#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Will Smith's Slap, Fla. Hotel Worker Attacked, Arrested & Fired, BNC's Downfall, Oral Health

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

3.28.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Will Smith's Slap, Fla. Hotel Worker Attacked, Arrested & Fired, BNC's Downfall, Oral Health It's the day after the slap seen and heard by millions. The academy has launched a formal review of the incident. We have two professionals to break down the Will Smith - Chris Rock Oscar drama that shocked everyone around the world. Trenton, New Jersey police department releases body cam video of the shooting that left Jajuan Henderson paralyzed from the chest down. A Florida hotel employee gets attacked by a guest. He defends himself, ends up arrested unemployed.   A white Maryland delegate is back peddling for her response about the dislike of a judge's ruling on the state's congressional district. Plus, I'll have more on the dissolution of the Black News Channel that left hundreds scrambling to find employment and internships. And dentist Dr. Lucia Johnson is back to talk about oral health in this week's Fit, Live Win segment. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bP Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You dig? 1 tbs. salami 1 tbs. salami 1 tbs. salami 1 tbs. salami 1 tbs. salami Today's Monday, March 28, 2022, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, right here on the Black Star Network, the slap seen and heard around the world.

We're going to break down what happened last night at the 94th annual Oscar ceremony where Will Smith took offense to a joke that Chris Rock made about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and he actually walked up and smacked Chris Rock in his mouth. The Academy says they're now investigating.

They are looking at taking action against Will Smith. We'll break it all down. You've got sisters talking about black women need to be protected. You've got brothers talking about toxic masculinity. You've got sisters talking about black women need to be protected. You've got brothers talking about toxic masculinity. You've got others talking about black on black violence.

And the notion of role models and how we behave to solve our differences when it comes to violence. We've got an expert panel breaking this thing down you don't want to miss. And also, you do not want to miss the second part of our, in the second part of our show, 7 o'clock hour, where I'm going to talk about just keep building. If you are an entrepreneur, if you are somebody who looks to start a business, if you're somebody who even if you work in an existing environment, you can be a non-profit,

you can be an academia, you do not want to miss what I'm going to break down in our second hour. Trust me, you don't wanna miss it. It's gonna knock you out, I guarantee you. Also, our second part of our conversation with Dr. Lucia Johnson, talking about your dental health, how important that is, how important your mouth is, your overall health, that's also in our Fit, Live, Win segment.

Folks, it is time to bring the funk of Roland Martin unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network, that's also in our Fit Live Win segment. Folks, it is time to bring the funk of Roland Martin unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. Let's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. With some go-go-royale. It's rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martel Now Martel It's now Macbeth Loved it I love the part where it said, King Lando got nothing on me.

Y'all gotta see it. It's really good. You know who's got the hardest job tonight? Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated. Now, if she loses, he can't win! He is praying that Will Smith wins,

please, Lord! Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it. All right? That was a nice one. Okay. I'm out here. Uh-oh. Richard? Oh, wow.

Wow. Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me. Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth. Wow, dude. Yes. It was a G.I. Jane joke. Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth.

I'm going to, okay? Oh, okay. That was the greatest night in the history of television. Okay. Okay. So we are here to give a documentary out, to give an Oscar out for best documentary. Now, the beauty of documentaries, because they make you, when you watch one, you feel smart, like you watched them, like, you know, like you read a book or something. But all you really did was get high and watch Netflix. So here we go. Here we go. Chris Rock said, wow.

I think all across the world, people were saying, wow. That's exactly what I was saying when we saw what took place when Will Smith walked on stage and hit Chris Rock in the mouth. Now, many people thought what took place was a part of the act, thought it was staged. In the United States, what we saw was we actually saw there was a delay, and all of a sudden there was a skipping point. The audio dropped out. Well, the video you just saw was the international feed, because remember, the Oscars is a worldwide telecast,

and so that was the Australian feed. Then you had the Japanese feed, where you did not have a delay like you had in the United States. And so, and then, as the night went on, then they went to a commercial break. And then someone who was at the event put this video on social media, and you will see Denzel Washington.

I'm sorry, not Denzel, Denzel. Remember when we talked about it, his name was Denzel. Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry and Bradley Cooper, you see them consoling Will Smith and then you see Denzel walking over to Jada, consoling her, roll it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And we are 30 seconds away. We need to clear down front, please. We're going to come into the audience

at the beginning of this act. Please take your seats. Thank you. 25 seconds. Please clear your seats. Thank you. 25 seconds. Please clear the aisles down front. 15. Please clear the front, please. Clear, thank you.

10 seconds. Five, four, three. Now, again, folks, absolutely shocked by this. After it happened, Will Smith returns to his seat. Now, what you did not see there, because a lot of people are saying that people were there to console Will Smith and not Chris Rock, not true. Denzel Washington went up to the stage, and actually there was a photo that circulated where he actually was talking to Chris Rock, calming the situation down. Completely unexpected. And trust me, the producers had no idea.

Last night when it happened, I text a number of people who were in the room, including the folks involved. Yes, Will, Chris, and others sent various text messages to them. And so that wasn't planned. I know people are saying, oh, that looked fake. That was not fake. That actually happened. That was real. Folks have been saying all kind of stuff today. Oh, my goodness, what was this all about?

In a moment, we're gonna show you what Chris Rock said, cracked a joke about Jada six years ago, but a few later, after this all... all this all happened, they awarded Best Actor. And Will Smith actually went up and accepted. He won. He's been winning that, uh, for King Richard in all of the award shows. And he addressed what happened.

And he apologized, but not to everybody. Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. Making this film, I got to protect Anjanue Ellis, who was one of the most strongest, most delicate people I've ever met. I got to protect Sanaya and Demi, the two actresses that played Venus and Serena. I'm being called on in my life to love people

and to protect people and to be a river to my people. And I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse. You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile and you got to pretend like that's okay. But Richard Williams, and what I loved, thank you, D, Denzel said to me a few minutes ago, he said, at your highest moment, be careful, that's when the to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. It's like, I want to be a vessel for love.

I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena. I just spit. I hope they didn't see that on TV. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting me with your story. That's what I want to do. I want to be an ambassador of that kind of love and care and concern. I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment, and I'm not crying for winning an award.

It's not about winning an award for me. It's about being able to shine light on all of the people, Tim and Trevor and Zach and Sanaya and Demi and the entire cast and crew of king Richard and Venus and Serena, the entire cast and crew of King Richard and Venus

and Serena, the entire Williams family. Now, remember, people don't realize there's history here. We're talking about Chris Rock at the Oscar ceremony and Jada and Will. This is when Chris was hosting the Oscars six years ago in 2016. Spike got mad and Jonathan got mad and Jada went mad and Will went mad. Everybody went mad. You know, it's quite like Jada got mad Jada says she's not coming Protests Jada's gonna boycott the Oscars Jada boycott in the Oscars is like me boycottin Rihanna's panties. I

Wasn't invited Oh, that's not an invitation I would turn down. All right. I want to unpack this. Dr. Jeffrey Gardier joins us. He's a board-certified clinical psychologist from Weston, Connecticut. Glad to have him back on the show. Robin May, a licensed professional counselor from Decatur, Georgia. Glad to have you here. Also on my panel is Dr. Julian Malveaux, Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Amakongo

Dabinga, Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University. Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeaver, political analyst. So, Robin, I want to start with you. Last night was real difficult. It was difficult because I know Will, I know Jada, I know Chris, I know many of the people who were there last night. I saw a lot of people, sisters who I know, talking about protect black women, defend black women, Jada dealing with alopecia,

losing her hair. There were people who were talking about toxic masculinity and they they were saying, uh, Team Will and Team Chris, and Chris should not have been doing those jokes. Others who were saying, look, man, it's a joke. You got to take a joke. They were hitting other people in the room as well. What we're not going to do tonight is try to go deep into, oh, why did Will do this?

Oh, was it entertainment? Was it this? Was it this? He should have done this to the other person. What we need to focus on and what I want to focus on is the fact that a grown black man on an international stage walked up and smacked another grown Black man in his face. And Robin, we have to deal with the issue how we handle situations

that does not involve violence. Absolutely. You know... Roland, I literally was speechless last night. My husband had to keep rewinding it because I refused to watch it. And I believe what we saw last night was a display of what happens when we don't consistently do the work.

I don't know them the way you do. I don't know them at all. And so it's very easy for me to be on the outside looking in. But I believe what we saw was this. The truth is that was just 10% of what's going on. Anybody who's done therapy or psychology one-on-one knows that that's just 10% of what is really going on. That was a lot happening in that moment. And to your point, trying to dissect that is fruitless at this point. What we do need to identify though, is that what we saw is when you don't consistently deal with your stuff, when you stuff, when you ignore, when you put it on the shelf, it will come out,

and it will come out in ways that you may never have expected. And so I think the issue has been convoluted. Of course we must protect Black women. Of course there is a real thing called toxic masculinity. Of course there are times when jokes can go too far. But I think we're convoluting the issue. And to your very point, what we need to determine is, is there a standard of expectation of how we behave when we are triggered? Because what we don't realize, one of my girlfriends is a teacher in Philly.

And she shared with us that this morning the news cameras were outside of her school because she her school is right near an area where there's a mural of Will Smith and so these teachers were having to talk to their students about what is that okay was that behavior okay and so I think the bigger question the bigger idea is do we want to call for a standard of behavior? And what happens when you don't deal with your own triggers? When you don't deal with your stuff consistently, what are the ramifications of that? Jeff, I'm going to do something here. Guys, pull up the video that we started with.

Because I think it's important for people, Jeff, to walk through and understand what we witnessed. And so, folks, play the video and listen to my cue, and I want you to stop it, because I'm going to do this for a reason. Press play. Inzel McBeth loved it! I love the part where it said,

King Lado got nothing on me. Y'all got to see it. It's really good. You know who's got the hardest job tonight? Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated. Now, if she loses, he can't win. He is praying that Will Smith wins, but please, Lord! Freeze.

Now, Chris tells the joke Jeff about Denzel, then Javier, and Penelope. Joke is over. Then he transitions to the joke about Jada. Press play. Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2. Can't wait to see it, all right? Stop.

