#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2021 Elex Upsets; Paid Leave Returns, Kiddie Kredit, Ga jury make up questioned

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

11.03.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: The results are in, Virginia has a new Governor, and several new mayors will be taking office soon. We'll look at who won and who's heading to a runoff. A jury has been selected in the murder trial of the three white men who chased and gunned down Ahmaud Arbery. Of the 65 qualified potential jurors, only 16 were black. And only one black jury made it to the panel that will hear the case. The prosecution accused the defense of eliminating black jurors. The two law enforcement officers indicted for killing a black Georgia man were able to turn themselves in and are both are free on a $50-thousand bond. We'll have Jamarion Robinson's mother on the show. Rev. Jesse Jackson is back home after a fall sends him to the hospital for a couple of days. And, it's an app designed to educate kids on how the universal credit system works by completing chores. The co-founder of Kiddie Kredit will tell us all about it. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkvBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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. Today is Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021. Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Houston, Texas, right here on the Black Star Network. Coming up on today's show, mixed election results all across the country. Virginia goes to Republicans. They win the governor's match, lieutenant governor, attorney general. They also now control the House of Delegates.

What did Democrats do wrong? Is this a reflection of the candidate, Terry McAuliffe, at the the top of the ticket or the standing up President Joe Biden across the country? We're going to break this down with some of the top minds, including Stephanie James of the Collective Pack and also Mondale Robinson of Black Men Vote. that project. Now, folks, also, there was good news. Black mayors elected in Cleveland in also a race in Buffalo where the sister who won the Democratic primary, the brother challenged her. He beat her decisively there. We'll break down that. Also, a black mayor in Pittsburgh. And so you did have some good results. Black district attorneys also elected in different parts of the country. We'll break it all down for you. Also, a jury has now been picked in the trial

of the three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery. We'll tell you the latest of that. Speaking of also Georgia, Kasim Reed, not in the top two of the Atlanta-May Oro race, will tell you exactly who he is. Folks, we've got a jam-packed show. It is time to bring the

funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's right on time and he's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin.

Now. Martin. All right, folks, it was a big night for Republicans in Virginia as Glenn Youngkin beats Terry McCullough to become governor there. Also, Winsome Sears becomes lieutenant governor, African-American woman there as well. Also, a Cuban-American wins the attorney general's race. In New Jersey, you had the incumbent governor, speaks by Republican there. Polls showed he was going to win by eight points, but he barely wins in that race as well. And so a lot of different things happened last night. The question is, what did Democrats do right? What did they do wrong? What about black voters? Were they engaged? What took place on election night? Is it

as bad as many people are suggesting that somehow Democrats are adrift? They're lost. They have no strategy. They have no focus. What role did critical race theory play in ginning up and angering white voters across the country to see them turn out in various races? We're going to break this thing down. Let's get right to it with our panel. We have W. Mondale Robinson. He's the founder of the Black Male Voter Project, principal of WMR Consulting. We have Gary Flowers, host of the Gary Flowers Show in Richmond, Virginia. Quentin James, co-founder of the Collective Pack. Glad to have all three of you here. Folks, let's get right to this thing here. Gary, I want to start with you. You are on the radio there in Richmond with your show.

Blow out, if you will, in Virginia. The early polls had Terry McAuliffe winning, the former governor winning four or five points. The Fox News poll last week shocked a lot of people. It showed Yunkin plus eight. You look at the exit polling data. It was non-college white women who rejected Terry McAuliffe in a huge way. McAuliffe also lost places in college towns. We also saw that as well. And so what really happened here? Was this a reflection of the candidate, Terry McAuliffe, at the top of the ticket, or was it a reflection of Democrats nationally and President Joe Biden? Thank you, Roland, for the opportunity tonight.

We go back so many years. It's actually a combination of both. The lack of inspiration from the Biden administration, in particular not being able to deliver an infrastructure bill, and the perception that they're bungling along. Notwithstanding, there's usually a flashback on an incumbent president. However, the lack of inspiration from the top down married with a candidate that was regurgitated to Virginia. Remember, Terry McAuliffe served as governor four years ago, and no one asked for him to come back. Part of the inspiration for voters is that the candidate speak to them. I was on a panel last night

with former governor L. Douglas Wilder. I spoke to Reverend Jesse Jackson yesterday morning. Both of them indicated that the McAuliffe campaign never reached out to them. That is a colossal failure. Or in the case of Hillary Clinton in 2016, an act of arrogance that somehow or another Terry McAuliffe shows up in Virginia uninvited and just is coronated to be the next governor. That is not the way democracy works. And black voters in particular were angered by that. That anger. That that is extremely strange, Quentin, that you that if you are Terry McAuliffe and you're running for governor of Virginia, you don't reach out to the only black governor in the state's history, Doug Wilder,

former mayor of Richmond, Virginia, as well. And that just makes no sense. What what did you also see take place there? Did you see outreach to Black voters? One of the things that jumped out is that in 2020, when Joe Biden won, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris won Virginia, 67 percent of the electorate in Virginia was white. Last night, 74 percent. I keep telling folks, Democrats will never win when the electorate is 70 plus percent white. Exactly, Roland. I mean, what we saw in Virginia is, I think a little bit of what we saw in 2020, and that is the Republican Party has figured out turnout. They are turning out their base in every election moving forward. That was our strength as

a party, right? A big tent party. We were turning out record numbers of voters during the Obama years. That kind of, you know, lead and advantage is now evaporated. We don't have that anymore. And so that's a real problem we have to figure out. I think we also saw in Virginia that, you know, white suburban voters, they tilted, you know, to Republican and to supporting Youngkin for so many, you know, reasons. I don't know why. The Democratic Party overall is, you know, putting these unicorn voters, and that's kind of what I call them, that, you know, they're going to magically support Democrats. And they've never supported the Democratic Party, the kind of majority of white voters. And so it's a baffling challenge that we continue to see. But I will say this, though.

I think, you know, black voters, to our knowledge at this point, we're still waiting on, you know, more information. They did show up. Right. They did their part. But I think your other question, the engagement was not there. The ability to kind of maximize black turnout is kind of lacking there for what we saw in Virginia. So if we have an opportunity or chance in 2022, we've got to double down, put more money, spend more time, engage black people earlier to really maximize black turnout, because the support was there. I think it was 89 percent of black voters supported Terry McCullough. It's just, you know, the numbers overall, to your point around the electoral share, we have to make sure black voters have a bigger share. That takes more money, more time, more resources.

This is real clear, Mondale. I don't want to hear anybody even attempt to put this thing on black voters. I don't want to hear nothing about black men. I don't want to hear nothing about black women. This was white folks. This is on white folks. And Democrats need to deal with their white folks problem. The reality is we saw white identity politics play a role here. I said early on that anger with critical race theory was not factually based. It was playing into the anger of the Republican Party needed white folks angry and upset. That's what they found. Fox News played it up. Conservative radio played it up. And that's what you saw. And so when you saw that education was the second issue, this was an outgrowth.

It wasn't specifically critical race theory directly, but I need people to understand the game they were playing. They want to brand everything critical race theory, anything dealing with diversity, anything dealing with equity, anything dealing with inclusion. And so that's what the whole bucket is. And that's why you saw Youngkin do so well with those uneducated white women, those non-college white women. I mean, the numbers were staggering how they supported him 75 percent, 25 percent via exit polls or Terry McCullough. And so if you are the Democratic Party, you have to deal with strategy. And so speak to that, not just in Virginia, but what we saw in New Jersey, where Phil Murphy was supposed to win by anywhere from seven to nine points.

He wins in a squeaker. Yeah, Roland, I think you're tooting the right horn. Let me just say this. It is the party's fault. I live in Virginia. So I got one mailer from McAuliffe, and it actually had white kids up there. Not that I don't care about white kids, but I bet you if I had kids, Roland, they wouldn't be white. And the way he handled critical... Hold on, say it here, Mondale. Mondale, I live in Virginia, and I can tell you, I'm driving around, I couldn't, I didn't see a damn thing that was McCullough. I mean, I really, to Gary's point, I think it was sort of like, oh yeah, it's a coronation. No, you have to, he didn't work for it. Listen, I'm glad you called out the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign where you took so for granted that you could just bring in certain black folk. I think Hillary Clinton's black folk of choice was Jay-Z and Beyonce in Philadelphia. And absolutely black people went to that concert, but they didn't go to the polls. And that's because you can't entertain the black vote.

