On The Stephen A. Smith Show, Smith gives you his renowned point of view, breaking barriers beyond the world of sports, and tackling pertinent issues across entertainment, pop culture, society, business, and politics. Three times a week, you’ll hear his LIVE unfiltered opinions on the day’s biggest headlines as well as straight-shooting interviews with top celebrities, game-changers, and thought leaders across the societal arena.

The Stephen A. Smith Show is sure to entertain, inform, and motivate anyone who tunes in.

#rolandmartin #candaceowens #stephenasmith #firsttake #dei #equality #inclusion #diversity #equity

The next subject is something that is highly sensitive uh without question particularly in the black community because when you hear people talk about the qualifications of black folks obviously that is something that’ll raise an eyebrow or a red flag per se in the eyes of a lot of people especially

Myself and absolutely positively without question my next guest recently uh Mr Charlie Kirk uh conservative you know founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA made some comments about the qualifications of black folks uh particularly when it comes to Pilots uh in the flying in the airwaves along

With other things and obviously Candace Owens noted conservative uh analyst and critic uh dare I say even that uh she definitely had H stuff to say as well my next guest is somebody that I was interested in talking to about this he’s an award-winning journalist columnist and commentator also the host of The

Daily YouTube show Roland Martin un filtered obviously that focuses on news politics culture entertainment social justice and more with more than 1.2 million subscribers he’s been called the voice of Black America and I can tell you he’s one of the preeminent voices in the black community make no mistake

About it my buddy the one and only Roland s Martin on the show with me right now what’s going on Roland how are you man how’s everything all good glad to be here man good to have you here before I even step further I’m sure you

Heard about what Charlie Kirk had to say you heard of what Candace Owens had to say but let me play for you what the one and only Candace Owens had to say piggybacking off of Charlie Kirk’s assertions listen up but unfortunately that is the reality of what happens when

It comes to Dei and what he is remarking on is true I would be terrified if I got onto a plane and I saw a woman flying the plane and I know that we have the United CEO saying that he just wants to fulfill a quota he just wants there to

Be more women and wants to be more black people and he’s not concerned at first with qualifications that is something that should alarm all of us guys honestly Roland before I even ask you the question let me piggy backs off of that to make sure that I’m giving proper

Context to her comments because after Charlie Kirk said this I’m sorry if I see a black pilot I’m going to be like boy I hope he’s qualified she follows up by saying I said the exact same thing on this show just a couple of weeks ago I

Remark that now when I even am watching a commercial if I see a commercial and I see a black person a Hispanic person an Asian person my thought process is did they just get this because of Dei diversity equity and inclusion for those that understand what those letters mean

I no longer think that person is qualified she said it makes me upset that that’s my thought process when I see a commercial and when I see a movie is this person actually even a good actor or are they just checking a box but unfortunately that is the reality of

What happens when it comes to Dei and what is REM remarking on is true your thoughts Roland Martin give it to me first and foremost uh these people have no idea no real understanding of what Dei is but understand what the goal is uh what you have is and this is not

Recent what it is is is to Sully any African-American or person of color uh or even white women who are uh coming into these positions we have been a nation the nation was built for white men white male land owners uh and so there’s been this constant fight uh for

Equality for Freedom what did M say uh in his speech uh April 3rd 1968 at Mason Temple the night before he was killed be true to what you put on paper uh and so what you have now is you have folks who are scared to death of how America is

Changing by 2043 America’s going to be a minority of whites majority minority majority people of color and so folks are freaking out they’re freaking out because this is about power it’s about money and so what you’ve always had is you go back to uh the black Freedom Movement 1955 through 1968 King’s

Assassination affirmative action when Nixon comes into the White House Arthur Fletcher they put that in place remember LBJ gave a speech on that at Howard University uh before King was killed and so it was oh affirmative action well we also know the greatest beneficiary affirmative action has been women so

They’ve always oh qualified qualified so they never use the qu the qualifier qualified when speaking of somebody white they assume they’re qualified but when it’s anybody black or Latino or Asian if American or or woman uh oh are they qualified are they qualified now you and I have been in the media

Business and you and I know some white folks who have been hired and we sitting here like yeah yeah how the hell they got the job How do they and see they never see they don’t speak on that but they want to cast doubt so

We were in college oh you must have got in because of affirmative action oh I’m sorry whole bunch of y’all got into school because your mama was white and your daddy was white and we weren’t allowed to even go to these schools but see that’s not how they want to view it

So what you now have is a well funded well orchestrated attack on all of this Christopher rufo conserv a who was who L the fight against critical race Theory this is literally what he tweeted Stephen this is what he said the goal is to have the public read something crazy

In the newspaper and immediately think critical race Theory we have deified the term and will and will recodified to Annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans now that was his initial tweet he later said that we have successfully Frozen their brand critical race Theory

