#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2024 NUL Conference, Harris Drops Ad & Blasts Project 2025, Black Census Project Results

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

7.25.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2024 NUL Conference, Harris Drops Ad & Blasts Project 2025, Black Census Project Results LIVE from New Orleans at the National Urban League Conference. We'll talk with Melanie Campbell and the Fearless Fund's former chief operating officer, Ayana Parsons.  We'll show you Vice President Kamala's first presidential ad.  And we'll talk about her running mate options.  Harris blasted Trump and Project 2025 during her speech at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th National Convention in Houston, Texas.  You'll hear what she had to say to the first labor union to endorse Harris for president since announcing her campaign.  California Congressman Ro Khanna will stop by to discuss Vice President Harris's bid for the Oval Office. Black Futures Lab released the full results of its Black Census Project, the largest survey of Black people in American history.  The Principal of Black Futures Lab will be here to discuss the top issues of the  211,000 Black people they surveyed. #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbaseCurl Prep 👉🏾 Visit https://www.curlprep.com/ for natural hair solutions! Us the discount code "ROLAND" at checkout 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 platform 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. the recording studios. 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen.

One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. 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. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad listen to absolute season one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Thank you. Today is Thursday, July 25th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live from the Black Star Network.

We are here in New Orleans at the National Urban League Convention. From here, we'll be talking, hearing from Melanie Campbell, who leads the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Also, we'll hear from Arian Simone about what's happening with the Fearless Fund as they continue to battle right-wing conservatives who want to shut them down for helping black and Latino women when it comes to getting venture capital. So we'll talk to hear from them. Also, we'll show you Vice President Kamala Harris's first presidential ad. She uses Beyonce's song Freedom.

Also on today's show, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the American Federation of Teachers Convention in Houston. She blasted Donald Trump in Project 2025. I'm going to show you some of what she had to say. We also live streamed that speech right here on the Black Star Network. Also, California Congressman Ro Khanna is going to be joining us to talk about VP Harris's battle to win the White House. Plus, the Black Futures Lab has released the full results of this Black Census Project, the largest survey of black people in American history. The principal of the Black Futures Lab will be here to talk about this survey of 211,000 African-Americans. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop and got the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's rolling, Martel. Now. Martel. Playing this speech first. Folks, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today in Houston, where she addressed the American Federation of Teachers during her 19-minute speech. She aggressively went after Donald Trump, Project 2025, and other critical issues. Here's some of what she had to say. We are clear-eyed.

As we work to build a brighter future and to move our nation forward, there are those who are really trying to take us backward. And you, I'm sure, have seen their agenda. Project 2025. Randy, can you believe they put that thing in writing? 900 pages in writing. So Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past. Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies,

back to union busting, back to tax breaks for billionaires. Donald Trump and his allies want to cut Medicare and Social Security. To stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants. And I say to AFT, they even want to eliminate the Department of Education. And end Head Start. Which, of course, would take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children. He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill.

And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act. Now think about that. To take us back to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions. Remember what that was like? Children with asthma, women who survived breast cancer, grandparents with diabetes. You know, America has tried these failed economic policies before. But we are not going back. We are not going back. No, we will move forward.

And one of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice. To protect the freedom to organize. To defend the freedom to collectively bargain to end union busting. As head of the White House Labor Task Force, I have led our work to eliminate barriers to organizing in both public and private sectors, including for teachers. But there is more that we must do.

President Joe Biden and I promised to sign the PRO Act into law, and I promise you I will keep that promise. Because when workers join together and demand what is fair, everyone is better off. Understand, and I say this everywhere I go, understand, you may not be a union member, but you should thank unions, and I'm looking to the cameras in the back of the room, not them, but the people who might be watching. You may not be a union member,

but thank unions for the five-day work week. For the eight-hour work day. Thank unions for sick leave and paid family leave and vacation time. Because the fact is, unions helped build America's middle class. And when unions are strong, ours is a fight for the future. And ours is a fight for freedom. In this moment across our nation, we witness a full-on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms. While you teach students about democracy and representative government,

extremists attack the sacred freedom to vote. While you try to create safe and welcoming places where our children can learn, extremists attack our freedom to live safe from gun violence. They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom. While they refuse to pass common sense gun safety laws. And while you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history, including book bans.

Book bans in this year of our Lord, 2024. And on these last two issues, on these last two issues, just think about it. So we want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books. Can you imagine? All the while, these extremists also attack the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. They passed so-called don't say gay laws. Now I have to tell you, so many of you may know, in 2004 on Valentine's Day weekend,

I was one of the first elected officials in the country to perform same-sex marriages. So here's the thing. It pains me so to think 20 years later that there are some young teachers in their 20s who are afraid to put up a photograph of themselves and their partner for fear they could lose their job. And what is their job? The most noble of work, teaching other people's children. And God knows we don't pay you enough as it is. In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms. And to this room of leaders, I say, bring it on. All right, folks, join me right now.

Our panel, Recy Colbert, host of The Recy Colbert Show, a Sirius XM radio. Join us out of D.C. Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, also out of D.C. Long Victoria Burke, Black Press USA, joining us from Arlington. Greg, you're the educator on the panel. I'll start with you. Listen, when we talk about AFT-NEA, not only are we talking about public education, we also talk about two of the biggest funders of the Democratic Party. Not only do they supply

money, they supply boots on the ground. And when you have Republicans who are directly attacking public education, when you look at the voucher scam they're trying to do in Texas and Tennessee and other states, the reaction that she got from the teachers in Houston obviously was a huge reaction. We're talking about a group that she is going to need to drive

mobilization on the ground. Yeah, absolutely. Again, she's not an unknown quantity to the AFT. When she was in the Senate in 2019, she supported a teacher strike in L.A., which stood in opposition, actually, to fellow Democrats who were trying to expand charter school options in the city. When she ran for president in 2020, she unrolled a plan to raise teacher prep pay, which, of course, made the unions and teachers very happy. And, you know, this is a huge fight. Shout out, by the way, to those in the state of Georgia who pushed back at that

Secretary of State, and now the Advanced Placement African American Studies course will be offered. It's very important. And as you say, the AFT is the largest union in the AFL-CIO affiliation. This is boots on the ground. And I think, as you were talking yesterday with the state representative and leader of the statehouse in Pennsylvania, it was the punch in the mouth on Sunday evening by the sisters, followed by Monday by the brothers, that backed up all of the other noise around all of the other candidates. And the AFT, certainly their wide-ranging endorsement,

but they jumped in and did that very quickly, the first big union to do so. It's just got this momentum is rolling. It's just really rolling. It is. And what you're seeing here, Lauren, you are seeing very aggressive posture being taken by this campaign. They're not trying to sit here and play this thing nice with Republicans. Not. We see that in their messaging, in their statements. Obviously, they have someone who is young and aggressive doing their statements because their statements have been quite something and quite a huge change from what we typically see from the Democratic Party. And I think this is why generational change often is very important.

It is amazing. It is a night-and-day switch. It's a much more aggressive campaign. It's a much more updated campaign, from the use of Beyoncé to the statements that are coming out, the things that they're attacking. The speed is completely different. And of course, unions play a huge role in Democratic campaigns. And, you know, you're going to see SEIU out there knocking the doors and UAW. And of course, President Biden was

the first to join a picket line, which was UAW. But unions are huge. Hopefully the Teamsters will wake up to that because the Teamsters president decided to make a speech at the Republican National Convention, which actually made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Sean O'Brien, but maybe he'll come around. 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. 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 Dr 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 ban. 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it

and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

As well, but of course, all the major unions have endorsed the Democrats, who of course spend so much of their time working on union issues, labor issues, minimum wage, etc. and so on, while the Republicans spend all their time fighting against all of that. You know, Recy, to the point Lauren made there, I think that is a really important one in terms of how they've taken a much more aggressive tone towards Donald Trump and the Republicans. A press release went out today where they literally put in the headline, 78-year-old convicted felon. They're not trying to be nice about this here. And I think, listen, when you deal with a bully, you have to hit a bully square in the eye. And you remember,

and I've talked about it a lot, and Michelle Obama kept talking, you know, made a famous comment, when they go low, we go high. Now, this Harris for president campaign, they're like, you hit us low, we're going to hit you lower. Period. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, what we're seeing now is the same thing that I've been talking about for years. I had to put that in there. In 2019, her whole campaign was really about prosecuting the case. People have looked at Vice President Kamala Harris through the lens of the primaries, which was a lot more difficult to break through when you are dealing with mostly ideologically aligned Democrats going up against the former vice president of the United States versus what we're seeing with Donald Trump. She has always had her

foot up Donald Trump's ass if anybody was paying attention. I mean, they played one of her 2019 campaign ads that referred to him as a sexual assaulter, as a criminal back then before there were any convictions on the table. And so what we're going to continue to see is that tough posture of prosecuting the case. Donald Trump himself gave them the best soundbite saying that they're going to talk about how she's a prosecutor and I'm a felon. Yeah, damn right we are. And this is going to be much more of a fight. The gloves are off. She is untethered. She is unchanged. She doesn't have to shrink back behind. No shade. I love Uncle Joe. But an 81 year old white man who, you know, was my friend, is my friend that and who was, you know, a lot less scrappier than he had been in the past.

Now she's running the show, and I love to see the difference in the energy and the difference in the messaging. You know, Greg, I was having a conversation earlier, and someone at the Urban League Convention here in New Orleans, and somebody was saying, man, she just, you know, is just so much better than 2019. And I went, it was five years ago. I mean, the reality is when she ran 2019, first time runner for national office, she doesn't even make the first primary. Biden picks her as VP, went through a tough couple of years,

staff turnover, backbiting from folks in the administration. And so anyone can tell this is a candidate who's got her footing. If you look at different media outlets have done TikTok stories on how she mobilized folk in the 10 hours after President Biden made his announcement. I mean, her team is hitting on all cylinders. How they lined up the phone calls, how they were nailing folks. When you look at the fundraising, not only from small donors, from major donors.

