#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Violence Against Women Act; Combating anti-asian hate; Man near VP Harris' house had gun, ammo

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

3.18.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Violence Against Women Act heads to Senate after 172 Republicans in the House voted against it; Combating anti-asian hate in the wake of the ATL domestic terror attack; Man arrested near VP Harris' house had gun, ammo; Police reform is on the ballot in mayoral races in major cities; Will embedding social workers with police departments decrease the number of police brutality cases? Wait until you see today's crazy a$$ person from Valencia, FloridaSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasted live from Houston, Texas. On today's show, attacks against Asian Americans on the rise in the country. Folks are focused on this after six Asian women shot and killed in three massage parlors in Atlanta. Folks, we've been talking about white domestic terrorism. Why are we calling the guy who killed, who admitted to killing these women a kid? We'll break that down on today's show.

Also on the show, a man has been arrested outside of the home of Vice President Kamala Harris carrying ammunition. We'll tell you about that as well. Also, police reform is on the ballot in a number of U.S. cities. And the new editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue steps down after an uproar from the staff

over some tweets she sent 10 years ago. Did the sister get a raw deal? We'll discuss all of that and more next on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. Let's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling Martin, yeah.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, Representatives passed the Violence Against Women Act. Republicans, when they were in control, refused to do so. Significant number of Republicans voted against this bill. More than 150. Why? Makes no sense whatsoever. This is what took place today. This has been a long journey, and I think it's important to take note of the many women who have helped us do so, but do this in the name of so many women who've lost their lives. I take this moment on the floor to support the unblock amendment, but as well to encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle of how somber and serious a moment this is.

That we do not take lightly to the floor because so many of us in our own congressional districts have seen the scourge of domestic violence. We have seen the rise in domestic violence in a meteoric manner under COVID-19. It is rabid and rampant in all of our cities. Our law enforcement officers have told us it is the most dangerous, dangerous call that they can possibly make. I'm particularly concerned about sex-trafficking victims and I'm very glad in the managers amendment that it has language in there that indicates that sex trafficking victims experience sexual violence and assault and that the federal recognition of their recovery is

important. We look at all aspects of this important issue in our country. The en bloc amendment represents members' concerns for improving the treatment of women and men, the LGBTQ community, Native Americans, immigrant women, culturally diverse. To the 100, 200 plus organizations To the hundred, two hundred plus organizations of the coalition, I want to say thank you to you for advocating with us. Writing this bill in 2018 and never giving up has been the challenge that I have taken up. I am very

grateful to the many women who have joined me and even though it was not passed when there was a Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican House, and then it was blocked by the Republican Senate, we have now come with a fully robust, comprehensive bill that responds to the concerns of those who cannot help themselves. Housing and other aspects of this. The gentlewoman's time has expired. The gentlewoman from Texas is recognized for one minute. The provisions that are in this bill pointedly speak to needs that have been brought to our attention by victims. This bill deals with victims.

And so when you are fleeing your home because your name is not on the lease or the mortgage, we now have provided an expedited process for you to get housing with your children. We intervene and have cultural and sensitivity training for men and boys. We have a culturally sensitive or sensitivity office inside the Office of Domestic Violence so that women of different cultural backgrounds can be responded to, along with focusing on culturally sensitive advocacy groups to help those women. And yes, yes, we do prevent a convicted person who has perpetrated a stalking or sexual assault from getting a gun.

But this bill is controlled by due process in the Constitution. Let's pass this bill. Women are waiting. They can't wait any longer. Men are waiting. Many communities are waiting. We can't wait any longer. And we must pass this bill. Women are waiting. They can't wait any longer. Men are waiting. Many communities are waiting. We can't wait any longer. And we must pass this bill signed by the president of the United States. With that, I yield back. I'm Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, and I joined my colleagues wearing white to support the passage of the Violence Against

Women Act. I am a proud co-sponsor of VAWA and joined President Biden in stating violence against women is the ugliest form of violence there is. So let's keep women safe and call on the Senate to pass this bill. vote. The yeas are 244. The nays are 172. The bill is passed. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Let's introduce our panel, folks. Joining us now, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, Recy Colbert, Black Women Reviews, and also Amisha Cross, political analyst and Democratic strategist. Recy, is there any explanation why so many Republicans vote against the Violence Against Women Act?

First of all, for the people who criticized Joe Biden for the 1994 crime bill, they forget this actually was a part of that crime bill. Republicans, when they had control, they would not advance this forward. Democrats did. And you had, of course, restrictions when it came to being able to get guns, those who are involved in domestic violence. It's amazing how Republicans will defend abusers because they care so much and they adore guns so much. Well, I mean, in addition to the fact that Republicans are irredeemable and they are obstructionists and they don't actually give a damn about the humanity of anybody, all they care about is tax cuts and guns. This isn't surprising. I mean, the reality is that the fact that there are some additional provisions in the bill that relate to gun control,

it's kind of hard for the courts, for the Republicans to be against that. Even in the Senate, they're talking about introducing kind of a rival measure that doesn't have the gun measurements in there. But the reality is that domestic abusers tend to be the ones who are people who have animus towards women, are the ones who are out there doing these mass shootings. Their violence escalates. And so it's a perfectly reasonable provision to close the boyfriend loophole. We just saw two days ago evidence of people or a person, particularly a white male domestic terrorist, who obviously has some sort of not just racist,

but misogynistic and hateful attitudes towards women, who was able to get a gun the same day and go down and gun down six Asian women. And so Republicans are constantly showing that they are against women on all of their rights and that they just are not reasonable governing partners. They're just standing in the way. I really can't understand any logic whatsoever with Amisha opposing the Violence Against Women Act. I can't think of any. Roland, there isn't any. And statistics continue to show us seven in 10 women. And the number is

even higher when we're talking about women who happen to be from people of color backgrounds. The violence against women continues to uptick across this country. And I think that what we heard in the C-SPAN snippet earlier was absolutely correct. We know that during this pandemic where women have been in lockdown, there have been more violent acts committed against them, specifically because the shelters, the places that they used to go for help, they were not as easily accessible because of the social distancing and because of the regulations around that. So we have some major issues. On a personal note, two of my closest friends were murdered by their significant others. And to Rishi's point a moment ago, a lot of this is because of the proximity these violent

men have with weapons. The most dangerous place for a woman to be is with a man who is violent, but that violence is often precipitated by the use of a gun. And the allotment that these men have, the boyfriend loophole, that allows for them to go and get these weapons that they use to intimidate and murder women, I think is something that we need to work towards. It baffles me that Republicans cannot, will not, and are just ignorant to the fact or just do not want to move on the Violence Against Women Act. And this isn't new. This isn't something that just came about because of the Trump era. We've been trying to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. And this isn't new. This isn't something that just came about because of the Trump era. We've been trying to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act for quite some time at this point, and Republicans have served to block it each and every time.

I think this goes down the hill with the rest of the things they've tried to strip women of, not only safety and protections, but also their right to choose, being a pro-choice person, their right to actually access equal pay. What we know about the Republican Party is that when it comes to women, they don't care about dismantling every right that we have, even if it comes down to our own right to life and protection. Greg Carr. No, I agree. I agree with Recy. I agree with Amicia.

I mean, you know, but this is actually probably fairly straightforward in terms of understanding. The white nationalist party can count. So until they can deprive the rest of us of the ability to vote, and of course they're hard at work at that, they're hard at work at that. They have to shore up their base. The center of this settler project we call the United States of America is whiteness, and at the center of whiteness is white maleness, is patriarchy. Their base is far less concerned with protecting women, white women. Understand, because there's the theocratic element, a woman is to be secondary to to the male in the house not to say the rest of us haven't picked up some very bad habits in proximity to them they don't give a damn about amicia they don't give a damn about reese they don't give a damn about your wife they don't give a damn about my mom or a sister but and they don't care about none of us but that's as a piece black within whiteness they don't care about white women

so uh you know i don't think it's an accident they trot Joni Ernst out to be the one to say, oh, we've got some issues with gun control. No, no. This is fairly simple to understand, whether it be extending housing vouchers or unemployment insurance or rape prevention or legal aid, whether it be allowing our First Nations kin to be able to act against non-natives who are on reservations who commit domestic violence. The White Nationalist Party realizes it can't win any more elections if the rest of this country continues to swell in numbers and vote. So what they are doubling down on has very little to do about the subject. They're going to say no to everything because they realize they are heading toward the type of apartheid state minority rule strategy. In fact, they've already embraced

it that we saw in South Africa, which, by the way, to echo what Amisha said, I was listening to something the other day, you know, COVID has seen a sharp spike in domestic violence all over the world. But they don't give a damn about that. They're trying to win elections, which means no to everything at this point. Well, that is absolutely the case. It is shameful and ridiculous because there are women who are seriously, seriously being impacted by violence all across this country, such as the violence that we saw that took place in Atlanta. Eight people killed, including six Asian women, by a white man who supposedly was angry about his sexual addiction. Now, what's interesting about this story is he bypassed strip clubs.

