Jacob Blake shooting; Postmaster DeJoy grilled on The Hill; NFL's Goodell wishes he listened to Kaep

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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And today's Monday, August twenty coming up on rolland Martin. Unfiltered.

(01:26):
Protests continued in Kenosha, Wisconsin after police shoot a black
man several times in the back with his children in
the car. When you get we get the latest on
his status. Also, what the hell is going on in
the Portsmouth, Virginia, Well show you what is happening where
where the cops are resting several African Americans for hurting
a statue. But they also don't want the black d

(01:49):
a involved. Huh what the hell does that mean? She
will join us right here on the show. Also, Postmaster
General Lewis to Joy was question today by House Democrats
who criticize his actions and question his motives. We can
well show you the question, including from Congra from and
Brenda Lawrence, who spent thirty years working for the post Office.

(02:10):
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he wishes he had listened
to Colin Kaepernick. Yeah, why is he still being white balled?
Plus a new batch of anti Trump Asked to show You. Also,
author Jenna Arnold will join us to talk about what
the white women need to know about racism. And Jerry
Farwell Jr. Resigns over a sexual tryst. Literally the poor

(02:32):
boy throw out of Miami. He says that he would
have sex with Jerry Falwell's wife while Jerry would watch.
That's the leader of the nation's largest Christian university. I'm sorry,
by the way, Jerry has resigned as president. It's time
to bring the font and roller mark on the filter.

(02:53):
Let's go what whatever? And he's got to stoo the
fact to find and when the bas he's right on
top and it's rolling. Best belief he's going wants to
use to politics, but entertained, just bo case. He's strolling,

(03:18):
rolling all it's rolling, Martell, rolling with rolling. He's spooky, spressed,
She's fled the question though he's rolling Martell Martell. The

(03:46):
family of Jacob Blake says he is fighting for his life.
He's a serious condition in a hospital there in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Uh this of course after this video surface yesterday. We're
one of you right now. The reason we show over
these videos, it's because we are a news show. We
don't want to have to show them, but it's a
part of what we do, folks. This shooting took place

(04:10):
shortly after five pm yesterday when Blake was trying to
break up an argument between two women. Then this happened. Wow,

(04:36):
his three children were in the car. As you saw
from that video, he was walking to get back into
the car. Police officer talking to him. We don't know
what was being said. The cop grabs his shirt, grabs
his shirt all of a sudden to stop him. Reminded
you he's getting in the car. But to stop him,

(04:57):
the officer fires seven shots. You heard them, hit him
in the back. He goes to the hospital. All throughout
the night was in surgery. Family announces on his Facebook page.
He paid. He's in serious condition, still fighting for his life.
He is not out of danger. Those cops, those cops,

(05:18):
they have been placed on administrative leave. Last night after
this took place. Uh, you you saw lots of protests
taking place in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There were people who, of
course were out. The police department put forth a curfew
to end it at seven am. Focus did not care
about that. At one point there also was a truck

(05:42):
that was also placed on that was set on fire. Uh.
There was a very small fire that was sent to
the county courthouse. Uh and it was in the window there.
Cops then came there, uh and put it out. What
also happened, of course, you had armed military uh in
one of their vehicles uh as they were again uh

(06:04):
traveling there. This also is um Again there was some
video that was that that that took place last night
again and we're gonna try to uh again just just
just just studying that took place. This was one of
the trucks that was on fire uh last night. Uh
that outside of the courthouse there the officers came on

(06:25):
the scene. Uh. They were there in rid gear. They
were firing um, rubber bullets and other items uh into
the crowd as well as they were gathered outside. This
is of course the latest shooting uh that is taking place.
George Floyd, remember, was murdered Uh just a Memorial Day,

(06:45):
and we saw massive protests take place all across the country.
People are already saying that this is going to be
uh the next battle front when it comes to what's
happening with police in this country. Now, there have been
responses left and right. Joe Biden, his campaign actually released

(07:06):
the statement, Guys, we have the graphic, pull it up.
Please will read the statement. Yesterday, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jacob
Blake was shot seven times in the back as police
attempted to restrain him from getting into his car. His
children watched from inside the car, and bystanders watched in disbelief.
And this morning, the nation wakes up yet again with

(07:26):
grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a
victim of excessive force. This calls for an immediate, full
and transparent investigation, and the officers must be held accountable.
These shots pierced the soul of our nation. Jill and
I pray for Jacob's recovery and for his children. Equal

(07:46):
justice has not been real for black Americans and so
many others. We are at an inflection point. We must
dismantle systemic racism. It is the urgent task before us.
We must fight to honor the ideals laid and the
original American promise which we are yet to attain that
all men and women are created equal, but more importantly,

(08:06):
that they must be treated equally. Now, it's no surprise
we have not heard from Donald Trump or the Republicans.
The Wisconsin governor also released a statement. Do we have
his statement their, folks, If do so, let me know.
I'm gonna pull it up one second. Um where he Uh?
He released a statement last night, UH speaking to uh

(08:29):
this particular issue. Tony Evans. He is the Uh, he
is the governor. Uh. And then they have but and again,
this is the photo here of Blake. This is the
photo of Blake. Uh. And these are several of his children.
He is a young man who again was trying to
break up a fight that actually took place. Uh. And

(08:52):
it is just beyond said what is going on there?
Um in Wisconsin. Now I'm going to read uh is
one of the tweets here. Um. This is the governor.
As our state rules from another attack against the black man,
as communities grieve and exercise their first to them in
rights to demand justice, and as Jacob Blake fights for

(09:12):
his life, were reminded of that racism and the is
a public health crisis. There is no time to waste.
That is the tweet from Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
Uh it is again just um stunning uh that we
are here. What actually took place? Uh? Folks Uh? This
is what again Evers today early about the five hours ago,

(09:36):
actually addressed uh folks uh in his state inno nation.
This is what he had to say. And our person
who have been shot, injured or mercilessully murphed so fully
killed at the hand, can we do that killed at
the hands of the individuals and law enforcement in our state,
in our country, so said last night. We have and

(09:59):
we will continue to stand with all those who have
and continued and have and continued to demand justice, equity,
and accountability for black lives in our country, lives like
those of Joy George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Tony Robinson, Dontree Hama, Hamilton,
Ernest Lacy, Terrese West, and Saville Smith. We also stand

(10:22):
against successive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging
with black Wisconsinites. I've said along, we must offer our empathy.
We must see the trauma, fear, and exhaustion of being
black in our state and our country, but equally important
to our empathy is our action as family members, as friends,

(10:43):
as neighbors, as people. The duty to act rests on
all of us, and perhaps most importantly on us as
elected officials. More than two months ago now, Lieutenant Governor
Mandel and Barnes and I announced a package of legislation
to increase accountability and transparent and see em policing in Wisconsin.
This package invests in community Violence Interruptions program and works

(11:07):
to address the issue of inappropriate use of force by
individuals in law enforcement, prohibit dangerous police practices built upon
the work of the Law Enforcement Standards Board, and strengthens
accountability measures. These are common sense policies that transcend political debate,
and many of them have been embraced by community, state,

(11:29):
and federal leaders on both sides of the aisle, including
our neighbors in both Iowa and Minnesota, who have passed
similar comprehensive, meaningful reform. Yet two months later, and with
Wisconsin legislative the Wisconsin's legislative leaders have failed to act.
This movement has touched every corner of Wisconsin, and frankly,

(11:51):
I should not need to call special special session when
people across our state from streets from my small hometown
of Plymouth to the rates of Milwaukee are demanding their
elected leaders take action. Leaders show up, Leaders do the
work that needs to be done and that the people
demand of them. But we cannot wait for Republican leaderships

(12:13):
to show up for work, because clearly they intend to
keep us waiting. That's not going to get cut it,
not for me, not for Lieutenant Governor Barnes, and certainly
certainly not the people of the state who are leading
this and leading at this time and in this moment.
That's why today I'm calling for a special session of

(12:34):
the legislature that took take up the package of legislation
we announced earlier this year. We must begin the long
but important path towards ensuring our state and our country
starts starts to live up to our promises of equity
and justice. I want to be clear, this is not
the time for politics. I'm urging Republican leadership to rise

(12:56):
to this important moment in history, to put people before politics,
and to put lives of black Wisconsinites above politics, and
to give us give this special session the urgent and
productive effort this moment demands, and that the people of
Wisconsin deserved. We must rise to this movement and this
moment and meet it with our empathy, our human humanity,

(13:21):
and a fierce commitment to disrupt the cycle of systemic
racism and bias that devastates black families and communities. To
see the daily trauma, fear and exhaustion exhaustion black wiscona
Wisconsinites face, and to show up day after day to
do the work that needs to be done. I know
folks across our state will be making their voices heard

(13:43):
in communities across Wisconsin. Every person should be able to
make their voices heard and report on these calls to
action without any fear of being unsafe. If you're exercising
that right today and in the days ahead, please do
so peacefully, and please wear your masks and keep social
distance as best you can. We know racism and the

(14:05):
race racial disparities in our state can't be solved by
any single bill or package of bills. This can only
be the first step. As our state reels from another
attack on a black man at the hands of law enforcement,
as communities grieve and exercise their First Amendment rights to
demand justice, and as Jacob Blake fights for his life,

(14:27):
we are all reminded that racism is a public health crisis.
There is no time to waste. Thank you so much,
and now I'll turn things over to a Lieutenant Governor
Mandela Barnes. All right, thank you so much, Governor Evers
for taking a moment. Thank you for your sincerity as

(14:50):
much needed at a moment like this. Last night, as
you stated, Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven
times in front of his children. And let me be cleared,
this was not an accident, This wasn't bad police work.
This felt like some sort of vendetta being taken out
on a member of our community. The officers deadly actions

(15:11):
attempted to take a person's life in broad daylight, and
like many of you, the video is etched into my
mind like so many other past videos that are just
like it. It was a video that I would have
rather not had to have watched. But the irony hasn't
lost on me that as Jacob Blake was actually trying
to de escalate the situation in his community, but the

(15:33):
responding officer didn't feel the need to do the same.
And now we all know Jacob Blake's name, And as
as I've said before, as we've all said before, this
is familiar violence to too many of us, especially of
those of us who are receiving in whose communities have
been over police, whose children learned early on that police
officers aren't always serving and protecting them as they should.