When you look at, again, the moves that they made, they have been nailing it every single day. This is a Harris for president team that totally understands you achieve maximum efficiency every single day because there is no day, no hour, no minute to waste. None, none. That's right. Just over a hundred days and counting. Absolutely. And I heard you, of course, we all did in conversation the other night with Scott Bolin, where you made the very same point. She shouldn't be the same candidate as she was four years ago, five years ago. It's very clear, it's very interesting, isn't it? I mean, when we look at even, and the comparisons are inevitable between her candidacy and the Obama candidacy of 2008, what we see is that there is a similar excitement, there's an

enthusiasm, there's a paradigm-shifting kind of momentum, but there are also key distinctions. The vice president has learned. She's absolutely learned. She reached out to her pastor, Reverend Amos Brown, the legendary Amos Brown, of course, student of Martin Luther King and Benjamin Mays and so others, also, incidentally, an alpha. I saw that same letter rolling about, don't wear your colors if you're going to make an endorsement. But it just came out from the national office. But, you know, it's not a Jeremiah Wright moment, though.

It's not Jeremiah Wright. You can't attack Amos Brown. And her tie to the black church is indelible, and she maintains it. You know, Will.i.am took that speech from when you were covering in Iowa with everyone else as Barack Obama shocked the world with the Yes We Can, and then Will I Am remixes it and gives Barack Obama his first campaign song. Well, I think the endorsement of Beyoncé not only trumps that, it sets a new standard, you know.

I mean, and so when it comes down to her campaigning, the speech today she gave, Randy Weingarten led in with the full guns blazing attack on Donald Trump. But the speech she gave today hit the perfect sweet spot to deal with the educators and deal with organized labor. Now, her pick of a vice president, Ed Luce writing in the op-ed page of today's Financial Times referred to J.D. Vance as the new hillbilly in chief. Well, now she's got to pick a vice president, and that might pose a little bit of a problem. The AFT doesn't particularly like Josh Shapiro, for example, who has been a little bit too friendly around school vouchers for the taste

of those unions. So now we're going to see, as she steps into this role, her speaking as a potential executive in chief, not a second in line, not a person who now can kind of have time to get up to speed. She's going to have to be presidential now at the policy side. And I think she's proving over the first few days of the campaign, she's more than up to that challenge. Lauren, see, for me, this is what I like. This is a graphic they put out that is clear.

When we fight, we win. I believe, and I agree what Greg is talking about in terms of sort of the excitement that's similar to 2008. But that was about change and hope. That was aspirational. I believe what people are saying is they want this. They want a candidate that is ready to kick ass. And I think, again, this language is important When we fight, we win. Yeah, and this is the era that we live in where fighting is extremely necessary when you're going up against fascism and you're going up against liars and you're going up against racists, which is what she's going up against.

You're going up against misinformation and disinformation, which we're sure to see before the end of this. We are in the Trump era. We're in the mega-Trump era of Republican Party. And this party has no, this iteration of the Republican Party would appear to have no policy interest other than to control people's lives and set back the clock. I mean, it's a very strange situation. They're not talking about tax policy or less government in your life. The DOPS decision is going to figure huge in the race that we're about to see. And young voters are going to be huge here. And you can see an uptick in interest when it comes to young voters.

And it seems like Vice President Harris is excited that sector, which President Biden was unable to excite. So it will be interesting to see where the polls stand in two weeks. But, you know, this type of messaging that we're seeing so far is fitting perfectly with the era that we live in. And I suspect she has some younger folks in there who are very energetic. And God bless that. Today, the Harris campaign dropped their first campaign ad. Roll it. In this election, we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in? There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate.

But us, we choose something different. We choose freedom. The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in poverty. Where we can all afford health care. Where no one is above the law.

We believe in the promise of America and we're ready to fight for it. Because when we fight, we win. So join us. Go to KamalaHarris.com and let's get to work. I'ma keep on running cause the winner don't quit on themselves. Reesey, that is, that is an opening ad. That's a damn good ad. I love that it really does showcase the big tent of the Democratic Party.

It gives her some rock star vibes. Lean into it, girlfriend. You are the top of the Democratic Party. It gives her some rock star vibes. Lean into a girlfriend. You are the top of the ticket now. People are coming out to see you. And I love that it really just showcases the range of the policies, the range of the support. You saw people who were clearly different vocations, union workers. We saw multi-generational families. We heard the word poverty. I'm sure Dr. Reverend Barber would be very happy to hear that. I don't know how often we hear that in a campaign presidential ad. It was actually quite a bit aspirational. And it really did give something

to fight for and to look forward to. And I'm so interested to see how much of her 2019 platform, how much of her Senate platform actually gets revived as part of this campaign. I know that President Biden did ingest a lot of her more progressive policies in there, but I would love to see her revive her talk around equal pay for teachers, her talk around $500 a month credit for families making under $100,000 a year for singles making $50,000 a year, her Rent Relief Act, which was capping your rent prices at 30 percent of your income. I would love to see a lot of those initiatives make a comeback under her presidential platform and give people something more to look forward to. And luckily for her, she doesn't have to run away from the Biden-Harris record of accomplishments.

And that's why we have the winning hand that we're dealt here. And it's all about energy. And that energy brought that, that ad brought the energy. We were texting earlier as I was flying in this morning and Lauren said, man, they got a new ad out. And Greg, when I posted the ad, your response was, wow. You know, it's funny. We were talking about it earlier. Beyonce is an indelible brand. You know, this isn't her husband playing footsie with the owner of the Patriots and getting us all bemused.

Of course, nobody should listen to Sean Carter on this anyway. You know, him 50 cent any of them. Beyonce's brand is indelible. The K-Hive and the Bayhive together, man, that's, you know, first of all, how many, I can't even count maybe that high in terms of a licensing thing to even be requested. The fact that she said you can do it, which is an endorsement. You know, the only thing now is the question of when is Taylor Swift going to come in and lock horns, I mean, lock hands with Beyonce, form like the Wonder Twins, and drive the rest of the Millbillies crazy.

So the momentum in this, yeah, the enthusiasm, it feels like 08, but then let's be clear, this is a very different campaign than the hope and change campaign of 08, as you say. As the vice president continues to gain her footing, hopefully she won't, and probably she won't. And, Recy, I agree with you. I mean, bringing back some of those things from 19, the Senate work, and from the 20 campaign is going to be crucial at this point, because, as Steve Phillips calls them, those smart-ass white boys, meaning the consultants, you know, stay away from them.

She's sending a message to the consulting class, to the pundit class, nah, nah, we got this. The other thing, of course, was that thankfully she did not preside over the speech by the ICC's newest war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled, of course, I guess. Did she meet with him today? I'm not sure. I didn't see an update. She's supposed to, I think, come back into I guess. Did she meet with him today? I'm not sure. I didn't see an update.

But she's supposed to, I think, come back to D.C. and meet with him. But her position on foreign policy as it relates to Gaza is going to be important. Anybody thinks that these students aren't going to resume their protests in September, you're not paying attention. So the best gift, one of the best gifts that Joe Biden can give to his vice president would be to get this ceasefire done because they're going to try to beat her over the head with that. And that attack won't come from the right. It'll come from the left. When I look at that ad, Lauren, Beyonce gave her permission to use that song.

And if you listen to what she said in there, yes, it is aspirational. Made it clear we have to fight. But she did not run from Donald Trump. They used the headlines as him as convicted felon in the ad. That's making it clear he is the target for this campaign. Yeah, they say that whoever is the issue, whoever the whatever candidate is the issue in the campaign is usually the loser. This campaign has gone so long with, you know, President Biden being the issue of the campaign or being the candidate in the campaign where everything was centering around some problem related to him.

And of course, it's easy with Donald Trump to make Donald Trump the issue because once he starts running his mouth, he becomes the issue. Question is, is the media ever going to catch on to that? And this is why it's so important to have people who are doing the messaging, who are in the generation of people like Recy Colbert, too raw, too real, and people who actually doing when it comes to communication strategy that puts it where the goats can get it, as they say. I mean, this idea that we're doing messaging as if it's 1990 or, you know, 1986 has got to go by the wayside. Messaging for the Democratic Party has been terrible.

But in this last few days, we've seen from the Harris campaign a younger, faster, more direct form of messaging. And this ad is a real cherry on top of that sundae for the week, because obviously using Beyonce and the message of the entire thing, and as recently Uri brought up, that the images in the ad display everyone who is a member underneath the big tent that is the Democratic Party. So it's well done, and hopefully they will do more of that. It's been very aggressive, and it's a great change from what we typically see.

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 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 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 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 ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer Riley Cote, Marine Corps vet,

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 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen.

One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. We see from the Democratic Party. All right, hold tight for one, folks. Got to go to a break.

We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. We'll talk about the Black Census Project. They surveyed 211,000 African Americans, getting their thoughts and perspective on the issues they care about when it comes to this election. Don't forget to support us in what we do, folks. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to be able to travel around the country

and broadcast this show from places like this, National Urban League Convention here in New Orleans. You can see your check and money order the peel box 57196 washington dc 20037-0196 cash out dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal r martin unfiltered venmo is rm unfiltered zelle rolling at rolling s martin.com rolling at rolling martin unfiltered dot com download the blackstone network app Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV

We'll be right back Hatred on the streets A horrific scene A white nationalist rally that descended Into deadly violence White people are losing their damn lives. It'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. Here's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be

more of this. 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. My name is Lena Charles, and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world. My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia Games. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching.

Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, folks, we often talk about these surveys and polls that rarely take into account a significant amount of African-Americans. Well, the Black Futures Lab, they have released their survey. They surveyed 211,000 African-Americans, the largest survey in American history. Joining us right now is Kristen Powell. She is the principal of the Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund. She joins us from Dayton, Ohio. Kristen, glad to have you on the show. All right. So what jumps out? What are black folks saying they care about? Thank you for having me, Roland. They care about the economy. Black folks, and that's not surprising. Black folks talked about low wages in order to feed and protect their families. They talked about affordable housing. They talked about gun violence. And that's not just black-on-black violence, but white supremacist violence, as well as police violence. All right. So those are the top issues there. So walk us through how you laid this out

in terms of the various categories. How did you actually survey folks? Yeah. So we had a lot of different ways to reach people. I want to impress upon you that it is hard to get Black folks to do surveys because we have been tested on and mistreated, and we don't trust that the information that we're giving is going to be used in a meaningful way. And so the first thing we did is we had partnerships in the ground, grassroots organizations who had relationships with Black communities, especially Black communities that are hard to reach, like rural areas, people who are incarcerated, the trans community. And we also did a lot of online engagement. We found that black folks listen to their news on Instagram and Facebook. And so we've reached a lot of people through social media, through influencers that people follow on can tell, we're here in New Orleans for the National Urban League Convention.

