe biden 47 14 of amer Americans say they will definitely not get vaccinated. 69% of those people are white, as opposed to 7%, excuse me, who are Black and 12% that are Latino. And so I don't buy anything that Dan Patrick is saying. Of course, he's trying to deflect the blame for the fact that they can't control this and that they painted themselves in a corner. And he's a disingenuous person. He's the same guy who said that your grandparents should die for this pandemic.

So, you know, he's he's not someone who should be paid attention to. Unfortunately, he's in a decision making capacity, which is really sad for the people of Texas. And I think, Brittany, that just was beyond laughable. This whole idea, well, you know, black people, 90% vote Democrat. So Democrats, you should be doing more to get black people vaccinated. How about you make sure the resources are going where they need to do, where they need to go in order to ensure people get vaccinated? See, this is called advocating responsibility.

Republicans love to talk about local control when it's their issues, but now they want to avert blame. And so now they're playing this game. And Roland, you took literally my next talking point. I said, literally, you know, I find it fascinating that these same people, Dan Patrick, Abbott, DeSantis, all of them, who have campaigned for years on local control and local government are the first people to run over local officials and to make decisions

that do not benefit communities of color once they become head of state. We can even look beyond just getting the vaccine. I mean, what these states are doing with the mask mandates. I mean, how can we not hold these people, these governors, right? This Lieutenant Governor medically, legally, and morally responsible for spreading COVID. And the simple fact that these pro-life folks can come out of their mouth and try and point any fingers about why COVID is spreading is absolutely laughable. And of course, this lit up on social media last night, folks blasting Dan Patrick.

And he really is one of the, one of the, one of the dumbest people I've known this guy for years, Kelly. And he's pretty much idiotic. And in fact, I want to show you this graphic right here. Let's go to my iPad,

please. This is the graphic, the latest data from a Texas department of state Health Services shows that the African-American population there is not driving the increase in cases. Black residents in Texas accounted for 16.4 percent of the state's cases and 10.2 percent of deaths as of August 13th. While vaccination rates are low among black Texans, the highest coronavirus rates are among whites and Hispanics who make up 34.9% and 35.8% of the state's cases respectively, according to the latest data. Hmm, that's what happens when you know how to read Kelly.

Not only when you know how to read, but when you're just cognizant of the facts, when you actually use facts as opposed to your bigotry, you get better results as to how you want to proceed in your public health initiatives. Again, this is just typical Dan Patrick. It is typical racist. I'm sorry. It's just very typical of this Texan administration under Dan Patrick and the like to do something so just crass, honestly, as opposed to doing his job, he will put the blame on every single person except himself, except those underneath him, all for the sake of politics over people. It's sad. It's dangerous. And it's literally deadly. Really want to avert responsibility. That's what it boils down to. And there have been a lot of pushback we've seen from

black officials in Texas. And again, I go back to when we had Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price on this show when the vaccine first came out. Dallas County wanted to distribute the vaccine first to the most

impacted communities, blacks and Latinos. And it was Republicans in Austin, Greg Abbott's office, the governor, who said, no, in fact, we will withhold the vaccine if you choose to implement your own plan. Right, I mean, this is, you know, and you know what really offends me, Roland, is the fact that he's like, well, Democrats need to handle that.

I mean, this is the state of Texas and you are, Dan Patrick, the second ranking official in the state. For some reason, you seem to think that black Texans and Democratic Texans or black Democrat Texans aren't Texans. And therefore, you abdicate your responsibility and give it to their political party, as if this isn't one state, this isn't one country, and as if they're not your responsibility. And I find that despicable and disgusting for a public official to do that who's in charge of the state. And your official there from Dallas County is absolutely correct. And again, just to bring up another number, of the people who say that they will never take the vaccine, 58% are Republicans, 18% are Democrats. So even with the disingenuous lie that he's trying to push, he's absolutely wrong in every way and in every

statistic that you look at. But again, him putting it on Black people, I'm sure this is not the first time that Black people have been blamed for something that they're not responsible for. And there you see from that graphic that you put up earlier with 10% representing the deaths, that means they're underrepresented among deaths because they're only about 12% of the state of Texas. So they're underrepresented in a lot of those numbers. But Dan Patrick doesn't worry about that. Like you said, he's just about advocating responsibility as a leader. And those are the type of people who should not be in leadership positions. And I just want to give people an understanding of what we are seeing

happen all across the South. This graphic came out today. This is in Tennessee. This is new. Go to my iPad, please. This is new COVID-19 cases. Tennessee school-age children ages 5 to 18 18 by day. Look at how that number jumped the latest day. That right there, Brittany, says a whole lot about what's happening in Tennessee, in these states, where you have a governor, where you have a governor who is opposing mask mandates, where you had that idiot Republican Clay Travis, who led that crazy meeting in Franklin, Tennessee, saying mask mandates, when you had that idiot Republican Clay Travis, who led that crazy meeting in Franklin, Tennessee, saying mask mandates don't work. This is unfair. It's the freedom of our children. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that we're hearing. And there was a video that I came across, I'm going to try to find it, of this white man in Tennessee who stood before the school board and just had to

just share his thoughts. I'm going to try to find it in a second. And he spoke loud and clear about what's going on here. And what's amazing to me, what's amazing to me are the number of people who are playing games. We are seeing in all of these states, children being impacted. We're seeing, this was a video right here of a kid in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Go to my iPad. A kid in Tulsa, Oklahoma, three years old.

Three years old, impacted by COVID. And remember, it was Donald Trump. It was Donald Trump last year who said, oh, don't worry about it. The kids can't get it. The kids can't get it. And these people are continuing to go there. There's this guy named Justin Canoe. This is a video of Justin Canoe going before the school board meeting there in another city, Williamson County in Tennessee. Let me play this. Watch this. Justin Canoe, my dad in Williamson County. Didn't plan on speaking, but here we go. First of all,

critical race theory is not in our schools, and it never was. And the people here to complain about it did not know what it was six months ago and had never heard of it. That's why they're going after diversity, equity, and inclusion instead and trying to pretend they're the same thing. They aren't. And frankly, there aren't many communities around the globe that need DEI more than this one that we live in. On another note, I'm a dad of a new kindergartner, and her first day was right after the chaos last week. She went to school and was one of just a few kids in her class wearing a mask, which made her ask me why she had to. My answer was because we want to take care of other people.

She's five years old, but she understood that concept. And it's disappointing that more adults around here can't seem to grasp it. I asked a pastor friend of mine, and he was very clear there's no actual biblical justification for using the Bible to get out of a mask mandate passed by a majority of this elected board. But thousands are doing it anyway, calling it a religious exemption, which is frankly just sad. Avoiding masks is not in the Bible, but taking care of others is. And now today we have Governor Lee's executive order to allow opt-outs, which is government overreach undercutting a local decision. If you only like democracy, when it goes your way, you don't actually like democracy. Thank you. Wow. Our next speakers, Sally Berg. That's what you call chin checking some folks.

I want to bring up right now, Texas House member Jarvis Johnson. Representative Johnson, glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. The thing here, we were talking about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the idiotic comments he made. I was just showing a video there in Tennessee where the cases are exploding as well. The gall

of Patrick trying to blame black folks after they first tried to blame migrants, and even when he did it on Fox News, of course, Laura Ingalls, she's so stupid. She's not going to sit here and push back on it. But he was a liar. He lied. He is flat out lying, trying to blame black people and saying, oh, folks like you who are black Democrats, y'all ain't doing your job getting black people vaccinated.

Well, he's using statistics and not using numbers because he said we are the largest number in most states across this nation. And the fact is, is that we make up 12 percent of the population. If you just do the math and we only make up we only get 40 percent of our people have gotten vaccinated. That means we're still two million people. But when you look at the statistics, white people make up the majority of Texas. And when you look at that, then their numbers are well into the tens of millions. And so at the end of the day, he's just simply lying, pandering to his base, doing what he does to get his votes, to make people think that he's strong and to take attention away from the real issues that Texas faced. And so this is just another ploy by another.