He specifically kills Asian women. But the cops are saying, no, he was having a bad day and they do not want to call it a hate crime or race was a motive. That's strange to me. It's strange to me that that would be the decision of those police. We are seeing an increase against Asian Americans. President Joe Biden, when he signed an executive order specifically talking about this. I remember there were a lot of black people who were upset.

Oh, I can't believe he's doing that. People were hitting me on Twitter and YouTube. Folks, we're seeing this. We're seeing the attacks. We're seeing what's taking place in this country. Violence is violence. This is a race-based attack that we're seeing. We can't deny the reality or be clueless like other folks on this very issue. Joining me right now is Leisha Brooks. She is chief of staff for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Glad to have you with us.

Can you, again, just share with me how you felt when you watched that news conference of the spokesman in Atlanta staying there and, well, the guy was having a bad day. I have never heard a cop describe somebody who admits to killing eight people as he was having a bad day. Well, thank you for having me on. He just revealed who he was. And if I could refer back to your earlier guest that was talking about kind of white nationalist talking points and white nationalist agenda, he was completely clear that he did not care anything at all about the victims of that horrific crime, that he set out to protect the perpetrator of this violent and racist act.

We have to remember that, as you were alluding to, unchecked violence and racist actions against one group, when they go unchecked, they will spill over into another group. Now, it's important for us to remember, of course, that in this country, anti-Asian racism has existed forever, right? Forever. As has misogyny and white supremacy. And these two things, racism, misogyny, patriarchal violence, go hand in hand. And as you say, it's up to each of us to stand up against it. I'm disgusted by the clips you showed earlier about the vote, disgusted but not surprised by the vote on the Violence Against Women Act, especially in light of this horrific killing that took place in Atlanta just Tuesday.

When President Biden signed that executive order specifically dealing with the increase in anti-Asian American discrimination, there were some people who were going, I don't see this as a big deal, but we've seen this ratchet up, ratchet up. And to your point, other groups attacked. Remember the shooting that took place in the synagogue in Pittsburgh? Other attacks that took place. And this refusal, this reluctance of Americans to call it white domestic terrorism. There were some people calling this guy a kid. A 21-year-old person a kid?

Right. A black child would not be offered that opportunity let's talk about the anti the increase in anti-asian uh attacks and of course we could trace it back to or this particular iteration back to the former president and his rhetoric his anti-asian rhetoric his his his consistent insistence on blaming if if you will, Asians and Asian Americans for the coronavirus pandemic, and his referring to it with the use of racial epitaphs. This increase in anti-Asian rhetoric has produced an increase in actual hate crimes that target Asian folks. We all heard about the two-year-old and the six-year-old siblings who were stabbed along with their father in Midland, Texas last year. And then, of course, the 91-year-old man who was assaulted and knocked over. These are elders.

These are children. And now we see women targeted because they're Asian and vulnerable. Y'all have been tracking this, these organizations for a very, very long time. The FBI director has testified that the greatest threat of domestic terrorism is white domestic terrorism. Yet this unwillingness to confront white supremacy, to call it what it is. And frankly, there are people in the media, mainstream media, who won't even go as far as we do in calling it what it is. And I'm going, yo, you're making this easy,

but trust me, if a Muslim had walked into a nail shot and killed six white women, oh, they'll be turning those communities upside down all across America. You're exactly right. We need to call it what it is. If we have a hope of changing this, if we don't call out white supremacy, if we don't call out the increase in white, the white nationalist movement, the Southern Party Law Center, as you mentioned, has been talking about this for decades.

And we have tracked a continued increase in the number of white nationalist groups and individuals who they proved on January 6th that they're more than willing to engage in violence, political violence, anything to advance what they hope to see as a race war, which they believe will then return them to power and the possibility of a white ethnostate. So we should not be surprised if we'll continue to see this as we continue to mark the shifting demographics that occur across the United States and as whites will become more of a numerical minority,

we'll see a consistent uptick in these attacks. This really is about holding on for power. Yep, absolutely, absolutely. Alicia Brooks, we appreciate it thanks a lot thank you real bye-bye greg carl i want to start with you um i saw this post by andrew yang that that i found very interesting and problematic greg where Yang was talking about what Asian Americans need to do to show their American-ness. And I really want to say to Brother Yang,

guess what? Just like black people, you cannot assimilate into whiteness. You cannot. Unlike white Hispanics who can, Asian Americans, y'all can sit here and wave the flag all you want to. You can sit here and talk about the apple pie, everything else. Trust me, how you look is how they are going to target you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Ask the Japanese who fought for the United States military during World War II at the same time that the Korematsu decision upheld the fact that their relatives were in concentration camps in this country. So, yeah, Yang, you know, Andrew Yang, that's an interesting comment by him. You know, he visited Howard Law School when he was running for president and watched him have an interesting dialogue with the students there. You know, Yang is one of those people who doesn't really have a

developed cultural theory in terms of America. He thinks in terms of dollars and cents. And so he kind of leaves his face open that we just heard our sister, Leisha Brooks, really hit on. See, the power of whiteness is in its invisibility. Racism and misogyny are twins from the same womb. Whiteness, at the center of whiteness is white maleness. You heard Leisha say that. So when Captain Jay Baker, shout out to Captain Jay, he had to defend his brother because as another white man, he understood that this killer, that Aaron Long, was, in the words of Captain Jay Baker, fed up.

That's important. Yes, bad day is important, too. But fed up is the one I want to focus on. Because, you know, as Alicia Brooks just said, you know, there's a fear rising in this country. You talk about white fear all the time, Roland. What does Robert Aaron Long and what does Jay Baker share? As white men, they're seeing it all slip away, baby. It's starting to slip away now. And so we have to understand also, finally, that he's attacking these Asian Americans, these South Korean women and others, because he feels frustration that comes from the real center of whiteness and white

maleness, which is fetishizing not just women. You don't find pornography in pre-colonial Africa. You don't find pornography in indigenous America. You find pornography, literally, pornographia, the writing of harlots coming out of Western Eurasia, chiefly France and other places. So you've already dehumanized women. And then when you talk about non-white women, you dehumanize them, but you have this fetish attraction to them that creates this internal conflict that you can only resolve by not dealing with yourself, but channeling it outward in terms of violence, self-hatred and killing the object. So the question I would ask is, why the hell we got spas where you can go and have sex in the first place?

All of this comes around the question of maleness, and at the center of maleness in this country is white maleness, and they are not going to stop. They're fed up. Whether it be passing voting, blocking people from voting, or whether it be going and shooting up spas, these white men are fed up. We better wake up to this. Recy, when I see some folks, I saw some idiot Michael Coates on the YouTube chat room saying,

oh, you're using the DNC notes. There isn't an uptick in anti-Asian American sentiment in this country. Yes, it is, dumbass. Yes, it is. And just because I'm black does not mean I cannot call out and stand up for Asian brothers or sisters being discriminated against, just like if someone was Latino. And I would damn sure hope that folks would stand up when it comes to black folks as well.

And I think there are some black folks who are, well, I don't see them standing up for us, but guess what? How somebody else acts towards me does not dictate how I'm going to act towards them. Absolutely. And, Roland, this goes back to the point that we make multiple times a month on this show, particularly on Thursdays, about the way that white people, particularly white men, have been deputized, self-deputized, or even in some cases deputized by the actual police, to eliminate, as Jay Baker said, the temptation. Eliminate anybody that they feel like they can eliminate for any reason.

