#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Amir Locke Lawsuit, 6th Officer Fired in Tyre Nichols Death, Illegal Georgia Campaigning Complaint

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

2.6.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Amir Locke Lawsuit, 6th Officer Fired in Tyre Nichols Death, Illegal Georgia Campaigning Complaint It's been over a year since a Minneapolis Police officer killed Amir Locke during a no-knock raid.  Amir Locke's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officer who fired the fatal gunshots.  We will speak with the Locke Family about the details of the case. Another officer has been fired in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols.  Tyre's tragic death has reached Capitol Hill, re-igniting the conversation about police reform.  Senator Corey Booker is, again, leading the charge in the Senate with a new pathway forward while Sen. Tim Scott is still playing the blame game.  You'll hear what both had to say about police reform in a recent interview. The Georgia Elections Board is set to discuss possible criminal referrals of citizens during the 2020 election in Albany.  A Black Voters Matter employee and three organizers were cited for illegal campaigning.  We will be joined by an Albany City Commissioner and Cliff Albright, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter, to break down all the details. In our Fit Live Win segment, we will speak with the core queen Dee Dee Legette about her mission to inspire individuals of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels to work on their core. Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, February 6, 2023, coming up on Roland Martin on Filtered

Streaming live on the Black Star Network. It has been more than a year since a Minneapolis police officer killed Amir Locke during a no-knock raid. Amir Locke's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officer who fired the fatal gunshots. We will talk with the Locke family about the details of that case and their lawsuit.

Another officer has been freed, fired, I'm sorry, in connection with the death of Tyree Nichols. Tyree's tragic death has reached Capitol Hill, reigniting a conversation about police reform. Senator Cory Booker is again leading the charge in the U.S. Senate. The new pathway for it, while Senator Tim Scott is still playing the blame game.

You'll hear what both had to say about police reform in a recent interview. The Georgia Elections Board is set to discuss possible criminal referrals of citizens during the 2020 election in Albany. A Black Voters Matter employee and three organizers were cited for illegal campaigning. We'll be joined by an Albany City Commissioner

as well as Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. In our Fit, Live, Win segment, we will speak with the core queen, that's right, Dee Dee Leggett, about her mission to inspire individuals of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels to work on their core. Yesterday, Trayvon Martin would have been 28 years old.

I was one of the folks honored with an award by the Trayvon Martin Foundation. I will show you some of that. And as the folks there say, happy birthday to the young man who was killed by that terrorist, George Zimmerman. It is time to bring the funk. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it.

Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief 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, yeah.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martel. Martel. Folks, more than a year ago, a no-knock warrant executed by the Minneapolis Police Department turned deadly for Amir Locke. Remember, the 22-year-old was in an apartment. They came in. The cops said they identified themselves, and it was seconds before shots were fired.

This is the video, if you might recall. Again, pause the video, please. Pause the video. Pause it. So, again, for folks, if you're triggered by this, we want you to simply turn away. But again, this was the no-knock warrant that was executed by Minneapolis police as Amir Locke was sleeping in this apartment. And you'll see it was seconds before he was gunned down. Now we can play it. Now, the family of Amir Lockville filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city,

as well as Mark Hanneman, the officer who fired the fatal gunshots. Locke was not even named on the warrant, which was part of an investigation into a fatal shooting in neighboring St. Paul, Minnesota. The lawsuit claims Hanneman violated Locke's rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, among other claims. Jeffrey Storms, a Locke family attorney, joins us right now from Corpus Christi. Jeffrey, glad to have you here. So what is the basis of this lawsuit?

So there are several claims, Roland. The first is for the violation of Amir's right to be free from unreasonable and deadly force under the Fourth Amendment as incorporated by the 14th. So that's your federal civil rights claim for unconstitutional patterns and practices by the Minneapolis Police Department that includes their failure to provide for the safety or account for the safety of innocent civilians while executing warrants, along with their policy and practice of racist policing in Minneapolis and excessive uses of force on the black community in particular. We have a failure to train civil rights claim as well for similar training failures. And we've also brought a state law wrongful death claim against the officer and the city as well.

Now, the thing here, as I remember doing this story, so Amir is sleeping in the apartment. Cops come in with this no-knock warrant. You don't know who the hell is coming in. There was a gun. He had a gun nearby, correct? Yes. And he was allowed to lawfully carry that gun, right? And carrying doesn't even come into it, Roland.

Yeah, because it's in an apartment. You can have a weapon inside of your home. Correct. And so, again, I remember, again, what jumped out at me is you're in a home, you're asleep. All of a sudden, folks bust through the door. We know about home invasions. And so for the cops to go, oh, we identified ourselves in a matter of two or three seconds, plus the guy was asleep. If folks are busting through a door, you think it's a home invasion. Absolutely. And you

know what's amazing, Roland, is they gave this young man no warning, no opportunity to save his life. They wake him up, kick the couch like he's less than human. But what does Amir Locke have the good sense to do? He has the good sense to keep his finger off the trigger of that gun, to keep his gun pointed down, to assess whether or not there was a threat that warranted the use of that sidearm. And he had the good sense to keep his finger off the trigger and point that gun down. Meanwhile, Officer Hanneman, without a warning, without an opportunity for Amir to wake up, shoots three times, while the other officers in the room, two of which had their guns pointed at

Amir and should have seen his weapon, didn't fire. And so that goes to show if we talk about who was using unreasonable force over that period of time, it's Officer Hanneman. And also refresh my memory here, again, St. Paul did not request a no-knock warrant. Minneapolis volunteered to do that, correct? Well, yes. So St. Paul brought that warrant to Minneapolis, Roland, and said, you know, we need help executing it because it's within your city limits. And the Minneapolis SWAT said, no, we will not execute this warrant unless you make it a no-knock and you make it a nighttime warrant. And so they've required St. Paul to have the judge issue a new warrant under those

circumstances, which is consistent with the fact that the city of Minneapolis repeatedly uses and used no-knock warrants despite the fact that they had claimed they were banned in the city. And what the statistics show is that they overwhelmingly used those no-knock warrants against black civilians in the city of Minneapolis. And in the four months preceding Amir's death, not a single no-knock warrant was executed on a non-Hispanic white home. That says a lot there. Jeffrey, we appreciate you joining us to explain the lawsuit. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for having me, Roland. Much appreciated. My pound. Dr. Julian Alvo, Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, L.A. Renita Shannon, Georgia State Representative, Toron Walker, Founder of Context Media. Glad to have all three of you here. Real quick, I'm going to go around here. Renita, I'll start with you. Jeffrey made a great point there.

Now, remember we had the news conference there when the mayor was challenged. They were not supposed to be doing no-knock warrants in Minneapolis. That's what they promised. They kept doing it. Right, and we've seen across the country these no-knock warrants in Minneapolis. That's what they promised. They kept doing it. Right. And we've seen across the country, these no-knock warrants do not turn out well for Black people. We've had plenty of them right here in Atlanta that have led to babies being injured, grandmothers being killed. And so across the country, we see that these no-knock warrants are not a good thing, but especially for Black and Brown folks. You know, this is just another

example of what I always say, which is police officers are coming into our communities and making different decisions than they would make in white communities. And you heard what the attorney for the Locke family said, which is that they looked at the time period following Amir's death, and no white homes were a part of a no-knock warrant situation. And so this is the time where folks need to stand up and ask their elected officials, demand that their elected officials ban no-knock warrants. So much of what's going on with policing, everybody wants to reform, reform, reform,

which is really just a Band-Aid. No, some of this stuff just has to be abolished. And this is one of those things. Toron, this is going to be an important lawsuit because it's speaking to, again, these critical issues of policing. Why would you be executing? Why do you have to execute a no-knock warrant at night in the middle of the night? I mean, you can arrest someone in the daytime. You know, what's sad about this whole situation is this is something like Renita just said, something that we see happen over and over again when it comes to Black communities. If the situation does not deserve someone doing a no-not-wanted, they're not a notorious criminal,

they don't have a record of violence, why even do this? This goes back to what I say a lot of the time about, like a lot of times police departments, especially local police departments, treat Black communities almost like militaries occupying territory. They don't see the humanity in people. They don't treat people like human beings when they do engage with the public. And when you have a system that deals with

miscommunication, like the lawyer said, when you have two different jurisdictions trying to execute a warrant, there's going to be miscommunication. And if you have officers on the force who don't see the humanity of the people that they're trying to apprehend, these are the things that are going to happen. And this has to be changed and it has to stop. Real quick, about 30 seconds, Julianne, go. I agree with Renita completely. These don't knock warrants are dangerous.

They're dangerous for black people. They're dangerous in general. What we're dealing with here are rogue police officers who have opinions about black people and want to work them out on a day-to-day basis, going into the man's house while he sleeps, just unconscionable. And, of course, I think the lawyer is absolutely correct in terms of who they've chosen to sue.

