#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2023 Hope Global Forums, Harvard Supporting President, A Few Wood Men, Inaugural Beach Bowl

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

12.12.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2023 Hope Global Forums, Harvard Supporting President, A Few Wood Men, Inaugural Beach Bowl It's a wrap here at the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta. Roland talks with Wally Adeyemo, the Deputy Treasury Secretary. We'll show you what Ambassador Andrew Young had to say about the Israel-Hamas conflict and what Marcia Fudge, the Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, had to say about the importance of homeownership.  Here's what else is coming Up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Harvard is standing behind its president, Claudine Gay, despite calls for her resignation over her congressional testimony on campus anti-semitism and plagiarism allegations. We'll explain why the Massachusetts attorney general filed a civil rights lawsuit against a white nationalist group. In tonight's Marketplace Segment, it's being called a "groundbreaking" black-owned watch collection. The creator of A Few Wood Men will be here to talk about her line of wooden watches designed exclusively for men and women of distinction. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, is hosting the inaugural Beach Bowl between HBCUs, Johnson C. Smith, and Fort Valley State University. The founder of the bowl's official broadcast partner, Urban Edge Network, will be here to discuss this matchup.  Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. self. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Tonight is Tuesday, December 12, 2023. Coming up, I'm Roland Martin on Filtered Streaming live on the Black Star Network. We are here in Atlanta where the Global Hope Forum has concluded. We'll share with you what took place today, including House Secretary Marcia Fudge talking about housing and what needs to be done to increase the housing stock in this country. Also, the number two official at the Treasury Department, Wale Adeyemi, we talked with him

about what the Biden administration has done to increase, to bear the economy, and also to impact Black business in the country. We'll also hear from the head of the United States Census, as well as we'll talk with the head of the Small Business Administration as well. Folks, in other news, rough day for Rudy Giuliani in a courtroom here in Atlanta as he's being sued by two black workers who said that he defamed them by accusing them of rigging the election. Also on today's show, the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, she has survived an attempt to oust her. We'll tell you the folks who are backing her, including several former presidents of Harvard as well. Also, the first black district attorney in Texas history,

Chris Watkins, has passed away at the age of 56. We'll have that news for you as well. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filtered on the Black Sun Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. Yeah, yeah. With Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah.

It's rolling, Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's bunk, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Yeah. Martel. All right, folks, Roland Martin here.

We are in Atlanta where Global Hope Forum, which began on Sunday, concluded today. The focus has always been about ending poverty, also building wealth, and really impacting African-Americans and others. Today, a number of people spoke today, including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, TI, also spoke. But also, we heard from two major Biden administration officials, House Secretary Marsha Fudge, as well as Wally Adeyemi, who is the number two official of the United States Treasury Department. He and I talked about this economy, how it actually has

been improving, and what the Biden-Harris administration has been doing to impact African Americans, especially Black entrepreneurs. Wally, glad to have you here. We finally get a chance to talk. It has been crazy to me, conversations that I to have you here. We finally get a chance to talk. It has been crazy to me, conversations that I have had with people, and I have sort of been having hand-to-hand combat on social media, when I hear people say, oh, my God, the economy is awful, all these things are bad, they talk about inflation, all those things absolutely matter. And one of the things that I

keep trying to explain to folks, one, we were coming out of a 100-year, something we had not seen in 100 years. And so this idea that the economy is going just to be gangbusters a year or two years after is simply not realistic. No, you're completely right. And thank you for having me. It's great to be here with you. And thank you for everything you do and the way that you tell true stories about what's happening in America. And I think you're right that the truth of what's happening in the economy is far different than what you often hear on social media. And the best way to hear about that is by going into local communities and seeing the fact that people who want jobs have jobs. We're seeing prices come down.

The price of gas, for example, is down 40 percent from its peak. And you mentioned the pandemic, where it's hard to remember, but when this president started, 3,000 Americans a day were dying from the pandemic. The only reason we're here today at this conference, sitting in this room, is because of the effort of the American people, but because the president committed to getting anyone who wanted to vaccinated. Inflation was a challenge that America had to deal with, and the president was committed to it, and that's why inflation has come down and prices are coming down on everything from gas to also prescription drugs.

But he's also committed to making sure that as we build the economy going forward, it's built in a way that it works for everyone, not just the people who it's worked for previously. That's why we've seen record lows in terms of Hispanic and Black unemployment. And the president's making sure that the bills he passed don't only help the select few, but help everyone in terms of young children of color, people of color, small business owners. And we've created a record number of small businesses by black and brown people in America. And the question now is how do we make sure those businesses turn into large businesses? Well, I saw a study and it talked about the increase in black wealth from 2019 to 2022. But I always tell people you've got to be deeper than mustard on a hot dog.

So you've got to go deeper. And the reality is that was largely attributed to the infusion of capital that actually went into the system. Had a guy today, he was going, he said, Trump put money in my pocket. I said, well, first of all, if the Dem control house don't pass those bills, it doesn't go to the Senate. He can't sign it. And that's the other thing as well. So I'm trying to sort of, and I keep saying, hey, folks, you're not going to see that kind of infusion coming from Congress again, because that was pandemic driven.

Now, it's how do you build the economy that is not relying upon the massive infusion of billions of dollars from the federal government directly in the pockets of people. And I think that you're completely right that ultimately people got this money to help them get through the pandemic. To pay rent, to buy food, all those basic needs. Take care of their children. But the thing that's impressive about the American people is they not only did that,

but they built small businesses in that. You saw black people start small businesses at record numbers. You saw Latinos start businesses at record numbers. And now the question is, how do you make sure that as a country, we invest in those businesses so they grow going forward? Right, to build capacity. Because that's one of the things that I keep saying.

It's easy, it's great to say we need more small businesses, but the point is you've got to build capacity. And even before COVID, we had 2.6 million black-owned businesses, but 2.5 million had one employee. Exactly, exactly. And I said, no disrespect, I said, those are not real businesses. I said, so you've got to have, you know, 8, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 100-plus employees. And that, to me, right now is what the focus has to be, building that capacity. And the president's very focused on that. And what he knows and we know in

the administration is that businesses need two things. They need access to capital, loans and things to grow. But almost even more important, they need access to customers. Right. So what the president has said is contracts. Yeah, contracts. The president said the federal government needs to be a customer for small businesses, particularly small businesses in rural and urban areas run by entrepreneurs who are underrepresented. So we're committing that 15 percent of federal procurement dollars are going to go to those communities. But he's also called on big businesses to do the same.

And you've seen big businesses from Google to companies that are in the clean energy space who are also making similar commitments to go to small businesses in these communities to help them grow. And we've also put $10 billion worth of capital in investments into community-run development institutions and black and brown-owned banks who are more likely to lend to those small businesses so they can grow over time. So we've got to do the work, but the people who are really doing the hard work are those small business owners who are taking chances. And you only start a small business when you have confidence in the economy, when you have confidence that you're going to have the ability to find customers, that you're going to have confidence that you can get the money you

need. And what the president wants to do is give people a hand up, not a handout, in order to make sure that those small businesses can grow and succeed. Well, I'll give you one example. We talk about customers are also what I talk about contracts. And so a lot of people talk about, obviously, which is important, access to capital. Well, you know, I launched this five years ago, launched a network two years ago, self-funded, started with one advertiser. We've been profitable since March of 2020. So for me, I'm not looking for a loan. I'm not looking for what I said, but the barrier in terms of contracts. Even when we look at the federal government for advertising, the study was done,

a billion dollars is spent every year, but black media gets 51 million. And so part of the issue is it comes with the ad agencies that we fight in the general market who then give us the same barriers. And so how are you in Treasury aligning with MBDA or the departments, breaking those bureaucratic hurdles down that's keeping folks from being able to access the dollars. Because, again, you can have great ideas, but there's always sort of that bottleneck when it comes to actually being able to connect them with the dollars. As usual, you know the right question to ask because you're doing it. You're an entrepreneur. You've built a successful business.

And the thing that you often learn is that the commitments that the federal government or these big businesses make are to procurement, and they're often to construction, janitorial services, what you would call low-margin business versus the high-margin businesses like entertainment or legal professions. Professional services. Again, accounting, all those different things. And what we are doing is we're holding people, there's two things we can do. We can do better ourselves, which we're committed to doing under the president's leadership in terms of the 15% commitment we're making is to making sure that we're going to try and reach those high-value professional services.

But we also need to use the bully pulpit to make sure that companies are doing the same and calling on them to make sure that their investments in procurement are following where their customers are, because the people who watch your show are the customers of those advertisers. I'm not just saying I want to see more black on media dollars. I'm saying you're using catering. You're using transportation, audiovisual. There's so many different things. So, yeah, it's not just, yeah, construction or architects. I'm like, I'm challenging them saying, look at all of the contracts that you're out there spending. And what's the black participation? Completely agree.