That was what really stood out to me when, what, um, when, what the captain had said is that this man had, had, had experienced some temptation and he wanted to eliminate that. You don't get to eliminate people. Okay. For any reason, unless you are acting in self-defense life or death situations, but you don't get to go out and buy a gun and hunt down Asian women because you can't control whatever the hell urges you supposedly have. But white people have been deputized in this country to eliminate Asian women, to eliminate black people who are minding their business, to harass them, to carry them out, to assert some authority over us that they do not have. And that is the pervasive problem that we are all subject to. So no, this isn't just an Asian American problem, even though, yes, absolutely. In this case, we have to stand with the Asian community. But that mentality that drove this attack is the same

mentality that drives the racial terrorism that Black people are subjected to every single day. And the same way that this captain tried to rehabilitate instantly on the spot the image of a white domestic terrorist is the same reason why we don't see justice in our case, because they want to say, oh, he had a bad day, oh, he has an illness, or he has some other situation that's a mitigating factor. There's no mitigating factor for murder, and there's no mitigating factor for terrorism. And so we have to all, as a unit, stand up and say, this is unacceptable. Maybe next time we'll have more people standing with us, maybe not. But we are not exempt from this kind of behavior whatsoever, regardless of who it's perpetrated against.

Amisha, if you have a tax on Asian Americans, if you have a tax on Jewish synagogues, don't think for a second black folks are going to be bypassed. And what we are seeing, and we saw Donald Trump embrace, salute, empower, embolden

these white militias, these white supremacists. You now have Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, and the military is saying that they are increasingly bothered with what they are seeing in terms of this white nationalist sentiment that is being fomented and coming

and just moving throughout the U.S. military. This thing is real. And we can't just say, well, that's not us. They should worry about it. We don't have time to worry about it. No, no, no, no. We better be real concerned about these white militias and these white supremacist organizations. You're absolutely right, Roland. There is a bit of ignorance that comes from anyone who believes that because this is happening to Asian people, black people should not. The frustration I have with that is that President Trump has to it whether they were people from African nations, specifically calling out those as shithole countries, talking about African Americans in places like Baltimore and our home city of Chicago, throwing all types of shade and making it seem like Black people were

a problem, Black people were criminals, rapists, murderers, the exact same thing that he did to Latinos. And then comes COVID-19, and he chose to castigate people of Asian descent. He chose to make fun of Asian reporters. He chose to call this the China virus. He chose to basically, even when we saw time and time again during his administration where Asian people were being attacked, and they would ask him about it. And we saw him give a smile of glee. There was nothing that that president did that did not further perpetuate a lot of the violence and the attacks that we've seen on people of color across this country.

But as it relates to this case in Atlanta specifically, I do want to say that I don't buy the WAP defense. This is a white man who really sat back and had a conversation, and this is what he is going to use to try to get off because he understands the Christian right as well. The Christian right always wants to sexualize women, always wants to say that they're the threat, always wants to talk about a syntax and getting rid of porn and getting rid of you know the places where women dance, the massage hall, all of those things. I think he's falling

down on this sword knowing full well that he had a intent to target those individuals, to target those spaces, because of the demographic of the women that he was targeting. And that's it, plain and simple. And can I add to that, Roland? Because what the Asian American community is seeing is what we experience every time. When you're a person of color and you're a victim, you're the one who goes on trial. We don't know if these women were sex workers. And even if they were sex workers, that does not give anybody license to, uh, to, to, to, to murder them. But now the onus has shifted from the fact that we're not talking about this as much as a hate crime, but we're talking about sex workers and, and what, what these women may or may not have been doing. And that's what they always do. It's disgusting.

Before we even learn the name and the ages of these women, they're being characterized by the police as sex workers or the insinuation is put out there. And that is disgusting. That's a violation of them. And I'm not saying disgusting. I'm not anti-sex worker, be clear. But I'm just saying, we don't know what they were doing.

And Mayor Keishlan's bottom credit said that these were legally operating businesses. But this is what they do. They deflect and they put the attention and they try to make the victims have to justify their humanity and whether or not their life was worth being eliminated or not. Mm-hmm. That's right. Great point. Absolutely. Folks, next story. 31-year-old Paul Murray arrested Wednesday afternoon by D.C. Metropolitan Police when he was found lurking outside of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

That is the official residence of the vice president of the United States. Now, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman, Douglas Imhoff, they actually are staying at Blair House while repairs are being done at the Naval Observatory. Now, Paul Murray from Texas, what was he carrying? Hmm, they found an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and 113 rounds of ammunition in his vehicle.

What the hell y'all think he was kind of carrying that firepower around? This is of significant concern, Recy, because we know the level of attacks, the amount of attacks and the vitriol that was directed towards the incentive Kamala Harris. So it's no surprise we would hear this now, now that she is vice president. Absolutely. I think it's one of the more undercovered aspects of her career. I mean, she even stated before that when she was attorney general, she was strapped because of the threats that she received. So these are not new things. People forget that when the whole, I don't know

if you guys remember the pipe bomb, pipe bombs that were being sent out to different various Democrats, including President Obama or ex-President Obama at the time. Then Senator Kamala Harris was one of the people who were mailed those pipe bombs. rhetoric that's against her on social media. There have been reports that shows that she is the most attacked politician, female politician, in some case, politician, male or female on the internet by an exponentially larger amount. And so what people need to understand is that we know that VP Kamala Harris is strong, but we need to wrap our arms around her in protection and recognize the unique threats that she faces. As a black woman, she is the biggest threat to white male patriarchy this country has seen in a very long time. And that's why so much has been put behind trying to stop her from ascending to the position of VP. And she's going to be under constant threat.

And that is not something that should be minimized. And they need to be doing everything in their power to protect her. Absolutely. Amisha? I agree with Recy here, because what we're seeing is that not only are the threats great and the potential even greater, Kamala Harris is seen by Republicans, and they knew this when Joe Biden announced her as vice president, she is seen as the biggest threat to America. The biggest threat to America in the eyes of white supremacists

is a black woman leader. And I think that because, obviously, you know, her ascension from vice president to president when she decides to run, that is disruptive to the entire white scheme of how things are supposed to go in these systems. And I think that to the point of them really pushing, we're seeing these white domestic terrorist groups. We're also seeing, we're seeing leaders of the right-wing media talk about her 24-7 as though she is a terrorist that

needs to be removed, even though she's a sitting vice president and has served in the Senate, has served at the state levels as well. The problem with that is it goes to show the threat and the force that white men particularly use against black women. And I think that what we're watching happen with Kamala Harris is a push to ensure that she is the biggest threat, that she is to be feared, that she is to be dissolved, that she is to be destroyed. And mark my words, if we do not protect that woman, they will get what they want in the same way that they've tried to do it time and time again, as Black people, particularly women, have ascended to positions of power. Greg, we cannot ignore these real threats.

Well, so far, the country has ignored them. In fact, so far the country has abetted. I don't mean us. I don't mean black. I mean the folks who are supporters of white nationalism with their silence or with their cosplay that this is somehow the norm. Of course, we all remember during the 2008 campaign, the perpetual fear that Barack or Michelle Obama or the children might be harmed. Some people in the audience who are old enough to remember 1984 when Jesse Jackson didn't get Secret Service protection until after the Nation of Islam provided the fruit and the MGT, the Muslim Girls in Training, at which point they jumped to give him Secret Service protection. And then the debate was maybe we would rather have the nation because we don't trust the Secret Service. So in this sense, if a guy is sitting out in front of your house with an AR-15, 113 rounds and five magazines and 30 clips each on right around the

corner from Embassy Row, and we make this about Vice President Harris, and you're right, there's a gender dimension to this. Absolutely. We have to understand that the real villain in this is this country. What do I mean by that? I'm saying that Joni Ernst talking about protecting the Second Amendment, this white boy, Robert Aaron Long, buying a gun, as Recy said, then going and shooting these women. What is the common thread? Violence, by any means necessary. When you heard Alicia Brooks talk about an ethnostate,

what they are saying is that we will stop at nothing. Like Amisha said, we will stop at nothing to protect what we perceive as our interests. And the only question anybody who says this is a shame should have is what are you going to do to participate in rewriting the DNA of this country so that this sister is not,

her life is not under perpetual threat? That's the only question. There are no innocent bystanders in this. None. Absolutely. Absolutely. Folks, folks, gotta go to a break. When we come back, more on Roland Martin Unfiltered, including Derek Chauvin's trial in Minneapolis.

