#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Biden's Student Debt Relief, La Delays Juvenile Angola Transfer, RainbowMe Kids

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

8.24.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Biden's Student Debt Relief, La Delays Juvenile Angola Transfer, RainbowMe Kids President Joe Biden detailed his plans to deliver on a campaign promise to provide student debt relief for millions of Americans. We're going to break down his plan with Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, Jared Bass, the Senior Director of Higher Education Policy at the Center for American Progress, and economist Dr. Julianne Malvoh. The state of Louisiana is delaying the transfer of juveniles to the Angola prison campus on September 15th. But what is going to happen on the 16th? One of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit to stop the transfer will be here to let us know.  Later...We'll take a look at last night's primary election results.  We'll also get to talk to King Jaquell Martin, who faithfully served our country only to come home to be treated like a criminal. I'll speak to the army veteran who chronicled his violent encounter with a police officer in his award-winning film, "A War on Friendly Grounds." And in today's Tech Talk segment, you'll meet an author who found a creative way to expand the imagination and reality of children with 4D characters.  Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? It's Wednesday, August 24, 2022. I am Therese Garnier sitting in for Roland today.

And here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on Blackstar Network. Today, President Joe Biden detailed his plans to deliver on a campaign promise to provide student debt relief for millions of Americans. We're going to break this down. His plan with Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, Jared Bass, the Senior Director of Higher Education and Policy at the Center for American Progress, and economist Dr. Julian Mavo. The state of Louisiana is delaying the transfer of juveniles to the Angola prison campus on September 15th, but what is going to happen to them after the 16th? Well, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit to stop the transfer will be here to let us know. Later, we'll take a look at

last night's primary election results, and we'll also get to talk to King Jaquel Martin, who faithfully served his country only to come home to be treated like a criminal. I'll speak to the Army veteran who chronicled his violent encounter with a white imagination and reality of children with 4D characters. Now, guys, you know what time it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all.

Yeah, yeah. It's Rolling Martin, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Thanks to President Joe Biden, thousands of folks with student loans will get some relief as he announces the cancellation of up to $20,000 for those who earn less than $125,000 a year. President Biden said that his long-sought reprieve for American saddle-by payments would aid in boosting the U.S. economy. There are three key factors we're going to do. First, we've made incredible progress advancing America's economic recovery. We've wound down pandemic relief programs, like the ones on unemployment insurance

and small businesses. It's time we do the same thing for student loans. Student loan payments pause is going to end. It's going to end December 30. I'm extending to December 31st, 2022, and it's going to end at that time. It's time for the payments to resume. Second, my campaign for President, I made a commitment. I made a commitment that would provide student debt relief, and I'm honoring that commitment today. Using the authority Congress granted the Department of Education, we will forgive $10,000 in outstanding federal student loans. In addition, students who come from low-income families, which allow them to qualify to receive a Pell Grant, will have their debt reduced $20,000.

Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most. Working and middle class people hit especially hard during the pandemic, making under $125,000 a year. You make more than that, you don't qualify. No high income individual or high income household on top of the 5% in the top 5% of incomes, by the way, will benefit from this action period. In fact, about 90% of the eligible beneficiaries make under $75,000 as family. Here's what that means.

If you make under $125,000, you get $10,000 knocked off your student debt. If you make under $125,000, you get $10,000 knocked off your student debt. If you make under $125,000 a year and you received a Pell Grant, you'll get an additional $10,000 knocked off that total for a total of $20,000 relief. 95% of the borrowers can benefit from these actions. That's 43 million people. Of the 43 million, over 60% are Pell Grant recipients. That's 27 million people who will get $20,000 in debt relief. Nearly 45% can have their student debt fully canceled. That's 20 million people who can start

getting on with their lives. All this means people can start finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt to get on top of their rent and their utilities. To finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business. And by the way, when this happens, the whole economy is better off. In the coming weeks, the Department of Education will lay out in detail a short and simple form to apply for this relief, along with information when this application process opens. By resuming student loan payments at the same time as we provide targeted relief, we're taking an economically responsible course. As a consequence, about $50 billion a year will start coming back

into the Treasury because of resumption of debt. Independent experts agree that these actions taken together will provide real benefits for families without meaningful effect on inflation. Student debt disproportionately affects black borrowers. Last year, 86.6 percent of black college students took out federal loans to attend a four-year college compared to just 59.9 percent of white students. Now, black borrowers carry an average of 53,000 in debt, while an average of white borrowers only hold about 12,000 in debt. Well, joining me right now, I have Representative Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts to discuss Biden's plan. Now, Representative Pressley, you have been calling for the cancellation of $50,000 in federal student debt. How do you feel about what the president proposed, which was about $40,000 shy of what you and others such as Senator Elizabeth Warren

and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had hoped for? Sure, good to be with you, Therese. You know, first and foremost, I think it's important we acknowledge just how far we've we've come. Student debt cancellation was an issue that many considered fringe and really questioned who, in fact, was impacted by this nearly $2 trillion crisis. They really tried to marginalize the issue and thought that student debt cancellation would be regressive in impact.

And the fact that any cancellation has happened is a testament to the strength of this movement, those who shared their stories of hardship, and our partners. You know, at the strength of this movement, those who shared their stories of hardship, and our partners. You know, at the end of the day, he has, the president has the authority, and so he could pick up that pen. I'm not the president, but I am, I remain deeply committed to the issue. I'm proud of our movement. I'm proud of our partnership. And we have been imploring President Biden to act, and he heeded our calls today. And so, but I do think it's important to contextualize just how far we've come in order to get this action today.

And it is an unprecedented one. So we really can't celebrate enough just how impactful this will be for the people with student loan debt. 20 million people will have their debt fully canceled, and another 23 million will have their debt reduced. So this relief will help them be able to purchase a home, build wealth, start or grow their families, and put more money in their pockets. And this is important. Although we have passed the Inflation Reduction Act, people are still feeling the hurt and will be until we round that corner and they begin to feel the impacts. And we're still in a pandemic-induced recession. So this is responsive to the multiracial, multigenerational coalition that elected this president. And most importantly, it's response

to the needs of the people who have been burdened. So this is the first step that's being taken. So are you and others going to push to maybe get that other $40,000 going? Or what's your plans? What's next? Well, I mean, what I'm focused on right now is just making sure that people are applying for and accessing this relief. More info will be coming and be available in the coming weeks, but borrowers can sign up to find out if they qualify for debt cancellation, as well as the revamped repayment program. So I want to encourage people to go to studentaid.gov slash debt relief to sign up to be

notified automatically when this becomes available. I'll be doing my best to conduct my own vigilant oversight here, because what's important is that people are feeling the impact of this relief. Again, this is a crisis that impacts people from every walk of life. Educators struggling to meet monthly minimum income, monthly minimum payments, seniors living on fixed incomes, 76 years old in my district still paying on student loans, parents who are paying their loans still and now paying their children's because they took out Parent PLUS loans. So this is an economic justice issue.

It's a gender justice issue because two-thirds of this debt is held by women disproportionately. And it is a racial justice issue. And that's why we've continued to push on this, because we know that this will help to narrow the racial wealth gap. And we know that Black students borrow at higher rates because of discriminatory policies like redlining, which have denied our families' ability to build generational wealth. So although there have been gains in income,

we know that income is not wealth. And so our students borrow at higher rates and also default at higher rates. And so this is going to be meaningful and transformative, and it is going to be deeply felt. We have more work to do to address the root causes of affordability when it comes to higher education. And so we have to treat public higher education,

invest in it as the public good that it is. We need to expand Pell Grants. We need tuition-free community college. And we also have to invest in our HBCUs, which have been chronically and woefully under-invested in. But no doubt about it, this is a meaningful and transformative moment. And I thank the administration for heeding our calls. And you and others work very hard to help push

this along. So thank you so much for all the efforts you put into this. And also, thank you for joining us on the show today. Now, I would like to switch it over to two guests that we have, as well as our panelists panelists piggybacking off what Representative Presley had mentioned about how this could impact the economy as well as inflation. Well, joining me right now, I'd like to bring in Jared Bass, the Senior Director of Higher Education Policy at the Center for American Progress, and economist Dr. Julian Malvo, Dean of College of Ethics Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, or yes, Los Angeles, to explain the cancellation, how this cancellation could boost the economy.

