#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Girl Dad Week, SCOTUS to Decide Trump's Immunity, Defense Secretary Back In Hospital

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

2.12.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Girl Dad Week, SCOTUS to Decide Trump's Immunity, Defense Secretary Back In Hospital LIVE at the Lincoln Theater in Columbus, Ohio, kicking off Black Girl Dad Week, sponsored by Male Behavioral Health. During the second hour of tonight's show, I'll be moderating a fireside chat with Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. Here's what's coming Up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. In a last-ditch effort, Trump asks the Supreme Court to prevent his prosecution in the federal election interference. Defense Secretary Llyod Austin is back at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. We'll have an update on his condition.  A Black truck driver who a K-9 attacked during a traffic stop settles with an Ohio city.  A Michigan state lawmaker loses his staff and committee appointment for a social media post about replacement theory.  And the black hair care business loses an icon. The founder of Dudley hair care,  Joseph Louis Dudley Sr, has died. Watch #BlackStarNetwork streaming 24/7  Amazon Fire TV / Amazon News, Prime Video, Freevee + Plex.tv Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, February 12, 2024. Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Columbus East High School,

where I am participating in the first event for Black Girl Dad Week. I'm going to be joined here by Congresswoman Joyce Beatty for a fireside chat. So look forward to bringing that live to you as well. But on today's show, in a last-ditch effort, Don Trump wants the Supreme Court to hear his immunity case after it was thrown out by the appeals court. We'll talk about that on the show. Plus, Trump also literally said over the weekend that the hell with our NATO allies. If Russia attacks them, he'll let them do it.

That man has no business being in the Oval Office. Also, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital. We'll tell you why. Plus, a black truck driver who a canine officer attacked during the traffic stop settles with an Ohio City. Plus, a Michigan State lawmaker loses his staff and committee appointment after a racist post. That keeps happening when it comes to a lot of these Republicans. Also, we lost a giant, Joseph Dudley Sr., a black entrepreneur in the hair care business, passed away over the weekend. We'll pay tribute to him as well.

Folks, it is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filtered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Roll martin secretary of defense lloyd austin who of course was uh had a pan had a had a cancer surgery prostate cancer surgery in december is back in the hospital due to a bladder issue. This took place over the weekend. It's a non-surgical procedure. Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder is providing update on Austin's condition. According to Secretary Austin's doctors, after a series of tests and evaluations, he was admitted yesterday evening into the critical care unit at Walter Reed for supportive care and close monitoring.

Now, shortly before today's briefing, we released an update from the secretary's doctors at Walter Reed regarding his status. And to ensure everyone here today and those watching have the same information, I will read that full statement. This is a statement from Dr. John Maddox, Trauma Medical Director and Dr. Gregory Chestnut, Center for Prostate Disease Research of the Murtha Center, Director at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Beginning the statement, quote, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III underwent non-surgical procedures under general anesthesia to address his bladder issue. We anticipate a successful recovery and will closely monitor him overnight. A prolonged hospital stay is not anticipated. We anticipate the secretary will be able to resume his normal duties tomorrow. The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery.

His cancer prognosis remains excellent, end quote. Moving forward, we will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available regarding Secretary Austin's status, and we all certainly wish him a speedy recovery. In the meantime, Secretary Austin will no longer travel to Brussels this week, as originally scheduled. Secretary Austin, of course, was supposed to test out before the House Armed Services Committee on February 29th regarding his previous hospitalization and the failure to notify senior congressional leaders as well as the White House. Joining me right now, my pal, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist, president emerita of Bennett College. She joins us out of D.C.

Dr. Amakongo Dabenga, senior professorial lecturer, School of International Service at American University, also out of D.C. Renita Shannon, a former Georgia State representative out of Atlanta. Glad to have all three of you here. Renita, I want to start with you. The reality is this here. Secretary Austin made a huge mistake initially when he failed to notify the White House and Congress. Now he's back in the hospital. They put in place the proper notification. So we got

that over the weekend. And look, this is one of those things that we talk about, black men, prostate cancer, issues that we face. I mean, look, we just lost Dexter King, the prostate cancer. This is one of those issues that we talk about. And so we're glad to see that, again, he's having it addressed. But they have to do the right thing in notifying key personnel because he serves in one of the most important positions in all of government. Absolutely. And this is an unfortunate update that the secretary is having, you know, issues, medical issues, again, that are continuing to dog him. But I am happy to hear, you know, that he is expected to make a full recovery. I also think that it's important that we do, you know, give credit that they did hear the prior

concerns about not being transparent about his health, which we saw, you know, a couple, I think it was a couple months ago, maybe a month ago or so. So I do appreciate that they saw, you know, a couple—I think it was a couple months ago, maybe a month ago or so. So I do appreciate that they have, you know, put in process a way to keep the public, you know, up to date and being transparent about his health issues. So I do think that's important, because a lot of times, you know, definitely the public has a lot of criticisms for elected officials and for government. But it is important that when criticisms are lodged and you then you see changes in elected officials, that that is also uplifted. So I'm just overall, I'm happy to see that transparency is back. We've got an update,

but it is unfortunate that he's continuing to have health issues. And I wish him well. I'm a Congo. Again, he was very, he's looking at private individual. He was very private, but this is one of those things that I think if he goes public and he talks about this, it could have an impact on other men, especially black men who are afraid to deal with their prostate cancer issues. Oh, absolutely. I mean, look at the other legend we lost, you know, as relates to Joe Madison as well. And, you know, the fact of the matter is people who know Lloyd Austin,

our Secretary Austin, who have known him long enough, he's always been a private person. They kind of assumed that things like this were going to happen and he's been a little bit more vocal about it, but he clearly has discomfort in talking about it. And I hope that the fact of the matter is, is that those of us out here, like what we're doing tonight, we're not saying,

oh, my gosh, here we go again. We should he should resign. We're using this as a wake up call for our community. And so given that he is most likely not going to get out and speak up as much on this as we like, we have the ability to amplify his voice and his situation, because like you said, with Dexter King, you know, and so many others, this is something that we're getting real-time reminders of how serious and deadly this is. And so I hope that we continue to use our platforms to amplify this and speak about the whole totality of this, because other people are saying, oh, my gosh, he should resign right now.

And given what's happening with the House and Senate right now, they're not even going to confirm someone else. So it's just going to throw more aspects of the government in limbo if he wants to do something like that. And I think he's mindful of it. And President Biden is also mindful of it as well. But going off of Vanita's point, the fact of the matter is, the most important thing is his health. And we have to use this to make sure that we're amplifying this as another reason, another cautionary tale for us to get out there and get the testing that we need to be able to take care of ourselves and do early prevention. Julian, again, we're glad to see that he is getting the help that he needs.

But this is also, frankly, for people out there who are voters, a political issue because he's secretary of defense. He has absolutely great health care. But you have Republicans in this country who want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, have no actual replacement. And this is the kind of thing that people need to understand. If Trump wins and the Republicans would control the House and the Senate, they will get rid of the Affordable Care Act. And the reality is that has played a crucial role in African-American being uninsured has dropped tremendously. And now only less than 9% of the country is uninsured. And so, look, they get great free

health care, but we've got to make sure that policy-wise we are protecting health care for regular ordinary citizens. Absolutely, Roland. And not only that, most of us are insured one way or another, but what kind of insurance do we have? I interviewed a woman this morning who leads an organization called RIP Medical Debt. They're buying up people's medical debt because nearly 50 percent of all Americans have some medical debt. You know, I just had a fall recently, and so I had to get an MRI, make sure I wasn't crazy. They did not confirm that. But I'm okay, which is a blessing. But my co-pay for the MRI was $700. It's 10% of the cost. Obviously, I had it, thank you, Lord, but everybody doesn't. And the guy said to me, well, you don't have to have an MRI. Okay, I fell. I've split my lip, hit myself upside the head. Yes, I needed an MRI.

