#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2020 Census Undercount; Explaining Copyright Laws, HBCU funding, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

3.14.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2020 Census Undercount; Explaining Copyright Laws, HBCU funding, Colorectal Cancer Awareness MonthThe U.S. Census Bureau admits the 2020 Census overcounted and undercounted various demographic groups. We'll be breaking those numbers with the Senior Director of Census and Data Equity fromThe Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.I will once again break down for you all who keep getting it wrong about funding for HBCUs.  The white Ohio officer who killed 16-year-old black Ma'Khia Bryant will not face any charges, and a Kansas family of a black man killed by cops is suing for 10 million dollars.Plus, Nas is showing everyone they need to be careful posting photos. We'll talk to a copyright attorney about why Nas is being hit with a lawsuit for posting a picture of himself.It's colorectal cancer awareness month. In our Fit, Live, Win segment, we'll have a doctor here to explain the importance of early screening.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. I'm a little old revolutionary right now. Black crowd. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be black on media and B-Scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today's Monday, March 14th, 2022. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. The U.S. Census Bureau admits the 2020 census overcounted and undercounted various demographic groups, black people. We'll be breaking down the numbers with the senior director of the Census and Data Equity Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. I will once again break down for you all who keep getting it wrong about funding for HBCUs. It continues. The white Ohio officer who killed 16-year-old black Makia Bryant will not face any

charges. And a Kansas family of a black man killed by cops is suing for $10 million. Who's also being sued? Nas. Yeah, seriously. A photographer is suing Nas because Nas posted a photo of Nas with Tupac. We'll talk to a copyright attorney about why Nas is being hit with this lawsuit. It's also colorectal cancer awareness

month. The disease, of course, had killed Chadwick Boseman. We'll talk about that in our Fit, Live, Win segment with a doctor to explain the importance of early screening. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Roland Martin Yeah, yeah Rolling with Roland now

Yeah, yeah He's bulk, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rollin' Martel Now Martel All right, folks, two years ago, what did we say? Donald Trump and his MAGA idiots were going to do us wrong when it came to the census. Republicans in Texas did not want to fund any census efforts until those same idiots realized

late in the game, oh, damn, we're going to lose out on money and representation in Congress if we don't count. So all of a sudden, they started late. And it happened all across the country. Why? Because the Republican Party did not want to count black people as well as undocumented workers. Why? Because they want to maintain the power of whiteness.

So guess what? Now we know that there was a severe undercount in 2020. That's right. Almost 20 million they missed as a result. Now, you might remember also that we were highly critical because the advertising agencies were freezing out black on media like us, and we didn't get any money until the last month, and we kept yelling, hey, count the black people. No, they wanted to do it their own way. This also was part of the problem.

And so that's why we left with this undercount, looking at these numbers, folks. And you might say, all right, Roland, it's fine. It's undercount. But we told y'all, you undercount black people and Latinos, you also lose billions of dollars of federal funding. Do you want me now to explain how the undercount happened is Medha Anand. She's the senior director of Census and Data Equity

with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. So, Medha, don't look. Everybody, we kept, all the civil rights groups kept saying, watch out, every 10 years we have the same conversation. In 2020, in 2010, in 2000, in 1980, in 1980, in 1970, in 1960. Because we know the impact of being undercounted, and we saw it happening, and the Republican administration, Donald Trump, and the Republicans in the state legislatures didn't care, and now we're at a point where almost 20 million people were pretty much left out.

Hi, Roland. Real pleasure to be here with you. It is incredibly unfortunate that we are looking at an undercount of our black communities, of our Latino communities, of our American Indian and Native American communities. And what we know was that we had political interference. We had a pandemic. We had natural disasters occurring. But, you know, at the leadership conference, and as you just pointed out, we've pointed out that this is not just a 2020 issue. There has been a systemic undercount for decades of our communities of color. So what we've called upon is for the Census Bureau to rethink their operations so that we don't just accept the fact that we're undercounting. You know, doing more outreach can only get us so far. You just said you were asking people to be counted. We were part of a huge effort on a national level, on a state level of trying to get every last person counted.

But clearly, we need to rethink how we're approaching our communities and ensuring that their numbers are reflected. Well, see, one of the points that I was just making there when I was talking about in terms of how dollars were spent. I mean, we covered this, and one of the things that happened was that Young and Rubicam, the, I call them white ad agency, you know, they made a decision. They said, hey, we're not buying any newspapers or any print products that are under 50,000 circulation. Okay, that was stupid to me, because my whole deal is, if you're trying to reach everybody, maybe what you do is you reach everybody by taking advantage of everything. Well, that pretty much froze out 98% of all black newspapers in America. Okay.

And the strategy made no sense to me. And see, I know how that game is played. They didn't want to be bothered with the smaller papers. They would rather just, hey, give a big contract to a big media company. Okay. There we go. Cool. Here, BET, you're black targeted. Here's media company. Okay, there we go. Cool. Here, BET, you're black targeted.

Here's the money. Oh, here's another black targeted. Yo, you got it. As opposed to those groups, those black-owned media outlets, those Hispanic-owned media outlets that know people, know how to reach the audience, know how to talk to the audience, know how to program to the audience, that also plays a part of this because you got to walk people through it. Like, why in the hell should I fill this form out? You got to connect the dots. Not filling the form out could also screw your community.

But when you don't have that outreach, you end up with this. Yeah. I mean, 100 percent, the core of the census campaign, and it sounds like you know this exactly right, is relying upon trusted messengers. So we really need to encourage everyone, the Census Bureau, anyone we work with, that when they're planning this, that they're looking at the trusted messenger. You and I both know or your audience knows that there is a mistrust of the government and there is, that there is a mistrust of the government. And there is a reason there's a mistrust of the government. So we have to rebuild that mistrust. And we do that through those trusted messengers like the ones you're talking about. And we need to ensure that their voices are being brought to the table.

Well, one of the things that was a trip is that I was talking to Carol H. Williams Agency about this, and what they did was they said, all right, to reach black people, we're just going to rely on these large, major events, okay? You're right. COVID hit. Events didn't exist, and so all of a sudden, they had to recalibrate, and they recalibrated late because COVID hits in February, March, ramps up in April, May. They had all of these different outdoor events. They were trying to go to Essence Festival, all of these different places, and strategy went out of the window. And so as we kept going into 2020, it was like, and again, the agency that controlled the money froze out the black ad agency. So they weren't even listening to Carol H. Williams.

And so all of a sudden she's like, hey, guys, you might want to recalibrate, might want to figure out a different strategy, hear the digital platforms, how to reach people. No, they were arrogant about it. And so then the people who are always in control, this is where politics matters, who is in control of the White House when this matters as well. And so when you have Republicans in control, frankly, they aren't going to be as aggressive when it comes to trying to count everybody

because they're playing politics. That's exactly what Donald Trump and his MAGA minions did. Yeah, I understand and I hear you, Roland. And, you know, the pandemic hit. Actually, it's even crazier than you think I'm actually based here in New York City the census form started coming out on March 12th and I remember on March 13th being told to go home and being allowed to go back to the office in two weeks and you and I both know what happened then right so there was that So there was that moment. There was that digital recalibration moment. I

think it took everyone a minute. But I think when you have that moment, you have to be mindful of recalibrating for everyone, especially the communities of color. And also, talk about that citizenship question. That was a fight with the Trump folks. That also played a huge role in this as well. The huge concern was, as you allude to, that once that citizenship question was threatened to be added to the form, that our undocumented communities and others, mixed families, and by that I mean where you might have one undocumented family member and the rest are here with their working papers, but no one will fill it out. What would this do? Why did the government want that

information? But even more importantly, the Census Bureau had tested it and found that this was not a good question to add to the form, that it would lower the response rate. So, yeah, many organizations went to court to fight to ensure that the citizenship question was not added. And it was not. But, you know, a lot of people believe that just the mere concept of it being added led to fear in the undocumented communities and led to them not responding. Okay. So here's one of the questions that I keep seeing from my followers. So is there any way to actually, some say do a recount, some say do an adjusted recount, or is the situation, nope, too late, we got to wait now eight years? Well, a recount on a national level is not going to happen because the Census Bureau has determined that overall it was an accurate count.

And this is because the overall number of people counted in the country seems to be more or less okay. It's off by an insignificant amount. Now our concern here course, is that there was an undercount of the communities of color like we talked about already. So what is left is really about like working with your local communities and figuring out how are they – like what are the formulas they're using to be funded and advocating for funding in your own communities. All right, Dan. So let's wait eight years, right? It's about bringing the work local in the meanwhile. And meanwhile, take this moment that we're all talking about the census to say, let's rethink this.

Let's make sure that we have everything in place in 2030 so that this is not repeated. All right, then. Well, look, we certainly appreciate it. Keep up the good work, and we're going to keep fighting the good fight as well. Okay, wonderful. All right. Thanks a lot. Take care.

I'm going to bring in my panel right now. Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Dean for the College of Ethics Studies, California State University, L.A. Dr. Omokongo Dabinga, Professorial Lecture, School of International Service, American University. Also, Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee. Glad to have all three of you here. Julianne, you are an economist, President Emerita of Bennett College. You understand what happens when we get screwed with the money. And undercount, that's billions of dollars that don't go to people of color. Precisely. And I'm surprised that the Leadership Conference has decided that the number is insignificant.

It really isn't insignificant, even if it's a tenth of one percent. No, no, no. She didn't say they did. She said that the Census Bureau has determined that, not the Leadership Conference. Well, in any case, the insignificant, a tenth of 1 percent is millions of dollars. Those are dollars that go to child care. They're dollars that go to roads and bridges. It is absurd that this is OK. It's not OK.

And we know it's not OK, Roland. You've been beating the drum about census count since 2019, really, talking about how if they didn't do the right things, this would not work out well. And of course, we know that COVID did make a difference, but they had contingency plans for everything else. They did not have a contingency plan for census because when you have a contingency plan for census, you basically attack the status quo. What you have is all white people, they're dancing in the streets. They are dancing in the streets because basically they're the ones who are benefiting from this undercount.

It is, again, something that, one of the things that I say on this show constantly, I'm a Congo, connect the dots, connect the dots, connect the dots. And I'm just gonna say it, let's just be honest, it's a whole bunch of people paid no attention in civics class, okay? They didn't pay attention when it came with three branches of government, when it came to how these things work. And so one of the things that we like to do on this show

is to walk people through. And this was one of those perfect examples. And one of the reasons why I was going off, you know, on Young and Rubicam, on not spending the money is because I saw them just throwing millions of dollars at other folk, and what they were doing was just running ads.

What we were doing was educating people, walking them through, saying, this is what it means for your city, your school, your county, your road, your state. And so that's part of the deal as well. And that's why, and the people who are watching, and I love these people who go, man, you trying to sit here and get the money. You damn right. How do you think we put on special programming to teach people? Folks have no idea. And I'm sorry, just running a commercial on BET ain't going to do it when it's a 30-second spot.