So it's no surprise you've got a second-line van that just struck up behind us. I'm not sure where they are. So in terms of the issues they care about, they also share thoughts about political parties and candidates. They did. So we asked a few questions about political parties and candidates? They did. So we asked a few questions about political parties and candidates. We asked people kind of what party that they align with. Seventy percent of people polled said that they align with the Democratic Party. Two percent said they align with the Republican Party.

And about 23 percent identified as independents. But it's really important to understand that as we look deeper at the data on those independents, that most of them actually share Democratic values. So the narrative that's coming out that independents, at least Black independents, are up for grabs by either party is not supported by data. What we're actually seeing is that black folks align with the values of the Democratic Party. However, they have not been delivered for. And because of that, they don't want to say they're Democrats. So instead, they say they're independent and many times don't vote. We also asked black voters about specific politicians, which politicians they

trusted or found more favorable than others. Kamala Harris was actually found as the most trusted federal politician. 71 percent of respondents said that they trusted her, compared to 5 percent that said they trusted Donald Trump. All right, questions for the panel. Lauren, you're first. So when you talk about independents, how did you know that they were aligned with the Democratic Party? What in the survey indicated to you that the independents were aligned with the Democratic Party? We asked them. So people that said they were independent, we asked them which party do they align more with or which party do they like their platform more. And most people

that said they were independent said that they liked the platform of the Democratic Party more, but did not want to define themselves as Democratic. Okay, thank you. Recy. The top economic issues, I remember I followed the Black Census Project back in 2019, and some of the things were about wages and rent and things like that. So can you just dive a little bit more into the actual economic priorities of Black voters in the survey? Yeah, so we asked two questions about issues.

One, what problem areas do they care most about. By far, low wages was the number one, but people also talked about access to affordable housing, access to affordable health care, affording college. And then secondly, we asked people of policies, what type of policies do you want to address these problems? By far, 97% said that they wanted more funding for higher education. We also heard Black folks talk about more government aid. And, you know, there's the narrative that Black folks just want a handout. That's not true. When we asked them about that government aid, we did some focus groups also to align with this survey, people wanted more funding for their small business. They wanted better schools for their kids.

It's not about a handout. It's about we're paying into the tax system, and we expect to get things back. They also talked about wanting more wage protection insurance and wanting—they loved the tax or the payment out of $300 a month that they got for their children back in the COVID time. Greg. Greg. Greg. Sorry about that, Roman.

Thank you, Kristen. Thank you I was mobility. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you, sister, for this work. And reading the executive summary, a couple things jumped out I want to ask you about just in terms of how you interpret this. As you say, the vice president Harris, 71 percent Black Folk Trust, but in the report says she was tied with Nancy Pelosi, which I thought was interesting. And, you know, and of course, the Democrats were at the top. But when you all asked about confidence in institutions, corporations were at the bottom in terms of what Black folk

that were surveyed trust either not at all or very little. Interestingly enough, just above that were elected officials and then the police. So police, that were elected officials and then the police. So police, we trust elected officials less than the police, and corporations least of all. But the question I want to ask you, I thought was interesting, when you all surveyed us and they talked about—and, folks, the respondents talked about support for policy proposals, the percent who strongly or somewhat favor those same corporations, when you asked whether or not folks agreed with or supported increasing taxes on large corporations,

that number was at rock bottom at 16 percent. Why, if we don't trust corporations, do we not want them to pay their fair share in taxes, do you think? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, when you do good data collection, sometimes we conflict ourselves, right? Black people have some contradictions. So when we looked at that, just to reframe what he said, black people by far, when we asked them what institutions do they trust, said that they trusted corporations the least, as well as federal government and the police. But we don't want to raise taxes on corporations. And when we went to our focus groups and also just talked anecdotally to our folks, what we're finding is that there's a lot of rhetoric coming within their jobs, within their corporations that they work for. A lot of our folks, especially

in rural and small cities, are working in factories. They're working in places where they're hearing rhetoric from their people that they work with, as well as their bosses, about why they're not getting a raise or why conditions aren't better in their facilities. And that rhetoric is making them think, well, I'm not getting what I need because they're paying too much in taxes, even though I don't trust them. So there's a lot of contradictions there. But I think that happens to come from the environments that they're working in. So what you're saying is that what's happening is is you got folks they're scared for their jobs and

so the companies are saying oh my god if they raise taxes we gotta start laying people off not realizing that uh the corporate tax rate that is being paid right now pales in comparison to what it was 30 40 years ago also the amount of money that corporations have parked offshore is one of the reasons why people can't get any wage increases. And lastly, when you talk about these same corporations, these are the folks who, when they got that Trump's tax cut, they made clear they were not giving the money to workers. They used it for stock buybacks.

And so I get the average person, I get them being concerned about their job, but the reality is the company's playing banana in the tailpipe games. Right, right. And one other thing to add to that that we found when talking to people about that question specifically is there's also been a big movement in our community to own our own

businesses, have our LLCs. And so in the Black wealth movement, we see ourselves as corporations too. And so we also found when talking to higher paid Black folks that they saw themselves in that question and were like, well, I don't want to pay more taxes either. And so there's there's a bunch of different reasons for that. And that's why we understand all those different nuances. And that particular point there, I have been I've done countless interviews with people. And I've been trying to explain to people how the black demographic has changed. Right. And what I said is when you get African Americans, and I'll really start with Gen X. So for me, I graduated December 1991 from Texas A&M University. When my brother graduated the year before me in 1990, he comes out of college with a higher salary than my dad ever made, than

my mom ever made. My parents never made more than $50,000 combined. So historically, when politicians, Democrats, are talking about African American voters, they're speaking from the perspective of a social safety net. Well, when all of a sudden, because we were the first generation born post the Civil Rights Movement. King is killed April 4th, 1968. I'm born November 14th, 1968. So all of a sudden, you now have a generation of African Americans, let's say who graduated when I did.

I'm now 55. So all of a sudden, we now, not all of us, but more than likely have more assets than our parents. Right. So our perspective on taxes, our perspective on economic issues is going to be different. Now you roll in millennials in Gen Z who are very much about entrepreneurship. And when you are focusing on entrepreneurship, yes, you're looking at corporate tax rates. We were in Georgia, 2022, for the runoff, Senator Raphael Warnock. And I'm going around the different cities, and I can't remember if it was Statesboro. I can't remember where I was.

But we were talking to this sister. She owned a coffee shop. And it was Warnock Hershey Walker. And she said, look, I'm a woman. I totally understand Roe v. Wade. But I'm not having kids. I care more about the corporate taxes because I own this business. And I'm listening to both. And so that's the thing.

I'm always trying to explain to people how the black voter demographic has changed. So therefore, if you're Democrats and Republicans, the real Democrats, you're going to have to micro target black people. You're going to have to say, you know what? I've got this hardcore, capitalistic, entrepreneurial class. I've got another class dealing with social safety net. I've got another class dealing with different issues. They no longer

can sort of just do the broad shot. Here we go. Here's the broad shot. No. They're going to spend more money, more time micro-targeting African Americans than they used to ever do. Well, and that's why it's so important that this survey has reached 211,000 Black people across this country and that it is done by us and for us because black folks are not a monolith. And this survey is going to lead to our ability to be able to organize around these issues. So on August 8th, we're actually launching the Black Economic Agenda, our C4.

So Black Futures Lab is a 501c3. Our C4, Black to the Future Action Fund, is taking this data and then creating an agenda for us to organize around, rooted in the experiences of our folks. And also, we're using this data to create strategy for how we're going to reach Black voters in this election. Our organization is going to be talking to 250,000 Black voters face-to-face in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Louisiana, and California. And it's important that we cater our message to the population. And that survey in particular, the Black Census survey, you'll see as you take the data apart, there are going to be differences

between an 18- to 30-year-old voter and a voter in the 45- to range. There'll be differences between voters in rural areas versus black voters in cities. And so we have to have a nuanced strategy in order to turn out and motivate black voters. And we have to build relationships with them all year round. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it.

Where can people get more information on the survey? Where can they go check it out? Yeah, go to Black Futures Lab dot org. It is on our Web site and you can get the report there. And then you can also follow us on all of the social channels that you see there and, you know, engage with our work. Thank you for having me, Roland. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Got to go to a break.

We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Sun Network, broadcasting live from New Orleans, site of this year's National Urban League Convention. Back in a moment. 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. 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 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Coming soon to the Black Star Network. I still have my NFL contract in my house.

Having a case. It's four of them for my four-year contract. I got a $600,000 signing bonus. My base salary for that first year was 150. Matter of fact- 150,000. 150,000, that's what I made, $150,000. Now, think about it.

My signing bonus was a forgivable loan, supposedly. When I got traded to the Colts, they made me pay back my signing bonus to them. I had to give them their $600,000 back. Wow. I was so pissed. Cause man, I try to be a man of my word. I'm like, you.

I'll give you your money back. You know, even though I know I earned that money, I gave them that money back. I gave them that $600,000 back. But yet I was this malcontent. I was a bad guy. I'm about the money. It wasn't about the money. Wasn't about the money.

It was about doing right. Because I was looking at, I looked at, cause you look at contracts. Look at John Edwards. John Edwards making a million dollars. 800, I was making 150. I mean, I was doing everything. And I'm like, but yet I was,

man, I got so many letters. You know, you. You, you. So I just play for free and all that kind of stuff. I mean, you don't forget that kind of stuff. Right. That stuff is hurtful. Hello, I'm Jameah Pugh. I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My nameameah Pugh.

I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My name is Jasmine Pugh. I'm also from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. Hold on. Do we have like a wise?

All right, let's go back to our panel. I'm going to start with you, Rishi. The point I was making there, Christian, is one I've actually said for a long time, and I don't think Democrats get it. The black voter in 2024 is not the black voter in 2004. It's not the black voter in 1984. It's not the black voter in 1974. And these white Democratic strategists are going to have to understand that the micro-targeting of Black voters has to happen. And I believe that's one of the reasons they have seen these numbers go down, if you will, because they don't understand

how the demographics have changed. Absolutely. I mean, Black voters are not a monolith, and Black voters have different socioeconomic priorities, maybe even some different priorities in terms of climate change, as opposed to infrastructure or even health care. People who have pensions and health care through their job, maybe that's not as big of a priority for them, as opposed to inflation or gas prices. And so what the Republicans have figured out is how to micro-target Black people for a dissuasion campaign, but yet Democrats haven't necessarily taken the efforts to micro-target Black people in the same way, not just for affirmative messages and pitching the policies

and the accomplishments of the administration or the Democratic Party, but also targeting them to undo the disinformation campaign that we are targeted with. So there's a lot of work to be done on that regard. But I'm glad that we have some solid data to show what the current priorities are for black voters. I don't think it should come as a surprise to anybody. And for them to—for the Democratic Party to really focus on tailoring a message around wage equality, around educational advancement, around health care to the black community

and not just talking about criminal justice, for instance. And see, Lauren, when people talk about, oh, Trump and the Republicans in a black male vote, they are leaving out the economic piece. The reality is if you're talking to a barber, you're talking to a restaurant owner, you're talking to a business owner. I remember when the Trump tax cut happened, talking to a business owner in Houston who said, I don't like Trump. I don't like the Republicans, but the reality is that tax cut put $500,000 more in my pocket. Now, people have to understand that's real.