(15:58):
This didn't start with George Floyd, unfortunately, It's been around
far longer than him. And if we don't do anything,
this will continue as we saw yesterday. I would hate
to see this not in with Jacob Blake. And that's
why we have to respond. And we know that we
can't remedy the white supremacy and the systemic racism that
is built into all of our systems and just a

(16:20):
couple of years or with any package of legislation. But
that doesn't mean we don't act. That doesn't mean that
we stand still. We have to do everything that we
have that we can do within our power to first
call out the systemic violence that happens every day and
the state in this country, and then do to work
to rebuild those systems that petuate. Excuse me, not just

(16:42):
when a black man is murdered in front of his children,
but when schools that serve the same children are systemically underfunded,
or when we see black women have to fight to
be heard in our health care system, or when black
communities are expected to live in more polluted communities dealing
with him A mental hazards and toxins and contaminants. These

(17:02):
two are forms of systemic violence and the social and
economic consequences of these deep seated inequities. They reach every
community across Wisconsin. That's why leaders at every level of
government have an obligation to hear the demands for justice
for those who are marching in the streets. You think,
after the past few months of people who are stepping

(17:23):
up to demand justice, that police departments, chiefs, the police,
even police unions will rush to implement some sort of reform.
But that hasn't happened, or else you wouldn't have seen
the actions that we all had to see last night.
People's pain, anger, and frustration is a long overdue called action.
In June, the Governor and I called on the legislature

(17:44):
to bring some level of accountability and transparency and to
law enforcement. And we knew that this legislation would only
be a first step towards justice, but that doing nothing
is not an option. Unfortunately, our legislative leaders, the majority Party,
the Republicans in the legislature. Although this is not political,
these are facts. They have done nothing, and this is

(18:06):
unfortunately what we as Wisconsinites not we as the executive branch,
now we as the governor, as the governor either's administration,
we as Wisconsinites, have come to expect nothing any time
that we find ourselves in the time of crisis. The
people of our state are done waiting for their leaders
and their elected officials to show up, and so are we.
And as the governor said, true leaders they do the

(18:28):
work that has to be done. True leaders do the
work that people demand of them, especially when it's hard.
So I sincerely hope for the people all across Wisconsin
that we see some leadership from our legislature in the
coming days. As I said before, doing nothing it's not
an option. This is not something that you can just

(18:49):
sit on your hands or bury your head in the sand.
In To everybody that is as tired as I am,
know that I stand with you in this fight for
a better world, the world where black lives actually matter,
a world with decency, a world with true justice, world
full of equity and opportunity for all people, for black
people who have been dealt a bad hand far too

(19:11):
many times, and remember that these things are always worth
fighting for. So I want to remind people to please
take care of yourselves, please stay safe, Join me and
praying for Jacob Blake and his family, and join me
and fighting to make sure that this does not ever
happen again. Thank you so much. All right, folk, let's

(19:33):
go Jo Pound right now. Talk about talking about this issue. Uh.
And that is we have, of course a Calabatha communication
strategis Eugene Craig CEO Eugene Craig Organization. Dr Mustafa Santiago Ali,
former Senior Advisor for the Environmental Justice E P. A. H. Mustafa,
I will start with you now. A neighbor said that
Jacob Blake went to the store about fifteen minutes before

(19:56):
the shooting was barbecuing with his kids with a neighbor returned,
Blake was trying to break up a fight. Seven or
eight cops arrived on the scene. They wanted to talk
with Blake, but he wasn't interested and started putting his
kids in the car to leave. Now he has five
children ran as an age from three to seven. Blake
was airlifted to a Milwaukee hospital again in serious condition

(20:16):
as of earlier this morning. We don't show the video again,
don't take take it out. Take it out, they take
it out. According to Blake's father, he is again is
out of surgery, expected to survive, but the protests do
continue there but he's still in serious conditions to offer.
You see this, here's the guy who's trying to break
a fight up. You're the cops. You're trying to talk
to somebody, and let's just break it all down. Okay,

(20:39):
he doesn't want to hear it. He's trying to leave.
You're seven or eight cops. I think before you pull
your gun out, you can actually grab somebody. You could
grab somebody. Okay, let's say he's sped away. That's fine,
you follow him, but you don't our seven shots into

(21:01):
the back to get him to stop. They feel like
they can. We can be sacrificed at any moment, for
any reason. The police officers having a bad day. He
can pull the trigger. A police officer feels that he's threatened,
he can pull the trigger. And they wonder why this

(21:21):
rage um that is inside of our communities. I know
it's inside of me when I think about what James
Baldwin shared with us when he said, to be black
in this country and to be relatively conscious means to
be in a rage almost all the time, each and
every opportunity, each and every time that an officer seems

(21:44):
to have a choice. The eight officers could have detained him,
but the reason would be, why would you detain him
If he doesn't want to talk to you, then he
shouldn't have to talk to you if he is not
guilty of any crime. And then for you to think
that you have the ability and respond instability to stop
him with deadly force, you didn't even utilize a taser.

(22:05):
You decided to shoot the man seven times in the
back in front of his children. And then, also knowing
that there have been other cases in that same city
with a white man who attacked a police officer, they
they tased him um and then he took the taser
out and then chased the police officer. The police officer ran,
jumped into police officers car, then got back out of

(22:28):
the police officers car, got into his own car, drove
around the parking lot, ran back into the police officers car,
and they still did not shoot this man. That is
why there's this rage that is going on across our
country because we can no longer be sacrifice, We can
no longer have these cross hairs placed on us in
every situation. And if we had a Department of Justice

(22:52):
that actually did its damn job, it would have been
investigating these types of situations. That we had an administration
who cared even a little bit about what's going on,
they would have moved forward. They would have sat down
with these police unions and said something has to change.
From the top, we're saying, you are going to change,
But they don't have an interest in this well in

(23:14):
the reality. Uh here again, we keep coming to this
whole issue, Kelly, and that is the behavior of police officers.
The fact of the matter is they have a belief
I can shoot first, ask questions later. Again, you're coming
on the scene. The guy does not want to talk. Again.

(23:35):
If if this guy wants to leave, here's the deal.
His his You can get in your car and follow
him wherever he goes. You can you can run a
trace on his driver's license. You can then go to
his home and arrest him if need be. But death
is death. It is final. And this is what we

(23:57):
consistently see from the cops who they're only action is okay,
you know what, what the hell, I'm just gonna shoot
you in the back, in the back. M Well. In
this case, thankfully, James Blake is still alive according to
reports at the moment, so I don't want to speak
death over his life because we are all praying hopefully

(24:19):
that he will pull through um. But just in general,
I am sick and tired of having to beg for
my life just because it's my life. And that's what
I see in this video, that's what I see in
the other videos, That's what I here by all accounts

(24:41):
when it comes to police brutality, specifically belief police brutality
UM against African Americans and black people in this country.
It is absurd and it is disgusting. And I am tired.
I am tired. I am angry. Uh. Like Mustapha said,
I I am in a state of rage all the time.

(25:03):
And it doesn't go away, because this does not go away.
According to reports that I just pulled up, I want
to say, maybe it was less than thirty days last
year that police officers did not shoot somebody or kill
them only amongst worth of days out of three hundred

(25:23):
and six or five days last year, did the cops not,
you know, kill somebody unarmed or a civilian would have you?
And it just makes no sense. And I guarantee you
if this was a white person, this would not have happened.
If this was anybody else outside of a black person,
chances are this would not have ever happened and would

(25:46):
not have even come across the mind of these police
officers to do what they did. They literally took his
shirt and held him steady in order to shoot him
in a car with children in it. So it's not
just the life of the man that you tried to kill.
You had blatant disregards for children in a car. I

(26:09):
don't care what happens to these officers. They don't need
administrative leave. They need to be fired. They need to
be indicted. They need to be stripped of all titles
and pension and whatever type of livelihood they could possibly
have after this event because they don't deserve it. They
need to be convicted, and they need to be jailed,
and they need to be in jail for life because

(26:29):
this is a blatant disregard for life. But but the
deal though, But here's the deal, though, the reality is
this here, Eugenie, and that is this here your process
uh thirty days. This is how they protect police officers, uh,
in terms of how you go through this here, uh
and and how they are protected in these shootings. Yeah.

(26:51):
Look in the many states you have Leo Bore the
law Force from Officers Bill of Rights. And before we
get real justice, that's probably the first thing that has
to be repealed. Um. You know there are a lot
of folks right then I always talk about my gosh,
we created special rights to create special rights. Well literally,
when it comes to this particular job, special rights aren't created. Um.

(27:13):
You know, they're able to you know, corroborate their story
before they actually have to submit a report. Right, They're
able to actually take you know time to u uh
corefer with colleagues before real investigation happened. Then that investigation
can take, however, long before you know, the quote unquote
deem it they have probable calls that a crime actually happened,

(27:34):
or that something happened, um, you know, whereas it was
the roles reverse or if it was me and you. Um,
the fact that you know there seven you know, bullets
loads into somebody is enough probable calls for and rest. Um.
You know, but we all saw the video. We saw
you know what happened there and at minimum is reckless.
It is reckless engagement at minimum and the maximum side,

(27:58):
it is attempting murder and the well we uh, of
course uh will continue to follow this. Uh. It is
a sad and shocking and I'm quite sure that it's
gonna be a second night tonight. Protests taking place there
in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Folks got to go to break. When
we come back, we will talk about what's happening in Portsmouth, Virginia.

(28:19):
I mean, just absolutely strange with the police are going bonkers,
going after black elected officials over hurting a statue. What
makes it worse, they're targeting the black d A because
they don't want her involved in this case, and they

(28:39):
actually have been lying. They've actually been lying about her
as well. We'll talk with her and others involved in
this unbelievable story. Next right here, roll about Unfiltered. You
want some sport rollerbot Filtered, be sure to join our
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(29:01):
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(29:21):
support the fight against racial injustice. I want to take
a second to talk about one thing we can do
to ensure our voices are heard, not tomorrow, but now,
have your voices heard in terms of what kind of
future we want by taking between twenty cents is today
at twins dot gov and folks, let me help you.
The Census is an account of everyone living in the country.

(29:44):
It happens once every teen years. It is mandated by
the US Constitution. The thing that's important is that the
census informs funding billions of dollars, how they are spent
in our communities every single year. I grew up in
Clinton Park in Houston Tech and we want to We
wanted new parks and roads and Senior citizens Center. With

(30:04):
the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes.
It also determines how many seats your state will get
in the US House representatives. Young black men and young
children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential
loss of funding of services that helps our community. Folks.

(30:26):
We have the power to change that. We have a
power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal
funding go each year for the next ten years, funding
that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families
and friends. Folks. Responses are confidential and can't be shared
with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So

(30:50):
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being sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.
Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily
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(31:11):
Support the rolland Martin Unfilter daily digital Show by going
to rolland Martin on filter dot com. Our goals to
get twenty our fans contributing fifty bucks each or the
whole year. You can make this possible. Rolland Martin Unfiltered
dot com. Alright, folks, let's talk about this just strange
story out of Portsmith, Virginia. And we told you last

(31:32):
week how the folks that were targeting targeting an African
American legislate tour for hurting a statue. Okay, then the
story gets stranger. Didn't get stranger. Then they are going
after a number of black leaders in the city. Okay,

(32:00):
all right, that's that's strange. Then they want to they
want to target the black prosecutor by saying that she
was present at one of these protests when she actually wasn't.
It's it's it's real strange. It's it's real strange. Okay.

(32:21):
So so in years of State Senator Luise Lucas, she's
been charged. She's been charged with two counts, two felonies
for an incident at the city's Confederate monument that took
place in June. Okay, that that's that's what happened there. Um,
we're gonna show you some video of a news conference,

(32:43):
uh that involved a Virginia delegate. Don Scott, go and
roll the video please, whatever reason they're doing it now,
don't be fooled. This is political purposes. This is the
voting up a politics owned they and they issued these
ones that before the most powerful black woman in the
history of the state of Virginia was going into special session.