No, you literally have to teach and educate people so they understand what this means. Absolutely. And no, none of these networks were doing that. CNN, all of these guys, the most they did was talk a little bit about the citizenship question. There was nothing targeted towards us in terms of education that was needed. And we're looking at places like New York is about to lose a congressional seat because of eighty nine, eighty nine short of terms of numbers counted is leading them to lose the census, to lose a congressional seat. Not eighty nine hundred, not eight hundred and ninety, eighty nine. And so we have to develop a stronger level of sophistication because people can call Trump crazy and racist and all of these things. But what the Republicans do under

him was genius in terms of how they attacked it to get the numbers that we have today. They won, whether we like it or not. Trump is gone, but he won. They knew that they would undermine the agency in every way, shape or form. And they did that. They knew by putting, like you just said, Ms. Anand, the issue with the citizenship question, even though they lost in court, they knew just putting it out there was going to be enough to turn some people off. And one of the things that I think we need to talk a little bit more about in general with these issues, we're talking about the undercount, but I also find myself curious about these overcounts, because these white communities and Asian communities are still getting overcounted.

So are assumptions being made that, you know, white fathers and whoever are in the home and that black fathers are not? Like, where is the overcount coming from as it relates to that? But you're absolutely right, you and your guest as well. We need to use this time for these next eight years to have more education.

The Bureau, now that it's run by Biden, they need to get more sophisticated and figure out new ways to get out there and collect this information because we don't know who's going to be in power eight years from now. And if we don't do that, we're going to continually be undercounted and continually be

under-resourced in ways that you've been saying for years. If we're not going to get it now, I don't know when we're ever going to get it, but we have to keep speaking up on it. You know what, Jeff? Some idiot on my YouTube channel, Caden Baseball Footage, goes,

since this was able to be done online, stop making excuses for Black folks' lack of participation. Alright, so let me deal with that, because obviously, Caden Baseball Footage is too dumb to understand what is happening in the real world.

First and foremost, COVID exposed the reality of online. It exposed people who can get online and those who can't. You also have a significant number of rural Americans who don't have easy access to online. Kayden, why do you think there was significant money in the American Rescue Plan for broadband in rural communities? But it's not just rural communities, it's urban communities. During COVID, we had a Montgomery, Alabama

school board member who talked about the lack of computers, the lack of iPads, and the lack of broadband. They were literally using school buses to service Wi-Fi hotspots in communities. The problem that we have is we have some people, including some people who look like all of us, who are so arrogant that they don't understand everybody ain't like them. Everybody doesn't have a driver's license because some don't need one. Everybody doesn't drive. And so when you talk about driver's licenses and IDs to vote, well, we understand what that's all about. The same thing with this assumption that everybody is online.

I remember when one of the federal agencies were like, well, folks, they can apply for these jobs. Just go online. Everybody can't get online. Everybody doesn't have a damn Android phone and an iPhone. Some folks actually still have flip phones. Some folks can't afford a cell phone. All they got is a home phone. Some folks don't even have a phone.

And so that's what people need to understand. We're talking about this whole notion. And the thing and a point of undercounting, Jeff, is not even, well, just go online. There are people who don't trust the process because they think, what's going to be done with my information? What if I have warrants out for my arrest? Or what if I'm on probation? Who's using this? There's fear of the data. And so you've got to be able to overcome the fear to explain to people, no, it's not being used that way. It's not law enforcement. You're not getting in trouble. That's an education process that goes

into the undercount as well. Well, Roland, I think you really struck on a number of themes. All of them are intersectional. All of them are together and all of them have meaning. And when I think about the census count and I think about the number of people who were overcounted, as Omi Kongo said, those who identified as non-Latino white Americans, they're overcounted and we were undercounted as well. You are absolutely right. Everybody ain't online. In 2018, 2019, we had a $9 billion transit proposal that was before the city. I was a part of the team that ended up defeating it because it was a regressive income tax that hurt the poor and the elderly. And one philosophy we took was

we're just going to knock on doors and talk to people. The other side spent $6 million in digital ads and getting on the internet and putting banner sites up. We had a million and a half and ended up winning almost seven out of 10 people because while those digital ads were playing, there was no beating having one-on-one conversations with people door to door. I used to say during that time, my mom was almost 90 years old. I said, my mama is excited because she got a flip phone. She's not sending texts. She's not getting on the internet. And she represents a demographic of people who not only vote, but who participate in democracy when they are informed. And they also carry with them a circle of influence that is large and mass.

So when we talk about our circle of influence, this ties back to what Dr. Malvo was saying. It ties back to what you were saying about media. This system that seems to be fixed to keep us from getting the information is what is continuing to harm us. When you set a meter and say a circulation of 50,000 and you set that, you can talk about this more, you also hear paid subscription, a paid circulation of 50,000. You've got 100 black newspapers who not only put an ad in a paper, but they have a conversation about it. They write editorials about it. They inform. How is it that they are left out of the process when perhaps a St. Louis American and one or two other people

who can say we have 50,000 people are the only people brought to the table. It's part of a system and we have to begin to ask the question, how can we break this system? How do we put people in place to make sure that in eight years we're going to show up in every way? Now, I want to show y'all again what happens when you got just some really silly people who is this fool here I who is this fool here I'm still laughing at this dummy

somebody BS smartphones are free when you're poor oh wow which one y'all want to take that one? These must be those Obama phones the right was

hollering about because I don't recall seeing a whole bunch of phones, smartphones for poor people. Julian, go ahead. This is the most hilarious thing. Why do you attract these fools? This is what I want to know. Where do these fools come from, and why do they come at you with their stupidity?

We know full well that, you know, these things that you and I and my colleagues are addicted to, these iPhones and stuff, cost you about a grand. And the average black household earns less than $40,000 a year. Give me a you-know-what break. This is just nonsense. But we know that it's nonsense. And you know that there are people who are coalescing to try to make excuses for their racism. And that's just what it is.

Let's just call it what it is. Let's not talk about ads and this and that. Let's just talk pure, unadulterated racism that has attempted to marginalize the counting of black people. That's what we have to call it. And when we call it that, then we know what time it is. Well, I'm just, again, I'm just laughing.

And this is not just for me. This is not just even when you talk about racism and white. It's some arrogant black people who fall for this stuff, Mama Congo. It's annoying, man. When we have these conversations, it could be anything.

If we're talking about reparations or we're talking about something like this, this attitude of, well, I don't need it, so it's okay. Well, I got my Wi-Fi. It's okay. I got my 5G network. This idea to not look at the greater community in terms of services.

It's like people get to the top or on their way to the top and they forget to look down at the place that they just were or they may or their family may have been generations ago. And we're never going to get to where we need to be as a community if we don't look at the mentality of doing this together. And so for all y'all out there who are like, I got a cell phone, I got access to Wi-Fi, what about that phrase about the least of these at the end of the day? What are we doing to build everybody up? And like you said, Roland, some people can't get access to their ID.

I've heard stories about people who are going to vote in some of these elections that have happened in recent weeks, and people are saying things like, you got to have your original marriage certificate from 30 years ago. I mean, they're coming up with all of these shenanigans to keep making it difficult for us to vote, for us to get online, for us to get access to things. And so those of you who are at the top, stop being arrogant and ignorant about the stuff that you got and use some of your resources to help the rest of us get it, too. I just think it's hilarious when you hear all that nonsense.

All right, y'all. Got to go to a break here, folks. When we come back, right here in Roller Mark Unfiltered, speaking of stuck on stupid, there continues to be people who are stuck on stupid. They just keep pushing out nonsense when it comes to HBCU funding. Last week, the Obama administration, excuse me, the Biden administration talked about the one year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan. And all the people kind of like, see, see, Biden said, they said black HBCU is going to get $45 billion.

No, they didn't. So again, I'm going to walk y'all through the truth because clearly too many of y'all are listening to some loudmouth, uneducated trolls on social media and y'all listen to some black people in black targeted media who simply don't know how to do the damn research. I'll break it down next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. I'm sorry. Fyre! I was in the telephone booth on 63rd and 3rd Avenue. Brought my coins in and dialed a number.

Mr. Parks, this is Richard Roundtree. Oh, yes, yes. Well, you know, it looks like you got the role. I didn't know what this... I'll go back. Oh, really? Okay, well, wait, wait, wait. You can't tell anyone.

Can I tell my parents? And I'm walking around town, and my fellow actors and models are saying, hey, you know what? Tree, I think I might have gotten that role. You hear this two or three different times. Right, like, did he come? Well, wait a minute, was I dreaming that?

Then Gordon calls me up. I call Gordon, and he says, we're having the press announcing you are the chef. I get in a limo, and I pull up and saw this, oh Lord. What we used to call, I'm shitting in high cotton. Yes, in high cotton, yes. I get out, all the press is there and actors. I walk in and Gordon announces,

yes, this is Richard Valtteri, and he's gonna play the character Shaft. Oh. Magic. ¶¶ What's going on? This is Tobias Trevillian. Hey, I'm Amber Stephens-West. Yo, what up, y'all?

This is Jay Ellis, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. And so time for our HBCU Connect segment. This is where we focus on interesting stories that are happening in the world of HBCUs. And one of the big issues that we continue to hear about is funding, funding, funding, funding.

And there are so many misconceptions about where we are. And part of that is because we've had awful reporting by mainstream media, folks who act as if they don't know how to read or pick the phone up and actually call somebody when it comes to these things. And so one of the things that happened a few months ago was when the Associated Press did this story about HBCUs and then Newsweek turned around and did the story. And it was the Newsweek story that went crazy. And so this was the story right here, okay? This was when Newsweek did this story in October 5th, 2021. HBCU funding falls from $45 billion to $2 billion under latest Biden spending plan.

Lord have mercy, black people lost their damn minds. They start tweeting this story out. They start sending it out all across the country. Then you had all of the crazy folk. See, all you Negroes, y'all was supporting Biden. Biden sitting here cutting from 45 billion to 2 billion. So let's start here. Nowhere did President Biden say, we're going to do $45 billion for HBCUs. You know what they said? $45 billion for HBCUs and minority-serving institutions. Let me repeat that.

For HBCUs and minority serving institutions. Now let's deal with some facts here. There are 103 historically black colleges and universities in the United States. One zero three. the United States, 103. There are 411 Hispanic serving institutions. Now, you might ask, the Hispanics got 411 colleges? No. It's Hispanic serving institutions. How do you qualify to be an HSI?

Well, 25% of your student body must be Hispanic slash Latino. My alma mater, Texas A&M University, is an HSI. It is called a Hispanic Serving Institution. Wait a minute. 55% of all the people at A&M are white. It's a PWI. Yes, it is. But it also qualifies as a Hispanic Serving Institution.

Most major colleges and universities in America are HSIs. So you might ask, wait a minute. So there are 103 HBCUs, so there are 411 HSIs. So let's go to the American Rescue Plan. Their HBCUs got $2.7 billion in the American Rescue Plan. HSIs got $11 billion. I've seen some trolls out there on social media. See, that ain't right. The Hispanics got more.

There are 103 HBCUs. There are 411 HSIs. If you actually do the math, that means that they probably are going to get three to three and a half times more money because there are more of them. 2.7 billion for 1.403 colleges. 11 billion for 411. That's just one. So we're just walking people through facts here. Now, I showed you the Newsweek story. And we have debunked that story. We have told you.

But I don't understand why even black targeted media can't figure this out. This is last week. Charles Blow of the New York Times on his show on Black News Channel.