And lots of people, what this woman was saying to me today is that a lot of people have to make that decision. If they're confronted with a decision, you have to pay the copay. They might say, okay, nevermind. And that's how we end up with people dying before they should die, because they have conditions that they basically could not afford to deal with. So we need better health care, not worse. And the Lloyd Austin story both reminds us about the situation of health care in our country and rolling the organization's RIP medical debt. They buy up medical debt at pennies on the dollar and then they send people letters and say, your medical debt is taken care of. Isn't that, that's a beautiful concept. But we have that. We have the whole issue of prescription drugs. And again, if the orange man is elected, what will we do about insulin and other things that African-American people

need? But mostly, as I hear about this story and as I followed it today, I just wish Brother Austin the best. He's an amazing human being who served our country in the military and has served as Secretary of Defense. And although I'm sure that his deputies can do a decent job, what I'm concerned about is where we are internationally. We have a fool who's siccing Russia on our allies. I mean, just an unblemished fool who's doing that. And we still have issues in Ukraine and Israel. And so, you know, while we say all we can

about putting Brother Austin's situation in context, we also have to remind ourselves how crucial he is to President Biden at this point in time. Yep. And real quick here, in October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also was looking at devising rules that will remove medical debt from credit reports. And remember, who has adamantly opposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Republicans. And so I need people to understand that elections,

there are many tentacles involved here. And this is a perfect example where, again, elected officials, people in the administration, they get free health care. Americans don't. We've got to make sure that we get as close to the same type of health care that they have. And so we certainly wish Secretary Austin good health and a great recovery. Got to go to break. We'll be right back on Rolling Mark Unfiltered, broadcasting live on the Black Star Network from Columbus, Ohio, at Columbus East High School. We'll be back in a moment.

On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock, no wonder the wealth gap continues to widen. Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who decided to change that. I have been blessed with good positions, good pay, but it wasn't until probably in the last couple of years that I really invested in myself to get knowledge about what I should be doing with that money and how to productively use it. Right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network.

For the last 15 or maybe 16 years, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to L.A., I hadn't had a break. I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's Chicken, we wrapped it up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm going to take a little break.

So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. I got it. You know what I'm saying? Right. So I can afford it. You know what I'm saying? So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. What's up, y'all?

This is Wendell Haskins, a.k.a. Winn Hogan at the Original T Golf Classic. And you know I watch Roland Martin unfiltered. Thank you. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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

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

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

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me.

Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tetherpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.

All right, folks, Donald Trump wants the Supreme Court to intervene in the case where he is not getting immunity. Of course, the appeals court ruled on that. So he wants the Supreme Court to rule. Many legal experts expect them not to do so, affirming that 3-0 decision that he does not have immunity now that he is a regular citizen. Now, over the weekend, everybody, all these media people were talking about the special counsel's report where he questioned the mental acuity of President Joe Biden, yet they completely ignore the crazy, outlandish, nonsensical, rabid, nut-cased stuff that Donald Trump was saying in his rallies. In fact, this is what he said over the weekend with regards to the United States defending its allies in NATO if they were attacked by Russia. The presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?

I said, you didn't pay? You're delinquent? He said, yes, let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. So, Omicongo, here you have an individual who wants to go back to the Oval Office, who is literally saying, hey, it's no problem for Russia to attack our allies. NATO is one of the most successful alliances we have. We literally have signed agreements by being a member of NATO that if our allies are attacked, we are to defend them.

We're all these so-called pro-military Republicans who touted Reagan and, you know, going after Gorbachev to tear this wall down. It's amazing how Republicans have completely sold out to Putin and Russia. Hey, Lindsey Graham. I mean, you know what's going on, Lindsey. Look, the fact of the matter is, is that Donald Trump, with his mob boss mentality, he talks about his ideas on NATO like it's some type of protection racket, like we see in the shows. Hey, you haven't paid up, you know, pay up tonight or we're not going to break your knees or

whatever. That's the type of mentality that he has as it relates to NATO. And the mindset is completely wrong in terms of how he looks at it. And people like Marco Rubio, who are on Jake Tapper this weekend, talks about what we saw what Trump did the first time he was in office when he said similar comments to NATO. Well, back then he had people to help keep him in check. This time around, he doesn't have people to keep him in check if he gets in. And so even if he didn't break away from NATO exactly, all he has to do is agree to not

support certain things and fund certain things, and NATO is going to fall apart. This is disgusting and this is despicable. Furthermore, this is also a version of what he said in 2015 about Russia. If you're listening, I hope you can find the e-mails, right, for Hillary Clinton. That night, the whole Russian bot farm started going into overdrive to help to interfere with the election. This is more incentive for Russia to want to continue its interference into our election in 2024 as well. So now they already wanted it. Now they're more motivated to do this because we know that Trump is not going to do anything to criticize Biden in any way, shape or form. And some people could say in the United—and the last thing I'll say on this is that he can say that

at an audience like that, because many people in America on a day-to-day basis don't really know what NATO does or is about in any way, shape or form. We don't have American civics taught in our schools, and we don't have international history and politics and government taught in our schools as well. So they can hear him and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, pay your dues, even though he doesn't pay his own dues and his own loans and his crazy amount of debt. And so we have to be mindful of the fact that this is also scaring our allies, but we need to speak up here in the United States about why this is important to us, particularly

as it relates to Ukraine. Americans are not dying in what's happening in Ukraine right now because we've been supporting Ukraine. And of course, Ukraine's not part of NATO right now. But really, at the end of the day, if we lose that, he starts, he's successful in Ukraine, he's going to start going to other places and attacking NATO allies. Then we got American troops and lives on the ground as well. And that's going to be even more problematic for Americans. So we got to get on the good foot now with this and calling him out. Julian, that's why the point Omokongo makes there is so important. I've heard so many black people whine and complain about the amount of money that is spent when it comes to Ukraine. People don't understand a foreign policy. If Russia takes Ukraine, then Putin has made it clear he is going to go after other countries that are part of the NATO alliance.

He wants to put back together the Soviet Union, which was broken apart, that Soviet bloc. If any NATO country is attacked, we are obligated to get involved. What does that mean? American troops on the ground. So when you see the funding take place now by Congress, that's actually cheaper than Americans being involved. And so I think people need to understand that this is not just, oh, Ukraine and Russia. This is literally an effort by the United States and other countries to keep Putin from taking a country and then going to take other countries. Precisely.

I mean, we have to keep Putin in check. What Putin wants is World War III. And you've seen all the things he's doing to basically push conflict, any kind of conflict. And he said things. And the problem is not just Putin. Putin's going to be Putin. But Trump and Putin have been in bed with each other, not literally, just figuratively, for a long time. He and the two of them have been in an unholy alliance for a very long time. And I don't know what Trump's

endgame is. I think we can all agree that his sanity quotient is very low. He has an antipathy for the United States, because he doesn't get his way. He has an antipathy for our military. The comments that he made this weekend about Nikki Haley's husband, men serving in the military, were reprehensible. But he makes reprehensible mistakes all the time, but not mistakes that are not mistakes for him. But he does this all the time. But back to Ukraine. Let's talk about what staying out of Ukraine would cost. In the short run, we'll save a little money.