So we're going to have you guys jump in and join us and tell us how can this impact our economy. If I can go to our first speaker, I'm sorry, I just lost y'all's names. Let's have Jared chime in and tell us how is this going to boost the economy? So, you know, I think the congresswoman already touched on that. Specifically, this will help borrowers to build wealth, purchase homes, start businesses, save for retirement. So definitely some economic benefits there. But also, you know, specifically for black borrowers, this is advancing for retirement. So definitely some economic benefits there. But also, you know, specifically for Black borrowers, this is advancing racial equity. The president is,

you know, building upon and holding his commitment, his campaign promise to cancel at least $10,000 in student loan debt. And also, you know, his executive order about advancing racial equity. And we're going to see that for Black borrowers through this action today. So you know we're talking about narrowing the racial wealth gap as well as you know to help the economy but also economic opportunity for black borrowers in particular. There are some stats that I was able to find earlier today. There are some individuals including the NAACP the Congress Black Caucus, that are seeking greater debt forgiveness. Now, the impact, according to Liberty Street Economics, found that forgiving the 20K per borrower would wipe out about $321 billion in student loan debt for a third of borrowers,

which would be about 12 million people. However, some argue the extra money that consumers will have now, because they don't have that debt, to spend, that it could increase demand and actually accelerate inflation. So tell me a little bit about how you feel about those who make that argument. Well, I think the argument is specious. I'm sorry, brother. I thought she was talking to me. But in any case, I think the argument is specious. I think that clearly people have more money. They will spend it, but they may also save it. One of the things that we notice about basically the heavy burden of student debt that so many young people carry and some not so young people.

Representative Presley mentioned a woman in her 70s who was still paying student loan debt. But here's the deal. People who have student loans are basically delaying adult decisions. They can't buy homes. They're also delaying employment decisions. They end up going to work somewhere that they don't necessarily want to work because they have to pay the student loan back. We in the public sector that are hurt, if you don't want to be a stockbroker but a teacher, but you can't afford it, think about the implications there as we're talking now about a teacher shortage. So by delaying adult decisions

and by allowing your decisions to be basically shaped by the student loan debt, you're basically harming the economy. Now, to be sure, if someone gets $10,000 and goes to Disneyland, aggregatively, that may be inflationary. But if people use the money to reduce the wealth gap by doing such things as investing in a home, that will actually increase racial wealth. And that's been the issue. The racial wealth gap is a function of public policy over the years that has essentially disadvantaged, systematically disadvantaged black people. And we have to be clear about that. And so this is really, I'm very pleased, of course, I'm with Congresswoman Presley, 10 grand or 20 grand is nice. It would be nicer to do something like 50, as she and her colleagues

had asked for earlier. But let's not forget the other piece of this that's really important is what the president has said about the rest of the legislation he's proposing. He's saying that they'll cap the amount that you have to pay back to 5% of your income. Now you find people, again, they're living in their parents' basements because they can't afford rent. So if you're capped at 5% for paying back, that's a gift. I mean, it's really important because student loans have become crippling for so many people. And then other provisions that the president talked about today that are really important. So while many of us are not dancing in the street, we're dancing. This is really great legislation and we're pleased by

it. Thank you, Dr. Malvo. You know, I want to bring in our panelists because I'm sure they have a ton of questions for the both of you. Who I have joining us as far as panelists goes, we have Robert Petillo, the executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition peach tree Street project say that really fast that's a tongue twister then we have dr. Naomi Carter the associate professor for the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and then we also have dr. Jason Nichols senior lecturer African American Studies Department University of Maryland College I love everyone that's coming from Maryland because that's where I graduated from.

I got my undergrad there. So, yes, I love it. So, anyways, let's get going on that. Do you have any questions for Jared as well as Dr. Malvo? Sure. I'll hop in and I'll start. Okay. Beat you to it, Jason.

Beat you. Dr. Malvo, when they talk about the inflationary pressures that something like this would put on the market, can you compare that and contrast that to the amount of money pumped into the top part of the economy by the Trump tax cuts from 2017, where you had a direct injection, two trillion dollars into the economy, completely unpaid for, but you had none of this backlash from Republicans talking about the inflationary pressure it will put on the market. Okay, my rainbow brother, good to see you. That's such a great question, because anytime we do a

tax cut for the wealthy, nobody talks about the inflationary implications of it. We just want to hook up these people, because predatory capitalism essentially preserves capital. I think that if you contrast, as you say, the tax cuts that we've seen, there have been the Trump tax cuts. If you compare that to this small, understand how small this is compared to what was done for these multi-bazillionaires. This is small, that each individual might get $10,000. Some will get, about half will get $20,000. Anyone who had a Pell Grant will get $20,000 as opposed to $10,000, but that's not a lot of money. It's a welcome step forward, but we look at some of the debt that people have, it's not that much. I'll have to tell folks, I was formerly president of

Bennett College for Women. And when students graduated, I used to, I wasn't supposed to, but I could tell it now, I've been gone 10 years. I used to look at what they owed just to get a sense of, because I'm an economist, get a sense of what's going on. And I found young people owed as much as $80,000. We said the average debt is about 30 for black women. Black women have more debt than anybody else. And it's higher, hitting on 40. But when I look through these, I see someone $80,000 in debt. Or, you know, I didn't see anybody with 100.

But, you know, $50,000 in debt. How do you start your life with that much debt? And it is not inflationary to give people that little bit of money as opposed to what we did for the wealthy. Thanks, Robert. So, yes. So, Dr. Carter, do you have any questions? All right, let's go on to Dr. Nichols. Oh, sorry. So firstly, I just want to say go Terps. But I also think that, you know, a lot of people have talked about the primary issue being the cost of education and not doing something about the cost of education and public education being the primary issue.

I'm wondering for Dr. Malveaux and the other gentlemen, what do you say when people talk about moral hazard and the fact or the idea that if you forgive loans right now without addressing the cost and the rising cost of higher education education that later on people will take on debt and expect that their loans will be forgiven in the future. So I'm wondering what your response is to people who make that argument. So again, I think this is an argument we've seen this before. We've seen this before. This is a debt relief regulation event, first and foremost. And the president also mentioned this in his announcement, that we're talking about debt relief being coupled with controlling the cost of college, holding institutions accountable. So those things all go hand in hand. Is that Carter having audio issues? Is that what you guys said earlier?

We also talked about this as well. We released a report that talks about after the president cancels the debt, we need to increase grant aid, but we also need to hold colleges accountable for poor outcomes, especially predatory institutions that prey upon black and brown borrowers, and also control the cost of college as well. So all those things need to go hand in hand and go together. But that is really like a package deal. So we're seeing some of that come out in the analysis today from the fact sheet and from others and from the White House and the announcement. But all those things have to go hand in hand if we're going to move forward, prevent another student debt crisis and especially a student debt crisis for black borrowers. Dr. Melville? The cost of attendance used to be covered by the Pell Grant.

The Pell Grant used to cover the entire cost of attendance. Now it probably covers about 30% of it. So one of the things that has to happen is that we've got to address the Pell, which has not significantly been increased in quite some time. I think that the writer who raised the question about the cost of higher education is also quite,

is right on time. If we look at the cost of higher education, it's out 20% increase in 10 years, which actually has outstripped inflation in that same 10 year period. Why are universities charging more money? And part of it is, of course, universities have to, I'm putting my college present hat on here, if gas prices go up, if lighting goes up, utilities go up, and you want to keep your faculty paid, costs add up. But when we look at some of these costs, they're not adding up that much.

And so responsibility, the part of higher education leaders is very important. And another big piece of it is important is the issue of accountability. Are your students able to graduate? If not in four years, then in six. But when you have people who cannot graduate, that adversely affects their credit, especially if they took out student loans and then they drop out of school, they still have to pay them. And so I think that when we're looking at all of this, we really have to look at this

systematically and talk about the cost of higher education. I don't buy into the moral hazard argument because what we've seen in the past 10 years is student debt going up, doubling really, $1.7 trillion. And so the moral, most people don't want to take out student loans. They do because they have to. I just don't buy the moral whatever uh argument but i know where it came from do any other panelists have any questions oh well i think i do have a follow-up just on that point because it seems that we only uh start talking about morality when it comes to money for poor people uh when you were talking about the 1400 for the stimulus program

we started we heard politicians saying, well, they might go out there and spend it on liquor and cigarettes and so on and so forth. And now we're hearing that, well, we give people student loan repayment, not full repayment, even just $10,000 and $20,000 off, that all of a sudden everybody's going to go start buying Gucci belts and everything and not invested in the economy. Is there a succinct Keynesian economic argument that says that because we're looking at two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, that this is actually the

type of direct injection of capital into a market that would stem this housing downturn that we're looking at and actually stabilize much of the U.S. economy? Should that be the argument we're making as opposed to the moralistic argument? And this is for both of you, of course. I think we should be making the argument that you've made. I think there are other arguments that we can make. The moralistic argument is specious. Again, it's specious. Let's think about what happened when we basically bailed banks out.

