#RolandMartinUnfiltered - VRA turns 55 and voting rights fight continues, NY AG Vs. NRA; Ice Cube's contract w/ Black America

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

8.6.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Voting Rights Act turns 55 and we're still fighting voter suppression and for access to the ballot; New York AG sues the NRA; How can Black businesses survive during the pandemic? Navy SEALs suspend support of the National Navy SEAL Museum after disturbing video surfaces; UCLA considers cutting ties to scholarships connected with a Confederate heritage group; The hits keep coming in a new batch of anti-Trump ads + Ice Cube talks 'Contract with Black America' voting rights have been restored for 40,000 former inmates in Iowa; NY AG Vs. NRA; Ice Cube's contract w/ Black America Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, August 6, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Today marks the 55th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We'll talk with one of the founders of Vote.org about how they are helping people vote today. Facebook has removed troll farms targeting African-Americans and supporting Donald Trump. In Iowa, voting rights have been restored for 40,000 former inmates. Also, a suit has been filed in New York against the NRA to dissolve them. Plus, the Navy SEALs have suspended support of the National Navy SEAL Museum.

It's tied to Colin Kaepernick. We'll tell you why. And UCLA considers cutting two scholarships connected with a Confederate heritage group. Plus, you know what? It's still more drama, folks. We're covering when it comes to this campaign. Joe Biden speaks to NABJ and NAHJ. Makes quite a peculiar comment regarding the lack of diversity in the black community,

but more Latino community. We'll explain. It's time to bring the funk. Rolling Martin and the Filter, let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling,oro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah.

Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Yeah, yeah. Martin. All right, folks, it was 55 years ago when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. It was an arduous fight for African-Americans to get that to happen. Of course, we remember Bloody Sunday where John Lewis was almost beaten to death and so many other people were beaten viciously on that bridge. That led to another march from Selma to Montgomery. It was that

action that propelled the Voting Rights Act forward. So yet here we are 55 years later, still dealing with the after effects of that. We have the Shelby v. Holden decision by Supreme Court that pretty much gutted significant parts of that. Congress, on the Democratic side, they have voted to restore or to fix it. Republicans have refused to actually move on it. So what we're dealing now, of course, is with more issues when it comes to voting. Now, of course, in 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic, now we're talking about massive mail-in voting. You still have more than a thousand early voting, excuse me, voting locations that were, they've gotten rid of in

the South, all kinds of battles over the issue of voting. Here we are, 88 days before the election, and we're still not sure what is going to happen in November. Folks are very worried, but more importantly, if you can't, if you're not registered, you can't vote anyway. That's right. Pull the graphic up, y'all. That's right. Please. Thank you. 88 days before the presidential election. Don't forget the election goes beyond for president. You have key United States Senate races. You have all members of the House of Representatives who are up for reelection. And of course, we have gubernatorial state representatives, state senators. We have local races as well. It is a whole lot.

Joining us right now is Andrea Haley. She's the CEO of Vote.org. Vote.org, of course, is a place where you can get as much information as possible. First and foremost, if you are concerned about whether you're registered, you know, you've had a lot of people who have been displaced when it comes to voting, removed from voting rolls. You can check that. You can also request opportunity to mail by vote. First and foremost, Andrea, how has it been going in terms of what kind of traffic have you seen coming to your site since so many people now are looking at voting by mail as a result of coronavirus? Hi, Roland. It's so good to be here with you today. So thank you for having me on.

We have seen a huge amount of traffic on the site at vote.org, sometimes up as much as 700 percent over anything we've ever seen before. We've already helped over 1.2 million people since January request their absentee or their vote by mail ballot. So we're really excited about that. We know that registrations across the country are down, but registrations at vote.org are way up. I think it's because we're a digital resource. So in this time where so many people have been in their houses, we have the tools that people can use to go ahead, get on their phone, verify their registration status, register to vote or request their absentee. So we're really excited about everything that's been happening at Vote.org and it gives us

a lot of hope to see so many people participating. And Anthony, you can go to my iPad please. I'm actually showing the site right now. Again, one of the points that I have made to people over and over and over again is that don't just assume you're registered. We have seen people knocked off the voting rolls. We've seen efforts to remove people saying that they did not have an initial or something along those lines. And so what I keep telling people is go to the site and just double check to make sure,

just to make sure, because we've seen lots, again, lots of of errors and then people go on election day then they say well no follow provisional ballot well here's a deal if you vote by mail uh you're dealing with that drama as well and so i just keep telling people just double check yep that's absolutely right um double check make sure you're still on the rolls um don't take it for granted it only takes a second to double check so So I recommend that people do that often. And then the other thing is that we know this year they're going to be unprecedented challenges. So it's so important to go ahead and register early. And if you're going to vote by mail to get those requests in very early this year, because we know that, you know, as there's a wave of people who are going to to do it right at the deadlines and that they may run into trouble in the states as the states work to scale their vote-by-mail programs. One of the things on here, you have polling place locator. We know more than a thousand polling locations have closed all across the South in the last decade or so. And so how are you

ensuring that it is the right up-to-date information for people able to access their polling location? Yes, it's a huge problem, especially since today is the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. And as you said, we know that the Voting Rights Act had protections in it that have been gutted and that were gutted in 2013. And because of that, we've had poll closures all over this country. Another issue we have this year is that we need a new generation of poll workers to step forward to so we can keep these in-person locations open. At Vote.org, we are tracking election law changes and polling locator changes every day. We've had to hire on a team of election attorneys to help us out in that and to make sure that we're delivering the best, most up-to-date information to voters in real time. So I suggest that as people go online and

they register that they also sign up for the vote.org election alerts. And that way we can text you any updates that are happening in your community. So that one, so again, Anthony, go to the iPad. So when we click election reminders, so if you sign up for that, that's anything that is specific to what you, what folks are doing, what was happening in where they're voting. Yes, absolutely. And this year has looked a little different for everyone in the civic spaces is, you know, we had the shutdowns in March, right as primaries were happening across the country. So what we've done at Vote.org is we've become a rapid response hub. We have over 4 million people who have signed up for those election alerts already. And we make sure that as in the primaries, as dates were changing, as rules were changing, we let voters know in real time. And for the general election, we'll let voters know what it is they need to bring with them to the polls or to participate and vote by mail in real time and specific to their state. All right, then again, folks, the site is vote.org. All the information, go right back to it, Anthony, all the information

there. Check your registration, register to vote. if you want to vote by mail you can actually request right there i did that uh just a few a couple weeks ago get election reminders you also pledge to register polling place place locator and if you want to sign up for the 2020 census you can do it right here as well and so that's all important andrea haley with ceo of vote.org we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. Eighty eight days. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Well, well, eight days for Election Day. But what I keep reminding people to remember, you got you got registration deadlines. Then you got early voting. Then you have early voting deadlines. You got mail deadlines. And so I'm sort of reminding people to think in those terms, because I'm trying to get as many people as possible to focus on getting things done early and not waiting to the last minute. That's right. Make a plan and make it early. That's that's true words. So thank you so much, Roland.

All right. Thank you very much. I want to bring my panel right now. We, of course, have Recy Colbert, Black Women's Views, Erica Savage Wilson. She is the host of Savage Politics Podcast. In a moment, we're going to have Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Erica, I want to start with you again. 55 years ago, Voting Rights Act was signed. Republicans have done everything possible in the last 20 or so years to gut this, and we've really seen it since in the last decade. Bottom line is we got to stay vigilant. Democrats have passed a bill to fix the Voting Rights Act in the House. It is languishing in the Senate. Mitch McConnell is not moving on it as well.

If people want to say what's the difference between two parties, that's it. Democrats want to fix it. Republicans don't. Yep. And Republicans continue to lead the way in voter suppression, right? So when we look at, you know, there's really not a false kind of choice here. would continue to do everything that he can do within his power to definitely ruin the confidence of people in the vote for November the 3rd. And so one thing that I've been saying to people, and I'm so glad that you had the CEO of Vote.org, Roland, and you mentioned all the things that you mentioned, is I've been saying on Savage Politics to listen, have a voting plan. You know, when we think about kind of like 88 days, but even when we shrink that down to, as you said, when you think about all of the deadlines and kind

of like what is in front of us and postmark dates and things of that nature, we don't have enough time. So I've been saying to people, listen, whatever your voting plan is, if you're going to be voting by mail or if you're going to because of wanting to be at the poll or because you're a senior, you know, there's literacy barriers or what have you, to make sure your municipality has early voting days. And if they do engage in that, the nostalgia of standing in line, that is, package that up for a different time. People have got to be actionable and understand that this election is about maintaining some semblance of democracy.

It is not about waxing poetic about who is the best candidate. It is simply about that. Folks, this is actually the video from 55 years ago when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of Congress, members of the Cabinet, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans. Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that's ever been won on any battlefield. Yet to seize the meaning of this day, we must recall darker times. Three and a half centuries ago, the first Negroes arrived at Jamestown.

They did not arrive in brave ships in search of a home for freedom. They did not mingle fear and joy in expectation that in this new world anything would be possible to a man strong enough to reach for it. They came in darkness and they came in chains. And today we strike away the last major shackle of those fierce and ancient bonds. Today the Negro story and the American story fuse and blend. And let us remember that it was not always so. The stories of our nation and of the American Negro are like two great rivers welling up from that tiny Jamestown spring, they flow through the centuries along divided channels.

When pioneers subdued a continent to the need of man, they did not tame it for the Negro. When the Liberty Bell rang out in Philadelphia, it did not toll for the Negro. When Andrew Jackson threw open the doors of democracy, they did not open for the Negro. It was only at Appomattox a century ago that an American victory was also a Negro victory. And the two rivers, one shining with promise, the other dark-stained with oppression, began to move toward one another. Yet for almost a century the promise of that day was not fulfilled. Today is a towering and certain mark that in this generation that promise will be kept. In our time the two currents will finally mingle and rush as one great stream across the uncertain and the marvelous years of the America that is yet to come. This Act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong.

Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American in his heart can justify. The right is one which no American true to our principles can deny. In 1957, as the leader of the majority in the United States Senate, speaking and supporting legislation to guarantee to the right of all men a right to vote, I said, this right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies. Last year, I said, until every qualified person, regardless of the color of his skin, has the right, unquestioned and unrestrained, to go in and cast his ballot in every precinct in this great land of ours, I am not going to be satisfied. Immediately after the election, I directed the Attorney General to explore as rapidly as possible the ways to ensure the right to vote.

And then, last March, with the outrage of Selma still fresh, I came down to this Capitol one evening and asked the Congress and the people for swift and for sweeping action to guarantee to every man and woman the right to vote. In less than 48 hours, I sent the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the Congress. In little more than four months, the Congress, with overwhelming majorities, enacted one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom. The members of the Congress, the many private citizens who worked to shape and pass this bill will share a place of honor in our history for this one act alone. There were those who said this is an old injustice and there is no need to hurry. But 95 years have passed since the 15th Amendment gave all Negroes the

right to vote and the time for waiting is gone. There were those who said smaller and more gradual measures should be tried, but they had been tried. For years and years they had been tried and tried and tried, and they had failed and failed and failed, and the time for failure is gone. There were those who said that this is a many-sided and very complex problem. But however viewed, the denial of the right to vote is still a deadly wrong, and the time for injustice has gone. This law covers many pages, but the heart of the act is plain. Wherever by clear and objective standards states and counties are using regulations or laws or tests to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down. If it is clear that state officials still intend to discriminate, then federal examiners will be sent in to register all eligible voters.

When the prospect of discrimination is gone, the examiners will be immediately withdrawn. And under this act, if any county anywhere in this nation does not want federal intervention, it need only open its polling places to all of its people. Now, Recy, the thing here is that people have to understand is that because of the Southern Democrats who fought this year, they put a provision in there where it's sunset in 25 years had to be reauthorized. And that's what you're seeing. Then, of course, when now every time Congress reauthorized it, it was reauthorized dang near unanimous. But it wasn't until it was challenged and the Supreme Court said it was

unconstitutional that some places could have that that federal intervention LBJ was talking about and not others. And then John Roberts tried to make the argument that, well, the voting numbers of African-Americans being able to vote have increased so much. It shows you there's no need for that. And actually, Congress needed to fix this formula that they sort of created. It made no sense whatsoever. And the moment after their decision, the same Southern states now led by Republicans immediately focused on voter ID, shutting down locations, moving locations, putting barriers in place

that were akin to exactly what LBJ was talking about in 1965. Absolutely. And I mean, this is the kind of intentional erosion of hard-fought gains that we have to fight for in every generation. And so it was absolutely intentional. And the Republicans had a field day with it, and they're still having a field day with it. But unfortunately, with Mitch McConnell running the Senate and Donald Trump as the president, the cavalry is not coming for Black voters. And so what we have to do, as Erica mentioned, is we have to have a voting plan. I want to shout out the Vote.org,

which is a Black woman-led organization. And to pivot a little bit, I do want to shout out Higher Heights and Phenomenal actually took out a full-page ad today in The New York Times to highlight the fact that for the Voting Rights Act anniversary, that's actually the first time that black women were fully enfranchised in this country. And so on today, I would like to recognize, you know, the fact that black women have been fighting for this and were the last ones to actually receive any kind of, you know, enfranchisement on a meaningful level. And I want to shout out Amelia Boynton Robinson, who led the march, who helped organize the march on Bloody Sunday across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and leaders like Diane Nash, who was a leader in the Selma

Voting Rights Campaign. And so we often, you know, see, you know, wonderful, amazing people that absolutely deserve credit, like the great John Lewis. But we don't often talk about the role that black women have played in the fight for the Voting Rights Act and continue to play as, you know, as you had Andrea on earlier with ensuring that black people have the right to vote, are educated. Well, people all across the board, Latasha Brown as well, with Black Voters Matter. So this advocacy is still going on. Black women are still leading the board. Latasha Brown as well with Black Voters Matter. So this advocacy is still going on. Black women are still leading the charge. And that's something that I feel is really important to know on today. Folks, speaking of voting in Iowa,

Governor Kim Reynolds signed an executive order granting convicted felons the right to vote. Her order would not automatically restore voting rights to felons convicted of certain crimes. However, it allows an estimated 40,000 former inmates to register and head to the polls. Reynolds will also continue to push the legislature to pass a constitutional amendment to prevent future governors from overturning this order. That's the type of stuff, Recy and Erica, that needs to happen. Erica first. Yeah, I mean, that was, you know, definitely something from a Republican-led governor that was, you know, a really good-willed faith, kind of backed up by the NAACP there, those

40,000 people. And just to kind of broaden that a bit, now those people that have been extended the right to vote again will also have to complete parole and probation and their sentence as well. And so when we kind of think about parole and probation, even though, you know, some of those kind of like poll tax measures with having to pay restitutions and pay fines of those and things of that nature have been pulled out from what the governor signed here in June, we also have to think about parole and probation

and that there are also sometimes monetary responsibilities that are related to that. So, you know, again, we're still kind of pushing for people to have the right to vote when you look at states like Maine and Vermont who allow people who are incarcerated to still cast ballots. So this ongoing movement where Recy talked about all of the black women who have been involved in that movement, I just want to invoke the name of Fannie Lou Hamer, who got activated in a church back in 1962 in voting rights and educating people on their right to vote as well. So when we kind of look at all of this, this is a good faith step in the right direction, but there still needs to be a push for more to ensure that people

who are incarcerated, particularly the state of Florida, where Governor DeSantis decided to really shift those hundreds of thousands of previously incarcerated people that would have the right to vote and invoke some level of poll tax that we really do push further because that right should be exercised by everyone. Oh, absolutely. And so again, today's the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. And so when the show is over, what we are going to do is we're going to actually stream that entire ceremony so you can hear the full speech and actually see the folks who were also there as well. And so that was certainly history that was

quite important there. Now, folks, we talk about voting. Look, there are people who want to stop black folks from doing that. And we're also seeing the type of efforts, voter suppression efforts online that targets African-Americans. Well, today, Facebook announced that they have removed hundreds of accounts from a foreign troll farm posing as African-Americans in support of Donald Trump and Qanon supporters. It also removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlets like the Epoch Times that pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about coronavirus and protests in the United States. This is part of its enforcement against coordinated

inauthentic behavior, which is the use of fake accounts to inflate the reach of content or products on social media. In a moment, Shereen Mitchell is going to be joining us to talk about this here. But this is what we're seeing, Recy, we're already seeing in 2020, what we saw in 2016, where individuals impersonating African Americans are trying to have an impact on the discourse, stir up dissension among black folks. Absolutely, and that's why we have to be very vigilant about what we are ingesting,

and not just taking these memes at their words, not just taking these catchy tweets at their words. You have to have some critical thinking skills here, people, and you have to do your own research. You have to verify. And you cannot feed this artificial machine. And I see it all day, every day, where people just take these bots and what they're pushing out there and they run with it and it's very dangerous because they are actually coordinated and their job is to push disinformation and misinformation and so don't fall for the hype make sure anything that you're sharing that you verified it that you validated it because you could be a part of this campaign. A lot of the efforts that we've seen actually take very few bots before it gets amplified exponentially by

real people, which is harder to detect at that point. Right now is Shereen Mitchell. She's a social media analyst and diversity strategist. Shereen, again, we see these farms. Earlier this year, there was a Russian farm that then was moved to Ghana, where they were also impersonating African-Americans. And this is why what I keep telling people, you better trust and verify who you're following and listening to, because these are deliberate efforts to stir up dissension among black people. It's no different than the Republicans who are trying to help Kanye West get on the ballot in certain states. Thank you for even mentioning the whole Kanye West piece as well.

But yes, if people actually see the track, we have been tracking this since 2013. This happened right after basically Obama won the second time and it started to become these accounts that started to pretend to be black women. And that happened before we had Gamergate or anything else in between. And so people don't understand the through line because they don't understand the origin. So what we're watching is the stuff that happened in 2016 now expanded. We are watching other groups try to do the exact same thing. And we talk about what they're trying to do.

Give our audience a sense of what they're trying to do, what they should be looking out for. Something's happened to Shireen? Shireen, you still there? I think Shireen has frozen. Erica, when you look at these people, I tell people all the time, when you start seeing these names and they got like eight numbers at the end on Twitter, and then when you look at their bio and it says they launched the account in July 2020, yeah, it's a good chance they're a bot.

Right. Absolutely, Roland. And what Shereen was sharing with us and laying out that really this disinformation campaign that was launched by Russia back in 2015, 2016 period has been so successful that they really don't have as much intervention. They are intervening. But really, Americans, just by way of, like Recy talked about, with memes, and just kind of like, oh, this seems like this is pretty savvy, maybe a couple of sentences long, a post or something like that, have really just, Americans have taken that on. And as Recy said, really ingested that and made that truth and sharing that. And so this really, along with

what you said, you know, making sure that when you see somebody who has a name and a whole bunch of digits, all those characters, and just kind of like propped up a Twitter account that is most likely a bot, but even people that you follow, if they're sharing posts and these posts are supposed to be for like more discussion, for places of discussion, but it's really based off of a meme or a piece of a conversation. That is not a conversation that you want to be a part of, and it's not something that you want to share out, because those impressions really did help people, as we saw in 2016, disenfranchise themselves for the vote and just say that, you know, between Hillary Clinton and the White House

occupant, that it was the lesser of two evils. And so they were going to sit out the campaign or vote for Jill Stein, a third-party candidate. And so people really, really, really have to be very, very clear on the people that they're receiving their messaging from. And again, before you share anything, you make sure the onus is on the person with whom that account belongs to to ensure that what you are in fact sharing is factual. Shereen, we have you back here again. What should we be looking out for? Yeah, so I think that some of the recommendations that just was said are important.