Sue the rogue officer, sue the city, and basically take that man's pension. When pensions are on the line, believe me, those are rogue rock cops will learn how to act. Got it. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We'll be back on Rollerbump Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us.

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We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. All right, folks, four days left for you to vote for the NAACP Image Awards. Of course, Roland Martin Unfiltered has been nominated in Outstanding News category.

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for you to actually cast your ballot. Tomorrow night, of course, President Biden has his State of the Union, and we will have the State of our Union. We will not be live, and let me be clear, we will not be live, we will not be live at 6 p.m. We will not be live at 6 p.m. tomorrow. We'll be live at 8 p.m. We'll be live at 8 p.m. with our show. And so and then what we'll do is we will then have we will broadcast the State of the Union speech from President Joe Biden. We will have a number of our panelists in studio, in studio, of course, breaking down what he had to say. It lays out the agenda for the country. And so, again, the State of the Union address is tomorrow. And so, make note, make note, make note, make note. Again, we will not be live.

We will not be live at 6 p.m. Eastern. We'll be live at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. So 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. The speech is going to be at 9 p.m. Eastern. So we'll have that coverage right here on the show. And so looking forward to that. Looking forward to that. So, again, make that programming note, again, for tomorrow. And so a lot is going on tomorrow. So, again, 8 p.m. we're live.

We're not going to be live at 6 p.m. tomorrow. We'll be live at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. All right, folks, and don't forget, you can also see us on Amazon News. If you go to the Amazon Fire Stick, you can actually catch us on Amazon News. Our 24-hour streaming channel is available on Amazon News, and so that's where you can catch us at all times. Let's talk about Memphis. Another Memphis police officer is out of a job because of his actions

during the arrest and the beating death of Tyree Nichols. Preston Hemphill, the white officer who was one of the first cops to confront Tyree during the January 7 traffic stop, he allegedly deployed his taser during the confrontation. On his body camera footage, Hemphill was heard on the body camera video saying twice, I hope they stomp his ass. Folks, where's the video? Now, remember, when the video was released, you saw this white hand.

And people were saying, okay, five black cops were fired. What about this white guy? Even the father of Tyree Nichols made that comment as well. And of course, Nick Hemphill was later placed. He was actually relieved of duty. Now Memphis has announced that he has been fired. So what that is. So that's now six police officers who have been fired. And remember, you've had three fire department personnel who've also been fired as well. And so all of these things continue. But people still are asking the questions, why did you have supervisors? Go to the video. So you'll see again, we missed the roll of it.

So you'll see this was his video here. And so you see his hands. And that's what caused people to say, hey, what's going on? Why wasn't he initially fired as well when now he has been fired? Again, Memphis is trying to move real quick against these police officers. And I dare say they see what's coming, and they see you're likely going to have a police settlement or a settlement with this family that's going to be larger than even the George Floyd settlement. And so Memphis is trying their best to get ahead of this. No, you're absolutely right. That's what's happening. Memphis sees what's happening. They saw what happened in Minneapolis two years ago. They saw what happened in Ferguson four years before that. On the one hand, I think some of the climate

and some of the things that we've seen over the past seven or eight years have made things move a little bit faster than they would have before everything happened. On the other hand, it's sickening that we still have to deal with these situations almost every week. It feels like some of the same energy

that was floating around in 2016 is coming back when you see a black male death by the hands of law enforcement almost every day. There have been two more, I think three more, since Brother Tyree was killed. I'm glad that there's going to be some sort of lawsuit. I'm glad that officer was let go. But at the same time, you start

to have to, yeah, you've got to really start going after these people's pensions and hitting them in the pocketbook. That's the only thing they care about. They do not care about black lives. They care about taking care of their pensions. They take care and pocketbook. That's the only thing they care about. They do not care about black lives. They care about taking care of their pensions. They take care and care about their money. If you hit that, then you start seeing change. The thing here, Julian, when we talk about this case here,

and Ben Crump made this point at the funeral of Tyree Nichols. Wow, Memphis, within 20 days, moved against these police officers. Yet in other jurisdictions, it's four and five and six months. It's a year. The cop who killed Eric Garner, I mean, my goodness, that was like two, three years.

And it goes on and on and on. When they want to move fast, they can actually move fast, Julian. And the DA can move fast to indict. When they want to move fast, Roland, the key word there is want. All too often, the structure, the DAs, the police chiefs and others,

their motivation is to protect the rogue officers, not to protect or discipline folks who killed somebody. I think in the Memphis case, I mean, we've seen this before. We saw Rodney King. But in the Memphis case, I think this was just so egregious. You saw so many law enforcement officers sitting there doing nothing, that there had to be quick, rapid response. But again, the word is want.

What do we want to do? And what we must want to do is to transform police culture. If we could, I'd fire a ball everywhere and just start over. Start with a clean slate. Find some decent people. Get somebody like Ron Hampton, black police officers to get involved in training because these people are out of control. And the sad part about it is all of us are going to say never again. And it's going to happen again. We know it's going to happen again. Rene, the public keeps saying we want action. Guess what? They can take it if they want it. Unfortunately, what we see too often, we see DAs being protective of cops. We see police chiefs being protective of cops. We see the union as well. And yes,

this video was abhorrent. It was horrible. But there have been other videos that have been just as despicable. But you didn't see the fraternal order of police issuing a statement. They did so because of public pressure. Absolutely. And so we know that they can move fast when they want to move as far as accountability is concerned. But we also know that police cannot kill folks that come in contact when they want to. And we know this because we don't see videos like this popping up of white people getting the hell beat out of them. And we don't see white people being murdered every other day by police. And so what we have to do as a community is get specific about the action we want to see. Yes, we do want these police officers to be held accountable.

But even more, what we want is for police to stop killing black people. And so the specific action that we need to ask for is to end police traffic stops. Those traffic stops need to be abolished. We have the technology to do it. We have other ways to get this done, to move forward with solutions that are actually about public safety. And so we all are going to have to get specific as to what we want done. Because over and over again, we are being told that, you know, if we increase police officers' pay, if we change the training, if we require a bachelor's degree for a person to be a police officer, all these things

will make a difference in the treatment of Black folks. But it's just not true. And we know that because many places around the country have tried these reforms. They have not worked. We are still getting the same results. And on top of all of it, we see that police officers with the same low pay, low level of education, same amount of stress, same amount of training. They have all of those same situations and circumstances when they run into white people in America. And we do not see the same results. So we are going to have to make sure that our elected officials are not being lazy with solutions like let's just do some reform and that we really

abolish what needs to be abolished. And that is absolutely traffic stop. You know, I did this podcast. I taped it at Fort Lauderdale today, and we were talking about how the views have changed. And I said point blank, Toron. I said the reason, because the host was like, whoa, you know, we're seeing accountability. I said, no, no, no. I said it was the activists and the protest on the street that forced this change.

It was Black Lives Matter. It was the people who believe in the concept. It was other organizations. The reason we were at this point ain't because all of a sudden the police say, oh, let's start doing right. It's because people put pressure on the system to hold individuals accountable. You're absolutely right, Roland. The system didn't change. We're not seeing any sort of movement on this because of the goodness of people's hearts. People are changing in that system is somewhat changing a little bit because of the power of the cell phone,

because that and also the fact that police departments can't spin stories like they used to in traditional media. Everybody has the power to tell their own story with the phone now. And unfortunately, with these situations that we keep seeing, you have to have somebody who's got a solid Wi-Fi link and a phone that can tell the real story when the police departments get their stories together to try to tell you what's happening. That's what it is. And you know this just like I do. Nothing makes somebody move faster than media embarrassment. And unfortunately, this is what it's going to have to take to make people really take a look at themselves and make a lot of police departments really start thinking about reform and who they're hiring and what their policies are. Indeed. And so I just want people to understand we're at this point, not because, oh, all of a sudden politicians and DAs are saying, well,

we should do this. No, it is because of the pressure that the people put on this system to force it to change. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we will talk about police reform, the cause for police reform on the federal level. We'll unpack that as well. Don't forget to download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

And, of course, you can support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to travel around this country to cover the news. Send a check of money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered dot com. We'll be right back.

On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders

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All right, folks, the death of Tyree Nichols has now renewed focus on the federal level when it comes to a police accountability bill. This Sunday, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, he appeared on Sunday morning news show Face the Nation, and he says Democrats can reach a deal with Republicans when it comes to police reform. This is what he said. Well, first of all, I want to, again, express my condolences to the family of Tyree Nichols. This was a really horrific murder. We saw a man on the ground, handcuffed, being beaten and eventually die as a result of his wounds. This should not happen in the United States of America.