And the vice president has been a real leader on this. Last year, she created something called the Economic Opportunity Coalition, which is a table she's created for businesses who are willing to make commitments alongside the commitments we're making the federal government that will do things like make sure that procurement dollars are being spent in a way that reflects the need to diversify them, to build an economy that works for everyone. And our goal is to call more companies to take these actions because ultimately we know in the federal government we can create incentives, but the people who create jobs

are people like you, entrepreneurs. And we need to make sure that big businesses in this country, be they banks, be they big technology firms, be they the Walmarts of the world, they're taking steps to invest in businesses like yours because that grows their customer base as well as growing our overall economy. I got to ask you about private equity. So Obama's president, I get called to meet in the Treasury

Department, and I'm told that black and minority firms outperformed mostly white firms when it came to managing their TARP funds. My immediate response is, awesome. Are they now going to get more money? And everybody went silent. And one of the things that we see is that... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Conforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter. Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. These firms do very well. They outperform, but essentially there's a cap. Robert Smith's VISTA is the black firm with the most private equity. It's only $100 billion. When I look at the pension funds, which I keep telling people is the largest collection

of black wealth, and so those are — they're going to those funds. But unfortunately, what we're not seeing, they're taking a lot of money that involves a lot of black and brown folks, and then they're investing it not with black and brown people. And so how are you also looking at that, because so much of what's happening in this country is being driven by private equity, and that's largely white men who are controlling that money, and they're using money of a lot of black and other minority folks to drive their businesses. And I think what you're talking about here is wealth creation. And for too long, what we've focused on is only people's salary, which is important, and we want to make sure

people are paid a fair wage, but we also want to make sure that wealth creation is happening in all communities throughout our country. And a number of these firms, you're right, have just as good, if not better performance than some of the other firms. The thing they haven't had is access to the table. And what we're trying to do is make sure that they get access to that table by starting programs that bring them in to demonstrate that they can perform just as well. Because oftentimes the way the barrier to access is, well, you don't have a performance record that we can rely on. So by bringing them into things like the pension funds

controlled by the government and having them be part of pilot programs, it gives them the ability to demonstrate performance on some of the biggest pension funds in the country, which are owned by the federal government, that they can take that performance then and take them to pension funds run by states and allow them to grow their businesses. But we've got to do more at the federal government level.

But again, to your point, a lot of this capital is controlled in states. They're controlled by companies. And we have to do our part to use the bully pulpit to call on them to do the same and to make sure that black and brown entrepreneurs, black and brown investors, have access to the ability to manage this money. They're going to earn a return for their customers here.

But by earning that return, you're giving the opportunity for black and brown people to also create wealth in their communities and for the country. And see, for the folks who are watching who are probably saying, OK, Roland, I don't get private equity. What I keep talking about is also down the flow. So you got your private equity firms. But again, there are there are legal fees, there are accounting fees. So now you're talking about black law firms, I mean, about black accounting firms. And so it goes way beyond just sort of that private equity. I mean, there's a lawsuit in New Jersey right now with a black

firm that's suing the state of New Jersey and BlackRock saying you're freezing us out because we keep talking about how we can't get VC money. The VC money is coming from pension funds. Yeah. And I think this all comes down to, from my standpoint, access to capital, because not every company wants a loan. Sometimes you want equity. You want someone who's going to put different types of money into your business. And the best way to do that is to go to an investor who's willing to look at your business and to believe in it. And that's sometimes going to be the black-owned. One, take your phone call. Exactly.

Put you in the door. And I think that's what we're focused on, which is making sure the black-owned small businesses are given the opportunity for too long they've been denied and left out from, be it through the Inflation Reduction Act or the bipartisan infrastructure law. The president's focused on making sure that the benefits of these laws don't go to the select few, but go to these communities. The story I tell my staff every day is we have to remember what happened when we built the roads throughout this country during Eisenhower. Building the interstate highway system transformed our economy, but it also had winners and losers. And unfortunately, a lot of losers look like you and me.

Yep. We have to make sure. Yeah, we have to make sure that as we're investing in infrastructure, investing in clean energy transition and semiconductors, we're making sure that communities that have been left out and left behind actually can benefit from this, and they have the opportunity to grow their families and grow their economies as well. Last question for you.

You talked about a lot. Y'all have done a lot. I still, I fundamentally believe you haven't told the folks about that. So there's been a lot of work being done. And so obviously there's an election next year. Are we going to see more of you, others out there, literally breaking it down for the average person so they understand that, no, this is what has been done. We funded that, created that, created that, because I think that's also a disconnect. People literally just don't know. Yeah, and I think the hard part, and I appreciate what you do to make

sure that people do know, but I think you're going to see a lot more of us out there talking to people about how they can take advantage of the things that we've done. Because the challenge we have now is that we passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It's going to lower prescription drug costs, but it's created a number of tax incentives that allow you to buy an electric vehicle with $7,500 tax credit, reduce your cost of heating your home by up to $500. But people don't know about these things. So my goal is to go out there to talk to people about how they can take advantage of these incentives to help reduce costs for them, but also invest in their families going forward.

So the thing we have to do better in the federal government, regardless of an election year or non- an election year, is solve that last mile problem of being in communities and helping people understand how they can take advantage of the incentives the government has created to help them. And I'm going to be laser focused of that from now till as long as people keep me in this job. All right, then. Well, Wally, we appreciate it. Finally, glad we got a chance to chat and look forward to our next conversation. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for everything you do. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Folks, when we come back, we'll talk a new poll that shows black voters may very well sit out this election. What needs to be done by Biden and Harris to speak to speak to black voters, to get them to turn out and also not vote for Donald Trump. We'll discuss that next with my panel right here on Roller Mark Unfiltered, broadcast live on the Black Star Network, live from Atlanta. Back in a moment. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capitol we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen white

folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys, America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.

This is white beat. Субтитры подогнал «Симон» Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. I want to introduce my panel on today's show, Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for the EPA out of D.C., Randy Bryant, DEI disruptor out of D.C. as well. Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney out of Los Angeles. Glad to have all of y'all. Let's first talk about what Wally just laid out there. And I must say, Mustafa, you listen to all those things that he laid out. And I swear, I look at this administration. I'm like, do y'all know how to celebrate wins? Do you know how to articulate to the folks what you've done?

And I'm telling right now, man, I would be sitting here going all around America like, yeah, we did that. We did that. And we did that. We did that. And we did that, too. I mean, that's literally, they need to go on a we did that tour. That's exactly what they need to do, because most people have no idea about the successes that have happened, about the sets of opportunities that still exist for people to adjust the generational wealth gaps that we have in our country right now. And also the fact that you can actually start your

own business. As I travel around the country and as I speak, that's a part of what I share with folks, you know, is that there are these huge sets of opportunities out there. Yes, it takes work, but you have this moment now where whatever your particular dream has been, that you can make it become a reality. But the administration has to do better. They do better by, you know, investing in the Black Star Network and Roland Martin Unfiltered and a number of others who are out there that have platforms that reach our people. And when you don't do that, I think you set yourself, you create this disadvantage to allow others to put these negative and false.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion- dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Statements out there about how you're not doing anything for Black folks. Again, it's just amazing to me, Randy, when you look at the accomplishments, but then when you talk to, when you see this polling data, when you talk to folks and they go, man, they haven't done this, haven't done that. And you're like, what are you talking about? And so, look, this Biden-Harris campaign team, they've got some serious work to do in order to educate and enlighten the general public about how they were able to get inflation. It's now down 3.1 percent. How they were able to change the narrative, fix what was happening with this economy. And so you see on one hand the economic numbers.

When you see unemployment numbers, stock market, when you see wages, when you see all these things, and then you look at the polling, and it's by huge numbers. People say they trust Trump more on the economy, even though Republicans, the numbers don't even lie. Democrats, Biden has blown away Trump and other Republicans in the creation of jobs. Right. It's about the checks, Roland. It's about the checks, sadly. People were getting those checks during COVID and it made them feel as if I'm

getting free money. They felt that. That was exciting. And they don't understand that the real work to really improve the economy, that's going to work out in the long run, that's going to help build generational wealth, that is going to give more opportunities to Black folks. That work is being done by the Biden-Harris administration, but you don't feel it like you do an infusion of a check, right? You don't feel it the same way. And so it really does require this administration to go out there and say, no, let me show you what we're doing and why we do it. Because that fast money really just makes people feel as if they were making, and it's not a lot of money, but it made people feel as if they were doing better financially because of that.

Yes, because guess what, Joe? The federal government was helping people pay their rent and pay for food because of COVID. But let me be perfectly clear. All of y'all watching and listening, let me be real clear. Ain't no more damn checks coming. I'm just trying to help y'all watching and listening, let me be real clear, ain't no more damn checks coming. I'm just trying to help y'all out. It's not going to happen again.

I want to be as perfectly clear to everybody who's watching and listening. COVID, that was a once in a hundred year pandemic. If y'all think Congress is going to do what they did come 2024, 2025, 2026, you are, as my man Denzel said, and remember the Titans, you are outside your damn mind. Right.

Yeah. There's no question about that. And, you know, one of the things that's interesting, and this is something that the Biden administration really needs people to know, you know, they take over the economies in a tough, tough situation. You know, you can't inhabit a business. A business can't survive if it can't be inhabited. We literally are shut down. We're shut all the way down. Your first fundamental notion is safety.

If I don't feel like I can go to the store without dying, then I've got a problem. So the vaccination was really, really important. And a whole lot of people died on Trump's watch that didn't necessarily have to. And so that's the first thing you do. Three thousand a day. Yeah. Three thousand a day. That was a 9-11 happening every single day in America because of COVID. And that was the first thing that they needed to deal with. And Biden dealt with it and he dealt with it successfully. Next up, now you're dealing with the economy, right? You're dealing with the aspects of the economy. You're dealing with both job creation as well as bringing inflation down. Inflation was up. Now, statistically speaking, most economists will tell you that they did not expect to, at this point, be in the place where there is as much job creation than there has been,

as well as inflation down as much as it is all at the same time. Statistically, this was very, very improbable and he got it done anyway. And so a couple of things have to happen. First of all, they have to get the word out better on what actually happened, where we actually are and how unlikely it was. Right. The second thing they have to do is to solicit and address concerns so that people feel like they're being heard, even though they're already doing it. Solicit and address concerns. And then the third thing that you do is you pass legislation and you do everything that you can. So if the legislation doesn't make it past the Senate because of a filibuster, like the Voting Rights Act or like,

you know, like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. If it doesn't make it across the finish line, it's not because people think that you aren't doing everything that you possibly can. It's a multi-pronged attack, but it starts off with letting folks know how much better off that we are than most folks that are economists that would have cause to know, that understand trends, et cetera, than most of them thought that we would be. So here's the deal. So Politico dropped this story today. Henry, go to my iPad. Headline, poll, a fifth of black voters want someone else. Come on, control room, go full screen, please. Thank you. Poll, a fifth of black voters want someone else instead of Trump or Biden.