I think that also that we need to understand a couple of key pieces of this is that they try to use black vernacular to connect to the black community. So if you see vernacular that seems outdated, that looks like they're like talking jive or other aspects of what they think that our language is, like you should take a pause and should be able to like sort of not share that content. I think the other key pieces is that targeting black women, because they are key to the democratic vote as we're having this debate about the vice president, as we're having these debates about issues that are important to the black community, is if you look at accounts that pretend to be black women or targeting black women, that you should take a pause

and like either if it's a real black woman and you know it, protect that person, protect their voice or call it out and stop the sharing of that information, that disinformation. As we're going into this election, we also have to understand the way that COVID is being used and weaponized against our community. And so that people pretending to be black people who are basically sharing misinformation about COVID are also red flags. Make sure that you're confirming that data and confirming where that data is coming from or the information is coming from. And I think the important part that I think was said a little bit earlier is about the memes. If you see more memes about a certain piece of content or a topic, you should pause on that. Because the memification of disinformation is widely spread, but it's widely spread because it's harder to stop.

What most people don't understand is the tech companies which use algorithms, the algorithms cannot track the text and the content of an image. They can track the content of the text if you write a text, but not the image. So if you're sharing a meme that has text in it, that's disinformation, it's harder for them to catch it and snatch it down. So you have to be careful about sharing memes. Right. And don't just laugh at it because you might be laughing, but you're contributing to it. Yes. Yes. You're helping to spread it. You're helping to share it.

Like the memeification is one of the biggest weapons that has been used, which is why we have this problem, because most people don't even realize how the applications work for images versus text. So if you see a text that says, you know, do not vote or both candidates are the same or vote, you know, don't show up to the polls, text your vote, and it's an image, be clear that that kind of information is disinformation that's targeting voter suppression, which we call digital voter suppression. And it's harder to capture, especially running up to the election. All right, Shereen Mitchell, we certainly appreciate that. I'm sure we'll be talking with you a lot more over the next 88 days leading up to the election. Thanks a lot. No problem. Thank you for having me. Folks, today the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association.

This follows an 18-month investigation that found evidence that the powerful gun rights group is, quote, quote, is, quote, fraught with fraud and abuse. The investigation found financial misconduct and millions of dollars that contributed to a loss of more than $64 million over a three-year period. The suit alleges that top NRA executives misused charitable funds for personal gain, awarded contracts to friends and family members, and provided contracts to former employees to ensure loyalty. The suit names the NRA as a whole, but also names four current and former NRA executives. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, General Counsel John

Frazier, former Chief Financial Officer Woody Phillips, and former chief of staff, Joshua Powell. Folks, we have video of that news conference. Okay. Um, I don't know why we, okay. Um, first of all, let's bring in Greg Carr, which allowed me some time to pull some video up. We should have had that video. Um, uh, let so Greg, this suit by James, people may not realize the NRA, the two groups, you have the NRA nonprofit, and then of course you have the NRA that's a 501c4, which allows for them to be able to be engaged in political lobbying, things along those lines. But the foundation, it is headquartered there, was chartered in New York. Donald Trump was asked about it. He said, oh, they should just move to Texas and live great.

Not that simple, because when you're chartered in that state, guess who has to give permission for you to get chartered to go somewhere else? The attorney general. Greg, what do you make of this sister dropping the hammer on the NRA today? Well, you know, Letitia James is a known quality product of the Howard University School of Law. So but she can't she came to hustle that way. So in other words, this is not the one to mess mess with. I mean, between what Cy Vance is doing and what Letitia James is doing, it's really clear where the man whose mind is melting, what he's preoccupied with. He knows it's just a matter of time before he goes down.

In terms of the NRA, you know, whether it be the failure of their NRA TV project or their attempt to brand themselves, Wayne LaPierre has been wearing those expensive suits for years. And, you know, there's something about power when you have it, many people, that gives you a sense of impunity. Like you can't get got. And I'm glad that you led out the show with Lynda Johnson and the Voting Rights Act. They got some good friends who are down in Montgomery right now, actually, took their families down to go see, to be there in Montgomery for the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act. And this, once again, is a reminder of why elections matter,

because Letitia James ran for office. It's not an appointed office. So if you want to see change, you better put somebody in here who is capable. And Letitia James will have the scalp of the National Rifle Association on her belt at some point. This is some of that news conference. Go to my iPad, please. ...over charitable corporations and their trustees, including the NRA. The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades, while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets. For years, the NRA diverted millions and millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by

senior leadership to award contracts to the financial gain of close associates and family and appeared to dole out lucrative no-show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty. This lawsuit specifically charges the NRA as a whole in addition to four individual defendants. One, the first individual, longtime executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who has been the face of the NRA for decades. Two, former treasurer and chief financial officer, Wilson Woody Phillips. Three, former chief of staff and the executive director of operations, Joshua Powell. And four, corporate secretary and general counsel, John Frazier. These individuals in the NRA are charged with failing to manage the NRA's funds and failing to follow numerous state and federal laws,

which contributed to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years. Since its founding in 1871, the NRA... Recy, that is, again, a significant indictment. And again, she says she wants them dissolved. Absolutely. And I have to let my petty flag fly here because I recall when the New York Times endorsed Zephyr Teachout over Tish James.

I recalled when Tish James was running for office, they tried to make it seem like she was going to be some kind of lackey to Governor Cuomo, but the world and the country saw today what happens when hashtag Black Women Lead. She is fearless. She has her shit

together, and she's going to take them down. And guess what? I know a person who is sweating bullets, as Erica says it best, the son of a Klansman, because she has the Trump organization, all his criminal activity in her crosshairs as well. And so this is just the opening salvo for anything that Tish James is capable of. So beware. And this shows the importance, Erica, of state attorneys generals, why they matter. Again, everybody keeps focusing on what's happening in the nation's capital. Remember, Keith Ellison left a congressional seat

with them in the majority to become the attorney general of the state of Minnesota. Yeah, absolutely. And Dr. Carr said it. Recy has invoked and laid the hammer down. Listen, elections matter. And when Tip O'Deal said decades ago that all politics are local, they're also very much so personal. When we think about the NRA, the Senate Democrats filed a report back in September of 2019 outlining the Finance Committee, outlining in a 77-page document the NRA's involvement with Moscow. And this is talking about before the runRA quickly pivoted to a white men-only drinking fountain, as it were now in this modern time, and have flown to the Caribbean and taken African safaris with their families and have spent an exorbitant amount of money, meanwhile, the Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell still have not came to an

agreement around continuing to support Americans during a public health crisis and an economic and housing crisis. So this is what people need to actually see and sit with and understand. As you have said, as Dr. Carr, as Recy said, elections matter. Vote is a verb. Get prepared. Get ready to vote unless we want to see kind of the same running along that we continue to see in the Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists virtual convention. Obviously, because of COVID, we were not able to assemble here in Washington, D.C. I'm vice president digital on the NABJ board. And today, we vice president Joe Biden spoke to the organization and folks are raising questions about this comment that he had to make. Check this out. By the way, what you all know, but most people don't know, unlike the African-American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly

different attitudes about different things. Yes. And by the way, what you all know, but most now the context of that they were talking about in terms of what he would do with Cuba. And so folks have been commenting on this whole deal. What is he talking about in diverse? One of the things that he was speaking about there that I've actually said for years that people don't quite understand. Part of the problem in this country, Greg, is when people say African-American and Latino. Well, when you say African-American in this country, you're talking about black people who are from Mississippi, Alabama, Texas.

I mean, you can go all around the country. You talk about people of African descent who are in this country. The difference between Latinos is that point right there. Some places, Greg, they call them Latinos. Some places, they're Chicanos. Some places, they're Hispanics. You have Afro-Latinos. You've got white Hispanics. Then you have individuals who are from different countries. And so as somebody who was born and raised in Texas, Greg, that was one of those things that a lot of people would talk about. They would say, oh, no, no, no. We say he's Spanish-Latino. It's all the same. And I keep going, no, it's not.

I mean, there's a very different perspective. If you are Dominican from New York City, Cuban in Florida, Mexican in Texas, and then other parts of the country, your thoughts? No, I agree wholeheartedly. And you know that, of course, as a son of Texas. Years ago, 15, 20 years ago, I used to tell my students that I would say, you know, you got Felix Trinidad Latinos and you got Oscar de la Hoya Latinos. In other words, all Latino means is the language of colonization. So I said, technically, I would prefer then they call us Anglos. If you're going to do that, I mean, you're just talking about the language of colonization. So I said, technically, I would prefer then they call us Anglos, if you're going to do that.

I mean, you're just talking about the language. But when you start talking about the, in fact, I've spent some time in Colorado, maybe about 15 years ago, at the charter school started by Corky Gonzalez, who was one of the leaders of the Azatlan movement, the independence movement. We go in the 1960s, Chicano was used in many ways as a word of empowerment. We're talking going back to the formation of La Raza, right? The race, the big organization that they had.

And a lot of the kind of coalition, the coalition with the Black Panthers and Yellow Peril, which was one of the organizations that Asian communities kind of put together. So that was a very powerful word. Hispanic, of course, as you say, down where you from, you're talking about those Native Americans who were colonized by the Spanish. We would call them Mexicans and others. I mean, you know, they dispossessed the top third

of Mexico. But when you say Latino, typically, it usually meant those who were colonized by the Spanish in the Caribbean or closer to the Atlantic. And of course, they are heavily Afro-Latino. So, you know, this becomes a dangerous, well, I'll end with this. Joe Biden is grappling with the same language that we all grapple with, which is language which tries to fit us in categories, demographic categories that are then used to weaponize our politics. And as this country becomes majority nonwhite, and I don't want to use the word majority-minority, because white people are a global minority, as it becomes majority nonwhite, I think we're going to see an increasing attempt to use those terms to divide and set at each other's throats these groups of folks who were colonized by the Spanish

instead of the English like we were. The thing there, Reese, when we start talking about this here, obviously people have been commenting back and forth, folks like, oh my God, Joe Biden, huge gaffe, you're screwing up. I get it. I get how people break that down.