As we just said, globally, we should be setting the standard for human rights, civil rights and for public safety. But yet we've seen this happen with too much regularity, names that we should not know nationally that we do, from George Floyd to Breonna Taylor to Eric Garner. This is just too much. And so I'm grateful that the president has taken decisive action in the last Congress with a executive order, but it falls to Congress to find a bipartisan way forward to make sure that we are doing what is necessary to raise police standards and professionalism, to create more transparency and accountability in American policing. And so as a person who has been trying to lead this and has been building a coalition of law enforcement leaders, law enforcement union

leaders, civil rights activists and others, I believe we can find a way forward. It is going to be more difficult in a divided Congress. But I believe that a moment like this, a moral moment like this requires decisive action. Well, of course, it was last year where Senator Tim Scott went on Face the Nation to say that, hey, explaining why they didn't do a deal. He was blaming he was blaming Democrats. We have been reaching out to Senator Tim Scott for the last week to specifically talk about a federal bill regarding after the death of Tyree Nichols. His staff keeps telling us that he is unavailable. Hmm. That's interesting because he found time to be on Fox News on Sunday with Trey Gowdy. Well, Trey, we were so close since we're in Super Bowl season, I'd say we were in the red

zone. We were literally sitting there negotiating, six of us. One person on the left said, if you're here to negotiate, I'm walking out. She literally got up, walked out, and got a promotion. So what we know is that they care more about the issue than the solution. I want to bring something up. You and I traveled the state talking to pastors and police chiefs. When I think about Tyree Nichols, I see murder. And I don't know that you can train murder out of someone. I mean, that's a hiring problem. That is not a training problem. Absolutely.

I want to give you, we got about 40 seconds. I want to give you a chance to say, I mean, to me, yeah, we need training. Training would not have saved Tyree Nichols. That was a hiring mistake they made. I'll give you the last word. Yeah, only the best should wear the badge. One of the parts of the police reform that I've worked on is making sure that we provide more resources so that every municipality has the access to the best and the brightest.

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Julian the reason why what I just heard is utter bullshit oh training didn't cause that that's hiring okay Republicans Senator Tim Scott that, that's hiring. Okay, Republicans, Senator Tim Scott, are you going to support legislation that says if a police officer has beaten somebody in one jurisdiction and they retire or they leak

that they can't go to the next jurisdiction? Are you going to support if somebody is under investigation for vicious, for beating someone, they can't retire to get their pension? See, these are the games that they love to play by saying, oh, no, no, training couldn't fix that. Hell, we've been telling y'all that. The issue here has never been more training.

The issue is that these cops have been consistently protected by the system because qualified immunity is what gives them the freedom to wild out. And guess who was dead set against any qualified immunity? Senator Tim Scott. Tim Scott really is a disgrace, not only to the race, but to the state of South Carolina and to himself. I mean, that nonsense that he was spouting on Fox, and no wonder he won't come on Roland. Why would he come on to Roland Barton Unfiltered

to get a tongue lashing from you, me, and anybody else who had the opportunity to interact with him? Actually, it's not gonna be a tongue lashing. He knows that he can lie on Fox News and not get fact-checked. So he doesn't want to come over here because the lie is not going to be allowed to stand.

Well, that stuff that he put out there is just disgusting. When he talks about, it's about the hiring. I mean, he's basically dancing around the reality, which is police culture. The other thing that he's taking no responsibility for is his own role in failing to get the George Floyd Act passed. Cory Booker, Karen Bass, I don't know how many others, worked tirelessly to try to compromise with Republicans. But that which you mentioned last, the police registry, that is not a negotiable item. When police officers

go from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the man who killed a little boy in Cleveland, he had been in an adjacent jurisdiction and was in trouble there. So he just rushed over to Cleveland to kill somebody else. And so, again, as I said, Tim Scott, he has no credibility whatsoever. He's a joke, and he is an unfortunate joke because the joke is on us. He tries to win it. Like I say, everybody brown ain't down. He tries to talk an African-American game, but certainly not when it comes to police violence. Here's the thing here, Renita, as

Tim Scott is speaking. He says, first of all, I love it how he wants to name a person on the Democratic side who said, I'm not here to negotiate, and he says she got up and walked out and got a promotion. He's talking about former Congresswoman Karen Bass, the only woman who's negotiated. Now, here's what's so stupid. The House already passed the bill. The House already passed the bill.

This was in the Senate. She wasn't a senator. She wasn't a senator. She wasn't a senator. Was she a part of the negotiating team? Yes. But the reality is the Senate could have passed whatever bill they wanted to and then forced the House to take it up. They didn't.

He can't put this on former Congresswoman Karen Bass, who's now the mayor of Los Angeles. No. The fact of the matter is, he walked away. He couldn't get 10 Republican votes. He chose to listen to the sheriff out of South Carolina and not the other law enforcement who had the table. And the law enforcement, the other groups, said they never, ever, ever heard Democrats say defund the police.

Tim Scott lied when he went on Face the Nation last year. Karen Bass was smart to get up and walk away ahead of the negotiations. And she probably did that because she knew what I have known the entire time that I served six years in the Georgia House of Representatives, which is police are not good faith

actors when it comes to working on legislation that will actually make a difference in the treatment that black and brown folks receive from police officers. You know, they consistently will not support things like ending qualified immunity, which is one of the things that allowed them to help water down the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. So when you try to work with them, they're never going to support anything that people actually need. And so I hope that and so, yes, Tim Scott is terrible, but I hope that, but Democrats need to get smarter. And so when Cory Booker is talking about the negotiations they're doing with Republicans, I hope those negotiations

are not about allowing them to help you craft the bill because when you do, it's going to be very watered down. I hope those negotiations are what is the finding out what is the top number one legislative agenda that Republicans have and horse trading that bill for what we need done on policing. I hope that's negotiating that they are talking about. Well, and to run, the reality is everything is a negotiation, and we get that. Congressman Jim Clyburn made this comment to in the Hill. This is a story that's in the Hill. I'm going to pull up in a second. And I want to show it to you because he said the headline Clyburn calls for Democrats to compromise on policing bill. Okay, first of all, you have no choice but to compromise because Republicans control the House.

So you got no choice. You don't control the legislative calendar. But a lot of people were very critical of Congressman Jim Clyburn for taking qualified immunity off the table the last time they had the conversations. And so the real question here, Tarun, is for Democrats, do you come out of the gate saying, oh, compromise, compromise, or do you negotiate hard and then you know you're going to have to compromise,

but you don't out-negotiate yourself coming out of the gate. Well, the first thing I want to say is this. Going back to watching that clip, it was actually fascinating seeing Trey Gotti have more heart. It's called something a murder and brutality than Tim Scott did. That's actually fascinating. I see your point. The same Tim Scott does not even believe systemic racism exists.

So let's say heart don't exist. Yeah. Now, to your point, look, we know politics is all about compromise. And we know that if we're dealing with a two the gate on an issue that is very, very passionate and that the majority of your base that you call your base is very passionate about when we're talking about police brutality and police reform and saying that we have to compromise. You should be shown coming out of the gate by the tooth and nail for the safety and well-being of the people who you say are your core constituents. Now, yeah, you do have to sometimes compromise, but I don't think you need to compromise on something like qualified immunity when we know that qualified immunity and police unions are the main thing that are keeping police reform at bay and the things that are keeping some of these same situations going. Like Sister Renita said, when you have a police officer with a history of brutality

in one jurisdiction who can get fired or get a golden parachute and go to the next town and pick up right where he left off and brutalize more people, that has to be stopped. And that has to be let out. That has to be known. And also, I do think that the Democratic Party has to get better at messaging. They have to let the public know what they're fighting for. They have to let people know what they stand on. Because if not, you have a constituency out here who just sees them bending over and compromising all the time. And that pulls people away from your base. You have to stand on something that has to happen. And again, the Clyburn story, this was actually in The Washington Post, where they should compromise.

But again, of course, they're going to. But the bottom line is, look, you still are going to have to negotiate, as I see it, in a very, very aggressive manner. And that is going to be the case in terms of what happens. So now the question is, though, how aggressive is the White House going to be? They also have to be aggressive. And I still contend, I said it on the anniversary of George Floyd's death. We had the families just outside our studios there on Black Lives Matter Plaza here in D.C. that I believe it is going to take public pressure in order for them to move Congress. And that means, and again, all of those people, where are all those white folks and Latinos and Asians and Native Americans

and black folks and others who were protesting by the millions in the wake of the death of George Floyd, they are going to have to show up again and to put the kind of pressure on Congress to move. Congress will do nothing unless they feel the wrath of the people. All right, folks, going to the break. We come back. We're going to talk about the targeting of folks when it comes to voting in Georgia. They have not stopped, and they specifically are targeting black folks. We'll discuss next right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Question for you.

Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career. Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, I'm talking about that inner boldness that you have to take a risk, to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network.

This is Judge Math. What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wiles, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season

One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 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 Glott. 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 thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

All right, folks, tomorrow there's going to be a hearing at the Georgia Elections Board to discuss possible criminal referral of citizens during the 2020 elections in Albany, Georgia. A Black Voters Matter employee and three organizers partnering with the organization were cited for illegal campaigning during early voting for distributing water and snacks to voters waiting in six-hour lines to vote. Yes, folks, six-hour lines. One of those people facing charges is actually a city commissioner in Albany, Demetrius Young. He and Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, they both joined us. Glad to have you here. So, Commissioner Young, just please, a criminal referral because here's some water.