This transactional nature that these politicians are used to having with an older generation, that's no disrespect to anybody. The new generation, the majority of Black voters now are younger than my generation, millennials and the generation behind them. And they are not party loyalists. They don't care about McCulloch bringing in, no disrespect to Barack Obama, Stacey Abrams, or even James Clyburn. That's not how you're going to motivate these voters. So wait until the last minute to talk, to make a joke about critical race theory instead of truly appreciating black history in a way that could teach your racist white cousins that this is not what's happening in Virginia. So I think the Democrats stumbled big time,

especially since July. They had a warning when they saw the excitement around rural white voters to participate. And they blew it off as if it was just people were just going to line up for them. Black people are too busy surviving to be Democrats. And that's a sad thing to say, but I'm going to say it slower. Black people are too busy surviving to be Democrats. And what I mean by that is if you think about Maslow hierarchy needs, a person cannot think about things that are self-actualization if they don't have their basic needs met. And black people in this country don't have their basic needs met, and the Democrats aren't

doing what they promised us. Well, the thing that I find to be really interesting here, Gary, Democrats, oh, man, they were just so hyped and excited with how well they've been doing in the suburbs. But that means white voters. And guess what? In Virginia last night, they turned on them. That's what happens. Those white voters are fickle. This is the thing that Terry McCullough kept doing. Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump was on the ballot. I kept trying to explain to people, look, the Trump party is the Republican party. And so by trying to make it all about Trump, he ignored Youngkin.

He ignored him. And so Youngkin was able to come in and wear his vest and present himself as this nice congenial choice. And this is the deal. White folks rejected Donald Trump because they thought he was crazy. A less crazy Republican, we saw it last night, can win those voters. If you're Democrats, pay attention because you might see a repeat in 2022 and 2024, Gary. Absolutely.

Roland, you know, a guitar has five strings. McAuliffe played one string, and that was that Youngkin was tied to Trump, which is not a bad thing for rural Virginia. But secondly, the Democratic Party in Virginia has structural flaws. The top-down presentation of McAuliffe, as though voters would just accept him because he was presented is a flawed strategy. And then there is a 402, let's call it, year animal in the room, and that was former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a very competent and capable lieutenant governor who was set to be governor. And so they run two other black women who have no chance of winning. And then you have three black people in the primary against McAuliffe and he wins. And so the Democratic Party in

Virginia has to answer questions about structure. Nationally, I am not convinced that a two-party win-or-take-all system is Democratic. The Democratic Party nationally wants to date black people but doesn't want to marry them. I think the progressives on the left side of the Democratic Party should split. I think the nut jobs on the right side of the Republican Party should split. And I think labor unions should form their own party. Our allies across the world, Roland, have five to seven political parties in a constitutional parliamentary system of government. We have to visit that and think outside the box in America. To be very frankly, I don't think that happens. And the bottom line here, Quentin, this is real simple. Those hard right folks, they care about power. I think that's what you see here. Democrats were awful with messaging when you look at the fact that they were not touting

what happened with the economy. President Biden's poll ratings tanked after the Afghanistan decision, and that's why they have been down ever since then. And so it's also a question of how do you message, how do you speak to your audience as well? That's what we saw. And so I think if you're Jamie Harrison, you should be having some. Jamie Harrison needs to sit down and have a serious conversation with President Joe Biden and say, hey, man, are you trying to actually lead this party and run this country? Because if we saw what we saw already and we saw last night, that's that's what that's going to tell us right now. If last night was a tornado, 2022 could very well be a tsunami, but a tsunami, Quinton. But Roland, OK, let me just interject this.

This is not a new Joe Biden. Joe Biden voted against busing in the 60s. Joe Biden wrote the triangle. No, no, no, no, no, no. I understand it's not a new Joe Biden, but the Republican Party that Joe Biden is used to is not today's Republican Party. And so that was Hillary Clinton's problem.

She kept trying to separate Trump from the Republican Party. Joe Biden tried the exact same thing. I was critical of Joe Lockhart from a press secretary to President Bill Clinton. He said, I'm going to stop referring to the Republican Party. I'm going to call it the Trump Party. I'm like, no, you can't do that. The Trump Party is the Republican Party. The'm going to call it the Trump Party. I'm like, no, you can't do that. The Trump Party is the Republican Party. The policies of Trump, they are the Republican policies. As long as they keep

trying to separate Trump from Republicans, they're going to lose. This is who they are. That meme going around of my man Coach Dennis Green, he said, we thought they were who they were. That's what they are. And so the difference is, the difference is, you saw it last night. If you show me less crazy, I'll vote for it. But Youngkin stands toe-to-toe with Donald Trump, Quentin.

He does, but here's the thing. I mean, we talked about messaging a minute ago, and I think what we also heard from black voters and voters around the country is what have you done for me lately, right? We asked, the Democratic Party asked America to come out in record numbers in 2020, and they did. They gave Democrats the White House, the Senate, and Congress. And what have they done when it comes to critical Black issues, like voting rights, dead on arrival, like the George

Floyd Justice in Policing Act, dead on arrival, this conversation about reparations and H.R. 40, dead on arrival. And so there becomes a challenge where you can't message what you have not done. And I think people are also looking for that. Yes, we're going to show up and, you know, vote at average numbers. We need extraordinary numbers from base voters, Black people, Latino people, young people. And until we have some actual policy wins that really deal with bread and butter, kitchen table issues, we're not going to see the kind of turnout that we need, again, to win these kind of elections.

And Mondale, on that particular point there, we talk about what have you done. If you have passed things, you still got to be able to message that properly. Like, for instance, you know, a week after, you still got to be able to message that properly. What you, like for instance, you know, a week after, you know, Tim Scott went on television talking about the negotiation of the George Floyd justice bill were dead. You know what I heard? Oh, Biden is considering some executive order actions. Well, where are they? Okay. You make a big deal out of it. You invite the families to the white house. I mean, you show some action. What they have to understand is they're now on the clock. They're on the clock.

And guess what? If they do not make some changes, Mondale, they're going to get clocked in 2022 and they will not control the House. They will not control the Senate. It will only be the White House. And good luck. You will get nothing passed. Republicans controlling the House and the Senate. Listen, Roland, you know as well as I do, 2012, you and I have been screaming at these same white people about the same thing. Their consulting class is practicing an insanity. They've been running the same tired campaign since the 80s. They try to convince their conservative white cousins to perform in a way that they can benefit off of it and vote for them. It doesn't work. It will not work. And it can't

work because the demographics of this country is darkening. And that is scary to them. They can't message to us because they don't know how to speak to us. They've been so long speaking at us that they're blind, that their consultants are failing them. They continue to fill up, but they're failing them. And this is a real thing about Black equity in a Democratic Party. When I hear Brother Flowers say we need to leave, progressives need to leave the Democratic Party, I disagree. We need to keep that infrastructure and kick the moderates out and let them go join the Republican Party. Why give up all that power that we created? There is no Democratic victories without Black voters, as we can see. And I'm not talking about a small number of voters. We vote for Democrats in ways that no one else does. So therefore,

that is our party. So and us ceding that land to some other people makes no sense. I'm telling you, McAuliffe was a flawed candidate, and we knew it in the summer when he was forcing Democrats, black elected officials in Richmond and all over the state, that if they endorse one of the black candidates in the primary, that he was going to use, he was going to weaponize the Democratic Party structure against them. So people were pulling back their endorsements for black candidates, and nobody said anything about that. Nobody. So the fact that we know that this, and we also got to deal with the fact that they cursed Fairfax out of politics, basically, but you had a man in blackface running for attorney general.

And black people see this. Black people see this all over the country. I don't think this is a signal. I don't think this race should be a sign of what is to come in 2022. But I will tell you this. If they don't pass something on that bill back better, they better prepare for something

worse than this in 2022. Actually, I'll push back on that. And here's why any three of you can jump in here in this. I'm going to deal with white folks. I have been saying since 2009, I've been saying since 2009, that we are dealing in the age of white minority resistance. And what I've been trying to explain to people on this

is that when you look at this white minority resistance, when you look at the racial buttons being pushed, you see all these stories like, oh, I saw this Wall Street Journal article. You can't call people racist. First of all, I ain't never met no white person who will say, yes, I'm a racist. But you cannot deny the reality how race intersects when it comes to politics. All of this stuff with critical race theory. We know exactly what this is all about. When you talk about, again, the shift of these independent voters, the reality is white voters who are independent, they don't give a damn about racism coming from one of these white candidates. Their whole deal is, what am I going to get? That's what

you're dealing with. You can't ignore the Confederate statue issue in Virginia and the role that played. White anger was being stoked. White anger over coronavirus. White anger when it comes to mask mandates and vaccine mandates. All those different things. It was an anger machine that was fueling the fire. What we're looking at, though, right now is, again, Democrats. This whole idea, oh, what can we do to figure out these white folks? No, you're not going to win unless you have a multiracial coalition, which means, to Quinton's point, you have got to not maximize black turnout.