But we do have to have this conversation because that's part of the problem. Like for instance, when you talk about, when you talk about Latino, down, but we do have to have this conversation because that's part of the problem. Like, for instance, when you talk about, uh, we talk about, uh, Latina and I purposely always say Hispanics slash Latinos, cause you never know what, what group you're talking about. You have to deal with the realities that as we become a nation that's called a majority of people of color, you have to deal with this whole notion of white Hispanics. When I was at CNN, it was a trip. This thing came up, and we were on

a conference call. Now, mind you, Reesey, I'm from Texas. I know white Hispanics. I know people who said, no, I'm white. And I look at somebody else who's like, no, I'm dark-skinned. I ain't white. I'm Hispanic. So we were on this conference call

and one of the white CNN executives goes, look, folks, we were going over this whole issue of terms. They're like, you know, you know, white Hispanics don't exist. And somebody went, I'm sorry, I'm one. The whole call got quiet and I went, I tried to tell y'all, you know, and so so this whole distinction, you know, this whole idea. And so, sure, for the Biden team, like you guys sit here, you know, unpack and try to explain. Well, this was the context of the statement was real quick to say, boom, here's a 13 second or 20 second soundbite. But as we're moving towards 2043, you're going to have to deal with this because you just can't. You can't group Latinos, Hispanics in the same way you group African-Americans. Although we as African-Americans, we all think differently.

The reality is we don't identify with another country but the United States. Those of us, of course, talk about, you know, Africa. But the reality is when you talk about Hispanics slash Latinos, they see themselves, many of them, as no, not Hispanic slash Latino, but Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan, Dominican. And so even if they are born in America, they also are identifying with their family's home country. Your thoughts? I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with acknowledging that Latinos, Hispanic communities are completely diverse. They are absolutely not monolithic. And I think it is well worth anybody's efforts to understand how these differences play into perhaps their political affiliations and their decision-making. However, I absolutely do begrudge the notion that Black people are monolithic. Do not mistake the fact

that we vote overwhelmingly Democratic as us being monolithic ideologically, with our attitudes or any things like that, because that's just flat-out false. I don't understand why there even has to be a juxtaposition. And I understand that Joe Biden is not artful in how he says things, but I'm not just going to give him a free pass because you could have left the whole black part out of there, okay?

You didn't even have to go there about black people, and you're actually incorrect. No, you don't have – if you're talking specifically African Americans, then no, you don't have Colombian African Americans. You don't have all that. You're talking about black people. Black people are from all over the diaspora in this country. And so what I want to see from Joe Biden and what I want to see from Democrats is to approach black people with the same amount of nuance and understand that we do have a different set of motivating factors and desires and try to, you know, to try to better understand that and accommodate that and bring us receipts and bring us policies that actually feed that instead of saying, I have the blacks,

I have the black vote for me. If you don't vote for me, you're not black. But shouldn't we also do that as well? Because here's what happens. We talk about the black agenda. In fact, in about 10 minutes, we're going to have Ice Cube on, and he has a contract with black America. Well, what does it actually mean? Then when folk talk about black churches, well, black church, Kojic ain't the same as AME, which is not the same as a black United Methodist church. We're not the same as a black Catholic church. We're not the same as a black Baptist church. And hell, within Baptist churches, you got progressive National Baptist. You've got National Baptist Convention USA, full gospel Baptist fellowship.

And so this is where also I think that we have to also make those distinctions and force people to see us not simply as one group. I completely agree. And that's why I've been saying the entire time I've been on your show that we need to be making demands and that we need to be demanding that people bring receipts to us. We should not be allowed to be treated and take it for granted

as the mules of the Democratic Party. We should be allowed to state, and actually we shouldn't even be having to give this education in 2020 that black people are not monolithic. There's a whole ass Smithsonian that gives you a very good idea about the breadth and the depth of the black experiences in this country. And so yes, black people sometimes approach each other with the lack of nuance and a lack of respect for our different, um, you know, experiences. And even you have like the Eidos, which is sometimes hostile to Black

immigrants and things like that. There are a lot of different undercurrents in our own communities, but I just do not accept anybody trying to in any way suggest that the Black community is monolithic, despite the fact that we do monolithically vote for Democrats when we vote. But there's a whole 50 percent of Black people that don't even vote. And why is that? Because somebody is not meeting their needs and somebody is not recognizing for them the way that Democrats are aiming to recognize what the Cubans want versus Colombians versus Dominicans versus Mexicans and versus all of these other groups. If somebody put that same effort towards the Black community, you might not see 50% of Black people staying at home and not voting for either party.

Erica. Yeah, I completely agree with Recy. And then to think about, you know, all of the efforts and all of the gains that we've seen in this American experience has been for the blood, sweat and tears of black people, black people, those groups that have allied with us. But it has been black blood. It has been black torture. It has been black trauma. It has been blackness that has moved this country forward. And so I definitely do agree. And I also do say that, you know, because we are spending so much time fighting so many different parts of institutional racism, that when you have groups that are able to kind of

flex between white and whatever their demographic is, being black means that we are 100 percent black. We don't go home and take the suit off and or, you know, enter into a place of employment. Literally, you know, there are people that do that figuratively, but we cannot take our skin off. Our skin is our skin. We're recognized black wherever we go. And so to that point, you know, as Biden continues his campaigning efforts, that a conversation continually needs to be had with him around the way that he definitely approaches and talks at our community because he was not, in fact, talking to our community. I don't really give a damn about Kanye West, but I do have to address this particular issue. Republican operatives are leading his effort to get on the ballot in certain states, such as Wisconsin.

Of course, what he wants to do is he wants to actually siphon votes away from Joe Biden for Donald Trump. Greg Carr, you got some dumb ass people. I've been dealing with him on social media saying, yeah, I'd rather vote for Kanye West than Joe Biden. And I'm going, if you think for a second, Kanye, in fact, he gave an interview with Forbes and go to my iPad. He said that he wasn't running for president. He was walking for president, walking to win.

Then when the person when a reporter said, yeah, but you can't get 270 electoral college votes. His response was, I'm not going to argue with you. Jesus is king. First of all, let's just be clear. Republican parties dealing with an unstable individual who has mental illness and are trying to use it to their advantage. Many Republicans like S.C. Cupp and others have been blasting them for that. But let's just be real clear. If you were even thinking about voting for Kanye West, you're voting for Donald Trump. That's what the game is. And it's clear Republican operatives are behind the effort. Actual Republican lawyers are handling getting the signatures to get Kanye West on the ballot in places like

Wisconsin because they want to draw black votes? Of course. I mean, it's just a simple role, and you've said it. Human beings are not monolithic. No human community is monolithic. But when we start talking about power, who has it and who doesn't have it, it usually congeals around groups who can work out a common agenda. The civil rights movement in this country, the black freedom struggle in this country, is really a struggle where we saw concessions by those people who have suffered, as we heard, we just heard Erica talk about it, the domestic suffering, our movement was advanced by international movements and by international solidarity.

So when you see Kanye West, I mean, as long as this country can keep a black agenda within the four corners of the American state, it can police it differently. And I'm saying that because Karen Bass, for example, the New York Times did a long article yesterday on her, and, you know, trying to make her apologize for going to Cuba several times, trying to be in and out. Part of that is what Biden, I think, in his mind was trying to get out of his mouth today. You know, this whole notion that we have to stay domestic and stay focused domestically. When you see Kanye West, you're looking at somebody who is being used, who's clearly not well, who doesn't appear to be surrounded.

Frankly, I'm looking at some of these things. Kim Kardashian is saying, I'm saying, yeah, bro, you need some sisters around you now because this one right here, I don't know. She's going to try to make you make off with all your money or whatever. But, you know, I don't know who she's working with. But you're looking at somebody. This whole drama is being played out in a country where our people, unfortunately, are becoming more and more like the general American population. You know, celebrity in the place of political organization, this kind of thing. So I guess what I'm saying finally, Roland, is that we can't afford

to mince words with this. A vote for West is a vote for Trump. And anybody says it's not, we don't even got to argue with them. We should be too busy trying to get these people who ain't going to vote at all to the polls.

Let's just ignore this, man, because that's exactly what they're trying to do. And to see, again, Republican operatives behind this, Erica, this is real simple. They are scared to death that Trump is going to lose. They see what's going on. Donald Trump only won in 2016 because fewer people voted. And what they want to do is they know he only won Wisconsin by 10,000 votes, Erica.