And I'll tell you like this. Danny Globe can't even get his own name right. So therefore, I know he won't get statistics right. And so anybody that don't go by their own name, I don't even listen to. So at this point, as you already called it, he's an idiot. And there's nothing more that we can do. And that's why we continue to fight against his hateful, idiotic rhetoric and all of the laws that have been placed forth by the Republicans. Let's also talk about what's happening there in Texas. You were one of the House Dems who came to Washington, D.C. to keep the House from having a quorum.

You've had three of your fellow Democrats go back. Yesterday, Republicans touted at the quorum that actually broke the backs of Democrats. So set us straight because it's all kind of conflicting information. Do they now have a quorum to move forward with business in Texas? What's going on? They lied. They lied

and they lied. That's all they continue to do is lie. At the end of the day, there is no quorum that was made. The House was supposed to convene at 4 o'clock. There were three Democrats that did walk onto the House floor. Walking onto that House floor, they were able to, at that point, make the assumption that they had quorum. And they actually did not have quorum.

There were, what I know, at least four other Democrats that were not on the floor. And I do know of at least four other Republicans that were not on the floor and not even in the city. And so what they did for the next two hours, between four and six, didn't do anything. And at six o'clock, the Speaker of the House says quorum is met. And as soon as quorum is met, he gaveled out. Now, here's the question that I have for you. If, in fact, they've been waiting on us to come back for six weeks to be back on the House floor so they can push this voting bill down our throats and get back to the business of Texas, why did they gavel out so fast? And on top of that, they gaveled out until Monday because they know they don't have the numbers. Secondly, as soon as Quorn was met, the warrants for our arrest

was supposed to go away. Today, multiple Democrats were visited by the sergeant at arms and the sheriff to present warrants to a few of the Democrats at their homes. So why are you still trying to pick up Democrats when you already have form? This is a game. They just simply said, let's just tell them we have a. I think we lost you. We'll wait till Monday. We lost you.

Repeat what you said at the end there. We lost you there you did repeat which is at the end there we lost you there say it again well the second point that I was making was that when it when quorum was supposed to be made they gaveled out until Monday I'm not quite sure why they they they gaveled out until Monday because they knew quorum had not been made and what they're hoping was was that when they just simply said let's just tell everybody that we make warm let, let's just tell them we made quorum. And they won't know because no one asked for strict enforcement. Strict enforcement means that everybody had to be on there at their desk and accounted for in order to count 99 members. There were not 99 members on that floor yesterday. They played a

game. They pretended like they made quorum when actually they did not have quorum. They voted illegally to set forth the bills for committee today and tomorrow. And they're hoping by Monday enough Democrats would have fell for the banana in the tailpipe, and now they're going, oh, we got them back. And so now a quorum would be made. Strict enforcement should have been asked for, and if strict enforcement, simply to count the numbers. And this is the reason why my fellow colleagues that are standing strong have fought against the Republicans in this voter bill, because we know just like this, they're going to cheat. They're going to lie simply to keep their power. There's no quorum in the state house. So can you explain, go to my iPad, please.

Can you explain this letter from three of these Democrats, including Garnett Coleman, who's an African-American representing a black district, saying they're proud of the work that y'all did, but said that with COVID taking place all across the state, said, quote, it is time to move past these partisan legislative calls and to come together to help our state mitigate the effects of the current COVID-19 surge by allowing public health officials to do their jobs, provide critical resources for school districts to conduct virtual learning when necessary while also ensuring schools are a safe place for in-person instruction and will not become a series of daily super spreader events i'm sorry um what the hell is the legislature has to do with that i mean that's the responsibility of school districts and so them coming back to to do what? What? Your answer is as good as mine. And that's simply the question. I'll say this about my colleagues.

This is what happens when you don't come to practice. You know, this is what happens when you want to try to win the championship on your own. This is what happens when you go rogue and you say, I can do it. I want to take the last shot. I can do it. I can win this game for us. This is a team sport. And we all have to be in this collectively together. And we're all still standing collectively together. scared or whether they were looking for an easy ride and thinking they can come up to the Republicans and think they can get favor. Because at the end of the day, we've watched for an entire session where Republicans are not working, they're not negotiating, they're not communicating. And so there's nothing that they can do.

There's nothing that they can do to going back on that House floor. They are the ones who have taken away local control from school districts. Republicans have made superintendents bow down to them. They are literally putting our children in the crosshairs of COVID. And they're using this as a political tactic and then trying to come back to Democrats and say, well, if you guys don't come back, kids are dying at the hands of Republicans, at the hands of a person like Danny Globe, the lieutenant governor of the state of Texas. And the reason why I keep calling him Danny Globe, because that's his original name. He changed it some years ago. But Governor Abbott and the speaker, they're all complicit in their move. They don't need us in order to get to do work.

Let local control be with the school districts, the counties, and the cities to take care of their own constituents. But typical of a Republican government, they want to infringe on the rights of all democratic cities so they can wreak havoc and chaos and disorder. So there's nothing my colleagues could do in order to go back on that floor. And as they continue to talk about negotiation, and I've said all along, I refuse to take from a Republican the yes. And to negotiate on the House floor with other Republicans, they can't give you the yes. They don't have the authority. This is the governor's bill.

So anything that is negotiated still has to go back to the governor. And if you didn't negotiate it with the governor, then you wasted time. And the Republicans lied to my colleagues, led my colleagues to believe that they would have a voice on that floor. And absolutely they will not.

They will not accept any of our amendments and they're gonna ram this bill right down our throat. We're going to do something on the House side. The Senate is going to have a bill on the Senate side. And I will guarantee you that the Senate bill is going to be the bill that will be rammed down our throats because we've already passed the bill once before. That led us to the quorum break originally because we passed the bill and said here senate take this bill it was 78 pages when it came back it was 200 and some odd pages pages that we never even saw or never even uh legislated on so why would we allow this same thing to happen again uh and and they tried to sneak things into the bill and then back door

by saying oh that was a typographical error, or, oh, we didn't know what was in that bill. These same tactics, employees are still being used. And unfortunately, some of my Democratic colleagues have, again, fallen for what they call the okey-doke in the hood. And unfortunately, but I will say this, I still have faith that they will somehow see the writing on the wall. Somehow what Danny, Lieutenant Dan has said will resonate with them to see his hate, to see his racism. And they realize that this is a losing battle that they are fighting. fighting and we still have time to go back to Washington, D.C. to work with Congress, to work with the Senate in order to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, as well as the For the People Act and get something done in this country.

So we still have time and I'm still holding out hope for my other colleagues that have gone back because I hope between yesterday and today, they see how they're truly going to be treated, and they're going to be treated very poorly. All right. Texas House Rep Jarvis Johnson, we surely appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. And now that you're back at home,

you might want to hire somebody to do some redecorating to get rid of that little thing that's on your wall that really needs to go. I'm just trying to tell you. You know, I wasn't going to even come in here until I saw that shirt you was wearing, and then I ran into my man cave, and I said, man, I got to, you know, I just can't let Roland do me like that, you know? Yeah, you need a new interior decorator for your man cave.

All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Peace, brother. What you see happening here, Jason, I think says a whole lot in that the actions of these Democrats in Texas are critically important because you have to use whatever means to get things done. And that's what they're doing about holding out. Absolutely.

I mean, that's what we've seen. Mitch McConnell used everything at his disposal in order to get his will. We've seen Republicans do this over and over again. And yet Democrats oftentimes don't do that. I would have liked to have asked the representative that you had there, I would have liked to have asked them, you know, given what's going on with the Senate and the numbers that they have, and the fact that the filibuster still exists. Does he think that this, you know, attempt to get the Voting Rights Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, is futile in the long run. That's a tough question that I was just kind of playing with on my own. But I think that you've got to try everything.

