Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today's Wednesday, June nineteenth, twenty twenty four, are coming up
on rollod Marc done Fielder streaming live on the Black
stud Network on this teen Belora holiday. We're focused on
exactly exactly what's going on. One of the issues we're
talking about is the loophole that enables school's nationwide to
ignore the importance of June teenth. We'll also talk to
(00:23):
the CEO of one United Bank, the largest black owned
bank in the US, who says emancipation has four economic benefits.
The grandmother of Juneteenth, Ope Lee, gets the keys to
her new home in Fort Worth, built on the same
land where their home was burned down by a racist
white mob eighty five years ago. Today also my man
(00:48):
Jerl Horn, doctor Gerald Horn. When I interviewed him for
his book about the Texas Mascipation, he talked about a
very little known fact about June team. We're going to
play some of that for you. Also with Patree to
Baseball Hall of Fame and Willie Bays to say, hey,
kid who died at the age of ninety three. Today's
also World Sickle Cell Day. We'll talk about the latest
(01:09):
in finding a cure for this disease that disease that
affects primarily Americans of African descent and Tamerline Swiss beats.
And now I said, they're going to be distributing versus
on Elon Monks's platform, Twitter or x all the stuff
he had to say about black people. And that's what
(01:29):
we're doing, is that for the culture. I got a
few words. It's time to bring the full I'm rolling
by unfiltered on the Black sid network. Let's go peace.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Got whatever the best, he's sold it, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
He's got school fact defined.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Anna believes he's right on top and is rolling best belief.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
He's knowing.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Franks Loston news to politics with entertainment.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Just book keeps. He's swing, it's roll in money. He's
bronky spread.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
She's real up.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Question, No, he's rolling Monte.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yes, we're alive today on June teenth. Why because y'all
know white media not gonna properly cover this Black holidays.
So that's why we do what we do. Of course, Uh,
this has long been a state holiday in Texas since
nineteen eighty. Of course, last year, the first year Juneteenth
became a federal holiday. It is the only day that
(03:05):
actually acknowledges the end of slavery in this country. That
is when, of course, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas
on this day, eighteen sixty five to announce to all
of the enslaved people excuse me in Texas that they
were free. I keep in mind the folks they kept
(03:25):
slavery going for two years there because you did not
have empowered the folks there, and so the races continued.
The institution that took place there. Again, President Joe Biden
last year made Juneteenth a national holiday actually twenty twenty one.
Of course it was passed by Congress. And so all
of this has been going on, and you know this
(03:46):
is driving the folk crazy, who can't stand CRT DEI
and all that good stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And so.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The question then is can June teenth actually be talked
about in classrooms? Well, Chris do it?
Speaker 6 (04:01):
Or?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
The CEO of ed Post, a network of education activist
influencers who demand better education and a brighter future child.
He joins us now from the Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Chris,
the thing that jumps out here when we talk about
we talk about June teenth is how Republicans have been
doing all they can to actually stop the teaching of
(04:22):
black history in this country. And so what is the
impact of that on June tenth.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
I mean, the impact on June teenth is that there
are going to be a lot of teachers that self
censor themselves.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
They won't teach it.
Speaker 7 (04:37):
Some of them didn't want to teach it in the
first place, that as it becomes a good excuse to
not do it. But for those that really do want
to teach it, they have to fear that if a
parent complains, if a community member complains, it could be
even somebody not in the same community that can hear
that it's going on in a classroom and complain to
the state, that teacher could be could be in big trouble.
(04:58):
So that's one of theffects and impacts straight up by law,
though it can be taught. It can be taught by
law in all fifty states right now. The thing that
makes it tricky is that only twelve states mandate teaching
black history period and many teachers say the reason that
they don't do it is because it's not in state standards.
(05:20):
And the even more tricky part is there are these
really vague you mentioned them, anti CRT laws, anti black
codes written in the state laws that basically say if
a white child is made uncomfortable by some of the teaching,
if the teaching wanders into a way where it says
that one group of people by their race oversaw another
(05:42):
people by their.
Speaker 8 (05:42):
Race, that that could be a problem too. So teachers
just actually just becomes more convenient, more easy to not
teach it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And again we have seen these different attacks, and I'm
sure this federal holiday is absolutely driving the race is
crazy because of Ali. You can't get that. Granted, obviously
the school is out, you still have summer school, but
it's kind of hard to get around a federal holiday.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
Yeah, I mean listen, I called my bank yesterday and
the message that they had on the bank was will
be closed tomorrow for the holiday. Now, every other holiday
that they're closed they named the holiday, will be closed
for Christmas, will be closed for President's Day, or whatever
it is. But on this particular holiday they don't even
want to offend their customers by saying that it's June teenth.
(06:31):
That tells you the reason why we need June teenth taught.
Because if the majority population is going to be this
ignorant about us, we can't be too. So we need
our black teachers, our black schools, our black parents and
community members, and our black churches.
Speaker 8 (06:46):
Just making this an issue.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
It's got to be part of everybody's agenda to make
sure that black history gets fought for in the same
way that other side fought for anti black cause to
be passed in their states.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Also, I think it's it's critically important for people to
understand that listen to those of us in Texas, June
teens was not just It's not about concerts and picnics, cookouts, barbecues,
things along those lines. It was also about empowered. It
was about freedom, it was about voting freedom, it was
about uh, you know, economic freedom, all aspects. And so
(07:20):
that's what June teens was about. And so that's so,
you know, I need people to keep that in mind
as you now have nationwide June teen celebrations.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
I think what you just hit on Roland is one
of the answers.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Though.
Speaker 7 (07:32):
We put a lot on schools, and we put a
lot on classrooms, and what we have learned as black
parents and black people over time is that we are
turning our kids over every day to schools that don't
look like us.
Speaker 8 (07:42):
They weren't they weren't made for us.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
They weren't made to help us reach our highest potential,
and because of that, we can't fully rely on them
to give us the full black education that we need.
Speaker 8 (07:52):
So, you know, I just want to give you your props.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
You've been the only, like relentlessly warrior type of person
on the edge vation part of this. It has basically
made you a journalist and a public teacher. What you
just said but just came out of your mouth is
public teaching. And I just wish more people with the
platform like yours, at the size and the scale that
you were at, were kind of a warrior for us
(08:14):
the way that you are on this particular issue, because
everybody should be talking about it. We should be teaching
ourselves and not waiting just for schools to do it well.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The problem is that can happen unless you own it.
And the reality is when you look at a lot
of the folks who are black who have shows on
networks that you're not control the show. They don't own
the show. Their producers determine what's going on, and very
few of those hosts truly have the power to do so.
And I think that's also part of the problem. Look
at a black host on a network show, say that
(08:47):
this person would have loved to have had me on
the show, but her white producers did not like the
title of my book, White Fear. And I was like,
and I've sent some notes. And the person said to me,
you know you're preaching to the choir. I said, no,
I need you to be the choir. I need you
to be the senior pastor.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
Yeah, you know again, it's great to talk to you
on June tenth, brother, because you prove all that wrong though,
right you you made a way where there's not a way.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
You built your own. You own yourself.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
That is actually the freedom story of Juneteenth and that
we all should be paying attention to. Prince said it,
you know, own your masters, don't let your masters own you.
You know, he walked around with slave on his space
for a period of time. I'm sure you got more
stories than that. And also Rowan, you know, first of all,
I just want to keep saying you play a pivotal
role in this. But in your lifetime, you have watched
(09:37):
how hard it is for us to get like the
MLK holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
First of all, asolutely I think that that was easy.
Speaker 8 (09:42):
They don't remember that it took work to even get
that passed and to.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
See these Republicans go well, Reagan signed it, he also
opposed it. He had no choice to sign it because
it was overwhelmingly approved by Congress. But that was not
at all something that he wanted to do. And so
I like to keep reminding folk of that you ain't
getting no. In fact, I had some black women on
my Instagram page actually say that, oh, Trump fought for
(10:10):
June teenth, but Biden got all the credit. And I'm like,
you out your damn mind if you think I'm gonna
let you just get away with that, with that flat
out line. No, he did not. And you know it's like,
so yeah, we ain't trying to hear that nonsense from
these black magafolk.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
No, And actually, you know what is just so good
that you're there to call them out at a level
in which we can be proud because for many of
us we see this in our daily lives. We have
to encounter ignorant people that we work with, that we
report to, that we get jobs from that, we have
to get grants from it for nonprofits. Whatever I do
think our pathway to freedom is doing is taking your
(10:47):
story to heart, like be free, own yourself. Teach yourself though,
teach your own children as much as you can, because
schools should teach it, but they're not going to.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And that's why I say to all our people, don't
just sit here and wait and rely on them to
do any of this. We take the lead as well, Chris.
We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 8 (11:04):
Appreciate you, brother, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Folks. On this day, I cannot go without us recognizing
this brother right here, go to my iPad Henry. This
here is Texas State Representative Al Edwards. He is the
father of June teenth. It was Al Edwards who carret
the torch in Texas for years to get this to
become a state holiday. Let's be bit perfectly clear. If
there is no state holiday in Texas, there is no
(11:29):
federal holiday in the United States. And so to June
teenth begin to spread all around the country. This is
the statue of Al Edwards, that State Repsentive Al Edwards,
my good alpha brother, that is that stands in Galveston, Texas,
of course where those Union troops came there. And so
I just think it's important and and but people need
(11:51):
to understand this is not trying to say, oh, you're
trying to take away from Open Lee who walked and
campaigned for the national holiday. But you have to if
we're to talk about history and the roots of Juneteenth.
I do understand that it was a long fight in
Texas for it to become a state holiday because June
teenth originates in Texas and it was state Representative Al Edwards.
(12:13):
He died four years ago. It was during COVID, you know,
and he passed away. He had been ill for quite
some time. But it's important on this date. I posted
something on Instagram and his son came and posted to
a comment and said, you know, appreciate you recognizing my
dad on this day. So we all must understand what
that particular history is. I want to go to my
(12:35):
panel right now. Robert Pertillo hosts People Passionate, Politics, News
and Talk thirteen eighty w a OK out of Atlanta.
Rebecca Caruthers, vice president of Fair Election Center, Washington, d C.
You know I made that point there. I made that
point there, Rebecca, about in terms of how this is
because this is in its infancy. I believe that we
as black folks, but do all we can to ensure
(12:57):
that we are controlling the narrative of Juneteenth at this
not become this watered down, you know holiday that just
ste We're gonna talk about freedom. No no, no, no,
no no, We're gonna talk about black freedom. See that's
my problem with with with how focus No no no no.
(13:19):
This Saint July fourth, This aint Christmas, This ain't Thanksgiving,
It's not Veterans Day, Memorial's Day.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
You can go on and on.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
This is a specific Black holiday that celebrates people of
African descent being freed from the shackles of slavery, which
was the law of the land for two hundred and
forty three years and with those extra two years two
hundred and forty five in.
Speaker 9 (13:49):
Texas hateenth rowing.
Speaker 10 (13:53):
We refuse to let corporations like Walmart sell June teen's
ice cream because that's not what this thing is about.
I have to think about my ancestor, my great great
great grandfather, Henry Caruthers, who ended slavery in Narro County, Texas.
It is because of General Granger's order that my ancestor
(14:14):
became free. Unfortunately, many of the blacks who were enslaved
in Texas in eighteen sixty five had to finish out
through the harvest season. They weren't allowed to actually drop
what they were doing and then go on to freedom.
The thing about my great great at grandfather effectually known
as Pap, he founded his town in Texas, which is
(14:36):
which still exists. In fact, it is the first town
in Texas that received a historical marker, the first black town,
black enclave, black freedman's colony. Some in Virginia, some of
those places were called maroon colonies. I say all that
to say is it is up to us to tell
the story of Juneteenth, especially those who are direct descendants
(14:58):
of folks who became free because of June teams a
lot of the blacks from Texas. That said, I also
want to highlight that when I think about the MLK
holiday and the campaign to make that happen, it included
our black creatives who used their skill, use their platform
to make it happen. Many of us sing the happy
(15:19):
Birthday rendition that Stevie Wonder did, but do many of
us know that specifically that Happy Birthday version that Stevie
Wonder recorded was to honor mlk's birthday, and he used
that to popularize the campaign to make sure that MLKA
became a federal holiday.