And their whole deal is they know black folks are fired up. You got white progressives fired up. They are hoping to get 20, 30, 50,000 people to cast a ballot for Kanye as opposed to potentially voting for Joe Biden. That's the game that they're playing. Yep. It's the Jill Stein effect. It's literally watching a replay of 2016 happen right before our eyes. And so, honestly, for somebody to actually either on their mail-in ballot

or to actually go into a precinct and actually check the box for Kanye West should not have the right to vote. What Dr. Carr said about, and I think that that is an important point that really, really needs to be amplified about the celebrity presence in way of serious matters when we're talking about politics, when we're talking about setting precedents and ensuring protections, not only in federal institutions, but state and local institutions, as we look at those down-ballot races, it's asinine, but it also speaks to where people's attention is, how long, you know, when we talked about memes

and things of that nature, how people just take incredibly important information and condense it down to six seconds, which could be equated to disinformation. We're in a real troubled spot here. And so exactly your point that a vote for Kanye West is, in fact, a vote for Donald Trump. But it is also actually not even a vote as far as I'm concerned. What they're trying to do, Recy, they are scared to death of the black vote in 2020. And so

they're going to throw everything at black people in the next 88 days in order to try to get this man to win. And that's why, Recy, I keep telling black folks, we better check the registration. We better sit here, and if you're going to vote in person,

vote during early voting. Don't wait till November 3rd, because I'm black. Everybody listen to my voice. They are going to try to create lines that are four and six and eight hours. I'm telling you, they are scared of black voters, Recy. Absolutely. And just one more note about Kanye West. To be clear, the Republican operatives that are helping him out are very incompetent. They are a band of really idiots, to be honest. And so the paperwork that he's been submitting to get on these ballots have so many errors. There is a lot of fraud

involved. And so Kanye West needs to be more worried about not ending up in jail for election fraud than he does about getting on the ballot, because these white operatives are going to have his black ass in jail and he will not have even one electoral college vote. But, and the topic of black voters, yes, absolutely. And the one thing I really want to emphasize to people as well is that I know that people are scared about the post office. We're hearing about the intentional delays in service, sometimes taking people three weeks

to get their mail. So it's very important, number one, to request an absentee ballot now, so that you're the first to get their mail. So it's very important, number one, to request an absentee ballot now so that you're the first to get it. But also keep in mind that in most places, you can actually drop off, physically drop off your mail-in ballot. But hold on, stop right there, stop right there, stop right there. I want you to pen to pen. But I need people to remember, that might be the case where you vote, but it might not be the case elsewhere. People got to understand,

there are no national standards for voting. There are state and county standards. What your county does, it literally can change from a county in the same state. And so I need people to understand, check the rules where you vote as well. Vote.org is important. Finish your point, Reese. Yes, check the rules. Absolutely.

Because as Roland said, it can be different everywhere else. But for those of you who have the option to drop off your ballot, it's a very, very good and safe way to do it. I dropped off my absentee ballot when I voted in this primary. So I would encourage you as another extra step that you can take if that option is available to you to actually drop off your ballot because it's that you don't have the margin of error in terms of relying on this postal service.

All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. A conversation with Ice Cube about his contract with Black America. Yeah, I know all y'all got some questions for that. And Reesey, control yourself being on the same show with Ice Cube. All right. Got to go to break. We'll be back in just a moment. We'll roll it, Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. How long is the video? so All right, folks, the black gun company, Seek.com. They've got these great virtual reality headsets right here. All you do is pop your phone, your cell phone right into here, and then you can watch the content, the virtual reality content on their website, Seek.com. You can also watch videos in 360 degree and so this is what that particular headset is. And then of course they have these great headphones here, these Seek.com headphones.

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RMVIP2020, RMVIP2020, when you go to seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. And so we want you to course to support the black owned companies and also support what we do here at Roller Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, let's talk about policy. We're discussing that early in terms of what black America wants. Well, Ice Cube is one of the folks. He's more than a rapper. He's more than an actor. He's more than a philanthropist. He also cares deeply about the issues facing black people. And he has really been and loaded uh for the last several months if you follow him on social media when it comes to what's been happening in the streets police brutality other issues uh he joins us right now from the west coast all right skew how you doing

man yeah what's up brother how you feeling man feel great glad to have you uh on the show uh let's get right uh to it when when did you you when did it hit you where you said, you know what, I've got to do something. I've got to help put something together to help our people. You know, I had thought of a piece of what's now called the contract with Black America. I had thought of a piece of what's now called the Contract with Black America. I had thought of a piece of it called the American Jobs Pact, where it was just a great, you know, program where industry could work with the community and government. And so, you know, I was working on that idea for a while. And then I ended up getting into the big three.

And, you know, to start a league, a pro league from scratch, you know, it kind of, you know, monopolized my time. So it really took me away from it. And, you know, we're four years into that and that's rolling we didn't get a chance to play this year so um i had a lot of time on my hands so with this situation with george floyd uh and where the country is now understanding how much we need reform everywhere, you know, overhaul, reconstruction of everything.

I started thinking, you know, with a bunch of smart people, and we said, you know, let's think of something broad. Let's look at all the areas where systematic racism or systematic exclusion is keeping us from having generational wealth. And so in digging, you see where all the pitfalls are, where all the obstacles, all of the systematic stuff that keep us back that's happening in this country.

And so that's what really started, you know, us thinking that we need something broad that we can ask government and the private sector to be a part of. How do you respond when people say, man, look, I'm not trying to listen to some entertainer talking about these policy issues. You shouldn't be addressing this stuff. I shouldn't have to. Really, I shouldn't. But, you know, somebody's got to, you know, set some in motion that's more than just, you know, reforming one thing like the police.

You know, you reform the police, and if you leave the prison system in place and the justice system in place, it's not going to matter. You know, we're getting it from all ends, so everything has to be reformed at the same time. Of course, we welcome smarter people to come look at what we got and build off of it. You know, this isn't Ice Cube's contract with Black America. This is a contract with Black America. So anybody can help us make it better. You know, we're not legislators, so we don't have to take it the whole way. We just got to present what we believe we collectively need and the change that we collectively need to get a foothold in this country.

Because the whole thing about, you know, it's all about education. You pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You know, if you don't have no boots, you ain't got no bootstraps. And we ain't got no boots. We need some boots. Well, folks always love to use that phrase, the bootstrap. But the reality is white folks didn't pull themselves up out of bootstraps. They received significant governmental assistance. Dr. King talked about that when it came to the land that was distributed all across this country. And we talk about the resources as well. But again, that's just one of

those phrases that is always used to make black folks believe that we have to do everything ourselves as opposed to, I mean, even now, I mean, look, we're sitting here having a conversation, you know, over this digital platform the internet wasn't created by the private sector government created the internet that's how mark zuckerberg is rich and the guys who own google and the rest of all these tech ceos this was a government creation without a doubt you know the government just pulled $3 trillion out of a hat. And they bailed out a lot of big major companies. But how many black companies did they bail out? You know, we're 13.5 percent of the country, give or take. So we deserve 13.5% of that money to go into our communities to help us

get a foothold. You know, the wealth gap is 10 to 1. Every dollar that a white family has, a black family has 10 cents. And it's not getting closer. It's just getting bigger. So, you know, that has to stop, change, and reverse. We have to catch up. And we will never catch up at this pace. It's designed for us not to catch up. And we got to break that design. How many government contracts go to black contractors? Yep. We should be getting 13 point something percent of that. Well, this this this week on the show, I've been calling out Young and Rubicon because they control the contract when it comes to, you know, getting the word out about the census. That's a more than 300 million million contract,

$100 million that was supposed to go to black media and gotten pennies. Now, you know, they finally are responding to us. But the fact is, I had to call them out, put them on blast on social media. That's the kind of stuff that should not happen. And the reality is, we see this all across the board. And not only that, when we do get a contract, they devalue the black business or the black consumer. And so they'll give us even less when it comes to that contract than somebody else who is appealing to a white audience. So even when we do get a contract, it's still less. You know, they got a thousand games and we sick of the games. You know, it's time for them to give us our just due.

You know, this is something we're owed. This isn't something we're asking for or begging for. We give all that tax money to the government and all they do is give it to their friends. You know, money don't trickle down. It always trickles up. It always trickles up. It always trickles up. So you have to pump in cash to the bottom so it can pump up because it will. Because everybody going to go buy something they need from somebody rich probably that, you know, has a lot of it. So that's just how it is.

This trickle-down stuff, it never reaches us. You know, it may trickle down, but it never gets to the bottom of that pyramid where we are. You know, we're relegated to the bottom in a systematic fashion. And it just, we got to break that up. It got to stop. So let's go through your agenda here. First of all, you have something called Cream of the Crop Training Centers. You also talk about mandatory community volunteering, teaching workforce discipline, living stipend.

I mean, you go on and on and on. And so going through this, going through this, how comprehensive did you want to be, because earlier you said, look, you can't just talk about police reform. But then, of course, you're still dealing with the building of jails. And so how comprehensive that you want to be some kind of start for us to have a broad plan that we can build on and get it to a point where, you know, I mean, walking in and asking for all of this at the same time, you know, could be daunting. But if we got big chunks that we reach and grab for, we can get there. So it's a process like, you know, I'm not trying to be a politician.

I'm not trying to run for nothing. I'm just trying to help black people wherever I can because I, you know, as Martin Luther King said, I've been to the mountaintop and I've seen it ain't nothing there for us. And that ain't cool.

So we need a place for us at the mountaintop. And so, you know, that's just what it's about on mine. So, you know, this was, you know, this are, to me, our Declaration of Independence. This is something that we all can jump behind as a community and say, I might not know everything that's in there, but I know we need help and we need a fair shake. You know, it's not access for much.

13.5% of the country belongs to us, and we're not getting that. And if we got it, you know, white folks probably wouldn't even see us because we'd be in our own communities having a good old time. And we'd probably, you know, they'd probably be, you know, showing up to where we at. So that's just the real, we got, we gotta, we gotta get this. We gotta get what we owe. And that's just it. You call this the case for neo-reconstruction. And this is what you lay out. Neo-reconstruction is an aggressive initiative meant to redress past wrongs systematically

imposed on black Americans economically throughout many generations. Wrongs that have had a severe negative impact on African-Americans, both economically and educationally. The specific case and plan for neo-reconstruction is presented later in the document. You see a commission will immediately be formed and empowered to quickly put the plan into action. Separately, a plan will also be devised to make Native Americans whole within the same timeline. Black Americans will be compensated for the value of work contributed by their ancestors, while Native Americans will get back the true value or land promised to them in various treaties.

For black Americans to be eligible, they must provide documentation proving their descent from at least one enslaved person. They must also prove they have identified as black or African American for at least 10 years prior to the institution of the reparations program. So let's unpack that. And I'm also pulling my panel in just a second as well.