And again, I think that when you start breaking down these different groups among African-Americans, when you start talking about those who own companies, their views are going to be different than non-owners. Yeah, well, the Democratic Party, you know, makes its decisions, generally speaking, on spending on voters based on what group of vendors they really actually want to fund, rather than what group of voters they need to come out. And certainly when you consider that black women and black men are number one and number two in terms of dedication and reliability with regard to voting Democrat, you would think that they would be investing a lot of money into black voters. But it's amazing how we wake up and find that the money is invested in Nikki Haley voters that they're trying to convert into the Democratic Party or Donald Trump voters that they're trying to convert into the Democratic Party, which is an extremely expensive voter, if you even get that person, which is highly unlikely. put out there many years ago that for some reason the old heads don't want to listen

to, that if you can just get that black voter into the voting booth, you are—you have a 90, over 90 percent chance of success if you're the Democratic Party, really needs to be listened to. And in an era of record fundraising, where we see 200 million raised in about four days, the question is, where exactly is that money going? Will it be invested in the micro-targeting of black voters, the most reliable voters for the Democratic Party, or is it going to be invested, as usual, in television and, you know, these sort of starry-eyed, you know, theories that you can get a Republican to convert to being a Democrat? You know, I think

we know the answer, but let's see if the Harris campaign can change some of that decision making we've seen before. See, Greg, the reason I think this is important is because and I've said this just constantly, the further you get away from the black civil rights movement, you have to understand mortality. We don't necessarily want to talk about it. Of course we don't. But the reality is this. The further you get as each year passes, we are losing black baby boomers and we're losing that group

that's like right in between black baby boomers in Gen X. And so what that happens is the further you get away from the black freedom movement, the numbers don't lie. Black people, and this survey is in there, are less likely to self-identify as Democrats. So, she said it. Folks who call themselves independent, their views allow the Democratic Party. So these are people who say

I am not going to self identify. I am not calling myself a Democrat. Which now means that in 2024, 2025, 2026, all of a sudden, in five years,

Gen X hit 60. Now, millennials in Gen Z, that group, in a significant way, will not self-identify as Democrats. Which means the Democratic strategy has to be totally different and, if we'll be honest, a smart Republican will know how to pick off a significant chunk

of that black vote with the right message. You are absolutely right. It is heartbreaking, but it is real. Yesterday morning I was in class with an introduction to affirmation states class with some young people, and we were—one asked about the assassination attempts. We talked about that a little bit, because we know Christopher Wray testified on the

Hill yesterday. And we asked them, we said, you know, will that make people more inclined to vote for Trump? And almost the university said, yeah. Why? Because, you know, that meme with 50 Cent with many men, I'm like, wow. These are 18-year-olds, incoming freshmen to Harvard, fresh women, fresh people. When you combine that with the fact, and I forget where I read the report a couple of weeks ago, you may have reported on it, where I was saying that people who get their news from social media, Instagram, TikTok, that kind of thing, they don't necessarily look at the news or so-called news that's coming across. They're scrolling the comments. Then it underscores the capacity, as Recy has been telling us, that, you know, this misinformation, this disinformation campaign is real.

Finally, I'm reading a new book on what's called central bank capitalism and shadow banking, financial institutions that exist outside of the existing regulatory frameworks. These are the central banks. Money is moving everything. The political parties, of course, are beholden to the donors. We just saw the hit job on Joe Biden carried out by people who are linked to and then ultimately the donors. Neither of the political parties is going to mess with that. That revealing survey information that this is a society, a capitalist society that has convinced poor people that they don't want to tax corporations because one day they're going to be rich. Like you said, I don't think it's really about their companies as much as it is that they're going to be rich. That kind of disinformation with small business owners caught in between

really is a foreshadowing of the real crisis we have, not just in the United States, but all over the world. The election in France, the chance that's going to be a stunt for reelection in Germany. But what happened in India? What happened in South Africa? Poor people are suffering. When you talk to Reverend Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove about that new book White Poverty, that is real.

Expand the political party to include those who have not been participating, and you can transform the society. But if you're just going to play on the margins, then you're not going to get rid of those smart-ass white boys that Lauren is talking about. You're not going to get rid of those donor-based, central bank-based, unregulated company-based agendas. And the people who are going to suffer the most are going to be our people, monolithic or not. To that particular point that Greg makes, Recy

cord cutting the shift to streaming the reality is cable news average viewer age of cable news is 64 it is if I sat here and pulled up

pulled up, so we've got 1.33 million subscribers. If I pull up our YouTube dashboard and pull up the analytics in terms of audience, what you will see is that the bulk of folk watch this show, 45, 65 plus. Now, and again, numbers don't lie, the highest group that watches this show, this literally mirrors voting. I need everybody paying attention to what I'm saying right now.

What I'm about to read for you literally mirrors voting. 38.2% of this, and this is just YouTube. We stream on Twitch. We stream on Facebook. We stream on Instagram. Of course, we have the app. So this is just YouTube. So this is, we stream on Twitch. We stream on Facebook. We stream on Instagram. Of course, we have the app. So this is only YouTube. 38.2% of our audience is 65 plus.

28.8% is 55, 64. 17.6% is 45, 54. 35 to 44, 9.5%. 25-34, 4.4%. 18-24, 1.4%. 13-17, 0.1. So that means that what black-owned media has to do is what Greg said. So now let me flip over here. On Instagram, I have 726,000 followers. On Twitter,

727,000 followers. Facebook is 1.3 million. We're building on fan base. We've been on TikTok is up to 72,000. Now, this is the conundrum, if you will, Recy. I just gave you YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. From a revenue generating standpoint,

YouTube is number one. Facebook is number two, barely a thousand messaging to educate folks on Instagram and TikTok. But this is how much money you're making on the platforms. So people have to understand we're in a information battle. But if I spend a ton of time driving content to Instagram and TikTok, there's no business. Yeah. Yeah. That's the conundrum that we're in when it comes to the information.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the information infrastructure, and that's the investment, or lack thereof, in the information infrastructure that exists. 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 Glod. 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.

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.

You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. You know, it's a lot cheaper for chaos agents, Republicans, whoever the case may be,

to sit up there and pay a couple thousand dollars for a troll farm and bot farm to push out their message in the hope that it gets organically picked up by people who are foolish enough to believe this information than it is to invest in the actual program and making sure that you invest in a staff and in production quality to drive the message home. You know, your earlier guest talked about credibility and cumulative engagement with people to build up that ability to be trusted in terms of our communities. And so that's really what it boils down to is that we're up against a well-funded and actually cheaper and probably for their bang for their buck,

we're tying on their investment. But that does not move the needle in terms of our progress. That only keeps us stagnant and actually empowers those that want to take us back. Yeah. And so for the folks who are listening, you have to understand the economies of scale. You have to understand what drives the business. And so for us, because we don't get the advertising dollars that we should, because conservative media being funded by billionaires, they've got their rabbit followers. So a daily wire, according to their CEO, they'll generate $100 million.

You're going to be hard pressed to find more than two black owned media companies that does $100 million. Those are traditional media companies. So what I'm trying to say, the battle that we're in is that the places where the next generation are getting their information, which is a lot of misinformation, it is going to be harder, Lauren, to correct if you don't have money coming from somewhere else to have

the time and the resources to drive to those platforms. Because the reality is this here. We could easily put up full segments on TikTok and Instagram. We're going to make zero. So now it's a balance here. So we might put up a 60 second clip on Instagram and TikTok to drive them back to YouTube, but that's the battle. And so I am very concerned about the next decade of what information. So again, next 10 years. So in 10 years, I'll be 65. I'm very concerned about the 13 to 17 group.

Because they're going to be 23 to 27. I'm concerned about that next group because they're going to be in their mid-30s and where they're getting their information from, and that's why these troll farms from Russia, from China, from North Korea, are going to be serious inhibitors to black progress if our people are getting bad information.

Yeah, and I think we know already where that generation that's under about 30 is getting their information, which is typically TikTok and Instagram. TikTok and Instagram, of course, is short form information, particularly TikTok, though entertaining. And, you know, I don't want to totally bash TikTok. I mean, you can actually learn some stuff. I've learned a lot of guitar on TikTok and also, too, about cooking. You know, it's just it's an interesting thing. But when it comes to information that requires some nuance and some depth, obviously it's problematic.

And, you know, when I talk to a lot of my friends who own platforms that do make substantial money, typically it's because they have some sort of spinoff from what their platform does. The platform is actually just being used as a way to reach a lot of people, to do secondary things like events and, you know, premium content is another big strategy that you're seeing. Certainly Politico sort of started that, where you have a platform and then you put behind a paywall some premium special content. It's interesting because YouTube is allowing for some of that as well with their memberships

and having certain things that are special to the membership. And then there's a lot of advice out there about courses with regard to what you do in your core subject matter on YouTube in particular. So there are these other income stream strategies that, of course, have to be explored that have nothing to do with the amount of content that a content creator may be providing to these platforms. But it does require a lot of work. It requires a building of a team. And when you build a team, you typically have to have money up front to do that.

And there's not a whole lot of platforms that can do that. But I do think it's important for us to not get ticked off at the younger generation, but meet them where they are and communicate to them where they are and be smart and savvy about that and not to despair. Because I do think TikTok is a lot of fun, but it does require some work and some real focus. And we saw it this week where Vice President Harris blew up on the platform. Some of that blow up was good. Some of it was just silly. Some of it was not particularly in depth. But again, there's a lot of stream, you know, multiple stream strategies that are out there that can be pursued. Indeed. Folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, Melody Campbell, of course,

leads the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. We talk about the rollout of the Harris for President campaign and also what she is hearing and seeing across the country. We'll hear from her next from New Orleans right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Be sure to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You can send your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app is Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Democracy in the United States is under siege. On this list of bad actors, it's easy to point out the Donald Trumps, the Marjorie Taylor Greens,

or even the United States Supreme Court as the primary villains. But as David Pepper, author, scholar, and former politician himself says, there's another factor that trumps them all and resides much closer to many of our homes. His book is Laboratories of Autocracy, a wake-up call from behind the lines.