(33:07):
God is the day that they decided to issue these
Isn't that a little suspicious? Don't you have an idea
of our war was going on at that time? That
is what they have done over time. We will not
fall forward got this time we see it. It's very
of parents. They're not hot of it. The ones to
day she on her way up to Richmond and they
issued him. It's chaos. So we know what's going on,

(33:28):
and we're prepared forward. We all we've always but we've
made We've made for this moment. Now we're made for
this moment. Our folks. They've also gone after Dr Mark
Whittaker or they formed a council being a socio pastor
a New Bethel Baptist Church was found guilty on three
counts of forgery in July two thousand eighteen. So we're
joined by Whittaker and Don Scott. Uh, let's start. Don't

(33:49):
want to start with you first. First of all, where
did all this stuff begin? Where did this start? Is
it over? This? Is it over? The monument? Is it over?
The statue of what's going on in Portsmouth, Virginia. I
believe that what is going on is a struggle for power. Uh.
Some folks do not want to share power with black

(34:11):
folks unfortunately. Uh, this community has been dealing with racial
strife here since I've been here. I've been since two
thousand five, and I've seen this up throughout. Uh. It
is about power and the struggle. And as the black
majority raises it d and becomes more politically sophisticated and
act for more city services and extra equal treatment under
the law, then those who have been in power for

(34:34):
a while that this is how they respond. They criminalized
the criminal justice system against black leadership, and they've done
it since I've been here. They did it beginning when
I first got it. They did it with the mayor,
the former mayority charge him for the criminal charge. They
charge a doctor Whittaker with the charge. They tried to
charge of shuff More for the current Sure, but these
are all black collected officials with the charge. Now they've

(34:56):
gone to the point of trying to charge Senator Lucas.
And in today someone went down to the magistrate to
square charges against her daughter, who's a city councilormant and
vice mayor. They charged her with a misdemeanor. So, because
who are all these people filing charges? Is it? Is
this the Portsmouth, Virginia Police Department. Well, it is a

(35:17):
combination of two the sheriff's department, the old sheriff department
under the old regime. That was a sheriff who was
in power, who lost the election and he's still making
mischief now. And now it is the Portsmouth Police Department
who filed the warrant against Senator Lucas. They purposely went
around the normal process of dealing with the coming with attorneys.

(35:38):
These events happened June tenth, and now almost seventy days later,
is when they decided to bring the charges. And I
want to remind everybody, the chief of police is black.
The city manager now is black. But the four white vote.
There are four city council people out of seven who
are white, and they stick together. But the wad So

(35:59):
you said the police chief is black, yes, yes, sir,
And she said the city managers black back, Okay. So
here's what I'm trying to understand. How can these cops
just on their own decide to file charges. Doesn't the
police chief have something to say about that, whether the

(36:21):
for my understanding, the police chief is the one that
directed him to do it, and the police chief, from
my understanding, with the city manager who disclosed that the
chief had a conflict of interest and was told to
act the uh State Police and or the FBI to
look into it. My understanding is the state police investigated,
found no charges and let it go, and then the
chief decided to go ahead and bring it herself. Another

(36:43):
telling thing about this, the day after these events happened
on Junie Levin, the lead investigating, the lead officer, who
is a sergeant. We're not talking about a lieutenant. We're
not talking about a captain. We're not talking about assistant
chief or chief. A sergeant who was understand the entire
time that day. He wrote an email the very next day,
couldn't it means Senator Lucas with his own personal opinion
and a whole lot of other things that he wrote,

(37:03):
and then he ends up being the lead investigator. This
is things that you would see in Russia or in
Trump's New America. These are the type of things that
people do when they want to silence the opposition. They
use the criminal punishment system to silence opposition, and that
is what they have done. Unfortunately, Uh, we see it
and we're prepared for they decided. Senator Lucas has introduced

(37:25):
two powerful bills this special session dealing with police reform.
One is she wants to study the pattern and practices
and be able to bring civil lawsuit against localities and
police departments that violate civil rights. This is big in
the state of Virginia. The second thing she did was
she's bringing a bill that will that would remove probable
cause as the smelling of Merrijuanna. You know, police pulled

(37:48):
all the young black males and young black people and
brown people and poor people all the time and say
I spell marijuana and that gives them probable casts to
dual search. That would she introduced the bill that would
remove that probable cause. So the the two big huge
criminal justice reform bills, police accountability bills. And this is
the repercussion that you have to face when you and
black ladies, when you're black and you but but again

(38:10):
you said the police chief is black. This is the
statement that um chief Green, Angela Green. Uh, this is
the go to my iPad play. This is a photo
of her chief, Angela Green, So she released this statement, UM,
and then she talked about UH the incident that took
place with the Confederate Monument on July tenth, two thousand, twenty. UH.

(38:31):
She said she called for UH an outside UH agency
UH and then once they determine no conflict of interest.
What's interesting here is that she also said, UH one
of a special grand jury. Yet she's claims you to
here that that that the that the d A Stephanie
Morales somehow could be called as a witness. We're trying

(38:53):
to figure out dot don what what that makes no
sense that that first of all, if even if you
say that the that the d A her specifically could
be caused a witness, the district attorney could recuse herself
from any involvement and others in her department still hand

(39:15):
the prosecution. I mean, we actually saw that where Kim
Fox in in Cook County. UH, she stepped away from
UH involvement in the case of Jessee Spilette and other
district other d as in her office handle the case.
This police chief is saying she wanted a special grand
jury and Morales's officers to be completely removed from this. Yeah,

(39:41):
I want to be really careful. I want to stay
in my lane. As they say, Uh, they don't trust
the people who we elected. The coming with attorney step
from Moraleis was elected by our community to make the
decisions and the judgments that helped us best. I don't
want to get into putting in her the position where
she has to make those costs. They don't trust her.

(40:03):
But we're gonna do is let the process play out
and trust her to make whatever judgment that she needs
to be makes whatever an ethical judgment that she needs
to make about it, whether she has a conflict or not.
That's how it's usually done. She has to determine what
she has a tomic. They don't get to tell her
ahead of time that she has a complict nor do
they get to a lot on a warrant and call
her as a probable witness when they know in fact

(40:24):
that she was not there. So everything that they said
so far has been an issue. But we're gonna let
the process play out. Dr Whittaker, What is going on?
Uh with you? You're involving in this how they're targeting you? Yes?
Um thank you Roding for having me on the show today.
Um My case is one that uh demonstrates the power

(40:47):
of systemic racism. UM. And the fact that you had
a share off in my case that came after me
and my church, my family. UM. And the questions that
people should be asking, UM is why is it that
they're using a criminal process to come at certain black leaders,

(41:09):
not all of them, but certain black leaders. And and
that is because for those of us who are speaking
on social justice issues about economic disparities. When I was
elected to counsel in two thousand fifteen, I raised the
issue about the disparity of police on the police forces

(41:30):
as far as black police officers. I spoke about President
Obama's twenty first century policing, the disparities we saw in
our fire department. We broke up a seventy five year
contract that one white law firm had representing public housing
for seventy five years. UM. We were able to have

(41:52):
that contract awarded to a black law firm. UM. We
were able to have a disparity study done to show
that there was some egregious discrimination. And so we whenever
we deal with economic disparities. That sheriff that brought those
charges against me, we cut his budget by a million dollars.
We took city offices that were located in privately owned

(42:16):
buildings where they were charging the city more than market
rate rent, and none of those buildings, you know, were
owned by black folks. We had those buildings moved back
into city Hall, no rent. And the repercussions for me
stepping out like this and dealing with the socio economic
issues which I think black elected officials when we get

(42:37):
in office, we should not get up there and come form.
We should get there and transform and make the system
more equitable than when we found it. And as a
result of that, the former sheriff brought up twenty indictments,
got twenty indictments against me back in two thousand and seventeen.
He lied before the special grand jury. He presented false

(43:01):
evidence to the special grand jury to the extent that
I was still in a million dollars. You would have
to see this stuff to believe it. Um that there
were money's missing, uh he. They brought up an identity
theft of a social Security number that they were saying
that our churches credit Union used um when there wasn't

(43:24):
even a social Security number there, and just how they
could blanketly use the criminal justice system to come after
black elected officials to silence our voice. And I'm an
example of how that was done. It was well orchestrated. Uh,
it went through the legal system, and I was found

(43:47):
guilty on three of the counts. The judge throughout seventeen
counts um after the second day of trial. And on
the three counts it was a gentleman who had a
former criminal record who they had intimidated. And so just
how they are using this criminal justice system. And it's
a call for us, as black elected officials and black

(44:10):
citizens to make sure that when we vote and when
we put blacks and elected positions, hold them accountable for
representing our interests. And so when you see a black chief,
a black city manager, I'm of a firm belief that
racism would not be as strong as it is today.
We're not for black participation, and that's what you're seeing,

(44:33):
and it's a sad thing. In a majority black city.
We have a majority white city council conservative because we
did not vote and do what we should have done
as a people in this community. And so this is
what you're seeing happening now as a result. In Ports
Smooth you have here go to my iPad. Please, this

(44:54):
is the racial breakdown. The Portsmouth African American, Hispanic fo
other three percent Asian one percent. Uh don. Some would say, though,
wait a minute, you got a black city manager, you
got a black police chief. How is this the issue
of race? I will always say I'm from Texas too,
and you know that. And I always tell people that

(45:14):
black folks fought for the Confederates as well. But we
have to understand that they've already there are people who
have always been able to co opt blacks in positions
of a power. I don't know how they do it,
with promises or whatever, but for some reason, they have
always been able to co opt people who in positions
of authority to hurt their own people. I can't understand it.
It's not a matter of enforcing the law, as the

(45:37):
chief has said, It is really a matter of not
enforcing the law in an equal and equitable way. We
had a black current mayor. Now he was accused of
alleged to have double jip. He was getting paid a
retirement of money and he was also getting paid from
the city as acting city manager. And they would and
he was told that that was impermissible. No charges were bought.

(45:58):
In fact, he was a city manager, he got to
look the mayor. We had a two white city council
people that both got sued for defamation and the person
who was their faid warner lawsuit and cost the city
hundreds of thousand dollars, almost seven hundred thousand dollars, and
nobody's recalled them, nobody's looked into their background. We had
another city council he's all the white members, who was

(46:20):
accused of having an affair and beating here and having
a fight with his baby's mama outside his wife's marriage,
and nothing happened, no charges, and he was not punished.
In fact, I think he's been reelected two times since then.
So there is a double standard for those who are
black in positions of authority and those who are white.
And you know, we've always had people are black people

(46:42):
who would be in a position of authority who who
might not share out our entry. You will witness some
something today on Trump's convention speech today. This is a
photo of the city council here. I'm just curious, uh,
doctor Whittaker, our folks enforcement are they elected single member
districts or state or city wide? Were elected citywide, so

(47:06):
it's not by districts. And UM, just want to piggyback
on what Attorney Scott, who represented me and in my case,
um that issue with the mayor, which I hope your
listeners court what he's said. The issue with the mayor
was brought to the attention of council by Dr Lydia Patton,

(47:27):
who is now the city manager, that the former city
manager who is the mayor now was double dipping receiving
his full retirement benefit and paid that's a violation of
Virginia law. When I brought that to the attention of
our Commonwealth Attorney, Stephanie morale as nothing has been done. Um,

(47:49):
we've had people who have died in the jail, black
folks brought it to the attention of the Commonwealth Attorney
and nothing has yet to be done. But yet when
it comes to the prosecution of black elected officials, that
does occur. And I'm glad that this spotlight is being

(48:13):
put on it by your national audience because what has
happened in a town like Portsmouth, Um, you get these
things locally locked and because it has been happening over years.
My father, who is one of the senior passors in
the city came here in nineteen sixty four part of
the King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Um, there were black

(48:37):
clergy then who did not believe that King was called
by God. And you still have that mentality here and
until we wake up as black folks and recognize that
when we start dealing with white supremacy and compromising ourselves
to it, they will use us up and kick us out.