What you see right there... No, go back to the... What you see right there, Jeff, Will laughs at the joke. The room laughs at the joke. The room laughs at the joke. You see the look on Jada's face. Press play. That was a nice one.

Okay. I'm out here. Freeze. So Jeff, in between laughing, the room responds. The room responds. Then Will stands up. You heard Robin say, trigger it. Something happened between him laughing at the joke,

room responding, and then him standing up. And it's in that moment where everything changed. Yeah, what I think I saw, I'm not totally sure here, but what I think I saw was that he was laughing at the joke, whether he was nervously laughing, just going along with the room. But then when he sees the look on his wife's face, when he looks at Jada's face, and she appears to be, she rolls her eyes, and she's not appreciating that joke.

And let's be aware here, Roland, that Chris Rock made jokes about other people more about perhaps their film roles or character or relationships. That joke made about Jada was about her personal appearance, and therefore it was a more perhaps raw joke. And so that's just an aside. But bottom line is, I believe that when Will saw Jada's face and saw how hurt she may have been or how annoyed she was by that, then felt perhaps some sort of obligation to react in a way, certainly an overreaction, but to protect her in some sort of way, certainly not the right way, but the need to do something.

And many people have been saying, you can't let somebody disrespect your wife. You must protect your wife. And I totally understand their point. But when you are also the one who then initiates the physical assault, and folks, let me be real clear, we witnessed a physical assault,

Will Smith against Chris Rock. You put your hands on somebody else, unprovoked, words are not, that ain't it. That's not stand your ground, okay? That's not self-defense. That's a physical assault, which is why the LAPD released their statement saying that Chris Rock, they said, a person who was involved, chose not to pursue a police report, was not going to press charges. is that when Will makes that move to stand up,

that's also the moment when, for me, your wife has to reach over, bae, hold up. See, it's in those moments where husband has to know when to let the wife know, hold up. Wife, let husband know, hold up. Because when you escalate a situation, then it goes to a whole new level as opposed to allowing something to pass.

You might be angry, you might be hurt, you might be pissed off, but when you then escalate it, then it goes to a whole new level, Robin. Yeah, and I think, you know, people are often surprised when I share this with them, Roland, when the reason why therapists like me, and I'm sure Dr. Jeff, we often stress the importance of knowing your triggers, because what happens is in our brains, once you get triggered, I like to describe it like a roller coaster.

Have you ever been on a roller coaster and it's going up and it gets to the top and you feel like, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm ready to get off of this thing, but now it's going down and you've lost control. What happens when we are triggered and our anger starts to rise? Some psychologists have found that as your anger rises,

your IQ goes down. And so that's why we stress the importance of getting in there and knowing what your triggers are and not only knowing what your triggers are. So you're a point rolling, having people around you who can help you or having go to tools that you can pull from. Because once that train gets up the track or once that roller coaster starts going up, it's very difficult to pull it back. So that's why I continue to harp on the fact that several things can be true at the same time. He absolutely could have been triggered. And it is absolutely true that there are consequences from that type of behavior. And so I would love for all of us to continue like you're doing, Roland, to elevate the conversation. Because here's the

bottom line. Joe at work tomorrow won't have the same luxuries that Will had. I won't have the same luxuries that Will had. If I behave in that way, the consequences are going to be so much different. So it's important for us to take this and elevate the conversation and encourage people, figure out what your triggers are and understand how your brain works. Understand the importance of taking those three seconds to do some deep breaths so that you can calm down that trigger so that you can act more appropriately. You know, Jeff, it's interesting, Jeff. I was just sitting here looking, you know,

we've got thousands of people who are on our, um, YouTube channel watching the Black Star Network app. Uh, and there's this person on the app, who are on our YouTube channel, watching the Black Star Network app. And there's this person on the app, Queen something, I don't know what the hell, Queen said, roller talk, all that shit, but he's soft AF. Now, his was interesting.

First of all, Queen, you can't trigger me. The words don't mean nothing. We all grew up and we were told, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words would ever hurt me. See, Jeff, it was very interesting when I watched that. I thought back to something when I was in high school. We were at my brother's high school in Jones High School in Houston. And we were, my dad was driving, my mom was in the driver's seat, and we're in the back seat. And we were backing up.

And you had some brothers. They were hanging out, music playing, talking loud, and they sort of were blocking us, and then my dad reacted, he was like, damn it! I mean, so, he, I mean, he was ticked at the guys. My mom, Reginald, she really calms him Now Why is that important? Because In that split of a second The decision is I can fast forward If you get out, confront them

It may lead to a fight Somebody may get stabbed Somebody may get shot All of a sudden, if it goes horribly bad I'm a widow with five kids Flip side, Jeff, my parents were visiting me. My dad came to the office with me. We were leaving the office, and we were pulling out,

and these folks were sitting here blocking, and I got upset at them. I was like, damn it, move the hell away. My dad was like, son, son, calm down. And then he said, when's the last time you went to the doctor to get your blood pressure checked? I was like, dad, my blood pressure's fine. But it was interesting because I saw, I witnessed as a kid, my mom bring the situation down because it could escalate. And what I learned from that as a kid, Jeff, is if I bumped into a bruh in the club,

I didn't immediately go to, damn, what's wrong with you, punk? Say, bruh, my bad, sorry about that. How we react to a situation then determines how the situation either escalates or de-escalates. Well, I

agree with you. You had made a point earlier about perhaps Jada should have reached over and stopped him. I hate to think of this being about Jada or something that Jada did wrong or could not... Oh, he should have stopped himself. Right. But I'm just saying that when you're with,

I've experienced that when somebody is about to go there, to Robert's point, they ain't thinking right, you need somebody else to say, hold up. Right. And I think, you know, it's hard for us to give an analysis, not being there. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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You know, trying to figure out what happened, but certainly this is something that could have happened in a split second, not giving her enough time or even understanding what was about to happen with getting up in that way. But all of that being said, you know, I think we're all really, you know, moving in the right track here. We can't go back and change what happened. But certainly this needs to be a lesson to everyone that when you're in that fight and flight sort of situation and the adrenaline is pumping and you have that rage and you just don't know what to do with it, don't do anything with it unless you're saving someone's life, protecting someone's life. These issues of using jokes or saying something that hurts someone, you have to have that social IQ.

You have to own that situation by saying, okay, we're going to stay calm, but we're having a discussion about that later on. And that's something he could have done during the acceptance speech, because I think we all knew that he was going to win, you know, this Oscar. That's something that he could have had a conversation with Chris Rock later on. But what he... I believe he did, and I feel badly for everyone involved, I really believe that he dishonored himself. He dishonored his family by behaving in that way, by doing something like that in front of the whole world.

Um, and this is something that, you know, that Will has to live with for the rest of his life. And there you go. The moment... And this is... He has been... He has been waiting for this moment. He has been...

He wanted to win it for Concussion, for other movie roles, and Mountaintop. You at the Mountaintop. This is the crowning achievement of your career, winning Best Actor. Only the fourth African-American in history. Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington,

Jamie Foxx, Forrest Whitaker. I saw the fifth. Will becomes the fifth to win Best Actor. On the 20th anniversary of Halle and Denzel winning. Her becoming the first black woman to win best actress, Denzel winning his second one. But the thing that, why this is important, Robin and Jeff, is because here are two rich black men at the Oscars. That same situation we've seen on the streets, in clubs, on the basketball court.

We've seen it in the school hallway. And what we, it is important for us to say that even if you're Will Smith, even if you're Chris Rock, even if you're Jada Pinkett Smith, if you're anybody else, how you resolve a conflict and you cannot go to the violence piece. And trust me, I got a wife, I got three sisters, I got nine nieces, a mama. I am absolutely there when it comes to protecting black women. But part of protecting black women is also Black men protecting yourself by not creating a situation

where you may not be around tomorrow. You know, um, Roland, that's the reason why the response... ...or where that reputation may be harmed and the reputation of others. You know, unfortunately, Will took a lot out of that situation, you know, really, you know, sucked the air out of that room. There were so many people who were celebrating. There were many firsts there, firsts for sexualities, firsts for, you know, many things. We saw it was

well integrated in a way that we really needed to see. And so let me share this with you. Very super quick story. I was at a wedding with my wife about two years ago. Someone said something to her and I was very offended by it. And it was very offensive. Look, I protect my wife. I protect my children. But I knew that if I acted out at that wedding, it would destroy the wedding for the people who are getting married. I would end up in jail. What is Dr. Jeff doing in jail after an assault, right? And certainly, I would have to deal with the repercussion of overreacting. If you talk the talk, you got to walk the walk. As psychologists, we talk about impulse control.

That would have ruined me professionally. And so I think that's what everyone needs to think about before they act out when they're in that rage, the importance of breathing, sitting back, and figuring out how to use your social IQ to work through that situation. Robin? Okay, and so here's the deal.

If I have a seven-year-old daughter, if my seven-year-old daughter jumps in the pool, she's gonna make a little wave. But, honey, if I jump in the pool, my wave is gonna be much bigger than Riley's. What is my point? Will carries a lot of power. And so when he makes...

And the reality is that power has opened up doors and opportunity for him. So the same way it's opened up doors and opportunity is the same way it's important that how he responds and others with any type of platform, how they respond to your point, Roland, will have long-term ramifications. If we celebrate this, if we minimize this, what we are teaching is that it is okay to respond physically. Now, here is the point, exactly what Dr. Jeff said, but the challenge is you can't learn the tools in the moment. You have to have the tools beforehand. You have to already know how you choose to handle when you are triggered. You can't get in the moment and say, somebody give me some tools. That's the importance of developing social IQ, emotional IQ

well before you're in that moment. And let me say this last thing that's important for us to understand with the commentary that we are hearing. People view, human nature is that we view situations through our own lived experiences. We view situations through our lived experiences. And so when I'm scrolling through Facebook, I can tell what people have been through based on how intense their response is. And it takes great intention to step back and look at a situation objectively so that we can pull back, hopefully, some of the long-term ramifications that can come from this. Will still has an opportunity to course-correct.