So when you go on this story here, it says in the Jan Forward survey released on Tuesday and shared first with Politico, nearly one in five black Americans, 17 percent, said they would vote for former President Donald Trump. And 20 percent of black respondents said they would vote for someone else other than Biden or Trump. Three quarters of black respondents said they would vote if the president said they would vote in the presidential election were held today. A figure that trails a number of white voters who said they will vote today by 10 points. And so you go on here, 3,448 eligible voters. It said black adults backed Biden more than any other racial group in the survey, but the president not 63%, just 63%, uh, among this block. And it also shows, uh, an increase, uh, folks said that, uh, an increase in people who said they would vote for Donald Trump, a particular black man. I I'm going to listen. I get people's frustrations, Mustafa.

But let me be fundamentally clear. We talk about what's going on here. And I'm going to say it again. If anybody watching one, if y'all think Trump is going to hook you up with more checks. Republicans made clear in the last debt battle over increasing, first of all, passing a budget resolution. They made clear they wanted to cut money that went to women and children for food. They do not want to increase the child income tax credit. They want to get rid of $35 insulin for those seniors on Medicare. So y'all can sit here and play around if you want to, but I'm telling you what these guys are going to do. But the other thing is, is here, when I see black voters should not be 10 points behind white voters when it comes to voting. I don't know where in the hell some people get this notion, Mustafa, that things are going to

improve if they sit out the election and when the very people who you fight and plan on voting, that's called a dumb election strategy. Well, you know, you got to ask the question, where are people getting their information from? And unfortunately, we have a lot of locations now that are serving up misinformation on a regular basis. And they understand that they continue to pump that out, that there is a percentage inside of our community that will believe some of the things that are being said. Now, that does not take anything away from the fact that this current administration, the Biden administration, has to do better.

They have to really get very focused on the things that the black community is asking for, and they've got to answer those questions. They've got to make sure that those sets of programs that can help are actually being utilized and people are knowing how to get involved with them and how to pull those levers of power to make sure that change happens inside of our community. that they're doing everything in their power. If they don't, then unfortunately, because of the society we live in, that misinformation will continue to chip away at those critical votes. Look, Randy, obviously, when you look at these polling polls, I know a lot of cops,

and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We are 11 months out. And to Mustafa's point, when you provide information, folks have a differing view. But again, I just sort of sit here and listen to these people, and I'm going, I don't know in what world they actually believe that Trump is going to somehow come waving checks if he gets back in there.

They are not paying any attention to Project 2025. They're paying no attention to the Freedom Caucus, and they want to slash and burn. And so these people, this, you know, this reminds me of, this reminds me of 1984 and all these young Republicans were out there, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, oh, Ronald Reagan. They were just, they were just cheering Ronald Reagan. And not even a month after election, Ronald Reagan and the Republicans took a meat cleaver to Pell Grants and Student Loan and Student Financial Aid. And I saw all these same Republicans crying. And I'm like, well, guess what, dumbass? You're the fools who put them back in. The same people who were championing Ronald Reagan were crying a month later after the election

because they cut Pell Grants and student aid because I guess they thought they were exempt. Right. And I don't know how people aren't paying attention now because everything that the Republicans are doing, if you pay attention, to me indicates that they are trying to completely make it where black people have no power, where there's no force or anything that's going to help us. And so I think the complete opposite. I tell people I'm trying to make plans to get my citizenship

because if Trump comes into power, I'm scared, you know, I'm going to be trying to Harriet Tubman out of this place because it's very clear, he has made it abundantly clear how he feels about black people. He is not hitting it's very clear. He has made it abundantly clear how he feels about black people. He is not hitting it in any way. And it's interesting to me that people want to pick out, well, he gave this much to HBCUs, but they don't do the real research. And again, we're in this society that looks at one misinformation, as my brother just said, but also we just look at the headlines.

And so we're so easily fooled because we're seeing one headline that has been pushed by the Republicans, and we really believe that Trump is for us. And I'm shocked at how easily we're bought, again, by the checks. And then you'll have some third rate rapper that Trump has partnered with and we think he's down for us. And I'm like, we can't be, we cannot be that easily bought. We owe it to ourselves to really take the time to research, read an article, find out who is for us and who is actually doing things that will benefit black people now and for generations to come. Here's what I sometimes just wonder, Joe. Go back to my iPad. It says overall, the president's approval rating in this survey was sitting at a paltry 38 percent for black respondents have approved of Biden's job performance, while 34 percent of Latino, 37 percent of AAPI and 36 percent of white respondents viewed Biden positively.

OK, so here's the question that I would ask any of those people, the people who let's say the 62 percent of blacks, I would say the 66 percent Latinos. And then I was a 64 percent of whites. And that is. What more? Did you expect Biden Harris to do? Now, increase in education funding increase in infrastructure the largest infrastructure um um spending bill since president dwight eisenhower then when you start looking at the Inflation Reduction Act, I can go on and on and on.

So I'm trying to figure out what did people actually think? Now, I get the issue of inflation. I totally get the issue of inflation. But I wonder if people even understand how inflation happened. We literally had companies jacking up prices across the country, jacking them up. The next segment, we're going to hear from Marsha Fudge talking about housing.

I've seen people, Joe, complain about housing, and I'm going, because we didn't build houses in 2010 between 2000 and 2010 and 2010 and 2020 so you're blaming somebody for a housing crisis but actually what started 23 years ago that to me to me, is crazy. Now, maybe folk don't have all this information, but bald don't lie. And so at some point, again, this is where I go back to the administration,

they have to be aggressively talking about these things so folk understand what the real deal is. Yeah, I mean, no doubt about it. And for a long time, what masked what was getting ready to happen with housing was the low interest rate. Right. So for a long time, you could get more house. Theoretically, it's a little bit more a little bit safer. Right. Because it wasn't like, you know, pre 2008 where you had bad loans, you had faulty loans. Countrywide and everybody else had all of these things where they, you know, adjustable rates, negative AMs. You didn't have

a lot of those things. But what you did have was prices continuing to get brought up. And as it pertained to housing, at least you could say for the moment you could mask the problem for a while because interest rates were so low, right? Now, but as you go along, now things get changed and we understand the exacerbation of this problem. People have to understand that whoever the current president is, you're going to blame him for all kinds of stuff, even if it goes back 10, 15, 20 or 100 years. It doesn't matter. They're going to get blamed for it. This is why it's so important for President Biden and everyone to explain this. There ought to be a one on one on inflation. There ought to be a one on one on housing. There ought to be a one on one on infrastructure. There ought to be a one on one on building businesses and do the one on one.

But also talk about what you've accomplished under that umbrella and in that space so that the education can continue. And so that, by the way, you can add to the number of voters. There's still enough voters out there to be got that aren't voting. And then the problem with Donald Trump is you've got this hangover of pop culture. You thought he was involved in pop culture. He was in black videos and he was on the Fresh Prince. And therefore, he's for you. Of course, that's a lie.

But you don't figure it out until it's too late. Gotcha. Hold tight one second. We come back. We're going to hear from her secretary, Marcia Fudge, who was here at Global Hope Forum talking about housing. And she made a point that I have been making many times why there is a housing problem in the country. And to all y'all paying attention, it has nothing to do with Biden-Harris or anybody in the White House or anybody in Congress. It has literally been 20 years in the making.

We'll discuss that next. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do first. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button, folks. I see y'all comment, hit the doggone like button. Also, join our Bring the Funk fan club. See your ticket money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.

20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, how big a role does fear play in your life? Your relationship to it and how to deal with it can be the difference between living a healthy life,

a balanced life, or a miserable one. Whenever the power of fear comes along, you need to put yourself in that holding pattern and breathe, examine. Find out if there's something that your survival instinct requires you to either fight or take flight. Facing your fears and making them work

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Marsha Fudge spoke here at Global Hope Forum, talked about what she has been doing to change what's happening with housing in America, but also why we have a housing crisis right now. Here's what she said in her conversation on stage with John Hope Bryant. Madam Secretary, one of my pet peeves is that black people are at 41 to 43% homeownership. And the number one way you build wealth in America is homeownership. Am I right about that? Absolutely right.