Did anybody say what's the morality of bailing a bank out? Their CEOs are still making multim-million dollar salaries, or the auto companies that were bailed out because of COVID. I mean, no one, they didn't cut their salaries. They didn't cut their benefits. They didn't cut their pensions. Nobody had anything to say moralistically about that. So you're absolutely right, Robert. Anytime somebody wants to talk about poor people, people pile on this moralistic argument. They also talk, you know, they try to disparage poor people as if we don't have sense, talking about, well, they're going to buy a Gucci bag, et cetera.

It's specious. And so we really need to talk about what the economic argument is for cutting these student loans. And it's not eliminating them. It's just cutting them by a little bit. In some cases, like the cases I cited cited earlier we're talking about maybe 20% of somebody's loan. Jared, can we hear from you and then we gotta cut to a break. Sure. Sorry, I let him answer. We've had a payment pause in place for over two years and people during that

period have used the money that they're not paying on their student loans to pay for things like rent, gas, you know, safer retirement. And so that's actually what we're seeing from debt cancellation. It's not that people are going out and buying luxury goods now, nor are they going to use that money to go buy luxury goods in the future. They're actually going to go provide for their families and afford basic necessities and also, you know, start small businesses, as the president said, save for retirement. A CNBC article or analysis came out earlier this week saying that that's how borrowers are actually using the funding, actually using the money. So that is the benefit of debt cancellation, is really just using the money that we would be paying for student debt,

which borrowers shouldn't have had to take out in the first place if we talk about morality, and then using that to actually afford basic needs this is such a great discussion and i want to say thank you so much to jared and dr malvo for coming on and giving your input on that we do have to cut this shirt and go to a break so for those of you who are watching right now you are watching roland martin unfiltered on blackstar network on Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Thank you. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks being forced to vote. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial.

This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.

This is white fear. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

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Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The state of Louisiana agrees to halt the transfer of 25 incarcerated juveniles to the adult prison would reduce the population at the Bridge City Center for youth near New Orleans until a more secure youth facility can be built or renovated. Edwards said the move would be a solution to the rise in violence, mismanagement, and frequent escapes from the state's juvenile lockups. Attorneys for the juvenile plaintiffs, the ACLU of Louisiana and other advocates filed a lawsuit to stop the transfer to Louisiana's most notorious prison. Tuesday, attorneys for John Governor John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Corrections agreed with the plaintiffs attorneys to delay the plan to transfer the youths until September 15th. Well, here to tell us now what the state plans to do on September 16th is one of those attorneys,

Ron Haley from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Welcome to the show. Hey, good evening. Good evening. So tell me a little bit about the importance of this lawsuit and how the whole process of why you filed it and why this was important. Well, listen, under no circumstance should any child be transferred to any adult facility, let alone the Louisiana State Penitentiary that has a history of civil rights violations

and human rights violations. As of right now as we speak, there is a lawsuit in the Middle District of Louisiana filed by inmates at LSP for such civil and human rights violations. Yet we're supposed to believe that LSP is somehow now going to care for these children that would be housed there. I also believe that it's a slippery slope. You are arbitrarily picking a handful or two handfuls worth of youth offenders to be placed there,

but who's to say it's going to stop there? Now, I was doing some research on this, and I know that you had stated that by taking these 25 to 50 juveniles and sending them away, that was lacking due process. So can you kind of explain what you meant by that statement? Well, listen, anytime there is a transfer from a juvenile charge to an adult charge, let me give you this example. Let's say it's a 16-year-old that is accused of the crime of murder. And in the state of Louisiana, if you're accused of a crime of murder and you're under the age of 17, that case could be transferred to adult court.

But you have to have a hearing before that case is transferred to adult court. I think you could make the analogy that if you're going to arbitrarily move these kids from a juvenile facility and place them at an adult facility, that at the very least, they should have some type of due process, that it should not be some arbitrary decision by some administrator that would decide, okay, well, these kids are the ones that need to spend the rest of their time in Angola. You make some very valid points. Let's bring in our panelists. I'm sure they have some questions for you as well. And for those who are just now tuning in,

I will tell you who our panelists are. We have Robert Petillo, the Executive Director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project, Dr. Naomi Carter, Associate Professor of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. And we also have Dr. Jason Nichols, Senior Lecturer, African American Studies Department, University of Maryland College. So we're going to go on ahead and start off with Dr. Nichols. What questions do you have on this topic? So thank you for being with us. My first question is, are there no other juvenile facilities that these young men could have, or young

people could have been shifted to rather than taking them to Angola? Was that like, is that the state's argument that there are no other facilities within the state that could house 25 other young people? Essentially, that's what they're saying. And to that, I say shame on your state. You should have seen these problems come from years and years ago. However, you've done nothing to fix the infrastructure within OJJ. You have done nothing to switch the model that should go towards a more restorative approach. Instead, you're taking a very punitive approach, similar to what you do in adult courts. And the fact that the facilities that are currently in place are not up to code or not

fit for these juveniles, do not punish them by sending them to Angola, fix your problems. Thank you. You make some valid points, but I would also like to point out as well that these juveniles were going to be transferred to a facility that will not have adults in with them. So I wanted to preface it for that. But you make the argument that regardless that these juveniles need to receive that due process, regardless, because they are not adults, even though they're being transferred

to a facility that won't actually have adult prisoners in it. So I wanted to preface it with that. Dr. Carter, do you have any questions? Yeah. So I want to thank Attorney Haley and the others who are doing this extraordinary work. What is the argument for transferring juveniles to an adult facility in the same state that won't allow juveniles to make decisions about their body where abortion is concerned. Moreover, with the restorative justice approach, has that even gotten any consideration? Because I know they say they

won't be in facilities with adults, but can we even trust that there's an infrastructure there that would house children and only children in this case? So there are a few questions in there. I'm sorry for that. No, absolutely. And it piggybacks on what I was going to say. Yes, they say that on Angola's grounds, there's going to be a separate facility where these kids are going to be. My issue with that is this.

Today, the federal court judge, Judge Shelly Dick, ordered when we had the status conference on Tuesday that the plan of action on how they're going to house these children, how are you going to meet their needs, were supposed to be delivered to plaintiff's filed by the governor's office and the other defendants, preventing them from providing us with that information that was ordered by today, which Judge Dick flatly shut down and denied that order. And so we're still in wait right now for what that plan is. I was going to love to come on television with you guys tonight and discuss, listen, this is what the plan is that they gave us

and discuss whether or not I thought it was good or not. But up to this point, we still have not seen the plan, which is absolutely troubling that we didn't, that on July 19th, the governor says we have a plan to move these kids to Angola. And now we are what, about three weeks out from when this move was supposed to take place, and we don't have a plan. Dr. Nichols, I have a question for you quickly. From the research I've done, it's stated that Angola used to be a plantation, a slave plantation. So you have that, and now you're taking teenagers to this facility. Kind of give us the history on that and possibly the impact that it could have on juveniles that have to go to this facility. Well, specifically, I can't speak on Angola.

But one of the things that we know is certainly the connections between slavery and our criminal justice system. And so it's definitely troubling that at this time, at a time when... I'm sorry? I apologize. Okay, sorry. I thought you had asked another question. At this time that we would transfer young people into an adult facility. We know the dangers. We've already seen the dangers of having young people anywhere near adult people and just the stigma of being in an adult facility when you are a juvenile, what that can do. There's plenty of studies out there that say that. So again, particularly in a state like Louisiana, which has a history, we can go back to convict leasing and many of the things that have happened in states like Louisiana, for them to be doing

this to young people, I think is really troubling. And I appreciate the work that the gentleman and of course the ACLU are doing in trying to block this. They should have prepared themselves. And the question is, why don't they have other facilities throughout this state in order to house these young people? And my other question is, if they don't have the facilities, what kind of care and treatment, what kind of health care, what kind of education are young people who are in the criminal justice system, in the juvenile system, what kind of care are they getting if they don't even have a bed or places for them to sleep? And that's not adequate. They're probably not getting

other things that we expect for juveniles so that when they get out into society, they can be productive citizens. Thank you. Do you have any questions or any thoughts? Well, I did have one question. So what we do understand fundamentally is that the purposes of punishment are fundamentally different when it comes to adult detainees and the incarcerated versus juveniles. The purpose of juvenile detention is one to educate, to rehabilitate, and to prepare them to reenter society, whereas the purposes of adult containment is primarily retribution and preventing them from repeating the offense that they have been convicted of.

