#RolandMartinUnfiltered - AT&T funds right wing TV network; are Dems cutting HBCU funds?; racists attack Black Va. family

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

10.06.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: AT&T funds right wing TV network; are Dems cutting HBCU funds?; racists attack Black Va. family; 10 GOP governors hold 'border crisis' newser; Rochester mayor quits; Virginia GOP mails racist fliers; Black & Missing: Cashawn Ashley Sims last seen in Duarte. California on Sept. 8, 2021; Anti-hunger activist launches a grocery store in a school, and all items are free of charge; The state of Missouri may have executed a man illegally; Meet the CEO/Founder of Lavii Lockers#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Nissan, Buick, AmazonSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers

at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, October 6, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live on the Black Star Network from Los Angeles. Republicans criticize President Joe Biden's immigration plan, not like they actually have one on their own. Also, Reuters breaks a story showing how AT&T is the financial source behind One American News Network, the right-wing pro-Donald Trump, MAGA, conservative network that has spread more information and lied than anybody else. We're going to talk about that on today's show. Also, what's the truth behind these stories saying Democrats are trying to massively cut funding for HBCUs? We will have the truth for you as we talk with Leslie Baskerville, who leads NAFEO.

You don't want to miss that conversation, folks, on today's show. Also, a racist neighbor tormenting a black Virginia family. We'll discuss that. And after seeing a school resource officer placing her five-year-old son in the chokehold, a woman in Virginia is suing the school district. Folks, also the mayor of Rochester, New York, she has resigned because of improprieties when it comes to her raising funds. We've got lots to talk about on today's show. It is time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin on Filter from the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. I'm Roland Martin on Filter from the Black Star Network. Let's go. to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yow it's rolling Martin rolling with rolling now he's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best you know, he's rolling

Martin He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin. Martin. Republicans are not happy at all about the possibility of seeing more Haitian migrants on their way to the Texas border. You might remember just a couple of weeks ago, we had the massive crisis of some 12,000. Now they are claiming 60,000 Haitian migrants are on their way to the Texas border. Don't know if that's true or not. Republicans, they held a news conference today led by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and, of course, Senator Ted Cruz, where they complained about this, blasting President Joe Biden and

offering what they call their own 10-point plan. Listen. At the border here in Texas, and we're here to talk about border-related issues. And let me just start out by making a very clear point, and that is President Joe Biden has caused a humanitarian crisis and chaos on our border. All Americans saw exactly what happened in Del Rio, Texas, just last month, and we know that that chaos will be repeated unless and until President Biden takes action. Twenty-six of America's governors have worked together to develop specific actions that Biden can take immediately to end the crisis on the border that he has caused. We all of us asked the President for a meeting to visit with us about this, and he refused to meet with us, and he completely ignored us.

Nine of the 26 governors that crafted this action plan gathered today at the border, a border, by the way, that President Biden has never even been to. We're here to announce 10 actions that President Biden must take immediately. Well, that's a whole lot of whining and complaining by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. And so that's what we expect. All right. Let's talk about this with our legal panel, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee, lawyer based out of Washington, D.C., Robert Petillo, of course, Rainbow Peachtree Street Project there in Atlanta. Glad to have him.

And also someone who keeps running his mouth about Oklahoma Sooners, and he'll be experiencing their losses very soon. Demario Solomon Simmons, civil rights attorney, founder for Justice for Greenwood out of Oklahoma. Glad to have all of you on today's show. And so let's deal with this. I guess I'll deal with Demario. You're the closest to the Texas border being there in Oklahoma. I mean, what you have here are Republicans who just throw out anything. They throw everything out. And it's Biden is trash. Oh, my God. Immigration is killing us.

But again, these are the same people who will say nothing about these companies that are hiring folks who are who are illegal immigrants or some call them undocumented workers, because then the Chamber of Commerce won't be too pleased with that. You know, thank you so much for being on the show once again. You know, I think it's real rich for Governor Abbott of your home state of Texas. He can't even keep the lights on during the winter in the entire state. And he wants to talk about the border. It's ridiculous. It is. It doesn't make any sense for him to be there and to say that President Biden has never been to the border. I mean, this guy's been in elective office for 40, 50 years. I'm sure he's been to the border.

So it's obviously just grandstanding. And we know that they don't want any black and brown people, but they especially hate Haitians. And we know the history of Haiti. And while particularly white supremacists like Greg Abbott hate Haiti because they were the first black free republic in the Western world, they fought against the British, the French, and the Spanish to get their freedom. And this country and all the Western countries have done everything they can

to hurt Haiti since their independence back in 1803. So I'm not surprised to see Governor Abbott and these other white supremacist governors like my very own governor or the governor of the state of Oklahoma. But it doesn't make any sense outside. They want to make headlines. Scott, your thoughts.

Well, I think my colleague is absolutely right. I mean, black and brown people at the border, no Republicans, it seems, want that influx. But the number of people at the border trying to get to the United States of America, I don't believe, based on my reading, that it has changed much from during the Trump years, if you will. And even Trump and his alleged crackdowns, illegal crackdowns on black and brown people coming through the southern border, it simply didn't work. They kept coming.

And what you would think the nine governors would do, if you know those statistics and that research, is say, how do we stop the appetite of our black and brown brothers and sisters south of the border? How do we cut off their appetite for wanting to come to the United States? That is investing in their countries such as Honduras and other Mexico and other South American cities where we have task forces, should have task forces and invest dollars and human resources in stopping the gang war for welfare war on these young

families and giving them jobs and education and opportunity that will reduce the flow of those who want to come to America for a better life. But America certainly doesn't invest in that, doesn't invest enough in that approach, not this administration or the prime administration. And we know that it works. We have case studies that show in Guadalajara, for example, the number of people trying to illegally come into the United States has been cut in half or three-fourths over the last 10 to 15 years. And so it works. And so stopping people from coming into the U.S. has never worked,

if you will. And it's rooted in racism and the fact that Republicans don't want these to be future voters, but more importantly, they certainly don't want a country of color in 2043, and they simply cannot stop it through these means. And what we're dealing with here, Robert, is very simple. What we're dealing with here, Robert, is very simple. We're dealing with Republicans who follow the lead to the likes of Tucker Carlson when it comes to white replacement theory. They are absolutely scared to death of the nation becoming a nation that is majority people of color. They need to maintain their whiteness as long as possible.

You're absolutely right. I think we have to change the way that we talk about immigration as a country, because immigration is a positive for America. Illegal, legal, however it comes in, if it was not for immigration into this country, we would be a dying nation. Just look at the birth rates taking place in white communities or even in American-born black communities, Hispanic communities that are second generation, our birth rates are right there with China and Japan and Italy and other countries that are experiencing a graying of the nation, so to say, where you do not have enough people in the country to replace the people who are aging out and dying in the country. And let's understand also,

nobody is going to walk from Costa Rica or from Guatemala or from Nicaragua from a tropical paradise to come pick avocados or pick tomatoes in Texas or in Wisconsin somewhere unless it was dire circumstances. We have to look at the U.S. role in creating those dire circumstances. Let's not forget about the Banana Republic wars that took place where I have center. Let's not forget about Noriega and all the other Central American leaders that the United States propped up and then took out of power, creating the instability. Let's also not forget that one thing that supports and finances these drug cartels is the American appetite for drugs. If we change the American drug policy,

you get rid of the cartel the same way you changed alcohol policy. You got rid of the mafia. You got rid of the alcohol policy. You got rid of the policy because you took their money out of it. So we changed American drug prohibition. Then you changed this issue from the rooter to the tutor. So what has to happen is our borders are, our wonderful borders are Kamala Harris. She began the process by speaking with Central American leaders. We need to come to a tripartite pact where we take Canada, the U.S. and Central America and come to an immigration understanding because guess what? Canada needs 20 million more people.

They do not have the same benefit of legal immigration that America has to bully their population growth. So they need more people to work in Canada. So let's find out a guest worker program where we can get people from Central and South America working in Canada where they can then return home because guess what? They don't want to be in the winter in Saskatchewan. They want to be back home to their families in their tropical paradises. And then you can solve the problem.

But as long as we have this grandstanding political hyperbole, like we see at the border with Greg Abbott, who is way too much like George Bush for me to trust anything that he says, and Ted Cruz and the others down there who did nothing when Trump was in office, they need to start working on some actual comprehensive immigration reform policies that will fix the problem instead of putting Band-Aid after Band-Aid after Band-Aid over it at the expense of the immigrants who are simply trying to find a stable life and a stable income for their families. You know, if I could add one other thing.