And I don't understand why him and his staff, hell, I don't know why y'all ain't watching this show to learn what's happening in Black America, because clearly in five, six months, y'all was asleep because they literally showed this. And on Monday, the White House released a state-by-state breakdown of funding that's headed to 100 HBCUs. The $2.7 billion is part of the president's American Rescue Plan, which was passed just about one year ago today. Of course, you remember the HBCUs were originally supposed to get $45 billion in funding.

That number was dwindled dramatically. A recent report in Forbes shed new light. That story was from October, y'all November December January February March five months. Five months. That story has been debunked and Charles and you and your staff at Black News Channel y'all still are getting it wrong. You're getting it wrong. And hell, they got a bigger staff than I do.

Y'all, this makes no sense. And this is what I'm saying. This is the criticism that I have when black targeted and black owned media follows white mainstream news and the reporting on black people and we end up, no sorry, they end up parroting white mainstream news

so you black, you like, well Charles Blow and Black News Channel said it so it must be true. No, it's not. And so we're walking you through this. And so let me show y'all. Now, not only that. Let me just play this again so y'all can understand what I'm about to lay out.

Okay? Listen again. And on Monday, the White House released a state-by-state breakdown of funding that's headed to 100 HBCUs. The $2.7 billion is part of the President's American Rescue Plan, which was passed just about one year ago today. Of course, you remember the HBCUs were originally supposed to get $45 billion in funding. That number was dwindled dramatically. A recent report in Forbes said...

Come on. Come on. Come on. The American Rescue Plan was one funding source for HBCUs. $2.7 billion. That's the only funding source? No. So pull the graphic up, y'all.

We'll explain to y'all what's in the American Rescue Plan for HBCUs so y'all can see it. Here it is right here. Okay? More than $10 billion to over 1,000 community colleges. More than $190 million to tribally controlled colleges and universities. Approximately $11 billion to Hispanic-serving institutions. $5 billion to Asian-American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions. Again, it says almost $1 billion to predominantly black institutions.

Okay. Keep going. Okay. All right. So that's what we have. Again, it says almost one billion to predominantly black institutions. OK, keep going. OK. All right. So that's what we have. And then, of course, you have the individual breakdown when you start looking at the numbers, when you start looking at in terms of what each individual school got and when you start breaking that thing down. And then what that begins to show. And I'm going gonna show you in a second what that looks like. Now see, here's the deal. I told y'all the American Rescue Plan was one pot of money, okay? What's the operative word there?

One, okay? One. That's not the only pot of money. So what did we tell y'all? And we broke this thing down on the show. So let me help y'all out. Go to my computer, please. Okay. As you will see, this right here, y'all, is a, and if I can, let's see if I can zoom it in. Let's see here. What you're looking at right here is the actual spreadsheet that I received from Congressman Jim Clyburn breaking down

the funding. Do y'all see? Okay, I'm gonna go back out to that one. That took it too far. Zoom out. Let's see here. Let's take it back in. All right, I'm gonna zoom in. I want y'all to see. Y'all see the top there? What do you see? Cap 5 forgiveness. Okay? Cap 5 forgiveness. That's the first column. The second column, CARES Act 1.

The third column, CARES Act 2. The fourth column, CRRSA Act 1. CRRSA Act 2. Then ARP Act 1, ARP Act 2. That's seven pools of money. Seven. Seven pools of money in cap five forgiveness that means that the federal government forgave forgave the loans forgave the loans to hbci hbcus these hbcus owe the federal government

this money so that's what they it is, you know what? We're going to forgive the loans. Julianne ran a HBCU. Y'all, if your loan's forgiven, that's like getting money back because you ain't got to pay the money back. You can sit here and just remove that from your budget. So you love not being able. You love, well, you ain't got to pay money back. Let me zoom this out to 300%. Okay. I want y'all to see. Now, here we go. Here we go. See that first coming up? Now show it. You see the cap five forgiveness. Let me scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Y'all see all these schools? This is all the money that the federal government forgave. Florida A&M owed $111.8 million. Forgave that. Grambling owed $92.5 million. Forgave that. Hampton owed $48.7 million. They forgave that.

Meharry owed $56.8 million. They forgave that. Morehouse owed $59 million. Morehouse School of Medicine owed $31 million. They forgave that. Meharry owed 56.8 million. They forgave that. Morehouse owed 59 million. Morehouse School of Medicine owed 31 million. All forgiven. Morgan State owed 31 million. Philander Smith, 19 million. Okay. Let's go to the bottom. Stillman owed 30 million. Okay. Spelman, they owe nothing. Okay. Texas College, 10 million. Tuskegee, 126 million. Go down to the bottom. What does that say? Total. They forgave $1,603,382,977.

All right? We're going to go to the top. Okay? Second column. I'm walking y'all through this because folk don't get it. All right, let's go back to my spreadsheet here. CARES Act 1, CARES Act 2.

What the Biden people released last week was it. This is CARES Act 1. That $2.7 billion was CARES Act 1. Okay? Back to my computer. I will scroll down. You will see here cares at one and two this is what went to all these HBCUs now when you get to the bottom you will see three hundred and fifty two million five hundred and

seventy five million so HBCUs in cares act 1 and 2 receive almost $1 billion. $575.5 million plus $352.7 million comes out to about $920 million, something like that. All right. We're going to go back to the top, y'all. That's CARES Act 1 and 2. Let's scroll over. CR CARES Act 1 and 2. Let's scroll over. CRRSA Act 1 and 2. Let's scroll down.

What did the HBCUs get in those two? Huh. They got $583.8 million, then $852.8 million. Y'all, right there is $1.4 billion in CRSA. Let's go on to the top. American Rescue Plan 1, American Rescue Plan 2. Scroll on down. Where did that come out to? $1 billion, $1.57 billion. That's the $2.7 billion right there. So final column, total for all seven, go to the bottom. I'm showing y'all real numbers. So out of seven pools of money, HBCUs received $6,567,665,681. Y'all, that don't mean they're not going to get money next year.

And in the next year. So for all y'all listening to these fools saying all the ABCUs, all they got, 2.7 billion. No. Go back. That's the number right there. $6,567,665.

Now, let me blow y'all away. Okay? Julianne knows this well because she ran an HBCU. So, I love the people who yell, holler, and scream. So, Julianne, I'm going to do this here. So, I don't have a larger calculator, so I'm just going to use this one right here.

So 657000, go to my computer. So again, so this is how I want you all to do. So right there, y'all, that there, that's 6.57 million. This is a billion. There are 280,000 HBCU students. Okay? I put in too much numbers. 6.7 billion.

Let me find my calculator. The 280,000, 280,000 HBCU students. you're going to come out to 200. First of all, you're going to come out to almost 24,000 per pupil. Again, so Julianne, what that means, that out of the seven pools of funding, HBCUs are getting on average 24,000 per pupil. Can you explain to people how that ain't change per pupil? Roland, that's

cost of attendance for one year for a student at Bennett College. Cost of attendance, tuition, room, and board is roughly $25,000. So that's cost of attendance. You know because I called you one day hyper ventilating and crying. When I was at WVON

radio doing my morning show, y'all were trying to raise $30,000 to keep these girls in college. Yeah, because I had students that I was being required to put out because they had balances and my job was to try to find the money because they were seniors.

You want to put seniors out when they're about to graduate, but if they owe, because the federal agencies, and I hope that Vice President Harris has also worked with some of these agencies to make sure that we don't have to use the stringent guidelines to put people out. But that money really helps. It really, truly helps. I have to tell you, that first year that I was at Bennett College, I thought I was a, you know, a bearer with a tin cup. I think everybody I knew, you, Susan Taylor, Reverend Jackson, I was just begging. That's all I was doing was begging, like, friends, please help me. And thank you, Roland, and many others, y'all did. But this really is monumental because when I went to Bennett, actually, we owed the federal government millions of dollars at an 8 percent interest rate.

Now, praise the Lord, I'm an economist. And so what I said is we got to renegotiate this down to a lower interest rate. I didn't say we didn't want to pay because, frankly, some of our CBC members said, well, you've got to pay. I was trying to get forgiveness then. They said, you've got to pay. I said, well, can we pay at a lower interest rate? And we were able to do a few things and maneuver some things to do that. But many of our smaller HBCUs are saddled with this horrible debt that's a function of predatory practices on the part of the Department of Education. And I think that this is really, it gives HBCUs new life. It really does. It's so refreshing. I mean, I'd go back and be a president now under those

conditions. And back in the day, I was like, okay, I'm about out of here because this is just too crazy. So no, Roland, you are absolutely right, and this reporting is absolutely right, and there are seven buckets of money, and too many people want to just look at one bucket. There is also some tension. I work at an HSI right now, Cal State University, L.A. So, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Before you go there, I just want, because you mentioned Bennett. So, here's what I want you all to see right here.

So when you look at this, before you go there, I want you to look at this here. Okay, let me find Florida. Give me one second. I just had it. Where did I move? Florida. Okay, so here's the deal. When you look at this here, you all see all them zeros for Bennett.

That's because under this chart is state appropriations, state grants, total state funding. Bennett is not a state institution. It's a private college. What's that far right column y'all see? Federal COVID relief funding, right? Well, guess what, folks? Bennett College received, I think the number is, so you see right here. Bennett received $32 point eight million dollars where that arrow is right here.

Y'all, that's the Bennett line item. Thirty two point eight million dollars. I can guarantee you Bennett is very thankful to get almost thirty three million dollars in COVID relief funds? It's called fresh air. It's called fresh air for the president. It's called opportunity to build and to grow. It's called not having the shackles of debt where you have these Durham banks and others pushing you, pushing you, pushing you. No, I have to tell you,

this is good news for NHBCU land. And presidents are basically dancing in the streets. And you're right, our privates who are covered by the United Negro College Fund, y'all contribute to the United Negro College Fund, the privates get less money than the publics do because of the state

money. So this is just, it is so important and so amazing. And Roland, thank you for this coverage. And thank you for this opportunity for me to say, thank you, Brother Biden. But see, I'm gonna sit here, and I love these, I got some fool on YouTube, Dray Smith,

or you shilling for the Democrats. Uh, actually, no, I'm stating facts. Because, see, for all y'all who sit out there just, just, you little keyboard gangsters, all y'all do is talk shit about CBC, ain't that? Yeah. Why don't you go tell Congressman Bobby Scott, who is the person on the House Education Committee,

who is walking this stuff through. See, all y'all sitting here running y'all mouths, complaining, oh, oh, you just sitting here. Oh, oh, I just think you just, you know. No, this ain't shilling for Democrats because what some of you fools don't realize is a couple of these bills actually happened under Donald Trump. Fools.

Okay, for all you fools who know nothing about the Constitution, the Constitution states, the Constitution states anything dealing with money from the federal government has to originate in the House of Representatives. Come on now. Let me say it again

to all of you fools who have never read the U.S. Constitution. Any funding bill in Congress, any funding bill in Congress, any bill dealing with appropriations called money,

must originate in the U.S. House of Representatives. There are only two CBC members in the U.S. Senate. Congressman Cory Booker, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Raphael Warnock. There are 56 CBC members, which means 54 of the 56 are in the House.

They represent the largest caucus on the Democratic side. So when y'all are sitting here, I don't know what the CBC doing. Hello. Here you go. Because here's the deal. If the funding bills don't pass the House, they don't, it can't even get to the Senate. And so you should be thanking Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia. Congresswoman Alma Adams of North Carolina.