Has there been any plan presented to talk about if these young people are transferred to Angola, how those needs for rehabilitation will be met, how those needs for education, as Dr. Nichols mentioned, will be met, how their psychological needs will be met? Are they simply putting them there to get a Ph.D. in crime by watching professional inmates only to continue this cycle going forward? And listen, that's a great point. Again, today, by the close of business, we were supposed to receive the plan. Plaintiff's councils were supposed to receive the plan so that we could hire our own juvenile justice expert to go actually inside Angola to see if the plan would actually work and render a report. Yet, as we are talking today, right now, I don't have a plan in my possession, which leads me to believe there isn't a plan, that this is something that is just being developed as it's going, shooting off at the hip.

Man, we can't shoot off the hip with kids. This is an absolute atrocious. I think this is grossly negligent, the fact that this is even considered placing him at LSP, and the fact that despite a judicial order ordering that plan to be delivered to us today, we don't have it. Well, you know what, thank you, Attorney Haley. I really appreciate you joining us today, and thank you to all the panelists who have great questions for him regarding this issue.

We do have to take it to a break. But for those who have just tuned in, you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll be right back after this break. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Growing. Creating. Making moves that move us all forward. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure.

On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, our kids are going back to school. After two years of disruption, thanks to COVID, are we ready? How to help them to prepare and what are the warning signs that our children are showing us? Social, emotional, physical. All of these stressors and anxieties will be impacting our children. They'll be facing new challenges, anxieties, and emotions. And the adults in their lives need to figure out how to pull themselves together so that our kids will be able to do the same. Adults need to be paying closer attention now more so than ever. This generation who feels like they're unguided, we need to provide that guidance. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves,

our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. When you talk about Blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement.

A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it, and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks.

We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. I'm Bill Duke. This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke. Savannah Daniels has been missing from Orlando, Florida since July 25th, 2022. The 15-year-old is 5'3", weighs 115 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with any information about Savannah Daniels should contact the Orange County, Florida Sheriff's Office at 407-836-4357. Again, that's 407-836-4357. Now, in Florida, the stage is set for who will go head-to-head in the midterm elections.

Now, the most recent watch race will be for the Florida Senate seat. Representative Val Demings won last night by a landslide to become the state's Democratic nominee, vying to unseat Senator Marco Rubio. Governor Ron DeSantis will face off with former Governor Charles Crist. Newcomer progressive Gen Z-er Maxwell Frost is up against Republican Calvin Wimbush. The two are running to fill Val Dimon's seat. Now, if Frost wins, he'll be the first Gen Z member of Congress. Representative Matt Gates, who is still under federal investigation for sex trafficking, won last night's primary and will face Democrat Rebecca Jones in the fall. Let's go on ahead and take it over to our panelists to get your thoughts on the turnout. Let's go on ahead and kick it off with Robert. What's your thoughts?

Well, I think what we did see is a very clear distinction going on in both the midterm elections and going into 2024, which is you had Democratic candidates running on actual issues, running on reality, running on a platform of student loan reform, talking about deficit reduction, inflation reduction, what has been done on infrastructure, the various legislative issues that President Biden has been able to get pushed through in the past month or two. You know, there was a very low spot in the Biden administration over the summer where people really didn't think that the Republicans were going to have a red wave going into this fall. But with these recent string of victories, they've definitely turned that around. In the meantime, if you look at some of the commercials coming out of DeSantis

and coming out of some of the other Republicans running, J.D. Vance and Dr. Oz and Hershel Walker, the standard bearers of the Republican Party, they have gotten farther and further disconnected from reality. I think that's going to show itself going into this fall election. I think a perfect touchstone to that was today during President Biden's address about student loan reform. One reporter was able to shout out and get a question into President Biden before he left the room. And instead of asking a question about student loan reform, about the deficit, about inflation, he asked, how do you, did you know about the FBI raid in Mar-a-Lago? Because in their minds, that is where the American people are. And I think that

disconnect between them and actual fundamental reality is what's going to help people like Val Demings and Raphael Warnock and Fetterman and Ryan and Charles Booker and Mandela Barnes around the country, Cheryl Beasley, to pull these races out. And I think Democrats might end up actually gaining seats in the Senate as opposed to predict a loss that normally happens in a midterm election. Dr. Carter, what's your thoughts? I think we may have lost you. Can you hear me, Dr. Carter? Oh, I can hear you now. I didn't hear you for a second. Sorry about that.

I mean, I think what Robert is speaking to, though, is this sort of the limited nature of the politics of grievance, right? There's only so many times you can claim that, you know, you're aggrieved or just you lost because someone cheated or something like that before people say, well, what have you done for me lately? And we know politics is transactional. And I think what we're seeing around the country is that people are getting sick and tired of hearing about this. And I think, you know, with the abortion laws that we've seen in a lot of places like Kansas, like Louisiana, like Florida and other places, that that is really pushing a lot of, I think, women in particular, white women.

I don't think we talk enough about white women and their support of the Republican Party, who may have been sort of moderate Republicans, maybe even tepid, right, Republicans being pushed in directions that they didn't think that they would find themselves in because they didn't like that vote on abortion. And I think we're also seeing, you know, with what's happening with, you know, the student loan reform and other things, that Democrats actually have a good shot at the midterm elections in ways that we didn't think they did a few months ago. So I think if they can keep applying the pressure, I think if they can keep using the social

media and, as we talked about last week, the messaging, most importantly, I think Democrats can pull off some really important upsets around the country. Dr. Nichols? Yeah, I'm in agreement with both panelists. I think I was really happy to see Maxwell Frost pull it off in Florida. It showed that progressive ideals are not dead. The other thing was New York 19 was a really big victory when Pat Ryan pulled that out.

It showed a message that worked, particularly surrounding Roe. And it shows that Democrats can still win swing districts. I think it was really, you know, we keep talking about Democrats gaining seats in the Senate, but they could potentially keep the House. I mean, it's going to be an uphill climb, but I think it's very possible if they can pull out those kinds of victories like they did in New York 19. I think Val Demings has a good shot against Rubio. I think there are others that I think are a little more difficult. Tim Ryan against

J.D. Vance is going to be a difficult race, no matter how, you know, far J.D. Vance is from the mainstream. You know, we got to remember that, you know, Trump won Ohio by eight points. So it's going to be an uphill climb. But I think Democrats still have a very good chance in all of those races. I was happy to see some of the results. But I also want to, you know, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but we have to remember that Laura Loomer, who is a white nationalist, an anti-Muslim white nationalist, got 44 percent of the vote in her district during the primary. I mean, that should be really disheartening. I mean, she came within a stone's throw of becoming the Republican nominee in a red district. So I think it's, you know, we still have to remain very vigilant. We need to remind the American public

of the dangers of some of these candidates that we see particularly in these kind of swing states like Arizona. I don't know if we still consider Florida a swing state, but Florida and Ohio and Wisconsin, there are some really dangerous people on the ballot. And we certainly need to remind the American public the importance of voting in this upcoming election and certainly in 2024 as well. I had a follow up for Dr. Nichols. So, Jason, you talked a little bit about that J.D. Vance versus Tim Ryan race there in Ohio. It's what we've seen that there have been very few people able to kind of recreate that Trump magic, able to carry that Trump water.

We see DeSantis doing his best, you know, kind of cosplay impression of Trump. He had the Top Gun ad that dropped this week where he pretended to be a fighter pilot that was cringeworthy, and he talked about his war on wokeness. Do you think that it's actually possible for anybody to recreate that kind of Spengalian type of hold that Trump has on the party? Because it doesn't seem to be transferable to other people. They just come off as crazy, whereas Trump is crazy but endearing for some reason to his base. Well, I definitely think that, you know, nobody is Donald Trump. Nobody has the hold over Republicans like Donald Trump. I do think, you know, one of the things that's benefiting Democrats is not only talking about policy,

like you and Dr. Carter just pointed out, but also just how incredibly bad the Republican candidates are. You and I talked about this on your radio show on W-A-O-K, that, you know, Herschel Walker, who said, we have a, don't we have enough trees trees in response to a question about climate change? Like, you know, these are really historic. Dr. Oz, who's talking about crudite.