Speaker 9 (15:37):
So just like Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 10 (15:39):
Used his creative arts to do so, we need many
of our black celebrities. We need our black creatives. We
need those with platforms to help elevate and to show
understanding what June teenth is and that it is jubilee.
It is about us understanding that we need economic rights,
we need education rights, we need housing, we need voting rights,
(16:01):
we need overall civil rights in this country if we
are to be first class citizens in the country in
which we built.
Speaker 9 (16:08):
So June teith is an incredible holiday.
Speaker 10 (16:11):
I'm very excited that at least on the federal level
now it is recognized as such.
Speaker 11 (16:15):
Robert, we have to stop depending on the people who
used to own us to tell us the story about
how we were owned.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yep, You're not going to go to.
Speaker 11 (16:24):
Germany and have Jewish people being taught by Nazis about
the Holocaust. You're not going to go to Armenia and
have the Turks we talked teaching them about the genocide.
Do you have to control your own narrative? This conversation
has to happen at home, because when we talk about
these restrictions they're being put on education and black history nationwide.
(16:44):
This thing about what Byron Donald said a couple weeks ago,
I don't think he was being up to.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I think that's what he really believes.
Speaker 11 (16:50):
There are black folks in this country that the only
version of black history they've been taught is the Rhonda
Santus version of black history. Things were better during the slavery,
were better during Jim Crow. There weren't all these problems.
The family was closer together. Black conservatives all over social media,
they are posting June teams of the holiday when we
celebrate Republicans freeing the slaves from Democrats, et cetera. Because
(17:14):
they're separating the holiday from the history around it, and
we have to take this and this will be a
point in time with civil rights organizations around the country
are holding not barbecues but town hall meetings where black
colleges and universities are bringing in high school students who
are out for the summertime and bringing them into the
lecture hall so they can learn not just about June tenth,
(17:34):
but the entire process of emancipation, the process that's alread
at the beginning of the nineteenth century and lasted all
the way through till today, because we are still not
fully free in this country. It's one thing is great
to commemorate and celebrate what the freedoms we have had,
but we can to stop and talk about the unfitished
work of reconstruction as existed, and the fact that we
(17:55):
have still tell this day, not completed the work of
being fully emancipated, given the reparations that we deserve in
this nation. And as we have both presidential campaigns running
around the country talking to black voters trying to bring
in the black vote.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No, Donald Trump is in Detroit at a black church.
Speaker 11 (18:13):
He's dragging Byron Donald and Kim Scott around the country
with them. Kamala Harrison's in Atlanta meeting with Kuavo talking
about gun violence. That we have to put on the
agenda that both parties need to understand that this is
a fight for reparations. This is a fight to repair
the damage that was done through chattel slavery, to repair
the damage that was done through two hundred years of
(18:34):
being owned as animals in this country. And the fact
that we have never completed the process of rebuilding black
communities and putting us back into the economic status that
we deserve to be at within this nation. So yes,
we should commemorate everything that has happened. I don't begrudge
anybody from taking a day off or barbecuing, or line
dances or anything else. But at the same time, we
(18:55):
as a community have to ensure that we are passing
down the story in the legacy. What was stolen from
us at the end of reconstruction when the Freedman Bureau
was set up, what the actual view was and what
the plan was to establish the Negro in this nation.
And they have stolen that history from us. When they
teach it in classrooms, they literally go Civil War, YadA, YadA, YadA.
(19:20):
We have to put our information in our history out
there or else that history will be lost back.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I want to talk about black empowerment, and then what
happens when we also put our culture in the hands
of white nationalists. Yes, I'm talking about Timberland Swiss Beats
cutting a deal to distribute versus on Elon musks X.
I'm gonna deal with that next. Right here a rollingd
(19:49):
Mark nonfiltered on the Black Star Network June teenth edition,
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 12 (19:53):
Back in the moment, Hello, my brothers and sisters. This
is Bishop William J.
Speaker 13 (20:12):
Barber, the second co chair of the Poor People's Campaign,
a National Call for maw Revival and President of Repairs
of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get
everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June twenty
ninth at ten o'clock am in Washington, d C. On
Pennsylvania in third for the mass Poor People's Low Wage
(20:33):
Workers Assembly and Morrow march on Washington and to the
polls and the post effort to reach fifteen million poor
and low wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can
change the outcome of our politics in this country.
Speaker 14 (20:49):
Our goal is to center the desires and the political
policy agenda of poor and low wage persons. Along with
Marvel just lead us in advocates. Too often poor and
low wage people are not talked about, even though in
this country today there are one hundred and thirty five
million poor and low waged persons. There's not a state
(21:12):
in this country now where poor and low waged persons
do not make up at least thirty percent of the electorate.
Speaker 12 (21:18):
It is time that the.
Speaker 13 (21:20):
Issues of poor and low wage people be at the
center of our politics. Living wages, healthcare, things that matter
in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty
to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country.
We must let our voices be heard. Join us, Go
to our website www. Poor People's Campaign dot org, RSVP,
(21:44):
get others to come, get a bus, get a verd,
get on the train. Come and let our voices be
heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom
so that everybody.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Write these trails we define our future.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
We are the heart and soul of America.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
This June Team, we celebrate freedom, freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry,
and vote.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
We are one America.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to
face the future together.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
We can't stop now.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
I'm Joe Biden and I approved this message.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Hello. I'm Paula J. Parker, Trudie Proud of the Proud Family.
I am Tommy Davidson.
Speaker 12 (22:49):
I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Press.
Speaker 15 (22:53):
I am Jean Marie Peyton, voice of Sugar Mama and
Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And I'm with Rolling Pardon on Unfiltered.
Speaker 15 (23:06):
Listen when I'm set his hat s sas and you
(23:29):
being into my life the morn rang mom in sircuit
and I gotta let you know tod.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Alright, Folks, at June ten we talked about freedom. We're
not talking about just freedom from slavery. We're not just
talking about freedom when it comes to right to vote,
when it comes to being their own homes, freedom to
be able to walk and go where you are and
not be accosted by crazy derange Karen's and kens around
this country. It's also when we're talking about economic freedom.
(24:19):
When you look at the numbers, the numbers are start.
Black home ownership has never hit fifty percent in this country. Also,
when you look at the home foreclosure crisis that took
place in two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
twenty ten, some fifty three percent of black wealth was
wiped out. Now, we spend money, we spend lots of money,
(24:39):
but we also make a lot of other folk rich.
When you hear me talking about the battle even when
it comes to advertising, Okay, you've heard me say this
numerous times. Three hundred and forty billion dollars is spent
last Year's probably gonna be three to fifty billion or
almost four hundred billion this year will be spent on advertising.
(25:01):
Black owned media gets point five to one percent. So
one of the reasons why you do not have a
black owned media company of the scale of a CNN
or a New York Times or one of those companies
is because capital wasn't there. See a lot of people
talk about access to capital, saying, oh, well, you need
to be able to access capital to grow, Well, that's
(25:23):
not always the case. You also need access to contracts.
And so we have to understand that we have significant
economic power, not just in terms of how we spend
our money, but also how we leverage our money in
the marketplace. And that's something that we always should be
(25:44):
thinking about on this particular day. Whenever there are events
and I've done this people who brought me in the keynote,
I will ask them the question is that videographers that
are black owned company the folk do the audio visual?
Was this a black owned company? Are utilising black owned caterers?
Or you're using a black owned transportation company. See I
(26:06):
asked those questions because if black folks aren't doing that
within who is Those of you who support the Black
Star Network y'all know the day we launt the network
and I announced it, I had the people on the
air look understand lighting system that's in here, black owned company, Henry,
give me a wide shot. You see this desk right here,
(26:26):
this news desk right here was built by a black
owned set design company. That art that down there as
Lee Roy Campbell. The art you see there, that green
screen over there, that was a black owned drape company.
The art work that you see in here, black artists.
That control room in there completely done by black engineering companies.
And so the reality is, and we utilize black videographers,
(26:49):
black editors, and now listen, there are other folks who
work for me who are not black, but we make
a concerted effort to actually talk to black people, use
black people, investing in black people, and help their businesses
grow as well. Joining us right now is Kevin Cohees
CEO and owner of one U Downited Bank, the lardest
(27:10):
black OneD bank in the United States. So he says,
emancipation really has to be looked at through four economic benefits.
He joins us now from Los Angeles. Kevin, glad to
have you on the show. And so how do you
outline what those four economic pillars are well, I'm not.
Speaker 16 (27:29):
Sure when you refer to four economic pillars what you're
referring to. But when I think about the economic paradigm
we as black people face today, I think it's a
wonderful opportunity to take advantage, to take advantage of others
in helping to build our own communities.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
For example, corporating, I'm sorry.
Speaker 16 (27:57):
Corporations as an example, corporations are more willing than ever
to help black businesses by doing more business with them.
And I think there's a real opportunity to use holidays
like June teenth to remind America of its obligation to
Black Americans going back to when we were enslaved. We
(28:20):
continue to overcome the vestiges of first slavery, then Jim Crow,
and now we're challenged by living in a country where
financial literacy is simply not taught eight through twelve. We
don't teach financial literacy, even though that's one of the
most important topics that affects our lives.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Okay, So on that right there, when you say teach
fagial literacy, be specific. What is it that we should
be talking about when we talk about financial literacy that
phrase is often used a lot by folks, But what
does that actually mean? What does that look like?
Speaker 16 (28:55):
Okay, what it means is K through twelve that we
receive a specific curriculum that teaches us all the basic
principles of the neands so that as very young with
children at high school will know about real estate transactions,
children in junior high school will know about stocks and bonds,
(29:16):
children in high school will know about things like trust.
It's that lack of financial literacy that is probably the
largest factor suppressing our economic growth right now.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So here's the whole deal. We know that that's not
happening in schools. Okay, what should then be happening in
terms of our community? Same thing. We talk about black history.
We know what they're not teaching. The reality is they're
not going to teach us of financial literacy. The reality
is when the Freedman's Bank was set up after the
end of the war, that actually was one of the
(29:49):
role and responsibilities of the Freedman's Bank to provide financial
literacy for the freed people of African descent who were slaves.
But the problem is, we know Lincoln was killed two
months later, that racist Johnson came in and pretty much
and you had what modern day, some three billion dollars
in black assets were stolen, as you know, out of
(30:10):
the freedman's bank. And so we keep talking about we
need it, but waiting on them to do it ain't
gonna happen. So from a community standpoint, organizations explain to
folks who are watching, how you think that should be taught.
So we're not waiting on them. We can start doing
for ourselves.
Speaker 16 (30:29):
Okay, Well, specifically, it is happening. We're over fifty percent
of the states in the United States have adopted mandatory
financial literacy requirements as a condition of graduation.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So it is happening.
Speaker 16 (30:45):
We as Black Americans need to be the foremost advocates
of ensuring that the rest of the states adopt legislation
that require mandatory financial literacy. It's one of the most
important issues facing us as a people. So we are
making progress. Their legislation is passing. We should just be
(31:06):
behind it. It's one of those issues that Black America
has not thrown the full weight of its authority behind,
even though we're one of the groups that will benefit
most rolling. Just so I can be clear here, passing
this legislation has been calculated is worth one hundred and
twenty seven thousand dollars over a person's lifetime. So when
(31:30):
you're talking about things like closing equality gaps, racial racial
wealth gaps, income gaps, that kind of thing, the single
thing is worth over one hundred thousand dollars to each
child that receives it over its lifetime.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
So we are in a position to.
Speaker 16 (31:49):
Advocate with state and local government to say, look, we're
not playing around with you, Okay, we are entitled to
this kind of education. It's the most important thing that
our people are going to deal with in their lives.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
With all due respect, you're not going to.
Speaker 16 (32:07):
Solve very many chemistry problems, very many biology problems, but
you're gonna be solving financial problems every single day for
the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
What we need to know.