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Ohio. You should be thanking those CBC members who went to HBCUs who are ensuring the money get there. See, so I'm sick of you punk asses sitting out here and I don't care what letters y'all use. I don't care if your ass

use ADOS, FBA, B1, B2, B12, stuck on stupid. I don't care if your ass use ADOS, FBA, B1, B2, B12, stuck on stupid. I don't care. At least y'all should be operating from a set of facts versus just running y'all mouth, whining and complaining, they ain't

doing this. Look, it don't lie. And just so y'all understand, because I run the numbers again, when you look at what people have gotten, because I'm just going to go ahead and show y'all this right now, because again, for the folks out there

who go, man, yo, you just, no, I'm showing y'all facts. And if Donald Trump and the Republicans had done this, I would show y'all the facts too, because here's the deal. I don't care who's in power. I want to make sure our HBCUs are getting our fair share. But what I do know is when I start breaking down the numbers, when I start looking at

where the money came from, when I start looking at what they actually got, huh, what I begin to see is, let me show y'all this right here. Because again, some of y'all don't see Julian talked about who gets the state funding. So let me drag some of y'all even further. OK. And I showed this last time and I'm a short again because I think some people thought I was playing. Look, go to my computer. Look at Alabama A&M, Alabama, Alabama A&M only received in 2020 $47.8 million from the state of Alabama. $47.8 million. The number's right there. $47,864,622 from the state of Alabama. How much did Alabama A&M get in federal COVID relief funding? $207,000,000.5. That means that the Alabama A&M get in federal COVID relief funding? $207 million.5. That means that the Alabama A&M got four times as much money from the federal government in COVID relief funding than they got from the state of Alabama.

Let me go ahead and make this even plain for you simple-ass Simons out there who can't understand. Now, go back to the computer. Look at the number right there. What that means is that it would have taken Alabama A&M four years to get the amount of funding they got in one year in federal COVID relief fund. Go to the next line. Alabama State got $54.9 million from the state in 2020. They got $232.3 million in federal COVID relief funding. Y'all want some more?

Let's go on down here. Let's see here. Florida A&M. Florida A&M received $136.9 million in state funding from Florida in 2020. How much did Florida A&M get in COVID money? $307.2 million. Again, it would have taken Florida A&M two years to get the amount of money they got from the federal government. Let's go down here to let's see right here. See, I'm about to hurt y'all feelings.

Grambling State University got $18.9 million from the state of Louisiana in 2020. How much did Grambling State get in federal COVID money? $184.6 million. What does that mean? That means that it would have taken Grambling 10 years to get the amount of money they have gotten in federal COVID relief money. So for all y'all simpletons who want to sit here and say, I don't know. You can't show me what they got. The numbers don't lie, y'all.

They're right here. They're sitting in your face. Albany State, $29.6 million from Georgia, $95.8 million in federal COVID relief money. Fort Valley State, $24.2 million from the state, $51 million. Savannah State, $24.9 million from the state, $80.3 million from federal COVID relief money. Y'all, I'm sorry. So I just need to understand, for all y'all out there whining and complaining about we ain't got this, ain't got that. And here, I'm not saying that's enough.

I'm still not satisfied. But what I'm not going to do is disrespect the black folks in Congress who made this happen because some of y'all stupid. Jeff, y'all can go ahead and comment. Man, look, look. First off, you're teaching a lesson here. And everyone here is teaching a lesson. I got a text from one of your great followers and supporters from the Bring the Funk fan club, Brother Carnell Scruggs. I'm shouting him out because he was so excited, and my phone is blowing up. This means that people are saying, this is information we need.

This is information we need to hear. This is why we are here today. This is why you've got an expert with the spreadsheets showing you the facts. This is why you've got the wisdom and experience of Dr. Julianne Mulvaux here present. The reason why is something that I teach people every week. I say that a proven practice outweighs a brilliant theory. We can talk all day long, but when it comes down to the numbers, when it comes down to people who have experienced this on the front line, that's who you listen to. For those who might want to get out there and troll in moments like this and they say, well, your brother's attacking each other and Roland talking about another network. Listen, don't mistake animation for animus. We come from a culture where we can sit in a barbershop, we can sit on the street corner, we can sit in a church

office and we can go at it head to head and we can leave there and not take it personally because we're getting to the truth. You have gotten to the truth here. Brother Cornell said, where can I find this spreadsheet? So make sure you share it with people because people who are interested in getting this information and knowing the truth are interested in not only digging deeper, but dispelling the mythology that is out there. We're going to post, we're going to,

Lauren Burke, she posted this. I put it out on Twitter. I'm going to have my digital guy put this on Roland Martin Unfiltered so y'all can actually see this spreadsheet yourself. Y'all can go down. And again, I don't know how Charles Blow and his people got it wrong. Hell, he went to Grambling. I mean, look, Prairie View, Tennessee State

got... Tennessee State got $63.2 million from the state in 2020, and they got $115.5 million in federal funding. Prairie View and University, $72.3 million from Texas, $172 million from the federal government in COVID relief funding. TSU, Texas Southern University,

got $67.8 million from the federal government in COVID relief funding. TSU, Texas Southern University, got 67.8 million from the state. They got 267 million from federal government in COVID. Y'all, again, this ain't about who went to HBCU. I went to Texas A&M. But damn, I know how to read. But here's the most important thing, Omicongo. I also know how to call black people in Congress and say, can you send me the actual numbers? See, I'm not interested in what the hell Newsweek said. See, I need all y'all to understand, okay? I don't need the Associated Press to tell me about

black people. I don't need Newsweek to tell me about black people. I can pick the damn phone up and I can call any member of the black caucus to get the actual numbers. And that's my problem, OmaKongo, when these damn black targeted and black owned media people repeat the bullshit from mainstream and negroes repost this shit on their Instagram page and their Twitter page and their Facebook page and it becomes misinformation because they don't, because they got to rely on mainstream when they should be listening to black-owned people, black-owned media who know how to do their own damn research. Hello.

Most definitely. And if I recall correctly, that Newsweek story started from like an intern or something who was doing random work and then the story picked up from there. And the fact of the matter is that people are still running with that five months after the fact. People are still going to try to use that to hammer Biden and get these young people to think that he doesn't support HBCUs. And the fact of the matter is, while Dr. Malveaux was at Bennett College, I was a student at Morehouse College. And I was working two or three jobs just to stay there. And I couldn't even finish my freshman year there because of financial issues.

And so I've also lived this story. And so when we're talking about what's actually going on, people who are out here in the business, I mean, the CBC has to be the most unappreciated members of Congress, right? I mean, we don't get an anti-lynching bill until we got it. It's them. We don't get the George Floyd bill.

It's them. And no one's looking at the work that they're doing. Even though both of those bills passed the House, but they died in a sentence when the CBC didn't move. Go ahead. That's right, where we don't have enough representation in the Senate. Hello, midterm elections coming up. So look, at the end of every single day, with these hate crimes happening at HBCUs, the Congressional Black Caucus members are on it. Benny Thompson are on this.

So when it comes to this money, look, everybody out there, when you did this segment last time, Roland, I copied it. I posted it to everybody. When you said you were doing it tonight, I sat back. I'm like, word, because class is in session. These are our institutions, y'all, and we got to get it right because people are going to do everything possible to cast aspersions and disrespect our HBCUs and disrespect our black representatives who are fighting for them every single day. And Biden has made good on this promise. Give credit where credit is due.

Boland's number one model. You do good. I'm going to talk about you. You do bad. I'm going to talk about you. Either way, I'm going to talk about you. And this is a good story that needs to be celebrated. And when the spreadsheet is out, we're gonna put it out there, and everybody needs to throw this in the face of everybody who says Biden doesn't give a damn about HBCUs. Numbers don't lie if you care to actually research the numbers.

Julian, final comment before my next guest is waiting. Go ahead. I can make a really quick point. We always, people diss the Congressional Black Caucus because of what they say they don't do. What we need to understand is what they prevent from having happened. Our Congressional Black Caucus stands in the gap when some crazy, you know what, white people block us. So let's not only look at what they do, but look at what they prevent.

How they prevent foolishness and chicanery from going on. So I'm tired of people, I mean, I don't think they're all perfect. At least five or six of them ain't worth two dead flies to tell the truth, but I ain't gonna tell you which ones. But the fact of the matter is at the end of the day,

they prevent more nonsense than we ever will know about. And this is the last thing right here. And again, I just want y'all to show how how mainstream media fails us. This is Politico. This is for this story from. And I'm sorry, Eugene Daniels, he black, and he screwed it up. This is from November 9th, 2021. Biden made huge promises to HBCUs. Can he sell his student on compromise? If y'all scroll down here in this article, it will tell you right here, y'all, funding for the nation's, this is my last point, funding for the nation's more than 100 HBCUs

is one of the many things in the president's Build Back Better agenda. And from the point of its introduction in the spring, HBCU advocates and students had held out hope that President Joe Biden and Harris would deliver,

read this line, the $45 billion proposed for minority-serving institutions. Listen to me, y'all. That never said all $45 billion was going to HBCUs. Right. It was for HBCUs and minority-serving institutions.

Oh, here's also a fact check. The original plan from the Biden administration was what? $11 trillion. Y'all remember? Then it got cut to $5.5 trillion. Then it got cut to $3.5 trillion. Then it got cut to $1.5 trillion. Then it got cut to $3.5 trillion. Then it got cut to $1.5

trillion. Oh, what happened? The House passed the $1.5 trillion plan. The Senate didn't. So y'all, the bill never passed.

How can you say, oh, my God, it failed. It never got passed. Civics 101. Civics 101. Yes, sir. Y'all have got to. This is why, y'all, I keep telling y'all, stop listening to these so-called new black media people who don't call nobody.

Who don't, they ain't got no sources. They got no interviews because they don't check stuff. They read everybody else's shit and they just talk on camera. No, no, no, no, no. We picked the phone up. Got the email from the source. And so, if y'all care about HBCUs, you should be calling your house member. You should be calling your U.S. Senate member and say, get the Build

Back Better plan back on so that money can go to HBCU. That's what you should be doing. All right, folks. Next story, we're going to talk about how in the hell can somebody take a picture of you and you post a photo of you? Then they sue you for using their photo of you. That's what Nas is going through. We're going to talk with an attorney who's going to explain how that makes any sense whatsoever. Folks, support Roland Martin Unfiltered. Download our Blackstar Network app.

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Y'all can tell right here. All this was in the mailbox today. So if y'all want to sit here and see your check and money order, trust me, y'all going to make me go through and deposit each one, sign and deposit each one of these checks electronically. And, yes, I will because this shit ain't Bitcoin. It's real money. So PO Box 57196 Washington, D.C., 20037.

Cash App is dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is RM unfiltered. PayPal is RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. I'll be right back. I'm sorry. Coming up on Get Wealthy, you'll learn how a business owner took ownership of her financial success and helped her employees too. You'll meet a CEO of a million-dollar company and how she took ownership of her financial success.

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Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross and welcome back to Roland Martin, Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. So this has always been real interesting to me when we talk about these folks who sue. So here's the deal. Nas recently posted a photo of him and Tupac back in the day. Now, let me say it again.