(48:58):
And that's why when they see persons like myself, Mary Kenny,
right when we got up there and started doing what
was right for our folks, a purposeful agenda because Dr
King said that change does not come in on the
wheels inevitability, that you have to make it happen intentionally,
and so that's what we did. And now, UM, I

(49:20):
have suffered the repercussions of that. I was a tenured
professor at Hampton University going into my twin in year
teaching and because of these trumped up charges, I lost
my job over it. And so we have to know
that when we step out like this, they're gonna come
at us. But we have to be willing to take
the sacrifice because of the truth. Alright, that's what we

(49:43):
have stood on marks. Cats really appreciate it. Thank you
so very much, thank you, thank you. All right, folks,
now the Portsmouth police this is what this was also
interesting here they are trying to prevent District Attorney Stephanie
Morales from handling the Confederate monuments case. And you saw
there while we're from the police chief state and the
police chief said that poor smith common Wealth Attorney Stephany

(50:05):
Moralies can't prosecute the fourteen cases because she has been
named as a potential witness. Well, Deem Moralph joins us
right now. So okay, so she's saying you were a witness.
Were you on the scene when supposedly they attacked or
did whatever to this monument? Absolutely not. That was most

(50:29):
certainly not on the scene. So how are you a
witness if you weren't even there. I'm not a witness,
you know. And in the clear ramification of naming me
as a witness, uh creates a situation where now we
have to determine with the court whether there is indeed
a conflict of interest that would warrant a special prosecutor

(50:52):
coming on the case, which creates a situation then that
you have someone who is acting as Commwell's attorney, who
is not accountable to the members of my community who
elected me to do this very job. I never thought
I would see myself fighting to stay on a case
where you certainly know, no matter what the outcome is,
you are going to have a substantial amount of people
upset with you. However, I fight this fight every day

(51:14):
to ensure that we are working in a fair and
effortable way, and I will not sit back while anyone
attempts to usurp my authority to do the job that
the people of forcement have elected me to do. So.
So the police chief says, you're a potential witness. You're
either a witness or you're not. So has she even responded,

(51:36):
what's the evidence? What? What are you talking about? Like,
what does that even mean? Well, it's you know, this
is a very peculiar process the way this is playing out,
because typically we don't see um cases manifesting in this
way where the magistrate system is utilized two months after
the fact. Typically when there's a long term investigation, the

(51:59):
matter presented to my office in order for us to
make the prosecutorial determination about whether there's even probable cause
to present this to a grand jury. Usually, if law
enforcement is going to the magistrate, they do it right
when the incidents take place, and so this is not
you know, this is the usual course of action they took,
but not in a usual time frame. And so in

(52:19):
order to determine usually who witnesses are, you lay out
the reason why the witnesses are to be deemed witnesses
in the first place. And the way it's listed, Uh,
it just indicates that I am quote unquote potentially a
material and eye witness. It places me in this category.
And again, I most certainly was not an eyewitness. So
I can't speak to the sentiments or the thought process

(52:42):
of the individual who led this investigation. All I can
do is speak to what the ramifications are for our community.
And again, when they elect me to do a job,
I stand up to do that job, no matter how difficult.
Does it seem strange that all of a sudden, two
months after this supp was an incident took place at
the police would hit fourteen people with charges. Well, again,

(53:09):
you know, um, we've seen all types of things occur,
and the fact that you asked this question is a
good time time to highlight that the majority of the
cases that come before my office. They don't have national
media attention, they don't involve people who are particularly powerful
or who have voice. And this is where my office
has to stand in the gap to ensure that there
is procedural fairness. And so no, we don't typically see

(53:33):
this happened on a regular basis, but when we do,
we are the ones who stand in the gap to
ensure that there is procedural justice for all who are involved,
because that's a very important component. And you know, I'm
very very concerned in this case with procedural fairness UM.
And and when we have a delay where again you
have a situation not getting into the merits of the case,
but everybody who has paying attention and who has watched

(53:56):
the Facebook live and other footage can see who was
on the scene, and you know, to to think about
whether or not law enforcement could have, you know, procedurally
in a just manner, I acted more quickly, or again,
go through the typical process, present my office with the
prosbytorial with a file that we can make a prostratory
determination with UM. That would have been the usual typical process.

(54:18):
But again in Virginia, we have no intake unit in
the in the Combo Attorney's office, we have the magistrate system,
and it's in a you know, a very good time
to highlight the systemic issues that we face that can
create these opportunities for procedural injustice. So the Virginia Pilot
has this story, uh, and they named the the fourteen
people Charge Up. President James Boyd um Um, Vice President

(54:43):
Louis Gibbs, school board member, Lakisha klue Atkinson, public defender
Brenda's Pride Assistant, public defenders Meredith Kramer, and Alexandra Stevens
a mirror, but the Kimberly Wimbish, uh Dana Worthington, Lakisha Hicks,
Raymond Brothers, uh Ana Renee Rivera, and Brandon Woodard. Now

(55:04):
what's interesting is that several those who were charged there
were pressed on the day of the protest. Yet the
state senator who was charged was was weird to me
is that this says she was in Richmond, And I mean,
I'm just and I guess. And what's what's interesting here

(55:24):
is that, again I've had experience covering things. Normally, police
police make their charges and then it goes to the
district attorney's office as to whether or not, it moves forward.
So in this case, they're saying you are potential witness,
but they don't even state that you were there. I

(55:44):
was not there, you know, So I can, I can,
very very clearly, UM, state to everyone that I was
not on the scene. UM. And you know, again, what
you pointed out is something that we have to grapple
with right now. We have to look at the way
the system them is designed and what effect does that
have and what power does that place in the hands
of people to create these situations where there's just mass confusion,

(56:08):
which doesn't benefit anyone in my community or beyond. But
it's you know, very clear, I was not present, um.
And the the effect of naming me as a witness
is to create a conflict of interest which brings in
a special prosecutor. It's very clear, it's clear what the
efforts are, and it's actually you know, the chief of
police opened later, uh and and expounded further because initially

(56:33):
at her press conference she had indicated that she spoke
with me, she asked for a special gran jury, a
special prosecutor, and no action was taken. And so to
clarify with that, UM, I'll give you the example what
the case that you know about. There's a case that
I prosecuted back in two thousand fifteen through two thousand
sixteen where William Chapman the second was killed by police

(56:55):
officer in my city. And when I prosecuted that case,
and I was the leaf esecutor in that case myself,
which ended in a voluntary manslider conviction. When I prosecuted
that case myself, I did not take that case to
a special grand jury. I took that case to a
regular grand jury after receiving a complete investigator file. And
so I explained those things to the chief of police

(57:16):
about how the process works. And following that, I released
a statement from my office and place it on my
website that spoke directly to the process that I require
a complete investigator file before I will make a determination
and consider whether something goes to grand jury. And clearly,
you know, I've made it very very clear that the
only way as special prosecutor will be brought in is

(57:37):
in the case of a conflict. So you can't just
call me and say I want a special prosecutor because
I would like to have someone else. There has to
be a conflict. So that knowledge was there, but there
wasn't a clear statement as to the fact that there
had been nothing presented to me for me to even
make a determination. So later she expounded in another release
and indicated that she had determined that she could not

(57:59):
provide I a filed to me because I had a conflict.
She actually used the words in her statement conflict. And
so it's you know, even though at first I was
listed as a witness, now it's actually been said by
the Cheaper police that they have determined that I have
a conflict. And the only person that's responsible for determining
that attorneys have conflicts are the attorneys ourselves. We're supposed

(58:20):
to acknowledge that. And so if I'm a witness, that's
up to me to state that. And I was not present.
So I am absolutely fighting for my right to stay
in this case and the capacity that the members of
my community elected me to serve. It's not easy, but
nothing I do is easy. That case where I had
to prosecute the police officer tried that case myself. That

(58:42):
was not easy. So I don't shy away from difficult work. Um,
I leaned into the work of the community, and I,
you know, I have to also say there was a
group that I was a part of founding in Virginia
called Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, and we advocated very
strongly for all measures related to police accountability. We talked
about wanting reform in the area of no novel wars

(59:02):
so that we don't have what happened to our sister
Brianna Taylor happened in Virginia, and so many other things
that we advocated for. That. Again, we have to acknowledge
the work that I have done. Um that may lead
some people to decide we want a different prosecute in
this case, but unfortunately for them, I was elected by
the people of my community to do this difficult work

(59:23):
and to make these determinations and ensure that we have equity,
racial equity, procedural fairness at all times for everybody. All Right,
the steps Severn Morales, we surely appreciate it. Thanks a lot,
Thank you. All Right, folks, Uh, let's not go to
this story out of Tennessee, which is extremely strange. Tennessee
protesters could now lose the right to vote under a

(59:45):
new law signed by Governor Bill Lead Protesters who camp
out on state property, such as the activists who have
demonstrated for months outside the state capital against racial injustice
could now face fellas felony charged is punishable by up
to six years in prison. Convicted felons are automatically stripped

(01:00:06):
of their voting rights in Tennessee. I'm sorry. Now, all
these conservatives out here love talking about to a to
a meaning the Second Amendment, and here you have Tennessee
passing a law trying to make it a felony for

(01:00:30):
people practicing their First Amendment rights. Eugene Craig sounds to
me like Republicans in Tennessee are trying to keep black
folks and others from protesting. Uh, that's exactly what's going on. Um,

(01:00:51):
you'll see Republicans stretch uh many definitions to stop black
folk from doing something. Let's just see in Tennessee right now. Um,
they don't like depression and don't like the attention. They
don't like, um, the progress and change that comes with
people are actually able to stand up from themselves and demand. Uh,
they're just do in this in this country, in the society,

(01:01:12):
and so what are you're seeing them. It's a literal
criminalization of their First Amendment rights. That's nothing more, nothing
less just literally the criminalization of it. And um, you know,
I think you know. And this is where here the
courts become very important because when you have constitutional violations
like this, typically you go to federal court and you know,
the work itself through the federal judiciary. Um. But you know,

(01:01:35):
as we know, team Trump has been active, were reworking
to reshape what that judiciary looks like. Um, it is strange, Mustafa. Again,
what we're seeing is we're seeing the targeting of protesters.
I'm trying to figure out how the hell this thing
hasn't even been unconstitutional by targeting people who are protesting. Say,

(01:01:58):
first Amendment, right, it is the right, but we see
our rights continue to be stripped away, you know, left
and right and again, Department of Justice, where you're at,
I'll come, you're not stepping in on some of these things.
But beyond that, you know, to have a felony on
your record is some serious stuff because that then also

(01:02:19):
eliminates you from a whole bunch of sets of opportunities.
So no on, not only do they strip you away
from being able to vote, then they stop it say
you are a young person, and we know plenty of
young people are out protesting, trying to make change happen.
Now you can't get federal student AI because you got
a felony on your record. Um, and there is a

(01:02:40):
laundry list of other things that go along with that.
So we understand this, this vicious game of trying to
strip people's opportunities to fully engage in a civic process.
And here's the last thing I'll say on this. So
you're upset that people are protesting on the land that
their tax dollars is paying for you to do your
job on there's something not quite right. Um. It really

(01:03:04):
is baffling. But then again, this is the same Tennessee
Kelly that previously wanted to restrict folks in the collection
of ballots. This, this is the latest tactic of Republicans
to target people of color, whether it is voting or
whether it is protesting. Yeah, I just feel like I