So these state houses get hijacked by the far right, then they gerrymander, they suppress the opposition, and that allows them to legislate in a way that doesn't reflect the people of that state. David Pepper joins us on the next Black Table, here on the come to me. We've been live streaming events all day. You can go to our YouTube channel as well as Black Star Network to check it all out. A little bit earlier, after the women's luncheon, I chatted with Melanie Campbell,

president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, about the rollout of the Harris for president campaign. Here's our conversation. Melanie Campbell, you've been in and around politics for a long time. And we know how 2008 was after Obama won Iowa. Yes. Black folks were before. But it changed after Iowa.

What do you make of what we have witnessed since Sunday afternoon when President Joe Biden, when he announced that he was not running for re-election, but then 30 minutes later, the moment he said he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris? Well, you know, Roland, for the last like two or three weeks, right, black folks were like, we riding with Biden, right? But if, if Hasaneva, if he decides, God spoke to him, I believe, and said, it's time to step aside, it better be Kamala. So when it, so what I think happened, what I felt happened, even in my own personal experience of it.

Right. It was a gut punch to see that letter. Because we thought we had turned the corner. Right. That things were happening. And as I mentioned to you, I was with my brother, my one and only brother, who's very cynical. And we both were like, oh, my God.

But it was like a damn broke of all of the feelings of anxiety and in some cases, honestly, fear about what could happen, right? Like, my generation will be all right, but we know with where this was going and could still go, it's not over. It was about taking us out, right? And so it felt like there were people who were walking like the walking dead

and then all of a sudden they get the antidote and they woke up and like, what's going on? What day is it? What year is it? It was like, got a defibrillator and like boom, you came back. And everybody was like... Here's what I also think happened. So I had this journalist hit me and he was like, see, see, you kept talking about how it was going to be a civil war.

It didn't happen. I said, no, well, you don't understand. As we laid the groundwork, I think what I think is what I think happened after that June 27 debate, and we saw how that thing was going, black folks were like, okay, act a fool. If you want to. I remember you called me. You're like, act a fool and skip the system. And I think in many areas, we made that real clear. That's right.

What was going to go down. What was going to go down. Y'all tried this open convention and skipped the system. It was not going to be pretty. I think that was there and folk were like, yeah, we better go ahead and get in line. Yeah. And do you know, Roland, the letter that we wrote was headed towards 10,000 sisters and brothers

and others, allies on that call. We were cranking it up. Right. And so we were ready. You were ready. So Sunday could have gone a whole different direction. It very much would have. I'm going to tell you it would have. Right. That call would have been about,

oh, heck no. If he had endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, and all those folks didn't fall in line, because remember, first day, Obama still ain't endorsed. Nancy Pelosi didn't endorse. That's right. Oh, I know.

So all them, so we were all like, and so then what happened was, what everybody else did, they were like left on an island. Let me tell you something. Sunday night and Monday night sealed the deal. Now, by the way, he did

on Sunday. But it let them know. We're together on this. When you had 45,000 sisters. That's right. Raising 2 million. The next day, 55,000 brothers. Raising a million four. Then on Tuesday, the Latinas.

That's right. They raised 90 grand in 90 minutes. Wednesday, the South Asian, the white women are meeting right now. Now, have you ever, have you ever, ever, ever? Wait a minute. I said the black. White people say they have the white women are meeting right now. Now, have you ever, have you ever? Wait a minute. I said the black. The white women's call. The black gay folk are having a call.

This is what I said. That's where the movement part. I tweeted on Sunday. I said, like Beyonce said, it's time to get information. And folk got information. And folks got information. And that's why I said that it's time to get information. And folks got information. And folks got information. And that's why I said that it may not be the same. We were talking about this offline.

It may not be the same kind of movement, but it is a movement. Absolutely. And it's not going to go away in 100 days. No. In fact, when I was talking with some of the guys that win with black men, they normally do a call. Y'all do a call every Sunday since 2024.

They do a call once a month. So the next day, I said, no, y'all go into a weekly call. That's right. I said, brother, because here's what I think happened.

We talked about the dam breaking. Folk were waiting to align with something. So by creating the vehicle, winning with black women, because most of these folk, they didn't even know y'all been meeting. No, I know. So that's why it went from 1,000 to 3,000.

And then it blew up. They got put on social media. And so they were like, I know y'all been meeting, but everybody didn't. And so I think folks were like waiting to latch on to something. That's right. And I think that's what the response was. Right, right. And I thank you.

And the thing that I'm excited about about it is there's so many other elections. We always talk about. 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 three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six 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 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-studugs 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. 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. store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

Down ballot rolling. I'm telling folks, okay, now let's get strategic about what they say. I'm not here as a 501c3 leader. I'm on my lunch break right now in my personal capacity. There is an opportunity to win up and down the ballot. There's an opportunity for the South to be in places that would not have been. If not for the presidential, possibly for the presidential, because black votes are going to turn out. Look, Trump was up six in Georgia. It's now one.

Exactly. So Georgia now is in play. And the numbers are there. Right. Right? And we're going to have to overperform. Because where we don't control, I'm like looking at the states and saying, where do we control the count so there's fairness?

And where we don't is where we better be real serious about being focused about that voter suppression. I also believe what also is helpful is her tone. She's not come out trying to play this middle centrist. No. They dropped the press release today, said 78-year-old convicted felon. That's in the lead. They ain't sitting

here joking around. And I think that tone is important because people want to see a fighter. And you know, we've been around her for years and she's just ready for this. She had gotten herself ready

and she had built relationships on the ground with young people, going to all those college campuses, being in the community, so it's not and that's the other thing that has been interesting to me with young people who were not excited about this election. And you gotta give Joe. Right. You know, and you got to give Joe Biden, you know, credit.

In fact, it's gone from Biden was plus eight. We got a letter circulating rolling to thank the man. Right. I'm going to send that to you. He was plus eight among young people. The newest poll, she's plus 20. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, the other side got a problem. Right. You know, but we can't let off the gas. Well, right. And that's what so so what I said to the brothers, I said, guys, we can't waste any single day. That's right. I said every day between now and Election Day, we have to have maximum efficiency. And right here in Louisiana, where we are, Mark broke it down this morning about what's going on with this governor and the state legislature, how they're

reversing all of the progressive criminal justice laws and all these things. You know, there's a congressional seat up here and the only reason the man won because folks stayed home. Right. And see, what drove me crazy was we were talking about it. We had Gary Chambers on. We were talking about it.

And a lot of other folks weren't. And I was like, y'all, this thing is going down. We got to be saying something. And folks are just kind of like, and I'm like, OK, this thing is happening. And so what that says to me is, we talk about it all the time, there's no election we can take off. That's right. That's right. We can't go, ah, you know what, we'll sit this one out. That's right. Understanding the connection year to year and that power wheel, you know, because when we do sit back, they take over state legislatures, they take over the governorships,

and then we're stuck. Or take over the county commissioner's take over the governor ships and then we're stuck or take over take over the County Commissioners Court that's the a judicial races school board that's real and that's how we have to be thinking so we've got a moment we got this we got this movement moment right then we could really do something so that's what I'm excited about and we got to make sure that we maximize I I'm still getting texts all day. Folks I haven't talked to since 30 years ago, college, what do I need to do? I've got a cousin that has a school in Atlanta who was texting me that day. Hey, they have a school where they train folks to work in the health profession.

He's like, I want a cousin. Can you come in September? I have about 50 students, right, that I'm going to have in September. I want to make sure all of them are registered to vote. That was Sunday. So those are the kinds of things that are happening. We grab a hold of that

and give folks something they can do right there in their own community. Flying here, I had eight brothers stop me in the airport. Seven of them were on the call. I'm talking about the moment I hit the airport, the moment I got here. And so, again, so the lesson,

the lesson for our organizations is that has to be happening on a regular basis. Yeah, yeah. The lesson, because what happened was Mike Blake called me, and I think, I can't remember if I called Mike or Mike called me. Yeah, right. It was like it happened at the same time. Right. And I said, Mike, all right, I said, Mike, the sister's always me. I said, we're going to do Call to Bro.

He said, man, we want to do something. He said, we want to use your platform. So because I already had the logistics, I already had the streaming account. We already had the show. We already had the network. So we didn't have to create that. I said, I got this. I said, y'all go do everything else. Logistics is down pat.

And so what I think every black organization should now be understanding is that what the women did, what we did, everything else, every organization should be doing that. Every organization should be issuing the clarion call, driving on social, putting it out there, and not just waiting for somebody else. I keep saying we've got all of this infrastructure in the black community that's untapped infrastructure. D9, Prince Hall Masons, Eastern. Listen, the Prince Hall Masons should be doing their own call. That's real. The Eastern Star should be doing their own call. That's real.

The Eastern Star should be doing their own call. That's right. That, to me, is where folk need to be. Because I'll tell you, when I was around the table, we had all of our leaders. They were like, when are we going to get on the phone? So we got on the phone the next day to talk about what this means, and we just took our hats off, though. I said, I want to have a formal call.

I want to have an informal call so we can talk. Right? And everybody was, like, so pumped and ready. So I think that we got this opportunity. But we have to be strategic. We have to be organized. And you know what? It went from, you know, either you're going to run to the polls

because you were afraid of something, like Dr. Lowry used to say, or you're going to run to the polls because you have some hope about something. I think it's both because it's the reality that we know what this was at stake. And it was like you felt frozen because that debate and, that debate and the way they treated the man. And see, black people didn't like that either. Right. We don't like unfair. Especially how the Democrats were trashing their own. Right.

It's like y'all were eating each other for lunch. I'm going to go back to what we were just talking about. Some folk might get upset and I don't really care. What happened on Sunday with the brothers. So Mike Blick was with Kairos. Quentin James with Collective Pack. Khalil is with We Ain't With Black Men.

Macari is a commentator. I'm Blackstar Network. We all came together. We all understood what we all brought to the table. Do the assignment. And I'm going to say this, and I ain't got a problem. The only, since we launched this show, there are only four black organizations that are partnering with us.