And my mainstream counterparts are at 75%, give or take, homeownership rate. That 30% delta, the difference between that is why we don't have a net worth and we keep was one of the primary reasons that in what toby just left small business creation you and him really are the anchors for the solution uh uh and what bishop jakes is doing you were with him yesterday are the anchors for the solution for the revitalization of all of us but we are we got to stop talking and start doing because if black people keep doing what we're doing, statistics say that by 2050, 2052,

black people net worth will be zero. Zero. And a lot of that is we don't own homeownership, real estate. Real estate is the biggest business in the world. Stocks. what are you doing to try to bridge that gap of uh of homeownership for african-americans but all other people as well poor whites etc etc we put tens of millions of dollars into housing counseling which of course

you know because we use you as well we're honored honored to be one of your housing counselors. So what we do is we try to prepare people to get ready for housing so that when the time comes, they won't have to get ready. They'll be ready. We need for people to understand what the process is and believe that they can do it because we can help them do it. But the biggest problem that we have in this country, John, is that we just don't build enough houses. So we don't build enough houses. So just basic supply and demand says it's not enough. Then we go to communities and they say, we need to build multifamily units. They will not in my backyard, you're not going to build it. So then we've got zoning issues where they say that you can only build a certain kind of house and that raises the price about 30%. So we have to break through all

of that first off yes so i meet with the housing people i meet with mayors i meet with governors to say you have a problem i can help you fix it but i cannot fix it by myself and so you have resources that you have never had before the rescue plan put money into communities that they never thought they'd get and they're sitting on it yeah and so then i go and i have to threaten them and say now don't keep sitting on this money because i'm gonna find a way to claw it back and give it to somebody's gonna do something with it but the other thing we allow is we don't build communities and neighborhoods

so i live in i live in a community a fairly fairly, I say middle-class, but, but it's a community that I love and I live in it by choice. I live in a house that is two doors from an all white wealthy community, two doors, literally. My house is bigger than the house, two doors for me. My lot is bigger than the house, two doors for me. My house is nicer than the house two doors from me my lot is bigger than the house two doors from me my house is nicer than the house two doors from me but that house is valued at twenty five thousand dollars more than my house which means that my communities now don't get the benefit of those extra tax dollars my community doesn't get the benefit of more police or fire or to make sure that my children's schools are good and so people choose if they can afford it to live two doors from me as opposed to in my house. We have

to say to America, if they really want to solve things like homelessness, poor education, they have to recognize and admit that the problem exists. And once we do that, which we have at HUD, we are putting so much money into assisting with multifamily housing. I'm talking about senior housing. Do you know the fastest group of people sleeping on the streets today are black women my age? Wow. Really? My age. Because we have created an environment where they can't afford to live anymore. They can't afford their apartments.

They're on Social Security, which is not enough. And they end up, they first off start sleeping in relatives' homes, and then they find themselves sleeping in their cars. RVs and things like that, yes. I cannot tolerate it. And so what I'm doing is putting our money where it ought to go to help people. You just don't know how much money we put in the market, but you don't know because people never ask. People don't come to government and say, what can you do for me? They call when they have a

specific problem. They never see the big picture. They never see it. So, but when I sit down with home builders and I say to them, you have to build this many homes to just get us where we need to be. We are 1.5 million homes short of where we need to be today. Today. So there's an opportunity to do infill development. Listen now, entrepreneurs now, listen, what she said was, she didn't say it, she inferred, if you have a gap of 1.5 million homes, you can go and find a lot.

You don't need acres and acres. Find a lot. Buy it. Build it. Use minority and women vendors if you can to build it. Rent it or sell it to somebody who might be underserved. And get the benefits. Use the programs at HUD to empower you with the right mortgages and the right down payment assistance. And then you create a tax base in that city. You create a taxpayer in that city. You create a homeowner in that city. You create equity in that city. You create asset accumulation, generational wealth, and you're creating jobs and opportunity. Did I get that right? that right yeah absolutely right but let me we want everything easy just tell me where to go to get the money this is what we want yeah it don't work that way it doesn't the federal government is flush with resources to

help entrepreneurs you just have to know where to go so it's going to be important for people to realize how to connect the dots yes so. So I talk about housing, but transportation has money that can deal with where we build housing. EPA has money that can deal with where we build housing. Environmental protection agencies. Right. USDA has resources to build rural housing. People are so, we are linear thinkers because we don't realize what's available to us. So everywhere I go, I tell them, you need to call this person.

I met with black developers in New York a couple of weeks ago to tell them about the things we could do. But in the meantime, I said, you build an infrastructure, we passed an infrastructure bill. You're talking about environmentalists. We do have money in EPA.

So I go through this whole thing because I want everybody to know what i know because until they do we leave so much money on the table yes and the other thing i think that is just important for what you do and talking about financial literacy etc if we don't start figuring out what things cost and what they mean to us yes and how to get them yes we're going to be forever people listening to people who say oh you don't need to buy a house you know and i know you've heard it people say you know today's young people they don't want to be tethered to that you know they like the life of living in the condo i mean you know the apartments and stuff

but they leave with nothing. That's right. So it's all good to think about that. But one thing that I knew as a child is a home was important. Land is important. Even when I went south, it's like we own this land. That's right. Because they knew what today we forget. Yes.

Is that if you don't own anything. Yes. Where does your life go from there? I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Sh Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now

isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. You can't leave anything to help your children. The reason why there's a big gap between black and brown homeownership and white homeownership is because

white people take the value out of their homes and help their children that's right we don't have the value to give that's right so the more we buy and the more we are able to leave something for the generations that follow the better we become as a country because when people all people have a place to live it becomes a foundation upon which they can do anything they can be anything but every single person in this country deserves i believe housing is a right that's just my personal opinion absolutely john we deserve it and we have the resource we need to make the government work for us that's right and if we don't it's our fault because we can now i'm not gonna be up here

talking about elections etc but what i do know is that if we don't make our voices heard nothing will happen for us now y'all have heard me talk about this and show this. I did last with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. Henry, go to my iPad. Randy, here's the thing that Congresswoman Fudge, excuse me, she's a longtime Congresswoman, as I'm used to calling her, she's Secretary Fudge. This is right here. This is the number of homes built in the United States between 1900 and 2021. I need

everybody who's watching to pay attention to what I am saying. Look built 1.78, 2.65, 2, 4.16, 2.67, 4.79, and 10.8 million homes. So we started building homes in significant numbers due to population growth and after World War II. Right there, beginning in in 1950 10.08 million homes now let's go uh forward to the so all of a sudden it dips in the 60s to 9 ipad please it goes 1970s 12.37 1980s 12.14 1990s 12.49 2000 it drops to 6.9. Now we're still behind in 2020, 2023. So the problem, Randy, for the people out there who don't seem to understand what's happening with housing, They're mad about housing increases. It's because of the home foreclosure crisis in 2008. We literally built 8 million fewer homes from that previous decade.

Now with the fewer homes in 2020, combined with private equity, buying up blocks of homes, you now have a housing shortage in this country. That ain't got nothing to do with the person sitting in a White House. It has to do with home builders in America. Absolutely. And it's a problem that's been building over a long period of time, just like you're pointing out. And it's a problem that's been building over a long period of time, just like you're pointing out. And it's not just the shortage of housing. It's the shortage of affordable housing, because when people are building, they're building in certain areas and pricing people out, pricing middle class and poor class people, poor class people out. And so there's a struggle there. And it's done without any sort of thought of what

America needs. And so it's not anything. It's not a problem that was created the last several years. It's been a problem that has been building for a long time. And it's putting us where we have, people cannot afford to live. They have no place to live. Joe, again, when we start unpacking these things, this is information that, unfortunately, these cable news networks are not going to be explaining to people. And so what does it require? It requires they're incentivizing developers to start building and not be in a situation where we are so far behind because this is 2023.

We're now approaching 2024. The problem can be fixed. What we don't want to do is see us between 2020 and 2029 have another decade shortage, which means that in the next decade, with population growth, it's going to be more the problem. Right. And you're going to have less. What we have is less supply and more demand. That is, by definition, economics 101 going to make your prices go up. And there's going to continue to be more of a demand in terms of having a need for housing, right, and a need for affordable housing, to Randy's point. But there's going to be less supply, particularly as much as private equity

can come in, buy houses. Listen, you're trying to buy a house, 1,000-square-foot bungalow, 1,200-square-foot bungalow in Inglewood down the street from the stadium is almost a million dollars now. You didn't price regular people out that have been there for generations. Okay. And so that's going to continue to be a problem. And you absolutely have to plant the seeds and start building now, incentivizing buildings. As much of it that can take place can take place so that perhaps we can begin to catch up with this problem. Because in the meantime, folks on the short end of the stick will continue to be the people that aren't all the way in already with a foot in the door. And then those of us, it becomes more devastating. Those that have had houses over the course of a number of generations, Pookie and Ray Ray got a house, big mama died. There comes, there ends up

being a fight and the house was either lost or they rushed to sell it. And so what that means is it's going to be very, very hard to be restored the way that you need to be based on what it is that's going on and how much more difficult ownership is going to become. And here's also something happening, Mustafa, that I need the people watching to understand. Ken B. on YouTube goes, people want to hear what HUD is going to do about it. I just played an eight and a half damn minute segment from the secretary of HUD talking about that whole deal.

And she made clear, Mustafa, that they have given billions to states. One of the reasons why all of these states have surpluses is because they're sitting on the federal money that they've gotten. You've got places like Alabama that was supposed to be spending the money on housing. They spend it on prisons. Yeah, I mean, and I've been through that before. When I was in the federal government, we'd often give resources out to the states and the governors would just, like you said, they would sit on it, or in some instances, they would actually move the money to the places and spaces that did not need the dollars the most. So that's where the regulation comes in, and that's where you have to make sure that you're enforcing against those states that are not doing the right thing. And in many instances, you have to pull the money back, which is something folks never want to do.

But here's the other part of it, Roland, you know, for the person who you just referenced, you know, that whether it's HUD, they've had significant dollars that are out there. There are a couple of new programs that are there to actually help people to get into homes. The Biden administration has also been putting resources and actions to help first-time home buyers to be able to move into that space. You've got dollars also at the Environmental Protection Agency for those who are thinking about buying a home or already have a home and they want to make sure the energy efficiency is there to keep your bills lower. So there is a plethora of resources that are out there. Sometimes folks don't know about them.