You've got to over-index. You've got to do the same thing with Latinos, but you also got to go to those young white folks and message to them. If I'm a democratic party and then get the poor people's campaign, they are nonpartisan, but you better figure out how to talk to poor people. You got to be able to go to them and say, this is what we have done. Terry McCullough didn't do that. He didn't do it. Phil Murphy has not delivered when it came to contracts for African Americans. I've been working with the New Jersey Black Justice Coalition, and guess what?

They're like, Phil, you're going to talk to us now? You saw what happened? And so this is one of those moments. This is a moment where also black political operatives and others should be standing up to the DNC, the DCCC, the Democratic Governors Association and sitting here saying, all right, you're going to keep giving a munch on these white consultants. You're going to keep doing that game. This is the moment where they got to realize white folks are not going to save the Democratic Party. But if you ignore Black people and others, you're guaranteed and destined to lose. Two points from Virginia, Brother Roland. One is our mentor.

Let me respond. Our mentor. Roland. Our mentor. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Gary Quinton. Gary Quinton Mondale. Go.

Oh, one thing I want to make, two points from Virginia. Yes, it was white anger that was stoked. Dr. Ronald Walters, one of our mentors, Brother Roland, wrote a book, White Nationalism and Black Interests. Where there is a perceived or real benefit to black people in American history, there is a backlash. So let's call it a blacklash. And so that stoked anger. The removal of the Confederate statues in Richmond stoked anger. And part of that anger spilt over to voting against the referendum for what would have been the first black-owned casino in America. And that was by the white liberal elite. And so Virginia

raised its head again as not only the capital of the Confederacy, but the continuation of that plantation mentality in politics. And let's also add on to that, too, I think, to your point, Gary, is that the Democratic Party is avoiding the conversation about race. We are avoiding convos around police reform, right? It's like we don't want to talk about defund police. We don't want to talk about voting rights. We don't want to talk about reparations. We have to talk about these issues in a truthful, honest, direct way because the Republican Party is doing it already.

They're already calling us socialists, already calling us, you know, giving out handouts. They're already saying we are these things, and the white folks are listening to it. So why not just do it anyway, damn it? Like, let's just do it, right? You know, dig down and really commit to these issues, because I think we will reap the benefits of exciting young people, Latino folks, black folks, even women, right? Just go for the goalposts, because right now I think this capitulation that we're doing is going to cost us elections continually. May I add a friendly amendment? A friendly amendment. It wasn't just the Republicans calling us socialists.

Joe Biden said he defeated the socialists in Congress. Yeah. So Joe Biden from the Democratic Party is referring to Democrats as socialists. So first of all, look what happened. Look what happened. But first of all, look what happened in Buffalo, Mondale, where you had the sister who calls up a socialist. She beats Byron Brown in the Democratic primary. He then runs as a right-wing candidate

and crushes her with the right-wing votes, putting together a coalition of Democrats, but also Republicans and Republican money to actually defeat her. But you also have Viv elected in Cleveland. You have the brother elected in Pittsburgh. You have other races as well that are going on. And so, see, again, the mistake as far as I'm concerned is when all of these white mainstream media

people, when they somehow look at last night and go, oh my God, look at Virginia. And it's not going on and all the different other reasons. The reality is this year, you had a weak candidate. Look, y'all, let me get everybody to understand. I got Terry McCullough's phone number. I texted him three weeks ago. His campaign never reached out to even come on our show. I live in Virginia. Not one time did his campaign

say, hey, let's have Robert Martin bring the show and moderate a town hall. It didn't happen. The reality is this here. You have to actually work for it. We have examples of candidates who won yesterday who worked for it. So if you were Tim Ryan in Ohio, guess what? You can't just talk to black preachers. You got to go to the ground. That's what Cliff Albright has been saying. Latasha Brown has been saying. Tamika Mallory has been saying.

Walter, Mondale, I'm sorry. You got to go to the ground, which means you're going to have to tell your white political consultants we ain't putting all the money in tv mainstream tv we're going to put it in black owned media outlets latino outlets and we're going to put it in boots on the ground that's how you achieve turnout or you just give that money to black consultants and let them do it but you're absolutely right ro, Roland. I will add, though. No, no, no, no, no, no. Hold up. It's some black consultants who are very much like white consultants. That's right.

That ain't no cap. All skin folk ain't kin folk. Listen, this is my metric for white people. If the black people you love came to you from other white folk, and there ain't no black folk around them, they probably ain't speaking for our community. They're speaking for your community. So that's just that. I pride myself on, you know, not having any ties. The origins of my organization did not come from the party. And that is not a

knock on anybody else's organization. It is to say, though, I spent my money to talk to black people in a way that I know we want to be talked to. And this idea that we're not progressive, that we are, I'm arguing that black people are the most progressive people in this country. And also that progressives didn't lose last night, milk toast white, boring Democrats lost and their ideas and were progressive or progressive ideas did lose. It was because of our white allies selling us out, i.e. the police reform bill in Minneapolis not passing. That's because white vote was up so high,

and we know that city is 76% white. So that means our white allies didn't think enough of their black neighbors to say, okay, let's reimagine what policing looked like. But in Cleveland, we saw a Democratic, Democratic socialist Mexican immigrant win a seat, right? In the very, in the, I'm sorry, not in Cleveland, in Minneapolis, in the same district George Floyd was killed in, a Democratic socialist, Jason Chavez, who is the son of Mexican immigrants, won a seat. So progressives win when we're loud and progressive. What does not work is there's

no motivation of voters when you're using milquetoast candidates who think black people just need to be whipped up by James Clyburn. That ain't how you campaign. That's trash. That's tacky. It's transactional. And actually, it should be called the proverbial church fan or fried chicken, because it's a whole lot of work that has to be undone. First of all, people think Black voters, Black men specifically, are apolitical, apathetic voters, when in actuality, we have a level of antipathy, which is a different emotion. That's hate for politics. And it's grounded in history, 150 years of history, where we were the first guinea pigs of voter suppression, and it's not yet stopped.

So people forget when you're talking about police reform, law and order, it didn't start with Richard Nixon. Yeah, he made it big. But law and order for us as a voter suppression tactic happened when they freed us enslaved. Look at North Carolina, my home state, which had three or four jails before or during slavery with no police officers. After slavery, immediately after slavery, they shot up to 100 prisons. That is the beginning of voter suppression for black people, and it's not yet stopped. So when people are talking to us, white consultants in the Democratic Party, talking to us about how to talk to my community, it's ridiculous and also nothing I'm willing to entertain at all.

Hold on one second. I got to pay some bills when we come back. I do want to talk about some of these other critical races that we saw last night. May oral races, DA races, that also are just as important as what happened in Virginia. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered as we break down last night's election results

all across the country right here on the Black Star Network. Back in a moment. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Hi, how's it doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seals.

Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What's up? I'm Manuel, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. We are here on the Black Star Network live from Houston. I'm looking over some other results that took place last night that is important for us to recognize because this thing goes way beyond just those races. Again, India Walton lost her bid to become mayor of Buffalo to Byron Brown. You saw that take place.

We talked about that. Also, if you look at some of these other elections, you had the first African-American mayor of Pittsburgh who won last night, Ed Gainey. He won. Also, in Durham, North Carolina, Elaine O'Neill won, becoming the first black woman to serve in that role as mayor as well. Of course, Eric Adams becomes the second black mayor of New York. He, of course, won last night as well. Justin Bibb wins in Cleveland. He becomes the second youngest mayor in the country as well. You also have an African

American who was elected district attorney, Alvin Bragg, Manhattan's first black district attorney as well. And so last night, Quentin, you saw what happens when you run candidates, to Mondale's point, who are exciting, who have a message, who people want to rally around. And so that's also a part of this equation. You can't ignore it. You've got to put the right folks up who can connect with the voters and who can talk about policy and their vision for the city, the county, the state, and the country. Exactly. You know, the collective pact, we were ecstatic.

We had 78 black candidates on the ballot last night. Over 50 percent of them have won their races. We spent over $350,000 in direct contributions to those candidates. And so we're very excited about what we saw. And I think the point is correct, the point that you and Mandela are talking about, is we are seeing, you know, Justin Bibb, I'm here in Cleveland, first-time candidate, right, beat the entire establishment, raised over a million dollars for his race. You know, but I think also beyond the candidates, we saw some important issues get voted on last night. You know, we passed the major police reform bill here in Cleveland. There was a reparations bill that passed in Maryland last night as well.

And so I think across the country, this wasn't an issue of moderates and progressives so much as it was, to your point, are you going to do the work? Are you going to put candidates out there who are going to grind, talk to voters, and bring forth issues to the people and let them decide? That's what we really saw last night. And I think while Virginia and New Jersey are somewhat of the kind of hotbed talking points of the day, there are a lot of lessons I think we can take from some of these mayoral campaigns, right? I mean, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, their first black mayor in their history. That's historic. And so black folks did that. Black voters did that. Black candidates did that. Black donors did that. And so there was a lot of excitement to go around last night.