I had to Google it. I didn't know what crudite was. You know, and I'm supposedly a coastal elite. I'm a PhD coastal elite. I don't know what a crudite was. So the whole thing is, these are historically bad candidates. And that gives Democrats a chance. But I really think, you know, J.D. Vance is a literary star. He is somebody who claims working class roots from Ohio,

even though he's been an investment banker probably longer than he was ever working class. And he worked for Peter Thiel where he gets $10 million, you know, a quarter from that guy. But yet it's about the legend that he puts forward. And the last poll I saw had him a little bit ahead of Tim Ryan, 45 to 42. So it's going to be tough. I don't think any of them is Trump. And to be honest, I hope Trump wins for the 2024 race, because I think DeSantis is more difficult a matchup for any of the people, the Democrats who are coming up, because of the fact that DeSantis can make himself seem, he doesn't have the legal issues, and he can make himself more endearing to

the center. And that's what scares me, those people with those conservative values who are turned off by Trump's tweets and Trump's brashness, DeSantis, I think, could be attractive to them. So I worry more about DeSantis, and I hope Trump actually does keep that hold. Some very, very good points. Thank you to our panelists, Robert Petillo, Dr. Neom B. Carter, and Dr. Jason Nichols. Moving on, a Oregon man connected to a white supremacist support group pleads guilty to a hate crime and false statement charges for his participation in the assault of a

black man. Randy Smith stood before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and admitted to attacking a Washington state DJ because of his race on December 8, 2018. Now, Smith said that he and some of his fellow support group members beat the black man who was serving as a DJ at the local bar because he believed the DJ was being disrespectful to the members of the white supremacist groups. The men repeatedly punched, kicked, and stomped the black man while calling him racial slurs. Smith also pleaded guilty to making false statements and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Smith's sentencing is on November 18th, and he faces up to 25 years in prison. Now you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We will be right back, right here on Blackstar Network. I challenge myself as an artist, knowing that I'm going to challenge the audience. So oftentimes you come into this business off of one project where everybody's like, ooh, ooh, you stand out. Okay, for me it was Barbershop, Ricky, da-da-da-da-da-da.

Ricky was nothing like me, right? Nothing like me. Nothing like me growing up. But if that's people's first experience with you, as an audience member, they tend to think that's the real you. So for me, after that, I got a whole bunch of offers to play roles just like Ricky. This Tupac-esque type of thug. And, right? And I just said no over and over.

And then you keep trying to do other things. And then I went through a series of romantic movies and romantic leads. And, you know, I always try to bring some sort of gravitas to those roles. And then it was like, okay, well, but before I get into all of that, let me hit y'all with, you know, for color girls and, you know, step outside of the realm of, you know, what you expect of me to do as an audience member in terms of being this romantic lead and everything. Because I didn't get into this business to be the romantic lead, you know, that dude.

Like I didn't get into this business. Because you can get locked in. You can totally get locked in. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Don't you think it's time to get wealthy? I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show on the Black Star Network

focuses on the things your financial advisor or bank isn't telling you. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing, creating, making moves that move us all forward. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it.

And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196,

Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Black TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Stay woke. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm Therese Garnier filling in for Roland today.

And joining us, we have King Jaquel Martin, an award-winning director, actor, motivational speaker, and most importantly, Army veteran. Hi, King. Thank you so much for joining us. How are you today? Amazing. How are you doing today? Thank you. I am doing wonderful. I'm doing wonderful. Before we get into the debut of your film at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, let's backtrack a little bit and talk about what happened to you that inspired you to make this award winning short film, which is called War on Friendly Grounds. OK, so I used to be in the United States Army.

I was wrongfully assaulted by Officer Benjamin Fields. Officer Benjamin Fields is the same officer who assaulted the young lady at Spring Valley High School. So after seeing Fruitvale Station, shout out to Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, and Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, I wanted to tell my story. So I went to film school, I reached out

to a couple of people, did some interviews, I wrote a book entitled A Warm Friendly Grounds, and I was able to turn the book into a short film. Now, I want to go a little bit more into the situation and how you ended up being attacked by this officer and how this officer wasn't fired and somehow made his way to a different state and ended up attacking a teenager while she was sitting at her desk in a classroom. So tell me a little bit about how, what the circumstances around how he came to attack you. Okay. So I was on my way home from work. I was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I live maybe about two miles away from the base. I was living in Quail Run. On my way home, there was an officer who was named Benjamin Fields, who was already in the

neighborhood. He was supposed to be out there looking for a white male flashing little kids. But what I found out was that he wound up finding me going towards my house. And as I was going towards my house, I acknowledged him by nodding my head. In his police report, he took it as I was teasing him by nodding my head. Now, where I'm from, nodding your head

is just a gesture or a way of saying hello. So I get out of my car. I walk to the door. I lived in a fourplex, so the officer who lived above me, she wasn't home right now, but her mother was. At the time, my wife was inside studying to be a nurse. When I put the keys in the door, I heard a car peel off. I turned around to see what's going on. The officer ran towards me. He was like, hey you, hey you, I'm out here for a noise violation. I was like, well, it couldn't have been me. I just got home. He asked me for my license and registration. I gave him the proper documents, but I had a paper license

because I lost my picture license in Germany. And he was like, well, what the hell is this? And I said, dude, if you would just calm down, you'll see I just got back from Germany. I am a Richland officer of the law. You will not call me dude. I said, well, you addressed me by hey you. He said, well, that's because I don't know your name. Well, I'm said, I'm sorry, sir. I don't know your name either. And next thing I know, he slams me to the ground. He starts punching on me and kicking me in my military uniform. The police officer who happened to live above me, she wound up running

downstairs, knocking on the door, letting my wife know at the time that I was being wrongfully assaulted by the police in my military uniform. She runs out. He gets hysterical because I used to play semi-pro football and I used to take all the children to my football games. So when all the women and children started watching, he gets on the radio. I think it was like some code 1032, 1032, officer in distress. So the supervisor, Deputy Joseph Clark, and multiple other officers arrived to the scene. He said, get her black A, she has pictures of me. So he ran up on my wife, slammed her into the car,

put her hands behind her head. She drops her cell phone, he handcuffs her. You would think that would be enough, but then he picks her up, Officer Joseph Clark picks her up by the hands and then slams her into the ground face first while she was handcuffed. It's one thing for you to be a man and be assaulted by the police. It's another thing when you have to watch a loved one be assaulted by the police in front of you

and there's nothing you can do about it, especially after you served your country. Like I served my country for 10 years. And my question is, if I'm protecting my country, who's protecting me when I come back home? And you make a very valid point. Yeah, so we wind up going, the ambulance came because he wind up using mace on me. We went down to the police station and as we're getting into the paddy wagon,

they threatened my wife with taking her to the hotel. And I said, what'd you say to her? He said, you heard me. So he slammed the door and the officer in the front of the paddy wagon heard the whole statement. He wound up writing a statement for us on our behalf. We went down to the police station. We got books. We got fingerprinted. And then the next morning, we wind up getting out on bomb. I told my first sergeant what happened. I had so much pepper

spray on me when I went into the emergency room, they had to open up the door. We went back to the police station to get an internal affairs report, which I sent you, and you could just see the cockiness of the officer. No regrets, because if you're able to get away with it, why would you stop? So he basically admitted assaulting me, the racial statements, all the different comments about how he's glad Johnny Cochran's dead,

how I'm nothing but another black statistic. And, you know, throughout this battle and this journey, you thought you would get support. You know, I reached out to the Army to try to get support from them. They turned their back on me. I reached out to the local NAACP in South Carolina, the Columbia branch,

and they asked me how much money I was donating. I reached out to the ACLU, the Rainbow Pushing, all these different organizations trying to get help. And I couldn't find the help that I needed. So I reached out to my mother, who was a first sergeant, which is my hero. She comes down. She was like, this won't happen on her watch. We wind up sending paperwork to the White House, and then we took the paperwork to this post general because they put me out the military with a zero percent discharge.

The general changed it and gave me a 70% discharge. Now, the problem with the discharge was the same people who did my medical evaluation were the same people that I was writing a report against. So I didn't even get a fair discharge out the military. It took me four years to go to court. We were found not guilty on all charges. The judge basically cried on the stand because of how bad the officer was lying and his cockiness because he was being protected

by the badge. When it was time for the civil suit, my attorney, Mr. John Mobley, basically tricked me out of my civil suit and said, if I drop the assault charge, we can make so much money here if I just drop this charge. And he'll represent me pro bono. So when I signed the paperwork, they wound up throwing my cases out. So I've never had my day in court for my civil suit. When Tashiana went to court, basically the head juror admitted to, excuse me, the judge admitted to knowing the head juror.

The head juror's dad helped build the courthouse. And that's when I looked in a moment, I said, this is rigged. This ain't about justice. This isn't a fair opportunity because the judge is supposed to know no one in the jury pool. So she no longer wanted to fight, which I understand. And I became the little engine that could.