You've got to go through every attempt that you can. Texas is already the hardest state to vote in the country. And they're trying to make it even more difficult and take away voting rights. And I think what they're trying to do, the Texas Democrats is admirable. I don't know how it's going to end up, but I definitely think it's an admirable thing that they're doing using everything at their disposal. Well, the thing that I constantly make clear, Kelly, is that people have, if you go back to the 1960s, the original civil rights bill that was proposed by President John F. Kennedy, 1961. The Civil Rights Act doesn't get passed until 64. Voting Rights Act not until 65. Fair housing not until 68. And so I kind of need our people today to understand stuff ain't just going to happen in three or four months that you know what the kind of pressure.

I mean, take the Fair Housing Act, for example. The Voting Rights Act is passed in 65. The Fair Housing Act is August of 65. OK, signed into law. Fair Housing Act doesn't get signed into law until April of 68. That was a two-year filibuster in the Senate of the Fair Housing Act. King gets killed on April 4th. LBJ sends a letter the next day to the House saying, let's honor the life and legacy of King by passing the bill he gave his life for. It was signed into law nine days later. That was two years of a filibuster. And so a lot of people today i think get caught oh you know all the protests it ain't work because it's been four or five months you got to be in this for the long haul no i absolutely agree with you there um legislation takes time but just cut out it takes time what I'm going to push back on is the perception

of it all. And the perception is that nothing is getting done. I'm not agreeing that nothing is getting done, but the perception is. So for example, when you see in the news, how our Asian AAPI brothers and sisters were being harassed and ridiculed and, you know, assaulted in the span of what, like a couple weeks, only for Congress to come together, not even within a month or two months, to come up with a resolution to combat that assault against aapi community that timeline is significantly shorter when you look at that versus our struggle and just getting voting rights now granted but kelly kelly that was kelly that was nothing in that bill that look i understand up. Why did that bill pass so quickly? Because there was nothing in it. Nothing. I completely agree with you that that was no different than passing a resolution, renaming a post office. And again, I agree with you. I understand the logistics and the intricacies of that resolution being virtually empty from a legislative perspective.

But when you look at the perception, it looks like everybody else gets what they want in a timely fashion. That's all I'm saying. We have people. That's people who don't who don't who don't even know what the hell they're talking about. I mean, again, I mean, I mean, OK. So first of all, okay. But, but the perception of everybody else, here's the deal. The perception is if they are fighting so hard to, to keep this from becoming law, that must mean it's really, really, really important. Absolutely. Again, we're more or less saying the same thing. Yes. You need to be in it for the long haul. Yes, it is going to take time and you need to be in it for the long haul. But you also have to take into consideration, whether they're right or wrong, the perception of our other minority brothers and sisters at least appearing to get what they want, at least appearing to gain traction. When you look at the LGBT plus community, when you look at the Hispanic community, when you look at the AAPI community, whenever

there is a huge problem in the media, like regarding them in the media, it seems to be a pretty significant and quick solution. But when it comes to- But that's not true. I mean, first of all, it's just not true. I mean, the reality is it was a very long fight to get same sex marriage. I can go back to the first year of Obama. LGBT people were demanding that he get rid of don't ask, don't tell in the United States Armed Forces. That was all 2009. They were demanding that in all of 2010. Then, of course, with the midterm elections, there were a lot of gay folks who chose not to give to Democrats. Then Obama kept saying Congress has to do it. I should I can't do it unilaterally. They said, actually, you can. And guess what happened? December 2010. Then they got rid of Don't Ask,'t tell that was a two-year effort that wasn't I'm like literally that was two years I remember that vividly they were pushing Obama

to do it in the first year it didn't happen till the end of the second year so when somebody says that stuff happened quickly that two years is not quick two years is not necessarily quick but when you're looking at two years versus decades and even centuries of oppression in the black community yes that is quick on the timeline so what i'm compared to what no no but kelly if we're comparing things compared to what if we're comparing what like for instance shelby v shelby v holder took place in 2013. They pretty much gutted Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans were in control of the Senate.

You knew it couldn't actually happen. So what happens? Dems retake control of the Senate, take control of the House. Biden is now president. So we've had Biden in the White House since January this is August it's seven months so again I understand the point what I'm trying to say we also got to explain to people when people say oh the gateposts got something real class we gotta be able to say what specifically because it's real easy let people get caught up in

oh this passed and that passed without forcing them to say no what actually got passed it happened real quick same-sex marriage wasn't real quick that'd go over to the supreme court that wasn't real quick at all i understand what you are saying and if you're just looking at how long a year is or how long two years is, absolutely. That's not a, you know, that's not a short amount of time, objectively speaking. But when you're looking at the trajectory of the entire movement of movements on the timeline, plural, our timeline in the Black community, as far as it goes to getting legislation passed it has taken decades it has taken years yes as opposed to when you see other minority groups trying to get uh their stuff passed it may take okay hold on hold on hold on see this is what we got kelly what other minority groups got stuff passed you just gave out a list of no lgbt no lgbt that is that minority group that's why see see see we gonna sit here see we i what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to compare LGBTQ to us because that was white folks. That was white folks.

But they're still a minority group. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to call LGBTQ a minority. They're not an ethnic minority. No, they're not. That's white folks. I wasn't talking folks strictly ethnic minorities i was talking about a group of people who are deemed minorities getting legislation and here's the deal when you

have when you have numerous gay white gay billionaires and you have folks who but this is the power that's the difference there you if. If we really want to break down how that thing happened, you have a racial difference as well, which is also why a lot of black gay folks are saying, hey, there are things that they have been fighting for that still have not been addressed there. That's also what you're dealing with there. What I'm talking about specifically, it's not, it's all encompassing on the, on this issue of this particular bill, what we are look, what we're looking at is also the difference between power on the state level and power on the federal level. And that Jason is also what we have to, which is also the difference that we're dealing with here.

And sure, people can throw all kinds of stuff out and say, oh, everybody else getting stuff. And trust me, I've been dealing with the trolls, but the Asians got their bill. And I keep saying it passed 94 to nothing in the United States Senate. That mean there was nothing in that bill that had any teeth whatsoever.

Yeah, no, I agree with you i i have to agree with you there the only thing that i will kind of i don't know if it's a disagreement the only thing that i would say to what you're saying is that while it does take a long time for uh legislation to pass we've got elections coming up next year yep So a lot of people are like, yo, we need to pass this. We need, you know, that's the urgency, the sense of urgency. When your guest was talking about, you know, using a sports analogy, that's why you have that sense of urgency that coaches always talk about. And that's why they're going right now.

And that's why they're leaving the state is because we've got elections coming up now just about. We're almost in election season. So I think like, you know, while I dig what you're saying that, you know, it does take a long time. And if you want to talk about even LGBTQ plus people, we could say it took decades and centuries for them. You know, we could certainly, you know, go that same route. They just started getting legislation. You know, when people were were running up in Harvey Milk and all that, that was the 1960s and years of Trumpism and the fact that that could reemerge. And we saw what we saw on January 6th. A lot of people are like, okay, we saw 2020, we were successful and they're going to roll it back within two years. And so this is why there's a huge sense of urgency. Like we can't wait, you know, the way we

waited for some other legislation in our community. So I think that's the only thing that I would add to the conversation. The biggest thing that, again, that we are dealing with, and this is a part of the battle here, and part of the battle also is getting folks who don't live and breathe this stuff to realize what we're talking about. Again, the reason I bring up those critical civil rights bills in the 60s is because what we've had in this country is this whole view that, oh, my God, these things just just magically happened and I'm like because that's how actually they're taught as opposed to no two and three and four and five years a slog now no one wants to sit here and wait but the reality is we have to give you to understand that stuff they say microwave politics and that's the key Kelly that I think when I'm trying to talk to some people they're like why nothing happen you're like

bro this stuff just don't it just it ain't just gonna pop off real quick I already agreed with you that it's not going to it's not going to last a year I already agreed with you that legislation

takes time my point is regarding perception and when you're talking about people who are intelligent voters, who may not be inundated in this world like we are, but are still intelligent voters, what they see in the media matters. And what they see in the media is that other minority groups, ethnic or not, because the LGBT plus community is a protected class under the Constitution. Like they are a minority, constitutionally speaking. Whether they're ethnically minority or not, it appears that their problems take precedence over Black lives. It appears that every other ethnic or otherwise minority group takes precedence over Black lives. And

while Jason, you are entirely correct that the strife of LGBT plus people has spanned just as many centuries, if not more so than Black people in this country, but when you're talking about the perception of how things have been passed and the trajectory of legislation in this country and how things have been passed, it always feels like we as Black people as a whole have to wait, have to hurry up and wait, and wait some more because something happened or legislation takes time or any other excuse, however valid it may be, that we just have to wait until they're ready to pass the legislation. That's all I'm saying. The perception is that we do not matter enough for the urgency, and we do. Well, and I say to folks that, again, perception is also not reality.