Absolutely. Black voters matter does not campaign for candidates or for parties, nonpartisan organization, water and snacks. Really? That's it. That's it. And Roland, the thing about this is this was not even an official Black Voters Matter, you know, thing that happened. We were actually called out there by citizens, or at least I was called. At the time we were doing get out the vote work in concert with Black Voters Matter, we had formed an election protection coalition with fraternities, the deltas, churches, other civic organizations in Albany to actually help with the election because we knew it was going to be long lines. We knew it was going to be something that our folks needed help with. And what happened was when I arrived on the scene,

I began to see this line that stretched out all the way, probably about two blocks in the hot Georgia sun. If you're looking at the video now, you see all this concrete and bricks, and it was even hotter in that particular area. So people were literally passing out on the sidewalks and nobody was helping, none of the election officials had come out to do anything about that.

So what we did, we just sprung into action. I called some folks, we got some other volunteers to bring in water, to bring in ice, to go get chairs, tents, something to help these folks be able to stay in line and cast their votes. And the problem with this is that we had come to them months before. This was in October. We had actually come to election officials earlier that summer to say, hey, you know, we know this is going to be hot. And then to exacerbate things, it was in the middle of COVID. You know, Albany suffered greatly from COVID. We were one of the top and had one of the top infection rates during COVID in the world per capita.

And so we knew we needed a lot of things. And this was one of them to help folks stay in line, to be safe, to be able to cast their votes. And this was not looked upon, you know, as something altruistic. They thought we were trying to, you know, campaign. They thought we were trying to get somebody to vote. And the majority of the people, and I say the vast majority, probably out of the almost, I want to say 2,000 folks that voted, there were probably just, you know, a few folks who saw Black Voters Matter on the t-shirts and had a problem. And we even

had, you know, weapons brandished against us at one point. And we're the ones who are getting charges. We're the ones who have to come to this hearing to, you know, talk about what we did just to simply help the community. Now, again, they changed the law, Cliff, to make this illegal. And if I'm correct, Cliff, was it 150 feet? Right. And to be clear, they changed the law after this incident. This was the 2020 election when this incident happened. Keep in mind, Georgia did not pass their voter suppression law until 2021. So what they were actually trying to do is to retroactively go back and say that this incident that happened in 2020 was an illegal incident that needed to be cited and face potential charges. Now, the Secretary of State investigators, after originally saying that they were going to recommend charges to the state election board, has since come back. I guess they figured out that the thing happened actually before the law was passed. And so they since have come back and they've

changed that recommendation. They are no longer recommending charges, but it's still on the docket at the state election board meeting that is taking place tomorrow. It could still wind up the election board doesn't have to agree with the investigation finding the election board, which we know is a Republican controlled election board, which in and of itself is something that came about because of SB 202, the Georgia voter suppression law. We know that this election board is a highly partisan election board. And so they may not pay attention to the fact that the secretary of state's office has changed the recommendation. They could go forward just on their own, just going rogue and say that they that they're recommending charges. And if so, then that could be brought to the state attorney general. But I'm trying to understand here, Commissioner, if the law was changed afterwards,

what the hell law were y'all breaking? And they said we were campaigning. And the funny thing is, Roland, is that the woman who brandished a gun on us that made all these complaints against us on social media began to talk about all of these Democrats who were in line voting, and you all better get down here and do something about this, because all these Democrats, I don't know how she knew all the folks in line were Democrats, other than maybe they were, you know, pretty much, I want to say,

probably 80 percent or more Black that were in line. And when we did this, you know, the complaints began to come to the elections office, to the supervisor. And then the next thing we know, we had a phalanx of sheriff's deputies waiting for us when we came to pass out more water and almost threatening to, if you pass out water, we're going to put you in jail right now. So as I began to walk past the officers, I had on a mask because, again, it was COVID. I had on a Black Voters Matter t-shirt, and I began to walk toward the voters. And the sheriff's officers began to come toward me and say, hey, where are you going? Where are you going? And I said, I'm going up to the line. Well, you can't go up in 150 feet because you're campaigning.

I said, sir, I'm not campaigning. Well, you know, you got that shirt on. I said, sir, the shirt says Black Voters Matter. It's not campaigning for any candidate, anything. We're simply handing out water. And once I got up to him and took off my mask, you saw I was a city commissioner. Then, of course, he stood down then. But if I had been a regular citizen, who knows what would have happened. And they quickly, you know, once they figured out, you know, who I was and their things, they quickly got in their cars and left. But this, again, has to do with intimidation of just regular folks trying to be of service to their community. And that's something that I think is just absolutely intolerable. But, you know, these things, as you said,

keep happening. They keep, you know, changing the rules, keep changing, you know, keep moving the goalposts for everything that we've been able to do in energizing voters here in southwest Georgia. And what it is, Cliff, bottom line, if they see a strip that says Black Voters Matter, they automatically assume, oh, they're Democrats! Because it doesn't say Black Democrat

Votes Matter, it says Black Votes Matter. Sorry, Black Voters Matter. That's what it says. Right, yeah, essentially what they're votes matter. Black votes matter. Black voters matter. That's what it says. Right. Essentially, they're criminalizing just that statement that we matter. The same way that they've tried to slander

and criminalize even the notion that Black Lives Matter. And so they see a shirt that says Black Voters Matter, and they say that that's inherently political. You must be favoring one of these candidates. And so we're at a point know, we're at a point now is where, and not at a point now, this is what we've been for 400 years, our very blackness is a political statement. Our very blackness is a threat to them. And so when we have a shirt that

affirms that blackness, that affirms that we matter, they take that as electioneering, they take that that we're favoring a particular candidate, when it was very clear that there was no literature being handed out, there was uh candidate being supported on the shirts itself no no candidate logos the only thing that we were doing was one was was being black we were doing three things we was being black we was wearing the shirt and we were giving out food and water right none of those things are illegal i don't care where it is that you're standing in regards to the polling place but that's what the state of georg state of Georgia is possibly going to declare tomorrow when this election boards me. So, Commissioner, I take it you're going to have a strong contingent of folks standing there with you at this hearing tomorrow.

We hope so. This kind of came up very suddenly. They actually stretched this investigation out almost two years. Again, this was back in 2020. And when we first got interviewed by the secretary of state's office, the investigator, he was said he was investigating the lady that actually brandished the weapon against us. So we talked to him very freely and talked about what we saw. We filed a police report and just understanding that when we filed our police report, we actually only talked to what we call a community resource officer here in Albany. They're not cops who carry guns or are able to make anything but a report. But when we passed out water, we had, again, a whole contingent of

sheriff's officers ready to take us to jail right then for handing out water. So when he began to investigate that particular thing, the next thing we know, we got correspondence from the Secretary of State office saying, you have violated election law. And we are looking more into this. And then maybe about two weeks ago, just two weeks ago, they said, we're going to have a hearing to determine whether or not you violated Georgia law. And we were just like, whoa, why did y'all hit us with this at the last minute? So we hope people can come. We hope people can be there and stand up for us. But this is just something that continues to happen in Georgia from a very partisan elections board.

The laws, the rules keep changing. Right now in the Georgia state legislature, they're considering ending runoffs. We know runoffs were something they instituted to be able to take advantage of their particular strength to keep black folks out of office. Now that the demographics has flipped in places like Albany, in places like Savannah, where you have a large black population, now they're trying to take away runoffs because that doesn't serve their agenda as well. So the goal post keeps moving. The laws keep changing only to serve them, but we'll keep fighting. We'll keep partnering with folks like Brother Cliff and we'll just keep fighting. Cliff, final comment by 20 seconds.

Yeah, I mean, I think Commissioner Young said it well about the ways that the goal keeps moving, the goalposts keep moving. You know, once they pass these laws, it always opens the door and creates a slippery slope, right? Once they pass these laws and say you can't give out food and water, then they can stretch it. They can stretch even the meaning of, well, what is 150 feet? What is a foot after all? Alternative facts. They can stretch it

to cover the kinds of shirts that you're wearing. They can stretch it to cover just about anything that they want. And that's what we're seeing here, the same way that we're seeing in DeSantis, the stretching of what it means to be able to be registered and who's able to be registered and going out and arresting 20 primarily Black voters that they had entrapped into voting. We're seeing this in state after state, and this is why we continue to make the call that we need federal legislation. We're not naive. We know the situation in terms of the makeup of the Congress, but we have got to continue to keep this issue of voting rights and voter suppression on the table in the national discussion. We hope we even hear it in the State of the Union that we hear tomorrow because we cannot let up on this issue or else when Congress does change, we'll find ourselves

having to reinvigorate the movement instead of keeping the momentum going from now until we get that new Congress. Commissioner Young, Cliff Albright, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks, we'll be right back. Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. 54th NAACP Image Awards is airing live on February 25th, honoring outstanding performances in film, television, theater, music, and literature. But this year, Roland Martin Unfiltered is nominated

for Outstanding News or Information Series or Special. To vote, head to NAACPimageawards.net, scroll down to Outstanding News slash Information Series, select the category. You have to click on hashtag Roland Martin Unfiltered Black Votes election night coverage to submit your vote. You will need an email. Only one vote allowed per email. Voting ends on February 10th at 9 p.m. Vote today.

Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday

on Black Star Network, A you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Deion Cole from Blackest. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. All right, folks. So if you listen to some of these business shows, Network, CNBC, Bloomberg, and others, you've heard, oh, my goodness, the sky is falling. Recession is headed our way. You look at the layouts that have been happening in the tech industry, Amazon and Microsoft and all of these different companies, Google,

and, oh, man, prepare you for it. All of a sudden, you look at what happened on Friday when the jobs report came out showing the economy added 517,000 jobs. Now, here's what's interesting about that. We now have our unemployment at its lowest rate since May of 1969. Okay. Unemployment rate in January, 3.4%. In December, it was 3.5%. But you still have these people who are complaining about, oh, there are too many people who are staying at home. They're not working. We have all of these jobs that are yet to be filled. We saw the top through the big three oil companies actually show last year $142 billion in profit. We look at so many other companies, profit, profit, all the money. But then we hear, no, we can't pay people more money. Then you hear members of

Congress and the Fed talking about, well, in order to slow down inflation, we need to have higher unemployment, and then we need to see wages drop, okay? That logic to me makes no sense. I'm not an economist, but we do have a couple of economists on the show. First of all, Dr. Patrick Mason, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He joins us now, of course, on our panel, Dr. Julian Malveaux, economist as well. And Dr. Mason, I've got to start with you before I get to the unemployment numbers. I'm still trying to understand, and I need you and Julianne to explain this to me. I do not understand the logic that, oh, in order for inflation to go down,

I mean, literally, Larry Sumner was saying this here, that we need unemployment to go up. We don't need it at 3.5%. It needs to go up to 5 or 6 or 7, and then we need wages to go down. What the hell is he talking about? What are they talking about? Well, that part is explained by who has most access to the news. But that's been kind of a traditional belief among some economists

that high wages are the cause of inflation, where even in the current time period, what's driving the inflation is problems in the supply chain and earlier problems with petroleum and other factors. It's hard to say that high wages are causing inflation when wages are still down four or five percent below where they were before COVID started. See, what angers me about this, Julian, is that folk with money, folk who are getting paid well, saying, oh, no, we really need that unemployment rate to go up, and we need these wages to go down in order for us to lower inflation. No. I think what we're seeing is we're seeing a whole bunch of companies

price gouge the American public by jacking up prices because they are taking advantage of the supply and demand. Matter of fact, that was a scene in BMF last week where there was a shortage of cocaine on the street. And the drug dealer said, why am I going to go out and get more cocaine? He said, when I'm selling the existing cocaine because demand is sky high, I'm making more money. He said, the last thing I want is to actually add more supply. I know somebody watching like rolling use a drug reference. Hell, yes. That's exactly what these folks are doing. And it's a joke because you're saying to the average worker, no, we need your wages to be lower when we're seeing CEO pay skyrocket.

Ain't nobody saying lower their amount of money. You know, Roland, first of all, hey, Patrick, how you doing? But Roland, this is ridiculous. The minimum wage has not been increased in more than 10 years. And these folks are talking about they need wages to be even lower. They'd like the unemployment rate to be even higher. Well, let's be clear. For the first time in a long time, usually it's a two-to-one ratio, black to white.

This last report, the black unemployment rate was 5.4 percent compared to 3.1 percent for white people, so less than two to one. But more importantly, even with this improvement in unemployment, when you adjust for all the hidden unemployment, we're talking a black unemployment rate right now of 10.5 percent. So if Larry Summers and them want to see the unemployment rate go up to 5, 6, 7%, what are they saying about our community? The fact is that predatory capitalism allows people to extract surplus value. And in order to extract more surplus value, what must they do? They must take wages and try to keep them low. But we know, we look at profits. I mean,

when you look at profits, you know, oh, my goodness, you say, how are these people making money? And they're whining, literally whining about inflation. And I just interviewed someone from the Economic Policy Institute this morning. And you know, he, John Bivens, who said recession is not inevitable. What's inevitable is recession if we keep fooling with this debt ceiling, if we keep fooling with the international situation. So this jobs report, quite frankly, is very good.

My challenge with Brother Biden is he has to to he does have to much have a much better communication strategy. And its communication strategy, frankly, is deficient. Dr. Mason, when you start again unpacking this every I swear Fox News is sitting here going, Lord, can we please have a bad jobs report? It's like they keep waiting. They just keep hoping and praying it's a bad jobs report. And it's like, damn, another good month. It's driving them crazy because they keep predicting doom and gloom.

Right. Well, yeah, that's part of their political objectives. They would like a bad jobs report to make the president of the Democratic Party look bad and is less concerned about what that would actually mean for working people. I mean, a bad jobs report means that somebody doesn't have enough income to have a decent standard of living. And as Julianne said, this was actually a pretty good job report. Not only did the unemployment rate go down, but labor force participation increased.

So that's more people out there looking for work. And the employment population ratio went up. So that's more people actually finding a job. The probability of having a job is high. But both of those numbers are still less than numbers from earlier time periods, which means that there's still an awful lot of people out there who are willing and able to work, but who cannot find a job. Now, a recession may happen if the Fed keeps raising interest rates. That was the strategy from decades ago with Paul Volcker when he wanted to get rid of inflation. It just jacked interest rates up to a very high level. A lot of people lost their jobs.

That brought down spending and that solved the inflation problem. But that also created a tremendous amount of economic misery for working-class people. And I think that, Dr. Mason, that really is the problem that I have, and Renita, as well as Torun, it really is the folks who don't care about the working class. And again, Dr. Mason, a final comment for you,

then we'll go to the panel here. When so much of the focus in this country is on the stock market, when more than half of the country ain't even in the stock market, it leads to the wrong discussion about the state of the American economy. Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you're really concerned about fighting inflation, raising interest rates is not the only way to do it. You could have tax increases, but then you'd have to tax people who actually have money. And those people don't want the higher taxes. Or you could have price controls on those specific items that are really driving up the inflation.

So there are other strategies. We just got locked into this high interest rate strategy because it hurts working class people. And, of course, Wall Street likes low wages. That makes stock prices go higher because lower wages means higher profits, higher dividends, higher retained earnings. Dr. Mason, we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Renita, on that particular point, we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Renita, on that particular point, you and Tony run, I got about a minute, so 30 seconds each. Here's the real deal, because the elected folks don't want to deal with the fact that that Trump tax cut actually dramatically increased the deficit. It lowered the amount of money

coming into the federal government, and then that's put pressure also on this economy. The rich want to keep getting richer and want to say, screw the working poor or the working public. And she hit the nail right on the head. It is about predatory capitalism, which neither party wants to deal with. But, you know, at the end of the day, the general public is not stupid. We see that the minimum wage has not gone up since 2009. That's when it went to $7.25. But we see consistently, so wages were kept low, but corporations continue to increase their prices. So keeping wages low does not make McDonald's not raise their prices. They have consistently raised their prices every single year, as other corporations have. So at the end of the day, I'd like to see a report that tracks

how many people are able to work 40 hours a week and make a livable wage and pay their bills, because that is a report that most Americans would care about, not these job reports. And the thing here, Till Ron,

and that is, again, and hopefully, I doubt it, but hopefully tomorrow, you actually will hear the president talk about the working poor, talk about the working class, and talk about wages as opposed to let's just keep fattening the pockets of stockholders. And all these companies

are doing with these profits is buying back stock. They're not reinvesting in their workers. Well, Dr. Mason and Julianne hit it right on the head. The issue that we're dealing with right now is basically greed and controlling of the messaging. The people who are saying that we need higher unemployment for the economy to get better, these are people who are going to be fine if the economy crashes. We're talking about billionaires. We're talking about people who are CEOs. We're talking about people who are head of media companies. All these people are in the same circle. So they can push this message out to each other, which filters out into the rest of the public. But the public is not seeing that because they're not on that level. I think what has to happen is that we have to start hearing from people who are

average nine to five workers, people who are unemployed, people who really have their backs against the wall. And unfortunately, they don't have access to media to be able to tell their stories. But somebody has to tell their stories. As long as they're away from the media, you're going to hear what you keep hearing. Indeed. All right, folks, got to go to a break. Don't forget to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Mind, available at bookstores nationwide,

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target. You can also download your copy on Audible as well. We'll be right back on Rolling Block Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. 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 two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators right the head writers right the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths the people don't really want to have this conversation no they don't We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement.

A lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter.

We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to Peelbox57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.

The Cash App is DollarSignRMUnfiltered. PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfiltered. Zelle ismartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. All right, folks. Today's black and missing is Kendi McGregor. She's been missing from her Newport News Virginia home since January 31st. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Kennedy was last seen wearing khaki pants, a black shirt with Kennedy on it, black shoes and black socks.

She wears braces on her teeth and has a birthmark on her left cheek. Anyone with information about Kennedy McGregory should call the Newport News Virginia Police Department at 757-247-2500. Again, 757-247-2500. In Maryland, as many as 80,000 residents could lose, could be dropped from their Medicaid coverage. The executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange says that beginning in May, the state may start ending Medicaid coverage for people who no longer qualify. Medicaid enrollment ballooned during the pandemic, partly because the federal government prohibited states from removing people from the program during the public health emergency once they enroll.

Those 80,000 folks will no longer qualify for Medicaid coverage this spring when the federal government reinstates a requirement before the pandemic for states to verify recipients' eligibility. Last year, Congress told states they could remove ineligible people in April. Millions of people are expected to lose their coverage because they now make too much money to qualify for Medicare or they have been moved. Folks, a neo-Nazi leader and his accomplice were arrested for plotting a racist attack on Baltimore's power grid. Maryland U.S. Attorney Eric Barron announced the capture and charges against Sarah Beth Clendaniel of Maryland and Brandon Clint Russell of Florida.

Watch. We are here this morning to announce the arrests of Sarah Klan Daniel and Brandon Russell on criminal complaints for conspiring to attack our local power grid. As the criminal complaint alleges, Klan Daniel and Russell conspired and took steps to shoot multiple electrical substations in the Baltimore area, aiming to, quote, completely destroy this whole city. But these plans were stopped thanks to the swift action and collaboration of our federal, state and local enforcement partners. Taking the custody last week, they were flagging the previous year after an FBI informant claimed to have been contacted by Russell to attack electrical substations. The FBI described the plot as racially or ethically motivated, as Russell, the founder of the Adam Woffin division, a neo-Nazi group, targeted a predominantly black area.

Again, Baltimore 61% black. Governor Westmore made a statement following this. He said, I want to commend the FBI and our state homeland security team for their swift action in preventing a potentially catastrophic attack on several of Maryland's electrical substations. Our state and local law enforcement authorities are working with the FBI to assist with any follow-up investigative work they need. This collaborative effort is vital to protecting critical infrastructure across Maryland, and I'm grateful to the men and women protecting our state. Of course, you saw several grid attacks

in North Carolina and Washington state. The thing here to run is that, what do the FBI directors say? White domestic terrorists. That is what we're seeing. It's amazing. I keep talking about my book, White Fear. I'm like, folks, understand what's going on. This is who we should be fearing. You know, American running around talking about Muslims. No, it's white folks in this country

who want to attack this country January 6th and folks like this? You know, there was sort of like this urban legend when I was growing up. It turned out to actually be true. You know when black people walk in the stores, like high-end stores, security automatically starts following the black people. But nine times out of ten, it's like a couple of white girls that are running through the store, taking everything and running back out.

Nobody pays attention to them. That's the attitude that I think law enforcement in America feels about white supremacists. These people are very connected. A lot of them are connected in the military. A lot of them are connected to police forces. I mean, there was a study that came out

like last year when the George Floyd thing was going on that said that there are underground cells in the military and in police forces that are connected to white supremacist groups. You know, we saw that in January 6th, when you saw the police handle these people with kid gloves that they would never have handled, like black protesters who were coming in with weapons to march on the Senate would have. There needs to be a really, there needs to be a reckoning in this country through law

enforcement and through the society in general to understand that the face of terrorism looks a lot closer, like you, than it does to somebody coming across the water or somebody who's coming from the Middle East and everything. And that has to happen. If it doesn't, it's going to put this country at risk and it's going to put citizens at risk. Indeed, folks. Now, in South Carolina, the folks at Turning Point USA had this bake sale where it was, look, these white conservatives have been doing this for the last 20 plus years in these campuses. When I was at Texas A&M, they had one where they had these affirmative action bake sales. And what they do

is they charge folks. And so what they did was there, they actually were charged cookies, $1.50 for Asians, Asian buyers, $1 for white customers, and 50 cents for Hispanic buyers, and 20 cents for black buyers. Native Americans got free cookies. Now, this is all dealing with two Supreme Court cases. Turning Point comes out and says, oh, we meant no harm, no ill intentions toward anyone. When planning the event, we wanted to highlight admission policies and openly favor applicants based on race. We believe applicants should only be judged based on their performance

and qualifications, not their race. Okay, here's the deal. Black people and other minorities, don't get upset by this. Here's what you do, Renita. The NAACP chapter on Clemson's campus, this is what y'all should do. Y'all should go bake some cookies. And then what you say is, all white students were giving the cookies away like y'all got free land in the 1800s. Oh, we're giving cookies away.

Hey, we're giving cookies away to all white students. Why? Because you benefited from the GI Bill more than anybody else. And black people, we're going to charge you $20 because guess what? You're going to pay more money for your house. You're going to pay more money for everything because of Jim Crow. See, again, the folks who are sitting here, to me, you've got to flip this thing. If these racist white folks at Turning Point USA want to play that game, then what you do is you say, we're going to educate y'all on the reality

of what happens here. In fact, what you do, black students at Clemson or Latino students, what y'all then say is, hey, we're going to give free cookies to the white students here at Clemson or Latino students, which I'll then say is, hey, we're going to give free cookies to the white students here at Clemson, and we're going to charge the black folks because guess what, Clemson? Y'all been getting a hell of a lot more money from South Carolina than South Carolina State. Well, that's brilliant, Roland.

Your idea is brilliant, and they should do that because that is basically teaching critical race theory through bake sales. So as long as we're teaching history lessons, like you said, let's teach all of the history. But, you know, we expect this from Turning Point. Turning Point has had a history of just consistently doing racist things and being involved in other efforts like voter suppression and really anything that works to just make sure that black people are continually excluded from every single franchise and that any progress that we do get, they work really hard to make sure that we don't, are not able to really take steps forward.

So I'm not surprised by this, but I think your idea to basically teach critical race theory through a bake sale is brilliant. See, again, this right here, Julianne, is what drives me crazy because, frankly, it's a whole lot of us, let's be honest, especially them, are walking around having no understanding of history. Oh, I'm going to flip this bad boy for you. I'm going to sit here and say, oh, since y'all want to have that conversation, we're going to have a white affirmative action conversation. And so we're going to sit here and give you free packets of cookies, and

then we're going to have a nice little information or a QR code attached to it. Hmm, want to read what we're giving white folks free cookies? Because all the free shit y'all have gotten over the years. You know, Roland, let's not forget Turning Point is the organization of that

odious Candace Owens. No, she used to work there. Charlie Kirk is the founder of that odious Candace Owens. No, she used to work there. Charlie Kirk is the founder. She now is somewhere else. But yes, she got her start and her rise to fame through Turning Point USA. And basically, she has been anti-Black, and you can be anti-Black as a Black person.

But when we look at the educational landscape right now, what we see is fewer African-American students on campuses. And what we're also seeing is an anti-blackness on campus that discourages African-American participation in higher education. And so when we, this stunt these people pull, that's what it is, is a stunt. And it's laughable. Your idea, I think I agree with Renita. I think it's a brilliant idea. Although I don't know if anybody wants to go to the trouble of giving white folks free cookies. I mean, they got free everything else. I'm going to sit down.

Follow me here. Here's why I'm coming up with that. Here's the deal. This story went viral. Clemson, and it goes national. When you flip the script, I get it. Folk don't want to get the free cookies away.

But what I'm saying is you use the same playbook to go viral to say we're going to teach y'all real history. And now how you respond. See, again, you can get outraged by what they're doing or you can say, okay, I'm going to show you a better way to teach your ass, and then force you to say, did it happen? Roland, the question I would have is whether or not the mainstream media will cover the flipping of the script as you describe it. No, no, no. I guarantee you. No, I'm trying to tell you. They will. Again, the story went viral, Toron, on social. That's going to go viral as well. Again, it's outsmarting the races and flipping the script.

That's the deal. You can get pissed, but I'm going to show you how y'all benefited from getting free stuff for centuries. And our numbers are still low on these white campuses. To run about 20 seconds, go. The first thing is I wouldn't eat those cookies. I wouldn't trust them. That's the first thing. They probably don't even taste that good.