It just does. It just, yeah, go ahead, Mario. I just want to also add to that the racism of the fact that they are illegally not allowing these Haitians to try to apply for a refugee asylum. I mean, there is a legal process when someone comes from a country that they're experiencing political violence or they believe that they're going to be killed or something like that. There is a process where someone can say, listen, this is my situation. This is why I'm here. They may not be here just to try to find a job or anything like that, there is a process that someone can say, listen, this is my situation. This is why I'm here. They may not be here just to try to find a job or anything like that. You can't just wholesale say, I'm going to put you back on the plane and send you back. That is against the law. That's against the current immigration laws. And it's also blatantly racist when it comes to

Haitians, black Haitians versus maybe say Cubans and others. Look, the thing that I think we have to, Robert said something is important, and I was engaging this back and forth with a couple of idiots on social media, and they were like, you know, Roland, you were wrong when you were saying that immigration benefits the United States. And I'm like, fool, are you paying any attention? Why have the folks in Europe in the past decade been so violently opposed to immigration there? Oh my God, they're overrunning our country. Why? Because white people stop screwing. Falling birth rates in most European nations. To Robert's point, to anybody who's listening, you do not have a country if you do not have people.

Not only that, you have to have people working today who are paying into theold black folk, black men who are sitting here blasting me, saying, oh, this is foul for us, when your ass is time for you to get your Social Security, who do you think is paying into the system in 20 years when you're 60? The person who's going to be working. This shows, and they're taking all of our jobs. Okay, what jobs are you talking about? Can you please define what those jobs are? And if you really start breaking down these things, where you see people are working, the reality is, folks, documented workers are doing a lot of jobs that Americans don't want to do. Now, we can sit here and dance around this.

We can be honest. We can have a real, honest conversation. And I don't think a lot of people really want to have that level of conversation, Scott, Robert, and Demaria. And look, Roland, on this point about they quote, unquote, they took their jobs, as people like to yell out, look, black folks have been in this country since 1619. That is 400 years. I am not going to be competing with anybody who just walked 1,000 miles from Guatemala to clean white folks' toilets. I'm trying to compete for jobs in those C-suites, in the boardrooms. I want my fair share of corporate executive jobs.

I want my fair share of college admissions. Don't tell me I need to fight against my Latino brother and sister and fight against the Haitian brethren for jobs at the bottom of the economy when my fair share of the jobs are at the top of the economy. The people I'm worried about who took my job were Bezos and Elon Musk and Richard Branson and Bill Gates. Those are jobs I'm worried about you taking. Don't tell me I got to be out here picking strawberries somewhere. No. Tell me how you're going to stop them from taking those jobs from me. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country,

cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

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

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. really does It makes it real Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes

rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. That's an excellent point, Robert. I think also that goes back to what you said earlier, Roland, that these corporations, they want this type of influx of immigration, illegal immigration, because they can keep

the wages low. You know, when we say these are jobs that Americans don't want to do, America certainly don't want to do it for three, four, five, six dollars an hour. And that's what we see. We see this continuation of keeping wages low, and therefore this is a system that really corporate America likes to continue to have proliferating. I agree wholeheartedly with Robert that we should be competing for top jobs with top salaries, with benefits and opportunities. People have spent 300 years of sweat, labor, complete sweat, equity into this nation. We should continue to be compete for those jobs.

If you don't want these immigrants coming, then cut the demand, as you've said already. Cut the demand, right? President Fox, former President Fox of Mexico told Jesse Jackson 20 years ago, my people would do the jobs that even Americans or your people, talking about black people, won't do. Everyone was offended by it, but it had some ring of truth to it, and it still does today. And so we're not competing with those jobs, because if Americans were fulfilling those jobs in construction, in the vegetable and fruit fields of America, in the environment or in homes, you name it, then there wouldn't be a demand and there wouldn't be jobs and they wouldn't be coming for a better life because they would know that there were no jobs available to them.

And so it just smacks of racism. Let's just call it what it is. I mean, every person who from the day America was founded came from somewhere else. Everyone, the Abbots, every nine of those governors, and everybody who is white is an ethnic that came from somewhere else. How rich is it for us now to say we need to close our borders? But America has a rich history. If you go over the annals of history, go over the annals of people coming over, we've always, during generations, had a pension or a test for blocking others from coming

because of some economic interest. But it's actually a racial interest, historically. And so we've got to fight against this because we are all immigrants. And if you don't agree with that, then your concern about immigration and having a plan and being overrun is just rooted in racism. It really is. And they just need to come clean on that because 2043 is coming. You call it screwing. I call it reality. Reality is coming. We're going to be a country of color in about 20, 30 years.

It's coming. You can't stop it. No legislation can stop it unless white people start having more reproductive sex, and I can't control that. And Scott, look, this is how you know this is rooted in racism, how stupid this is. We just got off of the entire first half of this year, white employers complaining about not having enough workers who are willing to come work, raising wages, raising benefits, paying $15, $20 an hour to flip hamburgers, put French

rots into a bag. You can't get Americans to even do that right now because you can make, look, you get $4, 4 cents for every thousand views you get on TikTok. That is what your kids are doing. They are not out here trying to flip burgers. They're not trying to bag fries or anything along those lines. So if these Republicans were smart in order to stop from having to raise those wages and raise those benefits to recruit workers, they will be pushing for comprehensive immigration reform so we can get guest workers into the country who will be willing to fill those roles so that the next generation of kids can work in IT, can

work in media, can work on the things they're actually interested in. But it's based in racism. That's how you know exactly what their game is. But it gets worse than that. Watch this, Robert. Now, the Republicans are against raising the minimum wage, right? Everyone or most of them are against it. But if you raise the minimum wage, more Americans could get work, whether it's McDonald's or anywhere else. And those lower

wages jobs, that would push wages further up for lower paying jobs. And guess what? Americans could fill those jobs. You cut off the appetite, you cut off the demand, and the supply goes away. It goes to another country. But that's the idiocy of the Republican thinking. And they're the big economic development, financially conservative, banking conservatives who want less government and more private sector entrepreneurship, but that's completely inconsistent when it comes to this immigration issue. So it's even worse than that. Scott, I don't think they're idiots.

All right, folks. Now, one more second. I'm going to go to Todd next. How many of you have been seeing, actually, you keep forgetting who the host is. We've seen all these stories floating around social media about the Biden administration, the story from Newsweek, cutting HBCU funding from $45 billion to $2 billion. I've seen a lot of folks I know retweeting these stories saying this is a damn shame. There's a problem with that because the federal government isn't giving HBCUs $45 billion

a year. So, I reached out to Leslie Baskerville, of course. Leslie, she's been on the show many times. She's with the National Association for Equal Opportunity and Higher Education. She joins us right now. And so, all right, Leslie, you've been very much involved when it comes to fighting for funding for HBCUs. What is the truth with this story? Because again, everybody is spreading it.

They're saying, see Biden and Harris, they trash. They're slashing 43 billion from HBCUs. What is the truth? Roland, good to be back. It's always good to be with you. The truth is that that's absolutely unequivocally false. In terms of HBCUs, we've never had it so good. HBCUs, I say it's harvest time for HBCUs. It's a season of new hope. We have an administration who truly believes in and has invested in an excess of $6.5 billion in HBCUs and is investing more as we're talking presently. We have a Congress where we have bipartisan support in the House and the Senate. So we have bipartisan and bicameral support for HBCUs.

And based on the investments by Congress and the administration, we have more corporate support, more individual philanthropic support. We've moved from the style section of the newspapers to the education section, to the business section, to the business section, to all of the sections where we should be, because we have a 15 billion short-term economic interest at our HBCUs collectively, and HBCUs are doing more than any other cohort. For America's historically black colleges and universities, they're just 3 percent of American colleges. In the sciences, technology, engineering,

and mathematics, they're graduating 42% of blacks. And in education professionals, 50% of education, black education professionals, health professionals, the lion's share, punching way above our weight. And we have an opportunity like none other to continue to show that our outcomes are far in excess of the input into our institutions and that we're worthy of and should have more dollars invested in us. That's what we were talking about today. And while we were there, my phone was exploding. And I got out and they said there's a story out about a 45 billion dollar cut from this administration and we're down to 2 billion. Well the reality is this. Everybody has heard about the negotiations on reconciliation budget that includes a lot of human needs

programs and education program. In fact it will invest in early childhood, the entire pipeline from early childhood to the middle passages to undergraduate school, community colleges, undergraduate, graduate and professional schools like never before. In the process of negotiation, the figures are going up and down. There was never a figure for this one particular bill of $45 billion. But the figures are dancing around. Right now I don't think the White House can tell you exactly where the figure is, but whatever the figure is, our institutions will be greatly enriched as they continue to enrich America. Reality is, America can't realize her goals, can't realize her education goals,

her economic goals, her health goals without HBCUs. And so we're going to continue to get money. But I just want to say this. I heard a bit of the last program. Hold on one second. Again, I need to walk slowly through this again. Okay. The story says $45 billion for HBCU and other minority institutions down to $2 billion. All right. What I'm still trying to understand, though, is what is this $45 billion? Because the reality is right now HBCUs, the federal government is only providing around, if I'm wrong, around a billion dollars annually to HBCUs. Is that correct?