He cannot fix, but he can course-correct, and he can change the conversation because, to everyone's point, this was the first Oscar produced by, uh, by Will Packer, by a Black man. No, no, no, no, no. Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. It was an all-black production team. It's not the first.

Quincy Jones produced the Oscars the night when Whoopi Goldberg did it before. Reggie Hutler's been one of the producers. Jesse Collins was on the production team last year. So, all right, people have been saying that. Yeah, so just let everybody know, the lead production team, all-black, Will Packer, my frat brother, and Shayla.

But you've had Blacks leading the production team at the Oscars before. Go ahead. Okay, thank you for correcting that, because I was over here with my poster board about it being the first time. But still to that very point, a Black production team with a Black male actor, with a Black comedian, the reality is we cannot, and this is just the conversation I want us to really have,

we cannot minimize the ripple effect. And so this is an opportunity to, if you have a platform, if you have 500 to 10,000 people on your Facebook, on your Instagram, how you communicate about this will be the game changer. And I'm just hoping that we'll course correct and will communicate this in a way that can change the idea that physical response or violent response is appropriate. Last question for you, Jeff, and then I'm going to go to the panel. Do you believe that the next step, and again, the Academy, they're launching an investigation.

They may take action against Will. Do you believe the next step should be where Will Smith and Chris Rock sit down face-to-face and Will apologizes for his actions? Or do you believe Chris should apologize for the joke? Um, what do you think should happen next, Jeff? Because here's the deal. This is not going away. People, my

social media feed has been this all day long. It's not going away. I think certainly that Will should sit down with Chris Rock because that will show how we can work out our disagreements. This is along what

Robin is saying. Where do we take the narrative next? And it is about conflict resolution, because friends or acquaintances or people you don't even know, sometimes you may get into some sort of an issue or a conflict, but it's important to work it out because we grow from one another. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with Chris Rock saying, if he hasn't done it already, to say, Jada, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, you know, land that low blow. I didn't realize that it was something that was so sensitive to you. I was just making a joke.

But I hurt you, and I apologize. But I think the bigger apology at this point needs to come from Will Smith to not just Chris Rock, but to everyone at the Academy, to everyone of color, to everyone in America, to everyone in the world, and then show his class

and be able to grow from that and deal with whatever issues that he still needs to deal with. I believe that's where the narrative really needs to go. Robin May, Dr. Jeff Gardia, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Let's go to my panel. I want to start first with Julianne Malveaux.

Julianne, how did you look at this? How did you assess it? But also, how do you look at the reaction of so many different people in the aftermath of this, especially black men and black women? Well, I think Sister Robin had a really good point when she talked about triggers, and the issue is who's triggered by what. Now, I find Chris Rock to be extremely misogynistic, and I think he crossed the line.

You know, I'm a little pugilistic, Roland, so if I was a dude, I probably would have smacked him too. And that's not the politically correct answer. But he has talked under Jada's clothes more than once. And Will probably is obviously sensitive about it. And when I saw Jada roll her eyes, I mean, she was like, I'm just not having this today. Now, I don't know if she said something to Will,

because he did laugh at it at first, and then he kind of, you know, gathered himself. But I think that Chris Rock needs to watch himself. And I think Will Smith also needs to watch himself, because even though I said I would have slapped him, obviously I wouldn't have. I could have got up on the stage. But it was wrong. Physical violence is always wrong, and we all know that. Metaphoric violence, not so much. I was horrified by the whole thing because of everything everybody has said. But at the same time, I'm looking at this misogynistic man who constantly says ugly things about Black women. Not women, Black women. And we deserve to be lifted up, not dragged down by that kind of thing. Alopecia is serious. As women, our attractiveness is seen in our hair. Even folks

like me, I mean, I can grow hair, but I don't have much. And folks, can you grow hair? I remember when I was at Bennett College, a board member sent me a box of hair products so that I could grow my hair out. Didn't want to. But our attractiveness as women is connected to our crowning glory. And so that was ugly and unnecessary. We know the sisters, like Ayanna Pressley,

congresswoman, who has alopecia. That was just ugly and unnecessary. And while he didn't necessarily... The whole encounter was ugly. Chris Rock started it. Avis? And while he didn't necessarily... The whole encounter was ugly, Chris Rock started it. Avis? Okay, so I'm gonna continue down the lane of perhaps being, uh, unpolitically correct.

Uh, I... The show's called Unfiltered for a reason. Wonderful. So, when I... When I look at this take in everything in terms of what happened and even the discussion that we just had, two quotes come to mind. First, Malcolm X, black women are the most disrespected and the most unprotected. Second is Zora Neale Houston, black women are the mules of the world. And I put those two quotes together because of this.

What happened and the reason why I think you're seeing the differences, particularly among the sexes and generally, generally in terms of the interpretation of this, is that as Black women, we understand that it is often that we are publicly disparaged with regards to our physical appearance. We understand that in this culture, our beauty is not held up as the quote-unquote beauty standard. We also know that our hair is oftentimes, even as little girls,

tends to often be the butt of our jokes, the butt of people's jokes against us. And that is something that can literally last a lifetime. All right. Now, I will say this also about Jada Pinkett Smith's autoimmune disease, which led to the alopecia. Here's the thing. She spoke about this months ago and talked about how traumatic it was being in the shower and having clumps of her hair falling out and at first not really even understanding what was going on and how for so many years she enjoyed having hair and styling it different ways and using that as part of an expression of her self-identity. And guess what? Will was there the entire time. He likely wiped her tears.

He saw the trauma that she was going through in terms of this health experience that she had, which led to the loss of her hair. And to sit there beside his wife and have, who, by the way, is also an actress, so she's not just Will Smith's wife, she's an actress. She was there not only being witnessed by the whole world in terms of having this very personal and offensive joke specifically targeted at her appearance, that happened to her in front of her professional peers. And we also know that in Hollywood,

particularly for women, your physical attractiveness is connected... directly connected to your check and whether or not you can get a chance to get the next job. And so I find that to be a... I found it to be a personal attack on her as a woman. I found it to be a personal attack on her as a woman. I found it to be a personal attack on her specifically as a Black woman. I found it to be a personal attack on her professional respect that she should have been given. And I can't imagine, I saw a lot of people say, a lot of Black men saying,

oh, he wouldn't have done that if it was a white male comedian. Well, I would venture to say that Chris Rock would not have chastised a white female actress on her appearance in that way. I just found it to be supremely offensive, supremely misogynistic, not only misogynistic,

misogynoir-like, specifically attacking this black woman. And quite frankly, I understand why Will did what he did. I am completely team Will. Yes, he's going to have a blowback because of this. I'm waiting for the apology from Chris Rock. And I specifically have to say really quickly, I find it offensive that anyone would want to shift the responsibility for Will's behavior on Jada Pinkett Smith. That's the part where the mule of the world comes in. Okay, so black women, we're supposed to not only take abuse,

we're responsible for stopping people's behavior before it happens. No, okay? But, Avis, let's stay right on that particular point there. Because, again, if we take this example outside of the Oscars, and we take this in our communities, we have the examples of individuals

where there have been differences, where words were exchanged, and folks ended up dead. And when we've seen these things happen, we go, man, I can't believe that that thing went from that to that. We've seen the stories of folks at a party, and then all of a sudden, something is said, and words exchange, and it immediately goes to guns get pulled out, innocent bystanders getting killed. So at what point in this conversation do we say we have to resolve differences that does not involve violence?

I am not saying... First of all, I just don't want us to conflate issues, because I think what you're talking about is a broader issue of community violence that absolutely... No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm talking a very specific one. I'm talking a very specific one.

I'm talking examples of brothers who bump each other in a club or someone steps on a shoe, words escalate, as opposed to saying, say, bro, my bad, then all of a sudden there's a shooting. What I'm saying is, last night was a perfect example. Something is said,

you feel disrespected, and Will's response was to walk up and slap him in the face. You take that very situation outside the Oscars and anywhere else and things are going to escalate. We do have to isolate that and say, how do we,

when you're faced with a conflict, how do you resolve it that doesn't entail you punching somebody in the face? Well, once again, I do, honestly, I see that as apples and oranges. I certainly think it is horrible and there needs to be a better way of resolving minor infractions on people, stepping on people's shoes, all of that stuff. We know that has happened. When I'm thinking about this from a thousand-foot level in terms of how Black women are commonly disrespected,

and I'm thinking about it from a historic standpoint in terms of, by contrast, how white womanhood has always been overly protected, which also has led to the death of Black men. Let's be real about that, okay? And so what I'm saying right now, though, is we have to have some real, very specific conversations about all the things that may have been going on with Will to trigger him. And I'll just quickly say, because I get mad every time I see another meme

around August and entanglements, okay? Because here's an example of my take on toxic masculinity. This is not how people oftentimes have been talking about this in relation to this. But I find it very interesting that a couple who have said that they had a period in which they were apart, in which it seems like they had somewhat

of an open marriage arrangement. But when it became public that the female of that couple had a relationship, all of a sudden, not only is she very much attacked, but Will is very much attacked for staying with her. Now, contrast that against Chris Rock, who has been very open about his multiple infidelities against his wife, which ultimately led to his divorce, which is why he don't have a wife right now to protect. All right. Yet I have yet to see one meme about that behavior.

Yet I have yet to see one person criticize him around doing something to destroy his family, rather seeing all of this criticism against both Will and Jada, who have chosen to maintain their family. You know, I think there's a lot that we need to unpack here about how we are treating people differently in ways that puts Black women at the center of a bullseye in terms of being bullied, in terms of being shamed, in terms of being disrespected in multiple ways. And I think that night, that night, Will had had enough. And as... I can't remember who...

It was a comedian who said this once. And I remember he said, it may not have been right, but I understand. And I have to... Yeah, Avis. Avis, the comedian you're quoting is Chris Rock. Oh! Well, then... I'm a Congo. You're quoting Chris...