So y'all get y'all questions ready. First, I call this the third reconstruction. We've seen so much movement happening after the death of George Floyd. The first reconstruction took place, of course, 1865 to 1877, which W.B. Du Bois documents in his book, Black Reconstruction. Then, of course, you get the second reconstruction that took place, which is really 1954 to 1968 or 1970, where the Black Freedom Movement is, of course, that was a focus.

And we've seen now this renewed focus on race and inequality. And we have seen these various things happen on the corporate side. But I keep saying you have to think about a much bigger and broader terms and not just a moment, but literally a 10 to 20 year plus plan that when you use, think of reconstruction. And so with that in mind, you have folks who, I'll start first, who said, Cube, why are you putting Native Americans in here? Why isn't this just for Black people? Well, Black people are Native Americans. You know, we've had, you know, a lot of proof that, you know, some of us started here in this land we weren't everybody wasn't brought over from Africa so you know we have to like you say unpack all of that and try to you know find the true lineage lineage of people in this country because some you know I used to tease family members who would say, you know,

I got a little engine in me. I would think they didn't want to be all the way black. But when I really do the research, a lot of them did have a little engine in them. So, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, we want to be counted on all levels, not just, you know, through slave ships. Like I said, you know, we were here before Columbus. So a lot of us.

And so we want to make sure that's included and not excluded. section that you're talking about when it comes to uh uh geo reconstruction was actually put together by uh chris boussard who's uh the sports analyst and uh an economist by the name of rob i can't remember his last name so excuse me for that but uh they helped us with that section you know nothing is written in stone. Everything can be, you know, there's to me smarter people who've been working on this their whole life, their whole career that can jump in and give us a better way to get to, you know, the I said, this is just a placeholder for us to be able to build on, a foundation for us to be able to take broad steps and not just get these crimes. You say also to be eligible, we must provide documentation proving their descent from at least one enslaved person. Isn't that also difficult when the problem is, for many of us, we can't prove lineage because of documentation. Yeah. You know, I'm pretty sure there's, you know, a few different ways we can figure that out.

You know, like I said, that's just one way. You know, I'm pretty sure smart people can get together and we can figure out 10, 12 different ways to figure out, you know, you know, if you were not a descendant of slavery, you know, I'm not sure if you should participate in this. So, you know, we got to figure that out some way, somehow. That's just one suggestion. Got it. I want to go to my panel now. I want to bring them in with their questions. I will start off with the head of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, Dr. Greg Carr. Thank you, Roland. Brother Q, man. Hey, how you doing?

All right, brother. You took me back to 1991, man, on a death certificate, on the death side, a bird in the hay. Yeah, man. Anybody want to know about reparations, they can start with that two minutes and 18 seconds, brother. You laid out just how we got where we got to get. I mean, so where we are now. But I want to say this really reads like a political tract. In other words, a kind of declaration of independence of sorts.

And so rather than to get into details, and I saw it's got to leave comments. I'm going to be leaving some comments, brother, and we'll work out some of this stuff. You know, anything we can do to help, we'll do that. And I saw you got my man Derek Hamilton involved. Good brother. He was at Ohio State. Now moving to the East Coast. So you got some of the best minds in the country on it.

I want to ask you really just a very broad question about what your next step is in terms of where you now want this kind of declaration to be engaged and worked with? Because clearly, I mean, 13.4 percent, that makes sense. We want to get that percentage in education, economics. But then I'm sure people will say, well, if you want 13.4 percent of everything and at the same time you want to fund black studios or subsidize HBCUs. How does that work in terms of integration? And then there's federal, state, and local ways to execute. What's your next step now that you've made this Declaration of Independence? What do you want people to do now to engage this work?

Well, I mean, spread the word. You know, a lot of people understand how powerful their vote is, but they're not really sure what they want to get behind. Or, you know, they just see a candidate and see a name. And this is something we can, you know, I'm going to put it in a bite-sized form. You know, it's 27 pages right now. So I'm going to put it in a form where it's something that people can really grasp real quick and hopefully get behind it.

I think we need a grassroots push on this where we can go and approach, you know, we have different connections with, you know, all the politicians, the big names that's running, you know, in Congress and, you know, of course, on the president, both candidates. So so we got, you know, access to the right people. We just need that groundswell. We need that. You know, the man on the street to really get behind and say, yo, we do need something like this, a contract with black America, you know, from there, I think, you know, that's the pressure. We go to, to people and tell them, yo, sign this, if you want our vote. And then we go from there, you know, there's two different, like I said,

there's two different approaches. You know, we go into the government for things we think the government should have been doing a long time ago. And we also go into the private sector. You know, there's something we call cookie jar companies. These cookie jar companies are companies that we catch with their hand in the cookie jar that we realize are making money or have been making money off black pain, you know, for either, you know, centuries or decades. And those companies got to pay up. You know, it's called paying a fine.

You can call it reparations or whatever you want to call it, or you don't have to call it none of that. But you have to pay for what you've done to uh to put us in this condition and um or to help keep us in this condition because a lot of people aren't racist they're individualists so they they might not you know uh say they might not adhere to the to the racist system but they don't mind tapping in as an individual and get what they can out of it. And so we got to kill that kind of thinking and say we got to make it right for everybody. And the whole country will benefit.

Yes, sir. That's absolutely right. I want to pick up on that point there before Greg can give another question. Actually, what I'll do is I'll go to Erica and Reese, and then we'll come back, another round of questions. People are already criticizing saying, well, wait a minute. Why won't you call this a complete reparations plan? You say, look, you can call it that. You don't have to call it that.

And then there are others who say, no, it has to be called that. And they want certain things set in stone. Is your position, look, put your own plan together, but this is just what yours is. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, I don't think we should get caught up with wordplay. You know, I mean, a check is a check. And, you know, we're trying to get, you know, some kind of compensation for what has happened in a way that can be paid, actually. So it can be done in a lot of different ways. You know, maybe we're taxed.

You know, we don't pay taxes for a century or two. You know, it could be different ways that can help us catch up. It doesn't really matter how we get to what's called reparations. As long as we get there and we can come up with several different formulas to help us get there that the country can swallow. You know, at the end of the day, you know, we have to make this palatable, you know, where it can be done, excuse me, it can be done with no issues. You know, it can be done with, you know, no sweat off the back, so to speak. Next question, Erica.

Yeah, thank you so much, Ice Cube, for this. And reading through your contract, specifically the section, the judicial and public policy section, where you address the military, which I was really glad to see. I am a former veteran of the United States Air Force. And in that section, you talk about the percentage of people, Black folks that are in the military. And then for the enlisted members, we make up about 43 percent of Black military members. Could you just address when you talk about, you go down a little bit further, talking about the DOD allocating 5% back to Black neighborhoods for beautification projects as a way to further instill patriotism. Can you just kind of like walk the audience and talk about

how that section really came to be and what are the outcomes that you all are hopeful for putting that clause in? Well, you know, we believe that it's a national security issue. You know, over 17 percent, you know, of the military are made up of what? If I got the numbers right, you know, I'm not a number. If I got these numbers right, over 17% of the military is black. You know, but we're 13% of the country. So we're doing more than our share. And so that little overage of that budget that the military gets should be put into the community that the soldiers come from.

Because, you know, that makes a difference on what kind of soldier you have. You know, you got a guy who is proud and comes from a neighborhood that he wants to fight for. Or you got a guy, you know, trying to escape his neighborhood and don't really want to be in the military, but just there because he wanted to get out the hood. You know, so we got to do something and give back. I always said, like, the National Guard, what are y'all doing today? I mean, you was on the street the other day, you know, pushing people back. But what are you doing today?

Why you can't be beautifying the neighborhoods? Why you can't be doing things to help the country, you know, have a little more pride and dignity instead of just training, you know, hut, hut, gun, gun, shoot, shoot. You know, how much of that can you do? Actually get out and do something for the people and not just wait for a riot. So the military can step up and do a lot of things that need to be done in our neighborhoods. And just a slither of their budget. You know, maybe they can't buy one helicopter. Maybe they can't buy one, you know, super bomb or bunker buster or whatever.

So what? You know, put it back into the communities that these soldiers come from, and you'll get a better soldier. You'll get a better community, and you'll make people actually be proud of the military in these communities and not the other way around

where, you know, they could care less. Racy. Hi, Ice Cube. So good to see you. and not the other way around where they could care less. Racy. Hi, Ice Cube. So good to see you. I looked through your contract for Black America and one thing that stood out to me is there were at least a dozen bullet points in which I could, off the top of my head,

name specific legislation from Senator Kamala Harris alone. And I don't know if you know, but Senator Cory Booker actually put forth the HR 40 Commission to study reparations. And so I'm know if you know, but Senator Cory Booker actually put forth the HR40 Commission to study reparations. And so I'm wondering if at all in putting this together, has anybody looked at specific legislation that's already in the Congress, whether it's in the Senate or House of Representatives, and see how that lines up? Like, for instance, the Justice and Policing Act has things like ending qualified immunity and banning chokeholds and things like

that. And if you would be interested in doing a congressional scorecard or trying to attach these things, because on a, you know, in a contract it seems like these broad concepts, but there actually is a lot of work that's already being done by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. So I'm wondering if that's a potential next step. You mentioned having relationships with people, veteran politics. So that would just be my recommendation as a way of actually showing that these are tangible things that can be accomplished and as a way of advocating for specific politicians that are more in line with the things that you've laid out in this document? Yeah, I mean, we definitely wanna, you know, present it to them. You know, we was definitely trying to, you know, fine-tune things.

And then, you know, hearing from, you know, uh... you know, people like Derrick Hamilton. Uh, we also been talking to Andrew Young, who, uh, who spent, you know, an hour with us on a Zoom to really, you know, give us just a little bit of his insight on how to get things done in a major way. But, yeah, you know, we know people who are connected to Corey Kamala. Damn.