Could be. Yeah, but we got substantially more in this last time because of the coronavirus. Special supplement. No, no, no, no, no. I got that. I got that. I got that. But here's the question about the $45 billion.

In the Build Back Better blueprint, in the blueprint or the platform, the administration has an aspirational goal investing $45 billion in infrastructures and research for HBCUs. That's the aspirational goal. Hopefully we'll get to that at some point. Okay, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, and let's say again, okay, the Newsweek, okay, again, the Newsweek story says $45 billion for HBCUs and other minority serving institutions.

The reason I'm stating that is because people are tweeting and posting as if the 45 billion is all going to HBCUs. It's not. There are other institutions that are in this so that 45 billion is not all for HBCUs. And have you seen, again, this is for everybody, everybody who understands, this is what you work on. Have you seen an actual hard number that they are proposing in this bill that's specifically for HBCUs? No. There's a coupling, but we're asking for a decoupling. But let's go back.

I want to make sure that your audience is clear because I think part of this, and I know, I believe that Newsweek is a reliable, independent news source, but there's huge confusion. Not necessarily. Good, thank you. That's huge... Not necessarily. Good. Thank you.

That's you. Not necessarily. And you're in the business. Because first of all, the Newsweek story is written off an associated press story. I've read the story. The problem is it is scant details. And again, as somebody who reads the story if i see 45 billion cut to two i want to know i want to see what the 45 billion was for i haven't seen it didn't happen and so

that's that's looking that's confusing a reconciliation bill that has a figure that at no time was $45 billion with a platform in which there was an aspirational goal for $45 billion. And you're absolutely right for HBCUs, TCUs, and their tribal colleges and universities, and then demographic MSIs. And so those would be Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges, and predominantly Black institutions. And so those would be Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges, and predominantly black institutions. And so that was for an aspirational goal for the community in a platform. So now the president is in in the administration who themselves have gone to HBCUs, but importantly, who understand the centrality of HBCUs to American progress. More importantly, for where we are presently, they understand that HBCUs,

because HBCUs are unlike any cohort of colleges and universities, and you talk about the PBIs, TCUs, and ANAPCs, Asian Pacific Islander Colleges. They are demographic MSIs, minority-serving institutions. HBCUs, people don't know this, they are not minority-serving. They have no race and no ethnicity criterion. And they were founded for the purpose of educating the progeny the manor slave system or blacks and other persons and they've been open and inclusive of all students since their founding but they are unique we have a special relationship with america because unlike

any other group of colleges and universities hbBCUs, the primary cohort, were dragged from their land. Thousands died in the process of having them brought over to this land so that we could provide cheap labor. We were stripped of our cultures, stripped of our names, our religion, stripped of everything that was a reality to us. But we thrived, and we served, and we got whipped and beaten and lashed. But important to us was education. And so, originally, we educated ourselves by all types of signals and working to each other. You all know the story, and I'm not going to take up your story on it, but the point is, from that, we went on to found private HBCUs.

Right. Abolitionists and blacks founded them, and we funded them. We funded them. When black folks wanted to go to white schools, they could not. And so at some point in 1862, America established historically white public institutions to educate large swaths of white America. Got it.

Blacks were denied. But hold tight one second. But Leslie, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I need to focus on the current funding, and here's why. Okay. Because, again, I need to walk people through this properly.

Okay, let's do it. Because, again, we operate in facts. Yes, sir. Originally, there was a 45 in the original proposal, in the original $3.5 trillion. So explain it. Okay, good. So again, I need you to explain that so people understand the facts

on where this number is coming from. Go ahead. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

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

exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree.

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. There was no $45 billion proposal in this bill. There was a $45 billion aspirational goal in the Build Back Better platform. So when you run for office, these are things we want to achieve. And that could be four years, it could be eight years. But that's an aspirational goal. So in the bill that the president proposed, what was the actual number?

I've seen numbers between $2 billion and $ 3.9 billion, low billions. I have at no time seen in the bill itself anything that approximates 45 billion. Okay. So and now what is happening is they're going back and forth on cutting the size of the bill. You have Senator Joe Manchin who has said he is not going to support 3.5 trillion in spending. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. So what happens? You see cuts made there.

And so that's what's going back and forth. That's why we're trying to sit here and establish what's actually the truth. And so we reached out. We've been trying to get numerous members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the show. We're trying to get Congressman Bobby Scott on, who's on the House Education Committee. We're trying to get him on because we need there to be an explanation of this. Because, again, I'm seeing people say all kind of wild stuff and it's not based in fact or reality. I want to go to my panel. Scott, you have the first question for Leslie Baskerville.

Hey, Leslie, good to see you again. I think you're right about the $45 billion being aspirational, but it's confusing in and of itself because you have these two bills. But let's not forget, when you say that HBCUs are in a really great place right now, that last COVID bill reduced the debt of historical black colleges by millions, each of them. And so are you seeing more bipartisan support and investment in historical black colleges on the Hill, despite the fact that they're going to have to reduce this Build America Back legislation. Will there be something in there for HBCUs? There absolutely will be something in there for HBCUs, and there are things in there that now.

I've seen in roughly three places, there are some resources for infrastructure, there are some resources for broadband, but as with every other affinity group, advocacy group, the HBCU community believes, and we want additional resources to move our research to institutions. We have 11 research to institutions.

Those institutions are high research and they're doing the scientific research. They're responsible for roughly 42% of black Americans that have advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but they're just 11. And we have none that are R1, that are the top. So we've been pushing and pushing for additional dollars. But more important than the additional dollars is a decoupling of HBCUs from the group that Roland talked about, who said the money, the 45 aspirational goal in the platform

that has nothing specific to do with the budget is for HBCUs, tribal colleges. Right, right, right. Here's the deal. I don't want to talk about platform. I'm not talking about platform. No, no, but here's the whole deal. Right, somebody running for office is one thing. Well, they're actually there. I want something that was actually in the bill. Hold tight.

Got it. Hold tight one second. I've got to go to a break. We're going to come back. Continue the conversation. Questions for Robert Portillo and Mario Simmons on this issue. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Los Angeles on the Blackstar Network. НАПРЯЖЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА ВЫСТРЕЛ

НАПРЯЖЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm David. Big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become their hug Betty. Settle in kids. You'll be there a while. Where are you going? Time to be smart. Roland Martin's doing this every day. Oh, no punches!

Thank you, Roland Martin, for always giving voice to the issues. Look for Roland Martin in the whirlwind, to quote Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with rolling all the way. Honestly, on a show that you own,

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

You can't be black on media and be scared. You dig? All right, welcome back. Roland Martin on the Black Star Network. We're talking about HBCU funding in the latest bills that are going across Congress. Question, we have Leslie Baskerville with NAFEO. In the next hour, we'll be joined by the Thurgood Marshall Fund as well. Question now, DeMario, Solomon Simmons, your question for Leslie Baskerville. Yeah, I do want to hear a little bit more about you talking about the decoupling.

I understand that this aspirational number of $45 billion is for tribal colleges in addition to HBCUs. But how much do you think HBCUs will receive specifically for our particular colleges themselves? Okay, and I just think it's important, given what Roland's trying to do, and I think it is so important, that aspirational goal has nothing to do with this bill. It is not in the bill. It was not in the bill. And our champions for the bill, many of them are themselves HBCU alums. And the chair of the Education and Labor Committee in the House, Bobby Scott, is a Justice Janissary. He fights like no other for voter rights and for the rights for the rights, for the last, the least, the left behind, and for HBCUs.