This is Nas and Tupac. Well, Nas posted the photo on social media. Well, now Nas is being sued by the photographer Al Pereira, who's claiming that the artist shared the image without his permission or licensing for his work. Now, the photographer claims the iconic image has diminished its value because he posted it on Instagram. Now, this same photographer has filed more than 450 copyright infringement lawsuits

against different celebrities in the last seven years. All right. Joining us right now is Shea Lawson, intellectual property entertainment attorney out of Atlanta. So, Shea, I'm glad to have you on here because so this is what is is is weird to me. Somebody take a photo of me, but they own it, and it's me. How? That's just how it works, Roland. Copyright is with the

author or the person who created it, not the subject. It's the person who took the picture, made the video, wrote the book. It's not the subject of the book. It's not the subject of the subject. It's the person who took the picture, made the video, wrote the book. It's not the subject of the book. It's not the subject of the picture, the subject of the video. It's the person who actually made it. OK, so so explain to me then the difference, though, when CBS. Try it when they aired the MLK, I have a dream dream speech got sued by the king of state even though

CBS covered the event CBS was using footage that they shot of the event but they got sued and that led to a situation where um you to pay the king of state because they alleged that that was still Dr. King and his words and they controlled his likeness and image. Correct. So there's a difference between the actual footage and somebody's likeness and image. And somewhere else in the media where it's come up recently is Jay-Z suing the photographer for the Reasonable Doubt photo, and they're in their own litigation, right? And so the idea is that people are only watching this because it's about Dr. King. You are using the celebrity of my name and likeness

to draw people to a program they wouldn't watch if it was about Joe Schmo. So it's the same thing as a photographer. You could be an amazing photographer, but would people care about you if you hadn't taken that picture of Nas? If you hadn't taken that picture of Tupac, would people still care as much about you?

And that's a name and likeness claim. Okay. It's separate from the ownership of the picture. Okay, hold up. So if I'm Nas, and this person is selling a photo of me and I haven't given him permission for my likeness and image, how can he make money off of me selling a photo that I'm in? Boom. That's the argument right there.

And I think that people are getting on Snoop for the wrong reasons. And, of course, he's not an IP attorney, so he can't really articulate it. Don't worry about it. I don't worry. I'll call Snoop to explain it afterwards. So you go ahead and explain it so I can let Snoop know. Realistically, here's a caveat that the news outlets are reporting it, but the case was dismissed. It was filed and dismissed eight days later. So that tells you, take from that what you want. But if I were Nas's attorney, I would countersue. I would say that your notoriety came from me, from using this, that, you know, we would have an ongoing battle. So as much as this is your picture, you know,

you are benefiting from the fact that it's me in the picture. The same way paparazzi benefits from these celebrities they're exploiting every day. I mean, I know some celebrities who have taken a photo of them on the red carpet. Let's say Getty Images. And then they'll take that photo and they'll have their name still on it. And they'll get sued saying, well, that was my photo. The celebrity's like, yeah, but I'm the one in your damn photo. Yep. So basically, so are you saying that if, so let's say if I do that, if somebody's out there, so if I decide to, I'ma post some photos taken of me

on my social media. And if somebody try to sue me, I'ma come back and say, hold up, your ass ain't got no right to profit off my name and likeness without my permission. I think, yeah, it's going to be a slippery slope though, because on both sides, you have to prove that there was a damage, that you suffered some kind of damage. So this... Yeah, I ain't getting that money. Yeah, but the photographer from Nas is saying, oh, this diminished the value of my picture, where

it's like, I could have made money off of having an exclusive with this other magazine, right? And so I think that there's gonna be a back and forth there about whether or not you lost money or you gained money from using the picture that had your own likeness. Okay, so you said there has to be

a damage there. Okay, so but I'm still trying to understand how can somebody make money off of me and they ain't ask me nothing. It's just the way the law is written.

And there are a lot of laws that are going around right now, actually in California for this exact reason, because, you know, paparazzi is so huge out in California that would give celebrities a royalty-free license to use images of themselves, which seems to only help the photographers because it would make people more aware of them and their work. But these photographers are really relentless and they're

really cracking down on the celebrities. And it's honestly not fair. Well, I'll tell you, we had one attorney. It was hilarious. She actually tried this. She actually threatened us with a lawsuit. We laughed at it. And my attorney hit her and she was like, she said, Roland, she was young and dumb. So what happened was we posted, we had a special page dedicated to scandal in its final episode. And we had posted these different links to stories on the scandal. Well, we posted a story to an ABC news story, just a link. And then what happens is, you know, when you post a link,

the photo pops up. So I get a letter, them claiming that I used the photo, an unauthorized usage of the photo, and we had to show to any attorney, no fool, we posted the hyperlink. If you want to sue somebody, you better go holler at ABC. And, of course, it came from AP or something like that.

And so we just laughed them off, of course. Now, granted, I had to pay my attorney to send a letter to them. But they literally were trying to sue, saying that we used the image. It was like, no, that's not how it works. When you post a link, the photo pops up. That's kind of embedded in the link. And so it was clear they were doing this, just trying to get money out of a whole bunch of different people using the same strategy.

But they do it. Roland, they do it. There are companies that specialize in this. And they go and they look for people who have websites. And they pulled images from Google and they will send these. And guess what? The way copyright law is written is that if you have your copyright and you filed it before somebody infringed on it, it does not matter if they knew it was copyright. It doesn't matter if they knew it was against the

law. It is called automatic statutory damages that can go anywhere from $750,000 to $30,000, and these companies know it. Jeff, you get a question, because I'm sure Jeff has a question, Ben. Look, if you're a pastor and you're preaching and folks are circulating your words and using what you might say in a sermon, so Jeff, what you got for our guest?

Hey, that's the least worry I have. That happens just every single day. You say something, it registers, and then you look up and some kid on TikTok has said exactly what you're doing and remade everything. And that's just what's happening nowadays. I did a film, took me 19 years to make a film, and some kid comes along after we get distribution about four years ago, rips the entire thing, puts it on YouTube so he can get 70,000 views,

and thinks it's absolutely OK. To our sister, who's the attorney here, who's just, thank you so much for this wonderful moment of teaching people all of the ins and outs of copyright law, let me ask you a question that begs some explanation for many people out there. teaching people all of the ins and out of copyright law. Let me ask you a question that begs some explanation for many people out there. The designation public figure, is there some space where if you're considered a public figure, people can use your image and likeness for commercial or non-commercial uses? Right. That's a really good question. There's a very thin line there. If you are a public figure,

especially if you are a politician or something of that sort where it is expected that there will be news coverage of you, that people will talk about what you're doing on a daily basis, there are allowances for that. And so then there's a line here when you're saying like a commercial purpose. And then you also have to think about how much is it going to cost? Roland just talked about the attorney's fees that he had to pay, right? So you also have to think about what is the enforcement cost of going and taking down and enforcing against everybody, especially if your stuff has gone viral. And so if you are a public figure, if you are a celebrity, you might be closer on the line of having a name image likeness, like a right to publicity, because that's like a

endorsement that you are using my face, my image, my likeness, my words in connection with your product, in connection with your company, in connection with whatever you're offering, that's leading people to believe that I endorse it, that I'm connected with it, that somehow brings more value to your brand because you're taking advantage of my celebrity. And that's the commercial line of, are you taking advantage of my celebrity by giving a false endorsement of your product or service or company by using my face, my image, my likeness, my words in connection with this. Awesome. Julianne? So I often post pictures that are generic with my columns on my webpage, JulianneMalvo.com. I've been come at a couple of times and people say, well, this is my picture. It isn't theirs. I mean, as an example, I have a picture that

says Wall Street because I wrote something about Wall Street. And these generic people came at me and they wanted like $300 for me to pay them for the picture that wasn't their picture. But I don't have unlimited dollars to fight this. What do I do about something like that? That's a really good question, Dr. Malveaux. And you have to make sure that the things that you have have a commercial license that have a general comments license. There are plenty of websites like Pixels, Unsplash, places like that where you can get royalty-free, kind of generic, they call them stock photos,

that you can use for your works. Because it doesn't matter how generic the picture is. It could be a picture of Apple. It could be a picture of a commonplace like Wall Street. But if someone can prove that that is their picture and they have the copyright registered, then they have that right to be paid for the usage of it. But there are plenty of places online

where you can get royalty-free licenses to use pictures, to use video, and Unsplash and Pexels are just two examples. And that's where I would typically pull from so that you can kind of stay out the clear. You wanna make sure that you own the rights to it or you have permission from the owner of the photography. Omokongo? This is very helpful, especially when you talked about the right to publicity, because I had some questions about that with the Jay-Z situation. I teach a

course on him at American, so I was following that closely. Thank you for explaining that. The question I have is, what do you do when you go into these sites like Getty Images and places like that and you see a picture of yourself? Because I typed in something to the effect of like black males or something like that and I'm scrolling through the images for stuff and I see me. So, well, what's that about? And you like, hold up, hold up. How in the hell y'all selling me? Where's my money? Run me my coins. I know. There's two things to that. There's two things to that.

One, you have no right to privacy in public spaces. So if you were in a public place and somebody got a picture of you, then it is what it is, because you have no right to privacy. The second thing is, and these are what it is because you have no right to privacy. The second thing is, and these are, it's like such small print things that people don't pay attention to that we all kind of gloss over. But when you buy tickets to events, when you walk into places, there is probably a disclaimer that says that by attending this, by purchasing a ticket, you agreed to be photographed, featured X, Y, and Z for any kind of purposes.

And so you have to be really cognizant of these kind of very small print things that give you those rights. But on the other hand, you also, if you are the event producer, if you are the person who is getting the photography, you need to keep these rights in mind. Because just because you paid that photographer does not give you the rights to the photos. You need to have a written agreement

that says in exchange for payment, you have the rights to use it. And these are the types of rights that you have to use the pictures, even if they are of yourself. And the same thing, if you have an event, you need to make sure that you have disclaimers that are clearly displayed and on tickets

that let people know that if this is a private event, that you may be photographing them and what purpose you'll use it for and that they're granting you permission by attending. Because I'm going to give you all a couple of examples. So for instance, when Oprah had her show, she had show photographers. But Oprah owned the photos. She owned the photos.

And it's interesting because when she had her radio show, well, not she, on Harper, on the SiriusXM show, I did her show. And they gave me a copy of the show, but I had to actually, I could not use me on her show without their permission. Now, I was like, well, without me, shit, it wasn't no show,

because they had me on. I'm like, how in the hell, how in the hell I got to get permission from you for my ass on your show? And so I was like, okay, y'all tripping on that one. But one of the things that, so now look, Shay, I already know how you're going to come down on this. But I fought, the lawyers at TV One all the time. I mean, we fought all the time. Trust me, me and lawyers fight all the

time. Here's why. Because the lawyers at TV One wanted us to sign every time we had somebody on the show to sign release forms. I said no. Here's why. I said, no.