I kept fighting. I kept fighting. I kept fighting. I wrote the book, A Warm Friendly Grounds, which is on Amazon. And then I went to film school and I turned the book into a short film. It's amazing what you were able to overcome. I mean, just the thought, you know, there's been a lot of an uptick in attacks against service members in uniform by white police officers.

And I know I had talked to you about this before, I witnessed my own father, who was a Marine, who actually flew President Obama around. I was five years old, and he was taking us to Disney World. And I had to watch white police officer call him boy, pull a gun on him, and I'm sitting in the backseat bawling my eyes out, screaming, please don't shoot my daddy. And to this day, I still get anxiety when I see an officer. You know, just that thought. And the fact that you were in uniform, there's just no excuse for that. You know, and so the fact that you were able to overcome it, you weren't able to get justice in the judicial system.

However, I feel like with this release of your film at the Chinese Theater on Saturday may have helped with some of that justice. Now, that being said, in 2020, your film, War on Friendly Grounds, began winning every film festival you submitted to. So what do you feel helped propel your film, and what do you feel contributed to its success? I think timing is everything. And right now, if you look at America, we're in a place where we have to have some healing. No one's coming to save us. We are seeing this more often because of social media and because it's being posted all over the world where people can see. We had George Floyd's situation. And the crazy thing about it is before George Floyd lost his life, may he rest in power and love, we had made the movie a war on friendly grounds.

And in the process of that, we just wanted to tell the truth because I know I'm not the first, nor I'm the last person that this will happen to. And so what I realized is that I'm my ancestor's dream. And what I mean by that statement is somebody prayed about me a long time ago. So the freedom that I have right now comes from all the sacrifices that they did before me.

And so my question is for me, what will I do for the future? And how will I honor the past for all the people who have lost their life, who continuously know marched who got waterboarded who like the the taluga nine um shout out to them i spoke to um i did an interview with um i can't think of his name right now lord but i did an interview with one of the members from the taluga nine and they did the first library sitting and when he shared with me how they prepared him for the library sit-in, that he was so nervous that he had his book upside down. But it was something that has never been done before. But he knew it was something that had to be done. So for someone like that to sacrifice his life for someone like me, I feel like that's what I'm doing right now in this moment. And I feel like

A Warm Friendly Grounds is not just a movie, but it's a movement. And it's an opportunity for us to show up and start having a conversation about how we can heal and build a bridge between the public and the police. And on that note, let's go on ahead and play your trailer for the film so that way people can get an idea of what it's about. Thank you, guys. I really, really appreciate this. So, uh, I'm not really big on speeches, but let's have some cake. Come on. Welcome home, soldier. Good to be home, sir.

Well, you put your life on the line for this country. And that's what makes you brave. The truth is, I just really wanted my battle buddies to get back home safely. Hold on, hold on. Officer Clark here. Hey. Oh, my God. You about to pop the question.

Hey, you, come here. How may I help you, sir? Is this your vehicle? Yeah, no! I want to know, will you marry me? Now, King, a little birdie told me that you come to the show bearing some gifts. So, spill the beans. What did you bring for us?

So just for everyone who's watching the Roland Martin show, I'm so grateful for, one, what Mr. Roland has done as a trailblazer to build his own table and his own platform to stand up for people who look like us and just for us, you know, even though it's diversity and inclusion. But for what Mr. Roland has done, what I would like to do is I would like to give you the free link to the film for a week and the password in honor of what Mr. Roland Martin has done. The password is Roland Martin,

and everyone will be able to watch this film for free for a week, and then we're going to put it up on Amazon. But for all the people who are watching right now, I just wanted to be able to be a blessing because you can't ask for a blessing if you're not willing to be one. That's beautiful. I know I'm going to do when I get off tonight, I'm going to go on ahead and purchase that film and I'm going to watch it myself. Now, I know we have some great panelists here with us today, and I'm sure they have some really good questions for you. So we have Robert Petillo, the executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project.

We also have Dr. Neom B. Carter, associate professor, University of Maryland School of Public Policy. And we also have Dr. Jason Nichols, the senior lecturer of African-American Studies Department, University of Maryland. Let's start with Robert. Do you have any questions for King? Certainly. I do want to go back to the legal process that you were speaking of. So when, kind of break down a little bit, I may want to reach out to you after this. So what happened between the civil suit where you said they tried to convince you to dismiss it and you signed off on it, but then you weren't able to refile? Can you kind of explain that part of the story a little bit? So basically, when you don't know the law,

people can take advantage of you. And I was taken advantage of. My attorney told me that he would represent me in the civil suit if I dropped the assault charges. And I asked him, can I call my mother? Can I speak to her or whatever else? Because I'm not really understanding all the legal. And he said it was basically a timeframe that I had to to sign it so when i signed the paperwork to drop the

assault charge they threw out my whole case so we applied to get it looked at at the united states supreme court but the united states supreme court only sees cases when they want to but now the same officer assaulted the young lady and richland County has been under investigation. Mr. Captain, I think his name is Dan Johnson. Dan Johnson just went to jail for 51 counts of fraud, allegedly. But I know he did go to jail based off of that. So they've been under investigation. So my case should still be open based off of the prior activities that's still happening right now. Well, that's going to also be part of what I asked. So what was the timeframe for this?

Because it sounds like there shouldn't be a statutory statute of limitations issue with refiling if that's something that you still wanted to consider. So what I can do, reach out to me after the show and let's talk about it. How about that? That would be a blessing. I honestly would love my day in court. I protected this country and I feel like that is only right for me to be able to have the justice that I protected.

Dr. Carter? So first, I want to say congratulations on your film and thank you for your service. And also, thank you for, or I'm thankful that you're still here for yourself, for your family, for your wife. I know this has been a harrowing experience and I wanted to just ask, how are you doing now? Because this kind of stuff doesn't just go away. That's such a great question.

I'm no longer married. It's interesting because when you go see therapists or whatever else, they're like, well, why don't you stop fighting? Well, ma'am, I can't stop being black. They'll give you medication. But what happens when the medication runs out? What happens when it wears off?

I still can't change my skin color. It's very hard because how do you heal from something that you continuously see happen? And I still suffer from PTSD because I still see people who look just like me still losing their life. So for me, I argue with God because I feel like, am I not doing enough? And what more do you need me to do so that way we can have some positive controversy and be able to talk about this so we can heal? Because healing has to take place on both sides. Powerful. Dr. Nichols?

I also want to thank you for your service. And, you know, hearing your story reminds me of one of my heroes, who's Hosea Williams, who, you know, came home from war after getting a Purple Heart and took a drink out of a whites-only fountain and was beaten nearly to death. You know, he got put into a hearse. And the driver of the hearse, because they didn't have a Black hospital anywhere near there, and the driver of the hearse saw he was breathing, and he stayed in the hospital for a month after that.

And he was somebody who literally was coming after, you know, being, you know, a war hero. So I definitely want to thank you for your service. This is something that black men who have served have been dealing with for a war hero. So I definitely want to thank you for your service. This is something that Black men who have served have been dealing with for a long time. I also, I guess I had a question, but I also want to make a quick statement and say, don't necessarily give up on therapy. You know, I've been in therapy.

I know other Black men. I promote that to black men. Take this moment to say that a lot of us are hurt and traumatized from a lot of different experiences. And the other thing I'll say is, you know, we oftentimes talk about white cops. But I've had experiences with black cops, too. So, um, I think this is about the experience of Black men who are put into these positions, Black men and women, and sometimes, unfortunately, children, who are put into these positions. Uh, and it's about the power structure,

and sometimes that power structure includes, you know, Black people in uniform, unfortunately. Um, my question was really about how you were saying that there is, you said at first you had a zero percent discharge and then a 70 percent discharge. For us civilians, what exactly does that mean? What is a zero percent discharge versus a 70 percent discharge? Okay, so for your first comment, I agree with you about the police badge. But when you look at the police badge, it was birthed from the slave patrol badge. So how do you root out racism from something that was born from something that was racist?

And if we can have like sexual harassment training for businesses, why wouldn't we have sensitivity training for police officers? So that way they would understand the neighborhoods or the people that they're working with. You know what I mean? So that way they don't have sensitivity training for police officers so that way they would understand the neighborhoods or the people that they're working with. You know what I mean? So that way they don't have to fear for their life because I don't think fearing for your life is a one-way street. Because you're the one with the gun and you're the one fearing for your life in certain situations. Not all situations. Just talking about certain ones that we see.