Speaker 16 (32:18):
Teach our children what they need to know so we
can be effective in society. We dealt with slavery, then
you put Jim Crow on us, Then we dealt with
Jim Crow. Now you're sitting there and run in a
society where you're not teaching us financial literacy, the most
important skill we need to have to be effective as participants.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
In this society.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Well, look, I've long said in a capitalistic society, they
want to keep some folks clueless on some of these
issues compared to others. One more question for you before
going to my panel, and that is we talk about
we talked about moving forward. I also believe it's critically
important that we also move as a collective. What I
(33:02):
mean by moving as a collective, it's utilizing our collective power.
What I've said to numerous black organizations is that when
we're talking about whether we're talking about advertising, and we're
talking about venture capital, and we're talking about any all
these different areas. First of all, we talk about venture
capital in this country, they depend venture capitalness country depends
(33:23):
upon pension funds. So we talk about where's them, where's
the money coming from. That's a lot of black folks
who are school teachers, city workers, county workers, state workers,
federal workers. And so that money being invested, that's the
money of a lot of those folks. And so we
can change. I believe private equity as opposed to trying
(33:44):
to operate from the top, trying to hope hopefully they
get religion by being saved from the bottom. No, if
y'all not using If y'all don't have black investment, folks,
then you're not going to have access to these dollars. Again,
that's using our political power, our collective power. It's also
with doctor King said April third, nineteen sixty eight, when
he called it redistribute the pain. He made it clear
(34:06):
those who do not do business with us, we don't
do business with them. And he said it we need
to throw a Molotov cocktail. We need to have an
argument or a fight. He said, we pull our money,
then they will pay attention.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Well, and I agree with you.
Speaker 16 (34:22):
I do think it's critically important that we motivate both
corporations and governmental entities to do business with black people period.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Now.
Speaker 16 (34:34):
I do think that there's a real opportunity right now
in this post George Floyd environment, we are definitely seeing
movement in corporate America, significant movement in corporate America where
they're doing much more business than they've ever done before,
both in terms of providing capital but also making their
resources available to minority owned companies to help them to
(35:00):
prove the products and services that they're delivering.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
So there is progress being made.
Speaker 16 (35:06):
Our voices are being heard we just have to, as
you pointed out, we have to act as a coalition
to speed up that pace of change.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, I see, I'm not interested in waiting. I remember
I had we were battling. We were battling on the
advertising front. It had a brother. He made a comment,
he said, you know, these things take time. And I said, bro,
you seventy eight every year, every day over seventy for
you as a black man's a bonus day. I said,
we ain't. Actually, I ain't trying to see it here
(35:38):
and wait another twenty thirty forty years. And so I
think it's important for us to be pushing and prouding
the syenstem urgency. I made it clear after the death
of George Floyd. I said that the failure of the
first Reconstruction. First of all, the success of the first
Reconstruction was Legislative thirteen fourteen fifteenth Amendments, the Reconstruction Amendments. Then,
(35:59):
of course you go eighteen seventy seven. You have then
usher in ninet two years of Jim Crow. Then you
give the second Reconstruction movie, which I call the Black
Civil Rights move with other Black freedom movement. Well, guess
what that dealt with Laws, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act,
Fair Housing Act. But the money will still never dealt with.
After the death of George Floyd, I said to folks,
(36:19):
I said, if you look at the failure the first two,
they never dealt with the money, and there was only
a three, four or five year period where white folks
did what was right. Then all of a sudden, it's
kind of like, okay, we're clear. I said, let's not
let that happen now. I said, this needs to be
a sustained effort for a minimum of twenty years. I said, don't.
(36:40):
I said, don't let off the gas, don't let up.
But a lot of folks did. And now what we've
seen is tax on, the attacks on DEI we see
the tax on the Fearless Fund, the attacks on law
firms and other corporate programs. Because folks are saying, let's
attack the economic underpinning that has created these opportunities for
(37:00):
African Americans. We've got to make sure that we don't
let that happen.
Speaker 16 (37:06):
You are a thousand percent correct, and we should do that.
We should take advantage of things like Juneteenth Day. I mean,
that's a holiday that celebrates our freedom and as a
byproduct or celebrate our freedom. It's a time for us
to push for more diversity and inclusion in our economy.
(37:29):
It benefits everybody. Getting rid of slavery was the best
decision this country ever made, from both as social and
the economic standpoint.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
What you're talking about with what it takes.
Speaker 16 (37:42):
To continue to build on that economic divity in that
our society has, and what you're saying is that we
have to represent ourselves effectively with the government and with
corporations in order to achieve the things that we need
to achieve.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Here again, for us, it starts with give us the education,
give us the knowledge.
Speaker 16 (38:04):
If you give us the knowledge that you that you
should have given us, then we are so good as
people and so effective that we're giving a fair playing
field that we will.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Help to build America. We made America America.
Speaker 16 (38:22):
The reason America is America is directly because of black people.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
This this emancipation thing. That's why Juneteenth is a big deal.
Speaker 16 (38:32):
It's a it's a celebration of America is the greatest
country in the world. Why because it freed the slaves.
That's what made us have the best team. To use
a sports analogy, Robert.
Speaker 11 (38:49):
Thank thank you so much for everything that you're doing,
and the conversation is so rivening.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
I do have this question.
Speaker 11 (38:55):
I used to live in Chinatown when live in Chicago
for a year or their twentieth, and I noticed that
when you would go into each of the shops there,
everybody there, of course was part of.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
That same community.
Speaker 11 (39:07):
But in addition to that, they didn't have to have
community conversations and symposiums about teaching financial literacy. They just
had a nine year old work in the cast register
and they make sure that everybody in their community was
working towards that same goal.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
How can we move from kind of this obtunse level of.
Speaker 11 (39:24):
Conversations about having the conversation a conversation about having the
conversation about financial literacy and transition that into just direct
action where people can understand, well, the best way to
teach your kids financial literacy to put them on the
cast re industry when they're ten years old and have
them work through the bills and how to found a
business directly with you. How can we reintroduce that as
(39:44):
opposed to very much these kind of academic conversations.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
I feel like we often fall into.
Speaker 16 (39:50):
Okay, make it mandatory that the public school systems teach
our kids the information that they need to teach them.
They awe us that we're entitled to be to receive
the training that we need to be effective in life. Okay,
we dealt with slavery, we dealt with Jim Crow, we
(40:10):
deal with a society that still has reminists of systemic racism.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Let's make them teach us.
Speaker 16 (40:17):
Okay, once again, if the things that if mandatory, a
mandatory requirement to teach financial literacy in school is worth
over one hundred thousand dollars over the lifetime of a person,
this single thing, this single thing will change our ability
to be effective.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Of course, you once again, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 16 (40:41):
If families that have the benefit of being able to
pass on financial literacy in a subtance way, those people
have a clear advantage that there are numbers of communities there.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
There's religious communities.
Speaker 16 (40:57):
You know that that are very good and pass you know,
knowledge and adultally from person to person. We need real
training better than the inedotal passing around of information, which
is important and it's a wonderful thing and it will
build in future generations. But we need the formal education
(41:19):
process put to work to make sure that our children
and our people have the knowledge that they need to
be effective effective in today's society. One more quick thing, Okay,
our society has shifted. Okay, haves and have nots have
historically been determined by the kind of things we're talking about,
(41:41):
race and religion and those kind of things. One of
the phenomenons that's happening today is the haves are now
the people who are financially literate, and to have nots
are the people who are not.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
So that new bipification of society.
Speaker 16 (41:58):
We have to make sure that we're on the financially
literate side of that equation because it affects everything. It
affects your ability to get jobs, it affects your ability.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
To do things like start businesses.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
And so and so.
Speaker 16 (42:14):
We're at a critical point now. Legislation is already out there.
As I said, about fifty percent of the states have
already passed it. Yes, do we have does it, need
doesn't have? Things that needs to work on. Absolutely. But
the group that is in the best position, and it's
one of the groups that will benefit the most from
(42:35):
mandatory education requirement is Black Americans.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
We should make them do it.
Speaker 16 (42:41):
Rebecca say you're going to do it, we will not
let you not educate our kids.
Speaker 9 (42:48):
Got it, Rebecca, Thank you so much for being on
the show tonight.
Speaker 10 (42:53):
So in twenty twenty, a lot of corporations, including JP
Morgan Chase, decided that they wanted to announce equity commitments.
So in twenty twenty, JP Morgan Chase announced a thirty
billion dollar equity commitment. Since then, they've been partnering with
minority depository institutions, namely black banks, as a way to
(43:15):
do like a joint depository or depository backing for black banks.
I have many questions about this program. But with you
leading the largest black bank in the country, is it
in the best interest, in the best long term interest
for black banks to partner with a JP Morgan Chase
(43:36):
in this type of venture or is or is it
better for black banks just to use federally backed funds
in order to provide loans and other services to their customers.
Speaker 16 (43:50):
Absolutely, Okay, I work with JP Morgan. I work with
JP Morgan every single day. Okay, it's not now. The
thing is, it's not just JP Morgan, but it's also
banks like city Banks that City Bank that have wonderful
program they have put. Those types of companies have are
working towards fulfilling their commitments. They not only are providing
(44:13):
capital to organizations, but they're providing they're expertise more importantly,
and that that that's something that cannot be replaced, that
that expertise is what allows you to grow possible.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
But it's not just companies like them.
Speaker 16 (44:26):
It's companies like Google, companies like PayPal that are working
with corporation, working with black owned businesses to make them
better businesses, to improve their technology and improve their sales techniques.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
So they're so the program you're talking about is real.
Speaker 16 (44:44):
Those millions and millions of dollars and tens of millions
of dollars that you're talking about are in fact being
invested and you are seeing progress. Does it need to
be more? Yes, That's why I'm like, hey, we need
to be out. We're going to celebrate Junior Team. Need
to be in the streets. There need to be large
corporate celebrations so we can keep the issue of D
(45:05):
and I in front of people to let them know, hey,
we're celebrating freedom. We're celebrating the fact that by by
people who were formally enslaved to be emascipated. That that
created this wonderful economic opportunity.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
Let's take it.
Speaker 16 (45:23):
Let's continue to build on that economic opportunity, which is
taking the disenfranchise and giving them more opportunity to effectively.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Participate in society.
Speaker 16 (45:34):
That was the bet on emancipation here again, as you
all well know, George slavery, Slavery was was over half
the It was the economic backbone.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
For over half a country. They had. We had a country.
Speaker 16 (45:48):
We had to share that and make a big bet
that by by friend the slave people, that we were
going to have a stronger, better economy and we were
going to have outstanding in the world.
Speaker 17 (46:02):
Right.
Speaker 16 (46:02):
It's the social benefit is that as this as a
slave based society, we would have no standing nobody, we
would have no credibility, We would be in humane, we
would be brutal, we would be cold blooded. As a country,
we couldn't buy leadership. So that was the social part
of the economic part of it was that we free,
(46:26):
If we free the people, that the contribution to the
economic growth of our society will be bigger than what
we have in the in this cotton based, slave based economy.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
And it has it's been. It's been. It's the best
decidy of the country ever made. Well.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Uh And but it was not an easy one. Uh
And it has not been easy since that Civil war
took place, and we continue to have, of course, the
nineteen years of Jim Crow. Uh And we still are
battling to make this a more perfect union. Uh And
so that's what our aim is, Kevin. We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Thanks a lot, Well, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Happy me all right, have a good one, folks. We
come back. I'm gonna talk Swiss beats Timberland versus. Why
couldn't they do this with a black platform. I'll explain.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
We come back.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
When we talk about.
Speaker 18 (47:34):
Blackness and what happens in black culture. You're about covering these.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Things that matter to us, us speaking to our issues
and concerns.
Speaker 9 (47:43):
This is a genuine people power movement.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
A lot of stuff that we're not getting.
Speaker 9 (47:48):
You get it, and you spread the word.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
We wish to plead our own cause. To long have
others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story
if we can't pay for it.
Speaker 18 (48:00):
This is about covering us. Invest in black on media.
Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them
to cover ourselves, so please support us in what we do.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Folks. We want to hit two thousand people fifty dollars
this month, waits one hundred thousand dollars. We're behind one
hundred thousand, so we want to hit that. Y'all. Money
makes this possible. Check some money, order to go to
puelbox five seven one ninety six, Washington, d C two
zer Zewer three seven dash zero one nine six cash
apples dollars signed, r M unfiltered paypalers are Martin unfiltered,
venmo Is RM unfiltered, Zeilas rolling at Rolandesmartin dot com, Bru.
