#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Anti-Discriminatory Bank Law; Teacher Force Black Students to Pick Cotton, Kevin Samuels Dies

Episode Date: May 7, 2022

5.6.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Anti-Discriminatory Bank Law; Teacher Force Black Students to Pick Cotton, Kevin Samuels Dies Redlining, the discriminatory practice of classifying ethnic minorities and low-income neighborhoods as 'hazardous' for investment, continues but three of the nation's largest banking institutions want to update an anti-discriminatory bank law to address the harm of redlining. We'll talk to the  President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, pushing for the changes. A white New York teacher is on administrative leave for handcuffing, shackling, and making his black student pick cotton during a lesson on slavery. A former Colorado police officer pleads guilty to assaulting a 76-year-old woman during an arrest. A wrongly convicted Indiana man will receive $7.5 million, the largest settlement awarded to a wrongfully imprisoned plaintiff in Indiana. The conduct of a Maryland officer that has Prince George's County facing a $75 million lawsuit is now a convicted felon.   The Poor People's Campaign is gearing up for next month's Moral March on Washington and the Polls. They'll tell you how you can get involved. And in our Education Matters segment, we'll look at a non-profit that found a way to help black and brown students prepare for the future.   Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? It's Friday, May 6, 2022. I'm Michael M. Hotep sitting in for Roland. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Redlining the discriminatory practice of classifying ethnic minorities and low-income neighborhoods as hazardous for investment continues, but three of the nation's largest banking institutions want to update an anti-discriminatory bank law to address the harm of redlining. We'll talk to the president and CEO

of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition pushing for the changes. A white New York teacher is on administrative leave for handcuffing, shackling, and making his Black students pick cotton during a lesson on slavery. A former Colorado police officer pleads guilty to assaulting a 76-year-old woman during an arrest. A wrongfully convicted Indiana man will receive $7.5 million, the largest settlement awarded to a wrongfully imprisoned plaintiff in the state of Indiana. The conduct of a Maryland officer that has Prince George's County facing a $75 million lawsuit is now a convicted felon. The Poor People's Campaign is gearing up for next month's Moral March on Washington and the polls.

They'll tell you how you can get involved. And in our Education Matters segment, we'll look at a nonprofit organization that found a way to help black and brown students prepare for the future. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network fact, the fine. 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 gigs. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with Roland now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. The three major U.S. banking regulators want to rewrite many outdated regulations tied

to the Community Reinvestment Act, a decades-old banking law. Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, believes the law designed to encourage lending to the poor and racial minorities in the areas where banks have branches needs revamping. FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said the substantial impact would come from modifying the Act. The Board of Directors of the FDIC, jointly with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Comptroller of the Currency, is today acting on a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPR, to make comprehensive amendments to the Community Reinvestment Act regulations. This has been an ambitious undertaking. The proposed changes to CRA are substantial.

They would significantly expand the scope and rigor of CRA and expand access to credit, investment, and basic banking services in low and moderate income communities across the United States. These communities have been the most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For that reason, among others, action on this NPR takes on a particular urgency. Joining me now from Washington, D.C., is Jesse Van Toll, the president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. How are you doing today, Jesse? I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me, Michael. Honored to be here. All right. Thanks for joining us. So this is something very well. Thanks for having me, Michael. Honored to be here. All right. Thanks for joining us. So, this is something very interesting. that dates back to the 1930s, right,

and coming from the federal government and the Homeowners Loan Corporation. Can you explain redlining is illegal, so how is it still happening today? Yeah, that's right. I mean, we've passed a number of laws to deal with racial discrimination in lending, including the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. But you see all different modern forms of redlining, something called reverse redlining, where people of color are not excluded from financial services, but they're actually targeted for financial services that are more predatory, more costly, less good, frankly, than the best alternatives.

So CRA has been a critical part of addressing that. On Thursday, the regulators proposed a much-needed update to CRA to reflect the fact that changes in the financial services landscape, a lot of banking is no longer done in the bank branch. And what they're trying to do is breathe life into this regulation in some new ways. Okay. So this is another example of how the law has to catch up to the technology, right? I was reading an article back from October 22nd, 2021 from CBS News Justice Department to investigate, quote unquote, digital redlining and lending. Okay. So this sounds like an example of how the law has to catch up to the technology.

Is that what we're looking at? That's right. I mean, the law is an examination of banks for their lending practices, but it examines them where they have branches. And we know that a great many banks today are doing a lot of their business online with customers. There are entire banks that have no branches. They're online banks. And those banks were getting examined under CRA just in their headquarter city. Many of them are headquartered in places like Salt Lake City for tax reasons. And so there wasn't really a robust examination of their lending practices, their investment practices, and how they were providing banking services to people. And this update would change that, would fix that. There's some things it

doesn't do that would require legislative changes to the law, and that's covering companies like mortgage companies or non-banks that don't take deposits. Those are still not covered by CRA. They are covered by other fair lending laws, but those companies don't have the same kind of obligation to affirmatively serve communities that historically have been redlined. Okay. So here are the key elements of the law the banks want to see changed. Okay. OK, we have expand access to credit investment and basic banking services and low and moderate income communities. Adapt to changes in the banking industry, including Internet and mobile banking. Provide greater clarity, consistency and transparency, tailor Community Reinvestment Act evaluations and data collection

to bank size and type, and maintain a unified approach. So, Jesse, can you explain to our audience, oftentimes we focus on the racial wealth gap. Can you talk about how the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, attacking this digital redlining will help close some of the racial wealth gap? Yeah, you know, it's so we see a number of institutions not covered by CRA, not covered by fair lending laws in the way that they're serving people, people of color, black people, Latinos. It's sort of a wild west out there when you think about what's happening on your on your on your mobile phone, the changing nature of financial services, how people are banking today, you know, on their phones, you their phones with new and different companies. And we certainly see, I mentioned before, reverse redlining. That's really the targeting of people for higher cost financial services.

They may not even know that they're paying more. You see lots of small business owners, for example, going online to get small business loans you see alternative forms of financing cropping up people going to you know no longer to their banks but to new and different companies we saw during PPP lots of scams targeting to try to help them with a PPP loan and those are examples of you know companies that operate outside of the regulatory infrastructure that's in place that are not covered by many of these laws like CRA. But they are covered by fair lending laws. And the Department of Justice can go after them for digital redlining, for digital discrimination, for use of things like algorithms in their artificial intelligence

that may be baking in factors that are discriminatory on the basis of race without necessarily explicitly saying that they are discriminatory. We've seen lenders use in underwriting models things that are proxies for race, that disproportionately impact people of color. And it's not on the face of it problematic, but when you dig into it, things like what social media platforms people are on,

or what hours of the day they post to social media, or did they graduate from college? Do they write in uppercase or lowercase on their social media pages? These may sound silly and as though they have no impact, but it turns out there are racial differences in how people do those things and companies relying on that kind of data in their loan process to do underwriting to determine whether or not you're a good bet for a loan or for banking services could be discriminating. And those are the kinds of things I think the Department of Justice, the CFPB, and other regulators are looking at to go after.

Okay. So you just said a lot there, Jesse. I think a lot of people don't know how deep this is and how pervasive this is. Okay. I'm going to go to my panel here in just a minute, but you talked about algorithms. Okay. So can you, I mean, we talk about driving while black and walking while black, things like this. But, OK, explain the algorithms and how the algorithms can algorithms can discriminate against African-Americans who are applying for bank loans, et cetera. Well, sure. A couple of different things. So, you know, increasingly fintech companies and including a lot of banks are using, you know, sort of big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence to figure out whether they think someone's credit worthy and a good bet for a loan. And essentially what you have is, you know, AI, artificial intelligence, looking at a whole bunch of different data, including data never before used in lending, to come up with, you know, an algorithm to figure out whether someone is a good bet for a loan or not. What's their likelihood?

What's the risk of them defaulting on that loan? And one of the problems is, you know, depending on what goes into that algorithm, it can be discriminatory. And in fact, some companies are using machine learning to where, you know, the computer itself, the AI itself is coming up with new ideas as to how to underwrite differently. And you put in bad data, you get bad data out, right? And so we've seen some of those practices be problematic in terms of how it impacts access to capital and credit for people of color, for low-income communities, and other underserved communities and people. Okay. Now, the 1977 law, the Community Reinvestment Act law, addresses fair housing practices. The proposal will undergo several revisions and should be finalized later this

year, later 2022. Now, is this something that has to pass Congress, or can it just totally be handled by the Department of Justice? The proposal issued on Thursday by the three bank regulatory agencies, the FDIC, OCC, and the Federal Reserve, can be finalized by those agencies. What can't be done is expanding the law to cover other types of companies. That would require an act of Congress. So you can't apply the law to mortgage companies, to certain fintech companies, insurance companies and the like. But those banking agencies can act and will act to finalize these proposed changes later this year, as you said. And that'll be subject to a public comment period where anybody can comment and suggest ways in which the regulation could be strengthened.