In the short run. That is probably two quarters, because if we don't help Ukraine, Putin takes Ukraine. Then we have a ground war where American troops will be going over there. What do we know about these troops? A disproportionate number of them are African-American men and women. We know that they will be going over there. We know that there will be losses. When you have a ground war, you lose people. You know that, again, we already are losing people to the wars on the streets here at home. We'll be losing people abroad, and a disproportionate amount of that, although Black women do serve in the military and serve disproportionately to white women, but we'll

lose a lot more Black men. So what we need to—what Black folks need to understand is just because it's not in your face doesn't mean it's not happening. Unfortunately, as Omokongo has said, and he's absolutely right, when we don't teach civics, we don't understand foreign policy. But foreign policy suggests that the United States has been a world leader. Our role certainly is waning, but it's not gone. And we have to be the ones, we're the only ones in the world who can hold the line on Putin. So this nonsense that the orange man is spouting about if you don't pay your NATO dues,

Russia can do whatever they want with you, I mean, that's beyond reprehensible. It's disgusting. And it's inviting war. But what we know about that is these countries have been our allies, France, Germany, Spain. And we can go down the list. Countries in the former Soviet Union who have now joined NATO, Turkey, who's always on some kind of economic, whatever, backslide, all of these countries, some of them can't afford to pay their NATO dues. Others could do better and should be pressured to do so. But to say you don't pay your dues, you don't get anything, I hate to borrow Omicongo's

analogy, but I can't think of a better one, it's like the mafia saying, no, pay up, we'll break your legs. But we do know that certain people, the orange man, perhaps, never mind, I'm not going to go there. What I'm going to say is American citizens must be responsible. If we choose to not have the leadership role, understand what the consequences are. Reneita? Well, I would say do not underestimate what Trump is doing here in his election speech. A lot of

you have said things like people who think this way don't understand foreign policy, and that's not what's really going on. He's playing to the new sentiment, which is bipartisan, I would add, a growing sentiment of people feeling like they don't want the United States to be the policeman of the world and that we should mind our business more and have foreign involvement a little less. And so this is really tricky, what he's doing, because he's playing on that sentiment. But what people really need to pay attention to what he's saying is he's playing on that sentiment. But what people really need to pay attention to what he's saying is he's playing off that sentiment, but he's also really far to basically outright just support Russia. And so with this being a black news show, what black folks need to key in on is that Russia has absolutely nothing good for us. So the United States,

through a Trump candidacy and Trump presidency, becoming closer with the likes of Vladimir Putin has nothing good in store for us because we likes of Vladimir Putin has nothing good in store for us, because we know that Vladimir Putin is absolutely great with white nationalist views. We know that the disdain that Putin has had for black folks and that a lot of his policy reflects that, especially with the authoritarianism that he uses to rule Russia. And so I think that this is very tricky, what Trump is doing, because politically he is taking advantage of a growing sentiment, and Democrats have got to have a very specific and tactical way to parse out what he is really saying

versus feelings that they may have around foreign policy at this time. All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back to Columbus East High School, I'll be chatting with the congresswoman from this district, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. She'll join us right here on Roland Martin on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support us in what we do, folks. If 20,000 of our fans, our goal is to get them to contribute on average $50 a year.

That's $4.19 a month. That's $0.13 a day. That raises about a million bucks. I told y'all we're fighting a good fight with these ad agencies, trying to get them to spend more than 0.5 to 1% with Black-owned media. Some $340 billion is spent every year on advertising, and literally Black-owned media is getting no more than 1%. And so we are doing all that we can to change that. So your support is critical for us to do what we do. So please do so by sending your check and money orals to all the old school folks.

PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, rolling at rollingsmartin.com, rolling at rolling martin unfiltered.com also be sure to get a copy of my book white fear how the browning of america is making white folks lose their minds they let bookstores nationwide get the audio version which i read on audible also download the black star network app apple phone android phone apple tv android tv roku amazon

fire tv xbox one samsung smart tv and be sure to watch our 24-hour, 7-day-a-week Black Star Network Fast Channel. We're available on four different platforms, Amazon News. So go to Amazon Fire and you can check us out. You can tell Alexa, play news from the Black Star Network, and that will happen. You can also go watch us on Plex TV, Amazon Freebie, Amazon Prime Video. We'll be right back. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for

Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me carve my path with data and drive but some people only see who I am on paper the paper ceiling the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.

Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. Come on that soil, you will not be free. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storming 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 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 people. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high growth fields. No experience is necessary. Learn at your own pace. Complete the online certificate program on your own terms. Stand out to employers.

Get on a path to in-demand jobs and connect with top employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program or all six. Earn a Google career certificate to prepare for a job in a high growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity and more. All professional career certificate programs

must be completed by December 31st, 2024. Scan the QR code to complete the application. There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J. Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin. It is always a pleasure to be in the house. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. All right, folks, it is Black Girl Dad Week here in Columbus, Ohio. That's why I am here.

And so in about 30 minutes, I'll have some comments to make. I have more than 1,000 people who are here. They've sold out of the event. There's going to be a fireside chat with me and my next guest, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. Glad to be back in Columbus. How are you doing? Thank you. It's always good to have you here.

People are so excited. It's sold out. We had to move to this venue because it was large enough to handle Roland Martin unfiltered. I'm certainly glad to be here, looking forward to it. Let's talk a little politics. This has been one of the most unproductive Congresses in American history. The number of bills passed is just crazy, all because Republicans have no idea what the hell they're doing. We've never in the history had what we've had this year.

Think about it. It took us four days and 15 times just for Republicans in the majority to elect a speaker. And then they allowed one of their members to be able to have the speaker vacate the chair, and it was successful. And now, former Speaker McCarthy's not there. New Speaker Johnson, no one brings bills to the floor that can't pass. And he was so embarrassed last week. He was in the chair thinking he was going to have a victory, and then he tried to run and get out of the chair so he wouldn't have to be in the chair to lose on his whole bill. It's chaotic. It's unreal. It would be funny if it weren't so serious about what we're missing out. Well, and some of the critical bills, if it wasn't for Democrats, the spending bill wouldn't have actually happened because Republicans all voted against it.

And the good thing about Hakeem Jeffries, who's our leader and certainly who I am saying is going to be our next speaker, he understands democracy. He understands what is at stake. So he could say, well, we're just not going to vote on anything because they're in charge. But he meets with us and he talks about responsibility and accountability. And then he'll talk about little black children and what we're doing for diabetes, for example, and Medicare and Medicaid. So he says, we're going to do enough to make sure that we save this nation and that people can still continue to live healthier lives. You mentioned hoping he becomes the next Speaker of the House. It only happens if Democrats take control of the House. And I was on Twitter when I landed today,

and some sister posted, so we're not going to vote in November. And I said, that's literally one of the stupidest things in the world. And what I keep trying to explain to people is that literally, there are binary choices. At the end of the day, no matter where you live, when it comes to the House or the Senate, even for the president, it's going to be a Democrat or Republican. Absolutely. And when I hear people the House or the Senate, even for the president, it's going to be a Democrat or Republican. Absolutely. And when I hear people who are complaining, who say, oh, man, you're just trying to get the vote Democrat, I'm like, no, I'm trying to get you to understand what are the policies.