(01:03:28):
need to make this announcement to those who are trying
to infiltrate and perpetuate these types of policies. Jim Crow
died a very long time ago, not long enough of
a time ago, but long enough. Nevertheless, you cannot think
for a second that we can go back to that
kind of fascist regime without some form of pushback from

(01:03:53):
the minority group quote unquote that is becoming larger by
the day, just by way of demographic than how this
country is shaped. Thing up, um, it is. It is
just appalling to me that people think now they can
get away with something so blatantly unconstitutional um. And the
fact that it's not a situation of bringing a weapon

(01:04:17):
to the state property or fighting on the state property,
just spending the night just your present there in protests,
which is your first Amendment right. So they're telling me
that basically I have somewhat of a curfew to to protests,

(01:04:37):
even though I did all the necessary precautions in order
to do so within my first Amendment right. So you're
infringing on my first Amendment right. You are by way
of doing that, you are infringing upon my right to
vote um. And then you're infringing upon my other first
Amendment right, not by way of just assembly, but protests
as well. So it's just on all ac out just frankly,

(01:05:02):
don't have these people to think that they can get
away with it. Well, but if you're in power, if
you're in power, that's the whole point. They believe they
can get away with it. That's the whole strategy. I mean,
bottom line is no, no, I understand that, but we
again though their whole their whole deal is. Look, this
is no different than than during Jim Crow era. You

(01:05:23):
pass laws to force the people you're fighting to go
to court and fight it to waste crucial time. That's
what the whole strategy is. And again Tennessee has previously
done that. Folks. If is Reverend uh is Reverend there,
Reverend Barbara there al right, Reverend WILLIAMS. Barbera repairents of
the breach. What's happening in Tennessee. Again, this is the

(01:05:46):
kind of thing that we have seen historically where folks
in power want to suppress black folks from UH and
others from advancing their rights. Now, all of a sudden,
you want to make it a felony if you're protesting. Yeah,
Gain recognized game exactly and that that group there has

(01:06:07):
actually been a part of justin one of the leaders,
a part of the Poor People's Campaign, UH from the beginning,
and you know this has a long history over they
started out protesting some years ago, UH, kind of a
moral Monday situation, challenging the Speaker of the House. The
Speaker of the House called them criminals and then ended

(01:06:30):
up having to resign himself for the things that he
was doing in the Speak of the House. They'd actually
targeted one young man trying to do everything they can't
to move him. He's a student of Diane Nash and
James Lawson and the Vanderbilt School of Theology. But now
they say they want to make it a felony if
you protest. Now this is is across the country. South

(01:06:51):
Carolina and you know, tried to charge Breed News with
a felony for climbing up and and um challenging the
a Confederate flag. Uh. They tried to make this a
felony down in Alabama. They don't want to let you
inside of the state legislature. When we were in North
Carolina rolling when they first arrested us, they arrested us

(01:07:14):
for praying. They said we could not even bring up
placard inside the General Center building had the state a
designated place and if we raised our vossesh raised our
bosses and someone complained about it, then in fact we
could be arrested and be removed. This one is going
further it's saying we want to do all these things

(01:07:36):
and take your right to vote. It's got to be
challenged in Cork. We're in touch with the on the ground.
We're talking to some lawyers. Now, this has to be
fought in court. It cannot stand that you're protesting and
then turned into a felony. Non violent protesting, by the way,
non violent protests and turned into a felony and then

(01:07:57):
used as an excuse to take your voting rest also
says the folks. They are scared. You know a young
lady who ran for the Democratic seat for the Senate
in the primary Afrimerica World War, and she's running on
an issue to deal with poverty and those issues didn't
raise dollars and one the primary and now is the

(01:08:18):
Democratic senator nominee. So there's something going on in Tennessee. Uh,
it's the place where they murdered an assassinated Dr. King.
But there's a rising going on in Tennessee, and we
got to stand beside them in that state. I want
to ask I want to ask you this, um. You
have been a course fighting many of these white conservative

(01:08:38):
evangelicals over when it comes to the poor and other
public policy issues and one of the biggest folks who
has refused uh to debate you. In fact, when y'all
went down to Lynchburg, Virginia, Jerry Faulwill Jr. Issued a
statement saying that any of y'all even stepped foot on

(01:08:59):
that campus, y'all were to be arrested. Well, today he's
no longer the president of that university, the nation's largest,
the world's lauders Christian university, because of a report where
this pool boy down in Miami said that he had
uh an affair with Jered Farwell's wife, would have sex
with her, and Jared Farwell be sitting there watching them
do it. He tried to release a statement yesterday putting

(01:09:22):
it on his wife's things she had the affair, he
wasn't involved, and it was an extortion attempt. After this
story dropped clear to the board trustees didn't buy that.
Now he is out as president. Uh. Look, humans are humans,
folks sin. But the issue here is that folk like
Jerry Farwell Jr. Have attacked berated, uh, put use their

(01:09:47):
moral superiority over lauder it over so many other people.
And now lightness is busting him out. And now he's
out as president University. Well not always up for all
of our news, and you just called me. I had
heard about the piece about the fatal attraction. I didn't

(01:10:07):
hear the last piece about them watching. But you know,
beyond all of that, as you said, people to step
for people have their flaws and their flaws. Jared Folwell,
like his father isn't is an extremists. And we have
to remember at a racist extremists. And we have to
remember that most of these people got there called to
fame Jared Folwell did, uh, Senior Pat Robinson in their

(01:10:31):
standing against black people and the right to vote. It
was pat Robinson's dady that called the frame interposition and notification. Uh,
Jared Fodwall as you remember seeing you came out against
too too. He was they all were anti desegregationists. Excuse
they were all segregationists. They hated the segregations and the

(01:10:54):
whole issue around abortion was on the out that they
could no longer publicly stand against the issue of desegregation. So, Jeff,
always been a problem for a long time. You exactly
the right rolling. We went to Lynchburgh team have a
revival with other Christians. In fact tomorrow that I'm doing

(01:11:15):
a piece with them. It's called the Red Letter Christian
people who were formerly evangelicals. Why even they don't call
themselves that more anymore because of the way that term
has been so abused. But but he told us if
we came on that campus to recruit students to the revival,
that we would be arrested, that that people would be arrested.

(01:11:38):
And now he has been arrested because of his you know,
I don't mean physically, but the police, but but history
is arresting him and his own immorality is arresting him. Uh.
And it happens. How often has this happened down through
the years? Uh? Roland? You know I could read the list.
I won't go off all of them, but you can

(01:11:59):
find time. I'm in time down through the history. The
people who claim to be so much better than black people,
so much better than gay people, so much better than
everybody else. And then something happens in the world gets
pulled up and you see, you know, so much ugness.
But I don't want people to get distracted. The Border

(01:12:19):
Trustee members, most of them that will remove him for this,
and you know this is it had to be this
extreme will also fight to block your healthcare and fight
to imperi bad suppression. Don't get it twisted. Then they
will throw away one of their own. They talk a
lot about being Christians and forgiveness and sothwork us on,

(01:12:41):
but they will throw away anybody who undermines their claim
to this great high morality above anybody else, particularly gay people,
and so for off and so on. But while they
still will maintain their political immorality and being against others
rights again, living ages against health care and really against democracy.

(01:13:04):
Last question, a question for you Republicans start their convention tonight. Uh,
they've already started, Uh the lion already, that's what they
called to the convention, the virtual convention. Do you think
the poor is gonna come up this week? You know?
The sad thing is that might, but in a crazy way.

(01:13:26):
You remember when when Donald Trump went into a poor community, uh,
during his um when he was run for president, and
then he asked that question, you know what, what what
black people have to lose? And he brought up pulpit
about black people in an all white audience. He probably
will in some crazy centical way, which is why I
said to the Democrats, you ought to bring it up

(01:13:46):
in the right way. You ought to really be talking
about it in the right way. You ought to be
talking about him. The mccoma. Everything they have done is
cater to the wealthy and the greedy has left people floundering,
and floundering has hurt the for the most. I heard
my dear friend Mansion Pelosi today and she was saying,
we need to get the stimulus money we need for
counter release it and vote on it so we can

(01:14:09):
put money in the hands the middle class. And I
was screaming, at no, it should be middle class, working people,
poor people, lower people, say the whole litment, because what
you're gonna get at this convention, I guess that's what
you call it. I could call it some other seat words,
uh called tick uh you know, but I won't go

(01:14:29):
into all of those. But what But instead we need
to challenge it up front because what they would do
is what they normally do. You know how it happened
role They will call uh. They would say we're gonna
start a committee on freedom, and they had nothing to
do with freedom. It all has to do with, with say,
blocking the vote. They will say, we're gonna be the
Maral majority had nothing to do with mar majority. It

(01:14:49):
has something to do with that m all reality. They
don't mind using terms and words for for their own purposes.
And so we're gonna hear a whole lot of lives,
a whole lot of self worship, a whole lot of
public idolatry, a whole lot of culted uh worshiping a
personality and what we ought to do. I think every

(01:15:12):
time you hear a lie registered, tend people to vote
and get them to vote. Every time you hear a
live register, tend people get them to vote and vote.
Every time you read here live call somebody and ask
them to call somebody else, to call somebody and say, look,
we gotta vote. Because if you don't get motivated by
these last this week, I don't know what's gonna motivators.
Remember not the winning bother. We feelingly appreciate it, sir,
and thank you so very much. Take care rolling always. Hey,

(01:15:35):
I got a little purple on, but I ain't lost.
Oh sick. Well, you know, we gotta show them how
to wear our colors. And also I'm rocking the uh
the alphab's first of all we vote shirt today to
get people to encourage them to do so. This is
a little Bishop color. I want to make us to
get it twisted. And that's all that is. I appreciate it.

(01:15:57):
But thanks a lot. All right, folks, don't forget voting
absolutely matters. We want you, folks uh to really focus
on that. It is seventy days until election day. Go
to vote dot org and what you should be able
to do is check your registration. That is critically important.
I got an email, uh from a guy just the

(01:16:17):
other day. When you go to my iPad, please uh gotta.
He got an email from an other day from a
guy who said that he said, rolling, thanks for pushing
this issue. He said that I saw your notice and
I went, he said, I I just voted. And he
said that he went to double check his registration. Uh

(01:16:39):
and realize here it is Winston, Washington. Thank you, fat brother. Yes,
I am a fi a. Thank you for pushing check
vote registration. I just voted here in Phoenix, Arizona, April four,
two thousand twenty. Yet I was not registered, he said,
I re registered. I've been a permanent vote by mail
said it's two thousand and nine. Yet I was taken

(01:17:02):
off man the same day that Trump was in Arizona.
So obvious. So thank you brother, Uh he said, Uh
course he played at ninth nineteen seventies seven. Uh. And
so he says, go on, brother, and so, folks, this
is why I need y'all to go to vote dot Org.
I need you to go to check your registration to

(01:17:23):
make sure you are registered, to make sure your name
is not being removed from the ballots. Also, I need
y'all to also double if you do request it by mail.
I need you to double check what comes in the mail.
You see right here you can take your registration, you

(01:17:43):
can register to vote, you can vote by mail. You
can also feel out the census right here. I need
you to do that. I need you to do that
because look, there are games that are being played. There
are games that are being played all cross this country,
uh sending out fake ballots things along those lines. I

(01:18:05):
need you the double check also where you're getting it from.
That if you're requesting a mail in ballot, it must
be coming from your particular state. There's a process. Some
folks can request them online. Some people can actually request
them in the mail. I got minds and got mine
in the middle of other day, filled it out to
request my absentee ballot had to mail that back in

(01:18:28):
the ballot is going to be sent to me. But
I need y'all a double check that because there are
games that are being played out there all the time.
We're gonna go to a breakdown. We're gonna have another
We have another spot and encourages you to feel out
for the census of guys. Get that ready, we come back.
I'm gonna talk to a book author who says it's
time for white women to really deal with the issue

(01:18:52):
of race, and it's time for it to be a real, honest,
hardcore conversation. Jenna Arnold joins me next right here on
rolland Martin on Filtered. Do you want your gout rollomark
on Filter, YouTube dot Com, Forward, slash rolland S Martin.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one day the

(01:19:14):
digital show out here that keeps it black and keep
it real as Rollobart Unfiltered, shed name right there, rolland
Martin Unfiltered, like Share, subscribe to our YouTube channel as
YouTube dot Com, Forward, slash rolland s Martin, and don't
forget to turn your notifications so when we go live
you'll know it. The community comes together to support the
fight against racial injustice. I want to take a second

(01:19:37):
to talk about one thing we can do to ensure
our voices are heard, not tomorrow, but now, have your
voices heard in terms of what kind of future we
want by taking the tween twenty cents is today as
dot gov and folks, let me help you. The Census
is account of everyone living in the country. It happens
once every teen years. It is mandated by the US Constitution.