And we certainly plan to do just that. OK, because I was wondering how this would also impact the lawsuit that Ben Crump just filed against Wells Fargo when it came to apparently the huge article from Bloomberg News from March 2022 about Wells Fargo only approving 47 percent of African-Americans who were applying to refinance their home mortgages, which was much lower. They were the only, according to analysis from Bloomberg News, they were the only mortgage lender to turn away more African Americans than they approved. So I was kind of wondering how this initiative here from the Department of Justice will affect that, if at all, or it has to, a bill has to pass Congress to address Wells Fargo if it is found by

independent study that Wells Fargo, in fact, only approved 47 percent and turned away more African-Americans than they approved for refinancing their home mortgages. Yeah, no, it's very relevant. You know, it's the original sin of the Community Reinvestment Act. It was passed in response to redlining, which was race discrimination, but it was passed on the basis of income. Yes. there's significant overlap there. But one of the things the regulators are proposing to do is to incorporate data on lending to people of color, including the kinds of statistics you just cited with regards to Wells Fargo on the CRA exam, to really look at that and include that as part of the analysis, city by city, place by place, how well are banks doing at lending to African-Americans, to Latinos. They're also doing things like separating some of the data that was in CRA

before. The law speaks to low and moderate income people. Well, they're separating low from moderate and really looking at each distinctly. The law speaks to lending to small businesses. Well, they're separating the very smallest small businesses from other small businesses. And we know that disproportionately the smallest businesses are owned by people of color, are owned by women. A lot of Black-owned businesses have no employees. They're quite small, and they're in need of microloans from the banks. And the banks tend to focus their efforts, you know, at the higher end of what's allowable under CRA. And those kinds of changes proposed on Thursday could really help expand access to capital and credit for the smallest businesses for low-income people.

And again, by incorporating race data, it'll shine a light within CRA on the kinds of practices you mentioned earlier. Absolutely. Well, that's definitely good news. I want to bring in my panel here and see if they have any quick questions for you, if you don't mind, Jesse. First, we have, these are regulars here, Roland Martin Unfiltered, Kelly Bathia, JD, Communication Strategist. How you doing, Kelly? Matt Manning, Civil Rights Attorney, and Dr. Jason Nichols, Senior Lecturer, African American Studies Department, University of Maryland, College Park. So let's start with Kelly. Kelly, do you have any questions for Jesse regarding the Department of Justice cracking down on digital

redlining? Sure. My main question is, with everything that's going on as far as interest rates and inflation, how impactful will this regulation, this, you know, revised regulation be to minorities, considering that there's an interest spike when it comes to, well, a spike in interest rates, rather, when it comes to lending from these banks? And secondly, will there be penalties for banks who do not comply? Is this a mandate or is this just more like a you can do this, like a suggestion? Yeah, both great questions. So certainly interest rates, it makes housing less affordable. It costs more to buy a home.

And that's a big part of the equation. We've seen interest rates rise and fall. You know, I think they'll remain high for some time. Eventually they'll come down again. But one of the things that this law does, what CRA does, really encourages banks to establish programs to, you know, to help people get loans, including things like special purpose credit programs, targeted lending programs to people of color that, with them, maybe lower interest rates. And in a lot of cases, things like down payment assistance, we know that having the money

for a down payment is just as important, if not more important, than the interest rate in terms of being able to buy that home and that home being affordable to you. So yes, interest rates play a big role in whether houses are affordable or not. You know, historically, interest rates, we've seen interest rates even higher than we've enjoyed for the past 20, 30 years. You know, in the 70s, interest rates were in 7, 8 percent and people still bought homes. But there's no doubt that lower interest rates makes it more possible for people to buy a house. So certainly there's an interplay of these things. But CRA gives kind of a big nudge to banks to help figure that out, figure out lower interest rates for

special programs. With regards to enforcement, this law has some teeth and is getting more teeth with the proposal on Thursday. So a bank that fails its CRA exam, and more banks are expected to fail their CRA exam under this proposed regime. A bank that fails is not allowed to open branches, not allowed to merge with other banks, is really in the regulatory doghouse, so to speak. There are other consequences and impacts as well. Okay. Matt Manning, did you have a question for Jesse? I did. I did. Jesse, thanks for being with us this evening and for explaining this issue to us. I read in one of the articles that there's a concern by the larger lenders that this is going to increase significantly their regulatory and compliance costs. In your view, is that actually something that is a concern for those lenders, or is that more kind of a subterfuge and a way to push back against further regulation against those banks, particularly as it relates to, you know, an interesting or thorny topic like lending to people of color, women and other historically disadvantaged groups? Yeah, I'm not sure that banks have ever met a regulation that they liked and didn't think would increase their costs.

You know, I think obviously every regulation has a cost. The question is what's the benefit? And I think here there's clearly a benefit to society of banks doing a better job of something that they should be doing on their own but are not. And that's being fair to people and investing in all communities and making loans to all people. And it's sad that, you know, 40 years after the original passage of this law, you know, more than 40 years since passage of the Fair Housing Act, that we still have to mandate and legislate that banks treat people fairly, that they invest in minority communities, they build affordable housing. So certainly there's a cost

to doing this. I think it's far outweighed by the benefit to society of requiring these banks to do this. All right. And Jason, did you have a question for Jesse? Jason? Yes, I do. Thank you for being with us. I had a question. I was really blown away with your statement about algorithms and data collection. And so I was wondering, is this something that is systemic that we see with all banks, or is it something that you're seeing with just some individual banks where there's an individual banker who's looking at someone's loan application and decides to go to their social media. How widespread is this problem? And how does the regulation that the FDIC and the other regulators, how does that actually deal with the issue of data collection and algorithms and

things that are leading to discrimination in that way. Yeah. So to be clear, you know, there's laws and regulations that really govern what you're supposed to do when you make a loan to someone, right? There's things that banks are supposed to rely on. You know, it's allowable to rely on your credit score, even though there are some problems with that on things like your income. But what I was speaking to very specifically, you know, fintech companies are really transforming the lending landscape. Folks like Square, PayPal and others who are really transforming the way loans are made. And some of these companies, you know, are fair and responsible and others are using, you know, novel approaches to underwrite a loan, looking at, you know, sort of beyond your credit score, beyond your income, other factors. And, you know, those are not automatically bad or good. Potentially looking at other things could expand some people's ability to get a loan. Something not included in a credit score is your history of making rental payments on time. And for most of us, you know, starting out as renters,

that's what you do. That's how you're paying for housing every month. To not count that is a disadvantage. So there's possibilities to expand access by looking at other data, but some of it can be very problematic. And the regulators are absolutely looking at this and looking to crack down on some of the more problematic behaviors. All right. Thanks, Jason. Okay, Jesse, well, look, we really appreciate

this. And once again, everybody, Jesse Van Toll is the president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. How can people find out more about the National Community Reinvestment Coalition? Is there a website, social media platform, et cetera, that could get more information? Very easy. NCRC.org is our website. And they're also welcome to attend our national annual conference, June 13th and 14th in Washington, D.C., the Just Economy Conference. Okay. NRC.C., the Just Economy Conference. JOHN YANG, NRC.org? NRC.org? NCRC.org.

JOHN YANG, NCRC.org. All right, Jesse, have a great day. Thanks for coming on Roller Marks and Builders. JESSE COX, Thanks so much. JOHN YANG, Okay. The Biden-Harris administration is keeping its promise to relieve Americans from their student loan debt. So far, the Department of Education forgave 110,000 borrowers, totaling around $6.8 billion under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The program became law in 2007 and is designed to forgive debts for people working for nonprofit organizations or government who made payments for 10 consecutive years. The program was full of technicalities making it difficult for borrowers to see the relief, but the U.S. Department of Education

made temporary changes to ensure better management of the plans. The deadline to apply for the updated program is October 31st, 2022. OK, I know we're coming up here on a break. So you this is Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Media Network. I'm Michael M. Hotep. We'll be right back. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, we're talking cryptocurrency.

Does it scare you? Does it confuse you? Well, Black Americans are investing in cryptocurrency more than anyone else. And on the next Get Wealthy, Professor Tanya Evans joins us to talk all things crypto. Crypto presents a really interesting opportunity for direct peer-to-peer access to the potential for extraordinary wealth. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. So do me a favor and think for one second about your mother. What comes to mind?

Probably too many things to comprehend right now. Our moms, whether they're with us or not, are still probably the most impactful person in our lives. On the next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie, a tribute to our mothers. You won't want to miss it here on Black Star Network.

I'm Angie Stone. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Oh, Roland. Hey, Roland. I am God! Hey, Roland. I am so disappointed that you are not here, first of all. Where's our dance? It's like we get a dance in every time I see you. And so now you're not here for me to dance with, sir.