And the reality is, if Republicans keep control of the House, take control of the Senate, and Trump wins, the things that we talk about, Affordable Care Act, civil rights, voting rights, even assistance for businesses. Look, when Democrats controlled the House, you were over a subcommittee that specifically looked at, in the financial services area, businesses, excuse me, these companies, how they were not supporting African-Americans. Republicans took control. They got rid of that subcommittee. That's a perfect example. And didn't let us talk about it at all. And what I have to say, especially to folks who look like us, people are losing their jobs because they're saying you cannot hire black people.

You cannot put them in higher positions. And we didn't hire, as you know, you're black. You're on the radio, national news, but you are exceptional. It's not like we just go out there and say, okay, we want black people. We have more qualified, brilliant folks who are in these positions, and we want to keep them there. Think about health care. When you look at health care for everyone, young folks were able to stay on their parents' insurance until they were 26. If you had a preexisting condition, they wanted to take away your health care. Now more people have health care through this administration that we've had in the history.

If you want to talk about folks that look like us, this president has hired more black people in cabinet positions and significant positions than all the other presidents added up. So I'm like you. I want you to vote and I want you to understand what's at risk. And that's the thing. No one's perfect. But if you don't vote, you don't have a voice. Last week, House Democrats had their caucus gathering at Lansdowne Resort. President Biden was there. And one of the things that we look at this election, you have all of these folks talking about his age, talking about, well, you know, their concerns. Look at the polling data as well.

But I keep saying to people, look, at the end of the day, look, I said it. When he won last time, he was running again. So I'm like, I don't know why anybody's shocked he's actually running again. And what I say is, what got done? What got done? And again, this is not a question of, oh, you're pushing one or the other. No, I'm sitting here looking at exactly what got done and then going, okay, if you want to talk about inflation going low, Republicans said the Inflation Reduction Act was not going to help. It didn't. When you talk about inflation going low. Republicans said the Inflation Reduction Act was not going to help.

It didn't. When you talk about the massive programs, President Biden was out today talking about 46,000 projects right now are happening all across the country. And those things are as a result of Build Back Better. And so I tell people that if there are things that you want that didn't get done, understand. That's why you have another election. The notion that I didn't get everything I want in four years is nonsensical. Conservatives waited 40-plus years to get rid of Roe v. Wade.

They voted every election since the early 70s to get rid of Roe v. Wade, and they were able to do so when Trump got three Supreme Court justices. There it is. And people have to understand that. And, Roland, that's what's so good about your show. You break it down so people can understand what's happening. And I think we have to do a better job of bragging. There's a young guy.

Blas. Blas, yeah. And he is so accurate. You know, we know the things we know because we go and tell people. But what we don't know, the money to HBCU colleges. $6.5 billion. The money that we've put in that now little children can get on the Internet. We put that in the infrastructure bill.

So if we don't go out and brag, diabetes, and especially for folks in this community that we're in tonight, at one time, black men in Columbus had the highest death rate related to being diabetic. To get your insulin, in some communities, $400 up to $800 a month. Now this administration has capped it at $35 a month. Now this administration has capped it at thirty five dollars a month. Those are the things that we have to continue to brag about. And again, so I'm here since we're in Ohio. You mentioned you mentioned HBCUs. So I just want people to understand Central State University, as a result of the work, received $57.9 million through all of these various programs from Congress. Wilberforce, another HBCU, got $33.7 million. Yes.

If you don't have Congressman Bobby Scott on the Education Committee and Democrats, those two HBCUs in this state don't get $90 million. Exactly. And if you look at states like South Carolina, where they have eight HBCU colleges, they all receive more money than they've ever received in the history. Well, for folks, okay, so Allen, you went to South Carolina. Allen got $40.6 million. Benedict got $88.3 million. Claflin, give me one second.

Okay, now I've got to pull a chart up. So, y'all, I'm actually reading the flow chart from the Department of Education, and this is the thing, again, that I'm always trying to explain to people, how we have to be very clear and read the numbers. So we're talking about significant numbers. Clinton College, Denmark Technical College, Morris College, South Carolina State, Voorhees College got 69 million, 8.9, 11.6, 15.6, 77.6, 28.2. If I do a real quick math calculation right here, South Carolina colleges got in excess of $250 million.

There you go. And these are the things that we have to talk about because that provides research, infrastructure, but also scholarships for our young folks to go to college. The Pell Grant, many folks couldn't go to college. I wouldn't have been able to go to college and graduate. First generation going to college, but for having support and scholarships. So we're making a really big difference. People talk about inflation.

It's down. Gas prices have moved downward. This president got us through a global pandemic. I mean, conversely, we had somebody telling you go out there and drink bleach and don't worry about it. Well, also keep in mind, Republicans want to cut those Pell Grants. Exactly. And those disproportionately impact African-Americans. We're going to take some questions from our panel. Julianne Malveaux, you're president emerita of Bennett College. So you get to ask the first question for Congresswoman Beatty. For Congresswoman and my soror and my friend, Congresswoman Beatty, it's so good to see you. And thank you for lifting up the administration and the work that's been done.

When we look at the infrastructure bill and we look at our cities, because we're having so many challenges in our cities now, the Biden administration has put lots into our cities, but what more is on the chopping block if the orange man is elected? And thank you for all the work that you're doing there. Everything is on the chopping block. When you think about in the last decade or so, we have never had the infrastructure bill to not be a bipartisan bill.

It wasn't even an issue. We went in, it's infrastructure, it's roads and bridges, and we would vote on it. With this administration, not only did we do roads and bridges and rail, but we put infrastructure in there. We put the Internet in the infrastructure bill so children could be better educated and they could matriculate in school because they could do their homework. Now, I personally believe they want to take away what we read. They want to take away having the internet because they know when we are educated and we have information and facts, we become like a Roland Martin or we become just like you. We can

go out and articulate what we stand for. It's so important for us to vote to keep all of these accomplishments. We've never allocated $1.2 trillion until we did this infrastructure bill that came over as a bipartisan bill from the Senate. But I just want to tell you how proud I am of the Congressional Black Caucus, because when we were trying to work it out, I'd like to say in our family, the Democratic family, it was the Congressional Black Caucus that put the plan together, went back to our members, got enough votes. Nancy Pelosi took it to the floor and we got the infrastructure bill and it's making a difference. Now, what should we do with messaging?

And I just thought last week that President Biden went and put this bridge is here and signed it because that's what Trump did. All those letters. Anybody listen? It's called bragging. All those letters you got that Trump put his name on the check and on that. That happened because Democrats were in control of the House. And then they take credit for it. We have members in Congress that voted against every bill. But then when the monies come back, they go out there and cut the ribbon. And they say to all the folks, look what I've done in our community for you. And they voted against infrastructure.

They voted against health care. They voted against education dollars. So what can we do? What's it say? Telling our stories. Letting people understand in simple language what we've done. And let's go get the job finished. Omokongo, your question.

Representative Beatty, thank you so much for all of the great work that you're doing. I'm seeing that you are there organizing Black Girl Dad Week. And so my question is about the youth vote. What are you seeing as it relates to young people that is resonating with them that may get them interested in getting out and voting? Because clearly you're doing work of young people in the community. What are you seeing? Well, one of the things like the program and Roland being here tonight, we're including them more. We need to make sure that they understand not only that they have a vote, but their vote is appreciated and recognized.