But in fact, but here's the thing that Gary, that that also why national media doesn't want to deal with this here. In Austin, Texas, last night, this was backed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Voters there rejected a ballot initiative to give more funding to police, 68% to 31%. In Ohio, voters approved an independent body to investigate police misconduct. It passed 59-41. And yes, the ballot measure in Minneapolis failed to create a Department of Public Safety, but it got 43.8% of the vote. Hello? We're talking also Arizona. They passed $15 an hour as well.

So guess what? For all of this talk about how progressives lost last night, no, they actually won, except when you ran the white, boring, moderate candidates. Exactly, Roland. We know across the country that the nation is more progressive than not. And yet most of the legislatures across the country are right-wing conservative. And so voting rights and gerrymandering play a major role in the perception that Republicans and the conservative

element are running this country. Most people think, like those of us on this panel, that we want good government to provide good services to people. And that is, the basic math is that we outnumber our adversaries, but we don't reflect that in legislatures. The thing here, Mondale, when you begin to break these things down, you see what happens when you have a local power. First of all, we saw, we're going to talk a little bit later with our next panel about, you know, the John Lewis Act failing in the Senate today. But for all the people who are watching mainstream media, again, with all the nonsense they're saying, this is what we are saying here. Define your issues, push the candidates to support those issues, and then reward them. Mondale, I talked with Alicia Reese last night, and she said when she got elected there in Cincinnati,

she said, you know what? She said, we have to deliver. She said, so we're taking the buses. We're going out there, and we're having the resources. We're giving the vaccines. We're doing those things. People are seeing us actually do things. That's where candidates have to be. All is not lost. Democrats, again, this should be a wake-up call for Jamie Harrison, Democratic Party. If I'm Jamie Harrison, I'm firing the entire media team because I swear they have no idea how to put together successful viral ads. And so go hire a Beverly Lincoln project, but do something because you

don't know how to do it, But you have to create the resonance. You can't just keep sitting here putting out white papers and think that people are going to read those. You have to explain to people what's going on. This Build Back Better deal, they should be fanning out across the country being very specific of what's in it, the things in it that actually impact everyday people. You don't let the Washington media drive the narrative by only hearing 1.75 trillion, 1.75 trillion, when that comes out to less money per year

than what we're spending on defense. Exactly. I think that's absolutely right, Roland. I think that the media team definitely needs to go. But not only that, there needs to be some hard looking at the auxiliaries of the Democratic Party and how they spend their resources. It is these institutions that really pick and choose who will be the party's candidate. And people say the Democratic Party, the National Party

does not play in the primary. We all know that's not true. We knew that the party was behind McCullough before the primary was over. We knew that. They came to Virginia, and because there's no—Virginia is the wild west of funding when it comes to campaigning, so there's coordination between C4 organizations, the party, and all other people that want to play. We saw a coordinating way, the turnout project, whatever the name of the new organization they created this year just for this McCullough thing, and it didn't work. And part of the reason it didn't work is because the strategists, the strategies and the strategists are wrong. They're wrong for the time. It was wonderful while it lasted, but you can't call

Black people, you can't TV ad us to death, And you're going to need to figure out how you extend black people if you are to win and not lose more gubernatorial elections come next year and also lose control of the House and the Senate. There's a form of voter suppression that nobody is really talking about, and it is the number one form of voter suppression, and that's poverty. That's poverty. Poor people can't think about voting when their stomachs are rumbling, when their kids' stomachs are rumbling. And until we address how hungry people are proverbially and also literally in this country, we will have a large segment of the population that will always be so-called sporadic or low-information voters. And that is the fault of the problem. Like you said, not, one, articulating what's in the bill back better, and two, not passing it because of Joe Manchin and Sinema and, well, hell, the Jim Crow-era relic, the filibuster. Well, you already saw the reaction where Democrats in the House, they're going to put a family leave, paid family leave back into the bill.

It was a dumb idea of listening to Joe Manchin to take it out. Gary Flowers, Quentin James, Vonda Robinson, gentlemen, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. Thank you. Appreciate you, Roland. Folks, go to the Black Star Network to watch. We earlier today live streamed the Black Women's Roundtable, their breakdown and analysis of last night's election. And so if you want to see that, go to the app. It's a great

conversation. We streamed it on the platform for you to check it out. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk more politics. What happens going forward? What should we as African-Americans not only be asking for, demanding, but how are we mobilizing and organizing our people to vote in our interest? We'll talk about a jury selection in the Ahmaud Arbery case as well.

Lots more to talk about right here. Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from my native city, Houston, Texas, right here on the Blackstrat Network, back in a moment. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021.

You should pick something stronger that's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did.

The all-new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you. All of you. Once upon a time, there lived a princess with really long hair who was waiting for a prince to come save her. But really, who has time for that? She ordered herself a ladder with prime one-day delivery. And she was out of there.

Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And she was out of there. I want some hood girls looking back at it and a good girl in my text practice. Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince, well, who cares? Prime changes everything. Never left, but I'm back at it, and I'm feeling myself. Black women have always been essential. So now how are you going to pay us like that? And it's not just the salary. I mean, there are a whole number of issues that have to support us as women.

Yeah, but that's what we deserve. We shouldn't have to beg anybody for that. I think that we are trying to do our best as a generation to honor the fact that we didn't come here alone and we didn't come here by accident. I always say every generation has to define for itself what it means to move

the needle forward. We'll be right back. Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I gotta defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling, we're rolling all the way.

I'm gonna be on a show that you own, a Black man owns the show. Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. Rolling was amazing on that. Stay black. I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share

who we are, what we're doing in the world, and the impact that we're having. Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be Black on media and be scared. You dig? Our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them.

But I'm able to say, watch out Tiffany. I know this bro. That is so freaking dope. Hey, I'm Deon Cole from Blackest. Hey everybody, this your man Fred Hammond and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks, glad to be back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We are going to further unpack last night election results. A lot of different things, as I said, took place last night that was quite interesting, quite interesting. And what I need people to understand as we are talking about elections, and the reality is this here, if you look at the history

of their Virginia, the party that wins the White House and next election, there's a huge shift there. And so I don't I disagree with a lot of people that you somehow can determine that what happened in Virginia is is just just so cataclysmic that that is unbelievable. Bottom line is this here. You saw a huge shift because that's what happens in these elections. What you have to be looking at, though, is what's the turnout, not the percentage. What are the numbers? And so we talk about African-Americans. Where do we stand when it comes to in terms of being able to drive turnout in our community? You're seeing what do we fund if, and be real clear here, if the focus is solely locked on for a party to fund those efforts, then you're going to have failure. The reason Georgia flipped, it was because folks in Georgia organized, mobilized,

raised the money and changed the game. Amendment 4 with Desmond Meade and Sheena Meade in Florida because of what they did. That's why on the ground activism is just as important, even more important, I think, than party activism. My panel right now is A. Scott Bolden, former head of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Also, John Jackson, chair of DeKalb County, Georgia Democratic Party, and Brianna Cartwright, a political analyst as well. Glad to have all of you here. What jumps out right now, as far as I'm concerned, on this election last night, it goes to show you when you have enthusiasm on one side and you don't have enthusiasm of the other. The candidate drives that. The message drives that. All of those things drive that. And so from an African-American standpoint,

Scott, I'll start with you. Our focus has to be on what are we driving, demanding, looking for between now and the midterm elections next year? And who are the candidates that we want to see win? And how are we going to fund them to get them over the top? Well, I think you're absolutely right. But all of those factors, the narrative, the excitement, it's easy to grow excitement and fervor when you are against something. It's harder than when you're for something. The Democrats have a year to fix what happened in Virginia, but I tend to think every race is different. One of the reasons that black folks and Democrats didn't come out in higher numbers is because the White House and the House and the Senate Dems simply haven't been able to get the job done. You and I have talked about this. I've said it before, that if you don't get criminal justice reform done,

if you don't get voter protection and voter reform done and against voter suppression, then there's no reason for Democrats, black or white, to come out and support this administration. And I know it's only been nine or 10 months, but I've been saying it and others have been saying it. There's no reason for them to come out. Now, this is a governor's race, right? And Terry McAuliffe and the beloved bill and him being misquoted or taken out of context. Youngkin had the money and the expertise to exploit it. He didn't need Trump, if you will. And they convinced Trump not to get in the race

other than do his call-in rallies. But he never criticized Youngkin. And you know he was chomping at the bit because he took credit for it this morning and late last night. The Democrats simply have to deliver. And they have not delivered. And you're going to see this in 2022. You're going to see it in 2024, whether it's education or the economy. It all goes to COVID. Biden can't be blamed for COVID, the second or third surge, if you will, but he's the president. And so you've got to give them a reason to vote for you.