Here's why. I've done CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS. I've done all the networks. When I appeared on those shows, I never signed a release form. Their deal was, you come on our news show,

this is our news show, you consent to come on. Never signed a release. So I kept telling TV One people, we have a news show. Why are we doing the whole release for them? And here's why I didn't want to do that. Because it was the opposite. If you start walking, like every time we interview somebody, they want us to literally go to an event, we might interview 30 people, and we got to have each person sign a release form. I was like, hell no. They could send to the interview. I said, we're going to operate. Now, I talked to people at CNN, and they said that's precisely, I talked to the general counsel at CNN, and said that's precisely why they don't do that. They said because we are a news show. And it was so bad. When we went from Washington

Watch, which is our Sunday morning show, to a daily show, I said, let's use this clip of Colin Powell. They were like, no, we can't use it. I was like, why? Well, because he was on the show for this, and we didn't have a form. I said, y'all own the show. My example was when MLK went on Meet the Press. Trust me, NBC don't ask the king of state every time, hey, can we rerun that episode that MLK was on Meet the Press?

No. They own Meet the Press. It's in their archives. They get to use it. And so we did battle all the time. And so I wouldn't do release forms for that very reason. Thoughts? Roland, I will fight you too.

I will fight you. And they're thinking about their budget. They're thinking about getting sued. If a lawyer is after you about something, that's because the organization, especially an in-house lawyer, it's because that organization has been sued. They have a mandate and they're like,

listen, you're not going to get me again. Every one of y'all is going to sign this release. But here's the deal, though. But here's the deal, Shay. I've done every major network. If MSNBC calls me today and says, Roland, can you do Tiffany Cross show on Saturday? Yes.

They do not send me a release form. But Roland, I mean, no shade to TV One, but they don't have them MSNBC dollars. No, no, no, no, no. See,, I mean, no shade to TV One, but they don't have them MSNBC dollars. They don't have them MSNBC dollars. They don't have them. See, no, no, no. But again, no. See, it's not a question of dollars.

Because here's the deal. The moment I consent to go on that show, and I sit my butt in that chair, yes, it is. No, no. Tell me how does it work? How does every other agency do it

and been doing this for decades? No, because you can say, I did not realize that this was about this. I didn't consent. And I'll use the Colin Powell example that you gave. I consented to come on here to talk about this for this purpose, and you're using it for another purpose.

So you need to cut me another check, or you need to cut my segment out. Don't lure me here to talk about education, and then use this clip, you know, to go promote something else. And so that's really why I want to have this consent form that says, I can use this footage for whatever promotional... But again, but again, but again, these news networks, if we talk about four or five subjects or if they say, well, let me go cover this, this, this, and then another subject comes up or there's breaking news and we discuss it. That wasn't agreed upon beforehand and they still use it. That's the value that you have there. That to me,

my point back to the dollars is that CNN, MSNBC, they can afford to fight you if you come back and try to sue. TV One doesn't want that smoke. That's really in my personal opinion. I don't know the inner workings of TV One. That's really, in my personal opinion, I don't know the inner workings of their business.

Oh, no, no, that's what it is. And guess what? And I ain't give no damn form. I was like, we are not about to be walking around having 45 people sign on there. Let me tell you how crazy it was. We had Alfred Liggins, who was the CEO of the company, on the show, and one of the

PAs walked into the green room and handed him a consent form and he went, are you serious? I said, say man, go talk to your damn lawyers. I said, I think it's stupid too. Listen, you'd rather cover your butt and just because everybody

is doing it doesn't make it right. What's your mom always tell you? Just because everybody else over there do it, it don't make it right. I'm telling you right now. I'm telling you right now. Cover your butt. I'm telling you right now. And I'll sit there and if somebody says, uh, uh, uh, no. And if you try,

I'm going to say, did you appear on this network over here? Yes. Did you sign a consent form when you went on ABC News? No. So, what's your issue right now? I want that smoke. You always want the smoke? No. So what's your issue right now? I want that smoke. You always want the smoke, Roland.

That's the catch. I'm sorry, I'm looking. Hey, I'm not sitting there walking around on them damn forums all doggone day. We got stuff to do. All right, hold up. Okay, I know somebody posted this here and I've already told people this is stupid.

Please explain to people the poor man's trait copyright don't work, where you think you can mail some shit to yourself, and then that represents a copyright. Well, here's the thing. Copyright exists actually at the time of creation. Your copyright exists at the time of creation. What is not helpful about this poor man's copyright is that if you do not register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, you have absolutely no legal standing, nothing in court that will help you

if somebody steals your stuff. Man, you can't mail something to yourself and not open the envelope and then that constitutes... No, because you have the copyright already. What you need is the registration so that you can enforce

your rights when you go to court. That's why I keep people like, but can I mail it to myself? It's like, no. And that's what's crazy is that copywriting is one of the cheapest things and one of the most user-friendly sites on the government. They have a YouTube page.

Copyrights are $65. Stop being cheap. If it's profitable enough that you think you should protect it, then go ahead and spend that $65 and file the copyright. And same thing when it comes to trademark, because a lot of people don't understand your logo, your color scheme, all of that sort of stuff. People may not realize, so the Undefeated,

which was the black targeted website of ESPN, they recently changed their name to Anscape. I don't know who the hell came up with that damn name. It's a horrible name. It sounds like the cousin of Netscape. But what's the trip is because they

want to do films, movies, documentaries, and things along those lines, they only own a portion, whatever portion that they along those lines, they only own a portion, whatever portion that they were originally doing, they controlled. Apparently that was like a store

or something that was called The Undefeated. And they control that portion. So in order for them to do the other stuff, they had to literally change their name to do the other different things. And so a lot of folks don't think about that. Somebody called me

this website, wanted me to change Blackstar Network because they had Blackstar in their name. And I was like, that ain't got nothing to do with me. I said, especially when I got my trademark. I'm like, you found your trademark. They'll I'm like, you didn't file your trademark.

They'll call me up if you didn't file your trademark. I'm like, I got my sheet of paper. And what was the trip was I had explained to them, I said, you do know that I could start products in 20 other cities and put the city's name in front of it and

still launch it and you can't do anything. I said, because you do know there's a thing called the Chicago Tribune, the San Diego Tribune, there's the LA Times, the New York Times. I said, they can't control times. I said, they can control New York Times. I said, but if I want to launch the Houston Times, New York Times can't sue me. Now, I said, even when it comes to font.

See, that's the thing that trips me out when people don't quite understand that just because you got a name don't mean that nobody else can use any variation of that, depending upon how you're using it and where you're using it. Yeah, it's really dependent. And I think there are two things that I want to mention with this, because you mentioned the logo and the graphic design. It's going back to people not understanding the layers of copyright and trademark. Number one, if you get somebody to make your logo or make a graphic design for you, you still need a work for hire agreement saying that you own this logo that this person made for you.

And you want to make sure that all the elements are original so that you own this logo that this person made for you. And you want to make sure that all the elements are original so that you can file the copyright if you can copyright it or trademark it, right? So that's number one. Number two, now let's just say that you're going to file for the trademark. You need to make sure that there's nobody else out there with it. And even if they haven't filed their trademark for it, they'll have what are called common law rights to it, where they still can come and try to enforce against you. Now, you might be able to get your federal trademark registration, but that prior user can still continue. That's why there's two Cracker Barrels out there, right? And so then even with the variation, it's like Nike basketball, Nike soccer, Nike women's, right? The core word is Nike. You

can't be like, oh, no, no, no, no, I'm Nike Atlanta. The core word is Nike, you know? And so you're going to get hit with the cease and desist. So you have to be smart about the context and the use and being aware of it. And even the point that you're making about undefeated versus the rest of the things that they're doing, trademarks cover different classes and services. So think about I'm a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, and there are trademarks for Delta the airline, Delta the water faucet and Delta the sorority because they are three completely different goods and services. So just because somebody has a trademark in one type of thing doesn't mean you can't use it in another. All right, y'all. Don't be cheap.

Y'all better get y'all doggone lawyers to sort through this stuff. But, yeah, we ain't doing them consent forms. All right, Shay Lawson. No, sir. I'm trying to tell you. All right. I'm trying to come after a brother. I'm like, mm-hmm. No, I'm trying to tell you. Alright, it's it. I'm trying to come after

a brother. I'm like, mm-hmm. Y'all talk to them for free. Y'all ain't ask them for no check. Alright, Shay. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Rowling. Alright, folks. We come back from this break. Our Black and Missing for the day will also Jane Campion. Y'all

what the hell was she thinking with her comments last night at the Critics' Choice Awards? Now she's apologizing Jane Campion, y'all, what the hell was she thinking? Her comments last night, the Critics' Choice Awards, now she apologizing to Venus and Serena. Also, folks, we lost a couple of folks. So, in memoriam, Tracy Braxton as well as Purvis, the Blues Man Span. All of that on Roland Martin Unfiltered when we come back on

the Blackstar Network. I'm sorry. Thank you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network.

Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. I'm Angie Stone. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Oh, Roland. Hey, Roland. I am so disappointed that you are not here, first of all. Where's our dance?

It's like we get a dance in every time I see you. And so now you're not here for me to dance with, sir. You and your ascot. I need it. I need that in my life right now. OK. I love you, Roland. What's up?

I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Tiana McLean has been missing from Chesterfield, Virginia since Tuesday. The 14-year-old may need medical attention. She's 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 123 pounds, with black hair and gray eyes. She disappeared on March 8th. Her hair was styled with red box braids. Tiana has a hoop ring on one side of her nose and a stud ring on the other side. Anyone with information regarding Tiana McLean should call the Chesterfield County Virginia Police Department at 804-748-1251, 804-748-1251. An Ohio grand jury declined to

indict the white police officer who fatally shot a black teenager last April. 16-year-old Makia Bryant was shot and killed by Officer Nicholas Reardon on April 20, 2021. Of course, police were responding to a 911 call made from Bryant's foster home about a group of girls threatening to stab members of the household. Bryant was shot four times and died from those injuries. Some policing experts have said the officer used justifiable force as another person was in imminent danger because she was trying to stab her. In North Carolina, an officer was fired for pressing his knee into a black man's neck earlier this month. Ex-deputy Aaron Edwards was arresting Gary Thomas for marijuana possession

when bystanders recorded him pressing his knee into Thomas and dragging him into the courthouse. Police officials fired him after reviewing body cameras and security footage. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation will determine if criminal charges are going to be filed against the officer. The family of a black man shot and killed by a white Kansas City, Missouri cop in 2020 is suing the officer and the Board of Police Commissioners for at least $10 million. The Kansas City Star reports that Donnie Sanders' family alleges in the federal lawsuit that Officer Blaine Newton used excessive force when he shot Sanders in March of 2020.

Sanders was not armed. The lawsuit also accuses the board, which oversees the police department, of failing to train officers properly in the use of deadly force. And this is not the first time Officer Newton has been publicly scrutinized for excessive force. In 2020, Newton was caught on video kneeling on a pregnant woman's neck. A black teenager whose viral arrest sparked outrage for excessive force was acquitted of six of eight charges. Tazier Griffin was celebrating his graduation in Ocean City, Maryland,

when police stopped him for smoking a vape pen last June. Police claim they asked for his ID several times before resorting to tasing him. Griffin and his friends disagree with the police's version of events. A judge dropped seven of Griffin's charges, and he was convicted of disorderly conduct and has to pay a fine he plans to appeal. And Major League Soccer is partnering with the National Black Bank Foundation in a historic agreement worth $25 million. This is the first time a major sports organization is partnering solely with black banks to borrow funds in history. The MLS organization says they hope this deal will help

close the racial wealth gap. And folks, former President Barack Obama says he tested positive for COVID. According to a tweet from his official account, Obama said he feels fine other than having a scratchy throat. He says his wife, Michelle, the former first lady, has tested negative for COVID. The Obamas say they have both been double vaccinated as well as boosted. Speaking of boosting, the CEO of Pfizer says a fourth dose may now be needed to protect you from the growing number of variants. Right now, the United States has recorded over 81 million coronavirus cases and more than 993,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. But again, folks, they are saying that it might be time for a fourth boost. But wait to hear what the CDC has to say.