I don't trust anything they put in. The second thing is, to your point, to even go on your point one better, if you could get some sisters who would be willing to do it to put on some coaches and cook bake the cookies and then give them to them for free just to represent free labor that'll be another thing and then you can finish it up by having brett farm come and take all the cookies and all i'm saying 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 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. Ad-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. 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. 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 uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne for brothersborne. 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. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Guess what? I'm about to highlight something for your ass, and let's see if you want to argue that. When I was at Texas A&M University, it was a class, speech communications class,

and we were talking about the whole issue, affirmative action, and all these white students, they were against affirmative action. And again, I don't get emotional. I'll smart their asses. I said, let me ask you, how many of your mothers in this room own businesses? And hands went up. And I said, how many of your mothers in this room may have contracts with the city and the county or the state or the federal government? And hands went up. I said, well, congratulations.

All of you are attending Texas A&M University because you are beneficiaries of affirmative action. White women are the largest beneficiaries of affirmative action in this country. I said, so that's what's paying your tuition. The shocking horror on their face because they were sitting here thinking affirmative action was just black people. I said, no, White women are the greatest beneficiaries. And I said, so, who now wants to debate me about affirmative action? Are you

going to go home and tell your mama, don't accept the contracts? See, I'm outsmart you. I'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it.

That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Question for you. Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn what you need to do to become unstuck and unstoppable.

The fabulous author, Janine K. Brown, will be with us sharing with you exactly what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career because when i talk about being bold in the workplaces i'm talking about that inner boldness that you have um to to take a risk to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. All right, folks.

Here in 2023, we were talking about a new you in 2023. We've had a number of fitness experts on the show. But today we're talking about your core, your core, and how that impacts your physical fitness, but also your health and well-being. My next guest, she calls herself the core queen. She is an Air Force veteran, a certified master personal trainer, certified nutritionist, certified strength and conditioning specialist, certified glute specialist, certified online fitness coach, certified group exercise instructor.

Damn, how many more certifies you got, DeeDee Leggett? Glad to have you on the show. I guess you certified. All right. So she joins us from North Carolina. So explain to the folks who are watching, again, why core strength is so important. Well, just like anything else, the foundation is the core. So if anything is to be strong, it has to be the foundation, right? So the core is the foundation.

You can move without the core. Like foundation right so the core is the foundation you can move what I like what's actually the core. The core is anything from your torso so everything that you use to move your muscles all of that structure that you use that the good that most people have that's your core. Okay, so for the person who's watching or listening then, so we're talking about the core. As folks get older,

does that impact in terms of their balance? Does it impact in terms of their stability? So just talk about what happens when you have a weak core compared to a strong core? Absolutely. Of course, if your core is weak, your back is weak. You're overcompensating when your core is weak. So you have, that's how you have the degenerative disc issues in your back. Those weak back muscles, people barely can walk. They're hunched over because they're always using their back instead of their core because those muscles are just so weak.

And, of course, as you get older, they get worse. Okay. And so when you – so that's – we have a weak core. So when you have a strong core, what does that then result or lead to? The strong core helps everything from your legs, your back, everything in your body actually follows your core. So if that's strong, everything else is going to follow along

with that. You're going to have balance. Everything, you're going to be able to move quicker. You're going to be more agile. You're going to be more flexible. The core just literally helps with everything that you do. And the reason for me, the reason I understand the core piece,

look, I've been playing golf for 35 years. And the strength of a golf swing is in the core. For the folks out there who are slicing, the folks out there, in terms of if they're weak in terms of their swing, whether it's their legs, and they're thinking they're swinging with their arms and everything, it really is because their core is weak. You see professional golfers, they spend lots of time really focusing on, again, here, here, understanding that because in golf the power actually is ground up,

and it's really ground all the way up to the waist. It's not up here. So you can have all the muscles you want up here. That ain't doing jack for your golf swing because it's really a core strength to have a solid golf swing. Absolutely. And that golf swing, if you don't have that core strength, that's going to really mess up your back.

I know we probably have a lot of back injuries when it comes to golf and your core is not strong. I never have. Yeah, that core, if you're not strong there, yeah, your legs, all of that, like you said, is so important in golf. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, last question here before I go to you.

And to have a strong core, it doesn't mean you got to have a six-pack and you got to be ripped. Because I know there's somebody who's watching who's like, look, I ain't going to never, ever look like that. So explain that as well. Because I've seen some folks who do yoga, who do some other things, who you will go, you plus size. How are you doing those things is not based, again,

it's not based upon what we think of this, this extremely fit body. Absolutely not. That is such a misconception because I know a lot of people with a six-pack who are very weak in their core. So doing those, like you said, the yoga and the Pilates, those isometric type of workouts definitely strengthen that inner core. So those muscles underneath that you can't even see are very important. And just because you can see a six-pack, that's just genetics anyway.

It has nothing to do with whether you're strong or not, and that a lot comes with what you eat as well. But, yeah, like you said, you'll see bigger people that aren't as fit in the traditional sense of the word that have very strong core muscles and other muscles as well because they do those yoga moves and that isometric type of isolation workouts that's that's absolutely true see questions from our panel let's see out of our panel who might have the strongest core or the weakest core um julianne you always on the other end of that. You know you always get asked questions first. We've been trying to get Julian

to work on her core. It ain't working. Julian, go. It ain't working. I mean, I love Pilates, but I don't do it as often as I should. And you're right. I am nailed up. When you do Pilates? Where do I do it? When? In my house in the morning

on my yoga mat. How often? A couple times a week. I ought to be doing it every day. I love Pilates. I just haven't found a studio here in L.A. that I like. I've been to a couple places. I don't like them.

So, you know. All right. What's your question for Dee Dee? My question is, first of all, you look fantastic. This year, I'll tell it because I don't look it. If I looked it, I wouldn't tell it. But this year, later this year, I'll turn 70. What is the best exercise for me?

I would say I would always go for chair exercises. Much easier, less impact on the back. So you can do a lot of crunches and stuff like that, leg raises in a chair. So anything that you would normally do on the floor or something like that, you can actually do it in a chair. Leg raises, knee tucks,

just bringing your legs to your chest one by one and doing just certain stuff in a chair. You can actually go on YouTube and Google a lot of chair exercises. There's so many of them out there, but it really, really helps strengthen the core. Thanks. Renata? Yep, real quick.

So passive exercises that people have kind of figured out ways to do, like taking meetings from a recumbent bike, does that do anything for your core, or does that not matter for core strength? Those types of things are more for like your lungs brain stuff like that to keep the circulation going um but i always um tell people you know if you have a little time you go to the bathroom do something it it may help the core it may not but anything to move is fine you can do some squats in the bathroom that helps with the core you can do some jumping jacks, just anything. Anytime you can just squeeze something in, do 10 of something anytime.

You can just find a way to do it. All right. Tarun? Yeah, I have a couple questions. What is the importance of – how does the importance of diet and certain exercises and repetitions fit into getting your core stronger? I used to play basketball, but I do sit-ups and push-ups. What are other things that you can incorporate to make you even stronger?

Well, first of all, when it comes to diet, I'm big on herbs. Stuff like natural things are always good. I'm a real advocate for something called woodroot. That really helps with the digestive system, and it gets that core stronger because it's eliminating a lot of the toxins. Of course, diet is always 80% of anything that you do anyway when it comes to a fitness transformation or a fitness program um doing something i don't ever eliminate any food groups so i'm not a fan of any types of like fad diets because carbs we need them for fuel especially if you're working out it's just making sure you know when to eat those carbs when like what workouts you're doing to that requires those types of cards that you're going to need and as far as strengthening the core with workouts i'm a huge advocate for mountain climbers people hate them but they are amazing burpees are amazing for your body total body

and plank work is also outstanding work tyronerone, you said you had two questions. Yeah, the other question was, how does, you said, if you're already sort of active, if you already have a routine that you're already doing, but it may not be focused on your core, are there things that you can incorporate into like a workout, like I said, you know, sit-ups, push-ups, walking, that will help strengthen your core as well? It depends on what kind of workout you're doing. But if you want to add things, I do things like I'll do, like, certain challenges for myself. Cardio for your core is really good, especially with running.

If you're doing sprints, those actually really cut your core up a lot. And then the main thing that people actually eliminate. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, D.D. You said cut your core up a lot. then the main thing that people actually eliminate all the way you saw the day you say cut your core up a lot what does that mean. Meaning like it. It is right the fact quicker. Okay, okay, go ahead. You'll burn more fat if you're doing faster cardio so

you're spreading more and that is that the one like a long distance of running it will get your core actually more tight more than just doing regular old-fashioned sit-ups um sit-ups are actually more uh conducive and good for your hip flexors more than they are for your core i would do more crunches than i would do sit-ups because they're really hard on your back so you try to do more crunches and actually when you add resistance bands to your workout, to any of your core workouts, even push-ups, just adding resistance to anything because you're isolating that muscle and it's making it, it'll make it pop a little bit more. All right.

Didi, we appreciate it. How can folks reach you if they want more information? I am the Core Queen. You can Google me on everything, all platforms, the Corp Queen, or Didi Leguette on Instagram or anywhere. But if you type in the Corp Queen, you will find me. And that's it. All right.

Didi, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Appreciate y'all. All right, folks. Got to go to break. We come back. Yesterday was the Grammys.