Alma Adams, who's the chair of the HBCU bipartisan caucus, fighting like a Trojan. So the point here with the decoupling is that because of America's history with HBCUs and denying us dollars for education, denying us a right to an education, and de jure discrimination that was visited upon us for the first 200 years. And then for the last 200 years, we struggled to deal with the vestiges of slavery. They started strengthening HBCUs in the Higher Education Act. And that was in recognition of the fact that we were denied dollars and we were owed dollars. And America said, not only have we intentionally denied you dollars that has resulted in underfunding, deferred maintenance, endowments that are substantially less than others, and on and on, and just 11 research-to-research institutions at this time. But the vestiges of slavery persist, and so we've got to do something about that. And so they put in a pot of strengthening HBCUs for

the purpose of strengthening the institutions that were intentionally denied funding. So, Leslie, Scott was talking about when Scott talked about the $6 billion. So in the COVID package, there was $6 billion that went directly to HBCUs. And so, again, the reason I'm laying this out there, so when people are talking about what was cut, you have to factor in the COVID bill that was passed earlier by this Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, $6.5 billion went to HBCUs... Another $1.6 billion, another $1.6 in the rescue plan, the American rescue plan. Got it. Okay. Robert, I need your question for Leslie. Real short, guys, I'm short on time. Robert, question, short answer. Just very quickly, we're talking about this, the bill currently going through Congress, and I see a lot of Republicans posting this meme about Joe Biden cutting $30 billion from HBCUs. What Republicans are actually helping on HBCU funding? Good question. I've not seen who's on the bill. I know who was on

the committee today, and there were a lot of questions about adding additional dollars after we received the 6.5 and then the 1.6. But. Oh, it looks like, folks, we just lost Leslie Baskerville. So I guess we're going with none. So here's the deal. Well, no, well, no, actually, you do have you do have some and you do have some and you've had supporters in the past again. So let me so again, let me explain to people right now, because I think a lot of people, again, you're retweeting stuff from folks who have no idea what the hell they're talking about. The problem is this here. They are still negotiating what is going to be the size of the package. So is it 3.5 million? It's going to be two and a half. It's going to be 1.5. It's going to be 1.2 billion. Once they get to what that bottom line number is, then you're going to have

a renegotiation of all that goes into it. That's what we're doing. I just emailed the White House to say, I need a response from you on this so-called $45 billion. And again, here's the other thing I need caution, folks, you're watching. It said for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. Okay, hell, if that so-called $45 billion, you could have $40 billion going to other minority-serving institutions and only $5 billion going to HBCUs, but the way it's being portrayed is, oh, $45 billion was going to HBCUs. That's why on this show we speak to what actually happens, what are the facts.

And so we lost Leslie. I appreciate her coming on to the show. In the next hour, we will talk to the Thurgood Marshall Fund to hear from them about this issue so you will have the actual facts. And when you're tweeting and posting on Instagram and Facebook and everywhere, fan base and everywhere else, you will have the actual details and not just repeating what somebody else has to say. And so that's why what we do, what we do, we focus on facts and details. All right, folks, I want to go to my next story. And this is quite an interesting story.

We talk about what is happening in Virginia. It's real strange, folks, the story in Virginia where where these neighbors are tormenting a black family. The Martinez family says their neighbor has been playing recordings of racial slurs and monkey noises since they arrived in the neighborhood several months ago. Watch this. From now on, if a person uses the word, it must be a safe seven words away from the word guy. Now the police have been called several times because no crime has been committed. Nobody is being arrested. Joining us right now is Tim Anderson. He is an attorney with Anderson & Associates from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He's representing the family Pro Bono. Tim, glad to have you back on Roland Martin

Unfiltered. First of all, how long has this family lived in this area? How long has this been going on? So, hey, thanks for having me on the show, Roland. I'm glad to be here. So, I'm an attorney in Virginia Beach, and I'm watching what's happening from 30,000-foot view the same way as we all are. We have not made contact with this family yet, but we have identified multiple causes of actions that she can bring. She's not been able to make any progress with the police, and that's fine. There may not be criminal laws here, but we are trying to communicate with this family to let them know, one, my law firm is ready to go to help them, and two, there's plenty of civil actions that could be brought that could put an end to this nonsense. This is in my hometown, and we are watching this horrifically happening here and want to get involved.

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

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

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Okay, so you're now officially representing the family. You are offering your services to this family pro bono after you saw this story in news reports. Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly right. I've been a lawyer here for 21 years. You know, this is outrageous. This doesn't and shouldn't be happening anywhere, but it's certainly not going to happen in my hometown without me at least trying to get involved. I'm always attracted to big fights like this. And it's not a money thing for us. It's a matter of doing what's right

and making sure that people understand that there's just civility. And Virginia Beach is a great place and we have a great community. And unfortunately, we have some people in every community that act like this. And we're going to do our best to attract this family to come to us and help them get through this moment. Okay, so what is weird here is the cops saying, you know, we can't do nothing. I'm sorry, are there not noise ordinances? Well, yes, so there's certainly noise ordinances, but it's based on decibels in Virginia. And so here's what I understood from the CNN reports, and our local newspaper actually published a story about it. Here's basically the historical background.

This family lives there. This is a veteran family. And there was a noise complaint with her neighbor, and she called the police. And since that, the neighbor has now escalated and retaliated with motion sensors being pointed at the house and this monkey music and the clip that you just showed. And that is not, there's nothing criminal, at least as far as the police are concerned, and nothing criminal as far as the magistrate's concerned, because apparently she went to the magistrate and reported this.

Those aren't crimes. But that doesn't mean there's not civil remedy. There's civil remedy that exists under mean there's not civil remedy. There's civil remedy that exists under Virginia law for nuisances. And we actually, even in Virginia, have an archaic little statute, which is very rarely found, which says that insulting words is actionable. So if you insult somebody to the point where it would cause them such distress. And the actual code specifically says breaching the peace, which that in any view is certainly breaching of the peace, that's actionable under civil law. And so all she needs is a lawyer to file a lawsuit to put a stop

to it. That's it. And so it may not be a criminal remedy, but there's certainly civil remedy. And hopefully they'll use us or somebody to take this action to the appropriate court. Well, again, hopefully they get some kind of relief because this is absolutely crazy. Tim Anderson, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. This makes no sense to me, Robert. This is nuts. This is pure harassment of his family and the cops and they can't do anything. It's interesting to his point because the reason that it's difficult for cops to do anything in a situation like this is that, let's take the counter positive. There's somebody playing rap music that has the N word all strung throughout it uh would you want that to be criminally actionable now it should be actionable under intentional infliction of emotional distress uh under a clear civil penalty also uh disturbing the peace uh if

it does go above the proper decibel level and i do think the family absolutely should take every civil remedy possible but also that's why i always keep guns around because of these people are playing this monkey music across the street from my house. Here we go. So just to recap, from across the street, 6.5 Creedmoor, 18-inch barrel, 10-7 twist. You're going to want yourself a 7x24 scope on it, just in case you want to get them across the street. Now, if they are close up, you want your mini AR. So you can get a 3.5-inch barrel with a cookie cutter on it with a collapsible,

low-tactical stock on it. It used to be good. You can still get your.223, your.556, the ammo going. You don't burn all of your powder, but you really don't need to go that fast or that distance. So I think people need to invest in a nice NAGA membership to National Association of African-American Gun Association because they teach all these things to make sure you can be safe because somebody's playing across the street

there's only so long before they come across the street. Or? DeMario, you have any idea what the hell DeMario, you have any idea what the hell Rob was just talking about? I do. I know. I know what Rob was talking about. I actually have a membership to that organization. You know, I'm here in

Oklahoma. Hey, Scott, stop talking, Scott. DeMario's organization. I'm here in Oklahoma. Hey, Scott, stop talking, Scott. DeMario's talking. I'm here in Oklahoma. DeMario, go. I'm a gun owner. I agree with a lot of what Robert has said. I definitely think I'm glad to have an attorney. I was about to say, hell, I'll come and represent them because I do see several causes of action.

I do believe in intentional inflection of emotional distress. I do believe there can also be some civil rights claims. You could have what's called a 1985.3, where you got two or more people who are conspiring together to take someone's civil rights. And they're trying to run those people out of their home. There's no question about it. That is a civil rights violation, I believe, that's happening there. And I think there's a hate crime there. I mean, when you are saying the nigger, talking about nigger and monkey towards black people in this type of fashion, I think that's a hate crime. So I think that they should be sued. And I believe that they should be successful.

And hopefully that family has some money because they need to be held totally accountable. No question about it. And that's another reason why I'm happy to live in a black neighborhood. Yeah, maybe. Both of my colleagues are right, and that surely makes us feel good. But maybe, but maybe not. This is what he needs to do, and I'm sure he's going to do it. You start with a cease and desist letter in no uncertain terms and lay out what the civil or administrative violations are vis-a-vis ordinances and give them an opportunity to cease and desist, right? They will have to respond or they get a lawyer to respond. Then, if they don't respond and the bad acting or the bad acts continue, right, then you file for what we call a temporary

restraining order. It's a civil lawsuit, but you seek an injunctive relief. And to my colleagues, I do think you could argue irreparable harm. There's statutes that are immediately being violated based on what their lawyer has indicated, right? There's irreparable harm. There's likelihood of success on its merits. It's certainly in the public interest that you're not blasting the N-word and anything else, and you seek a TRO under the local laws in Virginia Beach, and you get a judge who will be offended, most would be highly offended by this conduct, and they'll sign an order

barring them temporarily from engaging in this bad conduct. Eventually, you get a preliminary injunction, and then you win the lawsuit, and you can still get damages even though you got a TRO, because you're going to sue for damages, right? That takes the energy out of that racist family, if you will. And then you get community support for it, which is gonna be hard not to get community support for it, but they need to get into court.

And then lastly, they need to go to the government of Virginia Beach and see whether they have a certificate of occupancy, see whether they are in compliance with their electrical code and all these other things that you have to do and get the city to enforce it. Right. So this is what we call hitting back and hitting hard. Eventually, the broadcast will stop because it becomes too expensive and too offensive, even for the bad actors to engage in that conduct. That's what I would do. All right, folks.