And we've realized, lastly, that linking Youngkin to Trump with Trump not on the ballot and Trump not in the White House will only take you so far. Now you've got the ghost of Trump, but Youngkin didn't look like Trump, and he didn't... wasn't hugging Trump. And so now you've got to deal with a moderate Republican candidate and perhaps other candidates who court Trump voters, but court independents and suburbanites and the intellectuals and the college educated who say people like Youngkin,

who shoots basketball and wears khakis, but hold Republican views and hold Trump views, they're just not as disgusting and obnoxious as Donald Trump. That's what we're going to be up against in 2022 and 2024. So, so, Roland, can I... Bottom line, though, the bottom line here, and the reason I want to go to Georgia on this is because, again, the difference here, what you saw, you saw black people mobilize and organize on the ground. That was the difference there. John, yes, you have a party structure there, but it was the people who were then dictating what the parties do, not the other way around. I still fundamentally believe that if Senator Warnock is going to get reelected in Georgia, it is going to take that level of mobilization on the ground.

I said it earlier that too many of these campaigns are driven by the consultants, put all the money on television, bombard people with TV ads. And I'm sorry, that ain't going to always do it. You've got to have boots on the ground. You've got to be activating people. I said this last year, John, that the Democratic Party should be focused in holding town halls and meetings with people in advance of 2022, not waiting for July or August. And no, really going in and talking to people and saying, this is what we're doing, what we want to do, and showing them, if you don't do that, you're guaranteed to lose. Yeah, Roland, I 100% agree with you. Sometimes it's the party. Sometimes it's not. We at DeKalb County Democrats, we were in communities all year long, not just when there was an election nearby. we raised close to a half a million dollars and then ended up hiring, you know, 90 plus staff.

And we were just a county party and that we were a big reason why Georgia flipped. And whether it's, you know, a county party or another organization like the guest you had on earlier, Mondale, for like Black Male Voter Project. You just have to do the work year round. You can't leave the black vote as an afterthought. You have to be engaging the black community all year long. But there are systemic issues, national systemic issues, that could hurt us. And if the Biden administration cannot move the ball, if we can't get past the gridlock in the Senate, it's going to be a tough job in Georgia. We can do our best, but the energy just, it'll be hard to generate the energy if the Biden administration doesn't start moving the ball.

Brianna? Yes, so I agree with that. As John knows, I'm very much a proponent of just hard work and grassroot organizing. And so I think that it's very problematic that you've stated so much, Roland, that people think that advertising and these mailers are going to win campaigns. And I want to emphasize that it's not just white consultants. It's old campaign managers. There's people who haven't progressed and realized what they need to do for the community. And, you know, they're making a lot of money by just selling inexperienced people their mailers. And so, you know, they tell candidates, raise money, avoid the tough questions, buy TV ads a few weeks before election day,

and hope for the best. And, you know, some of the stuff, you know, we have to do, it says, without going. But that's not how true campaigns should be running. You know, candidates should be meeting the voters, engaging the issues that matter, and, you know, actually talk about the issues, right? Bolden talked about it a little bit, about, you know, how they about the issues. Right. Bolden talked about it a little bit about, you know, how they're I know we Roland on a different segment talked about, you know, the messaging behind McAuliffe. So, yeah, talk about what you're what I do disagree with Bolden in the sense of, you know, he said that Trump got deattached. But the centerpiece of Glinken's campaign was a promise that he would ban critical race theory, right? He had the last two days of him on the trail, he brought people who proclaimed the desire to kill Black Lives Matter activists. And so, I mean, there was a lot of far right, you know, right-wing talk and, you know, they

did the racial resentment. And so that was actually part of the huge part of his message, which worked. And he won. He won a state where no Republican has won in a decade talking about how he hates black people. Right? So – Yeah, but here's – Go ahead. Here's the deal, if I may. He ran a race that in the western part of Virginia,

which is a lot of red areas, yeah, he ran on those messages, right? You didn't see that in his campaigns and you didn't see him with Trump. In northern Virginia, he softened that message because he knew Trump wasn't coming to Virginia and he wasn't going to be embracing Trump. But here's another issue, Roland,

and I don't know whether you've talked about it yet or not. 13% of black voters in Virginia voted for Youngkin. I bet you the majority of them were black men. The Democratic Party still hasn't addressed that issue. 13% voted for Trump in 2020. And it's because the Democratic Party is not talking to black men. Oh, they talk to black women, no offense to them. And they talk to black people generally. But they don't have a policy that supports, empowers, and uplifts black men. And because black men aren't hearing that message and not having a reason to vote, at least figuratively, let alone literally, 13 percent are going for the Republican GOP.

How do you explain that? That just makes no sense. I want to push back on that a little. But the Republicans are talking to them. We're not talking to them. John, go ahead. John, go ahead. I'm going to push back on that one a little bit.

There has always been a segment of black conservatives, no matter who's running, even Barack Obama. There's always a baseline of black conservatives who vote Republican. Not 13% in Virginia. They're not. And to say that it's odd that black men would vote Republican more than black women would be to say it percent Republican, black men are going to be at 12 percent. We in Georgia won with Trump getting a higher percentage of the black vote. Black conservatives are going to exist, and they can exist. I'm a Democratic Party leader saying if you're a right wing black person, you should be a Republican. You should be a Republican. Point out, I'm not against black

Republicans existing. And there's a lot of black people with conservative views. And I just don't think the Democratic Party should be catering to conservatives of any race. But you're presuming in my statement that these are black conservatives voting for Youngkin and Trump. And in regard to Youngkin, that's not my proposition. proposition is that these are independents, maybe conservative Democrats, because Virginia doesn't have 13 percent of black conservative voting population. Those are those independents, suburbanites, educated, right, who are tired of the Democrats or the Democrats haven't delivered. And those independents, he will yunk in one more independents than McAuliffe did, and he pulled in those blue states, I'm sorry, those blue areas

in Virginia, he pulled more votes than Biden got a year ago. He may not have beat McAuliffe in Richmond and in Fairfax, but he got enough to be ahead. He didn't lose, he wasn't trounced in those areas, because that's lack of black

or rather Democratic turnout, because they're not energized. Look, look, OK. OK, here's the deal. Look, look, look, look. No, excuse me. This is real simple. I'm going back. I'm going back to the most basic premise. And that is this year. If you talk about what needs to happen over the next year, I don't care who you are, whether you're talking about a party, whether you're talking about third, where you're talking about external groups. It's a matter of being able to go to folks and say, this is how we can deliver now. And remember, let me take everybody back to 2010.

Remember, Democrats spent all of 2009 going back and forth, back and forth on the Affordable Care Act. When did the Affordable Care Act get passed? It was when Scott Brown won in Massachusetts, the seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. So that's what happened. So I'm telling you what's going to happen now. All of these Democrats who've been obstructing and trying to get the perfect thing, they're going to say we want to get some stuff done because they're now up against the clock. And what I'm saying is our position has to be our position has to be this is time where you say, fine, you're going to get something done. Now, this is what we want and what we desire. That is what I'm saying.

That is what has to happen right now. It's not wringing our hands. Oh, my God, I can't believe what happened with the election. Guess what? It's over. Yelker is going to be the governor for the next four years. He can only serve one term. If you're in Virginia, focus on who the hell is going to run against him.

But if you're Democrats, you better be focused on right now who is going to be your nominee in Kentucky, in Wisconsin, in North Carolina, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in Florida. Because there is anger, there is white anger, white fear, white identity politics being driven by the right, you better figure out a strategy to counter it. Otherwise, you're going to lose. That's what has to happen. It's coming. Yeah, and I think you're right. We can't agonize at this point. We need to organize. And we have 370 days to get this done. So I think that you're absolutely right. We need every one of those days for us to win in 2022. And to talk about we need to have people knocking doors. You know, we stated this, like people within the community organizing, having those meets and greets, building, you know, you know, Mondale said, you know, we stated this, like people within the community organizing, having those meets and greets, building, you know, Mondale said, you know, they're tired of the phone calls. But,

you know, some of the reminders that happens from the text message, et cetera, but having those conversations now, like tomorrow, like it's very important because we don't have time. And honestly, you know, just in October alone, the Republican Party or the Republican Governors Association raised $4.6 million. And so we are not going to be able to probably out-raise them. But what we can do is outwork them. And so we need to make sure that we have our boots on the ground, that we have our troops, and get the message out. We can argue, and I know Bolden and John is going back and forth on that, but we can argue about the messaging. But when we don't have the boots on the ground, when we're not doing the work, then we really can't argue about the messaging

because not enough work is happening. And that's a problem in a lot of these races. You can see, I know we're talking about the nail in the coffin. Real quick, hold up, literally I got 30 seconds left for this segment. I got to get John in real quick because I got to go to a break. Sure. I mean, I think that between now and then, it's got to be a barnstorm. And we have to be relentless in moving the ball forward in D.C.,

get some stuff passed, and really just not stop. And we have to give—the Democratic Party has to stop sweeping the Black agenda under the rug. It's angering a lot of Black people right now. The Biden administration is talking about sending out checks to migrants, but won't entertain the conversation of- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is incorrect. That is incorrect. That is what's being, no.