Speaker 19 (48:37):
Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder
and Prouder in Washington, Roland Martin.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
All right, folks, On this June teenth day, I was
on social media after I played a round of golf
and I saw this story right here. I thought it
was very interesting. Versus co founder Swiss Beach Timberland secure
distribution deal with Elon Musk X. The dual maintains full
one hundred percent ownership of the platform, with X claiming
(49:32):
exclusive distribution rights. And so you see the photo here.
The Linda Jacharino, the CEO of X and Timberland and
Elon Musk and Swiss Beats everybody all smiles right here,
and so I saw this story. And so when I
merely saw this story, what merely jumped out to me was, hmm,
(49:54):
here you have a black entertainment platform, if you will.
Came about during COVID was all about the culture features
black people, black people, black artist celebrating black culture, not
(50:15):
just in the United States, from around the world, and
it's going to now be distributed on a platform owned
by a man from South Africa who, after he bought it,
replatform white supremacist. This is the same Elon Musk who
(50:39):
consistently promotes retweets and responds to racist content. This is
the same Elon Musk who questions the intellectual ability of
black pilots, the same Elon Musk who questions electrial care
(51:00):
ability of black doctors, the same Elon Musk who frequently
attacks DEI, So is this what we mean by doing
it for the culture in twenty twenty four? See? This
is the issue for me. Then it always bugs me
that when I often see these type of deals, I
(51:22):
often ask the question, hmm, I wonder what it would
look like if Versus decided to say, you know what,
We're gonna do this on fan Base, a black owned
social media app. But let's say it's not fan Base,
christopha Booze spoutable spill, You've got they Parker David o'
(51:46):
yellow os mansa streaming service. Now I hit this all
the time. Black folks will say, well, you know, do
they have the capability to do those things? Well, guess what,
When you get more followers and you get more resources,
then you're able to build capacity. I've often wondered why
(52:09):
when I look at present day artists and I look
at how many of them talk about black empowerment and
talk about doing it for the culture, And I'm always asking, well,
who's doing it for the culture? Are they cutting deals
really where they get rich or is it actually for
(52:32):
the culture. If Versus did this with a black owned platform,
let's say you take fan Base five seven hundred thousand suscribers.
Let's say all of a sudden they did a deal
with them. Here's gonna be interesting. I can guarantee you
Isaac Hayes third would have given Timberland and Swiss Beats
(52:53):
equity in fan base. That means that not only would
they be owning the enter t payment platform, they will
be owning the technology platform. And they would be driving
hundreds of thousands or millions of new users to let's
(53:14):
say fan Base or spill or Spoutable or mansa, and
now all of a sudden, the value of the platform
exponentially grows. I know some of you may say, well,
you know who's done that long give a perfect example.
Tyler did that when Tyler could deal with own and
(53:39):
he brought his shows to own owns. Ratings went through
the roof when that deal ended and he went to
BT and he still has a BT deal. Oh trust me,
those deals are going are doing well because eyeballs are following. See.
This is the thing that I'm always saying, black people,
(54:02):
our eyeballs go. But how often are we actually saying,
let's bring black eyeballs to something that we own that
we control. Why make Elon Musk Twitter slash x bigger
and make him richer. See, at some point, consciousness to
(54:25):
me has to enter into this conversation. To me, at
some point, I would think, and I would hope that
you would have entertainers today who would be along the
lines of Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Potier, Diane Carroll.
(54:46):
When I think about Melvin Van Peebles, I can go
on and on and on, Dick Gregory and others. It's
called not just having a conscious but being conscientious. And see,
what we have to do is go beyond this idea
of four and no more or it's just me.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
A guy asked me this question, which I thought was interesting.
We're having this discussion and he said, well, lem meship question, Roland.
He said, if you could do a deal where you
made five hundred million dollars, or you and nine others
who you know who are in this ownership space could
(55:27):
make fifty million each, which one would you take? I said,
easy decision. He's like what I said, fifty million. He's like,
he's like, what are you serious? I said, yes, I'm
very serious. I said, See, what you don't understand is
I understand collective. See if I made fifty million, and
my boy makes fifteen million, and my homegirl makes fifty million,
(55:49):
that's nine other lineages, that's nine other families that and
all of a sudden, that's not one person keeping it
all for himself. I say this all the time. I've
told Byron Allen this, I've told other black OneD media
owners this. One person can't eat it all. Literally, in
(56:11):
the advertising space, Disney can't eat all of it, Comcasts
can't eat all of it. So why should we operate
that way? I just really wish we had more Black
entertainers today who are thinking about their leverage, power and
(56:37):
influence and actually using it to build black owned institutions.
And here's the deal. Fan base is not only for
African Americans, but if we have the ability, if you
have an individual or individuals who have enormous following, how
(56:57):
hard is it to say, you know what, I could
do this deal over here, and we could do this
deal and make a lot more money up front, or
we could shift our following here and build something that
goes way beyond versus. That's a platform. Last point, I'll
(57:26):
say this before I go to Rebecca and Robert for comments.
White America has always been fine when we were the show.
If we singing on stage, and we dancing on stage,
and if we hitting the ball and we making baskets
(57:47):
and we running the ball, y'all, that's the show. They've
always focused on the business of the show, and this,
to me is a perfect example where I wish those
two brothers, Timblin and Swiss Beats had said, no, We're
(58:08):
not going to bring this unique black cultural institution to
a platform owned by a man who literally degrades black
people on a regular basis. I'm sorry, you simply cannot
get that. And I don't care if he put a
(58:30):
bunch of money on the table, because you know what,
wherever black eyeballs go, the money follows. And I can
guarantee you if Versus was on fan Base or some
other black platform and it blew up like it of
course we saw during COVID, the money would be there.
(58:53):
The sponsors would be there, the advertisers would be there,
they would be all there. Hopefully more of us will
learn that one day. Well we learn to say, now,
I'm good, I'm gonna pass up the short money. I'm
gonna build something that could actually make me a hell
(59:15):
of a lot more money than what you're offering me today.
Speaker 10 (59:19):
Rebecca, you know what, Roland, not every black person understands
how to build for the culture, because quite frankly, what
Swiss Feats and Timberland did was so iconic during the pandemic,
but I don't think they ever had a plan for
it once it blew up. This is not the first
time that, in my opinion, that they entered into a
(59:39):
bad business deal. When it comes to Versus, they try
to do a deal with the Triller that fell apart,
that didn't work out.
Speaker 9 (59:47):
The thing that makes this so heinous is that not
only is Elon.
Speaker 10 (59:51):
Musk a racist, he is anti black. He is anti
black culture. So to take something that is inherently built
on black culture, put it in an environment that is
anti black culture, it will not be successful because it
will not be able to thrive in that type of environment.
The other issue is that Elon Musk he's down over
(01:00:14):
twenty percent of X formally Twitter subscriptions or membership because
people just don't.
Speaker 9 (01:00:20):
Like what he's turned X into.
Speaker 10 (01:00:23):
So if these two Timberland and Swiss Beats would have
leaned into the culture for the culture, partnered with fan base,
it actually would have grown the number of users on
fan base, which is the point, which is why social
media platforms try to figure out exclusive licenses with different
popular entities.
Speaker 9 (01:00:44):
The other reason why I.
Speaker 10 (01:00:45):
Don't think Swiss Beats and Timberland really understand what to
do with Versus, is that they could have turned it
into a multi billion dollar music festival, which is what
a lot of people screamed at them from the culture, like, hey,
you should do this thing, because this thing has the
ability to even outgrow and eclipse even.
Speaker 9 (01:01:05):
The Essence Festival.
Speaker 10 (01:01:07):
That's how popular Versus was across multi generations and wasn't
just exclusively two black women, but it also had equal,
if not more, appeal to black men.
Speaker 9 (01:01:18):
So once again, this shows me that neither of those
two understand what to do with Versus.
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
And then it is just.
Speaker 9 (01:01:27):
Dog like on Juneteenth, you're going to make.
Speaker 10 (01:01:30):
This announcement that you're partnering with a racist who lets
it be clear that he does not like black people,
he does not value black people. Like, that's not for
the culture. There's someone that's lost here. There is a
disconnect here, and it simply doesn't make sense. Ultimately, I
don't think this joint venture will be successful because it's
going to miss that missing ingredient.
Speaker 9 (01:01:50):
It's going to be missing the culture.
Speaker 11 (01:01:52):
Robert Robert, I just this is a socratic experiment. I
want people to think to them, how often have you
seen a black soul food restaurant and a Jewish neighborhood,
and that's to a synagogue. How often have you seen
a black barbershop in Chinatown right right next to their
(01:02:12):
restaurants and their businesses. You don't see those things because
those communities keep their neighborhoods, keep their business, keep their
economics to themselves. And so the first generation they come in,
they open a cleaning service or a restaurant or daycare
or something like that. Then the next generation goes to
college and then they're running those things, and the next
generation after that they become doctors, and doctors and nurses
(01:02:35):
and lawyers, and the next generation after that becomes congressmens
and law and politicians, et cetera. And that's how you
keep building generation after generation. You can't build a society
giving away your intellectual property. You can't build a society
investing in other people and giving half your money away
to other groups. That's exactly what they're doing right here.
(01:02:56):
The depths of Elon must racism. I don't think people
can full quite understand. And let's break it down a
little bit. Before the pandemic. The headquarters of Twitter, our
rectory of Tesla was in California, saying with SpaceX when
the Elon Musch other companies. The reason he left the
California and moved to Texas was not just the tax breaks,
(01:03:17):
but the regulatory breaks. He did not want to have
to comply with diversity, equity and inclusion standards that they
had in the state of California. He wanted to be
able to hire who he wanted when he wanted if
this so happened to be all white guys that he
was friends with. So he moved to Texas where they
had less civil rights laws in place. He had supported
politicians and making sure to trumpet this message of being
(01:03:39):
anti DEEI. He has said the Dei is die die.
He is under the sincere belief that every black person
who's in a position of power or authority is there
because of affirmative action, that no black person can be
qualified for any position of power and authority. Remember, he
grew up and his father owned an emerald mind where
(01:04:00):
he will throw emeralds around like baseballs, watching the black
workers dig into the ground to their desks in order
to make his family enriched. So this idea that you
would go and literally work for the ostensibly the South
African Grand Wizard in order to get your message out there,
to get your music out there is why we don't
have nice things. When you want to wonder why you
(01:04:20):
have so many biopics about artists and singers and black
musicians from thirty forty years ago, and they all went broke,
this is why. Because you signed a deal with the devil,
and guess what, you never win a deal with the devil.
And they're going to see that this venture is going
to fail because the people who are on Twitter are
the people who are fans of David Duke, Turning Point
and memos, the Tucker Carlson Show airs exclusively home there.
(01:04:44):
Those are the people. That's the audience you're reaching out to.
So you think you're going to put versus right up
next to the Nick fwintes Klan hour, you're going to
miss out. So they're going to learn the hard way,
just as everyone else has. You cannot build your business
and build your society on the back of anybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
You're gonna have to do the work and building from
the ground up.
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Indeed, all right, folks, going to break, we come back.
We will patribute to the say hey kid, Willie Bayes
passed away yesterday at the age of ninety three. You
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Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
We are the culture.
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We blaze trails, we define our future.
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We celebrate freedom, freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry,
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We can't stop now.
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I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this.
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Message me Sherry Schevrett, Sammie Roman, I'm doctor Robin Mee,
pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered.
Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Willie Madis was called the greatest all around baseball player ever.
The say Hey Kid had a professional baseball career that
spanned four decades, beginning with the Negro Leagues in the
late nineteen forties and ending with the New York Mets
in nineteen seventy two. In between, he spent twenty one
years with the New York Giants, who would later moved
to San Francisco. Folks, he was of course known for
(01:07:49):
his stellar play in center field. And again he could
do it all. He could hit, he could run, he
could catch, he could throw. He was indeed an iconic
baseball figure. Howard Bryant, sports journalist author, joins us right now, Howard,
glad to have you here. When we think about baseball
(01:08:10):
players of yesteryear, there are these mythical figures, largely because
back then you had newspapers and newspaper columnists in terms
of how they wrote about them and their exploits, and
people often hear the games via radio, and you couldn't
actually see it on television until until until years later.