You and your ascot. I need it. I need that in my life right now. OK. I love you, Roland. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Right before the break, I was talking about the Biden-Harris administration is keeping its promise to relieve Americans from their student loan debt. So another 110,000 student loan borrowers have had $6.8 billion discharged. Now, this is from the changes made to the public service loan forgiveness program. There was an article from Forbes.com back in March 1, 2022, that I talked about on the African History Network show. And it talked about how changes to the public service loan forgiveness program could allow an additional one million student loan borrowers to have their debt forgiven. So far, so this $6.8 billion is in addition to the $17 billion that has already been discharged by the Biden-Harris administration as well.

And now it's about 800,000 people under the Biden-Harris administration that have had student loan debt discharged. So while people are waiting for Biden to wave a magic wand and discharge all student loan debt, he's not going to do that. He said that earlier this week. This is taking place right now, and people can take advantage of this. I want to go to my panel here, because I think this is really important to talk about. I've been watching the Secretary Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education, continually talk about student loan debt that's being discharged, while at the same time, a lot of people, especially a lot of African-Americans I see on social media, are just waiting for student

loan debt to be discharged. But a lot of us can take advantage of this right now. I want to go to Matt on this first. Matt, do you have any comments on this? And what in Texas, and you teach at a college as well. How do you think something like this will help African-American college students or people who have student loan debt? I think this is a wonderful decision, particularly because I know a number of people like me who were prosecutors or in government service for a number of years who actually got denied. Before they released this just the other day, I was having a conversation with a former colleague of mine who has 10 years in service and applied and got denied. So in my own life, I know that this will affect me,

considering there were a number of years that I was a part of this program. I think this will incentivize people not only going to government service, but staying in government service. Because in a number of industries, including the practice of law and others, people think of government service for a couple years, and they go, and then they try to go private sector so they can make significantly more money. And I think this will allow us, one, to keep people of good caliber and of good acumen in their respective fields in the government because they know it'll actually be forgiven. But beyond that, the bigger part is the boom that it'll give to the economy and it'll give to particularly young families, young people who

might otherwise be interested in buying a house but are dissuaded because they've got to make a gargantuan student loan payment every month. So I think this is a great thing. I think it's a great thing, particularly for graduates of like HBCUs and other people who are saddled by this debt, but who have been working in service of the government. I think it's a really, really good thing. And I also think that, you know, it's a long time coming. I'm glad that they're keeping their promise on it. But if you look at the conversations that are being had about student loan forgiveness, there is a pretty clear demarcation with generations. I feel like younger people understand it. They feel almost like they were sold a bill of goods about getting an education and how to finance it. So they're behind student loan forgiveness. And I think that will continue

to improve and permeate other generations once it's seen, you know, the economic benefit that comes from it. So I think it's a very positive thing, and I'm glad to see them doing it. All right, excellent. I'm coming to you here in just a second, Kelly. If we look at this article here from Bloomberg.com, U.S. forgives $6.8 billion in public service worker-student loans. It says the relief, which the Department of Education says says will average about sixty thousand dollars per borrower, is being given after President Joe Biden made changes to the program in October 2021, under which nonprofit and government employees can have their federal student loan debt forgiven after 10 years or 120 payments. We know African-American women disproportionately carry more student loan debt than coming, graduating from undergraduate school than white students as well. What type of impact

do you think this will have, Kelly? And do you think this will impact people that you know personally? That's a tricky question, only because I know a lot of people who are both with just the bachelor's degree, but also those with bachelor's and postgraduate degrees. So for those of my colleagues and associates and friends who have, you know, who stopped their education process, at least formal education process with just the bachelor's degree, this will be huge for them because like you said, the average amount of debt

for someone with a bachelor's is around 60K. So that would help them a great deal. But on the other end of this, like myself and plenty of people who are on the postgraduate side of things, we're looking at six-figure debt that cannot be paid off in 10 years per se. Or rather, we can't afford to take

the government job to do the 120 payments to pay it off in 10 years. So that is the issue that a lot of people have. Say again? I say a lot of times you have to take a pay cut to take a government job. Right. Exactly. And that's a large reason why I haven't gone into public service in that vein, because I literally can't afford to, even though that's where my heart has been for a long time, I literally cannot afford to do it. So for people in my bracket, when it comes to debt, I actually know people who have way more debt than I do. I know someone who has half a million dollars in debt after going to undergrad, master's, PhD or JD, what have you.

The 60K is like the interest rate. You know what I'm saying? That's the interest payment. So it's a tricky question. It is helpful for many, but not for all. So until we get to the all part of it, which is, you know, people like me, people like the people I just described, it's still going to be a huge issue when you have debt that costs more than your house. Wow. Wow. Wow. CNBC also has a story about this as well. For May 4th, 2022, Education Department forgives loans of more than 110,000 people in public service. Dr. Jason Nichols, so you teach at a university as well. I know you know a lot of people who take out student loans, things like this.

What impact do you think this will have? And have you talked to any people maybe who graduated from college who've had their student debt forgiven either through this program or another one from the Department of Education? So I haven't actually directly spoken to anyone who has said to me that they have had their loans forgiven through these programs. I know a lot of people were looking for President Biden to make this a sweeping legislation that just wiped away all student debt. He has made it clear that he's not going to do that. He's made it he made that clear, actually, even during the campaign, that he wasn't going

to do that. And I will say that,, actually, even during the campaign that he wasn't going to do that. And I will say that, you know, I think it does help. I think $60,000 is a down payment on a house in a lot of places in this country. So I think it is an important and a significant amount of money. is $60K, even for people who are saddled with huge amounts of debt, $60,000 versus nothing, which is what you've gotten for the last 10 years, I think it is significant. But as Kelly said, there are people out there who are taken advantage of, who are just trying to get an education to better their prospects, to have a family. And they've had to postpone all of that because of the way this debt system that we have works. And I think there are things that we need to reform about education. I think public college,

and I work at one, I think public universities should be free, tuition free. You pay for the other services, but certainly tuition should be free and we should find other ways. Now, I know, you know, people will complain about taxes, but education betters society. A more educated society is a stronger and better society. And so I think that that should be a benefit that all citizens have. And you can't say that should be a benefit that all citizens have. And you can't say that we can't do it because if you go to other countries in Europe and the Middle East, some places, they actually pay you to be a student. They give you a stipend to study because they realize the value for society. So I think this goes into other pieces

of legislation that could actually help people you know, people in the future so they won't be saddled with debt. Okay. Thank you. Now, also, so people know, the article from Bloomberg.com goes on to say the White House has been looking into whether President Joe Biden has the legal authority to forgive student loan debt through executive action. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, we know she's leaving. We know Korean Jopier is going to be the new White House Press Secretary. But Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the president was considering limiting his student loan forgiveness program to Americans earning less than $125,000, forgiveness of $10,000 per

borrower with clear loans for 15 million borrowers. And also, I encourage people to read the article from BusinessInsider.com that came out yesterday. Former Obama lawyer says Biden likely does not have the legal standing to cancel student debt broadly. This was picked up from The Wall Street Journal, so check that out as well. Okay, our next story here, and I've been following this a little bit as well. The search for a murder suspect and an Alabama corrections officer is now focused in Tennessee, where the couple's getaway vehicle was found. Casey Cole White and Vicki White, who are unrelated, vanished from the jail last Friday. Vicki was supposed to be transporting the inmate to court for a mental health evaluation. They ditched the patrol car and have not been seen since. Officials discovered the two had a special relationship, quote-unquote special relationship,

over the last two years. She even visited him in prison and gave him special privileges and food. Vicky put in retirement paperwork and sold her house recently. They both have warrants and they are considered armed and dangerous. And we see the video of the getaway here and we see their pictures here as well. I want to go to my panel on this because when I first heard about this story, I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but I said, I think they got a little something, something going on. So we have two attorneys and a professor, a historian here.

So let's go to Kelly on this one. Let's go, Kelly. So Kelly, have you been following this story? What'd you think about this? I mean, I perused it, right? Like, I wasn't fully invested because, like you said, when I first heard it, I was just like, oh, they're together. This is like a Bonnie and Clyde situation, and I figured they would be caught relatively soon, and we'd go about our day. I'm more surprised that this is not the case. Like they are still on the run. All we have found of them is a car that is clearly abandoned.

So I don't know what to think other than they're going to get caught eventually. You know, I'm curious to see how the police are going to interact with them. You know what I mean? Like, we are dealing with a convicted felon and a soon-to-be convicted felon. How is the police going to interact with this white couple when they are armed and dangerous, right? Right. That is something that I'm curious to see, as opposed to, you know, yet another Black person killed for just existing. Exactly, exactly. Let's go to Matt on this. You know, I saw the story on Good Morning America.