Beyonce makes history. And so does the Tennessee State University band. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Download the app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button. I want us to be over 1,500 likes. Let's make that happen, y'all.

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Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey. Thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table here on the Black Star Network. The 54th NAACP Image Awards is airing live on February 25th, honoring outstanding performances in film, television, theater, music, and literature.

But this year, Roland Martin Unfiltered is nominated for Outstanding News or Information Series or Special. To vote, head to NAACPimageawards.net, scroll down to Outstanding News slash Information Series, select the category. You have to click on hashtag Roland Martin Unfiltered Black Votes Matter Election Night Coverage. To submit your vote, you will need an email. Only one vote allowed per email. Voting ends on February 10th at 9 p.m. Vote today. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not.

From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. 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 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 one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, 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 thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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 one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is your man, Deon Cole, from Black-ish, and you're watching...

Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke.. A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! A-O-B! History made yesterday the 65th annual Grammy Awards with a Tennessee State University aristocrat of bands. They became the first collegiate band in history to win a Grammy Award. In fact, they actually won two Grammy Awards. They, of course, Grammy phones in the Best Roots Gospel Album category for the Urban Hymnal, and they feature on J.I.V. as the poet who say by the door, their band director accepted the award

and spoke on their behalf. This is what he had to say. I just want to say these kids so deserve it. These kids worked so hard, and to be honest with you guys, HBCUs are so grossly underfunded. To where I had to put my last dime in order to get us across the line. My cousin got us across the line, even when I gave all. So we're here with our pockets empty, but our hands aren't.

Let's go, let's go. On behalf of Tennessee State University Band Program, first wanna thank the Academy for the opportunity. Thank you to the best band in the land, Tennessee State University Band Program, first I want to thank the Academy for the opportunity. Thank you to the best band in the land, Tennessee State University of Risk-Federal Bands, all of our amazing students. Thank you, your hard work and dedication created the pen that allows you to write your own page

in the history books. I can't even thank everybody, but I want to thank our president, Dr. Glenna Baskin-Glover, Dr. McDonald, Prof. Sexton, Dr. Green, Coach Gibbs, the entire band staff, all HBCUs. And we only, we made history, but this is also February,

so we also made black history. So shout out to the HBCU. TSU! TSU! Folks, that was John Graves. He is the director of the Aristocrats, a band been there since 1979.

In addition to the Grammys, they are nominated for two NAACP Image Awards as well. They will be, of course, airing on February 25th from Los Angeles. We will be there as well because we are nominated as we're broadcasting there. That certainly is a huge deal and a big win there, Julian. And in fact, Pastor Jamal Bryant was actually narrator on that as well. And so he also, of course, gets the claim credit as a two-time Grammy Award winner as well. So that's a huge deal. It's such a huge deal. I mean, you can't wipe the grin off my face from that one, especially because the brothers shouted out HBCUs as being grossly underfunded. A lot of folks who are melanin deficient don't

know a lot about HBCUs, so it gives all HBCUs great visibility. But congratulations and congratulations to President Glover, our sister president, from me back in the day. I'm just overjoyed, Roland. That's all I can tell you. I am overjoyed. Indeed, indeed. It also, last night, was a huge night from H-Town's own Beyonce. She set a record last night, the most Grammy wins ever, with her 32nd Grammy win. Huge, huge deal.

And last night, also, you had the 50th anniversary salute to hip-hop as well. I was, last night, I was at the Trayvon Martin Foundation event, did not get to see it. But, Renita, to think about, you think about Beyonce, you think about so many black artists, especially black female artists like Aretha Franklin and others who never got the recognition of the Grammys, that certainly is a big deal. Last night was a great night for black people. And, you know, as Dr. Malveaux said, I'm with her. My soul is smiling just watching these clips

of all this black joy. I'm so excited for the HBCU and excited for Beyonce now taking the record of the person with the most Grammys. So she made history last night. The HBCU made history last night. And that was just great

all the way around. Taran? You know, first of all, I want to give much love to all HBCUs, especially all HBCU bands. If we're going to talk about black music,

we've got to talk about the bedrock of that, which is black music programs and HBCUs and also in the church. So what you're seeing now is just worldwide recognition of something that we've already known, that black music and black culture is the bedrock of this society.

It's the bedrock of pop culture, and it's just being acknowledged. That's what we're really talking about. Indeed, indeed. And so, again, we also saw, of course, the tribute to the 50 years of hip hop that took place as well. That particular salute, you know, was interesting. There's so many people, so many people who talk about what wasn't done, what should have been done, who got left out. But the reality is this here, when you think about that, I mean, this is it. First of all, we talk about art forms created by black people. It ain't just hip hop, okay? So you don't have country music

without the blues. When you talk about jazz, I mean, we can go on and on. The reality is, ain't no such thing as rock and roll. Elvis ain't the king of rock and roll. As Ray Charles said, hell, black folks were shaking their hips long before Elvis. And so when you think about music, I would dare say there's no greater art form in American history that black people have not

impacted more so than music in this country. Renita? Absolutely. No, I'm just shaking my head at everything you're saying because you would not have rock and roll without Chuck Berry. You wouldn't have country music

without black blues, which was first. And, you know, there's just so many, I mean, we black people influence everything. And we are the creators of so many different things

that we do not get credit for. But you're right. Black music, it really just infiltrates everything. And so I would encourage anybody who wants to know more about our history to go visit in Nashville, the National African-American Museum of Music,

because they really take you through the influence that Black people have had on every type of genre of music. And they also have an amazing thing where you can kind of walk around and build playlists and they can show you what music that black people were creating during movements like the civil rights movement, voting rights, just different points in history

that were big flashpoints culturally for black people. They talk about the music that was being created during that time. So that museum, I cannot say enough about it. People got to visit it. Go to Nashville. So that museum, I cannot say enough about it. People got to visit it. Go to Nashville. Speaking of movements, last night I was in Miami for the Trayvon Martin 11th annual Remembrance Dinner. Yesterday actually would have been his 28th birthday. I actually emceed the first dinner that took place in 2013.

And Sabrina Fulton, his mom, Tracy Martin, his father, a number of people were there. We raised $108,000 for the foundation. And one of the greatest moments last night was when everyone stood up and actually sang happy birthday to Trayvon Martin. Here's that moment. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Trey Whitewater, 28 years old today. We are celebrating his birthday.

This is for you, Trey Whitewater. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday! There were Toron, Julian, Rhea, there were a number of folks who were there, mothers who also lost their children. In fact, I ran into one of the mothers whose son was killed in the shooting at the University of Virginia. I think it was Devin Chandler. She was there as well.

And it was interesting. Those families, they actually support one another. That's what people I don't think people realize that when you hear us talk about, you know, this sorority slash fraternity, no one wants to be a member of. The reality is these families that have actually had children killed by cops or like that thug George Zimmerman. Again, they lean on each other and rally around each other. And many of them were there last night. You know, Roland, Tamika Mallory deserves a lot of credit for the relationship she has with many of the mothers bringing them together. And she spoke last night as well as well.

Go ahead. And Black Lives Matters, Balina Abdullah. She was there, too. Oh, she she has a lot of gets a lot of credit as well. I remember all of us going up to Buffalo to support some of the folks there who were killed and meeting some of the mothers. What I love about the clip you played, and thank you for playing it, the theme of Black History Month this year is black resistance. And that joy that those folks had, that is resistance. There are those who would steal our joy.

There are those who would have us downtrodden. We began the program this evening talking about the police violence and the killings. But the antidote to white supremacy is black joy. If they can't steal our joy, they can't take anything else, and they cannot take our backbone away. So while they have Cliff and the brother down in Albany, Georgia, dealing with some specious charges, the fact is that we fight that back by smiling, by loving up on each other, by looking at what happened with those Grammys and grinning about it. That's what black resistance is, and that's what we have to continue to offer. And again, I want him for honoring me as one of the champions of justice.

April Ryan was also recognized. Reverend Al Sharpton's his two daughters also recognized as well as several others there in Florida. As I said, we did raise a lot of money. Let me do this here, folks. Hold your phone up to the television because let me find it. Where is it? Where is it? Here it is. Nope, that's not it. I'm trying to see which phone did I do this on. Is it on this phone here? Let's see how fast I can do it. All right, y'all. They had a QR code last night. Just simply do this here. Go to my Instagram page. You can see the QR code. If you want to support the foundation, simply click that QR code. You can actually donate. Renata Toran, Julian, appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Folks, I'll see you tomorrow, 8 p.m. Special time for our State of Our Union coverage on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Holla! Folks, Blackstar network is here i'm real uh revolutionary right now support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told thank you for being the voice of black america rolling

i love y'all all momentum we have now we have to keep this going the video looks phenomenal see this difference between black star network and-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? Pull up a chair. Take your seat.

The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr here on the Black Star Network Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin

and I have a question for you Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world that's consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. Thank you. 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 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.