And I'm talking about that's spending money. That's saying we want to do this. Rowley, you got the media piece. We need you to amplify what we're doing. Only four. Black Voters Matter. Reverend Barbara Popey was campaigned. This is the second year we've been at the National Urban League and National Coalition for Black

Citizenship and Transition. Four. But everybody else wants to do it for free? Yes. Oh, we gotta change that. But here's my point. You know what y'all can do, but you also know you need the media amplification. So when y'all have something But you also know you need to meet the application So when y'all have something like yo, can you live stream it? We got because we already have the infrastructure We already had what 1.33 million subscribers. We already have the audience That's the piece so it trips

With the program right If you don't do media, media, you trying to do something, ain't that many people watching because that's not what you do. We need to do a briefing on that. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. When I have my next membership meeting, which I don't have one this year, but when I have my membership meeting next year, right,

it'll be in Black History Month, I want to have a, when I have my membership meeting next year, right, it'll be in Black History Month. I want you to come. Because we got to know how, because even if all that we think can happen happens in November, we have to stay organized or history teaches us what's going to happen. Right. You know, because this time I told people, I said, it wasn't about the pendulum swinging. They were knocking the pendulum down. Right. There was not going to be a swing back. Right.

Right? Which means, that's why I was talking about we won't be erased. Right? We're erased, y'all. Right. They're not trying to take us out. They're not trying to say, we're just going to, you know, do this. No, they're like, we are going after every artery of upward mobility.

Yeah. And you all are so crippled, you won't be able to come back. And that's the thing. So, somebody's watching, probably saying, oh, man, you you being self-serving. No, here's what they're missing What happens is we do stuff then we like? Me didn't cover it. Nobody showed up. The point I'm making is when we invest in our own We're building our own and now we ain't hoping somebody show up, we know it gets covered. Reverend Barbara told me something. He said,

Rowan, every time you amplify us, the other media call us. That's it. That's the thing I'm trying to get our folk to understand. You don't remember telling me you may or may not remember telling me this when I was frustrated.

You said, you got to make your own media. Yes. I know how to make my own reels. When I'm on my own, if my comments are not around, I learned, if you want somebody to know, just put it out there. There you go. And that's the part of it that I want to tell you, thank you.

Because I was like, I don't need to know all that. That's what the problem is. I know how to do my own. And I was like, Melanie. Tell the story as much as you can real time. I was like, Melanie, y'all got to be posting more. Yep. Posting more videos. And again, though.

How do you like our new stuff? I know, I know. I've been watching it. But that's what I'm trying to get our people to understand. We're waiting for other folk to show up. When it's like, no, you have to create your own ecosystem where, and I get it, they want CNN to show up, want MSNBC to show up. You might, you might get 90 seconds.

You might. As opposed to we could spend 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes on an hour. Yeah. That's the thing. So folk need to realize the black man's call, the reason that thing worked the way it did, because the five of us was, and then all of a sudden, other people are like, well, can we partner?

Can we partner? Can we partner? We're like, yeah, you can partner. But here's what also happened. We told everybody, well, can we be as a co-host? No. Because the fly can't have 50 names. No, it was done.

I said, the fly can't have 50 logos. We'll put you on the website. We said, but just show up. Just show up. See, and that's where you got to remove ego. Yes. Where there just ain't no ego in it where I got to have my name on it. No, no, no.

Just bring your people. Just move it. Yeah. And when you move it, it's like you got to move. And that's what happened. It was like a big shift. Yes. And it's just, and so I'm excited.

And our job is to keep building that thing day by day, day by day. So what are the states, last question, what are the states that y'all are focused on? We're in the south, but we're also in the midwest. So our southern states are Florida, Alabama, certain parts of Alabama, Georgia, even Louisiana. Y'all know Carolina? I'm helping in North Carolina, but I don't stuff. You got North Carolina? I'm helping in North Carolina but I don't have the strength in North Carolina.

Okay. And Mississippi. Got it. The northern southern states. And what's the Midwest? Midwest and the northeast. So we got Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania

and Virginia and Maryland. You got focus anywhere in Milwaukee? I'm not. I don't have it. Got it. Okay. I don't have it.

Got it. Okay. Yeah. Used to years ago. I got it. Yeah. So I'm trying to hone in where we are and where't have it. Got it. Okay. I don't have it. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Used to years ago. I got it. Yeah. So I'm trying to hone in where we are and where we have strength. All right. So tell me if folks want to support what y'all do, tell them where to go. Yes. I'm going to put my other hat on. I'm off lunch break now. I'm back to work.

So my day job, you can reach us at the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation at NCBCP or Black Women's Roundtable. Roland, I do have a C4 now, which is Power to Balance Action Fund. So I'll be sending you information about that. But folks, do something. And even I talk to some people who are in corporate America. I said, well, you know what? You can do a lot after five.

Just do you. Right. And see, the reason I want you to give it out, so everybody, I keep telling y'all this here, I have no problem with people giving to the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris. But one thing we've got to do, we've got to give

to our black organizations that are on the ground. The campaigns spend most of that money on TV. It does not come to the ground. So I implore y'all, if you want to support, give to Melanie's group, Black Voters Matter, Poor People's Campaign, because they're on the ground. They're doing the phone banking. They're doing the door knocking. They're going door to door. That's critically important, because you've got to touch people and explain to them what's going

on and get them out there. And that's been one of the biggest things. A lot of our groups that are on the ground, they're lacking every election cycle because they can't afford to pay folk to do all the canvassing. That's right. So get a website again. NCBCP.org

NCBCP.org. NCBCP.org. Join us. Power the ballot. With Kristen Clark with the Lawyers Committee, every time she's on time, come on my show, she'll get a website. I'm like, Kristen, get a website.

She's like, Rona, you stay on me. I was like, baby, you've got to get that site. And I think we're going to win. Our kids deserve it. And young people are fired up. Alright. Alright. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a lot. 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 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 2 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Okay, appreciate you. Alright folks, we come back, we'll chat with California Congressman Ro Khanna right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me

Dr. Jackie, how are you being of service to others? Doing for someone beside yourself is such a big part of living a balanced life. We'll talk about what that means, the generation that missed that message, and the price that we're all paying as a result. Now all I see is mama getting up in the morning, going to work, maybe dropping me off at school, then coming back home at night. And then I really didn't have any type of time with the person that really was there to nurture me and prepare me and to show me what a life looked like and what service looked like. That's all on the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. What's good, y'all? This is Doug E. Freshener watching my brother Roland Martin network. Folks, Vice President Kamala Harris has pretty much locked up the Democratic nomination for president. And members of Congress are lining up behind her. Well,

of course, she was a longtime California official, United States Senator, Attorney General, and also DA in San Francisco. Ro Khanna is a member of Congress from California. He joins us right now. Congressman, glad to have you back on the show. I just saw this story here, Congressman, that I want you to weigh in on, and that is James Carville, who frankly I'm getting tired of, he was on MSNBC. He said, he tells giddy Democrats to reel it in. Elation is not going to be very helpful much longer, saying they're going to be coming at us hard. Okay, here's why that's dumb to me. The reality is the level of energy you're seeing, it's driving fundraising, it's driving volunteers signing up, it's driving so many different things. You want to ride that as long as you can.

You know they're coming. You know they're going to be attacking her. We know they're going to be unleashing ads. But the reality is you take advantage of the momentum and the energy right now. That's just smart. Roland, you're absolutely right. Look, these are the same folks who said that about Barack Obama. I mean, they said Obama can't win. They were firmly for Hillary Clinton in 2008. But what happened? They didn't count on the surge of donations that Obama got. He was out-raising Hillary. They didn't count on the fact that every kid was going and telling their parents and their

grandparents it's time to make history. And, look, I'm not comparing anyone to Barack Obama. He's in a league of his own. But the energy that I have seen this week in terms of people saying, hey, how can I get involved, bro? How can I get money? How can I get engaged? It's incredible. It has been an energy that I haven't seen in years. And that's what wins elections. I saw your previous segment about telling people to support groups doing the hard work on the ground, mobilizing,

going door to door. That's what's going to win this for us. Yeah. So the last thing you need right now is somebody going, hey, y'all young people, stop making all that noise in the back room. I'm like, shut the hell up. I mean, the bottom line is what is required right now is you maximize the energy. You know, I make the point you have win for black women on Monday. You had win for black men. I was one of the co-hosts of that on Tuesday, excuse me, on Monday. The sisters were on Sunday. You had you had Latinas on Tuesday, South Asian women on Wednesday. You got white women having a call tonight at 830. You got black gay men. You got

all these different groups. None of these things were happening before. That's what you do. You maximize the moment. You're absolutely right. Look, here's what's going on. And you know this because I know we had some tweets back and forth on it. The consultant class didn't want Vice President Harris. They wanted the president to step aside. By the way, I thought the president could have won, too, though I think the vice president has gotten a lot of energy. And they wanted this open convention, and they had their favorites, different governors and all who they thought would do better. And guess what? It turns out that not only does the vice president clear the field and

unify the party in 24 hours, she has historic energy. She ends up defying what all these consultants thought. And she's now tied basically the New York Times polls. And so some of it, I think, is a little bit of embarrassment that they were wrong. I mean, I don't see how anyone can look at this week and say, well, Kamala Harris hasn't been extraordinary. She's exceeded my expectations, and I've been for her for the past three weeks, ever since this drama set. I said, it's got to be the president or her, and she's exceeded my expectations. So I think some of this is folks saying, well, it's got to get worse. You know, we couldn't be that wrong. When you, one of the things that we kept hearing, and my problem is we didn't know if it was true or not. All of these Democrats are like, oh my God, Joe Biden is dragging down House candidates.

He's dragging down state House candidates. He's just killing the whole party. We kept hearing that. Were you were you seeing any of that? No. You know what he was dragging down? Well, he was dragging down fundraising. Let's just be blunt. It was a lot of donors who had anxiety and were threatening not to give money. And, you know, I have friends who are frontliners in Pennsylvania, Michigan. There's no doubt that Biden's numbers took a fall. And Kamala's numbers, Vice President Harris's numbers are much higher by four or five points. But that did not affect the frontliners. They were running ahead of Biden, just like the Senate candidates were.

I don't think, I think it looks like the vice president has a better shot, but I didn't like the way that whole thing went down with President Biden. I don't think it should have been public. I think it should have been his decision. And he can make a comeback, just like the vice president could end up winning, could end up losing. You can't decide a race in middle of July based on poll numbers and know which way that's going to turn out? Well, you're absolutely right. And I think, frankly, what killed President Joe Biden's chances of reelection were Democrats 23 days after the June 7th debate attacking him more than they were attacking Donald Trump. You're right, and that's what the president said.