Speaker 9 (01:08:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
And we and a lot of times people threw around
the phrase the goat or great or iconic. For me,
there are few people who sort of fall in to
that category. Really, Mays was definitely one of them.
Speaker 6 (01:08:44):
Yeah, no, no question, and I think that, Yeah, it's
a it's a it's a tough day. Yesterday was a
was a really hard day. Because when you think about
May's he's a generation, he is the he's the guy,
he's the standard, he's the ed in so many different ways.
One of the things that I love about Mays, in
addition to his ability, is he really is the first guy.
(01:09:08):
When you think about professional athletes whose legacy was in
his number, I mean you think about running backs. Okay,
there's a generation of running backs who followed number thirty
two after Jim Brown, whether it was OJ and the
rest of them, but the first guy was number twenty four.
(01:09:28):
Everybody wanted to wear twenty four because they wanted to
be like Willie Mays. Ricky Henderson wears twenty four, Mays,
Griffy Mays, you know, Bobby Bonds wanted to wear Barry
wanted to wear war twenty four in Pittsburgh and then
wanted to wear it again when he got to San Francisco.
Twenty four was the number that you wore when you
were an out, especially a black outfielder, because you.
Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
Wanted to be like him, you wanted to follow him.
Speaker 6 (01:09:52):
He was you know, he was the guy that everybody
was in awe of in terms of being able to
to do all of the things. And yeah, when WILLI
played from fifty one as a rookie, goes to the
World Series and then retires in seventy three at forty
two in the World Series with the Mets, he was
(01:10:14):
the standard for everything about being a superstar, about being
a generational star in a city that already had the
Yankees and the Dodgers. He's the standard and he always
will be as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
When we were talking about play, what's interesting is that,
and I've read several books on Willie Mays and his story,
people talk about, again, what happened on the field when
you think about that generation of athletes. If you're talking
Jim Brown, you're talking Bill Russell, if you're talking Kring
(01:10:49):
dun Jabbar, if you're talking Kurt Flood. But we can
go on and on and on in terms of players
during that period. For May's it was all about baseball.
He wasn't necessarily this active figure in the so Rice
movement things along those lines. He was focused on the game.
Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Yeah, he was focused on the game, but that's not
really accurate. Roland.
Speaker 6 (01:11:16):
It's hard for mes and we talk about this a
lot when you think about the history of Willie Mays,
because he was the guy in a lot of ways
who made it easy for white fans to love him
because he was so focused on the game.
Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
To your point, he was the guy.
Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
He was the anti Jackie Robinson in a lot of ways,
where Robinson wanted to know your politics before you cheered
for him.
Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
He didn't want you to cheer for him if you
didn't have the right politics.
Speaker 6 (01:11:45):
He wanted you to understand that rooting for him, that
supporting him also meant supporting him as a man.
Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
And he put that right in your face. And he
put that in your face for the ten years that
he played.
Speaker 6 (01:11:59):
And there were people both black and white who were
tired of the fact that Jackie Robinson was so intense
about being black, and the contrast to that was, well,
why can't you be more like Willi? Because Willy just
made you feel good. WILLI made you want to copy
his batting stance. Even though people copy Jackie's batting stance.
(01:12:19):
Will he made you want to run around and do
the basket catch, and Willy was uncomplicated in that way,
or will he appeared to be uncomplicated in that way,
because WILLI didn't put that on you specifically. But Willie
Mays came up the same years as Jackie Robinson did.
Will He was born in nineteen thirty one. Willi was
passed over by the Boston Red Sox the same way
(01:12:40):
that Jackie Robinson was. WILLI trained in spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona,
which was a sundown town with the Giants with the
New York Giants, which meant that no blacks were allowed
after sundown in Scottsdale, so Willy had to stay seventeen miles.
Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Away from his teammates in Phoenix. So Willy went through
all of it.
Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
Willy was humiliated when Willy went to San Francisco Liberal
San Francisco. He couldn't buy a house yeah in the Peninsula,
even though he was Willie Mays. And everybody cheered for Willy,
and everybody wanted to be like Willi, but they didn't
want Willy to live next door. And WILLI held a
lot of that in and WILLI didn't carry it the
same way Jackie did because Willy was here to entertain you.
And when Jackie wrote his second memoir, not really memoir,
(01:13:25):
but he wrote another book called Baseball Has Done It
in nineteen sixty four, he criticized Willy for it. You're
the guy that everybody loves. You're the best player in
the game. Maybe you're the best player any of us
have ever seen. Why aren't you using your power? Why
aren't you using your influence to get people to also
cheer for you and recognize they've got a responsibility that
(01:13:46):
comes with cheering for you. And Willy was in a
real difficult spot because it wasn't Lilly's way to be
like Jackie.
Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
So I understood it.
Speaker 6 (01:13:55):
I mean, everybody carries it differently, right, And it doesn't
mean that Willy did didn't carry it.
Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
He just didn't display it the way Jackie did.
Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
So I'm not going to name the famous baseball player,
but one of the things that he said was he
said that if you look at the major records in baseball,
this person said really didn't hold any of them. So
(01:14:25):
how could he? When I tell you offline, you're going
to crack up laughing. Then again, knowing you you probably
already know so when you hear that, when you hear
that stated, but he was considered all around greatest baseball
player ever, how what what?
Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
What? What made him so easy? Well? Number number number one.
Speaker 6 (01:14:48):
This is one of the reasons why it's so difficult
in baseball today because baseball baseball has turned selling the
game into selling math. They sell analytics, they sell numbers,
they sell all these things, and Willy was not defined
by any of those things. Willie Mays, when you saw
Willie Mays was eye test central. You watched him, you
saw electricity. You wanted to emulate him. You saw if
(01:15:11):
you were a baseball person, you knew the difference between
the guy who put up numbers and the guy who
could play.
Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
You saw Willy do things that guys couldn't do.
Speaker 6 (01:15:19):
When people talk about you just showed the clip of
WILLI making the catch in fifty four in Game one
of the World Series. But what that clip doesn't show,
if you ever want to show it again, watch how
far back will He's going deep center field in the
Polo Grounds was four hundred and eighty five feet. That's
how far he's running to make that Catchy, I mean,
(01:15:39):
he's the ballpark doesn't go that far anymore. It shows
you what an athlete, what a ballplayer, he was. This
isn't about numbers. This is about what you're seeing and
how this man is making you feel. This is what
sports are supposed to be all about.
Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
You know, we don't. It's not an.
Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
Algebra test, launch angle and exit velocity and all the
stuff that they sell the game on. Out Willly was kinetic.
Willy made you want to go outside and play baseball.
He made you want to go out and watch baseball.
And also he did put up the numbers. He did
hit three forty five one year. He did hit fifty
(01:16:14):
one home runs one year. He did hit fifty two
home runs one year. He also missed two years to
the military in fifty two and fifty three. So if
you add about that those years, he was hitting forty
forty five fifty home runs a year. He breaks Ruth's
record before Hank Aaron does. So it's not like Willy
didn't have the numbers. So let's face it, Willy also
(01:16:35):
had five hunitre home runs in three thousand hits thirty
two eighty three. So as much as you may want
to look at those numbers and go okay, Willy didn't
end with all the numbers he was.
Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
He was absolutely the leader of a lot of those
numbers when he was playing.
Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
I think it's hilaris you were talking about the catch.
This was an old timers game. So for a lot
of people don't know, they used to literally have these games.
But then too many these old time as getting hurt
in these games. And because they were they were athletes,
and they like the brain was like, go catch that ball.
This is an example. This is Willie Mays at fifty
(01:17:13):
years old playing center field. This is uh And so
he chases, he chases this down makes you know, falls
down and he was like, damn, Like what the hell
was I thinking? But you put about in the center
field with the glove, he is going to go after
it because the fans of watching right.
Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Mm hmm, yeah, that hamstring, that hamstring hurts.
Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
But again that's I mean again, when you when you
put a guy out there on the field, they are
going to perform well.
Speaker 6 (01:17:47):
And that's the thing with me is is that he's
also you know, representative of the great the greatest generation,
that golden that golden era of New York baseball.
Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
You had you know, the Giants, that died in the
Yankees all in the World Series.
Speaker 6 (01:18:02):
During those years, you had Jackie Robinson, you had Roy Campanella,
you had Willie Mays, you had many Irvin you had
all these guys playing in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
And it really was the moment where baseball.
Speaker 6 (01:18:19):
This was when baseball was the sport that was leading
in race relations as well, not because everything was great
in the sport, but because it was the sport that
did it first.
Speaker 3 (01:18:29):
And if you wanted to see.
Speaker 6 (01:18:31):
Black competition against white company, you didn't go to the
NFL for that yet, Yep, you didn't go to you
didn't go to the NBA for that, yet you had
to go to Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
And while you're saying that, this is video here of
Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and Henry Aaron and
Willie Mays all together at an All Star game. That
and that's a hell of a line up there.
Speaker 6 (01:18:54):
And don't forget that those black players, because you look
at those guys.
Speaker 3 (01:18:59):
You see May came up in fifty one.
Speaker 6 (01:19:01):
You see Banks came up in fifty three, Henry came
up in fifty four, Frank came up in fifty four.
Those guys took those All Star Games seriously because the
American League didn't integrate as quickly.
Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
They refused to integrate.
Speaker 6 (01:19:13):
Outside of the Cleveland Indians, most of those teams didn't
want to integrate, including the Yankees and of course the
Red Sox, and so the black players took the All
Star Game very seriously, and they dominated the American League
as a message to say, hey, you guys kept us out,
and we're going to show you the mistake that you
(01:19:34):
made by keeping us out by killing you every summer
during the Midsummer Classic.
Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
This is this is the video we've seen a lot
Willie Mays playing stickball with the kids in New York City.
I also think what is so different about obviously players
back then, not just baseball players. I think when you
think when you think about Muhammad Ali when he would
be walking the streets of when you think about when
(01:20:02):
you think about we think about Joe Lewis and all
his I mean, here's the piece I think people forget
they couldn't live any places, so they were living right
there when everybody else was who was black. So their
interactions with kids and adults in restaurants and stores because
(01:20:22):
they could not live in the suburb, in the mansions,
and so their connection to the community. I just and
there's not a diss on players after them, but it's
just a different relationship because you actually could see them,
touch them, talk to them well.
Speaker 6 (01:20:39):
And not only that, but this is what happens when
the game becomes a business, when it becomes an industry.
Back then, Willie May signed his first contract. He was
making five thousand dollars a year and so and yes
he could only you know, you're living in Harlem, the
polo grounds are in Harlem, and you're looking at.
Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
This guy as a member of themmunity. He's a part
of you.
Speaker 6 (01:21:01):
His kids and Jackie Robinson's kids, they're going to school,
they're in the school system, they're in the school district.
You watch them, and they are These are the things
that we lose when we talk about all of the
money and the changes in the game and everything else.
Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
And that's why people have so much.
Speaker 6 (01:21:16):
Nostalgia for it, because when you watch a player like May's,
you're not just thinking about him, You're also thinking about yourself.
You're thinking about your time, and you're thinking about the
games on the radio. And that's the difference that baseball.
It's the power of baseball. You're thinking about your family
and you know, listening to the games in the radio
with your family.
Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
You know, my dad and I used to watch the games,
or we used to go to the games or whatever.
Speaker 6 (01:21:38):
And May's represented so much of that, and he represented
it on two coasts. And once again, when you think
about the people that make you want to care about sports,
you don't have that in baseball today. There's no Lebron
James equivalent in baseball today. There was a time when
(01:21:58):
Willie Mays is the most famous name in sports. Those
days in baseball are long over. It's all gone. And
so when you think about when you think about as
we get older, we protect our own time. We're thinking
about our time as well in the years that we've
traveled and the people that we loved too weren't here anymore.
And how much I remember listening to the old timers
(01:22:21):
when I was in my twenties telling me, yeah, you know,
if you never saw May's play, you didn't know baseball.
Speaker 3 (01:22:26):
And if you didn't see Jim Brown, you don't know football.