And we have to make changes. We have to go out and say to them, what is it that you want to see? And let me just tell you, I have an office every day that young folks come in. I have people work for me that are in their 20s, and they are very sophisticated. They understand technology. And they'll tell us, make it simple. Get to the point. Don't lecture to us. Also, regurgitate what they're telling us. And Roland does that so well. We're having daughters and fathers. A couple weeks ago, the brothers got together and had real talk.

And let me tell you why I know this will work. When we went into barbershops, into the streets in our last election here, when they were trying to take away our freedoms after the Dobbs decision, Roe v. Wade, we had a 10-year-old girl who was raped. She couldn't get an abortion, even though her parents, her medical providers felt that's what she had to do. She had to go to Indiana. But when the Republicans tried to put the abortion bills, whether you were dying, whether you were raped on the ballot, brothers came out, men came out and voted because what we told them was they were taking away your freedoms. They want to take away what you can read.

They want to take away where you can read. They want to take away where you can live. And so we have to go old school. We have to go back to the streets. We have to make sure our voices are heard. And I'm seeing young folks, and I think I'm going to give a lot of credit, although I'm known for saying we were doing Black Lives Matters back in the 60s. But I had a great appreciation for their artistic art with Black Lives Matters back in the 60s, but I had a great appreciation for their artistic art with Black Lives Matters. They're very political. The young folks have come together now with those who are a little more seasoned, almost like how, if you think about Martin Luther King and John Lewis and Jesse, they were all very, very young. Right. And

they went in with Martin who was older, but what they realized... Not much older. Not much. But what they realized, they were stronger together. Right. And that's what we're hoping for, that we are stronger together. Renita? Representative Beatty, thank you

for all of your hard work. Just a quick question. So I served in the Georgia House Representatives for six years. I'm sure, as you for all of your hard work. Just a quick question. So I served in the Georgia House of Representatives for six years. I'm sure, as you know, and I learned campaigning, voters don't care a lot about things that they can't tangibly feel in their everyday lives. So there are a lot of things that elected officials do, like infrastructure, things like that, where you're not really going to get any points with voters if a bridge doesn't crumble. But if it does, you're going to get any points with voters if a bridge doesn't crumble. But if it does, you're going to be horribly in trouble.

What are you going to tell voters in Ohio, as I assume you're probably up for reelection, too? What are you going to tell voters as to what are the tangible things that you have seen from the Biden administration, things that they can feel in their everyday lives, like the capping of insulin? Because that is a big one that's easy for voters to understand. And that's generally what voters vote on on are things that directly impact their lives. What sort of list are you going to be repeating to voters?

And I think you hit it. The Internet goes over well. When we tell them, because there are a lot of people who can't get on the Internet or they don't have the equipment. So when we tell them about that. In rural and inner city areas. Exactly. So when we use words, we don't say broadband and all the technology. We have to say, look, you're going to now be able to get on the Internet.

You're now going to be able to have $35 a month for insulin. We talked about HBCUs. Whether you go to college or not, people understand black colleges need money. And so when we say it in simple terms, food, housing, when we talk about Medicare, I say your grandmother or your mother if they're a little older, taking away how they are taken care of if they have to go to the hospital. It's all the things we're doing, but we're learning to brag and package it a lot different. We tell them that we're putting people over politics because you're right. Some young folks don't want to hear our politics.

That's just politics. It doesn't affect me. And so when we say people over politics, we're putting you first. We think that it's making a big difference. And to that point, a thousand some people coming out tonight because young people came together and said, we want to hear your stories. All right, then. Well, Conjuring Baby. Thank you.

Well, appreciate it. Always glad to have you on the show. And, you know, I tell people all the time, all CBC members have an open invitation to come on the show. Not all take it, but you definitely will hit me up and say, hey, I got something to say. Let's go. That's right. All right. Well, glad to be here. Folks, y'all can check out our fireside chat in about 20 minutes. We will be live. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

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

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I'm streaming it right here on the Black Star Network. See, when you own it, you can do that. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, we'll come back.

We're going to talk about Black Girl Dad week next. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Next on The Frequency, we have an incredible conversation with my guest, Nadira Simmons, talking about her new book, First Things First, Hip Hop Ladies That Changed the Game. The founder of GumboNet tells us the stories behind the women in hip hop, starting with the first woman that promoted the hip hop party to Megan Thee Stallion.

There's even a chapter on me. Thank you so much for including me in there. It's just so like, you had to be in there. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. 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. 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 Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Rowan at RowanSMartin.com. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up. Or, to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for

everybody. You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level up means to them. For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation, but it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Black Star Network. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered right here in the Black Star Network. So as you can see what I'm wearing, y'all know I rarely when I'm speaking, I'm dressed like this here.

But today is a special day. On Friday, Janine Russell, the widow of Bill Russell, sent me this hoodie in this shirt because today marks the 90th birthday of Bill Russell. He passed away, the basketball great passed away in 2022. And so you have this here, and of course on the back you actually see all the markings on the back as well. And so they're selling these here to benefit the foundations that bear Bill Russell's name to assist all of those efforts. You can go to legendsuite.com. Guys, show the photo. This is the card that came in the package. If you go to my Instagram page, you'll see I did a box unveil. So this here is the card that accompanied it, again, from Janine Russell, the widow of Bill Russell. I was texting his daughter, Karen, earlier today as well.

And so I must say, Oma Kongo, it's great that the Russell family is doing this to keep his memory alive. I'm sorry, I just released the panel. It's great that they're doing this to keep his memory alive. But also the great things that he did. Normally, of course, this weekend is NBA All-Star Game weekend. Normally, I would see Bill there. Normally, we would see Bill sitting there front row with the various players. Again, he passed away at the age of 88. A phenomenal, phenomenal man. If you have not seen the Netflix documentary on Bill Russell, you want to do so. It is an amazing documentary that talks about his life and legacy. And so go to Legends Suite.

Come on, go to LegendsSuite.com to actually check out the gear. And if you want to support what Bill Russell is doing, please do so. All right, folks, real quick here. I'm here, again, at Columbus East High School. I'm going to clip this on to you right now. Yes, brother. And this is Jewel Woods. He's here.

First of all, Jewel, tell everybody we put this right here. People get to see the sausage being made. So we'll go ahead and do this here. So tell folks who you are and what is Black Girl Dad Week. No, thank you. First and foremost, can't express enough gratitude for Brother Roland being here. Should I look there, Brother Roland? Yeah, look at the camera.

So, yes, my name is Jewel Woods. I'm the founder and clinical director of Male Behavioral Health. Male Behavioral Health is an outpatient mental health practice dedicated to addressing the mental, emotional, behavioral health needs of men and boys. Black Girl Dad Week was actually founded on a basic belief, which is it's better to actually light a candle than it is to curse the darkness. And so while the statistics might show that there's a lot of single parent households in African-American community, the reality is there's a bunch of brothers that are pouring into their children. And so we wanted to elevate, amplify, and actually create a platform for that. So the first thing that we did was when I knew Brother Roland that Roe v. Wade was actually

going to be overturned, felt like that there was a need to create space for black men to figure out how they can support women, black women and black girls. So I reached out to your sister that you know, Sister Stephanie Rollins-Blake, and said, hey, I'd like to create a space for us to talk about how black men can support black women political leaders. She said she was down. Right after that, I reached out to Brother Tony Porter. I should be talking to you, not just this thing. Yeah, go ahead. You can talk to me.