(01:20:01):
The thing that's important is that the census informs funding
billions of dollars how they are spent in our communities
every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas,
and we want to We wanted new parks and roads
and Senior Citizens Center. With the census helps inform all
of that and where funding goes. It also determines how

(01:20:22):
many seats your state will get in the US House Representatives.
Young black men, and young children of color are historically undercounted,
which means a potential loss of funding of services that
helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that.
We have a power to help determine where hundreds of

(01:20:43):
billions in federal funding go each year for the next
ten years, funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods,
and our families and friends. Folks, responses are confidential and
can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any
government agency. So please take the census today, shaped your future.

(01:21:06):
Start at dot gov, folks. It has been since nineteen
sixty four Democrats have gotten more than forty two percent
of the white vote. In two thousand sixteen, eating with
a white woman running for president, Donald Trump got fifty
of the white female vote. Suffice to say that if

(01:21:27):
he had not gotten a majority of the white female vote,
he would not have been elected president. As a national
organizer of the Seen Women's Marching Washington, Jenna Arnold shoulder
commitment to making the world better. In a recently released book,
Raising Our Hands, she is calling on white women to
resist complacency and to start having the urgent conversations about

(01:21:50):
internal biases if they need to have. She joins us,
right now, Jenna, how you're doing. Looks like we're having something.
He looks like we're having some issues with your skype? Uh?
And so can you hear me? I can hear you?

(01:22:11):
Can you hear me? I can? Uh? So, guys, so
let's just do this here, Uh to my folks, if
y'all could just uh work with Jenna's skype because she's
breaking up and I can barely hear her. She's breaking up,
So y'all could just work on that and then just
come right back to me. I'm gonna do this here, folks,
we gotta in memoriam. New Orleans chef Leon West, the

(01:22:33):
first executive chef of the Earnest and Marial Convention Center,
passed away Friday at the age of seventy four. West
was on the job at the time, working in the
kitchen at Messina's when he collapsed and was brought to
University Medical Center. The cause of death is not being determined.
West was originally from Boston and grew up in a
family of eight children. He got his start in the

(01:22:54):
business as a teenager bussing tables and washing dishes at
a local diner, attending of the Massachusetts Vocational and Technical
Schools Culinary Arts program, and later worked at the Sheraton
Hotel in Boston. He started with national food service company
Ara Mark in nineteen seventy eight, and five years later
that company sent him to New Orleans to prepare the
forthcoming convention center. Which at the time was still being

(01:23:15):
used for the World's Fair. The Center open in nineteen
eighty four. West was the head of their culinary operation.
Over the years, West orchestrated the food for high profile
events that came to New Orleans, including the National Football
League Commissioner's Party, Taste of NFL, Taste of the NFL,
the n C Double A Bowl Championship Series, the BUP Reception,
and the NBA All Stars Players Party are He certainly

(01:23:38):
was a huge force Fair, creating award that recognized chefs
who didn't work in restaurants, who were not these superstar chefs,
but the people who did the work every single day.
Chef Leon West also inducted into the Black Shelfs Hall
of Fame. Uh. And of course New Orleans that's back
to back years have lost two giants, UH, first Leah

(01:23:59):
Chase and Chef Leon West. Our thoughts and prayers or
with the West family, and though all those who loved
him are folks. UH. If we can go back to
Jenna Arnold, hopefully her skype has improved all right, her
Scott is not ready yet. So let's just do this here, uh, folks.
A new series of anti viral Trump ads have been
dropped uh, Don Winslow uh and first eleven films drop this,

(01:24:24):
drop this new one. Uh. When it comes to terms,
vote blue, y'all watch this viral at evil is real.
We ignore it when it seems educated, polite, superficially charming,
even sophisticated. We trivialize it, ignore it, and when we do,

(01:24:44):
it grows. On March thirty one, in the Trump White House,
Trump's COVID team, led by Jared Kushner, decided to ignore
testing in states with democratic governors. Evil was in that room.
It looked like any other Bureaucratit meeting. There were power points, spreadsheets, briefings,
and estimates of the dead. It was that meeting that

(01:25:07):
led to Trump policies that would kill more Americans than
Pearl Harbor Vietnam and nine eleven more Americans than World
War One. It was deliverance, cold, political premeditated. Some people
say Trump and Kushner were incompetent when he came to COVID,
but let's call it what it is. It is the

(01:25:28):
Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising.

(01:26:30):
Never in American history have politicians been more powerful than
they are now. Effectively they are God's one. Western leaders
told us that the virus was under control and was
unlikely to cause serious problems for anyone in our hemisphere.
None of that was true. What security, I think it's
under control. News organizations exist to hold the powerful to account.

(01:26:51):
Here we have the powerful acting with no accountability at all. No,
I don't take responsibility at all, and our news media
they are cheering it on Beside at fan girls. God
sent this present. He is a person of providence. No
abuse is to grotesque for them. No talking point is
too stupid to repeat. Reporters will do whatever they are told.
They are all in drop cloroquin quin drops, chloroquin drops, chloroquine.

(01:27:17):
Totalitarianism does not shock us anymore. Maybe that's because all
of a sudden, it's all around us. Nobody disabays my owners,
so I have the ultimate authority. S want to make
of all of this what's long been considered out of
bounds to question of persons and patriotism. It's a very
strong charge, and we try not ever to make it.
But in the face of all of this, the conclusion

(01:27:37):
can't be avoided. These people actually hate America. There's no
longer a question about that. And yet paradoxically, at the
same time, they desperately want to control America more than anything.

(01:28:04):
The job is hard. It requires a mastery of complex
and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a
moral compass and an ability to listen, and an abiding
belief that each of the three hundred and thirty million

(01:28:26):
lives in this country has meaning and worth. President's words
have the power to move markets. They can start wars,
or broker peace, or awaken our worst instincts. You simply
cannot fake your way through this job. So let me

(01:28:49):
be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Or
Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He
has had more than an time to prove that he
can do the job, but he is clearly in over
his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot
be who we need him to be for us. Being

(01:29:13):
president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are.
It is what it is now. I use the hashtag

(01:29:35):
we tried to tell you because black people we we
of course we're not voting for Donald Trump. But it's
a whole bunch of white folks who's certainly voted for
Donald Trump. Uh In two thousand and sixteen. In fact,
a recent poll showed, UH that Donald Trump is leading
when it comes to white non college voters. Uh, let's
bring Jen Jenna Arnold back. Jenna, I was talking, I

(01:29:55):
was introducing, you know, I was talking about what happened
in sixteen. Of course, the Women's March also WHI took
place in the bomb lines is here. Uh, you write
your book. Look, white women got gotta look in the
mirror themselves when it comes to how they vote, the
issues they actually focus on. Yeah, that's right. And there's
a lot of outstanding questions, UM around how and why

(01:30:19):
white women pulled the lever of the way that they
did in and arguably any other election previously. UM. And
it's obviously been very aligned with their proximity to power
and privilege and uh, concepts and constructs that they haven't
quite understood. And because of the result of election and

(01:30:39):
all of the headline news UM in primarily in the
horrific category over the past four years, certainly within the
past two months, many of them are now asking harder
questions than themselves, not just in how they're going to
behave ultimately in the voting both and what is that
algorithm in which they take into that decision, but very
much around how they're participating UM from a consumer perspective,

(01:31:04):
from a broad citizen UM, the decisions are making on
behalf of their family and the long term impacts that
might have on society. So there's a lot of folks
from that demographic or asking questions in ways they happen previously.
When that when that extra video came out, Uh, many
people believe that there's no way you could be a

(01:31:25):
woman and say I'm perfectly fine with this guy being
in the White House with what he had to say.
That was so vile, that was so despicable. But frankly,
what a lot of what a lot of these white
women did is they were like, I'm cool with the
tax breaks, I'm fine with right wing Supreme Court justices.

(01:31:46):
I will completely ignore the sexism. I will ignore this
man's history, him talking about being over the pageant, joking
with Howard Stern, going into the dressing room seeing all
these models naked. They just completely acted as there that's
the matter, because those are the kinds of excuses that
they've made for their men for centuries. So it wasn't

(01:32:07):
that they it was suddenly a new series of hoops
that they had to jump through when they heard a
comment like that, these are the kinds of um what
I use in the reference in the book, I call
them cognitive acrobatics. It's this expertise of back flips and
cartwheels to convince yourself, Oh, which is easier if I

(01:32:30):
put the kids to sleep, or if I juggle all
of life's decisions And the same types of performances happening
around the men in our lives. Right, A lot of
women are anti rape and and you know, believe survivors
until until their sons get accused of sexual harassment and

(01:32:50):
then it's suddenly, well, how short was her skirt or
did she really say no? So there's this very fine
line of how we protect the men in our lives,
being sons, being our husbands, our fathers, or bosses, and
make excuses and sort of qualify them as like you know,
the individual case or just that one off verse. How

(01:33:12):
when we make those kinds of excuses, be it for
a presidential candidate or or for those in our lives,
that it's really um, you know, it's a cancer for
letting the patriarchy thrive. Uh. There was this particular saying.
Malcolm x Um described in his book that a Bible
of Malcolm x He was speaking Yale Harvard, one of

(01:33:33):
these largely white institutions, and it was a white woman
to him, and she said, Mr x I really believe
in your cause. How can I help, he said? He said, well,
she said, what can I do? He said nothing. He
later wrote in the book that he wishes he had
told her, Look, I don't need your help organizing black people.
I need you going talk to your own people, to

(01:33:54):
white people. I've had Jane Elliott on this show, Tim
Wise on this show as well, and Um, what you
also laying out is that these are the conversations that
a wife folks having with white people, you know, not
sitting here trying to say, oh, let's call in an
African American who can talk to us like No, white

(01:34:15):
folks need to be calling each other out and saying no,
this is what you're doing. And it's coming first of
mine who looks just like you, so you can't see
him in bs me. That's right, that's right. I mean, Roland,
I'm on skyping you from a yacht club, not because
I have a yacht and not because I like clubs,

(01:34:36):
Because if I walked downstairs in this patterned shirt that
I'm on and I start having conversations about gun control
or what's gonna go down tonight at the r NC
with the people who are sitting at the table, is
a lot more effective than if I'm at a protest
or if I'm having the same conversation with folks in
you know, in Williamsburg or Carol Gardens in New York City.

