Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
Speaker 1: is the secrets of success experience firsthand by Marketing and
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision make because it's what he likes
Speaker 1: to do, it's what he likes to share. Now it's
Speaker 1: time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald host this weekly money Making Conversation
Speaker 3: Masterclass show. The interviewers, interviews and information that this show
Speaker 3: provides offer everyone. Basically, it's time to start reading other
Speaker 3: people's success stories and start living your own. My next
Speaker 3: guess is Underfiltered. He's a journalist who's always maintained a
Speaker 3: clear sense of his calling in this world. Many of
Speaker 3: bestowed upon him, the moniker, the voice of Black America.
Speaker 3: Please welcome to I wanted to make a conversation masterclass.
Speaker 3: I call them the one and only Roland Martin.
Speaker 4: How I'm doing great?
Speaker 2: What's happening, Doc, Well.
Speaker 3: They get out the way. Both of us are Houstonians. Ye,
Speaker 3: get that out the way.
Speaker 4: Man. You know your third Ward Texas on field Ward Texas.
Speaker 2: Well, I went to high school in third Ward, but
Speaker 2: I actually actually born and raised in Clinton Park. Oh
Speaker 2: exactly what. I was born and raised in Clinton Park,
Speaker 2: right next to the ship Channel two fifty defend the
Speaker 2: street grandparents so Clinton people don't realize is that Clinton
Speaker 2: Park in Pleasantville were two master planning communities for forfical Americans.
Speaker 2: My grandparents migrated from Opoulusu's Louisiana to Houston there and
Speaker 2: so they little eight blocks from us. So that's why
Speaker 2: I was born and raised. So I was zoned the
Speaker 2: fir High school, but I actually went to Yates for
Speaker 2: their School of Communications. That's why I went there.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Beautiful because of the fact that in Houston you can
Speaker 3: clearly see where you know, segregation starts by naming of
Speaker 3: the streets.
Speaker 4: You drive and all of a sudden they immediately change names.
Speaker 4: So you know, that's the black street and this is
Speaker 4: the white street. Exact clear it was when it was
Speaker 4: in Houston, Texas. We can verify that.
Speaker 3: But in watching our careers grow and I watched you
Speaker 3: a lot brother unfiltered.
Speaker 4: What exactly does that mean when I see the word unfiltered.
Speaker 2: Well, what happens is is that when we speak to issues, Look,
Speaker 2: a lot of people are afraid. A lot of people
Speaker 2: don't want to say what we say privately. A lot
Speaker 2: of people don't want to call it like it is.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't want to call out prominent
Speaker 2: African Americans because, oh no, we don't want to air
Speaker 2: our dirty laundry. And the position that I take is
Speaker 2: one that is very simple. That is, we have to
Speaker 2: speak truth to power. We have to be unfiltered.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: We we we cannot shirk that responsibility. And and I've
Speaker 2: I've had a very basic premise.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: That is my motto. It was my entire career. Uh.
Speaker 2: And it's very simple. If you do good, I'll talk
Speaker 2: about you. If you do bad, I'll talk about you.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, I'll talk about you. Uh.
Speaker 2: And so a lot of people that that that scares
Speaker 2: a lot of people, And I'll never forget. It was
Speaker 2: the fifth anniversary of the March in Washington for Jobs
Speaker 2: and Freedom, and I had made some comments about the
Speaker 2: King children regarding the MK Memorial, and so Man Martin
Speaker 2: Luther Kingan third and and Bernice, but they were not
Speaker 2: happy with me. So m ok the third you know,
Speaker 2: you know, you know y'all, y y'all don't understand. I'm like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: we do. And then Bernie said, you know, you know, brother,
Speaker 2: I love you, but you know y'all can walk a
Speaker 2: day in our shoes. I said, Bernice, I want you
Speaker 2: to look at it. Everybody, I said, everybody here I'm
Speaker 2: talking about. It was Reverend Joseph Liverry, Reverend Sharpton. This
Speaker 2: was at the event on Saturday, Sharpton's March the official
Speaker 2: Things that Monday. I said, I said, everybody here knows
Speaker 2: that at any given time I'll hit that. I said,
Speaker 2: that's gonna come a day when you gonna want me
Speaker 2: to hit somebody for you. No. Lie. Three days later,
Speaker 2: while we are in d C. This is the this
Speaker 2: is the official celebration. President Obama was there, Oprah was there.