Into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions we will eventually turn it toxic as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category so they went from critical race Theory remember that was in 2021 to drive the 2022 midterms now it’s oh now it’s Dei

But it’s all under the same Banner because they want to Brand anything that has been helpful for African-Americans others to succeed in this society as oh race based not qualified Dei CRT because it’s all designed to scare white people because they are moving towards becoming minority in this country and obviously

You know the the numbers prove it from the standpoint that once upon a time the white population in America was in the high 80s obviously is dipped and now it’s at approximately at 60% and lowering we’re seeing more minorities more Hispanics coming into the vote into the country obviously and obviously that

There’s a vote there’s votes to take into consideration and who’s going to manipulate the vote I get what you’re saying loud and clear and obviously that just buffers your point but let me play devil’s advocate for for Candace Owens in this regard looking at these statistics commercial Aviation pilot

Stats that’s what I’m reading from Roland Martin 3.4% of US airline pilots are black 2.2% are of Asian descent 0.5% are Hispanic or Latino and women make up just 4.6% so considering considering the scarcity of those scarcity of those numbers right combined with Candace Owens articulating that the

The the head of United Airlines talked about making sure that diversity is a critical element of our hiring process does she not have a point in any way no there’s no point because again what their go goal is their goal is say oh see this diversity thing oh that’s bad

Oh that’s awful well let’s roll this thing back what if you took all those numbers together about 80 plus percent of all pilots in America are white yeah we are white are white they’re white men right so you’re sitting there going wait a minute so so CU here’s the whole deal so

Now all of a sudden oh we get a a few women a few black people a few Latino people a few Asian few Native Americans go see they not qualified I don’t want to fly with them I want to fly with them but they don’t question see this is the

Key they don’t question the qualifications of white men they automatically assume oh they must be qualified and so it’s utter nonsense what you really have and you and I know this because of media you have individuals who are now saying hey we can’t keep going to the old talent pool

To find folk we got to go to uh new places and what’s interesting is this here who has been the most ENT supporter of diversity Equity inclusion the United States military when the Supreme Court had was dealing with the affirmative action case the military wrote a number

Of uh of briefs stating that it is in the National Security interest of America and guess what happened the Supreme Court ruled that theem the military can continue the affirmative action but not other public colleges and universities so America what you’re saying is you want black bodies you want

Hispanic bodies uh Asian-American bodies Native American Body you want people of you you want our bodies for war but you want to question it for Corporate America for media and educ and all of this but here’s something also that’s critical Stephen this is what fre what’s freaking the white folks

Out and I’m being very these especially these conservative folks black lives matter movement in the wake of George Floyd death we had massive protests across the world that was the first time in American history that a black movement and I’m saying that because there were many others involved okay

That a black movement a majority of Americans supported it you know what you had Stephen you had white young white folks and Latinos others who were demanding action and demanding change that’s what’s scaring them and so now it’s oh no no no no we we we gota we go

We got to change this thing because we can’t have these non-minority folks okay all of a sudden standing up for this that we now G to shift the conversation and that’s exactly what America is all has always has done always the Black Eagle the Black Eagle Joe Madison says

It best he talked about cultural conditioning and the reason why I bring those two words up is because I’m thinking about somebody like a Candice Owens a black woman saying what she said understanding that he she herself is an accomplished individual and because she’s accomplished are people to assume

If you took her words people would use that as a license to dilute her accomplishments to dilute her qualifications and yet that seems to be something that really was not embraced by her Roland Martin how do you explain that how do you explain that it’s called a grift game brother

It’s a Griff game we know the Griff game you have always had uh uh certain black folks who are like yo I can get paid by these folks by by by hating on black people with my Stephen I’ve had people over the years come to me and say Roland

Come to our side and I’m going hell no right because my side is Humanity it’s a Griff game and so Candace is sitting here the easiest people to get money from and I’m just being frank the EAS people are white conservatives you know why because they love hearing a black

Person like Candace so man they’ll sit here and like yo we’ll roll the money out but see Candace is not smart first of all the girl dropped out of college his wife she’s not smart I ain’t gonna say she ain’t smart though no no here here’s why here’s why I’m gonna say

She’s not smart she’s smart because she know the Griff game but she’s she and the reason I’m saying she’s not not smart black conservatives who know her who pull her aside and has have told her you need to get better educated on the issues and so she knows who they are but

Here’s what why she’s not smart when she’s attacking women saying I said Woman pilot uh I’m not going to fly so you see a woman engineer or you’re not going to walk into a building if you see a woman architect are you not going to question that facility if you

See a woman head of security are you going to question the security what canis also clearly doesn’t understand many of these other different people is that the reason we have today women who are now who’ve been ascending is because of tit because of T Title Nine the problem is most people think