I saw the sheriff, it was either this morning or yesterday morning, and the sheriff had a message for them. He said, he said, Vicky, you know how this is going to end up. You know, you know, you've been down this road before. You know, they've chased down criminals before who escaped from prison. He said, you should just turn yourself in. So, Matt, what are

your thoughts on this one here? I think this is going to make a good movie, too, but what are your thoughts on this, Matt? Well, I will tell you, brother, I triple-jumped, long-jumped to conclusions when I heard this. I said, I know exactly what's going on. She helped this man escape, And that's her boo. I can't be mad at her. Actually, I can't because as a lawyer, I'm sure she's gotten some advice or is at least consulted counsel because obviously it's very hard to hide, you know, particularly when your

face is plastered everywhere all over the United States. And, you know, jokes aside, what I do think is really interesting about this and insidious in a way is there was a lot of plausible deniability. The media, at least the reports I saw at first, they were concerned that she had been maybe abducted or that something, you know, nefarious had happened, right? But what's interesting about that is they didn't start out with the evidence that would disabuse you of that notion, for instance, that she had put in retirement papers, that she had this long relationship with him. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of your people are thinking that is not the benefit of the doubt that a Black victim gets when

a police officer shoots and kills him, right? They don't get that benefit of the doubt. They immediately start, you know, denigrating them or trotting out everything they think that's been done negative in their life to indicate that this person wasn't actually a victim. So I do think from a media coverage standpoint, this is instructive to further show the point that we see, that when it comes to white people, often there's a benefit of the doubt. But as it relates to them staying on the lam and not getting caught, I don't think it'll be too long before they're caught. And I think they will look very foolish in court because this is very obvious, like that they, you know, perpetuated this ruse. So

some lawyer somewhere is going to make a lot of money off this, I'm sure. Exactly. And, you know, I know there are laws against convicted felons selling their story and making movies and things like this. But, you know, this, I mean, the guy, also, the guy's 6'9". So he ain't, I mean, he's, you can't just hide somebody who's 6'9", okay? A white guy's 6'9".

I didn't know that. And his face is plastered and everything. Everywhere, you can't just hide him. Jason, what do you think about this story? Well, the first thing I thought, you know, a headline flashed in my head, and that is, you know, the whites are at it again. And of course, I mean, Casey and Vicky White, you know, I wasn't Casey and Vicky White. But, you know, this white couple, Casey and Vicky, they really, first of all, just being someone who's watched a lot of those kinds of movies, this is going to be just like prison because they're not really free.

Whenever you're on the run and whenever you're an escaped convict, you're basically, it's another form of prison. So they're enjoying their time together, perhaps right now, but they're going to realize they're not free. They can't go places. And it is very hard to hide when you are a six foot nine, you know, individual anywhere and, you know, and you're not a debt left shrimp for, you know, or some other white six foot nine guy. So he's going to they're going to be caught. And this woman has I don't know what kind of family she has, but she's ruined things for her family. She's ruined their reputation. She's going to spend time in prison. I don't know if she has children, but she separated herself from her other loved ones for this, you know, quick maybe couple of weeks that she gets to spend with this guy.

And I think she should have just lobbied for a conjugal visit or something like that. And maybe it would have been, you know, that would have been worth it rather than what she's about to endure. And this individual, I guess he had nothing to lose, but she certainly did, and she made a terrible choice. Yeah, I think they're going to realize, you know, this sounded really good when we were planning it, but this is not turning out the way we thought this was going to really end up. All right. Next story. In Colorado, a former police officer gets five years in prison for the brutal arrest of an elderly woman with dementia. OK, in June 2020, Austin Hopp attempted to arrest Karen Garner after receiving a shoplifting call from a local Walmart. Karen Garner returned the $13 worth of merchandise she allegedly took

when Garner did not comply with Hopp's orders. He slammed her to the ground, breaking her arm, spraining her wrist, and separating her shoulder. And we have the video here. I remember when this happened and remember seeing this here on actually on Roland Martin on the filter. Now, Hop pleaded guilty pictures here. His partner, Daria Jaleo, Jaleo, J-A-L-A-L-I, Jaleo, Jaleo faces misconduct and failure to interview, failure to. Now, this is a strange story. This may not be politically correct, but here we see a Karen getting justice. OK, I know it ain't politically correct, but anyway, here we see a Karen getting justice. OK, she's not the one who was in the wrong here. But I remember seeing this. And once again, this is an example of how some people just should not be police officers. And in my mind and seeing this and reading what happened, I don't think they had to treat it like this.

I want to I want to go to Jason first on this. Jason, what are your thoughts here? Well, you know, first of all, I remember seeing that video here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, and I think it is so incredibly troubling. The woman returned the merchandise, $13. There was absolutely no need. I'm not even sure there was a reason for an arrest. But to violently slam her to the ground, you had a female officer who was there, you know, who was present and probably could have handled that in a different way. Instead, they get aggressive with this woman. And again, I think it becomes, and with the risk of sounding insensitive, and I feel for this victim,

but it's almost like the chickens come home to roost. Once black people start getting abused, it eventually is going to move out. And other people who would normally be privileged, they start getting abused, too, because, you know, power starts to corrupt. And then they start going, you know, even into other communities thinking they can do everything to anyone. And this is obviously a working class person too. This isn't a rich woman. And I don't think they would have done that to a rich woman, you know? So there's a class element here

that needs to be spoken of. Yes, she's white, but she's, you know, she's obviously not rich if she's shoplifting $13 worth of merchandise. So instead of actually having any kind of compassion, I'm not even sure that that person, like I said, should have been arrested. Instead of having compassion, you slam her to the ground and then you do what we're seeing on the screen. To me, it's despicable

and that guy should be in prison. You know, Matt, if people, you know, I tell my listeners to check out from The Washington Post the database called Fatal Force, Fatal Force. Fatal Force from The Washington Post documents each year police killings. OK, and they have them broken down by race, whether the suspect was unarmed, armed, what type of weapon they had, things like this. Each year, and it's been this way for the past number of years, each year, there are more white people shot and killed by police than African-Americans. Now, we're disproportionately shot and killed by police. But there are more white people killed each year by police than African-Americans. And one of the things that I ask is, where are the body cam footage and the cell phone footage of white people being shot and killed by police? I know they have them, because when you look at fatal force, it even breaks it down by whether there was video, what type of video.

And if if if cable news and social media was flooded with images of being of white people being shot and killed by police. I think you get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act pass. Go ahead, Matt. You know, you're exactly right, Michael, and I think that that's important. I actually in my career have had more white civil rights clients than I have black civil rights clients. And I think what is one driving that is it doesn't go to the narrative that we are making a bigger deal about something that needs to be made, when in fact this is an issue with policing across the board, to your point. What's particularly insidious about this, I think Jason covered all of the elements of the video very well, is the fact that in this case, Ms. Garner

will likely have a settlement, particularly because she's an older woman, and this is particularly heinous with that element. But these are still incredibly hard cases to vindicate. What is so sad about this is, looking at this video, they'll probably settle this case because of the publicity. But this is the kind of case that happens every single day where a circuit, particularly like where I practice, the Fifth Circuit, finds a way to say qualified immunity shields these officers. I mean, Jason hit the nail on the head. This woman allegedly stole $13 of merchandise that she returned. The idea that an officer even taking her into custody, let alone with force, would be justified and okay following that is absurd, right, to just normal people. But the law allows it to happen.

And this is the rare instance where the officers pled guilty, probably because of all those aggravating factors. But what really needs to happen systemically is qualified immunity has to be abolished. Because every day people are abused by the police in ways this bad and considerably worse. And every day they get poured out by a panel of judges who says it's OK that the officer did it that way. So until we fix the legal hurdle to plaintiffs getting justice in these cases, this will be the aberration, not the standard response to the rule. Kelly? I echo the sentiments of everyone here.

This story hits different for me because I have a soft spot for the elderly, period. Like, you just need to respect your elders. But the fact that this woman also had dementia and she was still treated in this way is just another level of just rage that I feel on behalf of the victim in this case, white, black, or indifferent. Like what Jason said regarding how it feels like this is, you know, kind of trickling outward, away from just assaulting black people as, in your capacity as police officers, it reminds me of kind of how, like, we as the Black community were just warning about how the war on drugs was just, you know, it wasn't a war on drugs. It was a very racist, insidious system of, you know, incarceration, et cetera, et cetera. But as soon as it hit the suburbs, all of a sudden we now have rehab centers for people and things like that.

I wonder what the repercussions will be once enough white people die at the hands of law enforcement. Hopefully that means we'll get some type of social work component to law enforcement. Hopefully that means we'll have some mental health component to law enforcement. Hopefully, that means we'll have some mental health component to law enforcement. Hopefully, that means we'll have more, a more common occurrence of people on councils, so to speak, like a police officer, citizen council to monitor situations like this. It's unfortunate that it takes a white person or just a non-Black person to make change in this country. But if that's what it's going to take, then let it happen. But I'm glad that this woman is getting justice.

I'm glad she didn't die. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm glad that, you know, this is not one of those situations like George Floyd or like Sandra Bland. It is unfortunate that it happened at all. But if that is what it's going to take for some form of criminal justice reform, then, you know, thank you, kind of. And Michael, can I add something very quick? Go ahead, Matt.