Sometimes people just don't want to know about them. And then for me, the last part is also about us and our community. You know, I've had friends who've gotten together and bought multi-unit buildings and lived in half of them and rented out the other half to make sure that folks are getting into these market spaces so that they can build wealth. So once again, we've got to ask ourselves about our own people. Are we willing to come together to actually be able to move into these real estate sets of opportunities? Maybe there's some uncomfortability with you living with another family inside of a multi-unit building for a short period of time, but you have to be looking down the road. If you're serious about building wealth, if you're serious about being able to take advantage of these

opportunities, then sometimes we have to be able to come together, which should not be a difficulty. It should be something that's natural for us to be able to be in a communal space and to be able to lift each other up and to help each other be able to have a stronger foundation underneath of our feet. All right, hold tight one second. We come back more from a Global Hope Forum here in Atlanta. Former Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young asked a question about Israel and Gaza, and he makes it clear that if you are standing up for Palestinians not being killed, namely children, that's not anti-Semitism. I'll show

you what he had to say when we come back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which, simply put, is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country.

It's the one legal article everyone, and I mean everyone, should read. Professor Porter and Dr. Valetia Watkins, our legal roundtable team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying, who are we to other people? Who are African people to others?

Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people. That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement.

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The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com Me, Sherri Shepard with Tammy Roman. I'm dr robin b pharmacist and fitness coach and you're watching roland martin unfiltered

well i often hear lots of people saying what biden Harris, what are they doing to help black business owners and small businesses? Well, Isabella Guzman, who runs the Small Business Administration, was here at Global Hope Forum yesterday in Atlanta. We had an opportunity to catch up with her. We talked to her last year. We talked about what they have done in the past year to help black-owned businesses. Here's our conversation. All right, good to see you again this year. Nice to see you as well. All right, so I always believe in laying out how things have gone from year to year. So last year,

we chatted here. And so in terms of opportunities for black businesses and minorities, how has the last year looked in the country? Well, we continue to see these incredible entrepreneurship growth rates. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Meaning startups. We have 14.6 million new business application. We are now on track to be the third highest year for entrepreneurship in this country, preceded by the first and second just years prior. And we've seen black startup rates double in particular.

So we are, you know, they are still powering the new businesses in this country, and especially black women, as we've discussed before. So that continues. But we want to make sure they're funded, right? This is something we've talked about, funded and revenue opportunities. Absolutely. On the funding side, the reforms that I talked about wanting to do have been implemented.

And we are already seeing the results. It was about creating simpler products that, you know, had simplified underwriting, expanded eligibility. You know, there's no reason why, you know, low credit risk black borrowers should not be getting funded at the same rate as everyone else. And we know that's not the fact. So as a result of the changes we've seen, you know, since 2020, black lending through the Biden Harris administration double. And now we're up to one up to nearly $1.5 billion in funding last year to black businesses. As you know, it's been historically around $500 million-ish. And so I'm really proud to see those numbers climb.

And the revenue growth opportunity side of it. You know, we've obviously, like the rest of this country, have been seeing lawsuits around the DEI front, trying to take us backwards when we're trying to, you know, create the future for this economy, which is through the changing face of entrepreneurship. And, you know, so those gains have been about defending our programs and making sure that we can continue to create opportunities and hopefully create the next black billionaire through the 8 program. So that was a, that was certainly was an issue.

Last time we talked, I think it was in Dallas at the alpha convention. Uh, and we were just on the heels of that ruling out of Tennessee with regarding to, uh, the, the eight, a program, but, but that, but that's just a, a small part of it. Uh, and when you talk about the, we talk about the revenue piece, uh, that that's just a small part of it. And when you're talking about the revenue piece, that's huge. You know, I say all the time when we do these panels, I say, look, I don't have debt. I said, so I'm not trying to sit here and get a bank loan. I said, well, we're trying to lock down our contracts. That's right. I mean, federal government contracting for small businesses is a more than $650 billion opportunity. You know, we saw the president commit to more contracts for small disadvantaged businesses.

We have aggressive goals year by year through the whole government effort. And we are, you know, last year we took us to 11.4 percent. You know, so far there's been over $160 billion in contracts during the president's two years of contracting records to, you contracting records to the small disadvantaged businesses out there. And we want to continue those trends. And the lawsuit in Tennessee had just been filed. We just were getting some of the insights from the courts.

The SBA did get an injunction stopping the 8 program, forcing us to look at the way we determine social disadvantage. And as a result of quick actions that we took, we were able to ensure that not a single 8A contract was removed from the program and that contractors were able to get, in essence, recertified by submitting social disadvantage narratives. And so we're proud that we were able to do that, but now let's unlock more opportunities. Let's, you know, fix the way that we train our 8A contractors to go after government contracting, the business development programs that we have funded. You know, let's, of course, make sure that they have capital, but working capital. And we are working to continue to make change to ensure that happens. How have you also sort of tried to remove so many of the—we talk about barriers.

So especially—we know bundling is a problem. We're here in Atlanta, and it was Maynard Jackson, the first black mayor of the city, who with his contracting experts had said, hey, how about we break apart these large deals to create smaller opportunities for black minority business owners to become prime contractors? Because you could never bid on a prime unless you had been a prime before. Right, right. And so by breaking those large pieces down, it actually provided an opportunity for folks to be able to actually bid.

How are you also dealing with that on the federal level? Because you had unbundling under Obama, bundling under Trump, and then now you're trying to unbundle. Right, right. Well, and that's what we're doing to aggressively look at the goals. And we at the SBA have a large power to be able to negotiate with each of the agencies to make sure that the whole of government hits the president's goals around government contracting. And so that means the leads of all these agencies are getting to hear from us at the White House, at the SBA, about the requirement that they look at small. They use the rule of two. They use SBA's

programs to try to help support small businesses. And we are aggressively expanding our procurement center representatives, the folks at the SBA who look at every single contract opportunity and make sure that if it's a small opportunity that we try to look at debundling it, look at how we can get more small businesses on a vehicle. And that's what we're aiming to do. The GSA and the SBA did partner recently to create an 8 schedule to make sure that 8 could get on to some of these large GSA schedules, as an example. We're trying to get as creative as possible to make sure there are feasible-sized small contracts to give people their first prime experience.

And the thing we talk about, the entrepreneur piece, I mean, the bottom line is you're now talking about a generation, millennials, Gen Z, and I forgot what the new one is called. I think somebody told me it was Alpha or something. I don't know what the new one is, but somebody mentioned it to me. But you're dealing with now multiple generations who are not starting with the premise of get a good job and be there for 30, 40 years and get a pension. I mean, so you have people who understand, who are starting much earlier about owning. And so that means that there's a much larger demand and push to create that space. Right. No, that's true.

I mean, and I think that you're seeing it in the entrepreneurship rates, but whether people have a side hustle that they're aiming to make their main job at some point and create jobs for others. But, you know, I think it's tremendous. This conference is about the optimism out there. Like, there's tremendous hope and optimism in the fact that people want to build wealth and start their own businesses, and they see that as a pathway. And, you know, especially with government contracting, we need to make sure that the government is incentivizing that growth and that hope for the future. And, you know, I know that our global competitiveness rests on our ability to make sure all our entrepreneurs are competitive.

And that includes breaking down barriers to capital, breaking down barriers to revenue opportunities so that we can prepare our small businesses to then go after contracts abroad. And I mentioned that recently travel to West Africa. But to see some of our American small businesses going there to create cybersecurity platforms for nations, that's an incredible commitment to our national security, our democracy, and we need to see more of it. Last question for you. So a year from now, what do you want the story to be? I want the story to be that SBA's reforms continue to drive capital into the black community. And, you know, the reforms just took hold in August.

They're going to continue to have a great effect. But I also want to see transformations in my investment company portfolio, where we've made reforms so that the check writers look like the businesses who are starting and growing these incredible ventures. And so I'd like to see those results pan out. I'm going to see a diversity amongst my investment companies, and I'm going to start to see that in my portfolio. That's what I want. And then I want us to achieve the president's goal that he laid out at the Tulsa race Massacre commemoration, that we want to, you know, drive to 15 percent by 2025. I want to see those tens of billions of dollars into the hands of our diverse businesses. And you can't say it because of the Hatch Act, but a year from now, you want to be able to say there's another four more years of Biden-Harris to get all that done.

We continue to drive forward on all these initiatives. I can say it, but I got you. Always good to see you. Thank you so much. Good work. Appreciate it. All right, folks, have you been asking that question? What are they doing for small businesses and black folks? There is your answer. Got to go to break. We come back. Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, former Congressman Andrew Young, was on stage today and was asking a question about what's happening in Israel and Gaza. And he said something that maybe a lot of people need to listen to. This 91-year-old man knows a hell of a whole lot about the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

He will talk about it and then we'll discuss it right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network broadcasting live from Atlanta. We've been covering the Global Hope Forum here. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap away. You got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad

because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. In the A. Back in a moment. I'm Dee Barnes, and on the next Frequency, Professor Janelle Hobson joins us to talk about hip-hop and its intersection with feminism and racial equality, plus her enlightening work with Ms. Magazine and how the great Harriet Tubman connects with women in hip hop.

So it was not hard for me to go from Harriet Tubman to hip hop, honestly, because it is a legacy of black women's resistance and black women supporting our communities. That's what Harriet Tubman did. That's on the frequency on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy,

what do the ultra wealthy know that most of us don't? Well, the truth is that there is financial exclusion. And unfortunately, far too many Black folks haven't had access to this knowledge. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about on our next Get Wealthy with Melinda Hightower, a banker who's doing something to share exactly what you need to do to make it into the high network status. They weren't just saving just to save. They were saving for a purpose. That's right here on Get Wealthy

with me, America's Wealth Coach, only on Blackstar Network. This is Essence Atkins. Mr. Love, King of R&B, Raheem Devon. Me, Sherri Shebron, and you know what you watch. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The carnage in Israel and Gaza has been on the minds of many people. It came up today at the Global Hope Forum.