We also understand the reality of what it means to be Black in this country, which also means that, to Jason's point, which we say all the time, which is why we just can't take elections off. This is why we just can't go, oh, we know Britney wasn't, none of those are really going to change, so we'll just accept. No, that is, and look, I get it. I said the other day to the groups that are actually leading this mobilization effort, that they're going to have to answer that question. Hey, what actually got past the benefit of black folks? We're also dealing with the reality of what is happening politically in this country.

When we say, Brittany, that people are fighting tooth and nail to keep us from voting, there is a reason they're fighting that hard. Absolutely. And maybe I wasn't following. I got cut out for a while there. But I don't see this. I mean, it absolutely is a Black issue. But this issue also affects, and I think Reverend Barber talks about this all the time, this issue affects poor whites, it affects Native Americans, it affects members of the LGBTQ plus community. I mean, we are at the intersection of all of these things. And it's unfortunate that the Texas Democrats, those handful of them have gone back because their work is paramount.

And I don't believe at this point, Roland, that anything is more important than what is happening with voting. If we can't vote, we can't change anything. We can't get anything passed. And we're in big trouble because the GOP is going to gerrymander their way to a House majority. So

it's really petrifying, and we know it's all based on the big lie. So these things do take time. They take years. But we have to keep the pressure up as the people. We have to make sure our elected leaders keep the pressure up. We have to make sure we keep pressure on these corporations. And we also need to ask, and I know we talked about this, I think, on your second-to-last show a couple

Fridays ago, about celebrities also using their voice because this has serious consequences if something is not done soon. public policy you cannot say I want a change in public policy if you don't change the politicians that's the only way that actually is going to happen all right gotta go to break we come back more roller Martin unfiltered back in a moment George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the call for the races you talk about America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Right? Football bands and one of the best fan experiences

in the country. The Cricket BX Swag Challenge kickoff returns to Atlanta on August 28th along with special guests. College game day.

Then Alcorn State takes on North Carolina Central with conference bragging rights on the line. Center Park Stadium is the place to be on August 28th. Come tailgate all day before enjoying a primetime matchup on the gridiron. You don't want to miss this. Check out meakswagchallenge.com for more information.

Our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out Tiffany, I know this flow. That is so freaking dope. know all right welcome back to Roland Martin unfiltered in Florida for a resource officer would not face any additional criminal charges for slamming a high school student To the ground rendering her unconscious. This is a viral video That went out with a shoulder officer Attacking Taylor Bracey in January braces mother says her daughter still suffers from sleeping loss from being out Ernie and Monique Worrell says the officers' actions were disturbing but not illegal.

Parents are calling for the removal of school resource officers and policy changes. We have seen this routinely, Jason, in these school systems where the actions of these resource officers, we've seen this happen numerous times. And I got to tell you, it is it is troubling, to be honest, to keep seeing these these sort of outlandish cops in their actions in schools. That's not to me how you should be dealing with students. Absolutely. I think there definitely needs to be police reform, not only on the streets, but certainly in the schools. I think a lot of schools don't need a police officer. You know, maybe perhaps some do. I've had students who have told me that they actually felt safer with the school resource officer there. So I don't want to completely downplay what some of my young Black students have actually said in terms of making them feel safe.

But we've seen a lot of situations where particularly young Black girls are being manhandled. And that's not acceptable. I'm glad that these parents are standing up and it's time, you know, that we start to implement some reforms, not just on the streets, but also certainly in a place where our young people are vulnerable and that's in school. And a school certainly should not feel like a prison. So there are a lot of reforms that I think need to happen in a lot of schools around the country. Brittany? Yeah, I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I think it demonstrates further the school-to-prison

pipeline. At the end of the day, there may be behavioral issues in classrooms. I was a school teacher in a Title I school for multiple years. These are children. And these kids are still developing. So in my opinion, police have absolutely no place inside of the school system. I think their presence does reinforce the idea that they are not in school, but they are in prisons, because most of these predominantly white schools do not have police officers walking around. But what I can tell you is that the majority of these predominantly white schools

have counselors, nurses, school psychologists, and social workers. And we can just look, 1.7 million students are in schools with cops and no counselors. 3 million students are in schools with cops and no nurses. 6 million are in schools with cops and no school psychologists. 10 million with cops and no social workers. So I always think this goes back to why there's a quote unquote behavior in the first place. If you look at children as human beings holistically, especially our black children, and you don't contextualize maybe why they're quote

unquote acting out and instead you're manhandling them, potentially causing lifelong injuries, creating yet more trauma, we are doing our kids a disservice. So not only am I for policing outside of the school, I'm policing writ large. Got to go. It's also a matter, Kelly, of, again, I would think that your job as a school resource officer, like cops on the streets, is to de-escalate. What we often see is escalation. Absolutely. Not only to de-escalate the situation, but considering that

you are in a school, you are in a school setting. To piggyback off of what Brittany was saying, these are children, period. They are minors, they are adolescents, they are children. And for these officers to basically dissociate themselves from the humanity of Black children is really just evil to me. I would assume that these officers, I don't know about this officer, but I would assume that a lot of these officers have children of their own. Certainly they know people with children. I'm sure they wouldn't want to see their child in that situation. I'm sure they wouldn't want some other resource officer manhandling a young girl, their young girl, and body slamming her to the ground. And there's also something to be said about just as a whole, the expedited rate,

like the perception that black girls are more mature and more advanced and more adult-like than their counterparts of the same age. And there are studies on it and all in the light, but black girls are still girls. They're still children and they should be treated as such. So this officer was in the wrong on several fronts. As far as whether they need to be in schools or not, again, I'm split on the issue because I know students, like what Jason said, who feel safer around them.

I also know situations like what Brittany said, where they don't need to be there at all. But at the end of the day, this officer, regardless of whether you feel like he was supposed to be there or not, simply did not do his job of deescalating the situation. All right, folks. Again, it's just, it's crazy to see, I think, what happens when you talk about these resource officers and how they behave in the schools? We remember what took place in South Carolina when the young girl was body slammed out of her desk. I mean, that's just just just absolutely crazy and outlandish. And so it is sad as well. Let's talk about a recent report that talks about the Department of Justice and Black Lives Matter. There was a study that was called, the report was called Struggle for Power, the Ongoing Prosecution

of Black Movement. It finds the Justice Department deliberately targeted supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. How do they do so? Our next guest is the Policy and Research Coordinator for the Movement for Black Lives, Dr. Imara Inye. Glad to have you on. How are you doing? Imara Inye I'm good. Glad to be here. So break this down for us. Exactly how were leaders deliberately targeted by the Justice Department? Sure. So this study was conducted by the Movement for Black Lives in partnership with the City University of New York Law School, the CLEAR Clinic.