Real quick. Yeah, I will say now, just in case what Scott said doesn't work. So this is your mini AR. You flip it out this way. You pull out that way. All right. And then you're ready to roll.

And then if you pop right back in, fold back up, goes right in your jacket, and you're good to go. So in case that plan doesn't work. That'll bring the police out, Robert. That'll bring the police out. In your own house.

Are you shooting to kill Maine? In my house. In my house. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, can't nobody hear. Stop, Scott. Can't nobody hear both of y'all when y'all talking. Robert finished and Scott. Can't nobody hear.

I always call my name first. Because, Scott, Scott, let me say it again. Hey, Scott, let me say it again. It's Roland Martin unfiltered. Now, when they mute your microphone, then we're going to get it done. Robert, finish your point. You wouldn't dare. Scott, the point is

in your house, in your home to make sure these people keep what they're doing across the street. Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure this stays civil. And anybody who's playing that kind of music in loud volumes, they are a loose cannon. I can't trust what you're going to do. My job is to protect me and my wife and

my dog and my property away from those people. So whatever that may be required, you're having something that fits under your jacket. It's very useful. It's important. It's important for yourself. We are saying that you cannot shoot somebody from your property to the property across the street. That's the mini one. This is the one in the house one.

This is the in the house one. I want to make sure my brother roll this. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Y'all can have all that. Y'all can have all that back and forth during the break.

I got to go to commercial break. We come back. We're going to talk about some racist flyers being sent out targeting a black pastor and state officials in Virginia. We'll talk with one of them next. Also, why is AT&T funding one of the most virulent, racist, lying, misogynistic, Donald Trump, MAGA loving conservative networks in America? We'll unpack it next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice.

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

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

The all-new Buick Envision, an SUV built around you. All of you. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Hey, I'm Cupid, the maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance.

What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, more racism in Virginia as some flyers that have been going out, highly critical of black state officials now. And they're also they're targeting a black pastor. It is the story really makes no sense whatsoever. Once you begin to unpack exactly what is going on here, we want to do that because, again, you just heard that particular story there. There's other couple how they are being targeted in Virginia. But now we have these racist flyers.

One of the folks, Pastor and Delegate Joshua Cole of Fredericksburg, who is being targeted. Alex Askew of Virginia Beach. Delegate Joshua Cole, Jones is right now. So exactly, do you know where these flyers originated from? And what did they say about you and your other delegate?

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Thank you, Roland, for having us on tonight. The flyers originated based on the description from the Republican Party of Virginia, and their intent was to describe us as liberal puppets, basically controlled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Ocasio-Cortez. And what was interesting was we were all on strings, supposedly, until we discovered that Delegate Askew and my particular mailer had us actually suspended by rope dangling in

the air, while the other seven delegates were by strings, dangled, and they were just on the ground. What is, and so, first, what are they trying to do? I mean, how many people did they send it to? How many households? Do you have any idea how many flyers went out? I'm not quite certain on how many households went out. I was actually alerted about the mailer over the weekend when a constituent reached out,

disgruntled by the mailer. And then on Monday, I actually received it at my home. And so I started asking a couple of my colleagues if they received this mailer. And they sent it to me and they showed us the different versions that they've had. And like, again, as I said, the interesting thing for myself and Delegate Askew, the only two black men who won the mailer, we were depicted in a different way. And we know this is the capital of the Confederacy. This is Old Dominion.

So these are just racial dog whistles. We have flipped Republican districts that have been Republican districts for years. We flipped them, and they're trying to use those dog whistles to call certain people out, but we won't be intimidated. What's next? First of all, is anyone involved? State Attorney General's office, anyone? Any investigation going on? No, not as of yet.

We called on our opponents and the Republican Party of Virginia to condemn the mailers, and they basically stated they were holding us accountable for our ultra-liberal record. But we will make sure that what's going on next is that we're exciting our voters to get out. If we won these districts before, we will continue to do it. And as Virginia is moving forward into a new light, we're not going back to these old-school

racial ways. No matter how many times they try to rephrase it, remask it, we're going to do it. And as Virginia is moving forward into a new light, we're not going back to these old school racial ways, no matter how many times they try to, you know, rephrase it, remask it. We're going to keep moving forward. All right, Pastor and Delegate Joshua Cole, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. To our panel, I want to talk about this story here. Virginia mom is suing the school district for policy changes after her five-year-old son was put in a chokehold. In 2018, Pamela Onenwu was picking up her son when she saw a school resource officer placing him in a chokehold. The reason, the child was allegedly singing too loud in class and the officer was called to make him stop. The mom and two other parents filed suit against the Fairfax County school system,

citing psychological trauma and physical pain were being inflicted on students with disabilities. The school staff settled out of court and added additional training for staff. DeMarlo, kids singing too loud? You put them in the headlight, a choke hold? You know, it's just ridiculous. And again, this is just what we see all the time across the

nation. I had a case recently in Seattle, Washington, where I had a black kid, 11 years old, who was autistic and they got upset with him and put him out in the cold weather for three or four hours and laughed at him. This is happening across this nation when it comes to black kids, brown kids, and kids with special needs.

I wonder if this little five-year-old had any type of special needs because they're treated really bad. I'm really happy to hear that they had good counsel. It sounds like they were able to get a settlement, but more importantly, get policy changes. And I hope they were able to get that particular officer terminated. We were able to get the teacher that locked out my client terminated, and that's what has to happen. It has to be accountability. It has to hurt the pockets of those who causes the harm.

And it also has to show these people that we will not stand for this. A five-year-old being placed in the chokehold, that is just unconscionable. It's ridiculous. And I'm so glad to hear that people were held accountable. This is a thing that we keep seeing, Scott, and that is with these resource officers, their job is not to further traumatize students. I mean, the actions, we keep seeing this whole thing happen all over again. This is why people are calling for a lot of these cops to be removed from schools. Exactly. Exactly. And these resource officers, their powers need to be severely restricted, but they're not actually. These are police officers. In Washington, D.C., 20 plus

years ago, I had a case with a resource officer who was referring to the kids in the hallway by the N-word. They got tired of it and they jumped on him, assaulted him, and took his gun. The government would eventually walk away from the case and dismiss the case that they brought charges against two or three of the leaders of this group of kids. And so you're absolutely right. But Roland, when we get these cases, right, when you report on these cases, let me tell you something. They don't see us. You have to see me

as a human being in order to treat me humanely. And when you report on these stories like chokeholds for the five-year-olds or crazy-ass white people doing crazy things, right, or the police beating up black men and women simply because they refused a police order. They don't see us. So if they don't see us, they treat us less than human. They treat us like animals, if you will. It is unjustifiable. You and I, or they rather, will treat a dog better than how we're treated by the police in many instances.

And so we've got to, it's more than retraining. It's about where this racism comes from. It's not genetic. Nobody's born with a racism gene, as we've often said and our leaders have said. And so they're trained that way. They're taught that way from their environment or at home. That's what we got to get to because otherwise they're going to continue not to see us. You know, and just let me just jump in real probably on this. It's something that was so important. And sorry, Robert, but I just this is very important. They're not resource officers.

They are police officers. And one of the things that the police have done a really good job, and Republicans in general, is how they frame things. It's the same with officer-involved shooting. That is to try to make it seem like what it really is. It's the state killing somebody or the state shooting someone. So these are just police officers with extraordinary power. They should not be the first people called when you're having an issue with a five-year-old, a seven-year-old, a nine-year-old, things of that nature. These people are bullies many times. We saw the case of the young lady, and Scott is exactly right. The young lady, when they took out of the chair and slammed her on the ground, because he didn't see her as a little girl. He saw her as a other than. And that is important. But we've got to change our own terminology.

Not resource officers, police officers. Not officer-involved shootings. Police shootings of a person, the state, murdering someone. And they're not trained to be resource officers. Robert, Robert, Robert. They're not. And to that point, I think that's when we got caught up in this conversation around, quote, unquote, defund the police last year. And Republicans used that to their political advantage.

But in reality, this is what we're talking about, which is de-escalating situations that if a child is thinking too loud, maybe you have them talk to the social worker to find out why they're expressing themselves in this way. And often I use the analogy of what would happen if this was a little white girl named Lily White. What would happen if this was a golden retriever? I mean, realistically, if this was a golden retriever that they saw that was barking too loud and somebody put it into a chokehold, it would be the leading story. Nancy Grace would be out there right now.