And then you're saying you're resisting arrest. I'm getting hit. You're punching me. You're macing me. You don't think as a human being I'm going to react, that I'm not going to be scared? So I think the fear for your life thing, I think that should be a two-way street.

And there's a difference between being a bully and an officer because when you're not following your training, you're no longer an officer. And if you're no longer conducting yourself as an officer, then you should be tried as a civilian because you're not conducting yourself in your police training. Because as a soldier, if I go to war and I don't follow the Geneva Convention Code, I can be looked at as a traitor. Well, I think those same rules should apply on our land, just not foreign land, but right here in America just as well. And so for the second part, in layman's terms, when I got put out the

military, it's a medical discharge. So what they did was my percentage, my rate was zero percent. And then I went to the post general when he heard about my case and situation, and they reevaluated me and my PTSD, And then they wind up giving me a 70%. They raised it from 0% to 70% so I could start getting some retirement. Six months later, I did a reevaluation with the same people and then they lowered me back to 30%. I wound up moving to California to fight

because so many veterans right now are fighting for the right medical percentage, right? That's why you have so many homeless veterans. When I got back to California and when the young lady got assaulted by the police, all of a sudden they changed it to 100%. And I'm like, well, what was the difference between when I was first assaulted and then you saw the officer assaulting the young lady? The only reason why I feel like you're doing right by me now is because it's viral. But before it went viral, you didn't know me. You didn't want to help me.

So because it went viral, now they gave me 100%, which now I'm still fighting. This is 2022. This happened to me in 2005. I'm still fighting right now to get my 100% in my back pay from when it originally happened to me. And just to explain that a little bit more as well. So when you file for, you get these different ratings, depending on the percentage that they give you is how much medical help you'll get through the VA or community care, as well as they'll give you like a certain amount of pay per month, depending on a specific rating. And so by them taking them from zero to 70 and then backtracking it at 30%, I think at 30%, you can't get any benefits as far as the VA or any sort of monthly pay for your

disabilities. And so that's why that's so important that you're rated correctly so that way you can get the pay so you can seek the help that you need and you'll have the pay to fund that. So just to clarify one thing. Absolutely. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify. I definitely wasn't saying that racism wasn't involved. I'm saying that the racism is institutionalized and that the racism is systemic. You know, I'm saying that it's not about individuals. It's actually part of the system.

And that's exactly what you were saying when you connected it to slave patrols, is that this is something that has grown throughout our law enforcement and our criminal justice system from the very beginning. It's functioning the way it was designed to function. This is not a malfunction. This is the way it was designed with white supremacy in it. And I'm saying that, you know, white supremacy, believe it or not, is an equal opportunity employer.

Maybe the only one we have. It can use black people sometimes, too. Mm-hmm. Oh, cool. Right. And for me, what's so important, I believe the antivirus to the system that you're talking about is unity and love, because I believe it takes every color in the crayon box to create a beautiful picture. The problem is the system wants to continue to keep all of us divided.

If I can continue keeping you arguing, if I can keep you struggling for money, you will never unite. Now, I'm not putting the Bible on anyone, God on anyone. I'm just saying, I believe man united can accomplish anything. And that's why the system, the system wins. The more we argue, the more we are divided, the more we can't come together. We can't create the change. But in order to create the change, the question is this, what are you willing to sacrifice? Change comes with is this, what are you willing to sacrifice? Change comes with a price. What are you willing to pay? What are you willing to give up? Because the truth is somebody sacrificed their lives and everything else already for you to even have the comforts that you have today. So don't complain about change if you're not willing to pay the

piper to create the change that you want to see. Not one day, but consistently every day. And you can't save nobody else until you learn how to love yourself. Your biggest enemy is your enemy. So once you know how to have self-love, you can stand tall, and then we all can come together standing tall in our love. I don't care what color you are to create the change that we want to see. Powerful. Powerful. I mean, just the fact that you were able to take this experience and turn it into a positive.

You're turning it into a film that can help others who've gone through this feel the pain that you went through and unite and say, okay, what can we do to start making these changes? And we saw that start with, you know, the unfortunate killing of George Floyd. People uniting and saying, this has got to stop. This cannot continue. And so thank you for that fight that you put up and and continuing to stay positive and using that tragedy tragedy and turning it into something positive that can help other people,

which just goes to show that you always put service service before self and you're still you're still serving. Even though you're not in uniform, you're still serving the American people. And so very glad that you're doing that. Now, for those who may not have caught where they can catch your film, can you tell us once again where they can find your film, how long they have to access it, so that way people can go right ahead right now

and start downloading that? Like I said, there's a special. It's on Vimeo. If you put the link up, they'll be able to see the link. The password is Roland Martin because he is a trailblazer. And this man has sacrificed to build the platform to report the news to us, the truth. And that's why I named it Roland Martin in honor of him. It's my way of saying thank you. I appreciate everything that you've done, who you are.

And people might see your platform, but they don't know the race that you've done, who you are, and people might see your platform, but they don't know the race that you ran to build your platform. So I honor you, King. I thank you, King. I appreciate you. I love that. That's beautiful. So folks, check out the link that's on the screen right now. This is only for you. So everyone that's viewing right now, you are the only ones that have access to his film right now. So please show some support. Check it out. It's a great film.

You should definitely check it out when you get a chance. King, also, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story. And again, I just find it so commendable. And just hearing your story, like I was trying to fight tears because I'm like, this is just beautiful how you're able to turn that. Folks, you are now watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on Blackstar Network. We're going to take it to a break, but don't forget vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not be free. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white

rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white beat. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure.

Hey, I'm Amber Stevens-West. Yo, what up, y'all? This is J. Ellis, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Reading definitely expands the imagination, especially in children. Well, one children's author created an app that brings a book character, multiple book characters actually, to life. The creator and author of the Rainbow Me book collection figured out how to bring folklore and fairy tale characters of color, specifically, from around the world to life in this app. Joining us right now from Greensboro, North Carolina, we have Kia Johnson, the founder of Rainbow Me Kids. Welcome and thank you so much for joining us. How are you today? How are you doing, Trace? Oh, I believe we're having some audio issues.

I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? I'm doing well. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can hear you. I can hear you. First and foremost, I want to say thank you so much for joining us. I know as a kid, you know, we had Reading Rainbow. Or we had, you know, you would go to different libraries and they would have competitions. If you read 25 books, you get a free pizza. We had those kind of things, right? Never, ever would have I imagined kids today being able to see stuff in 4D. And I know if they had that back then, I probably would have read way more books.

So let me stop blabbing because I'm so fascinated by this. Please tell me how you came up with the idea and let everyone know how they can access it. Sure. So thank you again for having me. Came up with the idea for this book. Wanted to create a way that would bring stories to life in an exciting way, in a unique way. We had began creating in-person events where we would bring movies to life and the kids would come. We'd create spaces for the kids that brought different

parts of a movie to life. They would watch the movie, enjoy themselves. And I was like, I wanted to do something that would do this for as many kids as possible. And so I don't know if you're familiar with the Pokemon, or of course you're familiar, but remember the Pokemon Go game? I remember when that first came out, I was like, I want to do something with this technology. And speaking with a friend of mine about an idea he had. We came together and I was like, I'm going to put this in a book, but I want to I want to introduce characters that the kids are going to love, become familiar with, enjoy their stories and make them memorable. And so added the technology, the augmented reality technology to make the characters and their stories memorable. That is amazing. You know, I read for a living and I've found it that I don't like reading as much. So will there be an adult version of this? Because I'm like, I would totally download that.

That is so cool. So kind of explain how it actually works. So like, how does it explain it? I love it. Sure. Sure. And I can show you that's okay. Even better. All right. So my first book was, I was frozen and this is the one that introduces folklore characters from A to Z from around the world. They're all of color and we have an app, the rainbow me kids app. You can download it. It's right here in the corner. You can download it from your app store. Once you finish reading the book, I'll turn to one of my favorite characters here, which is A is for Afion, the proud princess. Select the book.

Then you take your mobile device. I am a princess. Who do you want to marry anybody? And then I was tricked. My story is from the Akan people of Ghana. And that's it. So every character gives more, shares a little bit more about their story and their countries of origin. One question that parents always ask is, does it read the book? No, the app does not read the book for the children. You still have to read the book to

get the concept of the book. This is just a really, really cool pop-up feature that introduces each character. And so we have 26 characters in our first book. And then we have a second book, How Kofi Amiro Became the Hero of Amiro. And this book is the complete story of the K character in O is for Oshun. These are our first two books. Two more books in the coffer. And we have 26 characters. So we have 26 books coming down the pike.