And I dropped by my high school to see the George Floyd mural that was painted on the ground outside. I'll even show you that video. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Senators, this cannot be our future. Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard. This cannot be the future of America. That's all we got! The force, let's go! American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.

Where the fuck are they? Everybody stay down. People died that day. What message will we send the rest of the world? What happened today in Washington, D.C. is not America. America has stood for some very important things. I think what we've seen in the United States is terribly distressing. Incited by the current president. President Trump.

The world is watching and wondering whether we are who we say we are. You are patriots just like the patriots gathered at Bunker Hill. The election in many ways was stolen. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. At one point people started chanting kill him with his own gun. They thought they were gonna die. Watching someone use an American flagpole to spear and pummel one of our police officers ruthlessly, mercilessly. We didn't need more witnesses. We needed more senators with spines. Yeah!

President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate. So if he gets back into office and it happens again, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. Hi, everybody. This is Jonathan Nelson. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell. Hi, I'm Carl Painting. Hey, everybody. This is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, Tuesday night in Allen, Texas, a vigil was held for 26-year-old Marvin Scott. He died while in police custody in the Collin County Jail that took place on Sunday. He was arrested earlier that day for alleged possession of marijuana.

Allen police were called to the Allen Outlet Mall by security, who believed they smelled marijuana on Scott's person. According to the attorney, Lee Merritt, Scott was incoherent when officers approached him, which led him then to take him to Texas Health Presbyterian, where doctors signed off saying Scott was, quote, fit to be incarcerated. While incarcerated, Scott suffered several mental health episodes, leading to detention officers trying to restrain him in his cell. Merritt says the use of force against Scott was overtly physical.

Seven employees have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. Before we get to the treatment of him, Amisha, by the cops, this is a perfect example of why you shouldn't be arresting people for simple possession of marijuana.

Absolutely. I don't think that you're going to find any argument there. At this point, I think that you can't be someone who stands for and supports criminal justice reform, but also is OK with people being arrested, being brutalized over a simple possession of, in most cases, small amounts of marijuana. At the end of the day, right now, marijuana, the sale of marijuana from, you know, white distributors is legal in a ton of states. White men are making money off of what they have brutalized and locked up Black people for now for over five decades. I think at this point, we need to revisit this process. We need to make sure that people are not getting arrested on marijuana charges in general, but also that we as a nation

are really putting the onerous on these policing units because the behavior that we're seeing is completely ridiculous. And it should not take 15, 20, 30, 40 more videos before we get to a point where excessive use of force is something that is eradicated across policing entities. See, Recy, there's a report that was done by the National Association of Social Workers that suggests there needs to be a better collaboration between social workers and police. This, in order to, first of all, reduce these sort of cases, reduce racist incidents, but more importantly, deal with people who have mental illness.

And that's the thing. When San Francisco talked about sending social workers out instead of sending cops out, you saw a dramatic difference in how cases were resolved. This man is dead because he had a mental disorder and a person and and if you get rid of the archaic laws or or have a DA who says, no, I'm not going to prosecute a simple possession of marijuana. The guy's still living. And so, again, we love to talk about, well, what happened to him in the jail. But if you deal with the stuff on the front end, he's never in jail.

Sorry. I can't hear Reese. I got it. I got it. What's crazy is that there was actually a doctor who signed off on him being quote unquote fit to go to jail. Why would you sign off on sending him to be incarcerated when he's in the middle of a mental health episode? And again, to Amisha's point, why is he even getting arrested over simple possession of marijuana? And then when you're at the jail facility, why aren't there

people who have the training to deal with people who are having mental health episodes? It's so ridiculous that so many of these police brutality and these deaths are occurring from people who are having mental health episodes or who are spur lens towards incarceration instead of having a lens towards rehabilitation or towards actually dealing with the situation that this gentleman was dealing with. That's right. Greg, cascading failure. Again, security officers call him, say, I smell marijuana. Right. Who gives a damn if your ass smell marijuana? All right? That's the first deal.

Cops come there. They arrest them. Then they take them to a hospital. Doctor signs off. Then you go to the jail. Several issues in how the jail restrains him. Cascading errors. At any point,

security officer, cops, doctor, if any of those people do the right thing, he's never detained in the jail cell. That's why we have to think about what is happening, Greg, holistically. Mm-hmm.

Agreed. Agreed, brother. I mean, the first thing we have to do is decide as a country that they didn't do the right thing. And there is no we. I'm just saying that kind of rhetorically because there is no we. Clearly, those people thought,

you know, if you smell a wine in D.C., they've decriminalized it. You can't call the police. Of course, this is a different place. Texas, they all did the right thing because they're policing black bodies, whether it be deputy police like that white boy sitting out in front of Kamala Harris and Doug Inhofe's house, or whether it be this security guard. They see, okay, this brother Marvin Scott Jr., Marvin Scott Jr., his parents got a nail presided over a funeral.

But guess what? We know a couple of things. We know that marijuana is going to be legalized in the United States shortly. Why? Last week, eight days ago, the lower chamber of the Mexican legislature voted to legalize marijuana. It's going to pass the Senate in Mexico and Lopez Obrador is going to sign it. That is two years after Canada legalized it. Mexico got 130 million people. They are primed to be the largest exporter of legal marijuana in the world. And their major client is going to be

those states in this country that have already legalized marijuana. The market, in other words, is going to force, because now the United States is going to sandwich between two countries that are going to be exporting, I'm sorry, number two in exporting marijuana is Canada. The business market is going to force these coward politicians to decriminalize, no, to legalize marijuana. But that's not going to do Marvin Scott Jr. any good because like Kamala Harris, like those

sisters down there in Georgia, he is not white, which means every white person is deputized to regulate his life and death. And they're going to bring him back off suspension after they said, well, y'all followed procedure. He just, I guess, you know what the hell, not guilty. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Again, and this is why, again, as we go back to it, when you use the phrase defund the police, hey, this is what they're talking about. They're talking about the shifting of resources away from cops to social services. That's what they're talking about, Amisha. No, you're absolutely correct. This is a case that should have never been handed to the cops. At the end of the day, when you know that somebody has a mental health disorder, and this was a verifiable mental health disorder,

you do not treat them in the way that we saw this man get treated. First and foremost, we know that police themselves, as well as the sheriffs and county officials, they don't have experience in or have they been trained in how to deal with mental health and mental illness. Therefore, they should not be the people called out or the people who we expect to lead in advocacy or know how to take care of individuals who are having mental health episodes. What I do think we need to do and what funding should go towards is more social services, more wraparound services. Right now in America, nine in 10 people who are sitting in jails across this country have verifiable mental health issues. That is a ridiculous number

of people. That tells me that our issue is over criminalizing or criminalizing in general mental health and mental illness. We're not technically criminalizing actual behaviors in terms of things that are violent acts. The majority of people who are serving time in federal prisons, as well as our state prisons, aren't there because they kill somebody, not there because they stab somebody. They're there because they have mental health issues. And that tells me something about how we treat our policing and how our policing needs to change. Mm-hmm. Look, bottom line is this here. What we have to have is a real... I constantly talk, Recy, about this has to be the third reconstruction.

Mm-hmm. And this is a perfect example of what I'm talking about, reconstruction. We have to reconstruct. We have to reconstruct, we have to deconstruct, then reconstruct policing in this country. Because what has happened, it has been driven by white supremacy. It has been driven by this white supremacist-fueled law and order, which means keep all of them in check. And it has resulted in this police state we're living in

where the answer to everything is, call the cops, call the cops, call the cops. If it will pain me to hear another example of a black mother calling the cops because she cannot control her son and her son is dead. And the mother has to live with I'm the one who called the cops.

You're right, Roland. But you know what? Honestly, the onus is going to be on the white people in this country to determine that they're willing to give up their white supremacist deputies and the ability to have that power to police, eliminate, and oversee everybody.