They'd be looking for him like they were looking for Gabby and all this other stuff. But because it was a young black boy and they see the dehumanization of them, they do not have that same empathy. And this goes towards the way that our school system is often the feeder system for our prison pipeline, because they start criminalizing children at five years old, put them into the system. So by the time they're 17 or 18, they are right to go to their next stage, which is not college, but into the criminal industrial complex. So we have to start reevaluating the people we put in charge of

raising our children for so many hours a day and creating a system where they're not simply continuing to be over-criminalized and over-prosecuted for the least bit of expression as a human being. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Got to go to a break. We come back. Our daily report on black and missing in other news of the day. And we'll talk about AT&T, an explosive report from Reuters showing how AT&T execs asked and wanted another conservative network to compete with Fox and how they are funding one American news Network to the tune of millions of dollars. Folks ain't happy about that. I'll show you the tweet from Derek Johnson, president of the NAACP and others.

That is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, live from Los Angeles. ТРЕВОЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА Holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like really loves. All right, folks, 30-year-old Kashawn Ashley Sims, who also goes by the nickname of Cookie, was last seen in Duarte, California on September 8th, 2021. She is 5 feet 1 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, with black shoulder-length hair and brown eyes.

She also has tattoos of the phrase, it's found in the soul on her left collarbone, the word earth on her left forearm, and a tattoo of Spanish writing on her back. Anyone with information on the scene's whereabouts should call the L.A. County Sheriff's Missing Persons Unit at 323-890-5500, 323-890-5500. And so we're going to continue to do our part to bring you up to date on the tells of these missing folks, and hopefully they will be found safe and unharmed. That is our hope. All right, folks, let's go to Rochester, New York, where Lovely Warren has agreed to leave office for violating state election laws during her 2017 run for reelection, and she will leave office by December 1st.

She was facing felony charges that she and two assistants violated campaign contribution limits, but she pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor, admitting that she knowingly exceeded the $8,557 limit. By admitting to the charge, the city's first black woman elected mayor will likely not lose her law license. And so again, she will be stepping down as of December 1st. So it's been a whole bunch of drama there in Rochester, New York. Issues with the police department. In fact, her husband had gotten arrested. So man, it's been a whole bunch of drama there. So she's going to be leaving office. All right folks, food is an important issue in this country. A lot of us love to eat, some live to eat, some eat to live. But the

reality is our children are most impacted by this. And there's one entrepreneur who did something quite interesting. What she did was she actually opened a grocery store in a school. Joining us right now is Jasmine Crowe. She's the founder and CEO of Goodr. Is it Goodr? G-O-O-D-R? Is that how it's pronounced? Right. Okay. So you decided, so you opened a grocery store in a school. How? Yeah. I mean, it's just like that. We were fortunate to work with a client, a hip-hop star, Gunna. We've been working with him since 2018. He came to us and said he wanted to do something for back-to-school,

and I pitched him on the idea of building a grocery store and creating something that was sustainable and had legacy. And so he gave me the list of all the schools he attended, elementary, middle, and high school. I called the middle school first, had a great call with Principal Madden, and he shared with me just the need at that school, how many kids were living in poverty, how many kids really were leaving school and being adults, taking care of younger brothers and sisters, and many times taking care of themselves. And he had a small closet that he was using as, like, a clothing closet.

There was a couple cans of food in there, and we just decided to remake it, and we created a grocery store, a free grocery store. I think it's important to know that role, and so families and students and even staff can utilize this store free of charge. So okay so is it an actual business or is it a non-profit? How do you get the space? Is it in partnership with the school? How does that all work? Yeah so it's an actual service if you will. It's a free grocery store. The grocery store doesn't operate like a business.

There's no exchange in money between the students or families. It is funded by GUNNA, and that's how we've been able to do it. So Gooder is a business. We produce activations all over the country to really help people rethink how they give food to families. And if you think about it, Roland, there is about almost $100 billion a year spent on food and nutrition programs. But what we've seen is it's actually created a vicious cycle because the money always goes to the same, like large hunger fighting organizations. And it's not to say that food banks and food pantries don't serve a purpose, but what they do is they keep families dependent on going to more than one to actually marry a meal together. And so what we think at Gooder is that there's a big difference between access to food in this country and access to meals in this country. And so we focus on bringing families access to meals. So we have kids that

can go in there and pick out food items that they can then go home and make meals for the family. And that's what we do. Sounds like a great initiative. How has it been going thus far? It's been going great. We've seen almost 200 families shop in the store so far. This Friday makes three weeks, so we still got a couple more days. The store is open school hours, so typically about an hour before classes begin and an hour

after kids end classes. We've created a web app where families can just register and select a time to come and shop. They get a reusable grocery bag, which every kid in the school received, and they can just fill it up, no questions asked. The store also has toiletry items, household items like laundry detergent, dish soap, things that families, you know, if they do have food snap benefits, they cannot use those to purchase those toiletry and household items. So we're seeing that that's really popular, as is the food. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by opportunity at work and the ad council all right then look uh sounds uh sounds great uh any plans to expand to other schools uh in the area absolutely we want to expand this all over the country. We've received, you know, thousands of inquiries, so we're working through those.

Our hope is to at least get to the top 10 states where more than 15 percent of the population on average is food insecure or hungry. So, you know, expect to see us potentially in Mississippi, Alabama, and then even states like Colorado and New Mexico, where there's a lot of need and a lot of people that are hungry as well. All right, then. Well, Jasmine, congratulations. We certainly appreciate it. Good luck with that. And as you said in the story I saw you got parents out there if they need something they could just simply let their kid know and be able to go to the grocery store and bring that item homes I'm sure a lot of parents are very thankful for this innovative idea thank you so much Roland I appreciate

you having me on all right thanks a bunch. Good luck. You know, DeMario, this is the level of creativity that I believe is necessary that we have to have. You used to have in this country, you had significant community centers, social services centers, that they were sacrificed by budget cuts. And what this exposes also is the issue that we have of children who go hungry. I've talked to, look, my brother has been a teacher. Two of my sisters have been teachers. Two of my sisters are teachers. My niece is a teacher. And having these conversations, we don't think about it, but the number of kids who literally go to school every single day hungry. So people wonder about behavioral issues. They wonder about things along those lines.

Why can't these kids concentrate? It's hard as hell to concentrate in school when you're starving. Oh, Roland, you're so right. I just appreciate your show so much to bring on that initiative. Very impressed by that young lady. And as someone, you know, as you know, Roland, I have a mentoring program we've been doing for several years. And we see this inside the schools with people needing access to meals. You know, as someone who grew up on SSI and having to use food stamps and things of that nature,

I know it feels good for those kids to be able to go in there and those families to just get what they need and not have to say what their financial status is or anything like that. And I think the idea that she has is pretty innovative. And I think there may be an opportunity to use some Title I dollars to get funding outside of just her client who's funding it now, because that's not, I don't really know that yet, the artists she talked about, but I don't know if that's really sustainable to really move to other states, but I think the idea is a great idea, and maybe they can give us some Title I funding, which for those who don't know, Title I funding is for

low-income schools, and use those fundings to help generate the revenue that's necessary, or the funding that's necessary, so this can be expanded to other other schools because the need is great. I'm in Oklahoma, we're one of the top 10 worst states for hunger and it's just an ever-ending problem that needs innovative people like Jasmine to give new solutions to. Like I said, I really think we do have to rethink how we help kids today, Robert. This is an interesting way to do so. And it is a matter of being able to help them help their parents because people make assumptions, oh, everybody's fine, everybody has food. No, there are many kids literally sitting in schools who are totally dependent on free lunch programs.

And you have Republicans who are attacking those programs left and right. You've got these conservative commentators attacking these programs left and right as if everybody has food in this country. They don't. The poor in this country, Reverend Dr. Barber talked about this all the time, the poor, the working poor are doing their best and we throw away billions of dollars worth of food every year. And this, to me, makes a hell of a lot of sense. Well, Roland, on that point, remember Operation Breadbasket was in many ways founded upon a very similar concept and idea.