Speaker 2: All these people were there. Three days later, unbeknowns to us,
Speaker 2: unbeknownst to her, her brothers had filed a lawsuit against
Speaker 2: her in Atlanta, trying to get her ousted from the
Speaker 2: King Center. The story came out that Tuesday, and you
Speaker 2: know me, I sent her a message. I said, you
Speaker 2: didn't realize that day was gonna come this fast time.
Speaker 2: So that's just how so for me, unfiltered means. And
Speaker 2: I tell people my maternal grandparents had eight kids. Those
Speaker 2: eight kids had thirty nine kids. Those thirty nine kids
Speaker 2: have something like seventy kids, and those seventy kids got
Speaker 2: something like one hundred teen hundred and twenty Bruh. I
Speaker 2: never spent the night in the non family member's house.
Speaker 2: I didn't have room for friends. I had enough cousins,
Speaker 2: so I don't need friends today. So I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: what has to be said from the chips fall what
Speaker 2: they may.
Speaker 3: Because family got your back. Because family got your back,
Speaker 3: family got your back.
Speaker 2: Listen, it ain't even even in fact. See when I
Speaker 2: did an interview with Blad TV and I talked about
Speaker 2: how I am absolutely, adamantly opposed to Hazen, and I
Speaker 2: talked about my pledge process and how our chapter pledged
Speaker 2: I'm an alpha. And so I got a call from
Speaker 2: some bruhs you know in the chapter. And I was like,
Speaker 2: let me tell y'all something I got called from some alb's.
Speaker 2: I said, Hey, I don't need none of y'all to
Speaker 2: defend me. None of y'all. If any brothers in the
Speaker 2: chapter or any brothers outside of the chapter got a
Speaker 2: problem with something, I had to say, tell it has
Speaker 2: to call me. I said, I've been I said, I've
Speaker 2: been dealing with folks straight since I was seventeen years old.
Speaker 2: I've been writing columns, I've been on radio. I said, Man,
Speaker 2: I ain't afraid to deal with nobody. I said, I said,
Speaker 2: I would indemnify y'all from having to defend me. I said,
Speaker 2: I told about LB's, I don't need none of y'all
Speaker 2: to defend me. If anybody got a problem, tell them
Speaker 2: to call me and we can have a discussion straight.
Speaker 2: So that's just how I roll, man, and I think people.
Speaker 4: That's what makes you unfiltered.
Speaker 3: That's what makes you just the journey, you know, because
Speaker 3: a little history by rolling in that we back in
Speaker 3: Houston young, we rolle in the Houston Defender, prominent black
Speaker 3: newspaper in Houston, Texas, and back then Roland knew what
Speaker 3: he wanted to do. I was still searching for myself.
Speaker 3: So when he talks about having a clear understanding of
Speaker 3: who he is. I can vouch for that.
Speaker 2: I can fourteenth at fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I didn't know him at fourteenth, but
Speaker 3: I knew him at the Houston Defender, and he was
Speaker 3: a young whipper snapper, as they say, and he was
Speaker 3: very opinionated and he would challenge not only my relationship
Speaker 3: in a good way. His challenges are never offensive because
Speaker 3: he just wants the truth and he wants a response
Speaker 3: from you that's legitimate and not saying it down a
Speaker 3: water down.
Speaker 4: That is something that I really appreciate about you.
Speaker 3: What I also appreciate it she appreciated about you is
Speaker 3: that I've seen you featured on BT I've seen you
Speaker 3: featured on Seeing It, I've seen you featured.
Speaker 4: On TV one.