Title N9 was about sports it was it it was to open the professional schools to women who were getting federal dollars now remember now you then ask well where’s child9 come from it’s a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act follow me here I’m going somewh I’m following you I’m following you black

People fought to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act if you were disabled and you love the 1996 with America with disability act better thank black people because the amican Disabilities Act was passed as a result of a provision of the 64 Civil Rights Act if you are Korean or

Chinese and you get to vote in your native language thank black people because that’s the 1965 Voting Rights Act when you look at our housing you can live anywhere you want to thank black people because that was a 1968 Civil Rights Act known as known as the Housing

Act if you a gay and lesbian thank and you gay marriage guess what that’s the 14th Amendment equal protection Clause one of the three reconstruction amendments which was designed after the Civil War to also benefit African-Americans and so what Candice is by by saying is now questioning women

Pilots well let’s now question all women well what are you saying Candace oh you’re the exception but not everybody else this is all about these fragile white men who can’t handle the fact they now got to compete Stephen they got to compete they not you and I we how we

Were raised we were told you you gonna be twice as better to get half as much to get half as much and the problem they have now is we are rolling up saying no no no no no no no no we want fairness yes we want Equity we want inclusion we

Want a seat at the table and they many of them have been riding high for centuries decades making money doing well they freaking out brother R I get what you’re saying but we’ve seen plenty of Corporations dute if not flat out eradicate their Dei programs based on

What you’re saying we were moving in a forward Direction and but all of a sudden press especially in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder but since that time it’s diluted to some degree they’ve been eradicating Dei programs di Personnel what’s up with that and here’s

Why okay this right here W WB B black reconstruction in America this right here is Eric foner’s book reconstruction America’s unfinished business in the history of America black success has always been followed by white backlash reconstruction 10 to 12 years 1865 you go for something to go to the

1876 election contested the Great Compromise of 1877 now put into place Jim Crow which lasted 92 years then all of a sudden you go forward to the second reconstruction which is the black Freedom Movement that lasted 13 years beginning on December 1st 1955 going through King’s assassination what then

Happened it’s in the data oh uh uh okay look look look look y’all can go to restaurants now y’all can go to hotels now y’all can vote now can we be done with this stuff and so George Floyd I was telling everybody folks this third reconstruction needs to last a minimum

Of 20 years and you got to address the money because in the first one the money wasn’t addressed that was 48 in the MU and the second one money wasn’t address if you look at the last five years of King’s life he was focused on the money

Keda Scott King said they kill my Martin when he start talking about the money that’s right now all of a sudden the George Floyd piece corporations announced 40 5060 billion doll in commitments many of them have not done it but you get the white backlash it’s

Like Trump is right there all all the Maga folks and so hold up what’s going on you know they’ve gotten enough and so now they’re pulling back because of that white fear and well I don’t want to take this side out you got to have corporate

Leaders who have the guts to say we cannot have a future if we are not appealing to all of America and not just White America I’m talking to not only uh uh an outstanding host Roland Martin unfiltered more than 1.2 million subscribers by the way major props to

You for that but I’m talking to a friend somebody that I respect that I know is far more knowledgeable on these subjects than I am you brought up how they’re fearful of this backlash perhaps that explains the following that Trump has but in the same breath what I would ask

You is this shouldn’t the fear reside with folks whether they be on the left whether they be on minority communities Etc when we look at the momentum being gained by the former president who’s got four counts against him I’m sorry four indictments against him 91 counts he could absolutely positively end up being

A convicted felon and still being in the white house which says something to me about the state of this country so when you talk about the fear they may have what about the fear we should have well here’s the deal remember he won following eight years of Obama he was

The white backlash to eight years of Obama in my book White fear I start i’ I’ve been fixated on this since 2009 because there was a study that was a poll that was taken Stephen and the question was asked are you optimistic about the future of America for your

Children every group black latino Asian-American Native American majority said yes only one group was less than a majority White America September 2016 the question was asked another po another survey are you optimistic about the future of America economically for the next 10 years black people lowest wealth highest optimism Latinos second

Lowest wealth highest optimism guess who has the highest wealth in America white people guess who had the lowest optimism White America so now you got to go behind that and say wait hold up how y’all got the high as well but you got the least optimism it is because the

Winds are shifting they don’t control everything and so what Trump does Trump comes in says what he wants he’s able to pull the covers back and so oh y’all can say what y’all want too there used to be a penalty for uh dancing with NE nais and white supremacist oh now they’re

Welcome remember Trump had lunch with one of them at Mar logo you got white nationalists who are members of Congress right now who speak at white nationalist conferences now there’s no longer a penalty on the Republican side but this issue we talk about Stephen A is not

Left right because you got some White liberals who got a problem with black advancement you got some white liberals who got a problem with Dei for the very same reason and so when you step back and this is what a Candace Owens won’t do this is what a uh Charlie Kirk won’t