A former U.N. ambassador, former congressman, former mayor of Atlanta, longtime Dr. King, Lieutenant Andrew Young, was asked the question about what's happening there. And he said something that really a lot of folks should pay attention to, especially charters of anti-Semitism against people who are critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. Watch. You have seen in your life as an activist the very worst in human nature, and yet you found grace.

Not only did you find grace, you were our, because you were the ambassador to the United Nations. But before that, when you were waging the civil rights movement, you were the ambassador. You were the one who went out to the community and negotiated settlements between white racists and the black community. How did you find grace in those moments? Well, I was born into it see i mean it's part of the black heritage that we are we tend not to be judgmental we we know that all men sin and fall short of the glory of God, and women do too. And, you know, you judge not that you be not judged. And I just thank God that I have been taught by my grandmother that grace, and I was glad to hear you use that word, rappers talking about grace.

I mean, that's high stuff. Seriously. And mercy. I mean, people set high stuff. Seriously. And mercy. I mean, people set you up to get killed. Yeah. And you have profited in the career that they tried to kill you out of. Yeah. Yeah.

And so that's what life, life is a struggle of good against evil and good always prevails eventually. And well, let me go ahead and get into this because because i had to leave the united nations and i'm gonna tell you how it happened because harry belafonte invited me over to his house to meet with the former prime minister of israel uh and um as a result of that, for our conversation, he was trying to get me to bring the Palestinians to the table because he said,

we're getting old, and we know Arafat and them, and we would do better settling this issue if we settle it in our lifetime. And we think that President Carter is the kind of spirit that could get both sides together and we could put this thing to rest. I think if we had another term, that would have happened. But then after that, Moshe Dayan had me to lunch on Fifth Avenue

in a restaurant where we were all being seen by everybody that passed by. And everybody knew who I was and they knew who he was. What are we doing talking together? And then I go to the State Department and tell them what's going on. And it made them uneasy. And it was my time, according to the Constitution and the laws of the United Nations. It was my turn in August to be president of the Security Council. And we rotate alphabetically and nothing ever happened in August.

And so I was trying to keep nothing from happening in august so the palestinians decided they wanted to come to the table with israelis see now what we're talking about now and what we're seeing on television every day has been struggling to find reality in my time time. Since Ralph Bunche in 1948. And Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize. For trying to work this out. This is nothing new. It didn't happen on October 7th. It's been happening all of our lifetime.

We haven't been able to rise to the occasion. And make it make sense. But everybody knows, and it's not being anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic, it's being for life and for the preservation of humanity and for peace on earth and goodwill toward all men women and right now it's especially children that's what hurts us to see children dying every day and there ought to be another way that right there uh mustafa is an interesting perspective because what you hear ambassador andrew young saying that if you're critical of israel it doesn't mean you're anti-semitic if you're critical of them that's not what it means what it means is that you don't want to see

people being killed you don't want to see israel means is that you don't want to see people being killed. You don't want to see Israelis being killed. You don't want to see Palestinians being killed. You don't want to see people dying. That's what he's saying. And so at some point, folks have to say, how do you put peace first, second, and last? Yeah. You know, we always have to be critical when we see loss of life, when we see injustice happening anywhere. We have a responsibility to actually speak out against that. And I've never understood why we can speak out against certain injustices and other injustices were supposed to be silent. You know, I wrote this piece not long ago about an eye for an eye

leaves everyone blind. And what I was meaning when I was sharing those words with folks is that, you know, if we continue to kill each other, then we know what the outcome of that is going to be. I'm so sorry. If we see children who are losing their lives, we have a responsibility to speak out and to say we have to find a way to find peace. And folks need to be able to come to the table to do that. So I appreciate our brother Andrew, you know, the words that he shared, but also he wasn't just sharing words. He actually has lived them. He has been in the space for decades upon decades upon decades of trying to help find ways of bringing people together to call out injustice, but to also find the opportunities to heal.

And that's the real question is, are we willing to do the hard work to actually heal these situations that are going on? Are we willing to actually heal the hurt that is happening? Are we willing to heal the injustices that continue to play out? And, you know, we just have to make a decision if we're willing to lean in and do that hard work as individuals, as communities and as governments. You know, Randy, this is very difficult for lots of people. You have the United States vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire. We have veto rights there along with several other nations. But the United Nations voted overwhelmingly for there to be a ceasefire. Yet you've heard Senator Bernie Sanders say, hey, only a ceasefire would

assist Hamas. At some point, and again, those people, those who do not believe in violence, at some point, those voices need to prevail because if we're going to see nothing but consistent death, that does not actually solve this problem. It does not solve the problem. And the sad part is, is that the people who are brave enough to simply say, let's stop killing people, are being silenced every day, are being forced out of jobs, out of positions, so they will be quiet. And, you know, propaganda is around to make, to silence us, right? They want us to think that there's a, you know, an evil and a good, a right and a wrong. And at a certain point, it's not, and they want to group an entire group. They want to just see it in one way.

Often said the hard part about fighting against white supremacy is that white people want to group an entire group. They want to just see it in one way. Often said the hard part about fighting against white supremacy is that white people want to say it's totally against them. You could be against something and not be against a people. You could be against killing and not say that, you know, entire group of people is wrong. But they don't want us to seem like think or to have that higher order of thinking. They just want it to be these people are evil and these people are kind. And so, you know, and that's what I see. I mean, I so resonated with what he was saying in that just because there's one group that may not be acting a certain way, Hamas doesn't mean that we should cast out all people, doesn't make it right to see the devastation that we have been seeing going

on in Gaza. It's just deplorable to me. But, you know, people are being forced to be silent when we're just asking for a ceasefire, asking to not see babies and children being killed every day. But, yeah, it's a sad situation. Joe? Um, but yeah, it's, it's a sad situation. Joe. Yeah. I mean, you know, some of us have to explore nuance in everything that we do. We have to explore nuance to go to work, where we work, to live, where we live, to go to school, where we go to school.

What Andrew Young was saying is no different than what, uh, there's no different than this. Jimmy Carter talked about it. You know, when he put, uh put Israel and Egypt together to make peace with the Camp David Accords, he did some things. And if you go back and listen to the things that they said all those years ago, they could be talking right now, but they had the proper motivation

when they were doing what it is they're doing. We gotta be real concerned when we use two words, always and never. And when you deal with nuance, when you deal with making sure that you are really trying to preserve life, all life, you actually are doing what you're doing and making stands and looking for accountability with an eye towards the future, contemplating a future where people actually live together in peace and harmony. It's a different thing. People can say the same things for different reasons. You have a lot of people dealing with this issue right now that have different

motivations. They don't want folks to come together, frankly, both sides. But there are a whole lot of innocent people that are dying. There are a whole lot of innocent people of all hues that do want people to live together. They want to be able to be okay. They want to be able to self-determine. So you can't just disregard someone that asks for lives to be preserved the best way you possibly can, whether you're talking about it in a ceasefire,

whether you're talking about it in a humanitarian pause or whatever else. These gentlemen, Ambassador Young, Jimmy Carter, others, they've been talking about this for a long time. And what they said 30, 40, sometimes 50 years ago is just as true as it is now. You can't throw out the baby with the bathwater. But if your motivations are not towards people living together and being in harmony, it's very, very easy, perhaps even because of your notion of safety, maybe because of your notion of hatred for you to be absolute and say all of these should be in this category, these should be in this category.

And anybody that talks about anything different, that contemplates anything different is against us and therefore cancel them. But it's very, very dangerous because you cannot do the work and get us where we need to go. But some of us know that. All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, Harvard stands behind their black president, Claudine Gay, after billionaires go on the attack, but they're being exposed for really being against DEI. We'll talk about that.

Plus, our Marketplace segment, we'll just talk with an Atlanta business owner with a watch company. Also, there is a new HBCU Bowl game. The Beach Bowl. We'll talk to the folks behind that as well. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Join our Bring the Punk fan club.

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So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. on the Black Star Network. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder.

Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Folks, the president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, she has survived an effort to oust her. The Harvard board voted today to keep her on as president. Of course, there has been a huge outcry after she testified along with the president of Penn last week before a Republican-led committee regarding anti-Semitism on campus. Folks have been quite angry with her response. The president of Penn resigned late last week.

A number of people, black students at Harvard, faculty members, and others came to her defense. She had been attacked by folks like billionaire Bill Ackman. And what was interesting is they've been criticizing her because of her testimony saying she did not condemn anti-Semitism, which she actually did. It was interesting, Randy, how folk like Ackman and others started bringing up calling her, oh, she only got hired because of her race, and they're now slamming DEI, critical race theory.

I think it became very clear exactly why they were doing so, Randy. And let's just be perfectly honest here. These people don't actually care about it. And when you are a white man and you immediately run to, oh, she must have hob because she's black. It's interesting. They never say anything about these white men who get hired as if all of them are just brilliant. Also, by the way, five former Harvard presidents also sent a letter saying she. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time.

Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else.

But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Should remain and so they have fought back the haters. As soon as I saw when the sister got appointed to Harvard, which is, you know, this old elite white institution, I prayed. I prayed because I knew, I was like, she is going to get it.