He was very graceful, but he said, I'm bowing out not because I don't think I deserve a second term, not because I don't think I can win a second term, but because of party unity. Well, what does that mean? I'm bowing out because half my party has decided to attack me because I had a bad debate. And, you know, it's a shame that happened,

but, Roland, whatever happens this time, and I do believe that Vice President Harris is going to become President Harris—but we need to have a serious conversation about making sure that never happens again. I mean, what are we going to do if it's President Harris in 2028 and come July her numbers are low? Are we going to have a freakout and say, no, now we need to run a Michigan governor or a Pennsylvania governor? I mean, you can't have a party that way. Absolutely. Congressman Ro Khanna, we certainly appreciate it. Keep up the good fight. Thank you. And there's so much energy out there, Roland. Thank you for doing that call that you did. I love it. And I'm participating in a few of them. We just got to keep the enthusiasm. All right. That's right. Ignore

James Carville. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, shortly after President Biden announced that he was not going to seek reelection, Donald Trump then began to say, well, you know, whether I should go for this debate on September 10th. Vice President Kamala Harris said, bring it. Watch this. And that's the tweet she posted. Guys, roll the video. He agreed to that previously.

Now it appears he's backpedaling. But I'm ready. And I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage. And so I'm ready. Let's go. Will you do it? Previously agreed upon September 10th. All right. Now

guys, pull the tweet up. So this is the tweet that she actually posted on her site. Trump agreed on the September 10th debate. It now appears he's backpedaling. Voters reserve to see the split screen that exists on the debate stage. I'm ready, so let's go. That's what I'm talking about, Recy.

She's like, bring your punk ass on. Let's debate on ABC. I ain't running. He thought he was going to sit up there and bully Biden and knock him around a couple more times. But there's a new head chief in town and he does not want the problems of Vice President Kamala Harris. She shined in 2020 in her debate against Mike Pence. And he was, you know, the demure, the little quiet, the little silver-haired, little, you know, whatever, conservative Republican. But she can really take her gloves off when it comes to Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is just going to lose his shit.

He did not hold his composure when he debated against Secretary Hillary Clinton. And Hillary Clinton didn't take the gloves off the way that she could have. But I don't think that we're going to have a problem with VP pulling those punches if he dares show up. He complained, Lauren, about ABC and George Stephanopoulos. And so then Fox News throughout, hey, we'll host a debate. He accepted. But I love her response. I love her going at him. It's like, oh, you backpedaling. You're supposed to be the man. That's how you go at a bully. Yeah. Yeah. The campaign is really good at putting them on defense and having them

in a situation where they're constantly having to respond to something that the Harris campaign, the Trump campaign is constantly having to respond to the Harris the Harris campaign, the Trump campaign is constantly having to respond to the Harris campaign. So that putting them in that defensive posture, knowing full well that they're having a lot of trouble messaging against her specifically, which is pretty, you know, it's pretty obvious that they were going to have a big adjustment. They had really geared their entire campaign against President Biden in everything, the merch that they were selling, the hats, the whole thing. And now they have to make this entire shift, including the fact they're now running against a woman, a black woman. Now, all of a sudden,

they've got a problem because they have to calibrate for that. And they're totally, they're just on defense. Trump campaign is on defense. I'm sure we'll get some whiny sort of communication on social media from President Trump a little later. But in a in a one on one setting, this is going to be very interesting because she is really good at as most prosecutors would be. She's going to make an argument and she's good at getting someone back on their heels. And you can see it in the messaging this week. Greg? Yeah, I agree with everything that's been said.

You know, we really are in uncharted territory. They're racists. We know that. And not just the Republicans. One of the reasons that the swamp creature Jim Carville is having so much problem, these buzzwords that keep coming out, you know, hey, hey, hey, it's because you can't control it, you see. This isn't your father's Democratic Party, sir. And all these non-white people are scaring the hell out of these people.

The Democrats want to win, but damn it, can we win on our terms? You know, we were having, we're stabbing Joe Biden in the back. We're thinking about Gretchen Whitmer, Pelosi sitting down there. Can I get my boy in, the governor? And when the minute Joe Biden crossed him over and was like, no, no, I'm going with Kamala Harris, meaning that's the second black politician he did that to. He did it for Obama in 2008. Well, guess what? Then these sisters come in and their brothers right after them.

This thing is beyond their control. Now they got to grin and bear it. Okay? And Bill Clinton always, and Hillary Clinton always with their finger to the wind, except when Hillary, of course, ran in 2008 to figure out that the Negroes going in that direction jumped out there. Now, of course, that leaves Barack on the island by himself, but you know, that ship may have sailed, but he'll be on board shortly. Now, on the other side, I agree with everything that you said, Reese, and everything you said, Lauren.

They don't know what to do because Donald Trump is a whole-ass racist. And so he knows he wants to use the N-word, he wants to jump out there, but the problem, and here comes J.D. Vance with his stupidity, not ready for primetime, hillbilly-in-chief. Marga Mike stepped out there,

oh, oh, oh, oh, chief. Marga Mike stepped out there. They trying to formulate a strategy. Why? Because this isn't just a black woman. She's a black woman who's daddy from Jamaica. She's also Indian. Brocahontas didn't talk about it. There was an article in today's New York Times. Harris brings pride to Indian Americans. They are the most politically active

by group in that large cluster of Asian. The Indian Americans in the United States are the most political. They participate the most. They are the most politically active by group in that large cluster of Asian. The Indian Americans in the United States are the most political. They participate the most. They give the most money. This is something you haven't seen. Nerada Haley turned all the way into whiteness. And then J.D. Vance's wife is Indian. And the racists in the MAGA party are jumping on her.

Oh, he married you. So they are over there apoplectic because they don't have a strategy to run against the Vice President of the United States that doesn't include what's in their soul, which is all of that racism. And finally, the last problem they have is this. The Democrats

are not going to win the majority white vote. They haven't won that since the 60s. However, in terms of youth vote, in terms of all these other vote, they now can win enough of that white vote and this coalition of nonwhites that the white Democrats can't control and the white Republicans can't just call what they want because they want to win the White House, this could roll over them like the ocean. I do think a lot of this, Lauren, is the political class moaning, whining, complaining, because

contracts are on the line. Money's on the line. Power and influence is on the line. Yeah, well, she, of course, would control all of that, right? She would control the vendors. She'd be the de facto leader of the party. And in fact, at this moment, she really is the leader of the party. Certainly as a nominee, she would be the leader of the party. And that, of course, goes to contracts and vending and control. And quite

frankly, you know what we're seeing, just like we saw in 2007, 2008, we see a black candidate bring the excitement, the lightning in the bottle. They bring everything that you need to run a campaign successfully, the galvanizing young voters, the people that knock the doors. And she's generated $200 million in four days. So by this time next week, it'll probably be double that or something in that neighborhood. And that filters down everybody, DCCC, the frontline candidates, the whole ballgame. And I've already seen some very interesting fundraising emails

where people are doing the donation split, and the donation split for some of these people who are not even on the ballot, which is always hilarious. They're splitting a donation with the Harris campaign, but they're not even on the ballot. Okay. So, I mean, she brings the excitement and the energy, and let's see who gets the money.

And then people have to really pay attention to that piece because it never fails. It's just like the dawn of rock and roll where we have the talent and then, you know, the chess brothers steal the money. So people have to pay attention to that piece. All right. Hold tight one second. We'll talk about the money when we come back. we'll chat with the principal of the Fearless Fund, talk about their legal battle when it comes to getting venture capital dollars to black and brown women. You're watching Roland

Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, broadcasted live from New Orleans, site of the National Urban League Convention. 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 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,

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Aries Simone, the fearless fun was one of the women who were celebrated at the Women of Power luncheon here at the National Urban League today. After she got off the stage, she and I had a conversation about the ongoing legal battle that they are engaged in. And how you doing? I'm wonderful. And you? All right. I'm good. Y'all have been. How long has the legal battle been going on? August 2nd, 2023 is the day that we got sued. So where is it now?

Where does it stand now? Without giving too much, it feels like it's about to be over soon. Okay. One of the things that people don't understand is that, and I don't think people really get it, just the absolute lack of funding that goes to not just African American companies, but black women companies. Oh yeah.

From venture capitalists. It's a fraction of a percent. When we do even, we invest black and brown, so when we say that, the combined is 0.39%. 0.39. Oh, when you're talking about black women, that, I mean, it's much less, much, much less. It's horrible. And honestly, when we got into this space, prior to us being in existence, the average fundraise for a black woman was only $30,000. Wow. Yes, and only 34 out of the whole country had raised a million dollars.

34. And what's crazier than me is, what are the size of y'all grants? Exactly. We're not talking, y'all ain't walking around saying, here's $3 million, here's $5 million. Exactly. Well, there's two sides of our business. We have the foundation that does the grants, so that's $10,000, $20,000. Right.

At our fund, though, we do do seven-figure checks. So some people have had a million dollars injection of capital. Some people have had $2 million injection of capital. So we invest anywhere between, I would say, around $100,000 up to around $2 million. Got it. Got it. But again, we're still micro. Precisely. I work in a $62 trillion industry. That is ruled by 92% white men. And that's white men. So mind you, I didn't even get to men of other races. So the amount of women that are cutting checks are very far and few between. But I do believe we can get more people on the check cutting side.

We can get more people to receive investments that look like us. But one of the things that I have said all across this country, as I've tried to educate our folks, is that if you want to actually create the change, it's if the folk whose pension money is being used, they have to be making the noise because we're trying to change it from the top, but their money comes from the pension funds. Pension funds money comes from the workers, and many of those workers are black and brown and women. So I've had to explain that to many people, and I'm so glad you have definitely the comprehension

of it and been spreading the word. For years. I spoke about it just recently at another conference. I was on stage, and there was about 10,000 people in the audience, and they were blown away. I said, you have to realize I work in a $62 trillion industry. The largest investors in our industry are the pension funds. I said, pension funds are built off the backs of teachers, firefighters, police officers,

plenty of careers with plenty of people of color. Public workers. Right here. So this money leaves right here, then it goes up to the $62 trillion industry I just talked about that is ruled by 92% white men. So the money from the pension funds goes to the 92% white men, and then from there it goes into the white startups. And very rarely does it do a full circle and goes right back to the community whose backs it was built off of. Now, I know your show is unfiltered, so I will say what I have said in more private places. I said, it's almost like a modern day slave situation, but you basically just get a small

check for the labor. But they're using that money built off the backs of those people then to make more wealth because what it's funding is really the technology industry. And the technology industry is the world's largest wealth-producing industry. So people are taking that money, they're investing it in tech, and they're getting really, really rich off of it, and it's very rarely seeing a full circle return. So one of the things that I do when I'm talking to an audience, I will say, if you are a public worker or retired, I want you to stand up. And typically what happens when I'm talking to African-Americans, half of the room, two-thirds of the room will stand up.