And so who's a very, very serious brother, beautiful brother. And once we actually had that, the reality was, you know, when you're talking about mental health or those things, politics is all heavy. So we said, let's do something that's actually fun, allow folks to have a good time. So that's where we came up with the idea of Black Father Daughter Dance at CoSci. So this is our second year. Last year, we had about 700 brothers there showing up and showing out, had a great time. We expanded that. So now it's an entire week.

So my name is Take Your Daughter. Y'all got stuff all week. All week long, all week long. So tomorrow we have Take Your Daughter to School Day. And this is citywide. Wednesday is Take Your Daughter to Work Day, and this is citywide. Wednesday is Take Your Daughter to Work Day with the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Thursday is a Call to Men Community Conversation. Friday is we focus on healing and reconciliation. So we're doing

this talk called Forgiving Me and Another Clinical Psychologist. Brilliant sister. Saturday is the Big Father Daughter Dance. Sold out twice already. Unfortunately got like several hundred on the wait list. And that's a good thing. It's a good thing, but, you know, it breaks my heart to be telling folks we can't do that. And Sunday, we top it all off with Black Love and Black Relationship. We're going to have Sister Terry McMillan here to kind of anchor that conversation. So I don't want to speed past Saturday because, again, you said, so how many folks are signed up for Saturday?

Literally on the wait list, we have five. Last time I looked, it was 580 people. On the wait list. How many people make the cut? 800. And so the reason I think that's important, even though you don't have the space, what it shows all of these people out here who suggest that black men are not involved in lives of their children, that's a flat-out lie.

It's a flat-out lie. It's a flat-out lie. And the reality is all we're doing is allowing brothers to actually be seen in ways that they're already doing the work. And so the message for black men is not just that you need it, but that you want it. Because every black woman was a girl one day, just like every black man was a boy one day. And so creating space for brothers to simply,

and this is a community issue, right? We have got to change the narrative. We cannot figure this out. We're not going to move forward if black men and black women are not supporting each other. So this just simply gives space for that. And I think thus far it's resonated. And other cities are actually looking into it as well.

And it's also, again, what I convey to folk, it's also not just a question of if you are the biological father. The reality is, I mean, I've raised six of my nieces on different occasions. And, again, so whether you're an uncle, whether you're a godfather, you can play a critical role in the life of a young girl or a young boy. Absolutely. And so we focus on fathers and father figures, right, because it's fathering, right?

And parenting is not the same thing as just being an adult. And so the real question becomes, how can we actually help to allow these brothers? And I can just say it. I see it in clinical practice all the time. So brothers say, how do I be a good father? Sometimes you have to break that down. How much time are you spending? You talk about the importance of reading, right?

Are you spending time reading? Just those qualitative moments. And them seeing you read. Yes, and those qualitative moments. And the reason why I say that this has been, I think, impactful is, truth be told, is that there's never really been an opportunity for men, particularly black men, to figure out where they can support their daughters. So, for example, last year, Brother Roland, we had our Take Your Daughter to School event at Columbus City School for Girls. Incredible leadership.

They had never invited their fathers there. It's an all-girls school, right? And so you had fathers for the first time show up to the school and had this conversation about, right, how do we actually do this? And so that's what we're talking about, right? Just creating space for guys. Because sometimes, you know, our wives or partners just say, show up somewhere, right? We don't know what we're doing,

but we know we're putting in the work. But having an opportunity to really clarify. And also say your voice matters. Oh, my gosh. Your perspective matters. Absolutely. And actually, if you're talking about being in school, it can be real, right?

My daughter is in eighth grade, so sometimes it's just important to show up so that little brothers know that, you know, there's a brother there that actually has his daughter's best interest in mind. So all of that is the reason why we do Black Girl Dad Week. So thankful that you are here, right? The voice of black America. And it means the world to us. So we are super excited. We plan to get bigger and better. And it's about community impact. And I'll say this last thing. So we've moved past the point right now where it was all last year was about proof of concept. This year, it's about community impact. Like how many black males can we get involved in PTOs and PTAs?

There we go. How many black males can we get to register for some of these political organizing groups for these for the companies? How many companies are going to go on record and say we are actually going to sponsor the careers of black women, black girls? So this year is about impact. And so I'm excited how we move forward. That is awesome. Glad to hear it. Now, for the people out there, you said people are interested in this here. How can they get in contact with you?

It might be somebody in another city who says, man, I would love to do that here. Yes. BlackGirlDadWeek.com. Please go to BlackGirlDadWeek.com. You can also look at BlackFatherDaughterDance.com. Those are just two little websites that will direct you to us. And we love to have that conversation. All right, folks, we got to go.

So we're done with the show. So we've got to move from here. We're going to go sit up in the auditorium. We're going to live stream my comments and also the fireside chat with Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. I told y'all this is why black ownership matters. How many times have I told y'all that things like this happen all across the country? Guys, pull the music down. I need you to pull the music down.

Kill the music. Kill the music. Okay. I've told y'all numerous times, because if you heard what Jules said, he said change the narrative. The person that controls the narrative determines the narrative. NBC News Black dropped a story today where it said that although African Americans watch more television, not necessarily a positive thing, depending upon what we watch, anybody else, they're not happy with how mainstream media portrays us. And so I keep telling y'all, there are events like this that happens all over the country that you never hear about.

Mainstream media never shows up. Local TV stations don't show up. Network stations don't show up. But I guarantee you, if there was an outbreak of pregnant black girls in a high school, they'll show up. I can guarantee you if there was a mass shooting, they'll show up. And so the reason Black-owned media matters is because, and the reason I created the show on the network is to be able to showcase these type of things. So not just me coming here and participating as a speaker, but wherever I go, my cameras follow. And so when we tell

you why you have to support Black-owned media, support this show on the network, this is a perfect example. I could have easily said, hey, let's just get a guest host for the second hour and talk about some other stuff. We're going to actually broadcast that portion of it. So when I ask you all to support, this is exactly what I'm talking about. And so please do so again. So I'm going to tell you how to support the show, and then we're going to go set up.

Remember, all the people out there who tell me they can't stand technology, y'all still seeing checks and money orders. They can do so. PO Box 5719. They do. I get about 30 or 40 a week. They say, I don't trust the rest of that stuff. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered PayPal R Martin Unfiltered Venmo is RM Unfiltered Zelle Roland at RolandSMartin.com Roland at Roland Unfiltered.com we're going to go to a break when we come back we'll be

from the auditorium folks sold out more than a thousand people I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time have you ever had to shoot your gun sometimes the answer is yes but there's a company dedicated to a future And they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Ain't no room. People were texting me. I was like, y'all, I can't help you. I can't help you. They out. And so we'll be right back in a moment right here on Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from Columbus East High School back in a moment. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Immigrants lured off Texas streets and shipped to places like Martha's Vineyard and Washington, D.C.

Believe it or not, we've seen it all before. You people in the North, you're so sympathetic to Black people, you take them. Sixty years ago, they called it the reverse freedom rise. Back then, Southern governors shipped Black people north with the false promise of jobs and a better life. It's part of a well-known playbook being brought back to life. So what's next? That's next on The Black Table, a conversation with Dr. Gerald Horne about this issue of the reverse freedom rise right here on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up, or to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward

that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for everybody. You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level up means to them. For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation, but it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Blackstar Network. Next on The Frequency, we have an incredible conversation with my guest, Nadira Simmons, talking about her new book, First Things First, Hip Hop Ladies That Changed the Game. The founder of GumboNet tells us the stories behind the women in hip hop, starting with the first woman that promoted the hip hop party to Megan Thee Stallion, there's even a chapter on me.