(01:34:57):
I mean, this is what might call to white women
who are suddenly questioning their identity, suddenly trying to figure
out where there are places in the front lines, desperate
to make an impact. Because while sometimes will say, oh,
those well intended white women, um, you know, can end
up being a headache, but genuinely, there's really authentic, heartfelt

(01:35:20):
intention and there's very very powerful resource. And I don't
just mean by the dollar a bill, but white women
are the largest voting block in the United States. They
will be through when it's still thought that they'll control
fifty six of the hundred Senate seats. They control of
the U. S economy, which is larger than a huge
amount of countries combined, and they're responsible for raising the

(01:35:43):
next generation of white men. So this demographic, while UM
lots of very comical and enjoyable Karen memes, and while
easy to write off, is an army of resource and
currency and AMMO that is now asking questions about what
they can do to participate and be part of the solution.

(01:36:06):
And while yes, there are very concrete things that they
can do in voting those come November three, and very
concrete conversations that they can have with the Uncle Bob's
in their lives, and the stop making of excuses for
the men in their lives, what really has to happen
with this demographic is so much reckoning about the types
of UM performance chores, pretending perfection, the cognitive acrobatics that

(01:36:30):
were so great at the sort of the playing the
invisible UM. I like to say that the work that
has to be done is right there in that room,
right there in that room with you. So yes to
Malcolm X this point. There's so much organizing that that
white folk need to be able to do in their communities.
I like to think of myself, I'm not a scholar
on any of these subjects. I'll be sitting at the

(01:36:52):
feed of scholars that represent marginalized communities for the rest
of my life. Um but I can truly be a conduit.
I can be a into it for those folks who
thought racism was not a thing because we elected a
black president. Um So, so there's so much work that
has to be done within this demographic and I like
to open the front gate, the white picket fence and

(01:37:15):
invite them all out. When when was your moment of reckoning?
When didn't you hit you when you say it? You
know what? I have to deal with this. I've got
to talk about it. I gotta write about it. I mean,
people have been asking me how long did take you
to write this book? And the truth is it's taking

(01:37:35):
me thirty nine years to write this book. Um but
I've had a series of moments of clarity that have
all been facilitated by my friends of color. Right. It
was ten years ago and I said something along the
lines of I don't see color, and a friend of
mine said, are you sure and took me down that path.

(01:37:56):
It was a series of conversations around owned um, wealth
creation and what capitalism actually means by friends, um that
all of you would know, whose names, you would all know,
who said, hey, you understand what that means from a
long term consequential perspective, for so many marginalized communities. And
it's because I've built trustful relationships with so many UM

(01:38:21):
friends that represent different faith religions, creeds, races, ability status
is socioc and on my classes that they've been able
to nudge me in ways that I don't know if
I would have. I don't think that would have happened
had I stayed in the cul de sac that I
was born and raised in UM, and I don't think

(01:38:43):
I would have seen sort of the game that was
being played around me and how I was propping that up.
So there was a lot of there was a lot
of tiny ones UM. And then I think very much
it happened when I was standing on stage at the
Women's March in January, the day after the forty fitth inauguration,
and realized that it was a sea of pink cats,

(01:39:06):
and from a qualitative perspective, it felt to me like
most of them were being warned by white women. And
I couldn't back into that. The optics of that with
the statistic that of American white women voted for Trump
in and while I'll never believe an example in my life,
because it's somebody standing on the steps of the high
school with a piece of paper and a clipboard asking

(01:39:27):
who someone voted for. Even if we extend a very
very generous academic margin of ten percent on either side,
that's still forty percent of American white women or sixty
four percent of American white women pulling the lever for
a candidate that is not in the best interests of humanity, period,
full stuff. And so I couldn't quite reckon with what

(01:39:48):
I was seeing, with what the statistics were suggesting. And
my mom is one of um of nine, and I've
been raised by very um amazing value based women who
didn't behave or or make the choice that I thought
they would have going into the election. I just couldn't

(01:40:10):
reconcile the numbers with the intention, with what I was seeing,
it just wasn't adding up. And frankly, it's still it
still isn't. I heard you mentioned a poll earlier about
the percentage of white folk that still support Trump, um,
and I would challenge and caution everybody heading into this
uh presidential to take those polls with not a little

(01:40:31):
bit of salt, but like a bucket of salt. Dump
it on your head every single time. I'm still licking
my wounds from uh, the sen polls, the suggestion going
into the presidential that we were in better shape than
we obviously ultimately ended up being. Um. But I do
think that white folk have become more divided, the binaries

(01:40:53):
more extreme. You see more Trump flags flying everywhere, you
see more cancel culture being performed online. But I'm not
I'm not quite sold that that the numbers are as
high as some of the polls are suggesting. We'll bring
my panel here as this hear uh, they can round
the questions here. I'm gonna start first with Mustafa Santiago.

(01:41:14):
I'll leaves the question with j Arnold. Yeah, what is
the one or two things that that white woman should
actually be moving forward on to make change happen. I
think it's a really good question, you know. I think again,
there's the like esoteric foot perspective of how I'm going

(01:41:34):
to readjust the prism of how I see my role
in the world, how I see my responsibility to others
being and I think that's a lifetime shift. And then
there's the very turnkey items, which is like a language adjustment,
right like we saw this with Amy Cooper when everybody said, oh,
well is she racist? And instead of asking whether or

(01:41:55):
not she's racist, let's all just lean into the fact
that everyone has racial bio us is anti Semitic bias,
is bias against blonde haired girls with bangs, and instead
of trying to figure out exactly what the languages around it,
take a step back and start positioning oneself as a goalie.
So I think there's a lot of one oh one
stuff that has to happen, right, Like, we teach what

(01:42:18):
we did to the indigenous in this country in second grade,
so we don't really have to teach it. We teach
enslavement in fourth grades, we don't really have to teach it.
So there's a lot of historical work that this demographic
has to do. And then there's the thirty thousand foot
how you're going to be a better human being, how
you're going to make different choices of in your life
on behalf of the collective not just the individual. Kelly question, Um, well,

(01:42:44):
first of all, thank you for the work that you're doing. Um,
it is definitely noted. Uh. My question is, given the
work that you are doing, and how it will shift
the power structure in this country. How do you plan
to reconcile personally with the power that you have as

(01:43:05):
a white woman, with the the pending shift of of
power dynamic, should we actually gain equity as black people
in this country and other minorities. Yeah, it's a really
good question. I think I understand your question. Are you
talking about me personally? Well, it can be you personally.

(01:43:25):
I mean, you can't speak for all white women, so
we can start with you, which I do all the time.
I'm having um I, it's it's it's hard. I don't know,
I don't know. I mean it was um. I. I
wrestled with writing this book for a number of very
obvious reasons. Even having I knew that I could be

(01:43:48):
a conduit to my mom and all of her friends,
and to my aunts and all of their friends and
all of the folks that are like, of course I care,
but like I didn't really understand what that how that
carrying had to morph into very hardcore radical action. Um
and so I but yet I knew that there was
an appetite um to learn more, and so even by
writing a book that takes up an inch and a

(01:44:10):
half on the bookshelf at any given bookstore. It's an
inch and a half that's not going to another voice,
to an indigenous voice for example, UM that that needs
to be heard. And so I really wrestled with that
a lot, and there were so many nights when I
was like, how can can I get out of this contract?
How can I get out of this contract? Like I
don't want to do it. I don't want to do it,
And so I think in in that kind of question,

(01:44:33):
I don't yet know the answer. But what I do
know is there's the tiny things that I have the
capacity to do, be a like of my proceeds from
this book or being given to organizations like tiny nonprofits
that represent marginalized community is particularly in the pregnancy, labor
and delivery space. So there's ways that like I can
transition some of that currency. But i'd be lying to

(01:44:56):
suggest or it would be a false performance, just a
just that by publishing a book like this means that
I don't get some other opportunity in twenty five years
from now that I can't fathom at this moment, because
I wrote this book, an opportunity that somebody else might
not get because they didn't get the book deal. UM
and I don't know yet. And one of the questions
that I spend a lot of time talking about with um,

(01:45:19):
some of my friends who are activists, is like, is
there a line that exists that white women won't cross
when it comes to giving up power? And I think
the answer is yes, And I think it's different for
each person, and so I keep trying to fish for
mine and figure out where mine is, and I haven't

(01:45:40):
yet figured it out. Um, you can get down to
the wrongness like mammal perspective of like, well, do you
save somebody else's kid from drowning before you save your own?
Like that, I don't really know, but I sort of
like couch in the mammal you know, species survival section
of the bookshelf. Um, But I don't I don't know

(01:46:02):
the answer to that. I don't know the answer to that,
But I do wonder if there's this rising conversation, and
that's saying of all tides, lift off, rising seas, lift
all ships, that if there is that happening, UM, while
there's the active discipline of moving over for marginalized voices,

(01:46:23):
if the if the consequence or if the negative outcome
might not be as extreme as we would have predicted
six months ago or four years ago, your Jane. Okay,
So one thing that we were seeing is that Donald
Shull is making a huge play for suburban, suburban white women. Um.

(01:46:45):
Do you think Democrats are doing enough to fight for
the vote? And if not, what do you think this
should be doing? No? Um? And again based on my calculation, UM,
I still believe that the most important vote is suburban
white women. Um. Again just from a numeric perspective. And

(01:47:08):
you know, Trump is really nailing it when he's saying
things like they're trying to take Christianity away now, like
what the hell does that even mean? And um, take
it away from home? And every Christian person on the
planet has a different definition of what Christianity actually means.
So this idea of like, um, this idea of taking Christianity,

(01:47:31):
we know is bogus. But the second you reposition moms
in to a scarcity corner of the there's not going
to be a desk at the school for your kid.
Your kid's not gonna have water. Oh, they won't have
any playing time on soccer or d D. Like, this
idea of scarcity is going to work for this demographic.

(01:47:56):
It's going to work for them, because um, they're has
been a very concrete American narrative passed down from generation
to generation to generation to women, which is it is
your patriotic duty to raise your family, to serve them,
to build a life that demonstrates some level of performance. Um.