You're actually quoting Chris Rock. But you're... But... But you're quoting a comedic routine. So, hold up. You're not... No, no. You're not quoting a speech or a keynote. You're quoting a comedic routine, which was done talking about O.J. Simpson and Nicole Simpson, which also was a joke.

And that's the issue right there on Macongo that people are raising that, hey, at these award shows, they have comedians there, they make jokes. The show opened with a joke about Will, Regina Hall saying, yeah, Will, come on up. Y'all thing is open. I know you're married, but come on up here. She laughed, he laughed.

And so what people are also saying is like, hold up. Now, you laugh at the joke at the top Regina made, but then you get mad at the joke that Chris made. Now, if we're going to sit here and say, well, you know, don't make jokes about the entanglement, Regina did, both laughed. These are the things that we're dealing with here, but the point that I'm still making, Omicongo,

people also are looking at this. It's how we resolve differences, and I'm still making on the Congo, people also are looking at this. It's how we resolve differences. And I'm just simply saying, the way to resolve it is not slapping somebody in the mouth because Chris Rock, actually, if he responded, and we got to be honest here,

Chris Rock was the ultimate professional with how he responded. Chris could have swung on a wheel. Chris could have fired back and lit off a litany of jokes, Robin Harris style. But Chris didn't. Gathered himself, moved forward, presented the award. Questlove wins the Oscar for Best Documentary.

Omokongo, your thoughts? You know, this hurts. I'm going to start there. This really, really hurts in terms of community. You know, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have been role models for me since day one. I've been rolling with them since the 80s and the 90s. As someone who was involved, I still rap. I do spoken word, acting and stuff. But I was trying,

when I was looking at going hard in it, those guys were my role models. So, any affection any of y'all have for any celebrity, like strong affection, those two are for me. So, and then Chris Rock a little bit later on. And today I taught my class on Jay-Z at American University and our subject today was actually the Jay-Z beef between Jay-Z and Nas. And so I'm gonna quote a Jay-Z line as I give my response to this.

And one of his songs, he says, "'Check out my swag, yo, I walk like a ball player. No matter where you go, you are what you are, player. And you can try and change, but that's just the top layer. Man, you was who you was when you got before you got here. My issue is this. I feel like there's an overarching idea of misogyny that encompasses what Will Smith did and what Chris Rock did. Because the fact of the matter is that I don't hear people talk that much about Jada, but I'm wondering if Will Smith was defending Jada or if he was defending his wife.

When you read his book, Will, which was a very powerful book and motivational for me because I love what he has done so much, he talks about a situation where his girlfriend at the time was going out and he was with his boys, and he was like, no, I think you should go upstairs. And she's like, no, I'm going out. Now you should stay. But she leaves.

He takes all of her stuff and burns it. Okay? He talks about that. He also talks about coming from an abusive household where he felt that his, he couldn't protect his mother from his father's abuse. And then we talk about situations at NBC with the Fresh Prince when he almost gets into fights with producers there,

and he talks about how his old mentality comes out. And I feel like that was a situation there. And I feel like given that he was laughing when the joke was first given and saw her response, there was more about protecting what's mine than protecting Jada. Don't keep my wife name out of your mouth. And that's where I find it to be problematic. I think that what Chris Rock did was wrong.

I feel like Will Smith might not have responded as much if it was like The Rock as opposed to Chris Rock. But I feel like ultimately Will Smith has to take the full blame for what happened because you can't do that, especially when you work to build your career as a role model. And for those who defend him, you know, we can't condone violence between us and then condemn violence against us. It's wrong. We can't do that, period, bottom line. And so I'm saying that we need to figure out how they can work this thing out. He crafted his whole career about being a role model for the people, and he let our people down in that moment, and it needs to be recognized. And but it just hurts all the way around. I hate the way Jada's being tossed around

as some type of football in this situation is wrong. And we just need to do better in our community. And the last thing, Roland, like you said, us defending our wives does not have to lead to violence. And it's very easy for us to be taken from our community, incarcerated, lose our job, lose our children, and all of that other type of stuff. And whether you're at the Oscars

or whether you're in the hood or whether you're on a job, we have to be mindful of that. There's lots of ways to protect your family without resorting to physical violence, especially public violence. Will Smith has a larger platform than Chris Rock. There's a lot of ways he could get back at him. He can get his revenge, he can get his payback,

and he can defend his wife. There's lots of ways he could do it. Violence can't be part of it. You know, um... as I said last night on Instagram, as I said when I started this, um, this... I... Just like you said, I'm a Congo.

It was painful. It was difficult because I know the players involved. I often, this whole awards season, every time Will won an award, I would send him a text, congratulations. And I actually sent him a text before the award show, I often, I frequently communicate with Tyler Perry and Denzel's wife, Pauletta, and others, people who were in there. So yeah. Matter of fact, I didn't go to bed until 5.30 because I was on the phone last night.

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five, and six on June 4th ad free at lava for good. Plus on Apple podcasts. Tonight with other comedians, other folks in Hollywood, folks were like, I mean, this, this was traumatic for a lot of people because it was complete. No one in their right mind would have said on their bingo card, Will Smith's going to smack Chris Rock at the Oscars. Nobody. If somebody told you that, you'd be like, you've got to be high.

But I will say this. Sorry. And I know this is hard for some brothers to hear. And I know it's hard for some sisters to hear. But I'm saying this from the vantage point of being a son of my daddy and mama, of being a grandson of my daddy and mama, of being a grandson, of my grandparents, of being an uncle, strength is also in walking away. Strength is also reacting in a way that does not escalate.

Imagine if Will Smith, who I love dearly and respect. Imagine if Will Smith had walked to that stage and said, Chris, you my man, we ain't making jokes about alopecia, bro. That's a major issue affecting my wife. That's a major issue affecting women all across this world. Now, I know you make jokes, but there's some things we don't joke about. So, Chris, you did a documentary called Good Hair. So, you know what the hair thing means to black women and women all across the world. So, Chris, I say we show some respect for women. Let's not make jokes about their hair.

If Will had done that, the room would have erupted. The country would have erupted. And folks would be praising Will today for defending his wife

and speaking to the same issue as opposed to throwing a punch. It's all a matter of how you resolve the situation and deal with the situation. And I'm going to close on this. And I was looking for the video. if y'all find the video, please y'all can go ahead and play it. That was a party, and I think it was after the BET Awards or whatever. And Diddy was on stage.

And Diddy got Serac. And so Diddy, y'all, I know y'all don't have it, but I'm describing it for y'all can look it up. Look up T.I., Diddy, party, Ciroc. Trust me, it's going to come up. Diddy's on stage. Diddy is shouting Ciroc. Somebody in the audience said, damn that gray goose.

Diddy starts yelling and screaming at the brother in the audience said, damn that, Grey Goose. Diddy starts yelling and screaming at the brother in the audience. And voices begin to rise. And it begins to get heated. And Diddy is cussing him out. Dude is cussing him out. Damn that, F this, Sirat, no, Grey Goose. And then T.I. walks over and says, hey, hey, hey, damn that. Man, we ain't about to sit here and go to jail over some alcohol.

T.I. says, man, I just got out of prison. So we going to chill out, play the music, enjoy ourselves, and have a good time. If T.I. had not done, see again, if T.I. had not done that, that back and forth over alcohol could have escalated to a whole different situation. All I'm saying is, is when something goes down, you get to determine what the outcome is going to be based upon your actions.

Me, as a black man, my mama and daddy taught me that. My grandparents taught me that. I've tried to teach, I've taught that to my nieces and nephews. Our reaction leads to a counter reaction.

And our reaction can very well determine what then happens and when something escalates. And so all I'm saying, you can protect sisters, you can protect brothers. And what I also desire of my sisters is that if you are in a situation and you see your man about to go left, grab him. Say, bro, get you to chill.

But to brothers, I want you not to have to put your woman in a situation where she grabs you. I want you to take a pause and quickly assess, is this how I want this thing to go? Because like Jeff and Robin said, and this really is a sad piece, for the rest of Will Smith's life, when they talk about March 27, 2022,

when he won Best Actor, they will always associate that epic night, not with his speech, not with the adulation from the crowd. They will always associate it with him slapping Chris Rock. And people will not be talking about how he won the best actor for King Richard. They'll be talking about how he struck Chris Rock and that folks is what's most unfortunate. Pray for all the folks involved. I hope Chris and Will sit down because we as brothers and I'm talking right now, I'm not talking to sisters.

I'm talking to black men. We as black men have got to learn to sit down across from one another at the table of brotherhood and learn to communicate with each other to resolve our differences because you cannot resolve differences with these or with a gun.

Folks, when we come back, I got something to say for entrepreneurs, for people who want to go into business, for people who are conflicted right now. It's probably going to be one of the most important messages. If you thought we dropped it on Friday, it's almost 10,000 of y'all on YouTube right now. Just because we're moving on, don't run away,

because you about to miss something that is vitally important that can change your life. I'm going to talk about the need for you just to keep building. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Norske Kulturskapet I'm Debra Owens. On the next Get Wealthy, meet Dr. Stacey McCoy, whose American dream became a nightmare because of student loan debt. Whether you're paying $300 a month or eventually I got up to $1,700 a month.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold that for just a minute. You were paying $1,700 a month on your student loans? Yes, and I know other people who are paying more than that. Learn the one piece of advice that made all of it go away. Right here on Get Wealthy on Black Star Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat at the Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in.

Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Stay woke. only on the Black Star Network. Să ne urmăm în următoareaătrunjelă. All right, folks. On Friday, I did a full deconstruction of Black News Channel and them going down, closing. Y'all can kill the music. Going down, closing, and explaining why they closed. Explaining what happened.

And a lot of y'all were like, man, I had no idea that's how media actually works. And people need to understand in terms of how do you keep going? How do you keep doing this? How do you keep going? How do you keep doing this? How do you keep advancing forward? And it was very interesting because these are some of thePA, and you had CNN did stories, and all of these other outlets, they did all of these stories. Y'all didn't pull Los Angeles Times story up? The LA Times in November just did a large story about BNC and what they were doing, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

actually had stories as well talking about what they were doing and how they were thriving and how they were growing and what was going on. And so it goes on and on and on what was actually happening in terms of them.