And it was designed to really understand how the federal government charged or got involved in the prosecution of individuals who were involved in the uprisings in 2020. The report covers the time period of August 31st, 2020 to October 25th, 2020, October of last year. And it looks at the charges that were brought to individuals in 326 cases. And it shows quite clearly how the federal government overreached in an attempt to federalize charges against those who are involved in protests. It also really shines a light on the historic role that the federal government has played in attempting to interfere with the rights, particularly of Black people, to express their displeasure to protest and to essentially to exercise their First

Amendment rights. And so this report, again, done with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility Clinic out of the City University of New York and the Movement for Black Lives really speaks to a historic practice of the federal government as it relates to Black people actually exercising their First Amendment rights. And so the implications of this. Now, obviously, what was the span of this study? What years did it cover? So the report actually covers the months between August 31st of last year and October 25th of last year. And it looks at 326 cases in which we found some pretty startling facts. And so the implications of the report, for example, are that in about 92%, almost 93% of those cases, the federal government attempted to

upcharge. So essentially to charge at a higher rate or a higher level than those same infractions would be at the state or local level. So it shows a clear overreach of the government and the implications are significant. One is that when in federal cases, for example, individuals are required to serve 85% of their time. In federal cases they are placed in prisons that are much more distant. They also, in many of these cases, they require mandatory minimums. And so when we think about the impact of mass incarceration on Black people and look at the right to protest being infringed upon by attempts to criminalize protest, including such measures as

mandatory minimum sentencing, harsher penalties, and the disparity that we've seen in the report in terms of who was actually arrested and who was charged. The report outlines that in the majority of cases, Black people were targeted. We found that in the cases where the demographic data was collected, 52% of those were Black, and 91% of those Black people that were targeted were Black men, Black males. All right then, questions from our panel. I'll start with Jason first. So, excuse me. First of all, this seems like really, really incredible work. I'm wondering exactly where you think we should go in order to reform our justice system broadly and how your research can help in terms of trying to

make broader reforms in the justice system. Sure. So the Movement for Black Lives has really taken the approach of proposing legislation called the Breathe Act that actually does just that. It takes an approach of actually investing in our communities and divesting from the carceral state, which is police and prisons, because we know about the harm that has been done to our communities through mass incarceration, through mandatory minimum sentencing, through the disparities in the criminal legal system. So these are all based on facts. So we've proposed this federal legislation, which parts of it are actually being carried by members of Congress at this time.

We believe that we cannot do the same things that we've been doing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. And so what this report shows is that when it comes to Black people expressing their First Amendment rights, and really, as of last year, coming out because of the murder of George Floyd, and in large numbers, that the federal government stepped in in ways that they do not typically do to make sure that people that were involved, and especially Black people involved in these uprisings, are getting charged federally, are getting harsher sentences, and they're not treating white people that were involved in protests the same way. And so we're seeing that disparity play out. Even in the language that's being used. I mean, we can all remember words like thugs

being thrown around and they're members of Antifa, et cetera. And yet for white individuals that were involved in the insurgency on January 6th, they were called very fine people. We know that the federal government uses language and propaganda to demonize Black people. And they've done so historically. We can go back to the time of J. Edgar Hoover. We can go back to 1919 and the language that was used that led to Red Summer in 1919. We can go back to COINTELPRO, which actually uses language,

the Joint Terrorism Task Force uses language that's eerily similar to COINTELPRO, which was used to attempt to dismantle what they called black radicals, like the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The government has historically been involved in these efforts to curtail protests, and they've used the legal system to do just that. Kelly. Hi. Just for clarification, given basically the harassment that this movement has endured, are there any civil suits or even criminal suits if the harassment

calls for it that you plan on filing or bringing charges against those who filed these frivolous suits against you? Yeah, so one of the biggest calls that the Movement for Black Lives is making is for amnesty for anyone, any individuals who were prosecuted during that timeframe. I mean, that's one of the first things that needs to happen is amnesty. And we know that there have been individual cases

where they are attempting to push back things that needs to happen is amnesty. And we know that there have been individual cases where they are attempting to push back against these charges. But we also know that at the federal level, that's more difficult than at the state and local level. And so there's some intention behind the federal government stepping in even over and above what state and local entities in the criminal legal system will do. And so there are individual cases that are pushing back. We have really been trying to raise awareness of this issue because not only is it a violation of First Amendment rights

but it's being done in conjunction with these attempts at voter legislation. When you criminalize protest, it means that individuals who will face harsher sentences, it contributes to mass incarceration. So we actually have to raise awareness about this issue and about the federal government's overreach so that people understand that taken together with the onslaught of voter suppression legislation, with the onslaught of legislation across the country to criminalize protests. These are things that are

done to curtail Black people actually calling out systems of oppression and attempting to hold the government, to hold these systems accountable for their unjust behavior, unjust actions. Brittany? Yeah, so you know based on everything that you said in the report, I start to get nervous about new legislation for the purpose of domestic terrorism. I feel like the reason why we're not why so many legislators in the Biden administration is having this conversation is because of what we saw on January 6th. However, I'm curious to know what you think and if that is going to affect our

community, especially we know we have outright white supremacists in local government, FBI, military, state and local police. So do you agree with this new push to quell domestic terrorism and white supremacy, or do you think it's actually going to harm Black activists? Well, yeah, we know that this push is going to disproportionately harm Black activists because that has been the pattern historically. So again, for example, you can look at the Joint Terrorism Task Force that was formed.

We can look at what happened in 2017, where this new term, Black identity extremist, became a came out of the FBI for the purposes of actually targeting black people who are engaged in work to address systemic racism and oppression. And so it is very concerning because we know that there's a disparity in how the legislation can be used. So if you do have a task force like the Joint Terrorism Task Force that was formed to address groups like Al Qaeda and terrorist threats, and then they have created a focus where, okay, now we're going to also throw in what we still call the Black Identity Extremists so that the federal government has the ability to increase surveillance, to increase punishments, and to increase essentially harm with things that

will curtail the people's desire to protest. It's done to dissuade protest, and it's also done to instill a level of fear because you don't want to, if you express your protest or if you engage in protest, that you'll be prosecuted, you'll be arrested, you'll have federal charges. So this is a concern. I mean, and we see this pattern happen throughout history. So for example, this increased surveillance of the Black Panther Party. I mean, we know that there's a lot of cooperation between the FBI, the local police department in Chicago, to actually ensure that damage was done to the Black Democratic Party by using the state, federal government to increase surveillance. And we're seeing that same pattern playing out right

here, creating new language so that you can then have justification to use the heavy hand of the state to overreach and to dissuade Black people from expressing the First Amendment rights and speaking out against oppression. All right. Well, we certainly appreciate it. Certainly great work with this. And hopefully with a new administration, there will be a much different attitude from the Department of Justice group, because we certainly know how thuggish the last one was precisely precisely all right folks let's go thanks a lot let's go to LA well the DS these officers reviewing hundreds of cases the two former California police officers are accused of painting a hateful message on a car former Torrance officers Christopher Tom sick and Cody Weldon are

charged with one felony count of vandalism and conspiracy to commit vandalism and allegedly painting a swastika on the back of an impounded vehicle. Both men pled not guilty to the charges. The D's office has identified hundreds of cases involving the officers and says his team will review them to ensure there's been no other misconduct. The news conference with CBSN, both the Torrance police Chief and the County DA condemned the act. Any form of racism, bigotry, hate, or misconduct at the Torrance Police Department. It's unacceptable, but it becomes doubly unacceptable when we have the people that are sworn to protect all of us to engage

in this behavior. Taurus Police Chief Jeremiah Hart has fired 13 other officers because of an ongoing investigation into messages he characterized as racism and hatred. These two cops were terminated in 2020. All right, y'all, let's talk about the drama with Jeopardy. Al Shabat, longtime host, dies of pancreatic cancer. This is one of the most sought after jobs in television. It is a huge job, also very rich. Well, the executive producer, Mike Richards, basically chose himself.