Thank you so much. Yes! For including me in there. It's just so like, you had to be in there. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. For the last 15, or maybe 16, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to LA, I hadn't had a break. I hadn't had a break.

I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's Chicken, we wrapped it up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time.

So I'm taking a break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. You know what I'm saying? Right, right. So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock?

No wonder the wealth gap continues to widen. Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who decided to change that. I have been blessed with good positions, good pay, but it wasn't until probably in the last couple of years that I really invested in myself to get knowledge about what I should be doing with that money and how to productively use it. Right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A. And this is The Culture.

The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's The Culture, weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the

fast track to jobs in high-growth fields. No experience is necessary. Learn at your own pace. Complete the online certificate program on your own terms. Stand out to employers, get on a path to in-demand jobs, and connect with top employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program, or all six. Earn a Google Career Certificate to prepare for a job in a high-growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity, and more. We'll be right back. qualify for in-demand jobs. 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, rates $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $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 R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland rolandsmartin.com. hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not replace us. White people are losing their damn minds. 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. 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. A new year for a new you. Curl Prep Natural Hair Solutions at curlprep.com is an amazing organic line for curls, locks, braids, twists,

and even those wigs and extensions. Women, men, and children are loving this line. Look at this video and you be the judge. People line up to see this product in action at hair shows, and when they take a seat and try it, they don't believe it's their hair. Buy the products at CurlPrep.com. It works on all hair types. Use code ROLAND, that's R-O-L-A-N-D, lowercase letters, to get a 15% discount. Parents, remove the ouch.

You will love this system because you can comb the product through your child's hair with your fingers. Seasoned Saints are loving the product. It's all at CurlPrep.com. Use code ROLAND, lowercase letters, to get a 15% discount. You won't believe it's your hair. I know this is what I need. Give me that bass. Give me that beat. Hit on your tongue, I can feel an explosion. I'll take another if we keep it going.

Open it up. For the last 15 or maybe 16 years, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to LA, I hadn't had a break. I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's, we're going to be wrapping up.

Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm going to take a little break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. I got it. You know what I'm saying? Right. So I can afford it.

I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up or to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for everybody. You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level up means to them.

For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation. But it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Black Star Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from LA, and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's The Culture, weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

Immigrants lured off Texas streets and shipped to places like Martha's Vineyard and Washington, D.C. Believe it or not, we've seen it all before. You people in the North, you're so sympathetic to Black people, you take them. 60 years ago, they called it the Reverse Freedom Rides.

Back then, Southern governors shipped black people north with the false promise of jobs and a better life. It's a part of a well-known playbook being brought back to life. So what's next? That's next on The Black Table, a conversation with Dr. Gerald Horne about this issue of the Reverse Freedom Rides,

right here on the Black Star Network. We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead

our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media.

Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month weighs $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 $RM unfiltered. PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high-growth fields.

No experience is necessary. Learn at your own pace. Complete the online certificate program on your own terms. Stand out to employers. Get on a path to in-demand jobs and connect with top employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program or all six. Earn a Google Career Certificate to prepare for a job in a high growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity, and more. All professional career certificate programs must be completed by

December 31st, 2024. Scan the QR code to complete the application. There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything

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

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. parent. Like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Thank you. The second bit of housekeeping has to do with, what did I want to say? All right. So let me just say this because I think it's worth saying, and it has to do with basic sort of housekeeping that's important for tonight. There's no doubt that this is a very difficult time for this nation and probably for this world, and probably the reason why this conversation is important.

And there's no doubt, for example, that there's some strong feelings, particularly about things that are happening around the world, and I'd say even more particularly these days in the Middle East. I'm mentioning that now because it's been brought to my attention that for whatever reason, there's some people who follow around our dear sister and make it their business to actually protest. And while I will say, for example, that it's absolutely important to make sure that we have voices, particularly around very important conversations, I'll let you know that nobody actually reached out and said,

hey, you know what, we'd like to actually have a conversation. And so what I want to say is that for those folks who may or may not choose to protest during an event that's about black issues, the reality is that we might begin to question not just your interests, but your intentions. We might not just begin to question your topics of interest, but your treatment, particularly of black officials. And so for a woman that has dedicated her life to supporting our people and supporting black folks, I want to say loud and clear, there will be no silencing of our black sister congresswoman Joyce Beatty tonight. That's just housekeeping.

That's just basic housekeeping. All right? So the last bit of housekeeping has to do with how this is going to flow. Right after this, we'll begin our program, and we'll start off with opening prayer. But there's two things that's really important. During our Q&A, our community Q&A, as opposed to having people come up in the hallsways, what we're going to do right now is actually pass out some cards. So if you have a question that you want to ask as a part of the community conversation,

that actually has to be submitted. Okay? Two ways in which you can do that. There's going to be some cards that you can write them down and the young folks would actually collect those and bring them up. But there's also, you can actually submit your questions online. Again, if you didn't get this, that little flyer, you can go to thestateofblackamerica.org, thestateofblackamerica.org, all one word, and you can submit your questions there,

and that will be the basis for the community Q&A. Those are the two bits of community, excuse me, housekeeping at this time. And so we're going to start our program and we'll begin with Dr. Harold Washington to start us with an opening prayer. Shall we pray? Gracious God, we give you glory and we give you honor. And before we move forward, we just want to say thank you. God, we say thank you for this opportunity to gather and to gather and be unmuted. God, we thank you for the voices of our past, our history. We thank you for the voices of our past, our history. We thank you for the voices of our present.

And we look forward to the voices of our future. Now, God, we pray that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart, God, we pray that they would be acceptable in thy sight. Lord God, you are our refuge. You are our deliverer. And for that, we say thank you. And as we prepare to move into this conversation, God, we pray that there will be respect from the beginning to the end. We pray, Lord God, that there will be a voice of hope. We pray for a voice of affirmation. We pray that we will continually hear the voice of freedom. We pray, Lord God, that no one will feel dejected or anyone would feel like they were misused or overlooked.

And so, God, as we close this prayer, we pray that at the end of the day, we will never forget your voice. For your voice has spoken through your word that if my people which are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven. Then will I forgive their sin. Then will

I heal their land. For that we say thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. At this time we're going to bring up East High School to do the official welcome and of course we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge

Superintendent of Columbus City Schools Dr. Angela Chapman. Thank you so much for joining us. Not just to mention some of my favorite folks, Todd Walker, Dr. Walker and his incredible wife, Dr. Walker, if you want to just put your hands up. And by the way, I don't know if you folks actually are reading the Columbus Dispatch these days, but there's this beautiful piece that she wrote about her husband. So I'll mention the event that we're having on Sunday, which is Black Love and Black Relationship. But that sister actually mentioned something to me that kind of threw me away.

I was talking to her, and she said, Marry my husband was the best decision I ever made in my life. Man, I said, shoot, I wonder if my wife feels the same way. But one of the things that you'll see that was actually just printed this Sunday was the fact that we have three beautiful profiles that were written about black love. So it was the Walker family. Jerry Saunders wrote about his beautiful wife, Gail Saunders, and their love. And another beautiful brother, Al Meriwether, who's not here, but he wrote about the love and the reality of losing his loved one.