Speaker 6 (01:22:29):
And so it all of it, especially for black people
during that period, because this is the it's the integration
era in the twentieth century of sports. It's that second
age from the immigration to integration to economics. This is
the period where black people become front and center in
the culture. Didn't happen with the doctors and the lawyers
(01:22:52):
and the professors. It happened with the athletes. And Mays
was one of the first guys that we saw.
Speaker 11 (01:22:58):
Robert and were talking about this all the time, the
lack of the black participation in baseball today. And you know,
my dad grew up or lived in Harlem at the time.
He went to the Polo Grams, he went to Ebittsfield.
I grew up kind of immersed in that culture. What
do you think has to happen for this new generation
(01:23:18):
have that same connection to the sport that they used
to have. And then I think about all the times
watching the UFL championship game this weekend, thinking to myself
that there's a kick returner who's never going to make
it in the NFL, but who will make a hell
of a center fielder and could make a half billion
I was playing. But they just don't have the focus
that you build that as a skill. What do you
think will take to get us back to being the
baseball culture.
Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
Well, I think what's been lost is the money.
Speaker 6 (01:23:43):
When I talk about baseball, you know, baseball is a
white suburban sport reinforced by foreign labor.
Speaker 3 (01:23:51):
That's what baseball is.
Speaker 6 (01:23:52):
Baseball used to be an American game, and that American
game was always looking for the cheapest source of talent.
Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
Back in the day, it was the Negro leagues. That's
where you went for your talent.
Speaker 6 (01:24:03):
Today, baseball has billions of dollars of infrastructure in the
Dominican Republican in Venezuela, and that's where they look for
their players. And the fact that the game that the
money is so big now baseball does not develop its
own players anymore. So baseball is going to college college
baseball is less than two percent African American. So the
(01:24:23):
reason why there's only six point three percent black participation
in the sport now is because.
Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
You're not looking for black people to play your sport.
Speaker 6 (01:24:31):
The reason why you had so many black players back
in the day was because baseball didn't have to compete
for them. Now baseball has to compete for that African
American player with basketball, with football, because the other sports
will pay for you to play. The college will pay
for you to come play basketball. They will pay for
you to play football. But baseball is a non revenue
college sport, so nobody's paying for black people to develop
(01:24:55):
their baseball skills. And now that that infrastructure has shifted
to the Dominican Republic, black players are disappearing. And I've
always said that, you know, it's such a cop out
to say, well, you know, black kids.
Speaker 3 (01:25:08):
Would rather play football and they'd rather play basketball. Not true.
Speaker 6 (01:25:12):
You put a ball in front of a kid, he's
going to play with it. There's no question about that.
The question is is that baseball has priced itself out
of the black player. It's not looking for the black player.
It doesn't want to compete for the black player. And
that's why they have all these initiatives now to try
to get those players back.
Speaker 21 (01:25:30):
Rebecca, you know, earlier you talked about Willie May's numbers
and how it isn't as comparable to others.
Speaker 9 (01:25:41):
I think that was your point.
Speaker 10 (01:25:42):
So if we were to add his numbers from playing
in the Negro leagues and add it to his numbers
playing for MLB, what is his overall numbers and how
does that compare with other greats in baseball.
Speaker 6 (01:25:55):
Yeah, well, they wouldn't be that different because Mays was
only in the negro Leagues for not even a year.
Speaker 3 (01:26:01):
He played for the Birmingham Black Bearons I think in
forty eight.
Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
Well, in fact, he was. He was quoted last week Howard.
He was like, Hey, that's pretty cool. I had what
do you say? I had one hundred hits added? Were they?
Were they when they when they brought the Negro league records,
he was like, okay, he said, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6 (01:26:21):
But William, you know, he was he was in the
he was in the tail, and the Negro Leagues wouldn't
have made a difference for him in terms of his numbers.
Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
His numbers were enormous.
Speaker 6 (01:26:28):
Let's not you know, Okay, Henry put up huge numbers,
Bonds put up huge numbers. He would have I think
I do believe May's would have gotten to seven hundred
and fourteen homers had he not missed two years in
the military.
Speaker 3 (01:26:39):
But Willie May has put up enormous numbers.
Speaker 6 (01:26:42):
Three thousand hits, five hundred, six hundred and sixty home runs,
so five hundred plus home runs, you know, nineteen hundred
RBIs this man played thirteen straight years in center field,
at one hundred and fifty games or more. He's he's
a giant. And no matter how you you know, however
you want to cut it. If you want to do
it by the numbers, go ahead. If you want to
do it by the eye test, go ahead, however you
(01:27:04):
if you want to do it just by name, recognition,
and reputation. One of the things that I always tell
players is that we think that you're going to survive time,
but time replaces all of us.
Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
It hasn't replaced Billy Mays.
Speaker 6 (01:27:20):
And because he was that big, and there are certain
guys that are the you know, they're the Mount, They're
the Mount Rushmore, They're the everese of the game, and
he was one of them. He is still the guy
that everybody compares when you're looking at five two players.
Can you hit for average, hit for power, run, catch
and throw? He could do everything.
Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
I do find interesting though, and I saw this clip
and I want to get your thoughts because he was asked, hey,
who do you think is the greatest play of all time?
And look is there A few people say hey me,
but he said this here listen, he was.
Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
The best player other than Willie Mayson New York.
Speaker 8 (01:28:00):
I mean on of your teammates.
Speaker 3 (01:28:05):
I hate to say this, Joe, but my best player,
the guy that I picked.
Speaker 8 (01:28:09):
Wasn't my teammate.
Speaker 19 (01:28:11):
He was Robertuo Commente, who played with the Pirates. I
first saw Commente in nineteen fifty four down in Puerto Rico.
I had to go out and help him many ways,
as far as ground balls from something. But he could throw,
he could run, he could hit, He could do just
about everything. And I think he was pretty close to
(01:28:33):
anybody that played baseball.
Speaker 12 (01:28:34):
Wise.
Speaker 19 (01:28:35):
He didn't hit a lot of home runs, but he
will carry downtown.
Speaker 6 (01:28:38):
You know.
Speaker 19 (01:28:38):
He hit twenty five twenty six round now and today
they call that a superstar twenty five home run, you know,
But in those days he was just a mediocre home
run hitter.
Speaker 8 (01:28:47):
He wasn't a home run hitter then.
Speaker 19 (01:28:48):
But the reason I didn't have I didn't pick my
team at is that maybe I look at things differently
when he talked when he comes of players, and I
think Commenta.
Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Was a he was clinon, was a hell of a
baseball player.
Speaker 6 (01:29:03):
Oh and once again, and go talk to my late
great friend Henry Aaron as our friend Henry, and Henry
Henry got what did he win one goal glove or
two goal gloves?
Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
And then Clemente won them all in right field. They
were just too And I think.
Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
That's one of the other things about that time period, Rowland,
is that because baseball was so far ahead of the
other sports, and because integration had taken so long, you
had this unbelievable glut of talent. I mean, let's not
forget Frank Robinson was out there in right field too.
So you had Henry Clemente, and you know May's in
the outfield. You had an Aaron in right field. You
(01:29:43):
had all of these players. You had so many of
these great players, and the beauty of it was was
that they had something to prove.
Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
They were not detached from the black struggle. They were
involved in the Black striple.
Speaker 6 (01:29:55):
And that includes Clemente because one of the things I
love about Clemente was that he's one of the few
Latino players who identified as black.
Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
Saw him in the black struggle.
Speaker 6 (01:30:04):
Today, there's this, you know, the story of Pan Africanism
in sports, in baseball especially doesn't really exist.
Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
You talk to a black player in the Dominican Republic
that want to fight you.
Speaker 6 (01:30:14):
They're not black the Dominican and so this is one
of the things where you you make a concerted effort
to mention the black players for being black, because those
players at that time, they, you know, as much as
May's got criticized for not being as vocal as Aaron
or not being as vocals as Jackie.
Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
You know you talked to Maye. I remember when my
first time I interviewed.
Speaker 6 (01:30:39):
Him, he told he told you all about what he
went through as well, and how much it hurt him
that people looked at him as though he wasn't committed
to black people simply because he was out there making
everybody enjoy themselves too.
Speaker 3 (01:30:52):
Will Will he had a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
Of scars, indeed, And you know one thing that drives
me crazy when I and I really do look at
some of these baseball riders and think, what the hell
were you thinking? And I look at the numbers, ninety
four point seven percent of the ballots, how in the
hell was Willy Mays along with so many others not
a unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame is just
(01:31:17):
beyond me.
Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
Well, as a Hall of Fame voter, you know, I,
it doesn't bother me nearly that much.
Speaker 6 (01:31:24):
I mean, I know, I mean, Aaron got it pretty
you know, Tom Seaver was ninety eight point three there,
I mean ninety little higher than that. You know, Mariano
Rivera is the first unanimous and probably not the last,
because people look at it differently.
Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
Back then it was old school. It was just different.
Speaker 6 (01:31:37):
There were some guys on the you know, some voters
just wouldn't vote for you on the first ballot, no
matter what. So but once again there was no I mean,
Jackie Robinson got seventy seven pointy five percent first ballot
Hall of Fame. He had to get seventy five, so
he squeaked right in and he's Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
Well, well, let's let's also keep in mind the baseball
press box was extremely racist as well.
Speaker 12 (01:32:00):
Was is.
Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Well, you're you're in it so you can speak to today.
So there you go. Oh Brian, always good to see
my brother. Look, you always got some book you're working on.
So what was the most recent book that came out?
Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Oh, you mean there was what I'm working on.
Speaker 6 (01:32:22):
When I'm about to log off right now, I've got
two weeks to finish this next book. I am doing
a I'm writing the story of July eighteenth, nineteen forty nine,
and that was when Jackie Robinson testified against Paul Robins
an American Activities Committee.
Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
It's a story of these two.
Speaker 6 (01:32:42):
Gigantic black men being pitted against each other in service
of white America during the Cold War.
Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
I cannot wait to read that. That's not just that,
I cannot wait to finish it. That's that's not an
athletic book. That is a that's the that's a history book.
Cole wore all that stuff combined, and so yeah, that
is I definitely can't wait. So we're gonna let you
go so you can finish that book. How right, my brother,
(01:33:11):
I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
All right now, thank you Roland.
Speaker 1 (01:33:14):
Folks, gotta go to break. We come back world. Sickle
Cell Day is today, on this June teenth. We'll discuss
that next. Right here, rolland Mark unfiltered on the Blackshear Network.
Speaker 12 (01:33:41):
Hello, my brothers and sisters, this is Bishop William J.
Speaker 13 (01:33:44):
Barber, the second coach here of the Poor People's Campaign,
a National Call for Amorrow Revival and President of Repairs
of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get
everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June twenty
ninth at ten o'clock am in Washington, d C. On
Pennsylvania and third for the mass Poor People's Low Wage
(01:34:05):
Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the
polls and the post effort to reach fifteen million poor
and low wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can
change the outcome of our politics in this country.
Speaker 14 (01:34:21):
Our goal is to center the desires and the political
policy agenda of poor and low wage persons, along with
more religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low
waged people are not talked about, even though in this
country today there are one hundred and thirty five million
(01:34:41):
poor and low waged persons. There's not a state in
this country now where poor and low waged persons do
not make up at least thirty percent.
Speaker 12 (01:34:49):
Of the electorate.
Speaker 13 (01:34:50):
It is time that the issues of poor and low
wage people be at the center of our politics, living wages, healthcare,
things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no
longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of
death in this country. We must let our voices be heard.
(01:35:10):
Join us.
Speaker 12 (01:35:11):
Go to our website www. Poor People's Campaign Dot org.
Speaker 13 (01:35:15):
RSVP, Get others to come, get a bus, get a van,
get on the train, Come and let our voices be
heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom
so that everybody rise.
Speaker 2 (01:35:49):
It is John Murdy, executive produce of the new Sherry
Shepherd talk show This.
Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Is Your Boy, and you're tuned into Roland Martin.
Speaker 12 (01:35:56):
A filful.
Speaker 1 (01:36:12):
Second cell disease is an inherited blood disorder in which
the red blood cells are shaped like an s or sickle.
This incurable disease causes pain, fatigue, and infections. It also
increases the chances of a stroke or heart failure. Disproportionately
impacts at people of African descent, with about one hundred
thousand Americans living with a disease. It occurs in one
out of every three hundred and sixty five African Americans.