Sony says it would be all of these different research focus groups. But he was executive producer of the show and he put himself up for the job then he gets the job well then we come to find out that Mike Richards made a lot of comments derogatory about women and others over the last number of years it became so much that well he quit this is the statement that he put out it pains me that these past incidents and comments have cast such a shadow on Jeopardy as we look to start a new chapter. As I mentioned last week, I was deeply honored to be asked to host the syndicated show and was thrilled by the opportunity to expand my role. However, over the last several days, it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move

For the show as such I'll be stepping down as host effectively immediately as a result will be canceling production today SPT will now resume the search for a permanent syndicated host in the meantime We'll be bringing back guest host to continue production for the new season details of which will be announced this week I want to apologize to each of you for the unwanted negative attention that has come to jeopardy over the last few weeks and for the confusion and delays this is now causing. I know I have a lot of work to do to regain your trust and confidence. The show will feature guest hosts until a new permanent host is chosen. See, the thing here, Brittany, first of all, a lot of people on social media really wanted LeVar Burton for this. The crazy thing is, how are you the executive producer who's in charge of guest hosts and what slots they get, but you're up for the job? You frankly are in power to sabotage the opportunity.

Well, that's clearly what's happened here. I think rest Alex Trebek's soul. But before he passed, there was an interview where he clearly said, I want a black woman to replace me. I can't think of her name off the top of my head, but I remember. It's Laura Coates, who, you know, I had on many times on my TV one show who's now an analyst at CNN. Yes. And I'm like, they didn't even, and correct me if I'm wrong, they didn't even let her guest host. So you don't, you don't follow Alex Trebek's wishes. You don't even let her guest host, you know? Okay. A lot of people like Burton. He was great. You don't let him in. So then you put yourself in and then there was no one else to even check you. And you didn't have the sense to check yourself when this man has made such wild comments. I was looking today. I mean, he's talking about women asians jews are you are you kidding me but i'm but i'm not surprised though i'm not surprised so now the question is the question now um you know what what now happens uh and all part of

the issue with it with lavar he was slated to host the show the same week as the Olympics, Kelly. And that was my point. It just feels like everyone is just trying to do their own thing when it comes to this. Obviously, Richard set himself up, that is his name, right, Richard? He set himself up to get that job. And it felt like to me, if you've ever been in a job selection search, and you know that you're

only there to meet their DEI quota, so that the person internally can just get the job and they can say that they did everything they had to do. That's exactly what this feels like. Because if you look at how LeVar Burton was set up to host Jeopardy. It was during the Olympics. The advertising during that time was terrible. I mean, it was a lot of pressure. And you can tell that he did not get the support of those in power regarding his guest hosting for that slot, as opposed to the other guest hosts.

And then when you hear that Alex actually picked out a Black woman to be his successor and they just ignored him altogether, it's just disrespectful, but also expected. Jason. Yeah, I was wondering why he would want, I mean, to go from executive producer to trying to be the host. I'm not sure why he would want that. You know, this is Jeopardy. This is like the preeminent game show in America, high profile, and a bigger check than your executive producer check.

Okay, fair enough, fair enough. And apparently this guy grew up with game shows, had worked on others, and so basically this was like my shot, my dream shot, except his past caught up with his present. Right. My other question is, and I don't know if you guys know the answer to this, but they were saying that Mayim Bialik was, I hope I'm saying that name correctly, Blossom. So yeah, so what happened what happened was so okay so here's what they did so they said she is going to be the host of the prime time or special shows but here's the problem only one is scheduled uh in the next year so like you they try to act like like oh there's

two hoes now we we all know what what that is. That wasn't even real. He was a real host. Right, right. Well, I mean, you know, you read what you sow, you start saying things, they're going to catch up to you. So he got what he deserved in the long run. And hopefully, I mean, he definitely set people up to fail, particularly popular people, you know, particularly people like LeVar Burton, even Aaron

Rogers, and set himself up to succeed and put himself in a position. He may not have made the call, but he certainly put himself in a position to be seen by a lot of people. And that's troubling, I think. But then again, as you know, as I've started to learn, TV is a dirty business. And there are a lot of places, you know, I shopped a show to a particular network, and they took the name of the show that I had shopped them and gave it to someone else. So, you know, these things happen. So, you know, it's a dirty business and you don't have a whole lot of people with scruples in power.

That would be a time for hashtag team with that ass to show up. Just letting you know, you probably a lot more nicer than I am, but somebody would have got their ass whooped. I'm just just letting you know uh i'm gonna go to a quick break when we come back a quick break we come back we're gonna give you ladies what happens today in the r kelly case in on trial actually trial happening in

new york back in a moment when you study the music you get black history by default and so no no other craft could carry as many words as rap music i try to intertwine that and make that create the whatever i'm supposed to send out to the universe a rapper you know for the longest period of time has gone through phases i love the word i hate i hate what has become you know and to this generation the way they visualize it's narrative kind of like has gotten away and spun away from I guess the ascension of black people football bands and one of the best fan experiences in the country. The Cricket MEAC Swag Challenge kickoff returns to Atlanta on August 28th,

along with special guests. College game day. Then Alcorn State takes on North Carolina Central with conference bragging rights on the line. Center Park Stadium is the place to be on August 28th. Come tailgate all day before enjoying a primetime matchup on the gridiron. You don't want to miss this. Check out me at spikechallenge.com for more information.

Hi, I'm Israel Houghton. Apparently, the other message I did was not fun enough. So, this is fun. You are watching... Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. filter. Alright folks, in the R. Kelly trial on day three, Anthony Navarro who worked for R. Kelly

testified the artist created an environment where he called all the shots before employees said that Kelly controlled whether visitors at the Chicago area mansion could leave or even order takeout food. The testimony bolstered the government's contention that R. Kelly controlled everything around him and created an environment where girls and women who entered the space faced strict rules that gave them little choice but to submit to the singer's sexual whims. Now, on yesterday,

the doctor who treated R. Kelly for herpes said that he would often, that he allowed him to see him, but not necessarily treat him. In fact, that when he was initially called to, because R. Kelly was concerned that he had chlamydia uh he tested negative for that but he did test positive for herpes several of the women said that r kelly knowingly gave them herpes uh by having sex uh with them uh the testimony for the doctor was quite graphic he talked about uh how r kelly would call him with lesions first suggesting that, they happened because he wore leather pants without underwear. No, it's not what happened. It was actually him having a sexually transmitted disease. The doctor said, though, that R. Kelly never paid him, but he did fly the doctor and his wife all around the country to various concerts. What we are seeing in this trial, Brittany, is a lot more than what we saw

in his first trial a number of years ago in Chicago. You actually have people, women, who are testifying against R. Kelly. This is not the only trial. It's what he faces cases in two other states. And so if is a if he if a miracle happens and he gets off in this case, he still has to contend with the other cases. R. Kelly looks like the jig is up. Fifty four years old. He may be spending the rest of his life behind bars. Yeah, you know, Roland, I wish we as a society, specifically our community as well, to protect Black victims, protect Black women, and hold our sexual and domestic abusers accountable. This man should have already been behind bars. We knew R. Kelly was a predator decades ago when they were on the corner selling the tape where he peed on that young child. And we ignored it because he had some hit songs and we love to blame the victim. We love to tell our young girls who

are children that they're fast instead of holding these old behind predator men like R. Kelly accountable for trying to flirt, sexually abuse, groom, and rape these young kids. So I hope that this is a wake-up call to our society, because it shouldn't even have to have gone on this long for us to stop victim blaming, because that's why it has gone on for so long. Stop asking women, well, what did you drink and what did you have on, instead of asking, because the only thing that causes a rapist to rape is being a rapist. And stop having society ask the victim, well, why didn't you leave? Ask the abuser why they're hitting someone, and really do what's right by these victims, because it's absolutely

ridiculous. And this man should have been behind bars, but I do think it's inevitable. He's going to end up where he deserves to be. And again, in each day, we're seeing quite graphic testimony in this trial, Kelly. Yeah. just something that you said really quickly. He actually tested negative for herpes and tested positive for something else, but he was being treated for herpes, and the doctor concluded based off of his reaction to the treatment that he had herpes, but he did test negative for it. I just wanted to clarify that. It's still all disgusting, but I just wanted to clarify. Either way, like Brittany said, this man needs to be under a jail cell. We knew that he was a predator before the tape. We knew he was a predator when he married Aaliyah, a 15-year-old.