Speaker 3: What is the difference between those episodes of your life
Speaker 3: and what you're doing now in the podcast world slash
Speaker 3: TV world?
Speaker 4: Because really streaming is the new TV.
Speaker 2: So I'll start from this point. First, the beauty my
Speaker 2: first paid job for The Houston Defender is that I
Speaker 2: never developed the perspective that white media was more important. Yes,
Speaker 2: I had an internship with CBS News in Dallas, a
Speaker 2: hit Hunter with Don Fitzpatrick and associates set it up.
Speaker 2: And they set it up and half the internship, but
Speaker 2: it was a non paid internship. I would have to
Speaker 2: live with some family members. It was just look, I
Speaker 2: couldn't afford that, and so I saw I turned it down.
Speaker 2: I stayed at home. I got job of the Houston Defender,
Speaker 2: and I worked at Wendy's as well. Now, his was
Speaker 2: interesting that March. This is nineteen ninety. That March was
Speaker 2: I was. I was on the born of NABJ National
Speaker 2: Association of Black Journalists, and I was in LA and
Speaker 2: a friend went to the house of this brother and
Speaker 2: Tommy Wright. Tommy Wright at the time was married to
Speaker 2: his sister, worked at LA Times. So we were in Tommy's.
Speaker 2: We were in Tommy's kitchen, uh, and I was Tommy
Speaker 2: was asking about the things that I had already done
Speaker 2: by the time in my career. I I was in college,
Speaker 2: and he said, you've done all this. He said, bro,
Speaker 2: you should never work another day in your life for free.
Speaker 2: And so when I went to the Defender un aside jobs,
Speaker 2: was like, well, our intern is free. I said, no,
Speaker 2: y'all gotta pay me. He said, now, y'all gotta pay me,
Speaker 2: and she was sort of like and I was like, no,
Speaker 2: y'all gotta pay me, like this is what I've done.
Speaker 2: And so I can't remember if it was two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty dollars, I don't know what it was. But
Speaker 2: I got paid and I knew I did. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I like, I understood my worth then and so so
Speaker 2: you get that. And then so again, just think about that.
Speaker 2: I turned down an interns of free internshi with CBS
Speaker 2: News to work at a black paper where then they
Speaker 2: paid me a lot of money. But it was some
Speaker 2: money see for a lot of black people, what CBS.
Speaker 2: But I did more at the Defender in that summer
Speaker 2: that I would have done at CBS. And that was
Speaker 2: the first thing what that said to me early on.
Speaker 2: This is nineteen ninety. What that said to me was,
Speaker 2: what's more? That was thirty four years ago. What's more
Speaker 2: important is the opportunity and not the size of the company.
Speaker 4: I want to talk about DEI. Why ISDI under attack.
Speaker 2: First of all, most Dei's bush and when I say
Speaker 2: bullish is not real. The individuals who the individuals who
Speaker 2: have these jobs. Seventy five percent of all DEI jobs
Speaker 2: held a bout white folks that they don't have P
Speaker 2: and their responsibility, so they don't have any real budgets. Okay,
Speaker 2: DEI jobs no different from the you know, global diversity whatever. Now, No,
Speaker 2: you gotta have P and responsibility. The only real DEI
Speaker 2: jobs that are significant is when the CEO has made
Speaker 2: it clear this is the mandates. That's the only thing.
Speaker 2: The reason DEI is under attack is no different than
Speaker 2: the firmative action down the line. You got white folks
Speaker 2: in this country who do not want us to succeed.
Speaker 2: The reason I wrote this book White Fear, how the
Speaker 2: browning of Americas making white folks lose their minds is
Speaker 2: because they see what is going on. They know that
Speaker 2: by twenty forty three, we're gonna be a nation majority
Speaker 2: people of color. And what you have was is this
Speaker 2: these white folks who cannot handle they now have to compete.
Speaker 2: So in their minds, like the polls show, they believe
Speaker 2: that racism against white people is as equal or more
Speaker 2: is gainst black people. Come on, bruh, But that's the deal.