(01:36:34):
About one and thirteen Black or African American babies born
in the US have a sickle cell trait. There's been
lots of groundbreaking research in this area. Joining us right
now doctor Katani Lemieux and Associate professor from Xavier College
of Pharmacy. Doctor Ivan Jubilee the Second, a sickle cell
researcher from Louisiana Cancer Research Center. Let they have both
of you here. First of all, you know, I remember,
(01:36:59):
I mean there used to be a lot of attention
on Circle Soul. I remember in the seventies and early
eighties there being a national telethon for Circle CEL because
I remember we had we were going door to door
raising money. Uh and uh, so that was emphasis again
(01:37:19):
seventies and eighties. Do both of you see how that
is that it is? It is it's lesser known today
and less focused today than it was in the past.
Speaker 9 (01:37:31):
So good good day to you, Roland.
Speaker 20 (01:37:35):
And I would say, yes, I believe what happened during
that time, or when you're talking about the genesis of
awareness and fundraising, there were six centers what they call
comprehensive sickle Cell centers established around the country.
Speaker 9 (01:37:49):
And as a result of that, these.
Speaker 20 (01:37:50):
Were funded primarily by that by the National Institutes of Health.
And so what has happened over time is that those
centers are not they don't cross talk so the where
where they may be servicing and there are only six
of them. So they're in and they're in Atlanta, it's
in Nashville, it's in in the LA area. Uh and
(01:38:12):
uh and one is in Dallas, so they are in
specific areas, so they don't service everybody who needs this
type of care. And also one of the things and
so they're not well funded. While they did get funding,
they weren't well funded. So fully support and continue to
engage with and the educate and improve the care of
these patients long term. So the long and short of
(01:38:35):
it is, yes, these centers were established, but if you
give them, if you give a center money and you
don't give them enough money, and then you don't give
them continual support, and then you don't give them the
infrastructure to cross talk and to share and engage in
that way, then there are some things that are going
to be lost.
Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
And so that is what has happened.
Speaker 20 (01:38:52):
And over hearing the more recent paths is there been
an evolution and a resurgence and discovery in the field
and so it's a really exciting time to be able
to talk about new discovery and sickle cell disease.
Speaker 1 (01:39:03):
Is there a uh, because I know I've met different people,
is there a national sickle cell Foundation or or is
part of the problem that there are different groups and
so you really don't have through this central organization that's
focused on this.
Speaker 9 (01:39:22):
That's correct.
Speaker 20 (01:39:24):
So there is a central So there is an organization,
but there are six if you will establish centers that
don't have their synergy to cross talk and so that's
that's a part of it, but also advocacy. And I'm
going to yield to Ivan and ask him to talk
a little bit more about the advocacy component because that's
a big part of it too. Galvanizing your elected officials
(01:39:45):
to support legislation and policy to generate funding for this area.
That's a huge part of it too. So he spent
some time doing an internship last summer that opened his
eyes to a few things that I'll allow him to share.
Speaker 3 (01:39:59):
He love how you doing, Roland, very glad to be here.
Speaker 22 (01:40:02):
So during my internship it was with a company called
Global Blood Therapeutics and they specialized in sickle cell disease.
They had one of the four FDA approved therapies on
the market and it was titled ox Brighter. And during
my time at that internship, my eyes were really just
opened up to the inequities that characterized sickle cell disease,
(01:40:23):
everything from lack of funding right, bad medicare policies, the
fact that a lot of patients while they have a doctor, yes,
their doctor isn't all the way qualified to actually thoroughly
deal with sickle cell disease.
Speaker 23 (01:40:38):
You know, it's just things like this where you know,
if you get this information into the hands of people
that can make a difference. You know, it can make
the world of a difference to these patients because a
lot of the times people just aren't aware of these
they aren't aware of these issues. So that's the whole
point of advocacy is bringing lights to issues. While you
(01:41:01):
personally may not be able to fix the issue, you.
Speaker 3 (01:41:04):
Can get the information into the hands of someone who potentially.
Speaker 1 (01:41:06):
Can questions from my panel, Rebecca.
Speaker 10 (01:41:11):
Thank you so much for bringing awareness to this. I'm
thinking about I'm growing up in the eighties and hearing
a lot more about sickle cell. In fact, I'm thinking
about my cousin Keith, who's now in his seventies, learning
at sickle cell and then learning that there was a.
Speaker 9 (01:41:25):
Connection to premature death. But those who sickle cell.
Speaker 10 (01:41:29):
So for our audience, what are things that the audience
need to know about sickle cell, living with sickle cell,
and even understanding like the testing to determine whether or
not someone carries that trade.
Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
I can take this.
Speaker 22 (01:41:44):
So with sickle cell, right, it really respawns from a
genetic immutation, right, And so we have what's called the
sickle cell trade.
Speaker 1 (01:41:58):
Our whole type one second looks like you're about five million.
Hold on one second. Your your video is breaking up,
so go ahead and start again.
Speaker 22 (01:42:07):
Go ahead, So we have what's called sickle cell trade
and sickle cell disease. There are about two point five
million people that are living with sickle cell trade.
Speaker 3 (01:42:18):
But however, to have full blown sickle cell disease, you
need two copies, one from mom, one from Dad.
Speaker 22 (01:42:26):
So when you have these two copies, right, that's when
you have full blown sickle cell disease. And this is
where you see the you know everything you know from
your pain crises, right, a decreased life expectancy. So the
only way that you really can know that you have
sickle cell is to get genetically tested.
Speaker 11 (01:42:46):
All right, Robert, and thanks both of you for all
the work that raising awareness surround them. Again, I also
feel like I heard a whole lot of more about
this in the eighties and early nineties than we do today.
What are some things we can do to help raise
awhere around this because I feel almost as if the
treatments have gotten too good to the point that people
don't take this serious is being an issue and kind
(01:43:06):
of push it off to be just kind of a
life annoyance as being opposed to being something really impacts
in our lives. What are the things we can do
in our own communities make sure people better understand the
dangers of this and the treatments that are resources that
are available.
Speaker 20 (01:43:22):
Sure, so I'll start by saying our approach to actually research.
Speaker 1 (01:43:34):
Hold type one second looks like hold on and then
you begin your thoughts again, we get some video interference.
Go ahead.
Speaker 8 (01:43:39):
Sure So, our.
Speaker 20 (01:43:41):
Work stem from using an NIH research program caused all
of US research program that seeking to enroll one million
people with that as diverse as the nation. This initiative
allows all of these people to enroll and actually be
synergistic in one data set. Now, by having one data
(01:44:01):
set is when we were able to ascertain we were
able to see certain trends and patterns as far as
opportunities to better treat patients.
Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
So that was one of the things we've been there.
Speaker 20 (01:44:13):
To say, So, synergizing the data being aware one of.
Speaker 3 (01:44:17):
The things that I would could would.
Speaker 20 (01:44:20):
Be funding to actually allow these six sickle sales centers
to cross talk and actually be better engaged where they
can actually share information, because that's a huge gap that
is going on, so that one can improve treatments and
actually share best practices and evidence based medicine.
Speaker 9 (01:44:38):
So that's one thing.
Speaker 20 (01:44:39):
There are some new treatments on the market, and I
would say that I'm both Ivan and I are at
Xavier University of Louisiana, so I'm a professor there, and
he's a recent graduate doctor, doctor Jubilee, who is a pharmacist,
and so he will talk about some of the newest
treatments that would just approved by the FDA in January.
Speaker 3 (01:44:58):
Of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 20 (01:44:59):
So this is really import important information.
Speaker 8 (01:45:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:45:03):
So and then when looking at the new treatments that
we have there are are.
Speaker 1 (01:45:12):
All up the hold type one second. Again, we're getting
lots of interference. Okay, I think you're back, Go ahead,
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:45:20):
We have two therapies now it is we are two therapies.
Now we have called the cage and this funny and
so with these therapies they actually cure a sickle cell disease.
But the issue is is caused. Uh, they're at worth
(01:45:41):
of two million dollars.
Speaker 22 (01:45:43):
So when we look at single cell patients, a lot
of these patients are on Medicaid, so these patients aren't
high income patients.
Speaker 3 (01:45:49):
So while yes, you know, when you caught the headline
single cell disease, it is cheered, but there's a cheer
for it, who's gonna pay for it? And that's what
it comes. So funding is such a big issue because
a lot of these patients they rely on government funding
for their treatments, but who's gonna pay for it? So
that's you know, a big push for advocacy groups.
Speaker 22 (01:46:12):
As of right now is trying to because while yes,
these treatments are great, it.
Speaker 3 (01:46:17):
Doesn't matter knowing can take it. So that's kind of
where we are now.
Speaker 1 (01:46:23):
All right, then we'll up. We both appreciate both of
you come on today. Thank you for your work. Thanks
a lot, Thank you. All right, folks, gotta go to break.
We come back a couple of more Juneteenth items to
talk about right here on the Black Stot Network.
Speaker 3 (01:46:36):
Back in the month.
Speaker 24 (01:46:44):
M Next on the Black Table, a man Cornell West
calls the greatest Democratic theorist of his g Adolph Reed
joins us to talk about his eventful life and his
(01:47:04):
book The South.
Speaker 8 (01:47:06):
Jim Crow and Its.
Speaker 6 (01:47:07):
Afterlives somewhere between an intellectual sweep or an out and
out coup or or putch.
Speaker 12 (01:47:14):
I think the dangerous quite quite real.
Speaker 24 (01:47:17):
Join us for the Black Table, only on the Black
Star Network.
Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
We are the culture.
Speaker 5 (01:47:27):
We blaze trails, we define our future.
Speaker 2 (01:47:32):
We are the heart and soul of America.
Speaker 4 (01:47:35):
This June Team, we celebrate freedom, freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry,
and vote.
Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
We are one America.
Speaker 4 (01:47:46):
And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to
face the future together.
Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
We can't stop now.
Speaker 7 (01:47:53):
I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this Message's at King,
mister Love, King of rb Yne.
Speaker 2 (01:47:58):
Devon me, Sherry, Deborah, and you know what you want.
Speaker 9 (01:48:01):
You're watching Rutland, Marty.
Speaker 1 (01:48:02):
I'm filling it, folks. The grandmother of Juneteenth ople Lee
received the keys to her new home, built on the
(01:48:24):
same lot through her family was driven from by racist
mob when she was twelve. On June nineteenth, nineteen thirty nine,
habitat for remarried. He gave the ninety seven year old
ople Lee back to land her family owned in Fort Worth, Texas.
Here's Lee talking about the home.
Speaker 5 (01:48:43):
I don't know how to describe how happy I am, and.
Speaker 25 (01:48:50):
I planned to have an open house and invite all
the neighbors here. I'm looking forward to the meeting of
my neighbors. My parents bought a house here at this
location in nineteen thirty nine and.
Speaker 1 (01:49:10):
We moved in.
Speaker 25 (01:49:11):
We were only here five days, and on the nineteenth
and June people started gathering across the street, and the
paper says it was five hundred people. Those people drugged
the furniture out and burned it. They did despicable things.
Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
I just saw.
Speaker 26 (01:49:32):
Wanted this community and others to work together to make
this the best city, the best state, the best.
Speaker 25 (01:49:46):
Country in the whole wide world. And we can do
it together. Our Bible says that we are brother's keeper.
Speaker 1 (01:49:54):
Only should all right, So cong regulations to Opal Lee, folks.
Doctor Jerrold Horn, History Faster of the University of Houston,
has written about a number of topics. In one of
his books dealt with the issue of the Texas Civil War,
which predated the United States Civil War. In the interview
(01:50:16):
with his book, we talked about he talked about this
interesting what he discovered interesting facts that regarding black troops
in June teenth.
Speaker 12 (01:50:23):
Watched this.
Speaker 17 (01:50:26):
Can I add a vent about some new revelations about
June teenth? Yeah, go ahead, So you know, I'm working
on this book that would have been published now but
for the pandemic. So we all know about June teenth.
June nineteen, eighteen sixty five. Supposedly General Granger shows up
and tells the negroes that they're free. But what's down
played is that he was accompanied by seventy five thousand.
Speaker 3 (01:50:47):
So called colored troops. And why did he need so
much backup? He needed so much backup.