And we have to look at this nation up to the mirror of who we really are. 40% of the food in this nation is thrown away. We pay farmers, we actually have farm subsidies and pay farmers to throw food away instead of sending it to market because of the depressed prices. We would rather have people starve in America than to just feed them the food that we are producing, the most abundantly productive nation to ever exist on the face of this earth. So I think we have to look at the policy prescriptions that are out there, the fact that we are dealing with the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill right now, and we cannot even get 50 votes in the United States Senate to feed children, to educate

children, to give people housing, to give people childcare. But if it comes to a new bomb or a new bomber plane or aircraft carrier or atomic bomb, we find the money every time. In the tax cuts, we find the money every time. Just as you said, I know people who are educators and have friends and family members who do the same. Many of them have had to bring washing machines into the school to wash the children's clothing because they didn't have those resources at home, to give children food after class just out of their own pockets. So instead of us fighting over the scraps and having these esoteric arguments or a policy,

let's get down to the nitty gritty and put together programs to actually help people so we'll not take initiatives of this nature and the richest nation on earth in order to do so. We actually have a panel of this next week at the Rainbow Puts Conference on youth entrepreneurship, where some students did a very similar thing at their school, putting together a business where they sold food to other children to address many of these issues

where they're getting donations from stores and corporations in order to help finance those things. People can register for that at creatingopportunityconference.com. But it's important that we support people who are doing these things and at the same time press Congress so that you do not have to do it on the individual level that we're getting together natural national policy we have the resources we just choose not to use them yeah hey scott um yeah roland real quick there's another part to this that we we haven't talked about and that this store in the school, how many grocery stores are around this school and available? The food deserts of America, we know our poor communities and our black communities suffer from that. About 15 years ago, Michelle Martin, a colleague of yours, a fellow press journalist,

did a story on ABC News about this, the relationship between poverty and health. And what her report found was that these kids and adults who were poor and who could not afford healthy food, right, and I hope this store and school offers healthy alternatives, but they couldn't afford healthy foods. And so as a result, they were eating McDonald's or their grocery stores, if they had one, sold high-carbohydrate, high-sugar, high-fat products at a very low price in those grocery stores in our poor communities. And as a result, it wasn't so much that the kids and the adults were going hungry.

Some were, but their diet actually increased their weight and increased their health challenges. And so the second part of this story really is about the food deserts and how unhealthy poor people eat and people with economic challenges, how poor their diet is and how it taxes the health care system in America. It's a whole other issue. But this store concept in the stores hopefully addresses that. But there's a broader piece here that the FDA, as well as the grocery store industry, you know, you go to a poor neighborhood, you can't get healthy products as much as you go to an poor neighborhood, you can't get healthy products as much as you go to an expensive neighborhood. You can see it even at the Safeways and the Giants of the world.

They have different products for different communities. That's got to stop because the poor communities aren't getting the healthiest choices, nor are they being educated on healthy choices. That's a direct relationship with their weight gain, with their overall health, and how their health challenges tax the health care system in America. Folks, got to go to the break. We come back. We'll talk about AT&T funding the One American News Network, also our Tech Talk segment. All of that next. Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, if you also want to support what we do, please join our Bring the Funk fan club, where every dollar you give goes to support what we do.

Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Zill is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Nettopp på en av de fleste stående stående i landet. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You to become Bear Hug Betty.

Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Everybody, it's your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And... Well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered.

All right, folks. An explosive story from Reuters dropped today, where the CEO founder of One America News Network, that is the right-wing, crazy Donald Trump, MAGA-lo misinformation spreading network gets 90% of its funding from association with AT&T networks. Folks, 90%. According to the CEO, AT&T executives told him when they were launching, they had seven so-called liberal networks, so therefore they wanted more ballots. They only had one, which is Fox News, and so they encouraged them to launch the network.

A lot of people are angry with this, saying that AT&T is funding right-wing extremism. Now, AT&T has been highly criticized when Governor Greg Abbott of Texas proposed his voter suppression bill, and the PAC for AT&T gave his campaign $100,000. I want to bring my panel back. This is significant, Scott, because when we talk about companies, this whole right-wing media echo chamber, this is how they get funded. And so think about it. Imagine if AT&T met with me and said, hey, we think there should be more black networks. What we're going to do is we're going to guarantee you revenue, Roland. All you got to do is provide the content.

We're going to give you X number of cents per subscriber. And then, folks, that's money coming in every single month beyond advertising. And this is how they're able to do it. The right wing is being funded by these billionaires and then by these networks of these companies that are supplying them with millions and billions of dollars. And that is what we are up against. A lot of folks are not happy at all with this news. And some people are saying they want to drop AT&T home service. They want to drop DirecTV. They want to drop AT&T phone service. AT&T has an issue, Scott. I think they've got a big issue. And it's interesting. It'll be interesting what their response will be. I don't know whether they've

gotten a formal response or not, but you can boycott AT&T, right? Or you can negotiate and demand more millions of dollars, go into shows or go into the Black Star Network or the black media, if you will, right? And negotiate them not investing in organizations that support the big lie, right? Or attack democracy or voter suppression. These companies have got to be held accountable. And you're making them accountable with this report or attempting to hold them accountable. But more networks, cable networks and otherwise, need to hold them accountable and need to ensure that the best investments for these types of shows, that it's not only balanced, but it's realistic, right? If you are a right-wing conservative network

and you support the big lie and the January 6th insurrection, you shouldn't be funded by anybody. It's downright anti-American and anti-democracy. A lot of people, again, are expressing outrage. Do we have a tweet from Derek Jackson? anti-American and anti-democracy. A lot of people, again, are expressing outrage. Do we have a tweet from Derrick Jackson? Derrick Johnson, I'm sorry, President and CEO of the NAACP. If so, go ahead and pull that up.

And he, of course, commented on this. And so go ahead and show it here, folks. You know, he's talking about, again, after this story actually dropped, outraged by reports AT&T backing far-right propaganda funneling tens of millions of dollars into OAN, while at the same time pretending to care about issues of race, diversity, and inclusion if true AT&T has caused irreparable damage to our democracy. Robert? Well, I think that's absolutely true. And I think if you look at many of these conservative networks, it's kind of popped up out of nowhere. If you notice, you know, it was OAN, Newsmax, Real America's Voices, The Blaze, CRCTV. There's a whole litany of these far-right conservative networks that kind of grew out of talk radio and grew into digital platforms and then major television networks where they're getting former big three talent to be on their networks.

You know, Eric Bolling is over there. Some of the other hosts, Heather Children, people who used to be at Fox, people who used to be at MSNBC, they're on some of these networks now. And you have to ask the question, well, where the hell are they getting all this money from? Now we are finding out those same companies that want to put up all the signs that say, well, we stand by social justice. We are here for you. We plan on ending racism or putting money behind Jane where he sits. They're putting money behind the insurrectionists. They're putting money behind all these far right wing echo chamber. I think they need to be held to account on

those points, either as on the one hand, as Scott said, boycotted them, or on the other hand, look, if it's good for the goose, good for the gander, they need to be paying some of these black media networks, i.e. us. I see a rolling out of these new Nissan and Amazon commercials and stuff. Me and Scott are waiting for a check over here. So they

need to be putting those funds in other organizations so that they can grow up and build and be as big as those other companies. That's right. Respect us and pay us. Let's be clear, Scott. Let's be clear. Scott is already getting a big enough check. Demario, this is the tweet sent out by Reverend Alex Sharpton.

It is inexcusable and insulting for AT&T to finance, guys, go to my iPad, please, to finance OWN, a far-right enemy of civil voter rights while playing lip service to black media. We've worked with AT&T in good faith, but this cannot be tolerated. Well, I'm glad to see my frat brother, Derek Johnson, and my very good friend, Reverend Al, speaking out on this. And I agree with my esteemed colleagues that this is ridiculous, that owns should be, they shouldn't even have a network, in my opinion. They are completely racist. We call them conservative right wing. It is a racist network that is trying to bring this country down to a level of white supremacy, being front and

center. And, you know, we heard a lot about this this past week, a couple of days about Facebook. And they were everyone was so shocked because the whistleblower came out and said Facebook puts profits over people. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's called America. America puts profits over people. And that is the American corporate system, period. And so what we want our civil rights leaders like Reverend Allen and Brother Derek Johnson to do is hold these people accountable. As you stated, Roland, as consumers, we should hold them accountable. Hell, I've been wanting to get rid of AT&T, my cell phone with them for years. This may be the reason I finally go ahead and do it. But I really like what Robert said and what Scott said. They also should be putting more money into organizations and networks like yours, Roland, GRIO, other black-owned organizations that are bringing our issues

to the forefront and not just continue to fund these right-wing racist, white supremacist organizations that are just simply trying to make sure that we go back to the stone ages of being indentured or enslaved people. Absolutely. And so we're going to be, we're going to continue reporting on this. And again, there are folks who are saying, hey, we got to call for some serious action. That's what we'll do. Folks, we're going to go to a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to talk to a couple of things. One, we're going to talk to an executive with the Thurgood Marshall Fund about that HBCU story.

We want to get the facts for you. We'll also talk with a tech entrepreneur about a new app. Trust me, you want to find out what it's about. This is why it's important to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Back in a moment. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless.

Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry.

I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision, an SUV built around you. All of you. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell.

Hi, I'm Carl Paney. Hey, everybody. This is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. At the top of the show, we talked about the HBCU funding. The story's been circulating by the Associated Press that $45 billion was supposed to be earmarked for HBCUs. Now that's been cut down to $2 billion. Let's talk with Victor Santos with Thurgood Marshall Fund. Thurgood Marshall Fund, of course, they are out here representing these public HBCUs. Victor, what is the truth? We had Leslie Baskerville on talking about it as

well. I'm sure y'all have gotten phone calls on this. Was there ever $45 billion in a budget proposal or in a bill from the Biden administration, from Democrats, from Republicans to HBCUs? No. So what the proposal was, was for HBCUs and minority serving institutions. So you have to understand what minority serving institutions means. HSIs, there are 569 of them. There are only 101 HBCUs. To give you an example what some HSIs look like. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, you said HSI. What is that? Hispanic Serving Institutions, okay? That means. Okay, so you said there are 101, you said, you said, oh, hold on a second. Hold on, hold on. You said there are 101 HBCUs. Correct.