Speaker 2: Because they now have to compete, They now are in
Speaker 2: a situation. Uh, they now are in a situation that uh,
Speaker 2: they that they can't handle they can't control, and so
Speaker 2: so the Supreme Court decision or gives it from innive action.
Speaker 2: The attack against the Fearless Fund. Uh, now you got
Speaker 2: that racist Stephen Miller his group, they are filing challenges
Speaker 2: against the NFL's Rooney Rule. They have written to the
Speaker 2: EEOC to investigate the NFL or the Rooney Rule requiring
Speaker 2: that they interview minority candidates for top positions. And so
Speaker 2: they want to attack everything that we have seen that
Speaker 2: how black people have been able to at least get
Speaker 2: a foothold in this society. And so they'll go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: you get a job because you're black. But Johnson about
Speaker 2: these but you say nothing about these mediocre white folks
Speaker 2: over here who got jobs. And so bruh. Every I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, I wrote this book, uh September two years ago.
Speaker 2: I've been talking about this, this concept since two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine. Same thing I saw it coming. That was
Speaker 2: a poll taking two thousand and nine around Obamas Obama's inauguration.
Speaker 2: The question was asked, are you optimistic about the future
Speaker 2: of America for your children? Black people, latinos Asian Americans,
Speaker 2: Native Americans majority said yes. One group was less than
Speaker 2: the majority. White America. And so I was talking about
Speaker 2: this on shows. I was putting it into my stuff
Speaker 2: on a TV doc. They weren't listening, they weren't paying attention.
Speaker 2: And I've been telling I said, y'all, this thing is coming,
Speaker 2: this thing is coming, that resentment against Obama. I said, y'all,
Speaker 2: this thing is coming, is bubbling is coming. Trump comes in,
Speaker 2: and you know what he did. He said, you know what,
Speaker 2: we can peel back this seaing. Y'all can now say
Speaker 2: whatever y'all want, but no repercussions. And guess what. It's
Speaker 2: been a flood since two thousand and sixteen, and so
Speaker 2: that's why it's under attack. They are going. Let me
Speaker 2: be perfectly cliffed, everybody who's listened to me, let me clear.
Speaker 2: If there is any program or initiative at schools, in corporations,
Speaker 2: anywhere that is designed to level the playing field for
Speaker 2: black people and people of color, all of it is
Speaker 2: going to be under attack. And the people who are
Speaker 2: also the most silent are the greatest beneficiaries of these programs,
Speaker 2: white women.
Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations, Master Class.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Master Class. Hosted
Speaker 5: by Rashaan MacDonald.
Speaker 2: This cannot be a situation where black people are the
Speaker 2: ones out here fighting this. White women, y'all have benefited
Speaker 2: from these programs more than anybody else, and then the
Speaker 2: ones who are quiet. That's why DEI is under attack.
Speaker 2: That's why it was critical race theory. Now they put
Speaker 2: everything under DEI. Now it's tacking woke, anything that is
Speaker 2: all anti black. That is what these attacks are.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you this, because multiple streams of income.
Speaker 3: Accepting your truth, I'm hearing that out of you.
Speaker 2: First of all, you got to stop at the bolder
Speaker 2: streams of income because that was the most important thing.
Speaker 2: Never let one person control your money. So by by
Speaker 2: having the multiple they could not they could not control
Speaker 2: they had. They had a debate in Austin and they said, hey,
Speaker 2: we're not gonna bring any contributors. I said, okay, I said,
Speaker 2: so I registered the debate. He said, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: I said, oh, I'm sorry. I don't need y'all to
Speaker 2: pay for me to go to the debate. I got
Speaker 2: this show over here, and so so I go to Austin.
Speaker 2: Then they go, hey you. They go, hey, well, we
Speaker 2: realized that you know what we could use you on TV.