We knew when the album that he made with Aaliyah started off with age ain't nothing but a number. You know, his handle or nickname was literally the Pied Piper. And if you don't know what a Pied Piper is, it's an older man who plays like some type of flute or piper, and that music lures children to this predator. And he embraced that moniker. We've known for a very long time that R. Kelly is gross. We've known for a very long time that R. Kelly is a child abuser. But the fact that there are still supporters of R. Kelly right now supporting him through this trial is absolutely disgusting to me. And the only question I have for them are like, how how do you hate yourself this much? How how dissociated are you from reality to enable a predator of this magnitude?

Because the facts have been out there. He has admitted on several occasions, interviews and the like, that he has an affinity for children. He's a disgusting man. And for you in 2021 to still support him and go so far as to think that, you know, the system is against him and people are racist and people are,

it's just, it's gross to me he needs to be under a jail cell and oh yeah uh so uh so uh let me say this here first of all uh the doctor had been treating our killer since 1994 uh what he said is uh that he suspected uh he had herpes as early general herpes as early as 2000 because of the symptoms. The doctor testified there was a lab test that came back negative, but the doctor said the timing of the test is important, and the test itself can at times give false negative results. The doctor said, quote, I did not conclude that he did not have herpes.

McGrath testified in referring to his various medical records. He did say over a period of time that he was treated for herpes five times since 2000. So that was what the doctor actually testified. Jason, when you look at this case, when you look at, again, the number of people testifying, what you did not have before. You had a lot of people who did not testify. In fact, in the previous case, the young girl that was seen in the video. First of all, people got to remember R. Kelly was found not guilty because the jury could not ascertain the age of the girl in the video. But they forced a delay for so long. By the time that she actually testified, she was much older.

And so, therefore, they could not reconcile that. That's actually what happened in that particular case. This is different. You now actually have former employees testifying against him, women involved testifying against him. And so the prosecution has a lot more ammunition to target R. Kelly. Yeah, I think that the prosecution is probably going to have a pretty rock solid case. And they're going to have, you know, now the documentaries have been made. I didn't watch the documentaries, but one of the things that I think we, you know, kind of piggybacking off of what Brittany was saying in terms of this being a

cultural moment for, you know, our people is that we really need to address, you know, sexual assault and predatory behavior because it's my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, but R. Kelly was a victim of sexual assault of his sister, if I'm not mistaken. And I'm sure his sister was probably a victim of someone else. We've got to start to address these issues in our community to cut them off so that we don't have generations and generations of victims and people victimizing other people. You know, R. Kelly is going to be where he deserves, I believe. And I was shocked that he got away with it in the 90s. And I was really shocked with some of the responses that would come on the radio when they would talk about it. People in our community, how they were blaming the victim. I think I read an interview with the victim where she blamed herself. I think that

these are cultural moments where we have to do some teaching and learn so that we don't actually keep this kind of thing going and looking the other way when it's happening because you know i knew people who said they you know this was a well-known thing in chicago that that r kelly would come by to high school you know um they knew that he was you know picking up girls at the high school when he was well over age so this is something that we have to stop looking the other way. And hopefully this will be a teachable moment for the culture. It was actually R. Kelly's brother who said that that the two of them were molested by their oldest sister. R. Kelly also said that he was molested by by a man when he was around 10 years old. Bottom line is, even with all of that,

what you're seeing, again, prosecutors lay out a very, very lengthy list of evidence in this case. And so we're going to be covering this even further. The Luskevian update also was happening in Haiti. Folks, impassable roads, complicated efforts to deliver aid to the region where more than 2,000 people have died as a result of that earthquake over the weekend, that 7.2

earthquake. Hospitals in Port-au-Prince are closed after two doctors were kidnapped there as well. Haitian doctors are demanding their release before reopening the hospital, further hampering the recovery efforts in the country. As I said, actually nearly 2,200 people have died.

More than 12,000 have been injured. They've damaged homes, affecting more than 100,000 homes, and 30,000 people are homeless there in Haiti. Lastly, President Joe Biden today spoke about what's happening in Afghanistan. He made it perfectly clear that American forces are doing all they can to evacuate Americans out of that country. We're going to do everything, everything that we can to provide safe evacuation for our Afghan allies, partners and Afghans who who who might be targeted if because of their association with the United States. But let me be clear. Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home. Make no mistake, this evacuation mission is dangerous.

It involves risks to our armed forces, and it's being conducted under difficult circumstances. I cannot promise what the final outcome will be or what it will be that it will be without risk of loss. But as commander in chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary. And as an American, I offer my gratitude to the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces for carrying out. I find it really interesting, Jason, to watch this media reaction. I mean, you have these idiots out here. There was some dude who wrote a piece of the New York Times saying that Joe Biden's presidency hinges on Afghanistan. No, I don't. You also Fox News today had some

fool, some dude who had a biomedical company who was an entrepreneur who wrote a book about woke capitalism trying to blame wokeness on Joe Biden Afghanistan. These people are absolutely deranged. I'm telling you right now, I don't think for a second that what happens in the midterm elections next year or what happens in 2024, Afghanistan is going to have anything to do with it. Yeah, no, I don't think so either. elections next year or what happens in 2024 Afghanistan is gonna have anything to do with it yeah no I I don't think so either um I think that most Americans wanted an end to to Afghanistan and one of the things that I had heard actually I think it was um I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell who said you know maybe it's not you know Wars never end in a pretty way so maybe it's not, you know, wars never end in a pretty way. So maybe it's not the pullout that you don't like. Maybe you just don't like war. And so maybe we should not get into wars, you know? So I think, you know, most Americans wanted an end to this and it needed to

end. We know that the Trump administration met with the Taliban. They basically rubber stamped this whole thing. And it was, you know, there are two administrations. So I think that this is not going to hurt Democrats. I predict that Democrats are not going to bleed out the way Republicans did in 2018, where you saw the Democrats take 40 seats. I don't think it's even going to be close to that. I think Republicans will regain the House, but not by the margin that we saw under Obama's first term or under Trump's first term. I think it's going to be smaller. First of all, keep in mind, Republicans can actually gerrymander themselves into winning the House. So, hell, they can do that without even one ballot being cast i i i just i just get a just big kick uh brittany uh out of watching uh national media go on and on and on eric i think i did it the other day eric boehler um uh had this uh actually

he posted this tweet that came from andrew tindall um that uh showed uh the amount of attention that national media played To Afghanistan in the past four years I want to pull that up because I think this is what speaks volumes why all of these takes you're hearing on Afghanistan right now are pretty Nonsensical and stupid I'm gonna find the exact tweet But what what Andrew Tyindall said is that in the last four years, ABC, NBC and CBS did a did combine. Here it is right here.