And to be honest, there are plenty of victims of police brutality that are not Black, that are not Latino, that are not Asian, that are actually white Americans. But that's what they're willing to do to deal with in order to keep that oversight and that brutality against the rest of us. And so there's a reconstruction that needs to happen in this country. But unfortunately, the system is acting as it's designed for who it's designed for, which is to keep us in this white nationalist state. And I don't want to sound like I'm being hyperbolic here, but this is how it's supposed to work. It's supposed to keep us subjugated.

It's supposed to make sure that we can turn a situation that should be so minor, such as drug possession or a failure to signal, in the case of Sandra Bland, or any number of things, selling Lucy cigarettes, and I can go on and on and on into executions, extrajudicial executions. That's what the system is doing because that's how it's been designed to work for so long. And until white folks say, this is enough is enough, then we're going to all be subjected to it. Maybe we can get some legislative progress with, for instance,

the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Maybe we can get some progressive prosecutors. Maybe we can get some work done here and there. But the system is always going to work as it's designed until people are fed up with it enough. That's right. That's right. Greg, final comment. No, I agree. I mean, Recy is right. I mean, you know, it's interesting. The National Association of Social Workers, which has a Black caucus, has a position. And it's not uncomplicated. The social workers are an extension of the police, at least historically, as we've experienced them. And so while, you know, this Cahoots squad out there in Oregon, Eugene Origen, crisis assistants helping out on the streets, I don't like the acronym. You in Cahoots with

the police? So, I mean, yeah, I would prefer to see you than them. But as you say, I don't like the acronym. You in cahoots with the police? So, I mean, yeah, I would prefer to see you than them, but as you say, I don't trust any of y'all because our experience with social workers has often been, these are the people that take your children. These are the people that don't approve your adoption. These are the people who decide on a standard

that they bring into your house that these people aren't safe in your own house, which is why I would be very much more interested in seeing what the National Association of Black Social Workers, 1968 started, have to say on this issue. I'm thinking about my man Joe Benton, who was the media past president. It would be interesting to hear what the National Association of Black Social Workers have to say, because they have been fighting a war inside social work on these very issues of don't even call the social workers, y'all. Please don't call the social workers. And so, you know, what Amisha just said, what Reese just said, it makes so

much sense. This is a structural arrangement that is functioning just fine, but it's getting ready to explode because the demographics is going to explode under the weight of the demographics. So we got to reconstruct this whole thing. This isn't about tinkering around the edges. Folks, jury selection continues in Minneapolis in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop on trial for the murder of George Floyd. That will continue. We've been live streaming that. So that's why if you want to see the proceedings,

all you got to do is come to Roland Martin Unfiltered, come to our YouTube channel, our Facebook channel, also our Periscope Twitter feed. And we're actually been streaming that content every single day to keep you abreast of what's going on. A little bit earlier, I had a chance to go to my high school, Jack Gates High School, which is also the alma mater of George Floyd. I recently created a $25,000 scholarship for students at Jack Yates.

And one of the local TV stations, the KHOU, interviewed me in front of Yates. So while I'm there, y'all, and this was, trust me, not planned at all. Earlier in the day, I was doing a Microsoft discussion with two of George Floyd's brothers. So while we were there, while I was out there, like literally right after I shot this video, because what you, if y'all play it again, what's on the ground there, you see Black Lives Matter painted in the colors of Jack Yates, crimson and gold. That is the George Floyd mural that is on the street in front of Yates High School. So while I was right after I shot this video, there were several people who came up, some who recognized me, and they wanted to take pictures, and then a car pulled up. And then who gets out?

George Floyd's daughter gianna floyd this is the photo so i had a chance to uh chat with her take a photo with her uh and so this is us uh standing out there uh on the street in front of that mural right in front of jack yates high school um one of the things that we talked about today in the conversation with with the microsoft the Microsoft, it was worldwide with the Microsoft folks, Greg, was, and I kept talking about the aftermath, where we stand, and all of these companies making promises that we're going to change this and do this. And I remember last year when I spoke at Walmart for King Day and the CEO was there and I said,

you are so large that if you, Walmart, decided to in a very aggressive way tackle the issue of race, deal with DEI, deal with the real issues, deal with lack of black executives, you by your lonesome could change the entire industry because you are a behemoth. We're seeing in Georgia, Greg, the pressure being put on Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS and other companies, the pressure being put on them toCola, Home Depot, UPS, and other companies. The pressure being put on them to speak out against voter suppression. Not say, hey, we're allowing the Georgia

Chamber of Commerce. No, your own independent response. The aftermath of George Floyd, three months, we're going to, we'll be, two months, we'll be dealing with the first anniversary of his death. And I say this is not a moment where we allow corporations to say we're with you but then not show accountability to show you're actually with us.

I'm talking about show us, show us your increase increasing black businesses. Show us how many you're now supporting. Show us how you've expanded your talent pool. Show us your relationship with HBCUs. Don't just sit here and say we're going to give a million dollars to Black Lives Matter. No, no, no, no.

I want to know what are you doing with the billions in commerce you're driving to other companies? Are you driving those dollars to black businesses? Because I can guarantee you that little million dollar donation somebody gives won't even compare if all of a sudden you're driving

one, two, three, four, five billion to black businesses. We as black people, Greg, five billion to black businesses. We as black people, Greg, have got to stop getting caught up and emotionally charged up with that $1 million donation to the NAACP or Black Lives Matter or the Urban League or the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. No, no, no, no, no. Y'all giving a million while over here your market cap is

$260 billion. Right. Well, I mean, when you approach the mega corporations, their response will be, to quote Richard Pryor, I ain't got to show you shit. Because it's capitalism. This is how capitalism works.

You know, you have to hit capitalism with capitalism. In is how capitalism works. You know, you have to hit capitalism with capitalism. In other words, and I don't mean that capitalism is the best system at all. I'm saying you have to hit capitalism where they hurt. And where they hurt is profits. I mean, and I know in a minute you're going to talk about Sister Alexi McCommon.

You know, the only thing that happened between Alexi McCommon taking that job at Teen Vogue and today, his name is Robert Aaron Long. And then when Ultra Beauty and Bird's Bees and like, hey, Teen Vogue, they jumped. They made her walk the plank.

Now, what you're saying in Georgia until Coca-Cola says the same thing, but guess what? Y'all still drinking Coke. It broke my heart the other night to hear Tamir Rice's mother come for, you know, come for our sister, Tamika Mallory, who basically moved to Louisville to fight for Breonna Taylor. But I understand. Why? Because these companies

dropped 15 cents, $90 million, into a situation, and we over here getting back and forth. Where's the money? Mike Brown said, dad, where's the money? But guess what? Y'all ain't turned off the recording industry.

You didn't turn off the Grammys. Why? And I ain't got to show you shit. In other words, until you make me feel the pain, as you always remind us, Dr. King said near the end of his life, I ain't got to show you shit. You just did a two-hour thing on Black media and advertising companies and everything. You even got our brother Byron Allen to the table to talk about it. At the end of the day, the only way this is going to change is when we are organized enough to redistribute the pain in the words of Martin Luther King. When that happens,

they'll get up off diversity, because see, diversity is a code word for whiteness. They'll sprinkle a few black employees around and they'll get to equity. Equity is when you got to redistribute these resources. And redistribute the pain, Recy, was in the words of Dr. King, but it came from Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. Y'all listen to the speech. He quoted Reverend. But I'm just going to let y'all know that. Just go ahead. But the point we're laying out here, Recy,

is that we cannot let... And I keep saying this and people... And I'm going to keep saying it until I'm blue in the face. We cannot let non-black folk continue to monetize

blackness and not allow black people to monetize ourselves. We simply cannot do ourselves. We simply cannot do it. We simply, I mean, the reason the other night we were talking about black targeted

versus black owned media, you keep giving money to black targeted, that ain't going to black people. That's going to white-led conglomerates already. That ain't going to black people. That's going to white-led conglomerates already. That ain't going to black people. That's not building black wealth.

That's not building up black families. It's not. So again, 10 months after George Floyd, we have got to have a different state of mind and not let folk pimp us for

change. And then we laud them for hiring one Black person, but then when you pull the curtain back, it's 200 other people and ain't nobody Black. Ain't that some...