In fact, here is the LA Times story right here. Black News Channel wants to give a voice to an underserved audience. This was in November, y'all. This story right here. But here are the headlines that then dropped when they shut down on Friday.

Here are the headlines right here. And you saw them. They were in The Wrap. They were in USA Today. They were in The Wall Street Journal. They were in all of these different outlets showing, again, them shutting down. Now, why am I walking you through all of that because it's real easy, y'all, for you to get attention when you're starting something, but the real question is, are you still here later? Now, why am I showing those stories?

Because do y'all realize that in three and a half years of us launching this show, I've had three publicists try to get stories done on us in the same outlets. We've even pitched the stories to mainstream media outlets that black people are the editors of. Nobody has bitten. Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, New York Times, USA Today, Broadcasting Cable, Multichannel News,

The Wrap, Deadline, Variety, Media Ike. I mean, we can go on and on and on. On all of these outlets, nothing done. Now, see, some of y'all probably would get discouraged by, man, we out here doing this work and we building something and we're not getting any attention and nobody's showing us any love and nobody's covering us. Yet, when that was happening, I didn't get mad. I didn't get frustrated. All we did was keep building. And there were folks who were sitting here saying, man, y'all should be doing this and rolling. Why aren't you over here? And why aren't you, you should be trying to get your

show on a network. And I'm sitting there going, don't you understand that if I tried to get a show on a network, they own the show and I'm an employee? See, a lot of us have been raised to get jobs. We were not raised to give jobs. A lot of us were raised to deposit checks. A lot of us were not raised to make direct posits of the checks of others. See, if you get so locked in, and I'm going to go there for white validation.

See, white validation is, man, we had a story in the Wall Street Journal. But two years later, you got another type of story in the Wall Street Journal. See, white validation is when you get so caught up you get so caught up in other folk examining what you're doing that you lose sight of what you're trying to build. I had somebody, I had some folks this weekend. It was very interesting.

They were telling me, oh, one particular person, I ain't gonna even waste your time giving her name because she ain't deserving of any of that level of attention. Oh, you're toxic. No network wants to work with you. But it's amazing that a network emailed to me today about being on one of their news panels. It's amazing that I was in New York

sitting down with Spike Lee for his documentary on Colin Kaepernick. It's amazing I sat down with Kyle Mubell for his documentary on Showtime. It's amazing, prior to sitting down with Kyle Mubell for his documentary on Showtime. It's amazing. Prior to sitting down with Kamu Bell for his documentary on Showtime, I sat down with the Discovery Network for a documentary they're doing on space. Did they call you? See, again, you don't waste your time when folks are running their mouths hating

because all you got to do is keep building. Now, see, I know somebody is sitting here saying, yeah, man, but that's easier to say than do because, you know, we got a lot going on. No, no, no, no, it's not. No, it's not. Because I just need y'all to understand something. You're going to always have haters.

But one of the biggest mistakes that we make, and let's just go ahead and put it out there. One of the biggest mistakes that we make as black people, we have been conditioned to floss. Oh, I'm wearing some Sam Smith Adidas. I don't know how much these damn things cost because I ain't buying them. They were gifts to the VIPs

in a city that entertained a golf tournament. Y'all done heard me say it before. I ain't never, Spike was joking with me about Air Jordans. I said Spike I had on some Adidas y'all I had on some What I had on

Yes I had on some No I had on some Yeah I had on some Adidas shoes And Spike said Man you came up here in Adidas I said Mike ain't never brought me a check He said I'm gonna have to I said Mike ain't never sent me some Jordans He said man He said what size you wearing He said, I'm going to have to, I said, Mike ended up sending me some Jordans.

He said, man, I'm, he said, what size you wearing? I said, 10 and a half. How Mike send them? I said, but I don't owe Mike shit. I said, and the Adidas I'm wearing, I ain't buy. So Mike got a big laugh out of that. He said, I'll make sure Mike see this. I said, well, you do that.

See, why am I saying that, y'all? Because when you are trying to build something that's bigger than you, what you cannot do is get yourself caught up in trying to floss and be shot called a big baller. Y'all, that's why BNC not here. If I pull up the Atlanta Journal-Constitution store on them, they're talking about, oh, man, we talking about moving and going to and moving to Atlanta and doing this and doing that.

Man, all these plans, they had plans on what they were going to do in the future and now their future is over. See, so you might be saying, well, yeah, but don't you have to think big? Yeah, yeah, you do. But you got to keep building. And see, I told y'all about the people who was sitting here Running their mouths and talking this nonsense And they were saying all kind of stuff And I love it when my haters talk

Because they real good at that And they oh this that and the other And you ain't this you ain't that you irrelevant And I even told one of them I said you know maybe I ought to invite you to my induction ceremony For the NABJ Hall of Fame. Since I ain't done nothing important. See, sometimes you got to flex on.

And see, when I talk about keep building, I was walking y'all through this last week because I need you to understand what I'm talking about. So do y'all see these three cameras that are sitting right here? Y'all see three cameras sitting right here? These are three Canon cameras that are sitting right here. This camera right here is the Canon C300. This is an amazing camera, it's gorgeous, it's beautiful. But I need you to understand that the body right here alone

is $9,000. The body alone is $9,000. When you throw the lenses on here, this particular lens is a 16 by 35. You do the 7200. You do other lenses. Basically, you're going to spend another $11,000 on lenses. So basically, one whole camera. We ain't talking about the monitor.

So basically, you're talking about $20,000, $22,000. But see, right here is the Canon XF405. This one right here. This one right here. 4K camera. That run you about $3,500, $4,000. This one right here is the Canon XA25. Now, give me this camera right here.

So I know some of y'all are looking at this right now. And y'all say, oh, man, look. This little bitty little camera right here. So I know some of y'all looking at this right now. And y'all say, oh, man, look. This little bitty little camera right here. This little bitty little camera. This little bitty little camera. This one, oh, my God, but look at this one. Look at this one right here. This one right here.

Beautiful. Gorgeous. But y'all got to understand something. When we started this show, we couldn't afford this damn camera. It's $20,000 by itself. We couldn't afford this camera because it's $4,000 by itself. We bought three of these for $6,000. Why? Because we needed a three-camera setup.

As we grew, as we got bigger, we went here. we went here. We went here. Grew it. As we got bigger, we could afford this right here. When I'm talking about how you got to keep building, you cannot grow a business by trying to floss and then by trying to live way above your means because you're not

going to be in business. You are going to be a casualty. 90% of all restaurants shut down inside of a year. Bars shut down. We can go on and on and on. And so the most important thing for you, if you are sitting here, you've got to learn how not to get so caught up in the Joneses and running around trying to be with everybody else and understand how you're going to be able to adjust your resources in order to build and grow. It is to be able to sustain, it's to be able to adjust your resources in order to build and grow. It is to be able to sustain, it's to be able to go to the next level. And too many of us, let me say it because I ain't talking about white people, I ain't talking about Latino people, I'm not talking about Asian people, I'm talking about black people. Too many of us are caught up in the floss game. Too many of us

are caught up in wanting folks to know what we driving, what we wearing. A whole bunch of folk throw Oscar parties and then trying to figure out how they're going to pay their rent the next month. What I'm trying to get you to understand is We've got to readjust this If we want to be able to keep building To be able to keep growing Now some of y'all might say Well okay

Where did you even get this idea In terms of not worrying about What other people say Well actually y'all that's actually biblical It's biblical I've talked about all the time Nehemiah Well, actually, y'all, that's actually biblical. It's biblical. I've talked about all the time Nehemiah. When Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem,

there were people who was, he then came with a vision, and he went to the people, and he said, the people said, let us rebuild. And as they were rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, guess what? The haters began to say, oh, man, y'all can't do that. Y'all don't know what y'all doing. Y'all, it ain't going to work. It's right there in Scripture. Y'all can pull it up.

It's right there in Nehemiah chapter 4. See, this is really the model in which Christians operate. See, every time I got haters who run their mouths, who say, oh, your views are not real, or ain't nobody watching y'all, ain't nobody listening to y'all, then y'all stuff ain't nobody listening to y'all, then y'all stuff ain't legit. I say, we good. We good. I don't really care what y'all have to say. Oh, there were some folks who got my number and were texting me today saying, y'all not legitimate. I was like, I said, well, you know what? If I'm so irrelevant, why y'all so worried about what I do? I ain't worried about what y'all do. See, somebody who's watching right now, you have gotten caught up in the same game. You've gotten caught up in worrying

about what other people are thinking, and then you've gotten caught up sitting here tripping in somebody else's game, and you forgot to really get involved. But you forgot to also learn how to fight. See, I love this piece right here where it says, from that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. Come on, quit, you're too slow, switch.

I love it here where they said that they had a weapon in one hand and they built in the other. Because your haters are going to do that. You got to keep building. See, I told y'all last week, we couldn't afford a set, so this glass table was our set until we can afford a table. We couldn't afford this actually set piece. We couldn't afford the art peace, but we had to keep building. Where we are today as Black Star Network is not where we were three and a half years ago. And that is because the philosophy that I've always maintained was keep building. Don't worry about flossing. Don't worry about trying to get people to like you who don't like you any damn way.

I never believe in wearing clothes for folk who already don't like me trying to impress them. I don't give a damn what any of these folk think. I really don't. Because see what you have to say is when you are doing the right thing, when you are building, then you are able to help folk who need your help. You are able to provide jobs to other folk and then be able to help their families. And then when you are employing them and you're funding them and then then they're sending their kids to college, and they're sending their kids to school. And then when I told you when we had TV One, Sharon, who was one of the makeup people, came up to me when the show ended. She said, Roland, thank you so much because working on your show allowed me to buy a house.

That's because we said we kept building. She picked up other assignments outside of the show. She said, I will be eternally grateful because you helped me buy a house. See, when y'all get again focused on the rest of these people, you lose sight of how you can help others. We're just not using Nehemiah as an example because the wall of Jerusalem protected the people on the inside

from the folks on the outside. And when you create a situation where you are able to help those, you are providing and paving the way for them moving forward. And that really is something that too many of us lose sight of. We don't think about that. We get caught up in what everybody else is thinking. And so we're not always focused on keep building, keeping your eye on the prize, being able to help, being able to stand in the gap, being able to assist somebody else, being able to touch them in a very unique way.