Wow, that's amazing. And for those parents that ask that, they probably, they're trying to get out of reading to their kids. They're like, does it read to them so we don't have to? Oh my gosh. We still want the kids to read

because that's how they learn. Wow, that's so fascinating. So you said you have several books coming out. So when will the launch of these other books happen so people can look out for them? We have the next two books, which is Gamara, the Giant Princess, and Demani, Demenzana, and the Hungry Trolls. Both of those will be coming out next year. Excellent, excellent. And so for those who are interested in purchasing some of these books, and you said you can just go on a regular app store to get the app, where can they go? What's your website? You can go on rainbowmeekids.com.

I love it. I'm going to be going on it. I don't even have kids. I have a dog. I'll just get it just, you know, just to play with my dog with it. Teas for cousins, nieces, nephews. I love it. That is so impressive. I'm very impressed by that. So I wish you the best with your books. I hope others will go to your website and check it out themselves. And then before I let you go, though,

I know our panelists probably have a ton of questions as well, and they probably have kids. So we're going to send it over to our panelists. Let's start off with Dr. Carter. Do you have any questions? I do. This is so great. And as a person who loved reading, as a kid who loved reading, this is exciting.

So no kids here, but how do you select your stories? Like what makes you say this is the character we want to bring to life for these kids? I try to mix and match as much as possible. So we have princesses, we have kings, we have princesses, we have magical animals, we have fairies, we have some gods and goddesses. So I tried to get a good mix from, there's plenty of stories from around the world

and the first book again just goes through 26 of them. So again, just trying through 26 of them. So again, just trying to get a little bit of everything so kids could see reflections of themselves in different types of characters. I was actually getting ready to say that. That's the beautiful, the beauty of this, the fact that a lot of children of color feel they aren't represented. So to be able to have something like this, where you have them being represented as queens and kings and princesses, it's so amazing. And the 3D, 4D aspect of it as well, you know, it's going to inspire them more

and just give them something to look forward to. Robert, you have any questions? Yeah, actually I do. And I, like you, don't have any kids yet that have been able to find me. But I do wonder, in a lot of school districts around the country, we're dealing with these people who consider anything along this line to be critical race theory. They're banning books in Florida. If you look at some of these lists of books that have been banned, they're banning how the caged birds sing and so on and so forth. Can you kind of talk about why it's so important for parents to do this type of education for their children at home, those reading at home, because they're no longer going to be able to get this type of enrichment in the public school or even

in public libraries if many of these people have their way? Sure, absolutely. So you, I mean, the cliche is, you know, representation matters. The reason that it matters is not just so that our kids of color can see reflections of themselves, but when kids that are not of color see positive representations of characters of color, their ideology around particular people remains positive. And you're right, it's going to be important that parents, if you have homeschoolers, parents just for bedtime reading, there is a movement to prevent anything that features main characters of color, whether it talks about history or not. And so it's going to be extremely important to make sure that you start adding, if you haven't already, these books to your libraries. Valid point.

Dr. Nichols? Well, I have enough kids for everybody on the panel. So I'll just, you know, if anybody wants one, I can loan them out. Why did I just think of Oprah when you said that? You get a kid, you get a kid, you get a kid. You all get kids. Jason's the Nick Cannon of the panel. Oh.

I'm not quite there. And all my children are by one woman. But let me just, you know, say, well, first of all, this looks amazing. This app looks incredible. I wanted to ask, are there specific authors that you work with? Or are you just finding books? How does the relationship with the authors work? So I'm the author of the first book, of the first two books. And that's just because I wanted to put this together and put it out there.

We were a startup, so you do what you have to do. The third book, the Demani and Demenzana, the author is an elementary school principal. And the stories that we have are actual folklore and fairy tale stories. Now, what we've done is that we've had to adapt some of them because when you start going to old, the traditional storyline, sometimes it can get a little dark.

Think about, I don't know, the traditional Cinderella, I think her toes were actually cut off with the knife or something. So, you know, you have to adapt it so that the kids can, so that it's palatable for young kids. And so we find the stories, we adapt them to the Rainbow Me platform. And the third book, again, is written by Dr. Latoya Kennedy, who is an elementary school principal here in Greensboro. But we will be looking for other authors for the other 20. How many books do we have left? Twenty two books. Now, you mentioned your Web site where people can go to find out information. Now, if there are individuals who

would like to be an author, can they go to your website as well? Or is there a specific email that they can reach out to in case they're interested in being a part of this? Sure. They can go to the website. If you go to Rainbow Me Kids, there's a pop-up that comes up where you can sign up for our email or you can talk to me directly, or you can send it directly to the company email, which is hello, H-E-L-L-O at rainbowmekids.com. Excellent. Excellent. I'm picturing Dr. Nichols downloading the app right now. It's like, I'm going to get that right now. Well, Kia, I'm gonna get that right now. Well, Kia, thank you so much for joining us.

This is so fascinating. I'm not kidding you. I don't have children, but I'm literally gonna go download this afterwards because I just want to test it out because I'm like, this is really fascinating. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. Thank you so much.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you for joining us. All right. She was spreading a little black girl magic right there. Speaking of black girl magic. Before we go, I'm going to tell you about a little black girl magic that was going on on full display at the top three spots in the competition. Conor McClain captured the U.S. all-around title, while Shalise Jones and Jordan Childs came in second and third place. Let's go to our panelists really quickly. What do you think about that?

I mean, this is just great. All right, let's start off with Dr. Carter. What do you think about that? Well, look, I mean, I think black athletic talent is undeniable. I mean, there's virtually, there are very few sports, excuse me, where you don't see black athletes dominate. And I think it's also important, I think, that we consider women athletes in the same way that we think about men when we talk about the greats. I think for many people, we only think of like Serena Williams. She's the woman who's sort of broken through the cultural zeitgeist

and is regularly mentioned as one of the greatest athletes of all time. But I think when we see these young women and we know that there's another generation of young Black women who are extraordinary athletes, who are very capable, and I think this just brings a smile to all of our hearts when we see things like this. black women who are extraordinary athletes, who are very capable. And I think this just brings a smile to all of our hearts when we see things like this. So true. So true. Robert? I think this shows the importance of what happens when you give people opportunity. For years, we thought that gymnastics was just a sport for Eastern European little white girls, you know, Nadia Comaneci, or, you know, all, you know,

so on and so forth. I literally forgot every single one of their names this day quickly. But once you open those doors up to young black girls and give them the opportunity to compete, the opportunity to train, give them the same resources you give everyone else, this is just proof that they can excel. You know, being from Georgia in the 96 Olympics, all we had was Dominique Dawes. And shout out to her for really inspiring a generation. And then Gabby Douglas and, of course, Simone Biles after her. But it's just proof that when you give our young people the opportunity, they will excel and they will show you that all these barriers can be

breaking down. All they need is the chance to prove themselves. Well said. Well said. Dr. Nichols. Yeah, I want to give a shout out to Dominique Dawes as well. She's from Maryland, so shout out to her. And also to Gabby Douglas and to Simone Biles.

I think that they are an important part of this story because they showed that it was possible and they promoted the sport the same way Tiger Woods did for golf. And a lot of these sports, we looked at it as they were cost prohibitive, and we see still that when Black people get the opportunity, I'd like to see more Black swimmers. So, you know, that's the next sport that I'd like to see Black people start to conquer.

And, you know, I think a lot of that, it comes down to opportunity and access, as Robert just pointed out. So I think, you know, the more programs that we get, the more opportunities, the more scholarships that people can get, we're gonna see Black people competing in all different kinds of sports, and also, you know, in things like chess

and other opportunities to flex their physical and intellectual muscles. I think we'll see that, you know, Black people are strong and capable and durable and incredible people. Exactly. As these ladies just showed everyone, showed the entire world. Well, first, before we go, I want to thank you all for joining us today, our panelists specifically. Thank you, Robert. Thank you, Dr. Carter. And thank you, Dr. Nichols. This has been such a great show and it was great hearing your input and your questions to all the guests that we had today. Also, I want to mention to those who are

watching, if you didn't get a chance to catch the link to download the film War on Friendly Grounds, we're going to put that up on the screen for you. Only people that watch this show will have access to this film. So take advantage of it because it's an amazing film of overcoming racial injustices and turning that into something that can help others. So we're going to go on ahead and pop that up on the screen there. Make sure you check it out. And on that note, make sure that you all get some rest tonight.

Have a wonderful night, and I'll see you all tomorrow. Have a good night. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word.

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