Yeah, absolutely. First, I do want to say, though, that picture with Gianna Floyd is just so heartwarming to me. She's such a beautiful little girl. So thank you for sharing that picture. But to your point, Roland, this is about more than just gestures. It's about more than just rhetoric and about basically what it is. It's commodifying black movements. And that's what it is. And I echo what Dr. Carr said. I do feel bad for somebody like Timmy Kamala,

who for one is not Black Lives Matter. She has her own organization, which is Until Freedom. So she has nothing to do with the fact that Black Lives Matter raised $90 million. What does that have to do with her? But when I see constantly more and more, where we see more TV shows, more commercials, more award shows, it's all about showing this, this we're in solidarity with you. And it's all for show versus putting something actually behind

that. And that's where we have a responsibility, not just to, as Dr. Carr said, fight capitalism with capitalism, but we have a responsibility to, as I've said many times, continue to push for Black-owned businesses like what you do, Roland. We have to validate Black-owned businesses and demand that they get a piece of the pie. A lot of times, Roland, when I see you make a comment about Black media or whatever situation, maybe you have people say, oh, Roland is just talking mess, or why are you making demands, and they see you make a comment about black media or whatever situation may be, you have people say, oh, Roland is just talking mess or why are you making demands? And they want you to hush up when there should be more and more people behind you. And so if we put our weight behind black businesses, if we find out who those black businesses are and we find out who the black talent is, not just the ones you choose.

They like to trot out the same people and move them from this board to that board. And, you know, they only got a handful of people that they let be put on and that's who they just recycle. If we say we want more people, we want our talent to be put on. We want equity. We want ownership. And we want our things, our things that we own to be invested in. Then we can have more power. But as long as we're satisfied with the gestures and, for me, is it's 2021, and so-and-so is the first black woman to do this,

and so-and-so is the first African-American to do this. So-and-so is the first. And, oh, man, hey, Ross Brewer was named CEO of Walgreens, and this person became executive vice president. And I'm sitting here going, the liberation of our people will not be predicated on one person getting a job.

And it's also not going to happen when we have black people in corporate America who operate from the point of view of, man, it sure is lonely at the top. Come on. If your ass didn't bring nobody with you, that's your damn fault. Mm-hmm.

That's your fault. I have a clear expectation, Amisha, that if you become a black CEO, I expect you to do this here. Open the door. Yes open the door because guess what when white CEOs take over they bring all they boys in

they bring all they people in right so what I'm saying is I want to see a black CEO roll up and say, here are my first eight hires and they're all black. And if somebody goes, oh, they're all black. And then you say, yeah.

Because when the last CEO brought in eight white folks, y'all didn't say nothing. See, Amisha, if we're not intentional, all we're doing is celebrating one person getting a check and everybody else still starving. That's right. You're absolutely correct, Roland. And we get to the point where not only do we have to lift as we climb, but after we get there,

black people cannot act as though it's a danger for us to bring other black people on because if we do, we'll lose our spot. That happens more oftentimes than not. Black people getting act as though it's a danger for us to bring other Black people on because if we do, we'll lose our spot. That happens more oftentimes than not. Black people get on that executive level as rare as it is. And once they get there, the fear is that if they add somebody, all of a sudden the spoils that they've gained are going to go away. And I think we have to break out of that mentality. We have to continue to dance.

We have to continue to understand that just because we made it doesn't mean there isn't an equally talented or smart or strategic Black person out there that we need to bring along as well. But also that we are the people who are going to hire us. It is our job and responsibility once we get there to make sure that we are reaching back and we are pulling others along as well. Because there are far too many talented Black people out here who will never get the chance unless we are the ones who open those doors. And I think we have to get beyond that short-sightedness that says that competition of other Black people is going to knock us out of our spot. That keeps us from actually elevating other Black people once we get there. Because I've seen people do that. Reach that executive level.

And guess who they hire? Rebecca the white girl. They hire Black people for Black women. And it is a frustrating point of contention for me as a Black woman who has risen, who continues to rise, who works with youth, but also other Black people who are early in their careers or mid-career, who need to get to that next level. I do not mind sharing contacts.

I do not mind bringing people on. I do not mind sharing anything that I have to to make sure that Black people get to where they need to be. But I've heard from others, it is such a rarity. It is shocking that you do this because there are people who literally are intimidated by talented black people. And many of those folks are also talented black people

who are currently in the positions today. But they feel like if they're eating, if they start sharing, it's going to take away from their taste. Wow. The thing that I want everybody who's watching and listening to understand is this here. This is a continuum. This is a continuum of life.

This is a, if you go back, and I can go back further, but if you go back to Douglas and Martin Delaney, and then if you go to William Monroe Trotter, and you go to Ida B. Wells Barnett, and then Robert Abbott, and then you go to A.I. Scott and John Singstack, and you go to John A. Johnson, Lerone Bennett, and Simeon Booker, Charlotta Bass, and then you give me, I mean, we can sort of, that ain't no different than what we are doing right here. It's the continuum.

So the reconstruction means that this thing ain't finished being reconstructed. We have to be willing this thing ain't finished being reconstructed. We have to be willing to challenge these systems. When I'm standing outside of my high school today, the reporter asked me, why did you do this? I said, none of us will be here forever.

That's right. So we've got to be in a situation where we are providing something for the next group coming along to be able to continue the reconstruction. If we get so caught up in this one black person becoming the CEO, and now let me be real clear about it. I'm going to be real clear with y'all.

When I say this one black person becoming CEO, when I say this one black person becoming a host of a television show, this one black person becoming this, I'm measuring you on what you're doing with it. That's right.

See, we're going to talk about black CEOs. You want to talk about what you did something with it? Do y'all know that in the history of America, when we've had these black CEOs, you've had Ken Chenault, American Express. You've had Franklin Rainenault, American Express. You've had Franklin Raines. You've had Thompson, who was a chairman of Symantec.

Ursula Burns, Xerox. Y'all realize that when Thasunda Duckett was named as the CEO of TIAA. That is the first time in history that a black CEO was followed by a black CEO. Roger Ferguson retires. Duckett is picked to replace Ferguson. Never in history has a Fortune 500 black CEO been replaced by a black CEO. See, so the real track record.

So so so everybody when we sit out here and we, oh, the black CEO, the black president, the black COO, the black... No, no, no, no, no. You're going to be measured by how many that you bring in. Because if you're black

and you come in and you got the power and you don't create the next wave. I didn't say ripple. I say wave of black executives. Well, hell, it wasn't no different between you and a white executive. All that means is one gets named to a position. We got to get excited by what they do with the position. That's right.

Final comments from all of you. That's right. Well, I'd say this very quickly, Roland. I mean, the first Black syndrome, we should be way past that. And, you know, interesting, there's a professor at NYU, Scott Galloway, who does some interesting work. And he said, you know, we look at, you talk about Fortune 500, but really, particularly over this year of COVID, the boom in tech has created, between Google, between Facebook, between Apple, and between

Amazon, a flattening. There's no Fortune 500. It's them four and a handful of others, Walmart and others. And then the rest of them are going to be scrambling around. This is the moment when we can literally restructure the terms of this political economy. And so the old ways of doing it, yeah, maybe you got two people hired, maybe you mentored folks and you had breakfasts and dinners with them. No. Sink your resources into Roland Martin unfiltered. Sink your resources into black advertising and media.

I was on Facebook Live today with Frances Draper, the owner of the Afro, talking about from John Murphy to now. I mean, watching her and watching them employ black reporters, employ black folk who would give them the advertising dollars. We've got to seize this moment. I don't give a damn about a black person's face on the cover of Ebony or Essence or saying, hey, you're the first CEO. No, no, no, no, no. Who owns our companies? Who is putting us on? I agree with Amisha.