And I will say, your money is what's driving venture capitalists. And they'll look at me like, what is he talking about? And so you have some states that have actually done well. What Carl McCaul did in New York when they made it clear that, OK, who manages the pension funds? All right. What does your firm look like? Who are your who are your board members? Who are your officers? Are you using black legal firms? Are you using black accounting firms? And if not, yo, y'all out of the city of Chicago.

And so that's also where I'm trying to tell our folk, put the pressure as well. I know there's a lawsuit right now against the state of New Jersey of freezing out a black private equity firm when it comes to those dollars. And so this is where we have to understand it's our money. And we got to be a lot more vocal saying, no, no, no, y'all not going to keep playing this same system, using our money, y'all get rich. It is. It's horrible. And I'm so glad you said if you or even we need to come down to even if you know somebody is a public worker, everybody does. And that is, I would say, the biggest call to action, that they need to

demand where they want their dollars allocated. That is the biggest call to action. The other call to action I wanted to point out, prior to being sued, my staff knew what I was about to do, and maybe other people may have got wind to, was I wanted mandates on the pension funds. I wanted minority mandates on the pension funds, that if right. That if you were going to use this demographic and this percentage of workers from these backgrounds, that that's where the money had to go back to.

Yes. And I still think that policy change and that policy implementation needs to take place today. I agree. I agree. Yes.

Because you take BlackRock controlling 75% of the federal pension fund and who is one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party? Mm-hmm. The head of BlackRock. And so, again, our money is being used actually against us in the political spaces,

which is also funding the folk who are suing y'all. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. That came out. Even recently, I was watching MSNBC. Can I say that on here or no? Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay.

That's fine. I was watching TV, and I saw people were exposing who was funding, basically, the AAERs, the Ed Blooms, and the people behind our lawsuits. And I said, they have no clue. A lot of the places where you work are funding us. You have no clue. Yep. What has been the response in terms of the companies that were investing in you? Did folks pull out? Not that people pulled out.

How should I put it? They pulled back? Didn't do again. I guess that's the best way to say it. Well, for me, that's pulling out. He said that's pulling out. If you didn't stay with it, you pulled out. Yes.

So a lot of people were already in, I would say, our fund too. In the middle of our fundraise, we had closings fall apart. We haven't had a closing since at the fund. Wow. Yes. The foundation has had donations since. Right. But at the fund, we haven't had a closing since.

And that hasn't happened since inception. And I said, oh, my gosh. But hopefully when this is over, I will know once the dust settles. Got it. Okay. Litigation's off the table, so what is your excuse? Like, I need to know where you stand right now with this. So we'll know that soon, too.

So after, I will give some more background about the case. After we won the preliminary injunction in the district, we lost the appeal. We do or did and still have an opportunity, of course, to appeal this to the Supreme Court, but we know what the makeup of the Supreme Court is. I refuse to let us have a SCOTUS ruling. I refuse. Because while I'm dealing with this, the damage that that will do to so many people, I refuse for that catastrophic Well, and what people don't understand, people don't understand why that matters. So legal scholars are very particular about when suits are filed, how far you want to

take it. I think about when there was a lawsuit in Texas against the racist Democratic primaries. And that was a lawsuit that was funded by voters there. We're going back to the 40s. And they lost and they wanted to appeal. And Thurgood Marshall and others are like, no, don't do that. Because if it goes to a higher court and then they rule against it it actually will have a much broader impact

And it goes beyond and so that's the thing that people have to understand we talk about how when lawsuits are filed You got to think beyond just your particular case once that precedent is established then all of a sudden it can be applied Universally look we saw the bottom line is it was the college affirmative action case on that that caused them to go after y'all, which had nothing to do with college affirmative action. Nothing at all. A SCOTUS ruling does. It sets precedents.

It becomes case law. It now can apply to everybody federally. And I said I refuse for that to take place. I really do. So hopefully we get this wrapped up soon to a place we both can come to everybody federally. And I said, I refuse for that to take place. I really do. So hopefully we get this wrapped up soon to a place we both can come to an agreement on. Last point, have you been surprised and happy with how regular ordinary folk have responded

with the attack on y'all? Yes. Oh, the amount of prayers, individual donations, the awareness, I have been. I would say that's the grassroots support has been the support. Right. Yes. That's what has kept us going. Like, you know what? People believe in what we're doing. People want to see this continue. That right there is the motivation. All right. Well, look, we'll stay unfiltered. Y'all stay fearless. Thank you. I would appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much. You know, the point there, Recy, is a critical one, and that is when we talk about how venture capital is coming from these pension funds. And this is where, to me, civil rights groups and others should be mobilizing and organizing people. That's where you make the change. You stop the money flow on the front end. We're trying to make changes on the back end. No, no, no. You affect it on the back end. No, no, no. You affected on the front end. Yeah, but I think that's going to be harder to do with the gains that the Trump-McConnell judges

have made in terms of reshaping the courts. And I don't want to call them activists, but people like Ed Bloom have financed an effort to overturn the ability for Black people to make any gains when it's specifically targeted towards Black people or even if there's an implied targeting to Black people. So, we have to get creative in how we approach these solutions. We have to fight back even harder. And we have to really invest in our existing infrastructure so that we can use that infrastructure and leverage that infrastructure to build on that that much more. And the point there, Lauren, is...

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 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.

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

you say you never give into a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos you say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the ad council important one that is ed bloom and others this is a well-funded effort to target everything every program not just fearless fun corporate programs legal programs and project 2025 has the exact same mission. If Trump is successful, they're going to go after any and every program that is about advancement of African-Americans.

Yeah, and unfortunately, this has become the cornerstone of what the Republican Party has become, trying to sort of stop other people from doing stuff and specifically black people from doing stuff. Right. And getting to that next rung on the economic ladder. It's a really unfortunate thing that this party, who really had started to turn in the direction of something other than this under George W. Bush, he tried to make for a little bit more of a diverse Republican Party. And that has now completely been reversed by the MAGA Republican Party and Donald Trump, as if we're back in the 1950s. It's become the cornerstone of what they're obsessed about.

They're very organized, as you said, and they're very well funded, and they put their money into this. And it's a huge mystery as to why this is an obsession for them. But it is an obsession for them. And it's really unfortunate because a lot of progress had been made in the party and now it has completely been reversed. And unfortunately, they've sort of wound this into their theory of winning an election, which is when you get and when you galvanize white voters against communities of color, you get them energized to vote Republican, which is their strategy, and it's Southern strategy, and it's really sad to watch, actually.

Greg? Yeah, absolutely, yes. You know, I'm running into more and more people who say they read Project 2025. And as somebody who reads as much as anybody else I know who has read through the headings and gone through many of the pages, 900-something pages, I look at them and say, either you're lying or you're stupid. And let me say that, what I mean by that in this regard, to pick up where you were, Lauren,

these white Nazis want to destroy any form of regulation. They're trying to destroy the regulatory state, and they've gone a long way toward knocking the underpinnings out. That's so they can have unfettered capitalist rule. The people who bought them, these politicians, have told them, get all of the rules out of the way so we can do what we want. Now, is it overreach with the fearless fund? You might argue that it is, that these people do what they want,

but you have to factor in the fact that we're talking about racial capitalism. So it isn't just so they can have unfettered these billionaires and can have unfettered transnational, because they have no loyalty to any flag, any, you know, not just take all the restrictions off them. When you put racial capitalism in it, then it becomes and we don't want you to do what you can do with your own money either, because we brought you here to be slaves. So we're going to control you, too. So what you said in that conversation is very important with Sister Parsons. What the vote does, this is where the voting comes in is important. And this is why they're trying to block it. This is why they

don't want you voting. When you control public dollars because you are in elected office, you have the ability, at least in part, to counter that. So as you say, the pension funds, you're able to control that. Glad you mentioned Carl McCaul again, because people don't remember. That's what the vote allows you to do. It gives you public access. And that's access to dollars, access to capital, and access to policy that can put something in place. With that being said, these capitalists do not want you to have that.

So they invest in politicians who then appoint judges who make sure that the legal framework is in place to allow them to do whatever the hell they want. You said a minute ago the boomer generation and elders are making transition. Here we are on what should have been Emmett Lewis Till's 83rd birthday. And all these elders at Kamala Harris' home church, the vice president's home church. Tomorrow, Nathan Hare will have his memorial service with one of the fathers of black studies. Bernice Johnson Regan has made transition in the last week and a half. She who said we who believe in freedom cannot rest, quoting Ella Baker.

And when you think about the fact that that generation is gone or going, the young people are being radically misled, hoodwinked, bamboozled by an industry that is all about profit. You saw the tech stocks are down today. Everybody from Tesla to Apple to whatnot, Alphabet, whatever they call themselves themselves, meta. This is about control. And public dollars allow control. And they've got to stop that, which is why they're trying to kick the teeth out of it. And that's why this election is very important. Indeed, indeed.

Lauren, Recy, Greg, I certainly appreciate y'all joining us today. Thank you so very much. Folks, tomorrow from New Orleans here at the National Urban League Convention, we'll hear from President and CEO Mark Morrell, also. Swin Cash, who is a basketball Hall of Famer, now working for the New Orleans Pelicans. And Cheryl Underwood talks about what she plans to do when the talk ends its current run. So all of that and more. If you missed anything from the National Urban League today,

from yesterday or today, simply go to our YouTube channel, go to the Black Star Network. You can check it out, all the different events. We live streamed. Of course, you'll also be able to see more of the live stream events tomorrow. We're the only, to my knowledge, we're the only media outlet who's actually here covering this conference. And so that's why Black on Media is critically important.

So we certainly appreciate partnering with the National Urban League to bring you their conference. Folks, do not forget to support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club. Of course, you can send your check and money or an appeal box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash at Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

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book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow from New Orleans. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! It's a real revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We'll be right back. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

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