In fact, that was addressed today at a White House news conference. Let me tell, this is the stuff that what we as black people cannot do and that is with misinformation. They're not talking about handing out checks to migrants. What they're talking about, no, no, no. We've got to correct black people when they're wrong.

The ACLU has sued the federal government for the treatment of the individuals on the border, the separation of families. And so what is being talked about is not even been decided is do you settle a lawsuit? So they're not handing out checks. That's what they're doing. And so Fox News, they're running with this here. I've had to counter black people on this one as well who say, oh, oh, oh, my goodness, the legals, they're getting reparations. No, it's a legal settlement. And I can tell you other different people out here, lawsuits happen every single day.

The federal government gets sued every single day. Not all cases go to trial. And so that's what's going on here. The Department of Justice is actually back and forth. That story that was put out that said the Biden administration, oh, they're about to sit here and hand these checks out. He addressed it today.

He said, that's a nonsensical story. We got to correct our people when they are spreading stuff that's not true. That's what we got to do. Hold tight one second. I got to go to a break. We come back.

Black man shot 50 times by officers. Hmm. While they got out of jail, we'll talk to the brother's mother. Next, the Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. ТРЕВОЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves.

Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. 44-year-old John J. Brunson has been missing for over a month. She was last seen in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, September 30th. John J. is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs about 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She's considered a critical missing person. If you have seen John Joe or know her whereabouts, call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-576-6768, 202-576-6768. The jury selection process in the trial of the three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery may be coming to an end. The prosecution also is accusing the defense of eliminating black jurors. Here's how it breaks down.

Of the selected pool of 65 potential jurors, only 48 were actually qualified. There were 23 white females, 13 white males, 6 black males, and 6 black females. The 12 selected include 11 white people and 1 black man. The prosecution requested a Batson challenge, which is an objection to the validity of a preemptory challenge on grounds that the other party used it to exclude potential juror based upon race, ethnicity or sex. The attorneys are still arguing over this particular issue. Let's stay in Georgia.

Two Georgia law enforcement officers were indicted last week. They allowed to turn themselves in, stay in jail for a couple of hours and then be released on a $50,000 bond for killing a black man during an attempted arrest. Eric Hines and Christopher Hutchins were charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements in violation of oath by a public officer after the 2016 shooting of Jamarian Robinson. He was shot more than 50 times. Joining us now is his mother, Monteria Robinson, on Roland Martin. Ms. Robinson, first of all, we certainly condolences for the loss of your son. It has to be troubling to see how these officers were treated. Your son's dead, and they are just allowed to, you know, move about, turn themselves in, not spend much time. And now they're already out of jail free on bond.

Actually, to be honest, today, I have been a little sad because of the $50,000 bond, because here you are, you have these major charges, felony murder, you know, two counts of felony murder, burglary, aggravated assault, and all you get is a $50,000 bond. Where does that happen at? You know, what planet does that happen on? United States of America, I guess that's the response. But I am like really disappointed in that, you know, here it is, you know, we got the indictment on Monday, October the 25th, you know, I'm sorry, October the 26th was the indictment, but the grand jury process started on Monday, October the 25th. But, you know, I'm just so taken back to the small amount of the bonds that they were given.

The first of all, I mean, we still have in this country, frankly, how police officers are given a lot more more leeway than others. And unfortunately, I think that's what we're still seeing right in this case here. So you're asking me why? I'm asking that question again. I didn't quite hear you. No, no, I'm just saying that, I mean, this is an issue that we have in this country, how they give significant leeway to law enforcement officers. But why is that?

You know, my son was, you know, think about who was it, Michael Vick, that was sentenced to four years in jail for, you know, killing dogs. You know, they treated my son worse than a dog. You know, I mean, they treated my son as though he wasn't a human being. You know, my son was somebody treated my son as though he wasn't a human being. You know, my son was somebody. My son was a life. So imagine, you know, I've been fighting this beast for the last five years. So just imagine if, you know, I would have just sat down, been quiet,

and have not been aggressively or proactively seeking to get, you know, actually seeking accountability for what happened to my son. Imagine if I wouldn't have done anything. This case wouldn't have gone nowhere. You know, in the beginning when my son was killed August 5th, 2016, you know, I was like, okay, I knew they were going to come with their false narrative. So what I immediately did, my family and I, we brought in our own team of people, such as our own investigator, our own forensic expert, who was Dr. Michael Biden. And so that's why I've been aggressively beating the pavement, pursuing, you know, staying on the D. the DA about prosecuting these officers. And if I wasn't been resilient or kept the fire going, do I think this was a fizzle out? Yes, it would have, because no one cared. You know, I'm just so happy and I'm thankful and grateful that our new district attorney, Fannie Willis, did have the courage to move forward and prosecute these

officers. Well, you have certainly been very much involved, very active in this. And so we appreciate the work that you have done. Keep it up. We're going to keep following this case as well. And hopefully you will get some justice in the death of your son. Thank you so much, Roland Martin. I look forward to seeing you again soon. And thank you all for allowing me to come on here and just kind of give you guys an update. So I'll keep you guys updated on what's next. All right. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much. All right, folks. Thank you.

Got to go to a break. We'll be back on Roland Martin. Yep. Thank you very much. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the PX massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice.

Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you. All of you. Once upon a time, there lived a princess with really long hair who was waiting for a prince to come save her. But really, who has time for that?

I'm still on myself. She ordered herself a ladder with prime one-day delivery. And she was out of there. I want some hood girls looking back at it and a good girl in my text break. day delivery and she was out of there. Now her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince, well, who cares? Prime changes everything. It's time to be smart.

When we control our institutions, we win. This is the most important news show on television of any racial background. Y'all put two, three, four, five, 10, 15, 20, $30 on this and keep this going. What you've done, Roland, since this crisis came out in full bloom. Anybody watching this, tell your friends, go back and look at the last two weeks, especially at Roland Martin and Filch. I mean, hell, go back and look at the last two days. You've had sitting United States senators today, Klobuchar and Harris. Whatever you have that you have, you can bring to Roland Martin Unfiltered to support it.

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George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Thank you, Roland Martin, for always giving voice to the issues. Look for Roland Martin in the whirlwind,

to quote Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. I support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network.

I am rolling with rolling all the way. I'm going to be on a show that you own. A Black man owns the show. Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. Rolling was amazing on that. Hey, Black, I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we are, what we're doing in the world and the impact that we're having. Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be black on media and be scared.

You dig? Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hey, everybody. This is your man, Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. Well, another failed effort at passing a voter bill in the United States Senate. It failed again today. Senator Chuck Schumer brought it to the floor. Republicans are still not going to go for it.

It ain't going to happen, y'all. You've got to end the filibuster. The only Republican to vote for it was Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Here's what she had to say. From Alaska. Here's what she had to say. From Alaska. Madam President, I've come to the floor this afternoon to speak also about the John R. Lewis Voting

Rights Advancement Act. This is S4. Listening to my friend from Virginia here describe some of the history that he and his family have lived through. Again, these are an important part of the discussions and the debate when we talk about one of the very cornerstones of our identity as an extraordinary nation. One of these principles of democracy and freedom,

and those are fair and open elections. The Majority Leader filed cloture on the motion to proceed on Monday evening, and despite some very real reservations that I have, and it's fair to talk about those reservations, I will be among those who vote to begin debate on this measure when we have this vote in a few minutes here. do so because I strongly support and I believe that Congress should enact a bipartisan reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. We have done that. Congress has done that five times since 1965, typically by an overwhelming margin here in the Senate. It's been about 15 years now since our last amendment to the Voting Rights Act, and I think it's fair to say that 15 years passage, it's probably timely and necessary to look at updates. And in order to do that, I think, Madam President, that what we have to do is we've got to step back from the partisanship. We've got to step back from the politicization that is driving this conversation. I think we should be able to agree to meaningful improvements that will help ensure that all our elections are free, they're fair, and they're accessible to all Americans.