See, that to me right there is one of our biggest problems, is how do we stay focused on building our businesses? Over the weekend, matter of fact, I'm gonna see if I can find it. I had this fool who I forgot he was an alpha. Yeah, I forgot he was an alpha. But he had the audacity to tweet me and question me about what black

folks need to be doing. And so he decided, he a black Republican, and I told y'all I don't mind black Republicans. Because, you know, I mean, it's all good. I don't mind them. I know a lot of black Republicans.

I know black Republicans who do some very good things. But you always got folk who love to run their mouths trying to tell you what you should be doing. So check this here out. trying to tell you what you should be doing. So, check this here out. This brother posted this tweet. And he said, translation, white-splanation, BNC didn't spout enough

white supremacist rhetoric to attract Agent Orange, MAGA crowd, and the companies that support that bullshit. For reference, he's CNN, MSNBC. So, the black Republican responded this way. John Burnett. This is what he said. He said, your mentality is the reason

why BNC and Roland aren't on air now. This is what he said, Julianne Avis in Omicongo. He said, we need to talk about real black empowerment, business ownership, diverse education, option outside of public schools, financial literacy and investment, not just race 24-7. Now, y'all, it was a Sunday and I was trying to rest and relax. But, you know, I can't have stuck on stupid fools just sit here and just say dumb stuff. So I just then had to unleash on this whole fool because I had to break it down to him. I said, it's interesting.

You first of all said I'm no longer on the air. I said, I've been on the air for three and a half years. Five days a week. Live. I said, it's interesting that we launched Black Star Network in September 2021, and we launched four new shows in February. I said, it's interesting that you said that we should be focused on business, black businesses, when you literally are ridiculing a black business.

I said, I find it interesting that you said that we should be, as black folks, when you literally are ridiculing a black business. I said, I find it interesting that you said that we should be, as black folks, focused on financial literacy when we launched Deborah Owens' show, Wealthy You. I said, I find it interesting that you said that we should be focusing on options outside of public school when my wife and I co-founded

School Choice is the Black Choice, and we have a segment called Education Matters every single Friday. I say it is interesting. You say you should be focused on business empowerment when we have a Marketplace segment every single Tuesday called Marketplace. We feature black-owned businesses.

I said, I find it interesting. You say we should be focused on black empowerment and business when every Wednesday we have a segment called Tech Talk where we focus on black folks in tech. I said, so literally everything that you say we should be doing as black people, we're actually doing. Oh, but when you said I'm no longer on the air, what you were really saying is that white validation part. You ain't got one of those networks.

I said, brother, you can pull the app on your TV. That still means we're on the air. On the air has changed. See, y'all, some of y'all tweet me and they say, well, man, you ain't got to say nothing. No, no, no. Sometimes you got to let folk know that you're still building because the haters are always coming after you. That's also in Nehemiah 4. The haters were telling them, y'all can't rebuild the wall. Now, mind y'all, if you keep reading Nehemiah 4,

after they show progress That's when the haters say oh we gotta stop them from building Why am I saying that because you gonna have some haters who are trying to stop you from building? Whether you trying to build your business whether you trying to build your organization whether you trying to build your your your Department in college you could have some haters and let me be college, you're going to have some haters. And let me be real clear, you're going to have some haters who look like you. You're going to have some haters who call themselves black power,

but they are actually evil. You're going to find some folks who use the same language as the oppressor against you, but then claiming they riding with you. But just so y'all understand what happens when you are able to look your Haters In the eye And show them Show them That you really don't care What they think

I wanted to Bring on Someone Because I wanted to ask her A couple of questions About what This whole issue in terms of, because, you know, HBCU students also go through this, where they deal with, you know, haters, folks who say, you know, you don't really go to a real school and stuff like that.

So Sidney Ross is a student at North Carolina A&T, and I'm rocking A&T's stuff today. And so, Sidney, have you ever heard that people who question you going to an HBCU, who question why you don't go, you should go into a white school, saying that if you went to a PWI versus A&T, you probably have a better shot at a real good job. Yes, most definitely. I remember back in high school, like on the last day of our senior year, we had this, what they call, like all the seniors come in and they're dressed in their college attire or college paraphernalia. And I remember wearing this A&T baseball cap and an A&T t-shirt.

And one of the teachers at my high school saying, okay, so don't be surprised when you come back here during fall break. And you tell me that you've dropped out of school. And it was kind of like disheartening because for one, you're basically like disvaluing my education. So disvaluing your education. Very interesting. So Julianne, Avis, and Omokongo, I want to show people what black power,

what black ownership actually looks like. Sidney, Sidney, you had gotten, didn't you win a contest? Yes. Tell everybody what happened. You won what, a national contest with Black News Channel? Yes. Tell everybody what happened. You won, what, a national contest with Black News Channel? Yes.

So, um, the competition was, uh, with HBCU journalism programs across the country. And of the 30-something HBCUs that have journalism programs, only four students were selected from each of these universities, and I was one of the four that students were selected from each of these universities and I was one of the four that had been selected from North Carolina A&T. And so y'all was supposed to, y'all was supposed to, what,

have a paid intern with Black News Channel this summer, right? Right, right. And so what's up with that? What's the status of that? I had reached out to some of the BNC staff, and I haven't been able to hear anything back. However, I have talked with some of my professors who have been communicating back and forth with some of the staff at BNC who have pretty much said, yeah, it's in your best interest. Let's start looking at other options just in case this one just happens to fall through.

Well, one of the people who's been helping you is David Squires. He's at North Carolina A&T. And that's how I heard about you. I heard about this internship program. And so, Sidney, this is what's gonna happen. You are being offered right now a paid internship on the Black Star Network for the ten weeks this summer to work with this show and this staff since...

That's the real reason why you're on the show. It ain't had nothing to do with no HBCU student. I've worked with this show and this staff since... That's the real reason why you're on the show. It ain't had nothing to do with no HBCU student. Uh... So... So I hit David, and he said, he said, A&T, they said they will assist with housing. I said, look, I said,

I said, if y'all can help her out, get her here. I said, she can work with this show for ten weeks this summer on this show, uh, to be able to fulfill your internship? Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. So he hit me this weekend and he sent me your resume.

He told me you're a multimedia broadcast student. And he told me about the internship. And I said, alright, not a problem. I said, now, we don't have, we ain't gonna get a dorm or anything. I said, I don't know if she has family or friends here. He said, hey, we're gonna help her with the housing. I said, you get her here. She'll have a 10-week

paid internship with the Black Star Network. Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. Wow. I don't know if you can hear my parents downstairs. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Can't hear your parents. You can tell your parents to come up. We can put them on as well. But I need everybody watching to understand this doesn't happen if you don't own. This doesn't happen if you're not in business. And so when David reached out, I serve on the board of NABJ with David

back when I was a national student representative. So we go back to 1989. And so when he told me that, I said, hey, we can make this thing happen. And so we are happy to do so. I've already called your chancellor, my frat brother, Chancellor Martin, Harold Martin. I told him, I made him aware of this last night,

as well as Congresswoman Alma Adams, that we were doing this. So everybody kept the secret. So yeah, it's, so what, that's your mama? That's my mom. My dad are coming around. Let me see. So, Mama and Daddy Ross, your

daughter has an internship at this show this summer. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Well, look, we are happy to make it happen. When I heard about it and I saw her resume, I said, we can put her to work. Now, Sydney, understand, we grind here.

We put it, we work, we work hard. I think you're going to learn a whole lot. I think it'll be an exciting experience. And look, I remember when I was in college, I had a non-paid internship at CBS News in Dallas. I couldn't do it, but it was great because I ended up working at the Houston Defender, a black-owned newspaper,

and that set me on the path. And so I think it's about creating opportunities, and this is why our people support us. This is why we fight for advertising dollars so we can be able to provide economic opportunities for folks like you. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. All right. So, Carol, I'll be reaching out to you. My producer will be working things out, figuring out start dating everything.

So you can rest easy. You now have a paid internship for this summer. Oh, Lord. Oh, thank you so much. All right. Looking forward to seeing you in the office. Thank you. All right.

Thanks a bunch. Y'all take care Bye bye Julianne, this is why I keep telling people This is what black ownership means And Roland, I will reach out to you You know I'm in and out of D.C. When I come back this summer I would like to take the young lady to lunch and just get an opportunity to get to know her. As you know, I used to be the

president of the little school across the street that would be better college. But I am so proud of you, Roland, for doing that. Thank you. These are the kind of opportunities our young people need. I was about to start crying. You know, I don't cry that much. Me too. But, I mean, just thank you, Roland. I mean, it's so important for our young people, especially in journalism, where doors are being slammed, to have somebody like you open them up. You have been, you know what they say,

you have been a good and faithful servant. You love the Lord. You lift us up. You know, I'm not going to blow too much smoke up you because your head is already too big. But I really... Thank you, Roland. The thing, the thing, Avis...

Um... And people come at me, man, you be going off on these folks about advertising. I'm like, look, CNN gonna have 5,000 people apply for internships. Fox News and MSNBC. And the reality is, those are not real internships. The opportunity to actually learn. What people don't understand, it was a non-paid internship at CBS News.

But what I learned that summer, and I think I probably got $250 a month. I can't remember how much Sonny Masai Giles paid me. Maybe in 250, I don't think it's 250 a week. But, because I also worked at Wendy's when I was in college. But what I was able to learn and what I was writing actually set me on the path that I was going on. And so if you never have a shot, you can't get it, I was writing actually set me on the path that I was going on.

And so if you never have a shot, you can't get it, which is why I'm trying to say to our black businesses, if you don't stay in business, you can't give nobody a shot. Absolutely. It's so, so important. And I have to say, as a second generation entrepreneur, I understand the importance of having a business and maintaining a business. My dad had his business for over 40 years. Right. And employed not only all of his brothers, but employed dozens from within the community at a time in which it was, you know, 50 times more challenging right now. And the Jim Crow South is when he started his business, to be perfectly honest. And, you know, it's important that we are there as the anchor for our communities. You know, BNC, as you know, was black facing, but it was not black owned.