Speaker 2: I said, well, my whole time out. Now you want
Speaker 2: to put me on TV. I said, y'all don't have
Speaker 2: to pay for my hotel room. Since y'all now want
Speaker 2: to use me on CNN and you ain't paid for nothing,
Speaker 2: you ain't getting me free now, mind you. I was
Speaker 2: still be paid as a contributor. I didn't get paid
Speaker 2: for her appearans. I got paid a monthly fee. I said,
Speaker 2: but since y'all want to use being offered, y'all gotta
Speaker 2: pay for the hotel room. So I never allowed because
Speaker 2: when they told me no, I will go no problem
Speaker 2: over here Trayvon Market when he got killed. I go
Speaker 2: to Sandford. They were like, you're here. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't need y'all to pay for my stuff. The
Speaker 2: mistake that we make is we would let one company
Speaker 2: control our destiny. I had Tom Joiner money, I had
Speaker 2: TV one money, I had CNN money, I had speech money,
Speaker 2: I had book money, and I had I straight up brother.
Speaker 2: I had executive the e P. Scott Matthews was talking.
Speaker 2: The tone was quite paternalistic, brother, and I said, Scott,
Speaker 2: ma me help you out. I got five lines of revenue.
Speaker 2: Y'all number three, he sort of. I said, and if
Speaker 2: this ends, I do this here, brother man, the look
Speaker 2: and that's what look. I'm straight up. Many other white executives,
Speaker 2: as seeing In could not handle that I had five
Speaker 2: lines of revenue because they couldn't control my money. When
Speaker 2: you control the money, you control the output. I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't talk about this here. I'm a discussing on Joanna.
Speaker 2: I'm discussing on TV one. See, that's the whole deal.
Speaker 2: I know. The day I signed with ceeing In, I
Speaker 2: told my agent, Mark Watts, We're not going to go
Speaker 2: get another deal that meets or exceeds the financial the
Speaker 2: CNN deal. When we got that deal, I said, we're
Speaker 2: gonna get another deal that meets or exceeds that one.
Speaker 2: So if any one of them ends, we just pivot.
Speaker 4: Black voices. If I had to say, five black prominent.
Speaker 3: Voices that have something to say, because consider your person
Speaker 3: has something to say, they can rally the truths, so
Speaker 3: to speak. What five voices would you say are compelling
Speaker 3: and can rally the troops in today's twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Four Now, remember when we say black voices, Yes, you've
Speaker 2: got black voices that are with mainstream, and then you
Speaker 2: got black voices that are independent, so and that distinction
Speaker 2: is important. The reason it's hard for me to answer
Speaker 2: the question is because your question is extremely specific. When
Speaker 2: you say rally the troops. The problem is there are
Speaker 2: many folk who are in media who are not trying
Speaker 2: to rally the troops. They're just talking.
Speaker 4: Do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: They're just talking? Meaning your agenda has to be I'm
Speaker 2: trying I can just talk to people versus I'm trying
Speaker 2: to organize and mobilize people. There are people who call
Speaker 2: for a protest and they have a protest, but they
Speaker 2: do no data collection and so so for them, the
Speaker 2: protest is the event as opposed to the work after
Speaker 2: the protest. So when Reverend William Barbara and I are talking,
Speaker 2: the reason we vibe besides the fact that both of
Speaker 2: us are Alpha Alpha's, is beca because Reverend Barber is
Speaker 2: all about strategizing, mobilizing, organizing, So they don't just sit
Speaker 2: here and do a protest, and they get a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of prominent people talking. They have what they call
Speaker 2: affected people. So when they're talking about poor people, they
Speaker 2: gonna have a big name. But five poor people talking,
Speaker 2: so they want the voices of the of the poor
Speaker 2: folk are just as important, actually more important than this
Speaker 2: prominent black civil rights activist or a lawyer or whatever
Speaker 2: they had. And so that's why we vibe because the
Speaker 2: goal is different. And so part of the problem is
Speaker 2: what you're talking about is and look, we've just lost
Speaker 2: one of those people, Joe Madison. Joe Madison was one
Speaker 2: of those people who was like, I'm not just talking
Speaker 2: about stuff. I'm trying to move people. I'm trying to
Speaker 2: take this thing called mass media and reach the masses
Speaker 2: to move them to do something. And I think that
Speaker 2: that's what's so different. So Tom Jonas retired, Frank, you know,
Speaker 2: when I look at black radio, we're hurting because we
Speaker 2: got folks who just want to tell jokes all day,
Speaker 2: folks who just want to play with things all day.
