Rachel (23:10)
Yeah, okay, I'm going to start this off by like, this is not. I'm not here to personally attack Roland Martin, but Roland Martin was wrong in how he addressed this tragedy. His responses thereafter, his social media post was completely off the mark. His show thereafter, the timing was off. And even the show the next day, in the way he did that with finally bringing a woman on to talk about it, felt as if he was bringing a woman on to justify the thoughts from the previous panel of men and to criticize his critics who were talking about the way that he addressed it originally. There was a lot of, well, this is what people were saying to me. And this is. And, sister, this is what women were saying to me. And it felt like he was using her to justify his actions and almost to rebuke some of the criticism that he was receiving from other women, rather than using her as a woman to give the perspective of what was happening, which to me should have always been done in the original coverage of this, it felt like she was being used in a completely different way. At least that's how I took it when I watched his second show, not the first one that he did. Here's the thing. We deal with having to cover people that we know in a different way than the public does all the time, and they get in trouble, they do something we don't agree with. And you personally wrestle with, how do I approach this situation with honoring maybe a relationship or the way I knew this person versus what they did? That seems to be the complete opposite. Opposite of who I know them to be. I would never do that with this situation. And I don't understand why Roland Martin could not see that, especially in the backlash that he was getting. There should not have been a carousel of pictures of you with Justin Fairfax. This man is a murderer, and he murdered his wife in a heinous way with the children in the house where the son had to discover his mother and his father killed and had to call 911. You talk about how well you knew him. The reality is you didn't know him that well. And I think that that's something that people have to realize is only you really know you. Right. If I did something that you thought was out of character, you'd be like, man, I don't really know her like that. Like, maybe you didn't know that side of me. Maybe I wasn't giving that side of you. The end of the day, Roland Martin even admits on his show, I didn't know he was going through a divor. I didn't know he was in a custody battle. You knew him, but you didn't know him that well. And I think that that's something that you have to reason with personally before you get on a microphone and start talking about it and what felt like it was a defense, offense, not a defense. I don't want to say that. Take that back. It felt like you were centering him and his life and his legacy and his troubles, rather than the victim of the wife who did everything right in regards to whatever was happening her behind closed doors. I mean, this is a woman who. And you wonder why. Just like the response, though, from Roland Martin and the men that were discussing this on this panel, you wonder why women stay in certain situations or they feel like they can't speak up or nobody will believe them because Dr. Serena did everything right and. And she still ended up dead. She filed for the divorce. She got custody of her kids. She was looking to separate. She basically was standing up for herself and for her family, and she lost her life at the end of the day. And I don't know Justin Fairfax. I don't know if he had a history of depression. I don't know if he became situationally depressed because of all the things that were happening for him in the last eight years, with his career, with his reputation, with the allegations, with the divorce, with losing custody, with losing his house. I don't know that can lead anybody when their whole world as they've known it, that they've built, falls apart. It can lead them down a certain path. But this is what I will say this is what I do know. He killed his wife and he killed himself. He didn't just take his own life. He didn't take everybody's life in the house. He killed his wife and then he killed himself. And it's almost as if it felt. It feels like it's a vengeful, intentional thing. You do not get to move on. She is somebody who still had her job, who still had her reputation, was moving on, was keeping the house, was keeping the kids, was getting the divorce and the separation she wanted. She was saying no to him, and she was moving on. And you said, no, you don't get to do that without me. I just don't understand how we are not talking more about that now. There is a space to talk about men and their mental health, but this was not the time to do it. This was the time to talk about this tragedy that happened. If you're going to cover it, if you choose to cover it and talk about her life, talk about what the children are going to have to go through. Not a man who murdered someone who has been accused of multiple sexual assault. Allegations like. That is not the time for you to tell us. And he wasn't the only one. Okay. I keep saying Roland Martin because he did the show. This is not the time for you to do this. And this is why people were so upset. I'm not saying that there isn't a mental health crisis with black men. I'm not saying that black men don't need us or we need to have a conversation around it. But timing is everything, and this was not the time to do it.