I was just going to add, if I remember correctly, Colorado is actually the state or one of the states that implemented a law where they don't have a shield for qualified immunity on the state side. So if I'm remembering correctly, I think that probably played a big role into this because there the officers don't get that shield from the state charges or on the state side in terms of civil liability. And that is instructive as it relates to what other states can do in terms of their legislatures in making sure that this is actually going to be something where people can be held accountable. Because I think Jason and Kelly hit the nail on the head about this trickling out. But frankly, you're not going to have an overall response to this until you start having wealthy, educated, well-to-do, well-heeled white people who are getting body slammed by the police, because then they'll make it a real issue. Whereas now, it's always a one-off, that it is, you know, either a person of color or it's a person with

dementia or someone else who doesn't fit the mold of the model citizen to whom this would never happen. Right. All right. The cop responsible for a $75 million civil suit against Prince George's County Police Department is facing up to 10 years in prison for his role in a traffic stop that left a man paralyzed. A Prince George's County judge found Bryant Strong guilty of second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment charges. and suffered a broken nose after the police dragged him to the ground, landed on his neck during a traffic stop in 2019. Officer Strong's sentencing is scheduled for July 21, 2022. Next, we go to the Darren Chauvin plea deal. The ex-cop convicted in George Floyd's death agrees to a plea deal in the federal case against him. Wednesday, a judge accepted the plea deal between Derek Chauvin and federal authorities, federal authorities sentencing him to 20 to 25 years in prison for violating George Floyd's civil rights. This sentence will be served concurrently with his 22-and-a-half-year sentence from

his murder conviction at the state level. According to the plea deal filing, Derek Chauvin will serve between 17 and 21 years behind bars. A pardoned Chicago man reaches a $7.5 million settlement with a northern Indiana city and former police officers for his 1996 wrongful conviction. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb pardoned Keith Cooper in 2017 after spending more than seven years in prison. Governor Holcomb said he believed Cooper was wrongfully convicted of an armed robbery where a teenager got shot. A judge later expunged Cooper's conviction. Cooper's attorney says the $7.5 million is the largest wrongful conviction settlement in Indiana history.

Roland Martin and Filter will be right back after this break. You're watching the Black Star Network. We welcome you to the launch of the mass poor people's low-wage assembly at Mara March on Washington, D.C., June 18, 2022. We are a new unsettling force, and we are powerful. A new unsettling force, and we are here. We're rising up to demonstrate the compelling power that we poor and low-income people have to reconstruct society from the bottom up. And we need to do it with the loudest voices possible, the biggest actions possible. Because we know that there is no scarcity in this land. The only scarcity is the moral will to do what's right. Hold on just a little while longer.

We are those with sub-minimum wage jobs who can't afford sky-high rent. People with disabilities are the fastest-growing minority group. It's crazy to me that in 2021, it's still legal for workplaces to pay a sub-minimum wage to people with disabilities. There are still so much trial and tribulations that we go through as indigenous people. We can't get a decent wage to sustain ourselves, nor can we get adequate housing.

Veterans across this nation say enough is enough. We can't pat essential workers on the back on one day and then cut their health care the next day. Health is a political choice. What more do I need to do to prove that my voice is just as valuable as anyone else's? There are still forces in denial that would try to slow walk our transition to a clean economy and a just future for us all.

We have an immoral system run by immoral people. But together we walk, and we walk and we fight. It's time for a change! Reconstruyamos esta gran nación! See, we are people of resilience as we fight these interlocking injustices together. When we work together, mobilize together, and rise together, we become a voice for the voiceless and we become an agent of change in a time where great change is needed. We need the third reconstruction to ensure that deaf people, people with disabilities, and all people can have the right to live and to thrive.

We know what they are doing, but the question is, what are we going to do? Reconstruction begins when we change our mentality and say it's time for you to get your foot off of my neck. I know justice is coming soon. Do you believe that? Today. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered.

As Mother's Day approaches, we want to highlight the hardworking and courageous mothers in the Poor People's Campaign. On June 18th, the Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Mall March on Washington and to the polls will take place here in Washington, D.C. to represent the 140 million low-wage workers across the country. One of those folks helping to organize the march is Kenya Alcozer. Kenya is an undocumented organizer with Union de Vecinos, the east side local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.

She crossed the desert from Mexico, where her family at the age of three, and is now a leader in the California Poor People's Campaign and a steering committee member of the National Poor People's Campaign. Her goal is to improve housing security and living conditions for poor and dispossessed people in Los Angeles. Kenya Alcozera joins us from Los Angeles. How are you doing today, Kenya? I'm doing good. Thank you so much for having us here. All right. Thank you for coming on to Roland Martin Unfiltered. So, Kenya, tell people about the Poor People's and Low Wage Workers Assembly Memorial March on Washington,

D.C. that's taking place June 18th. Tell people, why is this so important? You know, one of the things that I've learned through the campaign is that we can no longer be fighting by ourselves in our own issues. As a woman of color, as an undocumented immigrant, as a tenant, as a worker, I need to unite with all of our brothers and sisters to really push back against everything. The pandemic showed us that we are impacted by everything, every day. And we need to be pushing for everything. We need to be fighting against systemic everything. We need to be fighting against systemic racism. We need to be fighting against poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, militarism, and a very distorted moral narrative. And we've seen this,

that the pandemic is possible to organize and to keep pushing back. Okay. Now, talk about the work that you do with the Los Angeles Tenants Union. So, with Los Angeles Tenants Union, we are tenants that are coming together to organize ourselves. While we're being evicted illegally, while we are not giving the support that we need from our government, our city, state government. We are organizing, whether it's to put people back in their homes after they've been illegally evicted, whether it's doing projects of survival like food distribution, informing tenants of their rights, and continuing to push our lawmakers to ensure that tenants are not evicted because they have

been burdened by the pandemic and they don't have jobs currently still. Okay. Now, when we look at, so what are some of the laws that you want passed in this current Congress, this current 117th Congress. We know Democrats control the House of Representatives, but in the Senate, it's a 50-50 Senate. And most bills in the Senate, you need 60 votes, which means you need 10 Republicans to vote for them. So what are maybe the top two or three bills that you want to get passed through Congress that will help the Poor People's Campaign? Well, I think that there are a lot of things that can be worked out. And I see that the Build Back Better bill was something that we were really pushing for because it addressed a lot of the

needs of the nation. But right now, I think that we are asking for bills and money to be distributed to our communities. We are asking for bills that are helping tenants not be evicted, bills that are pushing back against some of the things that are happening in certain states. I mean, voter suppression is one of those things that we really need to stop in order for people to be able to voice their opinions and their votes towards things that they do want to happen in their communities. And these are things that I think the Poor People's Campaign has been addressing over the last three, four years. And we need to continue to push. We are seeing that there is no political will to do the things that the community needs and what community really wants. But there is political will for wars, and that is something that we're pushing back

against. All this money that is being funded towards wars and defunding programs, it's something that... JOHN YANG, Okay. I think we're having a little technical difficulties here with Kenya. Okay. Can you hear me, Kenya? All right. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. We have Kenya back. All right. So very quickly,

and then I'm going to go to our panel and see if they have any questions for you. Besides the March, which really draws attention to the issues and helps galvanize people around the issues and allows you to inform people about them, are you able to persuade any elected officials? Are you able to change the way they think and change their vote to actually get bills passed? Or have you all been able to do that in the past? We have. We have Barbara Lee that has been supporting with the third reconstruction resolution. And I think that we've been having meetings with Congress and other politicians to really push back. I really do believe that

the only way we're going to win this, it's with people uniting. And these mass mobilizations are only one part of the strategy to really change and shift the narrative of what's happening today and really change the direction in which our nation is going. Okay. I'm going to go to my panel, see if they have any questions for you. Kenya, let's start with Kelly. Kelly, do you have any questions for Kenya Alcozere? Sure. So I'm looking on the website now, and it appears that two of your partners are Repairs of the Breach and Cairo Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. Are there other partners that you would like to shout out that will be at the march or are helping fundraise for the march and for us individuals what can we do to help

you further this cause outside of simply attending for those of us who can't yes so we have a lot of churches that are involved in this process from different denominations i think that that's very important to shout out. Like we have our Jewish brothers and sisters, Muslim brothers and sisters that are joining the campaign, Unitarian churches. It's not just a Christian-led movement. And we have folks that are non-faith based that are also part of this. But we also have, for example, here in Los Angeles, Black Lives Matter LA, that it's part of our coordinating committee and our steering committee. We have SCIU, who has the Fight for 15, that are working with us in this campaign. I mean, we have a lot of partners nationally, and we have a lot of folks here locally that

are working towards this campaign and as individuals I think that that is important if you want to support our campaign you can do so by joining us at June 18th in December or by helping a poor dispossessed person to get there we do have you can go to the website and you can donate to get people out there. We're getting buses. Some of us from California are going to be driving six days there and back to to really voice our opinions and to really be a part of this. And it's really important for us to to to make sure that everybody who wants and needs to go there and wants to voice their opinion. It's it's welcome. All right. Let's go to Matt. Matt, did you have a question for Kenya?