And this is why this type of work that you do is so important. And I would have to just add, you know, I could use an intern this summer. I know that there are three other young, there are three other people that were supposed to have that. So if that's one of you, I would love to take on an intern for a paid internship this summer with my company. Please send your resume to concierge at media to Millions, and I will have.com, concierge at Media to Millions.com, and I'll have one of my team members to reach out to you because we need to do this. And just as you mentioned, they need to be paid internships. So many of our brilliant young people get opportunities just like you had, but can't take them because they're unpaid. Personally, I've never missed a payroll.

I don't plan on it. I would love to be able to provide that opportunity to one of the three that remain because if we're not there for us, nobody's going to be there for us. That right there, Omicongo, is why

I wanted to encourage people on the importance of managing your resources, not living above your means, not trying to floss, because when you're able to then manage your money, you can provide the opportunities. This is why we, this is why when I ask people to give, I'm like, yo, this is what I'm talking about.

When I'm talking about when we're going after these advertising dollars with these companies, this is why. The vision that I have, folks, is unlimited. I can tell you right now, if we hit $5 million in revenue this year, I can absolutely add 30 people. Reporters, editors, producers. Now, you just had 250 people lose their job at Black News Channel. So if we're able to get the revenue, we can literally build a black-owned media company

and literally hire those 250. But if we don't get the dollars, it doesn't happen. And so this is why this is so vital and important. I'm going to go ahead. Well, man, first of all, your segment last week on BNC was a master class. You broke it down. And what you're rolling, it's never personal.

It's all about the business and how we can build better, build black better, period, bottom line. And would love to talk to one of them. If they don't even make it here, they could do that stuff at home. But lastly, you know, I can't have, you know, Julianne offering to, Dr. Julianne offering to hook up with them and take them out. Dr. Avis, you know, taking them on, other interns, and then I not do anything. So I'm just saying, you bring

them down here, Roland, they get, you know, free yoga, Pilates, and all of that for their entire time here, because we own our own business, too, and they can come exercise for free. All right. We'll do that. And I did, so I've just sent a text message to Gary Wordlaw. I've known him for 30 years through NABJ.

He was one of the people at BNC asking him to send me those four students who won BNC scholarships so we can place them if they've not gotten placed. And so we're gonna do that. And so to everybody who's watching again, this is why when I asked y'all for support,

you understand now what I'm talking about. Some of you understand, cause I get people hitting, man, you be up that big. Yo, that's a paid internship. It's gonna be more than $6,000, $8,000. And so when I'm asking you to give, when I'm asking you to stand with us and we're going after the Biden administration to force these agencies and the ad agencies that they hire to spend

with black-owned media, that's what I'm talking about. Billion dollars the federal government spends every single year on advertising, and black-owned media gets 1%. No, we ain't satisfied. But we want y'all to support us in what we do. So some of y'all already hit me up, PO Box 57196. You want to send a check or a cash, a check or a money order to P.O. Box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037. You can also hit us up. Cash app. Dollar sign. R.M. Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is R.M. Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

Trust me, you support us. Your dollars matter. Y'all are sitting here. Y'all are sitting here sending stuff with us right now. I already see, again, giving coming in. I appreciate every single one of you. I'll be giving you all a shout, and we told you. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our folks to give an average of 50 bucks each for a year.

That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. If you can't give that, I just saw, look, I appreciate Cynthia Reed. She sent $5. Cynthia, I appreciate your five, just as I appreciate Carla Spive She sent $5. Cynthia, I appreciate your $5, just as I appreciate Carla Spivey's $50. There's some who give more. Y'all, this is what I'm talking about, how we are able to build and grow.

This is no different than when black people took out newspapers, the subscriptions back in the day for the Chicago Defender, for the Atlanta Daily World. It's the same thing. The only thing that I've done here, I purposely not charging you a minimum every month. Because some people, in fact, somebody came to me, somebody hit me on Instagram who told me

my revenue model was wrong. A brother told me I should be charging subscription fees. He said, you're using the wrong revenue model. He's in venture capital. And I said, brother, you don't know, you're using the wrong revenue model. He's in venture capital. I said, brother, you don't know what you're talking about. I said, if I chose to charge my followers $4.99 a month, then there are people out there who watch me right now who can't support us because they can't spend $4.99 a month.

But there's somebody, if they got $5, they send $5. And I got some checks that are $5 and $10. I got some money orders that are $5 and $10. And they are just as important as the sister who sent $2,500 last week. Another sister sent $500 last week. There was a brother last year who sent $5,000 for our app. That $5 person is just as important as that $5,000 person. So I purposely am not charging our people a monthly subscription fee because I want you to have the information that we're giving you. And if all you can do is a dollar, we appreciative. Or five or 10, we appreciative. And you can do more, we appreciate that as well. And so I do this because I need y'all,

I want y'all to see what we're doing. Because you are seeing how we're changing the game. You're seeing how we are impacting somebody's future by creating opportunities and creating the next generation of journalists. I want there to be 5,000 Roland Martins, but it ain't going to happen if we don't train them, equip them, teach them,

and then release them out into this world. So I gotta go to a break. We're gonna come back with our Fit Live Win segment. Also, some breaking news. Will Smith has apologized. I'll show you that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I'm sorry. What's up, what's up? I'm Dr. Ricky Dillard, the choir master.

Hi, I'm Amber Stephens-West from The Carmichael Show. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin on... ...news here. Actor Will Smith has apologized to Chris Rock for what took place last night at the Academy Award. This is what he posted 38 minutes ago on his Instagram page. Go to my computer, please. I would like to publicly apologize to Chris Rock for what took place last night at the Academy Awards. This is what he posted 38 minutes ago

on his Instagram page. Go to my computer, please. Violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.

I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness. I would also like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees, and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees, and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams family and my King Richard family. I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.

I am a work in progress, sincerely, Will." Omokongo, your thoughts. and the work in progress sincerely, Will." Omokongo, your thoughts. This is why I, as I said before, this is why I love Will and Jada. Class act, class personified. And this is how men handle situations. And I'm just so happy that that happened.

And I think Chris Rock should come out and apologize as well, because I believe that when you target the alopecia part of it, that was over the top. But yes, Will Smith just shows why I've been so in love with what they've done for over 30 years. Davis? Yes, that was a very well done apology. And I appreciate that because we have all heard apologies that weren't really really apologies, right?

So I do appreciate the fact that he, as a man, took responsibilities for his actions, but also explained, hey, I was emotional because my wife was attacked because of her medical condition, as many of us assumed. And so I, too, am hoping here that Chris Rock steps up to the plate and reciprocates so that the two of them can not only mend this publicly, but hopefully they can mend it privately and move forward from there. Julianne? It was very classy. It was classic Will Smith, actually.

I'm very happy and very heartened to hear it. I heard what Oba Congo said in the previous segment about this being painful. And it really is painful for black America to see two of our best and brightest brawling on a stage. So I'm just happy for that. I'm happy that he mentioned the Williams family and Venus and Serena are two of the most peaceful people I know. And so to, uh, put Luke in that, I think is really good. Um, I, what I would like to see out of this though, Roland is that these two black men could have a conversation about black women, about who we are, and why Chris Rock is so misogynistic, why perhaps also will, I think we all talked about,

how he acted on behalf of his wife. I need to hear more brothers. You know, we have all this stuff for Black men, and we also have all this stuff for Black women, but I think we need to be much more intersectional. So I'd like to see them lead a conversation, maybe that you moderated, talking about black women and about many ways that, as Avis said earlier, we're the mules. We're at the bottom of the totem pole. Why?

And what are our brothers prepared to do to lift us up? Give me one second, because it looks like Chris Rock has issued an apology. Give me one second because it looks like Chris Rock has issued an apology. Give me one second. I was just sent it. I'm trying to pull it up. It wasn't on his Instagram page. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It may be on his...

Okay. Right. So this, what was sent is apparently a fake apology. That's why we checked. Somebody sent that out. I'm looking on, because there's nothing on his Facebook page, nothing on his Instagram page. So, folks, if y'all are posting anything about Chris Rock apologizing,

it is not true. I'm literally on his Facebook page right now. The last post on his Facebook page was on March 9th. It's gone. Nothing on his Instagram page, so no. There's nothing from Chris Rock apologizing for what happened last night.

If y'all are sitting around, don't, because it's not real. It's not real. It's not real. Well, first of all, remember, we'll just apologize. So we don't know if Chris is going to issue one. We don't know. We don't know. So

if something is real, we'll definitely let y'all know. All right, folks. Fit, live, win. We're always talking about dental health. We had a conversation last month. Dr. Johnson is back again from this month. So, Doc, what you got for us this time about our dental health? Good evening. How are you? Great. Good. Good. Shoot. I'm just here, ready to answer any questions that you have. All right. So we talked last time. We were talking about your dental care. We were talking about flossing. We were talking about brushing, all those different things along those lines.

The first question is, when it comes to children, what must we be doing when it comes to our kids and their dental health? Is it once a year? Is it twice a year? Is it once every quarter? How do we deal with their dental health? At the age of two, we recommend that they're seen twice a year by their dentist to have regular cleanings and checkups. Typically, we won't do any x-rays at that age, but we'd like to see them from two on, twice a year. So twice a year also.