Now, those who follow. All right. Then, of course, while that was taking place, Black Voters Matter, they were actually protesting in Washington, D.C., as well, continuing the pressure. The group of black women will be protesting tomorrow. We'll be live streaming that from 2 to 3 p.m. as well. And so you're seeing the continuation of the effort to try to get a voting bill. Bottom line is, look, what we're seeing, John, over and over and over again, we're seeing, look, at the end of the day, unless Democrats are willing to break the filibuster, there's not going to be a For the People Act, a John Lewis Act. It's not going to happen. All those people who

would walk up to John and praise him and love on him when he was alive, they don't give a damn the bill's name after him. They don't give a damn that he actually wrote the bill. The Republicans are not going to vote for it. So the only way this bill gets passed is if Democrats break the filibuster. John? Hello? Yes, go ahead. Oh, you're talking to me? My bad. So, you know, I think that there's this perception that the Biden administration is not bringing their A game to this. There's this perception that President Biden is not pushing hard enough to get his own agenda passed. And, you know, the reality is, I don't know if that's true or not, but I understand why it's seen that way. I believe that him and the Senate Majority Leader Schumer, they both, there's this perception that they're soft and that they're not pushing hard enough for the agenda to be passed. And they're not playing hardball enough.

I don't know. I'm not behind that wall. But I know something different needs to be done because if it's not, well, there goes democracy. It's really that simple. You literally have the opposition who supports being able to overturn the people's decision. They're going along with the former President Trump's fascism. And it doesn't seem like there's a sense of urgency

from the White House. Scott? Yeah. You know, Roland, we've talked about this a lot. If I can tell you Biden's not doing enough, I can tell you that Harris isn't doing enough because their own political survival and the Democratic and political survival of the Democratic Party is an issue. The problem with people that don't look like us in office are that they don't believe that. Time and time again, black people have shown that they're the core of the Democratic Party, that they are the base of the Democratic Party. The majority of white Americans hasn't voted for a Democratic president since Lyndon Baines Johnson. And so you have white Democrats who just continue to believe that if they attract more white Democratic voters, that they're going to be OK. And yet and still,

when you look at Barack Obama, when you look at Bill Clinton, it was the black base of Democratic voters that gave them the White House, including the Biden White House. These are realities, and yet it's simply not enough. And so it is not smart. It is dumb for Biden-Harris not to do everything humanly possible to press and stress and get rid of the clopature, cinema and mansion. If they're going to go to the Republican Party, I got to tell you, what difference does it make? Because they're not helping us get our agenda done. And here's the thing. We're not going to win the White House back in 2024 or get the Senate or the House for the Democratic majority if you don't pass this Voting Rights Act. You're not going to get back to the House and Senate Democratic majority

if you don't pass criminal justice reform. This is what they were elected to do. More than half of America said, this is what we want you to do. And they have not done it. And I don't care why they haven't done it. We have to be very results-oriented about it. You've convinced me, Roland, that protesting in the streets is a big part of this thing. Got it. OK, we're doing our part there. Not enough white Democrats aren't, though, because they don't believe they need the black vote to get to get reelected in 2022 or even 2024. And so we're stuck in this political vortex and neither side wants to move, but black people are moving. We're mobilizing. We're protesting.

We're doing everything we can. And for some reason, this White House doesn't want to do or negotiate or play hardball or whatever the levers of government or the White House are politically in order to defeat the filibuster and get this done, because that's the only way it's going to get done. Every time Manchin says I believe in bipartisanship, what happens? The Republicans show them otherwise. And so this is where we are. And it's not moving one way or the other. Yeah, I mean, I got you, Brianna. I agree. It's talking about the filibuster. We've talked about it extensively on the show together.

And and just to break down what it really is, is the fact that it was started over. We're not going to be able to pass this voting rights, as you said, Roland, without ending the filibuster. And so, like, the issue is, you know, the reason the filibuster was created in the first place was to hold the slave states, right? And you know, it was enforced when they were trying to say it was okay to hang black Americans on the trees. So, you know, it took a while, 2018, to get lynching to be illegal, right, on books. And so, you know, this is a thing that they've been utilizing forever at this point in order to keep us from our safety and our protections.

And so, I mean, it's a shame that we have the majority of the Senate in the House and we are not utilizing it. The people have spoke, and Mitch McConnell is still blocking what the people said they wanted. And so, you know, we need to fight hard. We, you know, to end the 60-vote threshold, get rid of the filibuster, because it definitely was for race reasons. I just, I mean, they thought that, okay, the excuse, right? Of course, they didn't say, oh, it's to keep black people away. But, you know, it was to shorten the process, because before, you're supposed to have the bill brought, you know, we already, we learned this conjunction junction, what's your function? The bill is brought to the floor, the Senate debate the bill, the Senator ended the bill, and then Senators vote on the

bill. And they, they thought, okay, you know, well, this is too many rules. Um, let's cut it. And, you know, which one they cut clearly was, was the debate and debate and you know things can go on forever and forever and they've been utilizing that um to to seize more power for um white america well uh we'll see uh again what what happens next all right folks gotta go to break we come back uh right here on roland martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Kanskje vi kan ta en kvart? Storbritannia Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson, like really loves.

Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon. And you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, we've talked a lot on the show about financial literacy and how important that is. Well, we also say you should start young. Well, my next guest created an app to do so, Mike Gross. He's out of Philadelphia.

He's the founder of Kiddie Credit and also the head of education for them as well. Mike, how are you doing? Excellent. How about yourself, sir? Doing great. All right, so walk us through what exactly is this app, Kiddy Credit? Sure. I'll be very brief. Kiddy Credit is a mobile chore tracking app designed to prepare families for the risks of using credit. I want anybody to think back to when they first learned about credit for themselves.

For the majority of us, it was through our bad efforts and mistakes. I know for me, it was being on a college campus. They offered me pizza. I got a credit card. I ran up the bill, and I was like, oh, God, I got to pay this back, never knowing how it was actually supposed to be used in the first place. Our goal with kiddie credit is to have children at a much younger age understand how the process works.

So that way, well in advance of them ever having to actually use credit, they know how to manage it effectively. The way it works is the better you do your chores, the better your score. The better your score, the more rewards you receive. The more rewards you receive, the more likely you are to continue this habit over and over again. We tie our scoring system exactly to the way FICO works.

So inherently you are learning, one, how to manage and build positive habits, but then two, how credit is actually calculated for your parents as they do things in the future. For anyone who wants to use the app, it is available now. It is in both Android and Apple app stores. It is free to use and download. And in our next iteration, which will be coming out shortly,

there is an entire educational modules that will follow along in addition to that positive habit building of just doing activities on a regular basis, being recognized and rewarded for it. In a nutshell, that's Kitty Credit. Well, how did this start? What precipitated this? Sure. So this was actually an idea that was created by my best friend and I. We grew up together. We made money. We spent money. We went off to college. I racked up a whole amount of credit card debt as well as student loan debt. He went off and did the exact same thing. And then

sitting back, we thought, why did we do this? How did we not know about this sooner? Wouldn't it be better for the next generation if they were able to understand these things well in advance of ever having to use them? The aha moment really came when we figured out that chores can be exactly the same way as payment. If you think of a missed payment like a missed chore, it's an immediate click. If you think about the longer you've been doing a chore, like the longer you've had an account, it showcases that you have responsibility for a longer amount of time. So there is an immediate and direct tie-in between how credit works and how you are managing your regular activities on a daily basis. So once we got that understanding, then it was really all about figuring out how to make it engaging and enjoyable for both a child and a parent to want to be involved in. Questions from my panel. Brianna, I'll start with you. Yes. Thank you so much for this idea. I love it. I don't have any children right now, but I had the debate in my head of whether I would pay my child with money or not and how they would use that money and so

forth. So I like that this is a way to still encourage chores without having to give them your hard earned money. So I appreciate that. One of my questions is when it starts, do you, it starts at zero. What does it start with? How many, like, is there a way to diversify more chores or how do you know, like everyone's approved for it? Um, how do you know, like the aspect of sometimes you're not going to be approved for some credit cards or you might need to work more to pay off this debt? Like, what is it? Is it just the chores and then you see it? Love it.

These are all really great questions. I'm going to try and answer all of them. The first thing is the vast majority of families, I'd say less than 40% of families actually pay out an allowance. In my household, like many households that look like me, I allow you to live here. I allow you to have a roof over your head, to have food on the table, all that kind of stuff. That was your allowance. You weren't getting paid for being a contributing member of this family. That's not how this works. With our app- You damn, you damn skippy about that. If you are paying out cash to your kids, by all means, more power to you. If you've decided that monetarily is not the way I want to do things,

parents decide what the rewards are for the chores that are set in place. It could be anything from later bedtime, more TV time, more screen time, ice cream, hanging out with your friends. There's a whole host of different options that we will provide to you within the app whether or not you decide you want to pay out actual hard-earned dollars to your children. Another great question. We start at the age of four. Our age range is from four to 12 for kiddie credit. And we start at four because simply enough, that's when they're first learning what money is. At that age, we're not specifically focused on teaching you the fundamentals of a FICO score. That's not really necessary at that stage. But what is important is learning the underlying habits and principles that are a part

of this. So one, responsibility, trustworthiness, honesty, consistency. These are all habits that a small child can understand from a very young age. The earlier you can learn those habits, the earlier we can start applying those to a financial aspect. The older children, they are, let's say, our age ranges go four to seven and then eight to 12. We have cubs and pandas. Our cubs are really focused on that initial understanding of positive habits. The older children, the eight to 12-year-olds, they're asking you for stuff. They want money. They want toys. They want clothes. They want all kinds of stuff. Once you've gotten to a point where you know how to ask for things, you also need to understand where these things come from. The hard work that a parent had to put in to earn the money to be able to get them is the same thing that you will do with this app. You are going to put in the effort on the front end and on the back end be rewarded for it. So that's how this process works. You start with the habits. Once you've built that habit, once you've built up some consistency,

then you are rewarded for the activity that you've been doing on a regular basis, the same way any adult is in getting a paycheck every two weeks. I've got a question, Roland. Scott? Yeah. But then, okay, when they get to be 17 years old and they're driving my car and they're working. Sure. And they're asking me for money.