I did. I did. Kenya, my question for you is what have you seen in terms of an infusion in energy or an optimism as it relates to the labor portion of this, particularly as we see the Amazon union success in Staten Island and I guess kind of more rumblings around the country. What is the sentiment right now about how that is going to continue helping workers and how we can leverage that momentum? You know, I'm here from L.A. and we've been unionizing workers and asking for unions for workers to be a part of. I mean, we had a huge campaign 10 years ago with car wash workers. We have unions where day laborers are making their voices heard. So for us, this is the moment. This is the time where workers can see themselves not just as workers,

but as human beings, and that they can see themselves attached to many of these movements. A lot of these folks are getting harassed at work, getting harassed at home by their homeowners, are getting their landlords getting harassed everywhere. And this is something that needs to stop. I think this is the year of worker power. This is the year where workers are coming together and are realizing that they have powers in numbers. And that's why this Moro March in D.C., where we're calling to workers, especially low wage workers, it's going to be critical and important to continue the movement of unionizing. And Jason, did you have a question for Kenya?

Yes, I did. Thank you, Kenya, for being with us and taking time and for the work that you do out there in L.A. and nationwide. My question is about is on the political side of things. You talked earlier about convincing politicians to get involved, obviously, with Build Back Better that failed with Joe Manchin. I'm wondering, is there any effort to run your own candidates? I always tell my students that you don't have to always convince other politicians. You can also just run for office. So is there any effort to run your own candidates to get some of the results and to advocate for what it is that you would like to see? I'll just, as a sidebar, it really frustrates me that when I think of a disabled candidate, you know, the first person that comes to mind

in government is Madison Cawthorn. And that frustrates me. We should have more representation of disabled people that are actually moral and actually have and actually stand for good things. But that's just a sidebar. And I wanted to see what you guys, what your efforts were. Did you hear that, Kenya? Okay. Yes, I did. So we're a nonpartisan movement. We don't give the stage to politicians.

We persuade them to do the work that they need to do. And we are not a party. We're a campaign. We're a movement. So no, we are not thinking of like pushing elected officials to, or community members to go out and become elected officials. But I will say this, we have inspired a lot of folks from our ranks. A lot of folks have decided to go and run for offices, whether it's locally, whether it's statewide. And I think that that is something that we are able to influence. I think this campaign, it's thinking of how we as people start also shifting ourselves and moving ourselves to a different direction. All right. Well, we have the information up here on the screen. June 18th, 2022,

moral march on Washington. Well, Kenya, good luck to you all. And thanks for coming on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you so much. All right. We turn to North Carolina. North Carolina's highest court refuses to hear the appeal of the driving force behind the Poor People's Campaign. Reverend William Barber II was convicted of trespassing during a 2017 demonstration inside the legislative building. I think we have the video here. Okay. The decision comes after a December ruling by the Court of Appeals siding with the state, meaning Reverend William Barber II's second-degree trespass conviction is final. Jurors had found Reverend William Barber guilty after he led a call-and-response chant with roughly 50 people outside Senate Leader Phil

Berger's office protesting poor health care spending. A court of appeals judge wrote the Barber's free speech rights were not harmed by his arrest, stating he was, stating he, quote, was not expelled from the General Assembly for the content of his words. He was removed for their volume, end quote. Now, the North Carolina Supreme Court also granted the state state attorney's request to dismiss the appeal motion for Barber's attorney. Roland Martin and Filtered will be right back here on the Black Star Network. When I first went to L.A., me and Joe lived together, right? Right. And that was a big blessing because I didn't have to worry about paying rent. Right.

I was out here struggling, doing my thing, and that was a big, big help. And then I think when I moved out, I think that's when I saw the division because I think Joe felt like I didn't need him anymore. Right. And it wasn't that. It was like, I'm a grown-ass man. Two grown-ass men. But actually, that is true.

You don't need me anymore. When you grow up, first of all, when you grow up, it's like, hey, you help. And this time, you get your ass out the house and go do your own thing. He didn't want me to move out. But I'm like, you know what? At the time when I moved down.

I mean, what? Were you paying the light bill? I wasn't paying anything. And I said, you know what? I need this responsibility. It's gonna make me work harder in my career if I know I got rent to pay, I got bills to pay. I was paying the cell phone bill. That was it.

But Joe was treating me like a little butler. Like, because, I'm telling you, I was like Benson. I'm telling you, man. Please fetch me some water. He was using Jedi mind tricks. Yo, man, you still make them good grilled cheese sandwiches you made when you was little? No, you don't. Next thing you know, I'm at the stove.

Flip it, and then it's done to me. Trick me again. Got me again. Hi, I'm Gavin Houston. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! Jahliel Turner has been missing for over two months. The 17-year-old was last seen on February 22nd in Bristol, Virginia.

He's 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Jalil Turner should call the Prince William County, Virginia Police Department at 703-792-6500. Well, it's been confirmed that Kevin Samuels, the controversial self-proclaimed social media dating expert, has died. He was 56 years old. According to the police report, EMS was called to Kevin's home Thursday, Thursday morning, for a person injured and found Kevin unresponsive on the floor of his apartment. EMS transported him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Samuels had a significant following on social media and often sparked debates with his hot

takes on dating and relationships. OK, and that's to put it mildly. All right. So I had waited. I'm going to go to my panel on this here. I had waited to post about him passing away till I really got it confirmed. I know Roland Martin was trying to confirm it last night. We saw stories on social media.

The information was very, very sketchy. It was like the man sitting next to the man sitting next to the man said something. It was nobody's name for most of the reports. I read numerous articles, and I was trying to confirm it before I posted about it. I saw the article from NBC News this morning, and they actually talked to his mother. They got a confirmation from his mother. And I'm going to go to you first on this, Kelly, if you don't mind. They talked to his mother. And one of the sad things about it is his mother said, his mother's name is Beverly Samuels Birch.

His mother said she found out that her son was dead from social media and she was upset because the authorities didn't contact her or anything like this first, first off. So I know he's controversial. I really didn't follow him. The information I saw about him wasn't too flattering, wasn't too positive. But this is somebody who died and he passed away Thursday morning. He passed away basically three days before Mother's Day. So now his mother has to deal with arranging, making funeral arrangements for her son, you know, right before Mother's Day. So Kelly, you and I, we follow each other on Instagram and I saw your Instagram post about Kevin Samuel. Kevin Samuel.

So did you have any comments on this? Of course I do. To the family of Kevin Samuels, you have my condolences. Just from an ethical standpoint, a mother lost her child. And that is something that there's no word for when a mother lost her child. And that is something that you, there's no word for when a mother loses their child. You have a widow when, you know, a person loses their spouse. You are an orphan when you lose your parents, but there's no real word in the English language,

to my knowledge, for when a parent loses a child. So that's how devastating this is for the family of Kevin Samuels. And with that, you have my condolences. But that said, that notwithstanding, rather, his legacy is more than that of one's son. His legacy is more than that of one's father. My understanding is that he does have children. His legacy, by and large, is that of

a hateful misogynist. And as a Black woman who had to basically navigate through his rhetoric for the past basically two years, because my understanding of him was, you know, his cult, so to speak, kind of grew during the pandemic on Clubhouse. As someone who had to navigate through those waters, it is incredibly hypocritical and almost a sense of poetic justice to me that this man died in the very way and from the very thing he cursed onto fat Black women on his platform. He died of a heart attack, and he essentially died alone. And for someone to basically make a living and build a following on the back of Black women in such a disparaging, belittling, degrading way, as if Black women don't deal with enough.

I have but so much empathy for the death of this man. And let's just say, you know, people did get some help from him you know I saw some anecdotes of men who went to therapy because of him and women who lost weight because of him and things like that that does not take away the bulk of his

rhetoric which is essentially that black women were worthless that they did not have value unless you ascribe to Eurocentric standards of beauty and society. And that's simply not true. Further, he did not care about Black women.

And yet, because of the low self-esteem that these Black women had on his show, it was under the guise of help, anything that came out of his mouth, which wasn't necessarily genuine, authentic, or even true. So again, the fact, he constantly pushed this notion that fat women were slovenly and had little to no, nothing to do with society. He went so far as to say last month that if you are over 35 and unmarried, that you are leftovers. He, and what got me was, you know, all of that notwithstanding, he insinuated that if, wait, where's my quote? That basically you should not believe a child if they're accusing a family member of molesting them or sexual assaulting them. And for me, that was kind of the straw that broke my back.

Like, you can say whatever you want about dating, relationships, what have you, but you're talking about putting children in danger for the sake of the ego of a man. I do not ascribe to that logic. I do not ascribe to that rhetoric. And like I said at the beginning of this segment, while a mother lost a child, the rest of society lost something toxic. We disposed of something toxic yesterday. So with that, I say good riddance. All right. Next time, tell us how you really think, Kelly. Let's go to Matt.

Let's go to Matt. Matt, did you follow Kevin Samuels? Did you, what are your thoughts here? You know, I've only seen like clips of them. I didn't pay attention to them, really. I read the statements about 35 and over, unmarried or leftovers. I thought that was ridiculous.