And in some HBCU news, the president of Prairie View A&M University is stepping down. Ruth Simmons led the institution for the last five years. During her time at the university, she increased scholarship endowments and created new graduate and undergraduate degree programs. Dr. Simmons previously served as the first Prairie View A&M University. But she said clearly it is time for Prairie View to have a new leader. Juliana, it was very interesting reading her letter. I was sort of reading between the lines there. Not quite sure if there's some disagreement between her and the Texas A&M University.

But I think it's a good thing that she's here. I think it's a good thing that she's here. I think it's a good thing that she's here. Liana, it was very interesting reading her letter. I was sort of reading between the lines there. Not quite sure if there's a disagreement between her and the Texas A&M University System Chancellor, John Sharp, over the future direction of Preview. So I can't wait to talk to the people at PEV to find out really what's going on. But reading her letter was a little interesting as I tried to read between the lines. In reading between the lines, there may be some tension. But the other thing is that Ruth, and I admire her so very much,

she's a role model for me and for any African-American woman who's been a college president. But when she went to Prairie View to stabilize it, she left Brown, she was in retirement, she was having herself a good old time, and she went there, she's an alum, to stabilize the institution. And so I think at some level there may be some tension. But at another level, she's done what she said she was going to do.

You know, that biblical verse, go forth by good and faithful servant. She's done what she said she was going to do. And maybe it is time for someone else. Well, again, I'm going to try to find out what's going on, of course, in my home state. Last thing, last night, y'all, they had the Critics' Choice Award. Shout out to Will Smith for winning the Best Actor Award for playing Richard Williams. And Jane Campion, she is the director of the film. She said this last night that, let's just say,

pissed a lot of people off on social media. Give my love out to my fellow. Y'all have her apology? Fellow. The guys. The nominees. And, you know, Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys.

Like I have to. Kirsten. Well, of course, she won that for the movie The Power of the Dog, which she directed. She dropped this apology today. She said, quote, I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. I did not intend to devalue these two legendary black women and world class athletes. I must say, and again, the thing that's quite interesting here, Jeff, is that a lot of people, a lot of sisters were like, okay, white woman, how you going to center yourself on this night? That's what ticked a lot of folk off.

I mean, from the moment she said last night, Twitter was like having none of it. Let me tell you, that's not funny. There's no humor in any of that. I'm going to take my glasses off so y'all can have an understanding of a couple of things. Number one, she was not misspeaking. What she was doing is she was using

her gender combined with her whiteness to leverage the coming awards season, to try to attach herself to a space where she made herself look like she's in some kind of battle that other women aren't in. I have a wonderful wife. I've got two sons and three daughters. So my household is primarily female. I'm going to tell you this, if you didn't know this. If you are a black woman in America, you have been double and tripling battling men all of your life in every single area that you strive to achieve in. to really analyze it on a deeper level because the difference is black women have to battle people in business, in family, in industry, in spiritual communities. The Williams sisters themselves have had to battle men since they were children. I remember the interviewer

that was continually trying to break Serena's spirit, Venus's spirit, and the dad had to come in and say, no, you're not going to break her spirit. So they've fought line judges. They've fought people with endorsement deals. They've fought people in business and industry in many ways much more than you ever could fight a man because you also have the complexion for protection. So I'm so glad that people rose up

and said something and spoke out, and it's not going to work out well for Jane Campion in the long run. Omicongo? That's real talk, man. Look, at the end of the day, you have no reason to single them out like that. You're trying to be cool. You're trying to be cute or whatever. At the end of the day, Venus and Serena Williams, first of all,

they could have beat a lot of men, to be quite honest, because they're just amazing. But really, at the end of the day, when you try to single out, whenever you add that butt in there, as Joe Madison says, you're underestimating, marginalizing, and minimizing the accomplishments of these incredible women. And for everything that

they've done in the community, for everything that they've done for the sport, for everything that they've done in the field of business, they should be celebrated and lauded, period, bottom line. And the fact of the matter is, yes, we know that white women experience discrimination in different ways, but we also realize that when it comes down to it, whiteness tends to prevail. So the barriers are just not the same at the end of the day. You should have got called out for it. You deserve all of the smoke that you got from it because you went straight up the chimney and got all the smoke

and now just leave it alone and move on. Well, Julianne, factually, she's also incorrect because Venus and Serena have also played mixed doubles, which actually competes against men. But to Jeff's point, it is true. They've had to battle

a largely male hierarchy in tennis. And so, yeah, they might not be playing men on the court in terms of across the net, but they've been dealing with male judges, referees, umpires, publicists, and also people, executives with these sports brands as well. So, yeah, they've been battling men.

You know, white women are the mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives of the white men who exploit us. And let me repeat that they are co-conspirators with white men on the exploitation of black women. This woman needed to be

well, I don't advocate violence, Reverend Carr, but pimp slapped. Somebody needed to have a paper bag party with her. I mean, she had no right and no reason to call Venus and Serena out. It was just, as Obakongo said, trying to be cute, trying to be funny. It was not cute. It was not funny.

It spoke to her ignorance and her insensitivity, and it ought to disqualify her from any other award she's up for. Well, one, that's not going to happen. But here's the deal. Jane can make her point because there have been very few women who have actually won Best Director Awards.

You can make the point without trying to reference Venus and Serena. Make the point without your knee on my neck. But it ain't got nothing to do with, okay. Leave us out of it. Right. It's like, make the point, because here's the deal, and the men you competing against are white men.

Because if you go down the history of black people who have been nominated for Best Director, Ava didn't get it for Selma, you can only count, what, three, maybe four? I think three, no John Singleton. I think Jordan Peele. I think Steve McQueen. McQueen won.

Yeah, I think. I think maybe, I think it's four. Barry Jenkins may have been nominated. So I think you only have four black African-Americans ever nominated for director. So, Jane, boom, stick to your own tribe.

All right, y'all, we come back. Chadwick Bowes, when he died from colon cancer, very young age, 43. We'll talk about the importance of getting checked for colorectal cancer next in our Fit, Live, Win segment on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer.

Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. We're shocked and stunned when we got the news that the great actor Chadwick Boseman had died the age of 43. He did not reveal his cancer diagnosis. We found out literally when he passed away in 2020.

He was only 43 years old. It caused many people to say, oh my God, how young. He had actually had contracted it about five years previously when I did the Q&A with him at Howard University for Thurgood and also in Baltimore. And I think even when we go back to get on up with James Brown when I interviewed him as well, no idea that he'd been battling colon cancer. It is an issue that has greatly impacted African-Americans. We're seeing an increasing number of people who are contracting colon cancer at a younger age. Joining us right now is gastroenterologist Dr. Sophia Balzura, who joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Doc, glad to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. Glad to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. Glad to hear. So first off, let's talk about the numbers. What are we seeing in terms of who is more likely getting colon cancer? And can folks explain why we're seeing so many younger

folks? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. Unfortunately, colon cancer is so incredibly common. It is the second most common cancer killer in America. And we see that black folks are more likely to get it, 20% more likely than white people to get it, and 40% more likely to die from the disease. Why? A lot of different reasons.

Of course, some of it is the more traditionally, you know, claimed access to care as an issue, but also all across the continuum, right, which means decreased screening rates. It means, you know, physicians less likely to recommend colonoscopy or other colon cancer screening methods. It means getting to the surgeon after one's been diagnosed and being followed after that diagnosis. So there's so many time points where things get diagnosed and being followed after that diagnosis. So there's so many time points where things get lost and it results in poorer outcomes. So let's talk about, we talk about getting a colonoscopy. Years ago, Katie Couric actually did one live on the Today Show because her first, her husband had died of colon cancer and she became a huge advocate.

So talk about that procedure. Do they put you under? Are you awake? How long does it take? Do you have to take the day off? Stuff like that. All great questions. So I think the most important thing to stress is there are different ways to screen for colon cancer. I think colonoscopy is probably one of the most common methods of doing that in the U.S., and that's a procedure. It's a minimally invasive procedure, which means it can be done in an office setting. Most of the time you are sedated, which means you get a medication that people say gives them the best sleep of their life. The procedure itself usually lasts around 30 minutes or so, and we take a flexible camera, and after you're asleep, we insert it into the

large intestine, and we look for tiny abnormal growths called polyps. And so when we talk about colon cancer screening, the important thing to understand is that it can actually prevent colon cancer from occurring. So colon and rectal cancer start out as this small, tiny polyp in most people, and it grows over time. And so if we're able to remove that polyp before it becomes cancer, we can actually prevent the disease altogether. Now, I was reading a story and I believe the way Chadwick found out there was blood in his stool. So what are common in terms of what should we be looking for? What's abnormal? And so what are those typical things that if someone may have colon cancer, what are we looking for?

So it's important that you bring that up. I'm glad you did because most colorectal cancers actually present without any symptoms. But these types of things should absolutely bring you to the doctor no matter what age you are. As you mentioned before, blood in the stool. If you got blood in your stool, go to the doctor. I don't give a damn. Exactly.

Don't try to guess what that is. That is never normal. It doesn't automatically mean colorectal cancer, but it means that you need to tell a healthcare professional about it so you can figure out why that's happening. So definitely blood in the stool. A change in your bowel habits, meaning are they bigger or smaller caliber than usual? Are you going more and less frequently? And we're not talking about a one-off, right? You ate something that didn't agree with you and then you had more

bowel movements than normal. But we're talking about this consistency of abnormal bowel habits from your usual. Unexplained abdominal pain. All of a sudden, you're suffering from belly pain and you don't really know why it's happening, right? Weight loss that you didn't expect, so not from exercising more, not from eating significantly differently in terms of being more healthful or healthfully conscious, and you're just, you know, putting off weight for no clear reason. Those sorts of things, absolutely, you should mention to your doctor. And again, when we talk about these early onset colorectal cancers, meaning like Chadwick Boseman, unfortunately, and many others who are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer under the age of 50, unfortunately, we're seeing this more and more. But a lot of times, these young folks actually have symptoms,

the symptoms that we just talked about. And either they're ignored by their doctor or the, you know, the patient themselves don't see it as a big deal because they're young and healthy. But absolutely, if you have any symptoms or any concerns, any family history of colorectal cancer, please discuss this with your doctor or your, you know, primary care practitioner to discuss when you should get screened, when a colonoscopy or others, you or other diagnostic tests are warranted. Last question for me, then I'm going to go to my panel. Age. When do we, I mean, for instance, very interesting, when we talk about

prostate cancer, they begin to change when they ask, well, do you have a family history? If not, they say, look, you can take the PSI test and see what it shows. But for colorectal cancer, what age should we start? Is it different for men and women?

Is it different for African-American men and women? Okay, so we say 45 is the new 50. So that means that as a- Really? Yes, yes, 45 is the new 50 when it comes to colorectal cancer screening. So now for people who are considered average risk, which means they have no family history of colorectal cancer, no genetic mutations that make colorectal cancer more likely in that individual or their family. If you don't have a history of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, you need to get your butt to the doctor to get screened at age 45.