And so I hate to say that I'm not surprised at the way that they're treating her. You know, at institutions of higher learning, you're supposed to be able to have free thought and discussion. That's what they're there for. But you see this big push to ensure that we all think the same way, we all say the right things, or your job and your entire career is at risk, which is not at all right. That certainly is not a democracy. That's certainly not what all of us signed up for. But they are going through her entire record, every published article, every book to find fault with her. And you know that's what happens, is that when Black people become and get in positions of power, they seek to completely tear us apart and make it where we are, you know, not qualified. And we see

that we always are more qualified than usually the white males that they've had before us. So I'm appreciative of the past Harvard presidents defending her. And I hope that she stands resolute and doesn't allow them to chase her away. What you see here, Joe, you see these constant attacks on her and others. And I think what you also had here, I think you had some people at Harvard who said, listen, if we push this woman out, we're giving in to these Republicans. And that's the last damn thing we need to do. Yeah, you know, Congresswoman Stefanik, who I don't agree with on much of anything, with no hint of irony, was looking for this gotcha moment. She wanted to ask this particular key question.

And if you didn't unequivocally answer yes right away, then it was a problem and you ought to be canceled. Now, you know, it doesn't matter, I guess, that she's supporting a former and currently aspiring president to be who actually is accused of, among other things, actually inciting violence when it's words. In an irony, even those that are speaking against President Gay aren't realizing that she's actually in fighting for free speech and demanding context on a question that actually demanded context, yes, and nuance. In doing that, she was actually preserving the integrity of the institution. So there's this irony that goes on. First of all, the wrong person asked the question for it to actually have any credibility. Second of all, she's helping to preserve the integrity of the institution and doing what she's doing.

And it just reminds you that some things intellectually free speech is a son of a gun. It is a son of a gun because sometimes when we feel safe, even less safe because of someone's free speech, we are a tendency. Whoever we are is to cancel it and to get rid of it. And it's supposed to. There is free speech that is abhorrent, that is terrible, that is not good, and is not good feeling. But if in and of itself it doesn't lend to violence, et cetera, theoretically, theoretically, it's supposed to be protected. That's something that we all have to remember. That's what this fight is actually about.

But there's this notion that exploring nuance makes you less safe. Actually, it makes you more safe. Why? Because now you're not throwing out the baby with the bathwater like we were talking before. You're actually doing things for the right reasons. You've got the right motivations when you ask these questions and you answer them in a way that deals with, I need the context to know where this particular thing belongs, what it is that you're asking, why you're asking it. And if we want our institutions to have credibility and to say nothing of the irony of these guys having folks that are anti-gay, that are anti-black, say all of these other things, and they'll jump on the free speech bandwagon in a second when it comes to those. But now, as it pertains to this black woman and other women, by the way, like the president of Penn who didn't make it, President Gay has made it so far. Now you want

to put an X on them like they were never there and cancel them when in an irony, they're actually doing probably what it is that they're supposed to do, even though it hurts. Mustafa. Well, you know, I've worked on Capitol Hill. And, you know, you have these Republicans that continue because they can't move forward on any substantive policy to use these types of opportunities to garner the media attention. Dr. Gay made a decision to actually go and share. She could have said, you know, at this time, I'm not ready to come up and have this conversation.

The other dynamic that goes on in respect to what she was doing is that folks need to remember that she's only been on the job less than six months. So the conversation was actually around policy at these respected institutions and where that sort of plays out in relationship to anti-Semitism and people being able to say certain things. So she hasn't even been around long enough to actually be able to change policy yet because there are a number of steps that need to go forward. You know, so we really need to understand the context of what's going on and not just look at these bumper sticker types of short phrases that are often thrown out there.

And then people are making hard decisions without having all the information of these dynamics. The last thing I'll say is that, you know, the Harvard community has spoken and they made a decision that they see her as still a viable president and someone that they see value in. And again, what you saw here, you saw these billionaires try to use their money to influence the decision. Harvard was like, yeah, we're good. We're good. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Got to go to a break. When we come back, we'll talk to a wooden watchmaker in our marketplace segment.

Also, there's a new HBCU bowl as the first bowl of the year. It's called the Beach Bowl. We'll tell you about that. That's next. Roland Martin, Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.

There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it.

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Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, the first bowl game of the season will involve two HBCU teams. No, I'm not talking about the Celebration Bowl. We're just taking place here in Atlanta on Saturday. Tomorrow, folks, the game is called the Inaugural Florida Beach Bowl. It will be Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls versus the Fort Valley State University Wildcats taking place in Fort Lauderdale. The folks with Urban Edge Network, they are the official broadcast partner of this bowl. Todd Brown joins us right now. Todd, so tell us, how did this new bowl game come about?

Well, we were lucky enough to partner with Victor Robinson, who had the media rights for this bowl. And so what you should know, Roland, there's 41 official NCAA-sanctioned bowls. And this is the first ever HBCU-sanctioned bowl, where we are having the HBCU kids participate in what we see majority schools participating in, celebrating the end of their seasons and participating in the monetary opportunities that are presented by the bowls. That's two teams meeting in great locations from amazing conferences, celebrating their year, their base, and participating and being rewarded, frankly, by a bunch of brands that support all these bowls. Obviously, you have a celebration bowl happening here in Atlanta. That's an ESPN, and actually ESPN owns a significant number of these bowl games.

But here, this is an African-American promoter who is partnering with Black-owned media company for this bowl. Yeah, and so, you know, the word bowl, again, the celebration bowl is a celebration of the conference championship for the SWAC conference. This bowl is a celebration between the CIAA and the SIAC, and this is an official, and again, we use the word inaugural, celebration bowls every year, and an inaugural first-ever NCAA-sanctioned bowl, which is presented by a black promoter, but delivered by a great city in Florida, amplifying the bowl season and frankly, welcoming HBCUs into the legitimacy of the bowl season. And we beat out another black-owned media company for the right to this bowl.

Allen Media was also bidding for this opportunity, and we're excited about being chosen for this bowl, and we're presenting about being chosen for this bowl and we're presenting it on HBCU plus which is on 303 million devices we'll be streaming this bowl and we have several partners that we're engaged with for delivering this experience for these kids and the promoters on the ground have done an amazing job making sure that the golf tournament the American Diabetes Association is partnering on a walk to celebrate. And these kids are down here from the 9th to the 13th having what I call, Roland, a legitimate bowl experience in celebration of the end of the season.

One of the things that we often see when we have these bowl games, obviously there are a lot of things that teams do in the various cities. A lot of times, though, we see a lot of these bowl games, you don't have a lot of people in the stands. Talk about where this game is going to be held, what kind of excitement was being generated there in Fort Lauderdale, there in South Florida, among HBC fans and as well for these two schools. One of the things that we did is drive media to the platform.

So we've had, I think, close to three, almost four million impressions directly in the market of Dade and Broward County driving engagement. And I don't know if you know this, Roland, but between Broward County and Dade County, you're talking about one of the largest pipelines for Division I sports, both basketball, baseball, and football. So we know this is a hotbed for sports. And so the idea of generating an opportunity to celebrate here in Fort Lauderdale, and we're going to be doing this for several years, the local marketplace, but also inviting these schools into a rich recruiting experience. So it's both a in-venue media opportunity, but the bigger part is brands spend money on impressions. The reason why the Orange Bowl is a $25 million commitment, the reason why the Rose Bowl is a $40 million commitment, it's both the Rose Bowl is a $40 million commitment,

it's both for the experience within the bowl and the amplification of the media that takes place on the platform. And that's really different than ABC or NBC doing a bowl game and then paying those media rights back to the teams. This is an opportunity where a black media company gets to partner with a black promoter and create value both in the event and on the platform. And that's really important, Roland. And again, folks out there, where can they actually watch this game? It's taking place Wednesday. What time? Wednesday at 730, they should download the HBCU Plus app,

and we're available on all streaming devices, iOS, Android, and on your Fire Stick TV as well as Roku. You can also download it on our other app where we're featuring the NBA G League on our UEN app. So we're going to have it on all platforms. We're going to be driving engagement in a big way, and we're going to be covering this with a powerful 4K experience. And, Roland, what's interesting is we're having this game in the soccer stadium that Messi plays in here in Fort Lauderdale.

So that's a 20,000-person venue. We're not putting this in a venue where you're expected to see an NFL crowd of 60,000 or 70,000. We think it's going to be very intimate. If the weather holds up, we believe people are going to turn out in a powerful way. But what's more importantly, 303 million devices. You can see this game worldwide and we're driving the beginning and the kickoff of the bowl season. So we're super excited about Victor Robinson inviting us in, about the two schools that are down here, about their alumni base, and about HBCUs being invited into the real business of the NCAA and being able to monetize and show some value from that perspective.

All right. Todd, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you, Roland. Take care. All right, folks. We come back. Our Marketplace segment, we'll talk to a sister here in Atlanta who owns her own wooden watch business.

She'll explain right here. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Back in a moment. With Google's. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job-ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. Thank you. and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin. All right, folks, who leaves their job at a tech company to launch a wooden watch company? Well, my next guest did that. Joining us right now is Shanaela Sweat. She's the owner of A Few Wood Men. She joins us right now. What did the name come from? It's a play on words.

Like A Few Good Men, it's A Few Wood Men. The brand is based off of my grandfather. He is an A Few Good Men in a sense. Also, every one of our watches has a wooden element. To that point, we named the brand A Few Wood Men based off of a few

good men all right so so you work in a tech company and then all of a sudden you well you got tired of it uh or did you have a passion for watches so i have a passion for entrepreneurship i actually left microsoft to basically continuously grow this brand um i had been at Microsoft for about a year, and I was just kind of tired of it. I felt like it was meaningful work, meaning I was there, but I was making more money doing this and something that I was actually passionate about

versus being at Microsoft, and I was just another employee. Now, where did you start this? I actually started a few woodmen in 2019. Gotcha. So where did the idea of wooden watches come from? So wooden watches were the best. The watches support our skin. So for those that are melanated, dark skin, light skin, they support our undertones.