Do you step back and go wait a minute 90% of the people who are leading ad agencies where they represent 340 billion annually are white you look at the corporate the CEOs in America you look at the people hell sitting in Congress this notion that oh my God

They’re just taking over we get one two jobs they start freaking out and so what we have to understand now is you are not going to have an America where one group has all the power and the money and the rest of us don’t you know what that’s

Also called South Africa in the wake of a parth yeah and so the battle that we’re dealing with right now is we need intestinal fortitude from political leaders leers from corporate leaders and we also need all of those people the millions of people the millions of black people and white people Latinos and

Asian Native Americans who were out there protesting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death we got to let them know baby just get started it’s not finished that was no one two month thing you got to be in this fight for the long you got to understand the battle

See they were just they were just showing up for the moment no moment and movement are two different things this is a battle that we are in the middle of right now and it is not going away white fear that is the title of your book White fear how the Browning of America

Is making white folks lose their minds we will definitely get into a lot of this as the months is the weeks and the months progress Roland Martin obviously I’m going to have you back on I really really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to come on the show

Man thank you so much my brother keep keep doing what you’re doing we’ll talk soon appreciate it the one and only Roland Martin right here with Stephen A on the Stephen A Smith show courtesy of YouTube

29 Comments

  1. I take particular offense to this …. My father-in-law was a captain and pilot during WWII !! And went on to even greater accomplishments after..
    Plus she is an idiot DNA has proven to be much higher among people of color according to the government records …mammals scored a 4…whites scored a 6…blacks scored a 9 !!!! Please check this out. They will never make that public !!!

  2. As a Veteran of the USAF, I would like to know what Ms. Owens thinks about the African-American fighter pilots, the African American commanders in the military or the Women that command military members across the world. So with her assumption that these individuals
    are not qualified to serve their country.
    These are the same people who stated that Colin Kaepernick was disrespectful to the troops. Ms. Owens should never set foot on a military installation because DEI is very prevalent in the Armed Forces.

  3. So now we’re (society, specifically white folk w/ their “Black “ friends) saying ain’t NOBODY of color is good enough for NOTHING!!!!! Give me a fbreak!!!!

  4. Candace Owens, based on her own fear when she see a woman or person of color holding certain jobs, is twice unqualified being Black and a woman!!! What's laughably ironic is the fact that she TRULY IS UNQUALIFIED EXCEPT AS ANYTHING BUT A MOUTHPIECE FOR REPUBLICANS RACIST TALKING POINTS!!!

  5. Candace Owen is a so-called intelligent woman!! Saying that we know lots of intelligent people have " mental problems," which i think she one of those people.
    Look at Candace Owen, a BLACK WOMAN questioning the qualifications of Black Airlines Pilots flying commercial airline jets.
    Should anyone except white trust her opinions when it pertaining to issues on Black subjects??? She has shown she has a problem being a BLACK WOMAN. " THAT MENTAL "
    .

  6. The same people that say “I don’t see color”, that “racism doesn’t exist in this country” and don’t believe in identity politics are also saying if they see a black pilot they assume they’re an unqualified DEI hire. Smooth brained folks.

  7. Is this the same Roland Martin that got tossed off CNN for anti-semitic tweets is this the same Roland Martin that gave Hillary Clinton the debate questions is this the same Roland Martin that was dancing on stage with Hillary Clinton

  8. She's a grifter and con artist. Only white men are qualified? No one believes this ignorance in 2024. She says whatever they tell her to say bc they pay her to do so

  9. Liberal white man from deep red Oklahoma here…yes it sucks…Im 100% in on DEI…it blows my mind that people are against it 😑

  10. Candace Owen’s is a bot. Sad that she hates herself so much that she’s puts down other black people.

  11. Yeah would you want a black pilot or would you want the most qualified pilot you people never stop crying and whining

  12. Right wings can longer win based on policies and truth or fact alone as population trend is shifting not in their favor, so they can only create culture wars that gullible right wing voters can get emotionally charged and fired up on diminishing base they have and try to have a minority-rule-over-majority country.

    Look at Supreme Court judges, millions more Americans voted for dem president over republican president but yet only resulted in minority % of that makes up the court.

  13. What happen to Speaking about the FAA and how hard it is to get a license to fly for these airlines

  14. Honestly, white Americans have a history and almost instinctive reaction to prove anything black and postive as wrong.

  15. Funny she will question women and black men. But won’t wonder who rich white daddy got that pilot into Riddle. SMH

  16. Candace Owens don't know what she's talking because history tells us without black pilots the Tuskegee airmen who we're much better pallets near White. because of the Tuskegee airman the United States won the fight. Dwight bombers did not want white pilots they asked for the black to leave them over because they knew they would come home.

Write A Comment