And if you have no history. Yes. No history. Yeah. Hold up. When did the 45 come out? I'm eight years behind. When did the 45 come out? Literally, I hadn't heard 45 before. Yes. So, you know, actually, 45 has been the age that's been recommended by many, you know, national gastrointestinal organizations like the American College of Gastroenterology, among others. They actually recommended 45 for African-American black, you know, black folks for years now. And only recently has the age dropped to 45 for everyone across the board. See, I got black doctors. I ain't heard 45. So I'm just letting you know. OK, all right.

So, yes. So that's why we're here. That's why we're here to discuss this, because I think it's something that a lot of people actually are not aware of. And, you know, the issue is, as I said in the early in the segment, black folks have a higher chance of getting the disease, have a higher likelihood of dying from it. And so we need to educate not only the community, but also the people who are recommending colorectal cancer screening. We need to understand that the age is 45. If you leave with no other information today, understand that you need to get screened at age 45 if you're of average risk, and even earlier if you have certain risk factors, as I alluded to before. Julianne, you first. From what I understand, black men are a third more likely to get colorectal cancer. Doctors are not necessarily steering them in that direction. You have this stuff on TV where they have this little box that says you don't have to

get a colonoscopy. You can leave your stool in a box and mail it. That sounds nasty to me. You mean the home kit? Because people are asking that in the chat. Julianne, go ahead. Doc will answer. Go ahead. But I mean, first of all, sounds gross. Put your stuff in the box and mail it. But is that more effective? Is it really useful? It seems to me that there's something off with that. So help me out. Yeah, absolutely. I think that sometimes, you know, it can be a little bit overwhelming when we do have a lot of options available to us. But first, I want to dispel the

myth that this is a cancer of men, right? Essentially, men and women are of equal likelihood of getting colorectal cancer in their lifetime. So both men and women should both start getting screened at age 45 if you're of average risk. Now, there are many tests available, and colonoscopy is considered, you know, the best test because of that preventive aspect, meaning that if we find one of these precancerous growths, meaning a growth that can become cancerous in the future, we can remove it right then and there. So you can actually prevent colorectal cancer from occurring with colonoscopy. But some people prefer not to have a colonoscopy because it is a procedure, you do have to take the day off of work, oftentimes you are sedated.

And so for people who are of average risk, there are other options available. And one of them, you know, a couple of them involve doing the test at home. And it's actually very simple. I think that we need to kind of destigmatize that ick factor when it comes to stool. I mean, everybody poops. There's a, you know, there's a children's book about it and we just need to embrace the fact that it happens. And so I think that that's part of why, you know, the rates are so high, you know, for this preventable cancer in most. So with the stool tests, you know, there's two main tests. One that you can do at home looks for hidden blood in the stool. So blood that you

can't see with the naked eye. The other test, which I think you're do at home looks for hidden blood in the stool, so blood that you can't see with the naked eye. The other test, which I think you're talking about, looks at blood in the stool and for abnormal cells of the large intestine. And that's the commercials you see on TV all the time for that type of test. And so both of those tests are very good alternatives to colonoscopy. If the test is positive, though, the understanding is that you must undergo a colonoscopy to figure out why it's positive. Now, a positive test doesn't automatically mean you have colorectal cancer, but it does mean that a colonoscopy is required to understand why the test was positive. Jeff? Sister Dr. Sophie, thank you for your honesty and thank you for just the comprehensive way that you have explained this.

My dad passed and transitioned to the ancestors 21 years ago now, and it wasn't colorectal cancer, but it was cancer. And so I became hyper aware physically of making sure that I got checked out. And he used to always say, son, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. And I did the colonoscopy at 50 years old. I did that at 55. I'm going back in for another one. The colonoscopy wasn't as bad because I was asleep. Now, the couple of days before with the laxatives, that was something else.

But what are some of the environmental factors? What are some of the environmental factors that we can look to in addition to getting screenings? What are some things that we can do to kind of protect ourselves in a preventative way? Yes, that is so important because there are things that are modifiable, which means things that are in your power to help decrease your risk. Now, we talk about, you know, putting on extra weight. You know, unfortunately, our country is growing in size as it comes to the midsection and having a healthy weight and being active, which is really that that that, you know, the more important part is being active, not living that sedentary lifestyle is, you know, is a preventive measure, not smoking. So if you are smoking, really think about quitting. You know, we talk about lung cancer and emphysema a lot, but it also increases your risk of colorectal cancer and other digestive disease

cancers. Eating a high fiber diet, so getting your whole grains, fruits, and vegetables is essential. Minimizing red meat consumption is also a big one that's been seen in studies to be advantageous. And of course, getting screened at the right age, right? So again, 45 is the new 50. If you are 45 years old and you're of average risk, definitely get screened. If you are of high risk for the reasons I mentioned before, like family history, amongst other things, then you should get screened earlier. So those are the things, you know, those are really the main things that you can do to minimize your risk. I'm a Congo. What would you like us to do after this broadcast is over as it relates to spreading the word?

You talked about younger populations. You know, should we be sending people to a particular website? Are there, you know, what should we be doing? Are there pamphlets? Like, what should we be doing to get the message out more in the spaces that we occupy every day? Yes, yes, absolutely. Getting the word out is something that people can do on their own. You know, spread the word to your families, to your loved ones.

I think that we say that family secrets can kill because, again, a large part of this is that it's hereditary, right? About 20 to 25 percent of colorectal cancers are hereditary and occur in families. So letting your family members know about your family history is important. In terms of websites or organizations, you know, there are so many fantastic organizations doing good work. I'll say particularly as it relates to health disparities and trying to inform Black communities to improve outcomes. An organization that we just started last year called the ABGH, or the Association of Black Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists, has a wealth of information. We actually just had a webinar last week that included colorectal cancer survivors, you know, colorectal cancer advocates, and people who lost family members

at an early age from colon cancer. So blackingastro.org, blackingastro.org, has that webinar online. And so it's really powerful. It's very impactful with so much important information. Other avenues, gi.org or the ACG, American College of Gastroenterology has a wealth of patient information. But again, I think the best thing you can do is just talk to your family members, talk to your loved ones, talk to your community about the importance of screening, eliminate that ick factor, right? A lot of people don't realize that this is a very preventable cancer. It's just really about getting screened. You know, those preventive health measures that I think kind of go to the wayside. So we need to be proactive instead of reactive. All right.

Last thing Jeff talked about all of the day before. So if you're going to get it, going to actually get a colonoscopy, what you got to do a couple of days before? He said laxatives, but you got to take some stuff. You got to do it. So that's probably the most daunting part of this whole exam is the preparation, as we call it, or the prep, which you have to do the night before. It's medication. It varies which type of medication your doctor prescribes, but some type of laxative, preparation, as we call it, or the prep, which you have to do the night before. It's medication, you know, it varies which type of medication your doctor prescribes, but some type of laxative because, you know, the cleaner you are, the easier the procedure is for us. You know, we're looking for growths that are about, you know, one centimeter and less in size usually. And if you

think about your pinky nail, take a look at your pinky nail, and the width of that is about a centimeter. So we're looking for really tiny things. So we really need to eliminate the large intestine or the colon of stool in order to do the test effectively. So we prescribe a medication that you drink the night before. Does it taste amazing? No. Is it the worst thing you've ever tasted? Probably not. So not the most pleasant experience, but again, it can literally save your life. So, you know, it's a necessary evil. So you can't get a colonic and then he'll get you a colonoscopy? You know, it's not my recommendation.

You know, it's not my recommendation. The old-fashioned way with the prescribed medication is really the way to go. And it is, you know, a safe way to clean yourself out. And ultimately, the next day, by the time you arrive for your colonoscopy, you're getting a fantastic sleep and you're going to get peace of mind knowing that you've done your job to prevent colorectal cancer or find it early should you have it because the rates of survival when it's found early are really fantastic, over 90%. All right.

Dr. Sophia Balzora, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right, folks, just a couple of more items real quick here, folks. That is our in memoriams. First off, Tracy Braxton, singer, reality star. She passed away, folks, Saturday at the age of 50, esophageal cancer. Her family, she had it for a couple of years.

Her family didn't tell anyone. They kept it very private. Her sister, Toni, and the family announced the death, saying she died as the snow was falling. Tracy was a singer whose best-known songs, Last Call and Broken Things, came during the heyday of the reality series Braxton Family Values,

which aired for seven seasons on WE tv. The show followed the singing sisters, Tracy and Toni, Tamar, Trina, and Tawanda, and their extended family. Also, folks, Tracy often appeared on my TV one show, News One Now, for our, we had Wilder Night Wednesday, of course, our comedians on Wednesday. Then, of course, we had our fun segment with different bloggers and others on Thursday. She was often appearing on there.

And also, in the movie Sinners Wanted, where I play the pastor, Tracy was also in the movie. Every time we got together, trust me, we went at each other. And here's her being real foolish as I'm trying to shoot my scene. This is Roland. We're going to call him Pastor Slick. Because the glory of the Lord is inconceivable. She needs Jesus. Jesus can breathe fast. The Lord is inconceivable. Jesus. Jesus. Reach fast.

Jesus. Jesus. Why he always got to mess with me? Yeah, we always did crack on each other. And so, again, Tracy Braxton, she is now an ancestor at the age of 50 years old. And this news just came in shortly before I came into the office today. Legendary DJ out of Chicago, Purvis the Bluesman Spann, passed away this morning at the age of 89.

He was known as the Bluesman on WVON-AM, one of the prominent black DJs on that station called the Good Guys, along with the late Herb Kent. They made WVON a powerhouse in Chicago. He later became the owner of WVON, along with one of those good guys, Wesley Smyth. His broadcast career lasted more than 60 years. He was hired at WVON by Leonard Chess,

co-founder of Chess Records, who bought the station in 1963. He also worked as a concert promoter, credited with boosting the careers of Aretha Franklin. He even says he gave her the name the Queen of Soul, the great B.B. King and the Jackson 5 before they all gained national fame. Purvis Spann passed away due to Alzheimer's at the age of 89 before we came on. His daughter, one of his daughters, Melody Spann Cooper,

she is now the owner of WVON and Midway Broadcasting. I had an afternoon drive, excuse me, midday show and morning drive show there. We'll often see Purvis in the studio. He was a brother from Itta Bena, Mississippi, and his daughter said he went from a sharecropper to a shareholder. An amazing career. And so I called Melody to give my condolences. And so Purvis was an amazing figure. In fact, he also said he was the first black man to build a 50,000-watt radio station from the ground up. And he said it was nothing like driving the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago

and being able to listen to his station that he built in Memphis. He owned stations in other cities as well. And so Purvis, the blues man, spanned there at the age of 89. And so certainly condolences to his family as well, and his wife of 67 years. And so her, his son, as well as daughters as well. So a tremendous legacy there of Purvis Spann. Let me thank Jeff Omokongo and Julian for being with us.

A fantastic show today. Hopefully, folks, as we always say, learn a lot today, because, you know, we're always trying to educate folks about so many different things. Thank you so very much, folks. We appreciate that. Again, folks, if y'all want to support what we do, I keep telling y'all,

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