And so for me, my grandpa is tall, dark and handsome. So I wanted something to match his swag exactly. And so wooden watches were the perfect thing to do that. Now when you say support, do you mean in terms of against our skin or rubbing against our skin what do you mean it complements our skin got it so in terms of your skin tone for instance it's going to bring out like your yellow and your red undertone so if you are darkened tone it's going to bring out your skin tones as well so it's perfect for a melanated skin it's no other concept in terms of wood that

doesn't make us like three times better gotcha so so how are they constructed i'll actually hold your microphones or you pull one of these out so how do you actually uh construct uh these watches yes so all of our watches have a wooden element so it may be like oak sandalwood, some wood type, but they also have a metal component to them. So for us, we actually wanted both, meaning we wanted the uniqueness of the wood, but we also wanted the durability of like a metal. So when we constructed our timepieces, we had two different vendors kind of merge what they did in one. So you can see even with my timepiece on, they all have like like, the wooden inlays, but then they have the wooden elements. If you purchase, like, a men's watch, it's going to have even more weight. So think of, like, a rollie or Swiss or whatever it may be.

It's going to have even more weight because obviously men tend to like more durability, right? You want something you can hold, something in your pocket. So this is a mix of metal and wood. Yes, it is. Okay. So you can see the wood, the wooden inlays in the center, and then, of course, it is. Okay. So you can see the wood. The wooden inlay is in the center. And then, of course, the steel, right?

So you need that weight. Right. So that was the concept of both. So she talking about it. The color of your skin. Let me see, like, what colors are brought out. So what color is this called? What is this called?

The color? Yeah, it looks like evergreen or something. So yeah, this is like an evergreen. The name of this timepiece is the Derek. The Derek? Who the hell is Derek? Everybody's inspired by somebody. Who the hell is Derek?

So Derek is somebody I went to high school with. Okay, I'm just checking. So they all have a story. I'm just checking to see who Derek is. Derek ain't nobody important. I'm just checking. You obviously named a watch after Derek, so it kind of got to be important. I'm just checking. You obviously named a watch after Derek, so it kind of got to be important.

All right. Maybe. Not in this moment. I ain't named Derek, you did. What's this watch called? This is the Ashley. The Ashley. Yes.

Who Ashley? So Ashley is one of my closest friends. Okay. So yeah, Ashley, they all have a story to tell. This is one of my favorites. I think it's like a casual timepiece, but it can be worn for, like, nice events as well. Yeah, master kente. Yes.

I got you. Cool. So where are these made? So they're actually made here. Our warehouse I just left, we're out of Ecom Spaces off of 600 Bronner Brothers Street. So there we engrave, we assemble our watches, and then we purchase from different vendors by putting the pieces together.

How many employees do you have? So I have a team of contractors. I'm actually the only employee at this moment. Yeah, but including the contractors? Yeah, but maybe about seven of us. OK. All right. And so each piece is being made.

So how many, so let's say in a week, how many pieces is your team making? So typically we ship or fulfill about 100 orders per week. It just depends. We're in the peak season, right? So we are on the cusp of like Christmas coming up with Black Friday. So in a month, we might go anywhere from 600 to 1,000 pieces. Maybe on a slower month, it might be like from 600 to a thousand pieces. Maybe on a slower month, it might be like three to 400. Got it. All right, cool. So let's have our questions

from our panel. So let's see here. I'm going to start first with, yeah, I left my speaker. So I'm going to start with questions. Let's see here. Let's see who probably would wear, probably Mustafa. I know, Yeah, you go here. You know, you got to live the hat and everything. So I go ahead, start my offer, brother. What's your what's your question? Yeah, well, first of all, congratulations. The pieces look really amazing. You know, I'm curious when we take a look across the country, do we see that more people are actually utilizing timepieces or is that something that's been more antiquated? Yeah, so timepieces are still in. The question was, have I seen a decrease?

I'm good. So timepieces are not going anywhere., they are an asset, meaning if you purchase, they keep their value in most cases. They don't decrease in value. So, I haven't seen anything where people are not purchasing. They also feel invested into our products. When I say they, I mean our customers because of the storytelling and because of the stories that are associated with them. You're not only associating in like the product of just a timepiece. You're also, you know, telling your story and celebrating that person through the gifting.

Cool. Randy? I just love that you're using wood. Does that mean that you have to maintain the watch any differently? I mean, is it waterproof or anything like that? Yeah, that's a really good question. So you do have to maintain the wood a little bit differently because it can dry out.

So, for instance, you don't want to be in large bodies of water. You don't want to be in rain. You don't want to do anything that may fracture the wood. I would say you don't want to be in rain. So if you've obviously got an umbrella, you're fine. You'll be fine. But if you sit out in the middle of the damn rain, put your wallet in your pocket. Please.

Because what will happen is it'll dry out. And so in most cases, our skin is already a bit lubricated on the first level. So it will come back and it can get its luster. But it is wood. So, like, for instance, a wooden table is going gonna dry out if you put water on it, right? So you have to do certain things to bring that luster back, maybe put in, like, essential oil or some type of oil on it to kind of bring it back for wood's sake.

Okay. Uh, Joe? Congratulations. This is a great venture that you're doing. I'm wondering, do you recommend, you know, for those of us that are working on our style, you know, sometimes I wear this watch. I've had this watch for 15 years and it matches everything. So do you repress, do you think that this is a watch because some of them are unique colors, right? That this can be one of several watches that we can have, maybe several from your collection that allow us to wear something, you know, to always match with our watch.

I have a watch that matches. Or do you think there are one or to wear something, you know, to always match with our watch or have a watch that matches? Or do you think there are one or two of them that pretty much go with everything? So, we have a good assortment of watches. We also have watch connoisseurs for the brand. So, it's several of our customers that have almost every single watch. What we're moving towards and what we started to do in 2023 and 2024 is we are customizing more watches. So, for instance, we have like Divine Nine Inspired watches. Happy Founders Day, by the way.

So for us, we've had requests to have customized timepieces that really, really suit certain organizations or associations. But to kind of simplify that same answer, we do have timepieces that are for every day, such as, like, I think the Derek you can wear casual and black tie events. And then we have some that are a little bit more specific in color, such as, like, our Montez or our Chadwick that are a little bit more eclectic and they kind of stand out. Is it Montez and Chadwick? Montez. Who Montez? Montez is my brother. All right. Chadwick? Bozeman. Okay, I figured that. Yes, yes. I was wondering about that, too. So, like, those two timepieces, they stand out unless there's something that you wouldn't want to wear every single day. Maybe on a very specific occasion, maybe a birthday, something like that, but you wouldn't want to wear it every day. All right, cool.

Gotcha. All right, so where can folks get these watches? Yes, so we are a fewwoodmen across platforms. So, a fewwoodmen. platforms. So a few wood men dot com. That is our Web site. A few wood men underscore on Instagram. You would mean on Facebook. So any type of social media platform, you can pretty much find us.

A few wood men dot com. And again, folks, you can use a discount code rolling 15. That's R.O.L.A-N-D 15. So use that discount code for a few woodman watches. And so check it out. These are pretty cool and fashionable. And so it's a little different if you're looking for that. And so a lot of y'all out there buying watches. And so if you're doing so, be sure to support a black-owned company in doing so.

So we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Good luck with the business. Thank you so much. All right, folks, that is it for us. Let me thank the folks with Operation Hope, John Hope Bryan, for hosting us again here at Global Hope Forum in Atlanta. We will be restreaming the entire conference. So it started on Sunday night and of course, Monday to the half day Tuesday. So we're going to be restreaming the entire conference. It started on Sunday night and, of course, Monday to the half day Tuesday. So we're going to be restreaming that. If you missed anything, simply go to the Black Star Network app or go to our YouTube channel as well. Let me thank Joe.

Let me thank Mustafa. Let me thank Randy for being on our panel today. Thank you so very much. Folks, I'm going to be back in the studio tomorrow. So, again, if you missed any of the content, go check it out. So lots of great discussions with some fabulous people. So you don't want to miss that tomorrow. We're going to have some additional interviews from here from the head of the U.S. Census Bureau. Also, a sister who works for Airbnb will have those interviews tomorrow when I'm back in the studio in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

All right. Don't forget, folks, this is the kind of stuff that you're not going to get this anywhere else. There's no other. And I can tell you this right now. You can look at all of the black media outlets out there and take your pick. You can go to Essence. You can go to Black Enterprise. You can go to Ebony. You can go to News. We can go to Urban One. You can go to Blavity. You can go to the Griot. You do not see them doing segments like we do every single Tuesday featuring black-owned businesses. You don't see what we do with our Tech Talk segments as well. You don't see, look, we have a two-hour show. This show is two hours.

Roger Muhammad's show is two hours. We got multiple shows and weekly shows as well. And so some fabulous content. That's what you get when you support the Black Star Network. So please do so. Again, our goal is to get our fan base to support us in what we do. Your dollars make it possible for us to continue to grow and build. And so please do so by joining our Brena Funk fan club.

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And if you're on Amazon Prime Video, click Live TV. You can go to their news grid. You can check us out, our channel, right along with the other news channels all across the country. And finally, be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide, Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books a Million, Target. You can also, of course, get the audio version that I read on Audible as well. Folks, that's it. I'll see you tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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You dig? you you Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.