But what are your thoughts here, Matt? You know, I don't have anything astute to say. I think Kelly said almost everything I was thinking and far more eloquently than I could have said it. I can count on my hand the number of his videos I watched. And the little bit that I did see was misogynistic. I mean, I have seen people on my own social media trying to sanitize the legacy. I mean, there are some people for whom they said, for instance, you know, look, he spoke to men just as critically at the beginning of his posting and then he kind of transitioned to women.

And that may be true. I don't have any empirical evidence on that. But what I saw was just per se hateful and it was leveraging hate. It was people watched him because he continued to attack Black women and tried to find a way to continually devalue them. And I just, I didn't think that that has any redeeming quality. So kind of like Kelly said, you know, I have empathy insofar as somebody

losing a family member is always a sad and difficult thing. But in terms of what he put out, the little bit that I saw, I didn't see much redeeming value in it. And, you know, we can't continue to allow that to happen. I think that, you know, there are things that can have entertainment value, things that can be relatively innocuous, but we cannot give license to somebody to attack Black women, particularly not only because we know how important and valuable

and incredible Black women are, but because we are a community, right? Our community aesthetics should allow that to happen. And that's what this brother was doing in the few videos that I saw and in most of what was posted from my understanding. So my thoughts echo Kelly's sentiments. Well, Jason, you're a college professor

and you teach African-American studies. So have any arguments over Kevin Samuel's videos broken out in your classrooms between African-American studies. So have any arguments over Kevin Samuels' videos broken out in your classrooms between African-American students at all? I'm just wondering, because, you know, in African-American studies, you deal with gender issues, you deal with misogyny, things like this. There was misogyny in the civil rights movement. You know, Rowland's talked about that here. That's why Ella Baker was passed over for a permanent leadership position in Southern Christian Leadership Conference because, you know, Dr. King was a sexist and others were sexist. Go ahead, Jason. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, now you want me to that women's legacy in the civil rights movement, a lot of my students come in not knowing Ella Baker, Diane Nash, who they are, or even knowing names. They all know John Lewis, but they don't know Diane Nash. You know, I've been on social media and I've written posts since I've heard about his death and erased them all before I, you know, press send.

In part because I have this ethos that essentially if I don't have anything good to say, I won't say anything at all, at least for 24 hours after you die. Because of what you said about his mother not knowing about his death, finding it out from social media magically, but for them to see the first thing is me trashing a dead guy. So, like has already been stated, I have empathy for his mother. I have empathy for his family members. And, you know, maybe even a little bit for his fans. I don't know. But certainly what he said was damaging. And he monetized it. You know, he wasn't just a guy with an opinion.

He monetized destroying people's self-esteem. And to me, that's despicable, particularly when it's Black people. So, you know, one of the points that Matt brought up was, did he, you know, people say he disparaged Black men as well as Black women. And I don't think that makes it any better. You know, I think that's a matter of fact. Say again? I'm sorry?

I said it really doesn't. Right, I think that, you know, I think as a matter of fact, say again, I'm sorry. I said it really doesn't. You know, if there's been a people, you know, whose self-esteem and self-worth has been attacked, it's been black people. You know, I would argue more black women, but black men as well. And so we don't need that kind of, you know, cancer from within. Now, I will never wish death upon anybody. I don't wish death upon my worst enemy. But, you know, I will also be honest about the part of your legacy that I know. I mean, he may have donated some of that money to good causes, and I'll leave it to those people to speak to the

good parts of his character. And I hope that they step up and say good things, that the good things he was doing for his community or for his church or whatever. But as far as his public persona and his profession, I think that he did a lot of things that were damaging. And I think it's okay to acknowledge that while also acknowledging his humanity and the fact that he died at 56. He was a relatively young man. And there are people who can evolve. Even at 56 years old, you can still evolve. So he died young. He died before he could change or apologize for some of the damage that he did within our community. And I know I'm going to get probably a whole lot of comments because every time I've mentioned Kevin Samuels in the past on social media, a bunch of dudes that I don't know come out of the woodwork. You know what I mean? And it's like 85 comments, you know,

calling me a simp and all this and that. So, you know, I'm ready for it. You know, I'm out there. So you can do that. And when I die, you can go and say he was a simp. But what I'm saying, like what you're saying right now, Jason, they're calling me bitter in the comments right now. And that is my point. Like you are reinforcing my point of the toxic waste that he has spilled upon the world.

And with his passing, at least that faucet has stopped. You know what I'm saying? Just because I'm fat does not mean I am bitter. Just because he was talking about fat women does not mean I am bitter. Just because he was talking about fat women does not mean I am bitter towards his comments. I am just speaking truth to power just like how he was powering lies. It's

no different. Let's keep it real. I don't really know that many black guys that aren't into full-figured women, to be honest. Maybe it's just my friends. I don't have a problem dating. I'll say that much. That's all I'm gonna say about it. I don't doubt that either.

But I hate the fact that that kind of rhetoric and not just him, it's not, it wasn't just Kevin Samuels. He didn't invent this lame. There were a whole lot of others who have come before him, you know, who got exposed for certain things, who were exploiting,

you know, basically tried to run the opposite racket of Kevin Samuels. And, you know, basically all it did was cause these kind of gender wars between Black men and Black women and having us fight each other when we need each other. And that was the frustrating thing for me. Exactly, exactly. All right. Our next story takes us to Rochester, New York. And I talked about this on the African History Network show in Rochester, New York. is on administrative leave for allegedly making black students pick cotton and shackling them as part of his social studies lesson. And this was a social studies lesson on slavery. Precious Tross, Precious Tross, the mother of a seventh grader at Rochester School of the Arts posted this video on Facebook. OK, School of the Arts, School of the Arts, my daughter, social studies teacher, grade seventh grade. Count your days. How the hell you make my baby learn how to pick cotton seeds out of the cotton and tell them not to sing

that slavery song in your class way in the water and the little girl say, yes, Massa, and the teacher going to put this put his two fingers up and say, yes, I am Massa. The Caucasian kids said, I'm not picking no seeds out no cotton. That's not my job and throws it in the trash. And he's going to tell them to get on get on their Chromebooks, you know, their tablets or Chromebooks, computers. Y'all, y'all see me in the morning, she said. Mother precious Tross. So the in this story, New York Times has an article on this also in this story. The teacher allegedly told the students to call him Massa in the classroom, okay? The school district confirmed the lessons did

happen and is investigating the matter. According to reports, the 20-year teaching veteran Patrick Rausch, R-A-U-S-C-H, had students call him Massa, M-A-S-S-A-H, Massa. He also let white students

stop when they wanted, when they stopped when they wanted, when it came to picking the seeds out of the cotton. He let the white students stop, but forced the black students to continue the activity. All right. I know we're coming up here on a break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, we're talking cryptocurrency. Does it scare you? Does it confuse you? Well,

Black Americans are investing in cryptocurrency more than anyone else. And on the next Get Wealthy, Professor Tanya Evans joins us to talk all things crypto. Crypto presents a really interesting opportunity for direct peer-to-peer access to the potential for extraordinary wealth. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Peace and love, everybody. I'm Purple Wonderlove. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. An organization in South L.A. is using education to empower the next generation. The Sola I Can Foundation gives black and brown residents access to educational, technological and economic opportunities.

Sherry Francois, chief impact officer and executive Director of Sola Impact Foundation, joins us from Los Angeles. How are you doing today, Sherry? I am well. How are you? I'm all right. I'm all right. Thanks for coming on to Rolling March and Unfiltered. So tell us about the Sola ICANN Foundation. What is it about and how does it teach technology to black and brown students? The Sola I Can Foundation, it was established to create an environment and access to education and opportunity specifically for black and brown youth in South Los Angeles. We created the technology center because we realized that there's an incredible digital divide and a lack of access to additional education, after-school education. And so we worked really hard to bring in a facility and develop a facility that would train and equip our students. We serve

youth and young adults in technology skills that they just don't have access to, because a lot of that is pulled after school programming, STEM, STEAM, arts. They're pulled, particularly in our school districts here in LA. And we wanted to make sure that there were no barriers to that and that there were no cost barriers to that. So we offer all of our programming free of charge. And so we're teaching and equipping our students with real world, practical, project-based skills in everything from animation, coding, computer engineering. We have an arts and entertainment path and an entrepreneurship path. Because we believe that we're creating the next generation of black and brown tech professionals, entrepreneurs. And we expect within the next five to ten years that they will be our next leaders.

Excellent. Excellent. Now, how long has the Solar ICAN Foundation been in existence? We were established in 2017, so we're a relatively young foundation. But we knew that there was an incredible need to provide this. And in a very short amount of time, we've been able to establish programs and scholarships providing Black and Brown youth educational opportunities for college readiness. We are providing financial literacy. And we understand that there's a basic need to understand savings and checking accounts. but we're not having enough conversations around the dinner table about

what does it mean to become an investor? How do you build wealth? What is passive income? And so we feel that that's the real game changer is to be able to provide that kind of education and having those conversations and planting those seeds. Because if we're going to make a dent in combating generational poverty in our communities, this is where we believe

we begin. Excellent. Excellent. Now, I'm going to go to my panel here in just a minute here, but how many students do you currently have in the program? Right now, we serve roughly 500 students within the capacity of the Tech Center. But that also bleeds out to some of our other programming. We award 25 scholarships every year to college-bound black and brown students.