500 and what? Hispanic serving institutions? 69 and growing. Okay. So to give you an example. So 569, 101, that's 670. Correct. But you also have tribal colleges.

So we're only getting a percentage of that money to begin with. OK. And to give you an example of what these HSIs look like, your alma mater, Texas A&M, is an HSI. So when Leslie was talking about. Are you serious? I'm very serious. If you serve 25 percent% at least Hispanic students, you are an HSI, okay? So for that money that is proposed, and Leslie was talking about the coupling earlier, this is what she was talking about.

She was talking about, don't put HBCUs in the same pot to apply for this money against Texas A&M, University of Texas. Basically the entire California system, they're all HSIs. Every school in Florida is an HSI, but they serve at least 25% Hispanic students. Okay. So was there ever a number? So where does this $45 billion come from? Yeah, so there was a number in the American jobs plan that Biden put out that included some funding for infrastructure along with some centers of excellence, 200 centers of excellence that would have gone to HBCUs and MSIs, which, you know, to be quite frank, is more than half of the schools that are in existence in total when you include all the HSIs, all the PBIs, which are predominantly black institutions, HBCUs.

It's a gamut that runs across the spectrum. So when we say decoupling, what we mean is this. We have to make sure that HBCUs have a pot of money that they can apply for and compete against other HBCUs for. That's what we've been pushing for, and that's what we've been urging Congress to do. Okay. So this thing is being spread like wildfire. People say all sorts of different things. And so what is being spread is factually incorrect.

And so it looks real cute. Oh, the Democrats and Biden are cutting, going from $45 billion to $2 billion for HBCUs. Right now, there is no $2 billion for HBCUs. Right now, there is no $2 billion for HBCUs. The $2 billion is for all MSI HBCUs to compete, as was the $45 billion. Now, what there is also in the plan, which we have to highlight the positives of the plan, is there is a tuition assistance program for HBCUs and MSIs for the first two years, where students would basically be able to go to our schools for free for those first two years. And that's in the plan as well. There's also a billion dollars in the Department of Agriculture for HBCUs in the plan. There's also a billion dollars for HBCUs in the Department of Commerce in the plan or in the bills that have gone through the House

committee. So there are lots of things in the bill. Of course, I advocate for HBCUs and we're fighting for more money for HBCUs as is our job to do. But we have to be truthful about what's really what's really happening. Well, that's precisely why we wanted you on the show. We wanted Leslie on the show so we can actually have the details. And so people who are spreading that Associated Press and that Newsweek story have the actual facts. We also are trying to get Congressman Bobby Scott on the show as well, all the members of the CBC, to explain this so people are not walking around saying a whole bunch of crap. They have no idea what the hell they're talking about.

It's very important, and thank you for giving us a platform to talk about it. Victor, so appreciate it thanks a lot thank you All right, folks, time for Tech Talk. Of course, we love to feature African-Americans who are doing amazing things in technology. And so let's talk about how we take precautions for things being delivered to our homes. COVID, people are concerned about that, touching products. So three black engineers have created a safe, secure way for customers to get their deliveries. They are called lobby lockers. Hopefully I said that right. Joining me now from Clinton, Maryland, is CEO founder Rhea Huntley.

Rhea, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? Okay. Did I pronounce that correct? Is it Lavi Lockers? No, it's Levi. Levi. Okay. Levi. All right. So Levi. Okay. So what is a Levi Locker? What is that? So I'm glad you asked. So a Levi Locker is simply a smart food locker that customers can use to pick up their food either from a restaurant, from an office building or apartment building, or from a virtual kitchen or a ghost kitchen for delivery drivers.

Okay. So, but what is it? Is it a container or something? What is it? Yeah. So it's a three by six locker. It has 10 individual compartments and it's insulated. So what happens during that process is the normal pickup way, which I started to see actually before the pandemic, is that restaurants had like an open shelf. So the open shelf isn't really secure. Anyone can grab the food. Plus, the food isn't maintaining that temperature. So the Levi's Smart Food Lockers actually keeps the food safe and secure, as well as maintains the temperature into the customer or the delivery driver comes and picks up the food. So is this for the restaurant or is it for the customer? Who's this product going to be sold to and who's it for? So our main customers are restaurants, office buildings, apartment buildings, as well as ghost kitchens and virtual kitchens. The main benefits behind them purchasing the actual locker system from us is that either for office buildings and apartment buildings, their tenants now have a better way of picking up their food from a secure area,

as far as like putting the actual locker inside of the lobby. And then from the restaurant perspective, they're able to create more of a seamless pickup process for their customers as well. So our direct customers, we're a business to business company, so we don't sell directly to the consumer,

but the consumer benefits from the actual business that purchases from us. Questions from our panel. Robert Petillo, you first. What kind of inspired you to get into this, and how can this business model, do you think this business model can be grown across the country? Because it does seem to be something that's endemic in most big cities. So what are your plans on expansion? So I actually started this idea, thought about this idea even before the pandemic, based on my own personal frustration with picking up food. So I feel as though this idea, there was an issue and a need, and the pandemic kind of solidified the actual idea.

And currently right now now we're nationwide. So we have restaurants within D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Indiana, and New Jersey. And right now we have one office building in D.C. that's currently using our locker system for their tenants. So our growth for expansion, when we first started, based on the idea that I have, we started just in the restaurant market. But since then, we've noticed that this can be used for residential, any commercial property. And there's a new trend going on right now with like ghost kitchens and virtual kitchens,

which need a better system for food delivery drivers to come and pick up the food because you can have one virtual kitchen that hosts maybe 20 to 30 virtual restaurants. But from then, you're able to have different food delivery drivers, whether from Grubhub, Uber Eats, or DoorDash, come and seamlessly pick up the food and actually drop it off to the actual destination that it's intended for. Scott? Wow. Okay. That visual was really, really good. Are you, is the project or is the item available for private home use yet? Or is that your growth strategy? So we haven't decided

to go directly to the consumer, at least not yet. We feel as though business to business would be best for us going forward, especially because those are the people that would benefit the most from our product. Being as though where we are right now, we're still in the midst of a pandemic. And then a lot of people just want convenience and security right now. So that's mainly our true main focus. I feel as though if we went towards the route towards directly to a consumer at a home, it would be more towards like parcel pickup. And we haven't done that as of yet. What about colleges and universities though? That'd be an interesting business concept. Correct. And we're actually working with someone

right now who's looking to go down that path. So that's definitely within our future where we plan to go. Yeah. Great concept. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, as a very well-known germaphobe, I certainly appreciate this product a lot. You know, you walk into a place like Chipotle, like I go all the time, and you'll see all of those bags just sitting there and just open to anyone touching them. So I think this is a fantastic product. I would love to see you on Shark Tank. I think this is a product

that should go straight nationwide, and I think you can get one, maybe Damon and one of those other sharks to help you continue to grow this product. You know, what was the barriers for you to be able to get to from the point of your conception that you had this idea to actually getting this to the market, and now you're growing it? I mean, how were you able to do that? Because it's very impressive. So my background is within tech. It's not like programming, but it's in IT for networking. But I can pretty much teach myself anything. So I was able to teach myself how to program just a

little bit and actually built the initial first prototype and where you would scan a QR code and the lock would unlock. So from there, I actually met up with James and Marcus, who are both now my two partners, introduced the idea to them, and then we took it from there. But due to the fact that we didn't have any funds to grow the business at that point, we all had to bootstrap the business and invest our own funds to get it to this point. So right now we're continuing to grow, but once we get to a certain point, we definitely have to secure more funds in order to expand the way we want to expand and also deploy more different locker solutions that some customers have been asking for.

Yeah. All right. Give me more information. What's the website? Give me more information, please. Sure. Our website is lavai, L-A-V-I-I-I-N-C.com. They can reach us there and also follow us on Instagram.

That's lavalavii-inc. All right. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, and good luck. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right. That is it.

That is it for us, folks. I appreciate y'all joining us tomorrow, y'all. Robert, Scott, thank you so very much, folks. I will see you guys tomorrow. Thank you. Right here, Roland Martin. Thank you. On the Black Star Network.

Holler! Nettopp Kjell Kronqvist it's time to be smart roland martin's doing this every day oh no punches no punches! Thank you, Roland Martin, for always giving voice to the issues. Look what Roland Martin in the world went, to quote Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. We abort this man, black media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with rolling all the way.

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

You dig? Thank you. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met

them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.