You've got to rechannel your resources now and redirect your, the way you think about things. Yes. Amisha, go ahead. Final comment. The thing here that I think is extremely pivotal and important for everyone to recognize is that, yes, and that, that statistic you gave about TIAA, I didn't recognize is that, yes, and that statistic you gave about TIAA, I didn't recognize myself. But I do think that it's very important that when Black people get into these leadership positions, with all the might, the fight, and everything it took to get there, because I'm not diminishing how difficult it is to become a CEO or executive

at the highest rungs of many of these institutions that have fundamentally been white and intend on staying white for as long as possible. But you do not create, you do not innovate unless you bring along people who have also been through that struggle, who know what that is like. And I think that we have to impress upon these Black executives and these Black leaders that you need to do more than these dang leadership institutes that everybody and their mama does. They come and speak at, and so Dr. Tarrant might have a brunch or, you know, mentor, but you're not actually bringing on and making sure that the executive push is happening for Black people to replace, to ascertain, to be able to develop into these roles that are extremely important and vital,

because there shouldn't be an organization where all 50 of their executive leaders or all 50 of their, you know, vice presidents, presidents, all look the exact same. I remember as a kid being in my first grade class and saying, oh, I want to be president. My first grade teacher sat me down and showed me a poster of all the presidents we've ever had. And at that time, obviously they were all white and they were all male and said that, you know what, black people cannot do this. It's just impossible. And I think that that is what a lot of black people in business think as well, when we consistently see over and over again the people who are in these executive leadership positions,

the people who are in these roles, the CEOs, time and time again do not look like us. And on that off chance that one does, the next 10, 15 will not, unless we make a difference. Right. Recy? Yeah, I think to what Dr. Carr and what Amisha are saying is it's really important to have a pipeline. And what a lot of people don't understand is that when we see CEOs or we see directors and things like that, these people have been groomed from sometimes interns or somebody's son or somebody's daughter or somebody's niece or whatever the situation may be. And so we're trying to play catch up after the fact. We could be 10 years into our career

and we haven't been identified as a high potential performer or anything like that. And so we do have a responsibility as Black people to help cultivate those that are around us to help identify. You know how the process works. If you know how the game works, then put somebody else up on game. OK, because everybody else is being put up on game and they don't even have to know how it works because it's working for them just because the fact that they're white. All right. So when you see people coming in, go ahead and pull them aside. You don't have to be in a position of power. You can be a peer and still empower those around you. And so that's what this is about.

This is a long game thing. This isn't something that, oh, you wake up and you have all these black people in positions of power. People are groomed, whether it's in corporate America, whether it's in politics, whether it's in sports. The grooming starts early and it's often and we are left behind because we aren't even situated to 10 years from down the line benefiting from, OK, this position open up or this is they're looking for this or that together. So that's what we have to also focus on in addition to the whole, you know, entrepreneurship. But just when we're talking about pipelines, it starts early. And so figure out where you can get in on that pipeline. And like I said, put somebody else on. To Amisha's point, it's not going to take away from you. Because you could be off at another company a year or two years from now.

So why are you trying to hold somebody else back and not put them up on game? So that's just the last point that I want to make. Talk about what happens with change. Coming up next, Alexi McCammon is out as the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue after a staff revolt over tweets she sent out not last week,

not last month, not last year, but 10 years ago. I'll explain next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power.

And this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Work seven days a week, no days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit, and it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us,

delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to $15

so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all workers to stand up as

one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum, and they should be making this a be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. What you're speaking on is taking risk. What you're speaking on is taking risks. What you're speaking on is sacrifice.

What you're speaking on is actually putting yourself in the mud to be in whatever positionality you play in this society. You got to make a choice to say, I'm going to roll over and let these white folks come in here and do what they do, or I'm going to at least choose to be a resistor in this component where I do my thing, I'm going to resist. I reside with the resistance. If you find me, I'm going to be with the people.

If I'm washing dishes, we dropping dishes. If I'm delivering pizzas, we taking some back to Pookie and Ray Ray because we know they ain't got no food at the house. Whatever I'm doing, I'm never in the position to reaffirm a goddamn thing that they got going on. And I don't care how I play it. I don't care what I put on. I don't care what suit, what tie I put on.

I don't care how clean I look for the day. I don't care how prestigious I talk for the day. If I'm in the building, black folks getting something out the door. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. The newly appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue has resigned after a staff uproar over anti-Asian tweets

she sent out 10 years ago when she was 17 years old and in college. Lexi McCammon, a 27-year-old rising star in the industry. She worked with Axios for the 2019 NABJ Emerging Journalist of the Year. Well, she was appointed earlier this month to be the editor-in-chief. What then happened was there were staffers who blasted her because of tweets that she sent out 10 years ago. Now, she addressed those tweets two years ago, apologized for them, deleted them, but now they come back and lead to her resigning her position.

She posted a statement on Twitter. I'm going to read that statement. If y'all have that statement there, go ahead and pull it up, please. But in the statement, she said that they parted ways. That is she as well as Condé Nast, who hired her, agreed to part ways. Allow me to read this for you folks. This story, I was actually on a call earlier and saw this. And I know her. I know Alexi.

Like I said, she's in NABJ. But it still was shocking to lots of people how this whole thing went down that forced her. She said, I became a journalist to help lift up the stories and voices of our most vulnerable communities. As a young woman of color, that's part of the reason I was so excited to lead the Teen Vogue team in its next chapter. My past tweets have overshadowed the work I've done to highlight the people and issues that I care about. Issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world, and so Condé Nast and I have decided to part ways. I should not have tweeted what I did, and I have taken full responsibility for that. I look at my work and growth in the years since and have redoubled my commitment to growing in the years to come as both a person and as a professional.

I wish the talented team at Teen Vogue the absolute best moving forward. Their work has never been more important, and I will be rooting for them. There are so many stories left to be told, especially those about marginalized communities and the issues affecting them. I hope to have the opportunity to rejoin the ranks of tireless journalists who are shining light on the issues that matter every single day. Recy, there are very few African-Americans who hold the top spot along mainstream magazines. Very few. Very few at Condé Nast.

And to be 27 years old to be the EIC is also a pretty big deal. Now, as I said, the tweets were posted 10 years ago. She was 17. The controversy erupted two years ago. It comes back in 2021. So the question a lot of people are posing is, is she supposed to apologize every time she gets a new job? Is she supposed to lose opportunities because of what she posted when she was 17 years old? The question is,

can we forgive somebody who made a mistake when they were 17? What she tweeted was wrong and horrible. But do we hold that against them forever? Your thoughts? When you black, the answer is yes. When you black, as long as you're in your place, it's okay. All that was

in the past. That was a long time ago. But as soon as you start to ascend to the next level, it's always going to be an issue. I applaud Alexi for taking accountability and for unequivocally, you know, being apologetic and being accountable for her tweets, even though she was young to, as you know, as you have pointed out. But I think this goes back to what we were talking about earlier, where for one, like you said, this was not a new controversy. It was something that was already addressed in 2019. It was something that Anna Wintour and the leadership at Condé Nast was aware

of in terms of her tweets. And so what they calculated is, okay, maybe she gets a little blow back, but in the meantime, we get our little woke points because we put a black woman and she's going to make history. I'm going to get all these good, uh, you know, headlines from the fact that we put a young black woman over the magazine. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the team at Teen Vogue is galvanizing against her. So she wasn't going to succeed anyway because of the fact that there were people who were going to be resistant, resistant to her leadership, which is something that happens often when Black people are in charge.

I'm not excusing or even addressing her tweets in and of itself, but it probably would have been something else. Let me just put it like that. But the bottom line is that Condi Nass got what they wanted, which was the good publicity and the good, you know, the good feedback from making this history with Alexi, only to turn around and throw her under the bus and allow her to fall on her sword. It's unfortunate timing that, you know, the events that we've seen unfold over the last

couple of days, obviously, it's unconscionable to try to defend anything that has any kind of anti-Asian rhetoric. But at the same time, you know, it's just kind of like now you just want to make an example out of her. So at the end of the day, what she said was wrong. She took accountability for it. I hope that this doesn't ruin her future. But we've seen time and time again, it's even happening right now with Kristen Clark. It's happening with all these women of color nominees talking about their tweets. It doesn't matter how benign the

tweets are. If you're saying anything that they don't like, they try to smack you back down. And so my whole thing is let's see who they put after Alexi. Let's see if this was all just a gimmick to, like I said, get those good headlines and those cool but those woke points as we

are dealing with this racial reckoning and let's see what they do now because if it's just, okay well, we tried the blackie for a couple of weeks, she had some tweets which we already knew about, now she got to go, let's go back to status quo, then I would say they're all full of shit.