Yeah. I don't want them to be in a habit of doing their chores around the house in exchange for money or credit. That's true. I want them to do chores. I don't want them to say, okay, I'll do this. I'll wash the dishes with this credit or this money. My biggest challenge, and I know 17 is a lot different than 12,

but I tried this over the years with Cole, my son, and getting him to appreciate that this is a chore versus a one-time take out the garbage, even if I was going to give him a reward for it, I'm not sure I want him to be doing things for a reward. I want him to do it because he's vested there and he lives there and I'm paying for him and I'm feeding him and I'm buying clothes for him and I'm giving him a roof over his head and I'm giving him a bed and covers and I'm sorry, I'm getting excited about this. You can keep going. That wasn't the end of the list. So, okay. So what the hell is your question? I'm in agreement so far.

I have, I got no problem with what you're saying so far. Yeah, but can we get to the question? But isn't that your biggest challenge with families getting them to buy in when many parents, at least black folks, feel like me? Why do I have to give them a credit to do what they're supposed to do? And isn't that your biggest challenge, it's selling it to a family? You know, for the most part, that isn't really the biggest challenge, unfortunately. Well, let's not say unfortunately, because the majority of us did not receive a quality education when it comes to financial literacy. And the majority of us want to do better for our children.

So the means to be able to teach someone else how credit works and how it can be useful in your future. Credit can be one of the most important wealth building tools that we have at our disposal, but we don't really understand how it works. What I don't want you to get caught up in is like a one for one transaction. It's not like you got one chore and that chore earns you a dollar. That's not what it is. You have a series of tasks that need to be completed over the course of, let's say, a week. If you complete all of your tasks effectively, then yes, you are entitled to the reward that has been predetermined for it. But if that reward isn't monetary, then they're not getting it. In the same way, if you go to school every day, you have to do your schoolwork.

If you don't complete the tasks assigned, you are not going to get the A that you're after. So it's not any different from that. I'm not specifically trying to make this a transaction where you now have to say, all right, washing the dishes is worth 50 cents today. Complete that, come get your 50 cents. It's not that transactional. It's on a much larger level. And the way that this works is that a parent is responsible on the front and back end. The parent is the one who is going to determine what the chores and the rewards are. The child is going to then go complete those rewards and then submit to the parent for

approval whether or not they actually did those chores or those activities up to the standard to be accepted. If they are, yes, you got it. You can move forward. If not, then you're not going to get that. The whole idea, first and foremost, is building the habit. And we build habits best through positive reinforcement. That positive reinforcement doesn't need to be dollars, but it can just be shout out to you, keep going. You're doing what you're supposed to, I'm loving it. We're a happy family. Like these kinds of things reinforce the habit

so that way it doesn't have to, at the end of the day, be monetary. One of the other reasons that we start earlier is because when they're at a younger age, children just wanna be involved. They wanna do what you're doing. If you are folding clothes, they want to start moving clothes. If you're cooking dinner, they want to be involved in that.

What often happens is in that 4 to 7 range, you were like, go be a kid. Go do something else. I'm handling this stuff. So by the time they get to 17, they haven't had the experience of being involved in all these activities on a regular basis. And now it's sprung on them like, you want me to do this? And I was like, well, I should pay for it, right? That's how this works, right? You want me to do something new or something different? As opposed to from a much younger age, we're saying this is just part of the responsibilities of being in this household. There are benefits

that come with being a part of this household, but there are also responsibilities that you have to live up to first and foremost. Mike, I got a quick question, Mike. Absolutely. A very brilliant person sent me this question to ask. How do they stay engaged in wanting the credit score that they can spend with their actual card? And how much do they start off with before doing chores? So if you think of your credit score as one level, that credit score is going to be directly

tied to FICO, but your credit score is not your bank balance. So, the way you want to think about this is your credit score is going to determine how many bamboo bucks is what we call it, our internal currency, is how many bamboo bucks you're going to receive. As our current standard, before a parent can go in and change anything, it's a dollar per year old per week. So if you have an eight-year-old, they can earn up to eight dollars per week based off of the chores that they complete and that the parent has said that they have done them effectively. If you have done all of your chores, lived up to all of your responsibilities, then you are entitled to that full $8. If you only did 75% of your chores,

then you're only entitled to 75% of the monetary value. But also with the credit score... I know some grownups who need a kiddie credit. I'm sorry? I said, I know some grownups who need a kiddie credit. We'll call that a vote of confidence. Thank you, sir. The other thing that you want to consider is not only are you providing them the opportunity

to make money, it's not only about making money. It's really about learning how to be an effective member of society. And for a child, it's about rewards. Like at the end of the day, I'm trying to get my rewards, whether that's toys, games, money, whatever it is, I'm after that. But for a parent looking at the long-term view, I'm looking to build habits in you. And'm looking to build habits in you. And if I can build habits in you, then I know I can send you out into the world as an effective member of society who is not just going to go blow it. That's the real goal here. It's twofold. One, for the child to start building those habits. Two, for the parent to reinforce

those habits, not only in themselves, but also in their child. All right. Michael Grossman, appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Good luck with your app, Kiddie Credit. Much appreciated. Thank you for having me. All right, folks, we come back in memoriam for Ronnie Wilson, one of the co-founders of the Gap Band, who has passed away. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice.

Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. But you should pick something stronger that's really predictable. That's a really tight spot.

Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you.

All of you. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Where you going? Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. filtered. Ronnie Wilson, one of the co-founders of the Gap Band out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has passed away at the age of 73. His wife wrote this yesterday on her Facebook page. Linda Boulware Wilson wrote, the love of my life was called home this morning at 10.01 a.m. Please continue to pray for the Wilson, Boulware, and Collins family while we

mourn his passing. Ronnie Wilson was a genius with creating, producing, and playing the flugelhorn, trumpet, keyboards, and singing music. From childhood to his early 70s, he will be truly missed. Wilson, along with his brothers Charlie and Robert, formed the Gap Band in the late 1960s. They were initially named the Greenwood Archer Pine Street Band after three streets in the black area of their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They later abbreviated it to the GAP Band and finally the Gap Band. Of course, the group group gained popularity by opening for bands such as the Rolling Stones, best known hits You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Early in the Morning, Burn Rubber on Me, Outstanding, and we could go on and on of course. And speaking of

Outstanding, that's been sampled by more than 150 artists. Numerous folks have been paying tribute to Ronnie. Donnie Simpson wrote, sorry to hear that we've lost one of the Gap Band's founding members, Ronnie Wilson. Ronnie and his brothers Charlie and Robert put the funk down for a long time. He died yesterday after suffering a stroke last week. My deepest condolences to the Wilsons and their legion of fans. And so, again, Ronnie Wilson, knew him well. He often performed on the Tom Jordan Morning Show Cruise, the Fantastic Voyage Cruise with Charlie Wilson,

and always got a chance to see Ronnie. Not only that, Ronnie also was an alpha man, so a fellow alpha brother as well. And so certainly condolences go out to his family and my homeboy, Charlie Wilson, as well, his brother. And so thoughts and prayers with him. Shout out to our panel today. John, thank you so very much. Brianna, thanks a lot. Scott, thank you so very much.

Also for our political panel. We're going to have more conversation tomorrow. Don't forget, you're going to have the Black Women's Roundtable. They're going to be holding their protest tomorrow from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern, fighting for voting rights on Capitol Hill. We'll be live streaming that right here on the Black Star Network. Folks, don't forget to also download the app. That's right.

We're available on all platforms, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Xbox, Samsung, Amazon Fire TV, all those platforms. So please support us. And, in fact, also support us with Fire TV, all those platforms. So please support us. And, in fact, also support us with our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show and what we do. Cash App is Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Folks, I'll see you guys tomorrow right here from H-Town. I'm Roland Martin. Y'all have an absolute great one. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА this is an iHeart podcast