All right, so from a parental standpoint, what are we looking for? What must we be doing, saying what they can and cannot eat or stuff along those lines when it comes to their, again, dental health. So as a dentist, we'll look for patterns of like if they have early decay, we'll look at their hygiene, what the parent is doing while they're a toddler. So we're instructing them on the correct way to brush their teeth, making sure that they're eating healthy foods. A lot of our pediatric patients

are overwhelmed with processed foods. It's kind of like a trending thing, the chips, cookies and just the access that our kids have to process food. It's hard as a dentist because you don't want to spend a lot of time lecturing, but nutrition is really the key to having your children's teeth healthy and we got to remember as parents that our mouths are the gateway to our body so if we're not feeding our kids healthy food if we're just feeding our kids food for convenience those types of foods tend to

destroy the enamel on their teeth and then you're gonna have early childhood decay and then these children are gonna have to have treatment very early in life. I see a lot of pediatric patients in my practice where we're removing baby teeth that have only been in their mouth for, you know, a few years. So we have to do better beverage-wise. We asked our parents to limit juice to a cup a day, not a bottle. Wait, hold on. A cup a day? So not even a whole Capri Sun?

Nah, that's terrible. You know, what we're looking at, look at the packaging on some of these beverages, right? And so the consumption for an adult is like, what, 20 to 30 grams of sugar a day? Right. But we're giving our kids that in one beverage. It makes

no sense. So, all right. So, let's see here. We got some... I'm a Congo. You got a question for Doc about dental care. First, Dr. Johnson, whenever you're on, I feel like I kind of... I try to mumble a little bit because it's like

your teeth are so perfect. I'm like, people can't see mine, see yours. You're just amazing in what you do. And we really appreciate that. My daughter has braces and I want to know what your thoughts are on braces for adults. I know like a decade ago, everybody was talking about Invisalign. Is that still the thing? Are there other products out there that adults should consider if they don't have the patience for regular braces that kids get? Yeah, so Invisalign would be the alternate to traditional braces. So you're not wearing trays every two weeks, and you're able to still floss your teeth, you know, you can take them out to eat. So in that way, it's a lot easier than traditional braces. The downside to the Invisalign can be sometimes cost.

It's a little more expensive than traditional braces. And then also people tend to not be as compliant where they don't have a choice to wear the traditional brace because they're glued to their teeth. Sometimes we have patients that won't wear the trays. So they don't. Yeah. They don't. Well, I'll say this here. Invisalign is great.

I did it. You're absolutely right. You've got to be very responsive. I was at the Alamo Bowl, and I'd actually taken the Invisalign out to eat, and I put them in my... I didn't have my tray.

I put them in the napkin on my tray. Then, of course, took the tray away and put it in my... I didn't have my tray. I put them in the napkin on my tray. Then, of course, I took the tray away and put it in the trash. I was like, oh, damn. So I had to call my dentist in Chicago like, Doc, I need a new tray. So it actually happened a couple of times, but I much prefer them than those metal damn braces

that were on all the time. So, yes, I definitely endorse Invisalign. Avis. Hi, Doc. So, to me, one of the things that, once again, with adults as well in dental care, one of the things oftentimes we think about is how can we best whiten our teeth. And there are a lot of different products out there that you can use at home. But, you know, I often wonder how safe they really are

for our enamel, right, and for our teeth. And so, do you have any suggestions about, uh, teeth whitening at home, or does it just make sense to go to a professional like you if you're interested in-in getting some whitening done for you? You mean like people would say, the charcoal, brush your teeth with charcoal and all that kind of stuff? Yeah. Go ahead, doc.

So I have the first part of the question. I have a lot of patients who can't really afford to come in. Our whitening that we do in the office is probably expensive compared to some of the over-the-counters. those are typically safe I can't recommend those type of products because as a professional and we're not applying it we're not teaching them how to use it but some of them work well hydrogen peroxide is usually the component that will whiten your teeth so if you're buying something over the counter, you would want to look for more of like a hydrogen peroxide base. The higher concentration

whitenings, you're only going to be able to get prescriptions for, and that will be when you go to see your dentist. So we do like zoom whitening in our office. You won't be able to purchase that over the counter. Home remedies, as far as just whitening your teeth on your own, it takes a longer time, but you could pretty much use baking soda, peroxide. I have not experimented with the charcoal, so I can't recommend that. I personally don't see me putting charcoal in my mouth, so that's not happening. I'm just not doing it. So I think the way that we maintain our teeth also affects the whiteness. Sometimes people overbrush their teeth and they don't realize that they're causing

the enamel to be thin and it will make your teeth appear darker. Enamel is the white part of your teeth. When you brush too heavily, your teeth are going to appear yellow because now the dentin is being exposed. The other thing that I noticed is people don't brush their teeth well. There's usually buildup in things and stain on their teeth, and so their teeth appear darker and they really just need to get their teeth professionally cleaned. Also, you notice those dark fillings that people have in their teeth. That will make your teeth appear gray and dark.

You can get those removed to make your teeth appear whiter. So I have a lot of patients I just tell them use baking soda and peroxide and you can whiten your teeth naturally on your own, improve your hygiene, watch what you're eating and drinking. Our diet over time stains our teeth. So if you're drinking coffee every day, if you're drinking tea every day, cut back on those things and you'll notice that your teeth will look whiter.

All right. Now, if you're drinking tea, let's say it's an apple, do you drink it out of the bottle or with a straw? Well, there's, okay, if you're using a straw, typically you're bypassing your teeth, right? Versus like drinking it, you're bathing your teeth each time. So there's like this thing with the patients who still drink coffee, they'll, like, use one of those hard plastic straws to bypass their teeth so they don't

have to whiten their teeth as often. Okay. All right. Got it. Uh, Juliana, you last. Uh, yes. First of all, Doc, you are a perfect advertisement for your occupation. Thank you. Your really big smile. I just love it.

We ain't even gonna show her hardcore fitness videos. I'm not able to stand by you, because, hey, you got it going on. I... And I was laughing at you and Roland, because, Roland, I had more Invisalign adventures than you did. Um, to the point of one time having someone go in the garbage can and try to

find my tray. You know what? Forget it. This just ain't happening. But, Doc, I want to ask you about mouthwash. Should we be using it? How often should we be using it? Is it just to get us rid of bad breath? Or is there a reason why

we should use mouthwash if we don't have bad breath? Okay, so there's several types of mouthwash I personally do not recommend I don't recommend mouthwashes with alcohol in them because they tend to dry your mouth out so the Listerine I don't recommend unless it's alcohol free. My favorite mouthwash has a xylitol product in it. I believe Spry is the maker of it, but it naturally builds the enamel in your teeth. So I do believe you should be using mouthwash. And in this sequence, I feel like you should brush your teeth using soft circles, okay? I feel like you should floss and then rinse with mouthwash because that helps to eliminate plaque and bacteria and the germs with these mouthwashes.

So it's like kind of the the wash away right from all of the plaque and debris that you're breaking off of your teeth when you're brushing and you're flossing xylitol is a natural builder I am NOT a fan of fluoride I still use it in my product my office because patients recommend it but I don't personally use fluoride my children my office because patients recommend it but I don't personally use fluoride my children have never used fluoride my kids have like no cavities right so I would prefer xylitol mouthwash for my patients older or younger it doesn't matter but yes before bedtime and it doesn't matter what time you're sleeping um i

would recommend brush floss and then um use mouthwash all right then all right doc tell people how they can reach you all right you can reach us at vipsmilesinc.com that's our website. We're also on Instagram at VIPsmilesDDS. You could reach us by phone. That's 216-475-0080. Okay. All right then. Always good to see you. I appreciate it.

Be chatting with you soon. Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you, Roland. Thanks for having me. All right. See, I told you that was painless. I told you.

All right. All right. Thanks a bunch. All right. Thank you, Roland. Thanks for having me. All right. See, I told you that was painless. I told you. All right. All right. Thanks a bunch. All right. Let me thank Macongo, Avis, and Julianne. Thanks a bunch. We are awaiting. I'm getting back and forth information with regarding Chris Rock's apology. I was told that may have been posted prematurely. It was up, it was down, so I'm just, we're working through it. So if it comes through, we'll have, of course, tomorrow on tomorrow's show.

Again, let me shout out my man David Squires, who hit me up about sitting in North Carolina A&T. Certainly glad. That's why I'm rocking their gear today. North Carolina A&T Aggies. And so, a proud internship. And again, I did send an email to Gary Werla to find out the other four students who had internships with Black News Channel so we could make sure that they get placed. Folks, again, if y'all want to support us in what we do, also, let me say this here, a lot of y'all were trying to get on the Black Star Network app today. Y'all damn near crashed it. I don't know what

happened. So I already hit the Vimeo. We paid them way too damn much money for that to happen. So don't worry about it. Somebody be getting cussed out soon as I get off the air. So I got a serious problem with the amount of money we paying for the app to go down. So trust me, we are on it to figure out what went on. Download the app. Android phone, Apple phone, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV as well. And of course, folks, you can also please support us.

I see a lot of y'all already been giving thanks a bunch. Again, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037. Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. And of course Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Let me give a shout out. Let me do this here folks.

To Harold Brooks. Harold, thank you so very much. Dexter Adams, thanks a bunch. Lori Jackson. James, thanks a bunch. Lori Jackson, James, let me see. Maria C. Priscilla Smith, Terry Brooks, Eldred Hightower, Tonya Donaldson, Don Williams, Varda Pleasant,

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Cheryl Bass, Sophia Newton. Let's see here, I'm going through here. Helen Evans. We also have, let's see here, Joan Cox. Let me go back to the top. Reginald Holly, I appreciate all the folks who literally gave during the show. I gave all of y'all a shout out.

Again, everybody, if you give, when we go off the air, trust me, I'll give all of y'all a shout out tomorrow right here on the show. If y'all want to help us pay for Sidney's internship, again, hit us up. P.O. Box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037. Cash app, dollar sign, RM unfiltered. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037.

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You just posted. Connie got in under the wire. And let's see, Harold Brooks, Daisy McDonald, Josephine Kiyamo, Jeanette Boone, Bridget Robinson, Melody Robinson, Trevin Johnson, Adrian Parker, Robbie Morganfield, Andrea Greenflowers, James Janifer, and Connie Fitzgerald,

all y'all on PayPal. So I appreciate that. That's it, folks. I'm going to see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black Home, Black Star Network. Howl! Howl! Howl! Howl!

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Howl! Howl! Howl! Howl! Howl! Howl! ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Nå er det en av de fleste stående stående i verden. Kjell Kjell 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. This is an iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.