From 2015 through 2019. This is how many minutes network news covered Afghanistan? ABC 16, CBS 25, NBC 16, less than an hour of coverage total over five years. I'm sorry, Afghanistan is not going to find the presidency of Joe Biden. I mean, where do you start rolling? The mainstream outlets care about sensationalism and ratings. They don't actually care because this has been going on for quite some time, as we know, well over 20 years. And, you know, I think it's important to say that one of the first rules of understanding geopolitics in an imperialist context is recognizing that empire, right, what the America is with all of our military bases, claiming to work in good faith for the purpose of other countries' interests, is simply not true, right? And I'm really tired of the U.S. and the media talk about the invasions of Afghanistan as some failure or mistake or mere lapse or simply blame it on Joe Biden, as you mentioned, as if this kind of particular request

is the first or last of its kind for the U.S. Just a little bit of background. The CIA toppled the Socialist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan several decades ago, which is how they ended up funding and arming the Taliban in the first place. You're talking about right-wing extremists getting the go-ahead from President Jimmy Carter's national secretary advisor. Operation Cyclone literally holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive covert operation. This was admitted by Hillary Clinton in multiple interviews. It's not even a secret. Right. So I think we see, again, the U.S. and it's not a Joe Biden issue, help create the Taliban, use them, invaded Afghanistan when it suited their interests, profited from the war economy, fomented the divisions, and then left, you know, while

Afghans are running for their lives. And all of this has to do at the end of the day has to do with profit and natural resources. We can look at what's happening with the, what has happened with the opium crisis here in the United States and how much opium, the opium poppies that are out in Afghanistan. And we can also look again, just at profit. So when we think about that war in Afghanistan was one of the largest transfers of wealth from the American taxpayers to wealth defense contractors and 51 members of Congress and their spouses own up to 5.8 million in defense contractor stocks. So again, I say all of this to say that you are absolutely right, Roland, this is not just a Biden issue. This is, quite frankly, an issue that goes

on both sides of the aisle because war is a profitable business and at the end of the day, the U.S. will do what it needs to do to secure resources that we don't have abroad. I just sit here, Kelly, and just, again, when I listen to these people on these

shows, yell, holler, and scream, they didn't give a damn about afghanistan last week they didn't give a damn about afghanistan when we cast the vote to invade afghanistan 20 years ago the only one who did uh was what she was actually um no one voted against that war. There's something to be said about making rash decisions that the consequences of which aren't even considered or simply not cared about. And this is what happens when you have very powerful people making very rash decisions and not understanding the consequences of their actions and just letting the chips fall where they may. My heart breaks for the citizens of Afghanistan because they didn't ask for any of this. They didn't ask for any of this. They didn't ask for the United States to come over there.

They just didn't. So for me, my ties to 9-11 are a little bit deeper because one of my friends was in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. So like a lot of people on that day, I was furious. But there's something to be said about taking a deep breath and analyzing a situation and then moving forward. America did not do that because of the reasoning that Brittany just beautifully laid out. She took most of my talking points. But I say all that to say, this is not going to fall on Biden's head. If anything, it's going to fall on the heads of four to five presidents, not just Biden. Well, I just get a kick out of these people. I'm looking at, again, Hugh Hewitt tweeted some nonsense. Things have just gone wrong. It's a catastrophe. Norbert Roetgen told reporters on Wednesday, it's a moral failure of the West, and the geopolitical consequences are still difficult to discern. It's a breaking point. And then he writes, America has lost a war and the consequences will be terrible. Events have left many Americans in a state of collective shock.

We can be proud of our warriors and still be deeply ashamed of our country. Let me be real clear. Most Americans don't give a damn about Afghanistan. They didn't give a damn when we invaded Afghanistan and they didn't give a damn 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, a year ago, six months ago, three months ago. It was out of sight, out of mind. It was as if this whole notion that America was at war. No, America was not at war. A portion of the U.S. military was at at war those families with military folks They were at war America was not at war. You know what folks were doing They were playing what they were playing on watersides water slides playing golf going to parties

America was not at war do don't let these crazy people Who are who love getting us into wars to actually fund the military industrial complex, allow you to sit here and get caught up in their nonsense. Nah, nah, y'all. That's just not going to fly. So, no, we ain't buying it. The bottom line is it was stupid for us to have to sit here and spend all of that damn money, $2 trillion, all of that money we spent, And then not now, this is the new one. Oh my God, we've armed

the Taliban with all the equipment left. Do y'all want to rewind? Didn't we leave a lot of equipment when we sent it to the Mujahideen to fight Russia? And what happened? Those were the Taliban. Did they not use the same machinery against us? I don't understand why this is really that hard for people who don't realize that in the history of Afghanistan, no country has conquered those people. I think it's the arrogance of America. And let me be real clear. It's the arrogance of America. Oh, we can be anybody. We have might. We are the richest, the most powerful. No, it's not going to happen because you know what they said we'll wait because y'all ain't gonna be here forever and guess what happened they waited and when we pulled out the Taliban took over again that's what you learn when you can't run somebody else's

country. And then I saw this tweet from Richard Engel that I just thought was stupid. This is the last comment I want to do with this, y'all. Before we end the show. Richard Engel, I mean, look, he's a war correspondent, NBC, you know, all that good stuff. I get it.

But he said something that actually I thought was just stupid He goes Biden says go to my iPad Mike Biden says us in constant contact with Taliban to Get safe passage to airport So us asking former enemy the Taliban to please allow us to get our people out while they take the country um I'm sorry, Brittany. It's not our country.

So we just can't do what the hell we want to do. Guess what? America can't just go to Saudi Arabia when we feel like it. I mean, this is the arrogance of the West, but particularly the United States, right? And this is what so many, unfortunately, of the U.S. citizens believe, right? Like, we are the great, you know, the great country to fix all of the problems in the savage countries. And certainly not having any type of, like, geopolitical context about what these things are about in the first place.

You hit the nail on the head. Americans didn't care about this. This has been going on forever. And Afghanistan isn't the only place that these type of crises are happening, right? America has their hands. They have more military bases than any other military. And we put more money in the U.S. military pockets than the next eight Western developed countries combined. I mean, this is, folks don't really care. And I think it's just really important for us to recognize that, you know, specifically when it comes to not only putting money in defense contractors' pockets and having that wealth transfer, because it all comes down to money. It's also about how the opium poppies in Afghanistan helped promote the opioid crisis in the U.S., which was directly linked to the occupation

in Afghanistan, which then helped the military the US, which was directly linked to the occupation in Afghanistan, which then helped the military industrial complex, which feeds the pharmaceutical company, which then feeds the addiction crisis, which then feeds the prison industrial complex, which finally feeds the prison industrial complex, and the cycle keeps going. Y'all, don't fall for the okey-doke.

It's as simple as that. Kelly, Jason, Brittany, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. I want to thank everybody for tuning in today and watching as well. Monday, I'll be broadcasting live from Los Angeles, California. have for you a couple of authors who wrote a book on Donald Trump saying how I can alone fix it and how he pretty much screwed up the last year of his presidency. That's why he lost. We're also next week here from Gerald Horn about his new book on the sweet science of boxing.

We have all of that for you next week folks. Then don't forget we're going to be broadcast from Atlanta next week for the Swag Me Act Challenge. So, man, we got a jam-packed show. Please support us in what we do, y'all. Your resources allow us for us to do what we do.

Please join our Bring the Funk fan club. We ask our fan base to give an average of $50 each, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. Every dollar you give goes to support this show and what we're doing. You can do so via Cash App, dollar sign RM unfiltered paypal.me forward slash r martin unfiltered venmo.com forward slash rm unfiltered and of course zell is rolling at rolling that's martin.com rolling at rolling martin unfiltered.com i want to give a shout out uh real quick these are the

folks uh they uh did not they said look we don't trust the other stuff. They actually sent checks. They sent checks in. And so if I'm going to find this real quick so I can go ahead and give them a shout out. Where is it? Well, I know I sent it. Here we go. All right, then. Shout out to Carolyn Vaughn, Shirley Williams, Susie Buchanan, Sharon Green,

LaCara, Otto Duro, Betty Saucer, Leonard Bright, Melanie Tittle, Joan Thompson, Gregory Rogers, and Derek Thomas. Thank you so very much for your support of Roller Martin Unfiltered. We always end the show on Friday with the roll call of our fan club members.

If you don't see your name, shoot us an email, and we'll get that taken care of. Folks, thank you so very much. I'll see you on Monday from LA. Also, happy 27th anniversary to my sister, LaVita, and her husband, Manaseer. Today, they celebrate, again, 27 years. I think I got a photo somewhere. Hold on. Let me see if I can pull it up. I know it's on Instagram, but let me see if they put something. They ain't put nothing on Twitter. Oh, you know what? What the heck? Here's a photo right here of them right here when their daughter, Chloe, went to Baylor.

I don't particularly like Baylor, but I'm a Texas A&M Aggie, but it's all good. So happy 27th anniversary to them. I'll see y'all guys on Monday. Ha! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter,

and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.