Speaker 2: I think I think Ricky Smiley could really fill that
Speaker 2: void if he's given the freedom to do so. But
Speaker 2: the problem is he's constricted by bosses who control the show.
Speaker 2: Right dll is doing a very good job with his
Speaker 2: radio show and again moving talking about news and politics
Speaker 2: and trying to connect the dots. A person who I
Speaker 2: really I think I would say, a year from now.
Speaker 2: I really believe, and I think I think he's one
Speaker 2: of the smartest, most brilliant voices out there who has it.
Speaker 2: He hasn't been put in the right position, and now
Speaker 2: that he has his own thing, I think you're gonna
Speaker 2: see the develops. Uh Babonni Jones, m h. I think
Speaker 2: I think you're gonna see that. But again it goes
Speaker 2: to uh intent. Again, there are there are people with
Speaker 2: shows who do great content, who speak to issues, but
Speaker 2: your question is a totally different question. It really is
Speaker 2: a person who is by design trying to not just inform,
Speaker 2: but educate, inform, mobilized and organized, and that's what you do. Yes, yes, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's a
Speaker 2: that's a whole different thing. And I think that's the difference.
Speaker 2: And so somebody watching might go, I can't believe he
Speaker 2: mentioned this person that person, because that's not what they're
Speaker 2: trying to do.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Some folks are just talking about stuff and that's fine,
Speaker 2: But the question is are they trying to take that
Speaker 2: audience and move them here. We want you to show
Speaker 2: up here, we want you to sign up. We want
Speaker 2: you to get involved, want you to see that's so
Speaker 2: that's a whole different agenda, and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2: Everybody has their lane. I say this all the time
Speaker 2: to people. Stephen A has a lane, Shennon Sharp has
Speaker 2: a lane, Robin Roberts has a lane. Again, BUTMANI has
Speaker 2: a lane. I mean, I know all these different people
Speaker 2: on Joey Reid has a lane. All people have different lanes.
Speaker 2: But what comes to is, what is your mission? What
Speaker 2: is your mission? Are you what is your mission? Why
Speaker 2: are you actually doing it? And for me, I don't
Speaker 2: want to do the mainstream type shows because I know
Speaker 2: what the mission is and that mission is not what
Speaker 2: their mission is. And we will be colliding the entire time.
Speaker 3: Cool Roland Martin. Wow, thank you brother. I pause because
Speaker 3: can I say you're special? Can I say you're making
Speaker 3: the difference out in this world?
Speaker 4: Man? And all joke aside.
Speaker 3: When I saw you at the at the honors man
Speaker 3: and and our you know you we both have seen
Speaker 3: each other's journey, you know, me being with Steve and
Speaker 3: I remember in twenty eighteen was trying to find that
Speaker 3: direction and you was talking about the digital games. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do my own thing, and you said digital in
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen for your lunch, I said, go do your thing,
Speaker 3: and guess what You're controlling your thing, and you are
Speaker 3: now hashtag Roland Martin unfiltered digital daily shows streaming on
Speaker 3: the Blackstar Network is on podcast.
Speaker 4: They need it all because they may not see it all. Rod.
Speaker 4: Thank you again, brother for supporting HBCU. But I graded
Speaker 4: from PWI. You graduate in PWI. But we don'understand the
Speaker 4: value of HBCUs and what they bring the community. Absolutely
Speaker 4: might have been a compensations master class wek brother.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Brother, thanks a lot, Thank you for joining us for
Speaker 5: this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations
Speaker 5: Masterclass with rough Shan McDonald is produced by thirty eight
Speaker 5: fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty eight to fifteen
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Speaker 5: dot com. And always remember to lead with your gifts