Sorry about that name. That's your California senator. Yeah, you know. And you know, we got people that know Bernie and Biden and even people that know

Trump's people. So we know people that can that we want to put this in front of their face and get them behind it. But we just felt like we needed to, you know, get people, you know, like my man Roland behind it and other people to get behind it to give us a little momentum so we're not just going in there, you know, a celebrity with a plan. But, you know, black people that folks listen with with a plan but you know uh black people that that folks listen to with a plan so that's that's how we want to go and approach because we want to go in with a little leverage because you know we're not going in to play nicey nights we want we want this done

and we need this done and and uh or, you know, to me, you don't get our support if you're not signing on to doing something as broad as this. Back to Dr. Graycar. Thank you, Roland. Brother Cube, thinking about, and this is really along the lines

of what Reesey has raised, and I'm glad that you talked about the nature of celebrity and doing what you can do with your platform to make the most impact. I mean, you know this history better than I do. In fact, you were there for part of it early in the kind of hip-hop generation, so to speak, certainly about the mid to late 80s. There was a moment when there was an attempt to politicize hip hop artists in particular, stop the violence, Karras, one another kind of thing. And then, of course, we have a long history

in this country, Paul Robeson, Nina Simone, you know, lending their support to causes. I'm thinking and you said you're going to streamline this or at least create a version that may be streamlining. There was a time around 1972 the Gary Political Convention, black folks came together. They tried to generate a black agenda report card and say, whatever you're doing, running for state, local office,

your policymaker, movement person, we've got this 10-point plan, 15-point plan. We want you to answer us on these points. Which one are you going to support? How are you going to support it? So like Recy said,

you've got policymakers who are doing work. Here's where I'm going with it. Given your platform and your business acumen, your ability to kind of use your platform and then your business talent to really create institutional structures, what about perhaps creating a political action committee? And so instead of going to politicians, going to policymakers, going to community activists and folks, you're stationary, generating with your celebrity and with that platform support from people all over. And then you basically create a platform and a space where it's almost like you're a queen or kingmaker. Here are our points. Now you're running for judge. You're running for local Now, you're running for judge.

You're running for local official. You're running for police commissioner. Come here. Here are our 15 points. Which one do you support? And if you support it, we then back you maybe some financial contribution, maybe some form of get out the vote campaign. But what it allows you

to do finally is finally solve this challenge that we've had all along, which is how do we get celebrities involved to use that leverage to the most, the greatest effect? I think a political action committee around this agenda might be one of the ways you can do that. Man, that's a great idea. You know, I would love your help in doing that. You know, I believe, you know, this to me. I'm not new to politics, but I'm new in this arena. And, you know, of course, I want to do what was most effective. You know, we have leverage. We have to learn how to use it. And so any way we can consolidate our leverage and let people know that you got to come see us, because in local elections, state elections, the black vote is the vote, usually the deciding vote. When we come out, we can make it happen.

When we don't come out, anything can happen. So we have to use that, you know, for lack of a better word, we got to weaponize that leverage and make politicians do what we ask. You know, politicians, what I put together, they know all those numbers. You know, it's nothing new. It's not like, you know, I came up with some, and when I say

I, I mean all the smart people that helped me put it together. It's not like we came up with something that people haven't been talking about or understand how it works. It's just political will. And that's what we have to create, political will. We have to make them do it. Well, look, I mean, that's the thing. When you and I talked, and Reverend Jackson mentions this

all the time, Minister Farrakhan mentions this all the time. Numerous people do. When A. Philip Randolph met with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, laid all his issues out, and he said, Philip, you're absolutely right. Now go make me do it. That was a thing that I said, and I was on record. I felt black people, we stayed at the inauguration parade of Obama, both parades, and did not say this is what we want. The reality is I don't care even if we got a black president or a black governor or a black mayor or a black county government official, you have to make a series of demands and say there's a return on investment when it comes to my vote. And the reason black media is so important,

and Q, I'd love to get your thoughts on this as well, is because my problem as somebody who's been committed to media since I was 14 is that black media today is filled with a bunch of folk who spend more time rewriting what white media writes. They spend more time on gossip and entertainment on who's dating who, who's screwing who, who had a baby and not providing enough information. And when you talk about how do you use your voice again, when I'm calling these companies out, when it comes to not advertising with us and not investing, that's how you use the bully pulpit.

That's what Robert Abbott did with the Chicago Defender. That's what A.I. Scott did with the Atlanta Daily World. That's what Louis Martin did with the Michigan Chronicle and Chuck Stone when he ran the Chicago Defender. And I could go on and on and on. Yet the problem is if you don't have your media apparatus, look at Fox News. Rupert Murdoch uses Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal to advance his agenda.

And black folks had better realize if you do not have a militant black media, as Dr. King said in Chaos or Community, where do we go from here? If you do not have a militant black media, you do not have a voice to speak to your interest. That's real. And they try to shut us off, shut us out, won't advertise with us. You know, my man, you know, Byron Allen going through the same situation. You know, you get the asset, and nobody wants to, you know, spend money with that asset. And, you know, we spend much money in this country. And once we learn the power of our pocket purse and pocket book,

we will be able to get some of the things that we deserve. But, you know, they know no matter what we're going to spend, we're going to go buy the new this, the new that, because we're so busy wanting to floss on each other and show each other we're not poor when we are. And so,

once we get that out of us and stop spending that money and realize how much money we do spend and, you know, hold that, hold people accountable for what they're doing, we'll get what we want. You know, we got to use the power that we have. And it's definitely in the dollar. It's definitely in the vote. You know, and it's definitely shedding light on things that's done in the dark. Erica. Yeah, and I'm so glad that you talked about consolidation and leveraging. And I'm just going to kind of continue on from where Dr. Carr left off.

And actually, specifically, the Black Futures Lab had a black agenda that they rolled out, I believe, a year or so ago. And so you talked about grassroots. You're here on Roland Martin, a filter number one black media program. Have you considered in connecting with other grassroots organizations that, you know, may be adjacent to you and saying, OK, well, you all have a black agenda. I have a contract. You know, we, you know, all had these brilliant minds, perhaps we can team together and then leverage those connections that they have, having been grassroots organizers, to really filter this down into the crevices of the Black community.

Yeah, I would love to work with, you know, any group that's out there, you know, doing the work to, you know, that's been doing the work. Like I said, I'm new to this political arena, so to speak, even though I've, you know, always, always used my music to try to, you know, you know, show people what's up, you know, I call it street knowledge. And so, you know, I'm down to work with people who've been doing the work. You know, they, you know, I'm pretty sure they have great ideas, some better than mine or ours. And, you know, this is a growing, to me, you know, movement is overused, but to me this is a growing document that really needs to be looked at.

And it's like, yo, Q, we got a better way to do this. Man, we can do this a little bit better. We've tried this already and here's how it works. You know, what Andrew Young was telling us was, you know, private, you know, put the pressure on private businesses a lot more, you know, than we had planned to at first. You know, we was like, this election is coming, so straight after the government.

But we got to put the pressures on the CEOs. We got to get them in the room and we got to get them to agree because they can make things happen without legislation. They can make things happen overnight. They can cut a check and get it going. So we've got to let people know how much we spend with all these companies and we've got to use that leverage. But we've all got to get on the same page. I agree with that.

And we have a short window as far as when it comes to influencing these politicians that's trying to get elected. But we got a long road when it comes to really implementing, you know, all these different, you know, aspects of the contract with America, with Black America. Recy. Yeah. Cube, I'm curious, what role did Black women play in crafting this contract? Because, and I don't mean this as a criticism, I didn't really see that perspective really reflected in the fact that Black women have unique challenges and were disproportionately impacted by things like maternal mortality

and the wage gap and things like that, in addition to the impact that black men experience. So I'm just wondering if any thought had been put into that in terms of including the impacts to black women specifically in your contract for Black America. I would love to have a whole section, but to answer your question, not enough. We've had input, but not enough. We need to think about the things that we haven't thought about. We actually need a black women's section, black girls and teenage section in this contract because there's tons of issues that that's just not not there that you know need to be dealt with and so we would love help to just you know

continue to grow this thing and make sure that we're touching all the bases and we're getting rid of as much pain as possible when it comes to things that's happening to black people, men, women, and children. Just let our panel know we've got 11 minutes left in this interview here. But to that point, for people who want to read about it, if they want to volunteer input, is there a site y'all have set up where they can go to, to contribute? Yeah, it's a site we got called a contract with black America.com.

Um, and it's, it's right now it's pretty much the document, but we're going to grow, you know, it's going to grow. I'm going to add, you know,

uh, we want input from people. We, we, we need, grow, you know, it's going to grow. We're going to add, you know, we want input from people. We need, you know, we need to just organize, you know, that's really what we're trying to do with the site. And we need help. We need help to organize and make sure that, you know, we're not leaving no stone unturned when it comes to bringing people into this space and having one grand document that we can all push for in the same direction.

Not trying to, you know, ignore is the wrong word, but minimize the work that other people are doing. You know, we just need something broad across the board. And, you know, we have to add to this. But, yeah, you know, this to me is something that's, you know, terribly needed. I'm trying to pull the website up, and so I'm having some issues here. Is it contractwithblackamerica.com? Yeah. Okay.