Speaker 17 (01:50:52):
Because the settlers and Texas, which was the Confederate state
least damaged by the Civil War.
Speaker 3 (01:51:01):
And was the Confederate state in which slave.
Speaker 17 (01:51:04):
Owners from Louisiana and Arkansas were bringing their enslave during
the Civil War. Because we saw the black population increase exponentially,
they had this idea of resuming slavery in Texas. And
not only that, but recalled that Mexico, the southern neighbor
of Texas, was then under French rule.
Speaker 3 (01:51:25):
They were supporting the Confederacy, and.
Speaker 17 (01:51:27):
So many of the black people were going to be
deported into Mexico to continue slavery. Jefferson Davis, the head
of the Confederacy. He was captured after the fall of
Richmond trying to escape to Texas so.
Speaker 3 (01:51:42):
He could lead this rebellion.
Speaker 17 (01:51:43):
So these seventy five thousand Black troops then became a
hammer against the French troops in Mexico, against the Confederates
in Texas, and helped to save the United States from
resuming the US Civil War under different guys.
Speaker 1 (01:52:03):
Wow, and that I actually had not heard that. Where'd
you discover that?
Speaker 17 (01:52:11):
I've been spending a lot of time doing research in
the past a few months during the pandemic, reading microfilm
on lockdown a US State Department reports from Mexico, for example. Also,
you know, excuse me if I'm going on too much
about go ahead.
Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
But I keep telling you, jail, it's a black owned show.
We're good. Go ahead, we talk about black stuff. We're good.
Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
Okay.
Speaker 17 (01:52:35):
So the French in Mexico too had brought African soldiers
from Algeria, which they had colonized in eighteen thirty, and
also from Egypt and Sudan, which they deeply influenced, thousands
and thousands to Mexico.
Speaker 3 (01:52:55):
As backup. And that's why General Granger.
Speaker 17 (01:52:59):
Needed these seventy five thousand so called color troops because
this was going to be, pardon expression, another battle royal
that was going to unfold. And the man in charge
of the Confederate effort, Matthew Fontaine Moray M A U.
R Y, who until last year had a statue in
his honor in Richmond, Virginia. He was the mastermind of
(01:53:23):
this plot to continue slavery. And by the way, even
before then, he had this other diabolical plot of deporting
all the black people. This is before the US Civil War,
deporting all the black people to Brazil, and that plot
was also thwarted, which helps to explain why we are
now in North America speaking English and not in Brazil
(01:53:45):
speaking Portuguese.
Speaker 8 (01:53:47):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:53:48):
That that is some deep history, some deep history, right there, folks.
If you want to learn more about that, this is
the book that you should check out by doctor Jerrol Horne,
is called The Counter Revelution of eighteen thirty six Texas
Slavery and Jim Crow and the Roots of US Fascism,
and trust me, it is a fascinating read. Gerald did
(01:54:10):
some amazing research there and that book is one of
the reasons why when they have Texas Independence Day, I
don't celebrate that. I don't acknowledge it. I think it's
a trash day because for people who don't understand the
history the white folks in Texas were trying to the
reason they fought Mexico was because Mexico they abolished slavery
(01:54:37):
and the Alamo. Oh remember the Alamo. If you black, don't,
we shot remember the Alamo because the Alamo was a
battle over slavery. That's what it was all about. This
is also why final comments here, why history is critically important, Rebecca,
and so we must again make sure that well on
(01:55:00):
this particular day here, it's not a focus as we
started the show off with parties and concerts. No, we
must deal with the actual history, the real history and
what Gerald laid out there. Those federal troops. The reason
they were important because those federal troops actually went plantation,
the plantation, freeing folks. Because the racist in Texas, if
(01:55:21):
left to their own devices, would have never done it.
That's why it was too that was two years late.
There were people in Texas who were aware of the
Mansipacent Proclamation, but they made it perfectly clear when ain't
stopping this is making too much money for us.
Speaker 9 (01:55:36):
You know, this is why history matters.
Speaker 10 (01:55:38):
And I'm going to call out something that Robert said
earlier that I think is super important. It's the reason
why inside of our black families, we need to be
teaching this history because we can't expect for this to
be taught in schools. Many of your audiences know that
I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Nebraska's very
white teaching Black history wasn't the top of the curriculum
(01:55:59):
list in Nebraska. But one thing that I appreciate about
my mother is she made sure that every single Saturday
we were learning something about black history, understanding that the
reason why both sides of my family ended up in
Nebraska was because of racism and Jim Crow heavily prevalent.
Speaker 9 (01:56:16):
In the South.
Speaker 10 (01:56:17):
They got it in the North too, but they went
to the North because of opportunities.
Speaker 9 (01:56:22):
My mom made sure that by this time I.
Speaker 10 (01:56:24):
Was seven years old, eight years old, nine years old,
I've watched Eyes in the Prize multiple times the Black
History Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.
Speaker 9 (01:56:32):
My mom not only would make us go, she would
even volunteer, so.
Speaker 10 (01:56:36):
I spent a lot of time there and my dad too,
so understanding how it is important in our black families
to make sure that we're teaching history because it's not
going to happen in public education, in public schools, it's
not quite Frankly, it's not going to happen in private schools.
Speaker 9 (01:56:52):
You know why, because it doesn't make money.
Speaker 10 (01:56:54):
It's not in the best interest of this very racist
colonial state, as doctor Carr says on white what I
think he calls it, the white settler colonial state that
we live in. It's not in their best interests for
Black folks to understand their history.
Speaker 9 (01:57:09):
Understand that we're not powerless. We are powerful.
Speaker 10 (01:57:12):
We have overcome and we literally built this country. We
demand reparations because it is owed to us, not because
it is a handout. So firmly understanding where we came from,
give us a blueprint in which where we should go.
I'm going towards the future. So once again, this is Juneteenth,
this is Happy Jubilee Day, this is liberation, this is freedom,
(01:57:33):
but it's also a call back to the strength of
our ancestors propelling us to move forward.
Speaker 11 (01:57:40):
Robert, we live in a day and time right down
wheld every piece of information that is accessible. It's only
a question whether or not we are willing to go
out there and get it. We have to start thinking
of ourselves as African Americans as part of the largest
African diaspora and part of the civilization state. That that
is different between the civilization state and a nation state,
nation state of like America, Great Britain, France, that are
(01:58:01):
built upon these national ideas and conceptualizations.
Speaker 3 (01:58:04):
The civilization state.
Speaker 11 (01:58:06):
And when you're thinking about the Indus Valley culture which
is continued today in India, the Chinese culture has been
around for eight thousand years. The cultures like the Slavic
cultures in Russia, they're the senders of those same people.
These are civilizations that last and have continued throughout time.
We are the progeny of exactly that. And when you
start seeing yourself as part of this larger African civilization state,
(01:58:28):
you start you stop being subjugated by these trivial pursuits
and ideas put upon you by these trivial nations of
Easter of Western Europe, and start seeing that we are
part of a bigger project, a part of a bigger culture,
part of a bigger civilization, and we have to start
thinking of ourselves in that way in building upon them.
So as we're celebrating June teenth, it's not simply enough
(01:58:51):
to honor those who came before and to celebrate what
we have achieved. It's about rebuilding that civilization that's been
destroyed through five hundred years of European colonialism, litigation, slavery,
rape and destruction. And how do we put ourselves back
in the position we were previously and that we were
in for millenniums before that. When we see ourselves as
a civilization, we are strong. When we see ourselves as subjects,
(01:59:12):
we are weak. Reparations is just the start to rebuilding
our civilization.
Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
Folks. History is important, and so that's why we focus
on that on this show, having great voices as well,
giving you the kind of information you're not gonna get
anywhere else. Robert, Rebecca, I appreciate y'all joining us today
on this June tenth. Thank you so very much, folks.
I will be broadcasting live tomorrow from a hold up.
But better to Rebecca, Rebecca, you got you're late with
the flag, Rebecca, you.
Speaker 3 (01:59:37):
Gotta early, all right?
Speaker 15 (01:59:39):
Did all right?
Speaker 1 (01:59:40):
So I appreciate that. All right, folks, tomorrow I'm broadcasting
live from Los Angeles. I'll be there for the Beverly
Hills Cop sequel airing on Netflix. I'll be interviewing Eddie
Murphy and others associating with the movie. So look forward
to that. We're bringing that to you soon. So definitely
tune in. Hey, if you missed that Jerrel Horn interview,
(02:00:03):
you know what, keenan, Let's restream that later so people
can actually check that out so they can see the
full interview, because again, it's a fascinating discussion of that
book that Jerroll wrote, and so we appreciate that. Folks.
Your support for this show is critically important. Listen, you
heard what Chris say at the top of the show.
You don't have shows out here doing kind of work
(02:00:23):
that we're doing. I'm just telling you that right now,
we talk about building something that's black on and building
it where we control it or we're not asking anybody's permission.
That's why it matters. I can guarantee you. I can
guarantee you there is not a single show on any
of those networks that dedicated not the full two hours
to juneteenth, not an hour to June teenth, not thirty
(02:00:46):
minutes to Juneteenth. I guarantee you they didn't dedicate fifteen
minutes to Juneteenth. And so when we center us, we matter,
and that's why this show matters. So first, all the
folks who on YouTube hit the like button. I know
y'all playing around there, hit that dog on like button,
so we can be easily at a thousand likes. So
let's do that. Also, join our Bring the Funk fan Club.
(02:01:08):
Your resources make it possible to do the work that
we do. You can see your checking money or the
peel box five seven one ninety six, Washington, DC two
zero zero three seven A zero one ninety six. Yeah,
I see eight hundred and forty eight likes, y'all. We
should bet one thousand. So YouTube folks, y'all need to
hurry hell out. We need one hundred and fifty two
more likes to hit a thousand, So let's go. Okay,
let's get it done right now, click right now, cash out,
(02:01:30):
Dalla sign r M unfiltered, PayPal Are Martin unfiltered, venmo
is r M unfiltered, Zale rolling at Roland, Smartin dot
Com rolling at Roland, martinunfiltered dot Com, download the Blackstar
Network app, Apple Phone and Droid phone, Apple TV and
Druid TV, ro Coop, Amazon, Amazon, fireTV, Xbox One, Samsung
(02:01:52):
Smart Tv. Also be sure to get a copy in
my book, White Finger Have The Browning of America is
making White folks Lose their minds. Available at Bookstoresation, Why,
Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound Bookshop, Chapters,
Books a Million Target, get the audio version on audible, folks.
That's it, y'all. Have a fantastic Juneteenth and so and
(02:02:14):
also hold up, mi shure. This is real quick, y'all.
Keep playing the music. And you know what I totally forget,
you know, I totally forgot y'all when we signed off
last Friday. I totally forgot to wish everybody happy Father's
Day and so, but we don't focus on no day.
We focus longer than that. So big shout out to
(02:02:35):
all the fathers out there. So this is our week,
so you know, you know, we we don't get to
kind of love other folks get but we're gonna keep
doing our thing here, uh with with Father's Day. But
give me one second, I gotta find a quick photo
here let me see if I can find it. It
was posted. Let me see if I can find.
Speaker 15 (02:02:58):
It, y'all.
Speaker 1 (02:02:59):
All, I gotta give a birthday shout out. So let's
see here, y'all know I got a thousand. Okay, that
ain't it. That ain't it. Okay, let me go over here.
Give me one second, Give me one second. And well,
(02:03:19):
I'm doing this to YouTube people. I'm watching y'all. Y'all again,
y'all playing around. Y'all are not sitting here. Hit that
dog on button, So y'all need to go ahead and
hit that hit that light button so we can sit
here and hit a thousand likes. And so I'm buying
y'all some time for us to hit a thousand likes.
So here we go. Shout my sister Kenya on the left.
(02:03:42):
Today is her birthday. Her birthday is juneteenth, So happy birthday, Kenya.
That she's there with my with the older sister, mister Leavina.
She's right behind me. So shout to Kenya on her birthday.
All right, folks, that is it for us. I will
see you guys tomorrow right here on Roland Martin unfiltered. Yes,
And we got to a thousand likes on YouTube. See
(02:04:04):
so all that time it worked. Thanks a bunch, y'all.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday, Keep it real, keep
it black, because this day is ours.