(01:48:18):
And so I think if they continue to play the
scarcity angle, they might be able to get enough white
women to do what they had done last time, which
is sit out the election completely, which is not something
we'd be interested in, um um, because they'll sit in
the position of, oh, well, there isn't a perfect candidate,
so I'm just not going to vote. And in terms

(01:48:39):
of the Democratic Party, I think this is an opportunity
for Harris um to um to own very much the
oh you want me up at night with the light
on in that White house because there's enough Mama bear
there in the same way that like Palin play the

(01:49:00):
like hockeymon card um. That that I think Harris can
step up in and be like, oh, not on my watch,
not on my watch, not your babies, I think is
something that might be able to close the deal with them.
All right, then folks, Uh, pull them up the book again.
Pull the book up. It is raising our hands how
white women can stop avoiding heart conversation, start accepting responsibility

(01:49:24):
and find our place on the new front lines by
Jenna Arnold. General, we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot,
Thank you? All right then, alright, folks today on Capitol heill, Well,
guess what the post mester? General joy? He was taken
through the ring room when it comes to all the
cuts have taken place, a dismanly of equipment. One of

(01:49:46):
the folks who really jammed him up was Brindan Lawrence
Uh from Michigan, who's been worked thirty years for the
Post Office. Here's your line of questioning, listens to General.
Surely after you took the office, I reached out to
I do an introductory call with no agenda in particularly
just to share my experiences as a career postal employee

(01:50:07):
to kind of welcome you to the seat. But my
request was turned down. I was told you needed your
time to get acquainted with the agency and that you
did not have time to have that meeting. But I've
seen since you've been um in office the time to

(01:50:29):
get anequated to make these really really impactful decisions on
delivery and processing of the mail you are comfortable with
doing so. I want to ask you, um, Mr de Joy,
are you familiar with Chapter one of thirty nine US

(01:50:51):
States Code. No, I'm not okay, Um, the United States
The Code read the United States Postal Service shall be
operated as a basic and fundamental service provided by the
people to the people by the Government of the United States,
authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and

(01:51:15):
supported by the people. Mr Joe, did you take an
oath of office when you became the Postmaster General. I
remember when I took my oath of office when I
was sworn in to be a employee of the Postal Service.
And to just tell you my journey, because I'm sure

(01:51:36):
you're familiar with some of the names. That started as
a distribution clerk working tour one. Then I moved to
being a letter carrier, then to being a UM acting supervisor,
then a supervisor of delivery and collection. I served in HR,
I served in safety and Health. I served as an
EGO investigator. I had the entire state of Michigan in

(01:51:59):
a district grow of the Women's program and for career
counseling and development. And I ended my career after several
task forces that are put onto monitor and to track
the mail before we made decisions like taking out equipment.
Density counts. I as a supervisor of delivery, I know

(01:52:23):
what it took to remove. A post office box is
called a collection box. It's not a blue box. Is
a collection box? Um, So I wanted to talk to
you about have you ever served as a letter carrier? Um?
The first first off man like to congratulate you on

(01:52:45):
your career path and no, I have never served as
a a letter carrier, So I did, sir. So the
Postal Services introducing a new initiative call expedited two Street
afternoons sortation and and it reduces the morning office time
to allow carriers to leave for the street earlier and

(01:53:06):
then upon returning from the streets that carriers are then
to sort two sort any undelivered mail for the next day.
Are you aware with that initiative that you have rolled
out that the impact it has on delivery carry the
intent that that was a program that was on the shelf.

(01:53:28):
The intent of that program is to adjust for it's
been a significant decline in mail as as you know,
into adjusted that was worked out with union leadership to
run up run up to run a pilot. The pilot,
I stopped the pilot when I stopped everything else. Uh

(01:53:50):
So the intent of it is to get the carriers
out earlier so they can come back earlier. And that's
basically in the day. Well this it to joy. I
really stress that you do some deliberate work, excuse me,
do some deliberate work to understand the impact that it has,

(01:54:13):
because if a carrier does not come back, because this
is the challenge that we have all the time, a carrier,
if he has only one piece of advertisement, must stop
at every home. So regardless of the volume, if you're
making the same amount of stops, you're not going to
shorten the time. And so when you do that, the

(01:54:34):
carrier is going to be out basically the same amount
of time. And so when they come back, you're delaying
the mail we have. I have complaints in my office
from people getting delivery one day a week. Now, sir,
that is not according to your oath, that is not
according to what the chapter one of thirty nine says.

(01:54:55):
Your role is, I want to um in my short
period of time. So there were a number of people
who questioned him, Republicans. He was trying to say, oh,
he was being attacked. That was so grossly unfair, Eugenie.
But the one that got me was when he was
asked by a commerss woman and Katie Porter, who made
the decision to institute these changes. He said he didn't know.

(01:55:17):
She's like, but you're the Postmans General. How do you
not know? Uh? And he says, well, plans were put
into place to make these changes before I arrived, but still,
how do you not know? And then he said, well,
the Post Office they've got thirt or three thousand executives,
but you're the Postmaster General. I mean, you would think
that you know. You're going before the House. She went
before the Senate on Friday. The questions was gonna get asked?

(01:55:38):
You might want to be able to say who made
the decisions, who made the decisions to dis like frestance
to dismantle mail sorting equipment? Kind of important. Yeah, I thought.
I thought it was even funnier is when, um, you know,
he tried to make the argument, oh, I'm the CEO
and not the CEO, when on the normal corporate structure,

(01:56:00):
the CEO reports to the CEO is responsible for everything.
So at the end of the day, the buck stops
with him, which you saw a lot today with him,
you know, trying to pass on responsibility. Um. You know,
and of course you know you had your grand standing
from you know a lot of some of the hard
and Trump Republicans. Um. But you know, the hearing today

(01:56:21):
with the Joy, um, you know, I think it's gonna
lead to more hearings, and I think that it may
actually lead to uh, you know, more some actually stringent penalties.
One of the one of the more one of the
critical notes that was taking today was that one of
the previous postmaster generals was fined twenty seven thousand dollars
for essentially was a three hundred thousand dollar conflict of ventures.

(01:56:44):
The Joy has upwards of a hundred million dollars and
and and and conflicts of interests. Um. So by that standard,
you know, he probably should be hit with a pretty
healthy fine and probably outsit from the position. Um. But
that's all gonna be depending upon what happens. And remember
three this is I mean, I said, I tried to
listen to what he was trying to lay out there, Kelly.

(01:57:08):
I'm sorry, I wasn't buying it. I wasn't buying it
for a second. Uh, this whole idea of well we're
making these changes to make it more efficient, but you're
slowing it down. I mean to have people not getting
medicine and the massive delays. I'm just trying to and
then to say that well we have we have less volume.

(01:57:30):
Well here's the deal. That means that if there's less volume,
then you should be speeding up the delivery of mail
because you don't have as much to deliver. Yeah, and
the fact that you know, we heard last week how
they're taking machines out, but they stopped doing that, but
like I said last week, the damage has already been done. Um.

(01:57:53):
The fact that he has no experience in this industry
is apparent, and it was blatantly apparent during this hearing,
like you heard just snippets of it just now with
the congresswoman just asking him simple questions about, you know,
the infrastructure of of the post office and how the
mailmen work and how things are supposed to be done.

(01:58:16):
And now these new policies and changes are are inhibiting
the workflow and and and the streamline of of protocols
and quality control. But then the post Office and we
can go about all day as to what's wrong here
and what's the post to happen and what have you.
But it's clear that he does not care. Um. And

(01:58:39):
it is clear here that even though there are other
repercussions to the slowing down of mails, such as the
the delay of important deliveries like medicine and the light,
it's clear that this is voter suppression. This is the
primary reason for any of these changes at this particular time.
And it's it's disgusting how you have to stoop so

(01:59:03):
low in order to do something just so vile, and
it's just it's just ridiculous. Um. Look Bymline Moustafa uh.
This is all tied to the election. But the other
thing is is here this is part of the deal.
Also when you hear free market ideas or we can privatize.

(01:59:23):
Look all these Republicans from these rural areas. Is amazing
how quiet they are. And those are the people who
stand the most to lose because they're not gonna be
able to have access to the same type of services.
When you have multiple when you have FedEx, when you
have ups, we have other ways of being able to communicate. Yeah,
these are games that hurt everybody in the little teeny

(01:59:45):
tiny community that I grew up in. We had a
little small post office um that literally served our community.
And I can only imagine with what's currently going on,
how that would impact if that was still insert of
us today. So you know, we know the game. We
know it's a part of voter suppression. We also know
the games that they played with privatization. They're trying to

(02:00:08):
do it in a number of different ways. And that's
why on November the three folks gonna vote, and vote
even earlier than that, and you know with if you
can um to make change happen, uh folks. Also before
we go, um, So the saga with Jerry Follwood Jr. Continues.
Now he is saying, um, he has not resigned. Now

(02:00:29):
he was so upset by the coverage that he called
into uh this Virginia outlet to say that no, uh,
he is still on indefinite leave and he has not
he has not resigned. What a time. I'm sorry, So

(02:00:54):
I'm laughing, nobody, Just ridiculous. You know, I I grew
up in a megachurch. I know the inner workings on
an intimate level of of leadership and politics and all
of that stuff, and it's so petty to me and
incredibly obvious how hypocritical he is. I would not be

(02:01:18):
surprised if. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw some
articles today where the the the pool boy in question
is saying that he had an entanglement so to speak,
with both the wife and the husband, which would not
be surprising to me at all, because that's usually where
it ends up leading to. So I just feel like

(02:01:41):
just living your truth and stuff like this won't happen.
Um to to have a ministry to uh that is
so restrictive and how you're supposed to love and feel
and and function, none of which are are you know,
delineated in the Bible. A week can go back and

(02:02:01):
forth on that. But regardless, if if you have this
in you, why teach it a different way to somebody else,
Because not only are you restricting them, you're restricting yourself. Okay,
And what kinds of the dog comes to life? Okay? Okay,
But they ain't no they saying, look, this ain't no shock. Okay. Well,

(02:02:24):
first of all, we've you're dealing with Donald Trump, Eugene
who's sitting there in the White House, and these foods
have excused all of his freaking ish and all of
his drama. He just got he just got older last
week to pay the legal bills of a porn star.
I mean, they're they're excuses always. We're not elacting a pastor.
We are electing a president. Um. And so look, I mean,

(02:02:48):
you know, the conservative right has seated the moral high
ground probably for forever at this point, Um, you know,
they have no place to talk about anything. Um. You
know last week, you know they try the you know,
the night Bill Clinton was speaking, they dropped me on
his upristeam picture. Um, they're trying to make all these
moral equivalences. No, you literally have no right to talk

(02:03:09):
about anything at this point. After you know from you know,
when you know gave the support the Trump that some
of them ran the Trump and now Neil between now
and then, they've completely consult the Trump line. So um,
you know, you know it's the conservative right at this point.
The jokes, I'm laughing. But here's a deal though. I
appreciate this Mustafa because we get to laugh uh with

(02:03:33):
um his as all weeks, as Republicans are meeting, and
I'm sure UM, morals, faith values, family will come up
along with UM super freaks. The only thing I can
say is sixteen when they talk about sodom and go mora.

(02:03:55):
He should read it again. All right, but but but again.
You know the interesting thing here, the interesting thing here, um,
the leading to the convention is literally Jerry Fallwell has
a scandal. You know, any other year one of the
followells of him is speaking at the convention. But the
lead into the RNC this year is Jerry Fallwell has
a huge has a huge moral failing scandal leading into

(02:04:20):
the RNC that I should say everything you need to
know about and the Rep. Park I appreciate it because
we're gonna be bored to death with that RNC convention,
so uh they this gives an opportunity for lots of fun.
We certainly appreciate that whole thing. Jerry, thank you, appreciate it. Kelly, Eugenie,
thank you so very much. Al Right, folks, Uh tomorrow,

(02:04:44):
Uh Well, I could have showed I could have showed
y'all some some lies from Donald Trump, but we're used
to seeing those lives and so but that was a
hilarious video parents de nor it dropped of him touting
Donald Trump. I swear that video was done by elementary
school video crew. I'm just saying, I mean, y'all make

(02:05:06):
some better videos. That's how it is, folks. I'm gonna
see you out tomorrow right here at Rollerbart and Unfiltered.
Don't forget vote dot org, check your status, register vote.
If you want to vote by mail, put the request
in now, do not procrastinate. And at vote dot org
you can also uh fill out this cent ago centers

(02:05:27):
dot g o V. Let's make sure that we get
counted to ensure that we get our money back to
our communities. How basin plungic in a bat and basking

(02:06:06):
plunging

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