Contractwithblackamerica.com. Okay, I'll pull up in just a second. I think it's actually contractwithblackamerica.us. Got it. Yeah, that's what I was looking at. It's.us. Hold up, hold up. Yeah. It is.us..com is is taken but there's nothing on it that's why we check we verify yeah you're struggling thank you man it's all good we

we verify so uh anthony go ahead go to my ipad and so folks if you actually go to contract with black america dot us you'll actually see the contract as written here. There are people who have already left comments on here as well. And so you can go do you can do that right now. I put my I put my I put my contact on their queue, man. So anything we can do to help, brother. I'm with you. Last round.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Get my contact from can do to help, brother. I'm with you. Last round. Go ahead, go ahead. Get my contact from... Oh, I got it. I got it. I'm hooking y'all up right now. Last round of questions, Greg Carr. No, no, no, no. Listen, man, I think I'll just say this, and I won't even ask

a question. I'll just make this comment. Brother, you've been serious for a very long time, and you've been walking a fine tightrope. And these last couple of months, I see whenever they see somebody that's going to challenge the system, they try to come get you. But if they're going to come for the king, they better not miss. So anyway, this is the way I think that you're showing a way for other folks who have platform to be able to leverage it the best way. So all I can say is I'm a recruit in the Army. I know I'm sure Reesey and Eric will feel the same way.

We're here, brother, and we're going to help you. So thank you for doing this. I appreciate that. You know, we need, like I said, we need all hands on deck. We need all the smart minds to work, you know, in double time so we can have something that's solid and we don't miss anything. You know, you know, we definitely need a section when it comes to women's rights, black women's rights. And so we I would love help on that section because we want to have balance and we need balance to be able to to have

a great community it can't be one-sided or lopsided so i appreciate it yeah they coming after me not because they think you know i'm anti anything it's because of this contract right here but that you know i ain't listening to that stuff ain't nothing gonna stop me. Erica, do you have a final question for Ice Cube? Not a final question, but just a comment to Mr. Jackson. Just watching your matriculation from your music and just really reading through this document, I thought about

Boys in the Hood and a lot of the points that were made during that seminal film up into the place that you are now and just say congratulations and anything that we can do to help and push this forward. We're absolutely right here to do that. I appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks for that. You know, it's just great, you know, to have, you know, people into this contract, you know, I think is needed.

And to have people respond in a positive way is cool. You know, it's just really time for us to get busy. Recy, do you have a final question? Final comment. I just want to say I extend my offer of help to you. I'm not as cool as Dr. Carr is, but I'd absolutely be interested in helping, particularly bridging that gap and showing how there is legislation

that perhaps might actually answer the mail in a lot of these things. But I do want to encourage you to continue doing what you're doing. I see some things that I know will attract the social media critics, but some people criticize and some people do. And so thank you for your hard work on this contract.

Man, thank everybody in there because, you know, I know everybody has dedicated their, you know, passion to helping us solve this problem. So, you know, everybody has put in work. You know, I know Roland been putting in work, you know, ever since he's been popping on TV telling us what it is. So, you know, God bless everybody in there. Let's keep fighting a good fight. You know, we're going to get what we need to get. The last point that I will make here that I think is really important is that what you are doing is in the exact same vein. And I need, and Greg, I want you to,

you're going to come in, I need you to comment on this because I need our audience to understand this. Especially the people out here who want to be critical of Ice Cube, who want to be critical of TI,, who want to be critical of TI, who want to say what entertainers should not be doing. Let me remind you, Paul Robeson, Renaissance man, brother who was involved in the battle for human rights,

passes the mantle to Harry Belafonte. Harry Belafonte, singer, actor, but very much involved in social activism. What benefited African Americans and others. He aligned with Dr. King. Dick Gregory involved in it. Pretty much gave up his comedy career for the movement. Harry Belafonte created a group called Sankofa,

which is all about bringing entertainers together, especially black entertainers to get involved in these issues. Jesse Williams has been involved in that. Jamie Foxx has been involved in that. And so many others, I know that because I've talked to him on these issues. So what I need people listening and watching to understand is that this, as cube has said, it's all hands on deck. Everybody has a responsibility. He has millions of followers. He can reach folk who don't watch this show. But this show also allows for him to be able to express this in an hour, as opposed to a six or eight minute segment on a CNN or MSNBC that's unfiltered for folks to be able to listen to. And everybody has a role to play.

And the last point, I'll say this before Q giving you the final final word here, is that you say something that's critical. You are not trying to lead this. You are not trying to say I'm the savior. You are saying I need all y'all with input to join with us because it ain't going to happen with generals. Generals need troops if you order to win the war. Final comment. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, we we all got to get in where we fit in. You know, it's our turn. You know, we've sat back and watched other, you know, people take the mantle and try to advance our community forward. And now, you know, it's our turn. It's our turn to take that mantle and use our influence and try to push our community forward. forward and you know when you criticize celebrities for giving a damn you know because we actually

lose more money doing stuff like this than we make so if we didn't love you we wouldn't do it uh we would just you know keep our mouths shut and keep making our money and and don't make no white folks mad you know but but but, you know, what difference do I make if I'm rich and nobody else in my family is? So, you know, it's really all about all of us making it, all of us getting, you know, what we deserve in this country, because our ancestors have built it. We continue to build it in our own way. So that's all I got to say, man. You know, we doing it because we love you

and not because we just trying to show out. And we definitely not trying to make more money doing it. You know, it's really all about, you know, doing what it takes at the moment of truth. Well, the point that you just made is critically important. And you're absolutely right. People sit here and tell an entertainer, shut up and be quiet. And they can do that, but then they're not involved. And to your point about you being rich and not caring, Jackie Robinson called his book, I Never Had It Made. And he wrote, he said he called it that because he said if one African American was being impacted by racism and poverty, then he didn't have it made. I do also want to

say this here, Cube, about 20 minutes into today's show while you were talking, Anthony, go to my iPad. We crossed the 600,000 subscriber mark on our YouTube channel while we were talking, folks. We started with 157,000 23 months ago. We now have 600,000 of you, and so we appreciate y'all also we have 10 600 members our fan club go back to the graphic anthony 2600 our goal is to get 20 000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks by the end of the uh each uh by the end of the year that allows us to remain independent and free to say what we need to say you got a cash app paypal venmo you can also of course mail it in ice cube man i appreciate you joining with us. Anytime you want to come on, just let me know. We'll make it happen.

I appreciate you, man, and everybody in the room, you know, let's keep fighting the good fight and get what we're supposed to get. Absolutely. Ice Cube, thanks a lot. Take care. All right. Yay, yay. All right, folks. Again, we want

y'all to support what we do here, Roller Martin Unfiltered, and join our Bring the Funk fan club. Shout out to Paul Patterson for sending in a donation, Melvin Booker, Johnny Hill, Arena Neptune, and also Ralph Taylor. And if you want to support what we do, please, you can mail your money over to New Vision Media, NU Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Cash app is dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is Martin Unfiltered Audio Podcast on iHeart Radio, on iHeart Radio. And so they are distributing our podcast to all platforms.

And so you can go to the iHeart Radio app to actually get that as well. And so we appreciate all of that. I want to quickly read these names if I can, if I can find them. A man, Kenan, sent them to me real quick. Bridget H. Burke, Gaddis, Charles Wyatt, Clarence Smith, Darlene Johnson, Donna Cummings, Doris McGaw, Elton Williams, James Earl Johnson Jr., Jarvis Waters, Joseph Joyce, Kenneth Shaw, Kenny Ash, Katasha Jackson, LaDonna Bolden, Leah James, Mary Wright, Mavis Knight, Michael W. Cross, Mitchell Brown, Oslo Inc., Sarah Lincoln, Katasha Jackson, LaDonna Bolden, Leah James, Mary Wright, Mavis Knight, Michael W. Cross, Mitchell Brown, Oslo Inc., Sarah Lincoln, Ursula Hamilton, Wayne Burroughs. Those people have given

50 bucks or more. Don't forget, y'all are on YouTube right now. There are 4,234 of you who are on YouTube right now. Man, guess what? If all y'all gave right now, we would have just 5,000 left to join our fan club. I'm looking right now. There are nearly 1,000 of you on Facebook as well. Again, folks, let me just be real clear, and I ain't bragging. What did your name say, Greg? It ain't bragging if it's true. It ain't bragging if it's true.

As nice as you would say, yay, yay, brother. You done made that 6,000. But this is the thing i want our people to understand i want our people to understand ain't nobody else doing this nobody okay it's a bunch of people smacking their gums on youtube but they're not bringing you quality guests they're not bringing you top politicians and entertainers and political activists. They're not bringing you this. And the only way these things happen is we've got to support one another.

Because I'm trying to tell y'all, staff, they got families. They got to get paid. We got to pay for gear. All these things we're doing. This is about providing us an opportunity to be able to speak to our issues, controlling our narrative. And just like black people subscribe to black newspapers back in the day, this is the exact same thing. And if you actually, I told y'all, look, I got a check the other day for a thousand dollars from one of our fans. And we appreciate that. Uh, and I told

y'all the first person to give to the show was a black woman in Long Island, New York, with a $500 check. She said, I watch you on TV one. And she said, I am doing this to ensure that your voice is heard. That, folks, why your support matters. And so if we could get 20, if we get to get the 20,000, man, that would absolutely allow us to keep doing what we're doing. And trust me, we got more great conversations for y'all.

We got more amazing guests that we're booking. And look, all of a sudden, there are people who are emailing us who are trying to get on. And we want to bring you, look, last week, Jane Elliott, T.I., jody whatley this week eddie lavert ice cube and again that's just on the entertainment side we got sports

figures who are reaching out to us we got book authors we've got other people but it only happens if you stand with us so please do so put it up again last time. New Vision Media Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Make the money order or your check out to New Vision Media, please. And Cash App is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered. And, of course, you can go to rolandmartinunfiltered.com if you want to use a square credit card. And YouTube, y'all can give right there on YouTube.

That's all you have to do. Last one, y'all. I'm rocking the Black Voters Matter shirt today because today is the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. And so we appreciate the black folks who died. And there were white folks who died, too. We appreciate everybody who made it possible for us to be able to cast ballot. Please don't sit your ass at home

and not use your power. Go to vote.org. Get your ass registered. Register your uncle, your aunt, your cousin, your nieces, your nephew, your mama, your daddy, your frat brother, your church members, your gang member,

everybody. Register everybody and hashtag fire Trump in November. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.