Amisha, Amisha, what was interesting here is, I asked the folks on my Twitter feed saying, well, you know, if if if this was somebody white who says something, you'd be feeling differently. I said, actually, I wouldn't. If that if that was somebody white who who had who had some some awful tweets at 17. First, I am factoring in your 17. That's first. 17-year-olds do stupid shit. I can tell you right now,

I've warned every single one of my nieces and nephews about things that they have tweeted. And in fact, there have been times when I've seen stuff and I call them and I've said, delete that bullshit. Take that down. And I've actually said to them, be careful what you tweet because that could very well impact

your career down the road and you didn't even realize it. So you just tweet it in the moment because you just being young and dumb and trying to be cute. But I literally sent them this story today. But one of the things that I keep hearing from people is that, oh, you have folk on the inside who are targeting her and who didn't want there to be a black editor. First of all,

that was one of the theories I've heard. Another theory was that, well well another theory was that well hey when you make a mistake you have to keep atoning when anyone asks uh sorry i disagree with that one i think i think that i think your work determines how somebody can now judge you. Your work determines that. By that said, Misha, the third thing with this particular story here, which people still haven't even dealt with me, at what point, at what point is she allowed to keep living and breathing?

I remember when what was Mark Halperin said to me, well, am I supposed to never have a job? And I said, well, first of all, Mark, you apologized in an interview, but you have never apologized personally

to the women who you were masturbating behind your desk. I said, no, bro. I said, no, no, no. You play. I said, no, no. You playing games, games here. This this here to me is a moment where. And it's not because I know her, it's not because she's black, it's a moment, Amisha, where you say, first of all, now I really can pressure you and you're going to have to do extra to show us you mean business. The next person don't have to.

I think it was a mistake on the part of the staff not to accept her additional apologies and then say, we're going to judge you on what you do the next six months to a year. We'll be watching. To me, that should have happened. It's frustrating, Roland. And I'll preface this with saying that I know Alexi personally. The frustrating part here for me is that they're holding her accountable

for something not only that happened at 17, but something that she has apologized 70 times 7 already. Like, this has been covered and covered fully. And it was something that they knew about before she came on and something that she knew she was going to face when she got there because those ripplings happened. A lot of this is blowback because there are many people within

this industry who just don't want to see a young black woman rise to an editor level. They just don't, especially the historically white spot. And I think that she was going to face pressure whether or not those tweets existed. Yes, they were bad. Yes, they were wrong. Again, she was a 17-year-old. Most 17-year-olds are still in high school, not even in college. I'm going to forgive you easily for something that you tweeted at 17 that might have been stupid. We have insurrectionists. We have insurrectionists in Congress and in the Senate who have current tweets about the hateful things that they want to see happen on January 6th, and they have to apologize for any of it. So let's be honest with you. There's a huge difference between ignorance in youth versus

you inciting violence as an adult and not being held accountable. Alexi took accountability for her actions as a 17-year-old years ago now. At this point, as someone who has risen in the ranks, who held her own at Axios, who has interviewed presidents, vice presidents, candidates, here, there, everywhere, somebody who has proven herself worthy of the position at which she was in. Because nobody just gives black people anything. So you've got to prove yourself worthy time and time again to get there and to still be treated like this. That is a problem for me. Because how many times does she have to apologize?

How many times is it going, how many times does she have to do this for it to be okay? And the fact that Teen Vogue and Conde Nast is supposed to be an organization that is liberal, yet they treat this woman in the wake of a racial reckoning across this country as someone who is basically napalm for their organization. Because this wasn't just a regular resignation. Let's be real. They pushed her

the hell out. And that's what happened. That's right. Greg, a lot of people were very surprised the other day when you said that Georgetown should not have fired those professors. Your take on Alexi resigning today. Well, brother, I tell you, you know, I think it was a perfect storm. I'm not saying it was an outlier or an anomaly because I don't, first of all, I don't read Teen Vogue. But Conde Nast, of course, being what it is with its venerable tradition of

whiteness. Although I must say, I did pick up a recent copy because Tandiwe Abdullah, the daughter actually of Malina Abdullah, you found Black Lives Matter LA, was featured as one of the young people who was out in the street trying to make change. You know, she's a freshman at Howard. So I did go and get a copy of Teen Vogue for that. But this sister is the third black to be promoted to editor-in-chief there. I mean, Elaine Welterworth was 29 when she got promoted to be the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, a sister.

And Lindsay Peoples was 28 when they picked her. And all this has happened over the last several years. I think it was a perfect storm. I think I agree there was an internal revolt. They went outside. They didn't promote from within, so there's going to be that type of resentment. But here's the key point, I think,

and it's very important in the larger conversation we're having. They knew about these tweets. They vetted her. She had conversations about them. And so the only thing that changed between then and now is Robert Aaron Long. So understand that there was not enough. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Condé, Condé, Condé Nash knew, but it was the staff that released that letter basically essentially saying we ain't going to work for her. They didn't say that.

So it was this step. And I'll pull up in a second. One of the staffers who was on Instagram was blasting her. This is racist. We can't allow it. I don't care if it happened years ago. I don't care. She apologized a year ago. And so but I do think you're right. I think you do that with the other the other stories of anti-Asian attacks. Yes. You throw on long. I think you have. I think you're absolutely right.

Well, that's all I was going wrong. I agree to say. And that's all I was saying. It's a perfect storm. Because if she had been the first black woman to be the editor in chief, perhaps this plays different. But she's the third. So they could hide behind the other two sisters. I mean, I just think that again, the calculus

of how we have to as black people and how we have to as black women in certain circumstances, Black men in certain circumstances, try to do this trigonometry of race to navigate these treacherous shows, and then you've got internal hunger games going on with other non-white staffers

deciding they're going to go out on strike. My question is, at the end of the day, when do we exercise, going back to the thing we've been saying over and over again today and throughout the history of this platform, this broadcast that you're building, when do we marshal our collective strength so that when one of us finds themselves out in harm's way, they are not left with anything other than apologizing the way she did, trying to hold on and hoping. Axios, wasn't that Mike Allen? Didn't he get in trouble? I mean, hoping that she can be rehabilitated at 27. That blows my mind, brother. 27 years old and she got to worry about whether she's going to work again.

That is inconceivable, except you are in a position where white institutional power can have complete sway over your life chances because we haven't continued to develop or extend the spaces that can be counterweights to this world where whim, verge, and now you're out of a job and worried about the rest of your career. And can I add, too? Absolutely. Black people are always expected to forgive and forget and move on. Let's do an oppo dump on every single one of these teen folk folks. Let's do an oppo dump on y'all the past 10,

actually not even just 10 years, but back to when you 17, let's see what you said about black people. And let's see how many of y'all end up being forced to resign. And so I think it's interesting that the history as Dr. Carr pointed out that Condé Nast has with their racism against black people or their problematic behavior. How many times has this happened where somebody has resigned over anti blackness or racist racism towards black people? So let's just keep the same energy.

That's fine. Let's establish this. This is the standard going forward. If you've ever said anything, then you got to go. So let's keep that same energy and let's vet the white people that come behind or anybody, everybody. Let's vet everybody the same way. Let's hold everybody to the same standard. And then let's see how many people that we have left to run these magazines,

including Anna Wintour. All right. That's right. All right, Bob. Precisely. Folks, we'll leave it right there. I certainly appreciate all three of you being with us. Thank you so very much, folks.

Don't forget, if you want to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. This allows for us to be able to do the kind of coverage, travel the country, be able to tell the stories that impact you. You saw the promo. We're going to have Tef Poe tomorrow. I sat down with him recently. We were in St. Louis.

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He has called the Mack Invitational, named after his grandfather, a brother who taught him how to play golf. That's why I am here. Cameron with the Texas A&M played on the golf team there. His dad, Jeff Champ, asked me to come down and participate. Tomorrow, Cameron and I are going to be interviewing the great Lee Elder, the first African-American to play in the Masters. And so we'll be broadcasting tomorrow.

So don't forget that and, of course, the Ted Poe interview. Folks, I shall see you then. Holla! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their homes. We met them at their 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you've 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. This is an iHeart Podcast.