We have additional workshops. And we're right now getting ready to expand our facility so that we can provide additional programming. So we expect to see over 1,000 students trained and skilled and supported every single year. Okay. Now, and before I go to the panel, what are the age ranges also of the students? Is it elementary school, middle school, high school? How does that break down? Right now, because the programming that we're offering is, again, free of charge to high school and middle school. And we're excited to announce that we're going to be expanding and taking in students as young as eight and offering adult programming for those that are looking to upskill,

to train, to retrain, and perhaps new careers in technology. So it's a wide gamut, and we're going to be able to broaden that demographic because as much as we have a demand here for youth programming, it's equally important. And there's the need to supply the same programming for adults and young adults, for that matter. Okay. I want to go to my panel quickly here, see if they have a question for you.

Let's start with Kelly. Kelly, did you have a question for Sherry? Sure. First of all, this is a phenomenal project, phenomenal organization. But is there a plan to scale this nationally in any way? Are there examples of something remotely like this in other metropolitan hubs? Hi, Kelly. Thanks. What I will say is Sola Impact, the parent company that I work for, the Sola I Can Foundation is the affiliated nonprofit. And Sola provides affordable housing to low-income communities, specifically to brown and black communities, and with the sole purpose of ensuring that they have safe, healthy, high-quality homes. With that, even though our current geographical area is South LA and Los Angeles,

we plan to scale and take this model and mimic this model in other underinvested communities, needy communities throughout the country. And with that comes our affiliated nonprofit, the work that we do on the social impact side. And so building out technology centers like this around the country in communities that want it and need it is a goal of ours. Let's go to Matt. Matt, did you have a question for Sherry Francois? I did. Thanks for being with us, Sherry, and thanks for explaining the program. I'm particularly interested in the entrepreneurial part of it. So would you explain briefly, please, how it works and does it include things like grants

and other financial support for students who are in the program? If they have an idea, how do they actually get that idea to market? Do you guys facilitate that? Yes, we do. And I'm excited to talk about our entrepreneurship program. What we're doing is,

and this is specifically for high school students right now. So many of our high school students are, they're so brilliant, right? We always say that it's not about ability, it's just opportunity. They already have these ideas. They're hustling. They are smart and ready to create their own companies. They just don't know how. And most within our community, whether they're high school, adults, there's a lack of capital. We know this.

So we want to support that. So the existing program, as it stands right now, is affording our young folks to be able to come to the table with their ideas. We're taking those ideas from paper and putting it into action. So this is a very, very short program. This first 10 weeks is a part one, and then there's an extension. By the end, when they graduate from, they have the opportunity to present to investors

and have the potential to be awarded seed money so that we can help them with their business. And it just doesn't end there. We want to make sure that we're helping one of our primary business objectives in social impact is to make sure that we're cultivating minority and women-owned businesses. So we hope that these businesses that these young folks are creating, we want to help make those viable businesses and sustainable businesses win the community because we all know that that also lends itself to economic development for these communities that need it. But most important,

like I said earlier, we're building the next generation of entrepreneurs. And Dr. Jason, did you have a question for Sherry? Thank you so much, Sherry, for coming on and explaining your program. It reminds me very much of the time pretty recently I interviewed Ro Khanna, who's from out there in California as well. And he makes the claim that the way to build wealth for black communities is going to be in the tech field. My question is, with your entrepreneurship program, particularly as it pertains to tech, are the students being provided mentors and internships, paid internships and things that will give them experience before they actually go to start their own businesses? Okay. So we know how important it is. I had a great, great mentor

who helped put me on a track to success. And so we're, I'll tell everybody right now, we're looking for great mentors to match with our kids. We think that's vital. We know that that's important. We also are matching them with what we call success coaches to help them meet and get past those barriers where they may be stuck. So, yes, that's a hard yes, in fact, that we do have mentors for these kids.

We are looking for more mentors for these kids, particularly those that have been in it, that have their own journeys to tell, particularly those that look like our kids, which they don't see a lot, enough of, I will say. And ideally, every single student of ours within this tech center would have their own dedicated mentor. All right. Excellent. Sherry, thanks, Jason. Thanks, Sherry. How can people get more information, sign up? What's your website, social media platforms? SolaIcan.org. Okay. S-O-L-A-I-Can.org. Ican.org. Yes. And it is the Sola I Can Foundation. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. That's our motto. If you can see it, you can be it. And we stand by that. So we want to make sure that we're providing that to our students, to our community, the opportunity to see all that they can be.

All right. Thanks, Sherry. Thanks for coming on. Roland Martin, Unfiltered, you have a great day. Thank you for having me. All right. Well, before we get out of here, this Sunday is Mother's Day and I want to give the panel an opportunity to give a shout out to their mom for Mother's Day. So we'll start with Kelly, your mom or any other mother you want to give a shout out to. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.'s a double whammy. And it's usually my favorite time. Like, any time her birthday lines up with Mother's Day, that's my favorite time. Because it doesn't feel like two births and one stone.

It feels like an extra celebration. So, happy Mother's Day and happy birthday to my first best friend. I love you so much. You want to come and say hi? Can you hear her? She said, all right. Okay. All right. Let's go to Jason. Jason, you want to give a shout out to your mom for mother's day or any other mother special in your life? Absolutely. So first I want to give a shout out to my mother.

Who's with me in spiritual essence. I love you and I miss you. And happy mother's day. I also want to give a shout out to my stepmother. You know, happy Mother's Day. She's been so important for our family and what she's brought. You know, now that my mother is gone, she's definitely stepped into that role and helped me out and mentored me in a lot of ways. And to my grandmother. So shout out to my grandmother as well, who is actually in the hospital right now, but she's recovering. And just want her to know that I will see you soon.

I love you. Happy Mother's Day. All right. And Matt, you have a special moment. Let me forget my wife. Your wife. Yeah, yeah. It's your wife.

Yeah. Let me say that. Baby, I love you. My wife. Yeah, yeah, let him. It's your wife. Yeah, whoa. Let me say that. Baby, I love you, my wife. Okay. All right, Matt. Yeah, well, I want to say happy Mother's Day to my mom. Ma, I love you dearly.

And you know that's especially special coming from your favorite child, number one. Number two, I want to say happy Mother's Day to my big mama, all my aunties, all the church mothers at my dad's church, every person who poured into me when I was at Howard and law school, and even to this day, I'm so appreciative of y'all. I'm blessed to have you. And just thank you to all the mothers that take care of us all the time. We love you all dearly. Happy Mother's Day to y'all. Excellent, excellent. I want to give a shout out to my mom also. Happy Mother's Day to my mom as well as my daughter's mom as well. Happy Mother's Day to

you as well. And the Roland Martin Unfiltered staff wanted to share this special message for all the lovely mothers ahead of this Mother's Day weekend. hey this is carol gant i want to wish my mother nath again and my sister clarissa again a wonderful mother's day i hope you have a great day love you both i just want to say happy mother's day to my lovely mother adeline and my two sisters merlin and maddie to say happy Mother's Day to my lovely mother, Adeline, and my two sisters, Merlinda and Maddie. To say that you are the one beneath my wings would be an understatement because you all have worked to craft the wings so I can soar. I thank you all for all the love and support that you carried and important to me throughout my entire life and just want to celebrate you on this Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day. Love you all. Happy, happy Mother's Day to my fabulous, loving, kind, God-fearing mother, Queen Deb. You're an angel. Me and my siblings are so, so blessed to have you in our lives. Everyone you touch is impacted greatly. If I could just be half of the partner, friend, sister, mom that you are, I would be very proud of myself. She's not just beautiful. She's intelligent and the Black Engineer of the Year. I'm so proud of you, Mom. Love you. Happy Mother's Day.

I want to wish a happy Mother's Day to my mom, Zena. She has been there for me countless times. And I love that she always has the time to laugh at my jokes, be my shoulder to cry on when I make mistakes, and sing with me in the car on long road trips. She's one of the most creative and funniest people I know, and I am beyond blessed to be her daughter. I love you, Mom, and happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you with all of my heart. I appreciate everything that you've done for me and sacrificed for me.

And one day I hope that I could reciprocate all the efforts that you have for me. I want to give a special shout out to my mom, Crystal. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. You're the best mom that I have. Without you, I would be nothing. So, happy Mother's Day, Mom. You're the best mom that I have. Without you, I would be nothing. So happy Wednesday, Mom. I want to thank our panel, Kelly, Matt, and Jason. Everybody have a great weekend.

I'm Michael M. Hotep, sitting in for Roland Martin. Everybody have a great weekend. Happy Mother Michael M. Hotep sitting in for Roland Martin. Everybody have a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day. Holla! The This is an iHeart podcast