So black love and black relationship is something that we actually celebrate during this week, and I really appreciate that. So at this time, I'm going to bring East High School up here. Come on up. Good evening to all of our dignitaries, community leaders, families, and friends. My name is Sean Williams. I'm a proud junior at East High School and a member of its very own Mighty Marching Tiger band. I plan on majoring in education at Central State University upon graduation. My name is Brianna Sullivan-Bercy. I am a proud graduating senior at East High School and prospective freshman at the Jackson State University, where I hope to become a future JSA majoring in criminal justice.

East High School, a historic and public high school of the Columbus City School District, under the leadership of Dr. Angela M. Chapman, our superintendent. East High School was constructed in 1922. Making this school almost 102 years old. However, renovation work was completed in December 2008. East High School is the home of your current commissioner, Kevin Boyce, your current city councilman, Nick Bankston, and your current state representative, Latanya Humphrey. Successful author Will Hager is another of East High's grades. He wrote a novel titled Tigerland about the school's

stunning sports success in the late 60s despite the prevalence of the civil rights movement. East High School is grateful for being notable for being Columbus's original black high school in the initial years of the great migration between 1940 and 1970. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being our guests for this historic event, the State of Black America, a fireside chat with Mr. Roland Martin and our very own Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. On behalf of our principal, Dr. Kevin P. Watson, and the entire administration team, we are honored to welcome you all to East High School. Look at those young folks.

Give them another round of applause. All right. While we're on East High School, this could not have happened without the leadership of Assistant Principal Karen Carey and the Principal, Dr. Kelvin Watson. So please give those senior leadership a resounding round of applause. Thank you so much, Columbus City Schools. So you'll see actually some of these beautiful students actually helping with some of this manual labor. So give these brothers, you know, a round of applause. Appreciate you.

Okay, so we are in our second year of Black Gold Dad Week. Last year, I would say, for example, was just a proof of concept. I think we created a lot of good community will. This year we're actually at the point of community impact. So I'll put something in the brief, and tomorrow is Take Your Daughter to School Day. So literally, we're going to have a program here at East High School, but all you men in here, please feel free to tell your kids, Take Your Daughter to School, take pictures and all that stuff. We're really interested in a program here at East High School, but all you men in here, please feel free to tell your kids to take a go at school, take pictures and all that stuff.

We're really interested in the idea of an impact. But I want to say that we're on our second year, and we really could not have actually started back in that week without the support of the person that I'm going to bring up right now. The Columbus Urban League actually supported us when this was just a dream that I had in my head. And actually, it's through the support of the president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League that we actually have the benefit of being here today. So I want to bring on President and CEO Stephanie Hightower to say our introduction. Good evening, black people. Good evening, black people.

Jewel, thank you and male behavioral health for this week's showcase at the Columbus Urban League, where a roundtable forum was held with a small group of community leaders to discuss historic healthcare provisions of the Inflation Reductions Act and the protection of reproductive rights. Thank you, Mr. Roland Martin, for sharing your wisdom and insights on the state of black America. I know you, like National Urban League President Martin Oriel, believe in a principled resistance movement that says the following.

No to voter suppression. No to restrictions on reproductive health. No to a warped and whitewashed fantasy of American history. And no to economic injustice and systematic racism. The Columbus Urban League is proud to be a sponsor of Black Girl Dad Week. Like everyone here tonight, we look forward to hearing Mr. Rowland's perspectives and an engaging Congresswoman fireside chat with our beloved Congresswoman. Thank you, Jewel, and let's have a good evening. Thank you, President.

So at this particular time, I'll just share with you one of the things that I have in common with the Congresswoman, besides being passionate about black life, is the fact that we have some of our deepest loved ones involved in dance. And so I'm super excited for those folks who have never seen Dance Elite Performance Academy, also known as DEPA, perform. And so we're gonna actually have some of these young folks come out here and do a quick performance. So actually I think I'm supposed to do the music so let me get off this phone and cue up the music. I just looked over at Brother Dommy, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Ladies and gentlemen, the Detroit Theater continues our legendary talent contest. Let's go, Rachel! Let's go, Rachel!

Let's go, Rachel! Oh, my, my, my, my You better move, move Instead of hanging on my heart I said move, move Instead of hanging in my heart Please move, move What am I going to do? My heart is breaking, breaking I'm falling, breaking, breaking I'm falling

You've got a social magnetic power The junkies holding me down I feel just like a flower Shorty, you're such a flower Move, move, move right out of my life Move it, move it out of the light Move, move, move right out of my life Move it, move it out of the light Move, move, move, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, Take your way to the top, round and round Turn that part right there, baby

Take your way to the top Round and round Take your way to the top Round and round But it's always real, so real When you're coming down Thank you. I'll take my living off of my job. I'll take it. I'll have a time in the world. I'll have a time in the world.

I'll have a time in the world. I'll have a time in the world. Step into the dance Gonna take your mean ride Mean ride The smile I had is gone away Those that feel it don't pay Step into the bad side It's a new day

Step into the bad side To the new day Step into the bad side Gonna take a mean ride My head's going away Step into the bad side To the new day Step into the mad side today. Thank you. Step into the bad side I have to step into the bad side I have to take myself, be mine

Oh, you know my power has gone away Oh, that's it, I'm gonna play I'm gonna play, play, play, play, play, play Oh, oh, oh, oh Come on, baby. One night. One night. One night. Oh, yeah. I know that I was so not the only one to wake up in this world of tears. I've been so bad, but I'm not alone.

One night only, one night only, I'm going to end today. One night only, one more pretend tomorrow. I'm going to end one night life. One night only. One night only. One night only. One night only. We only have to run. We only have to run.

We only have to run. One night only. One night only, one night only One night only, one night only 생각 여기고 나의 사랑 아 One night only One night only One night only One night only

One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only One night only Come on, come on, come on, come on

Dreamers, oh, how do you get here? there We're dreamers, dreamers Dreamers who'll never leave you Oh, you're such a sweet dream Oh, you're such a sweet dream Oh, you're such a sweet dream And we'll be there We're dreamers We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. Baby, will we die? Will we die? Will we die? Will we die? Give it up.

Give it up for Gemma. I'm here. I mean, Abba. Abba. Abba. Abba. Abba. Come on.

Give it up for those of you in the folks, okay? Beautiful, amazing. Where is my Samara Tillman at? Is Samara Tillman over here? I want to see a person that's from Stassenville. Come on out here. LaPetra. Samara, I want to try to see who the leader should be. That mother actually puts.

Come on out here. Y'all got to see these incredible, beautiful black women. This is LaPetra. This one got happy. Yes, yeah. T-Shirt. This is what I'm going to have to do. Yes, sir. Come on in. Okay. Yes, sir.

And this is what I'm going to wrap it up. Thank y'all so much. What y'all saw is a product of a lot of work. This is sweet. Beautiful work. So, gentlemen, I want you to come out here. Give it up for the Chicago people, the mother of all the folks coming out here. Come on out here, everybody.

Everybody, let's come out here. All right, now, make some noise for the parents back there. The number one is APA. They're here. All right. All right. All right. All right. We are accepting enrollment. Thank you so much for all of you.

I'm sorry but thank you so much for always including us and the amazing work you do, you always bring people out for this wonderful cause we're celebrating Black Father Daughter Week, right? so let's give it up for Mr. Woods

thank you thank you thank you I love you thank you Right? So let's give it up for Mr. Williams. Thank you. Thank you, baby. I love you. Thank you. I just want to say, this one's mine right here.

This one's mine right here. I don't know how I felt about it, but I really don't know what to do with it. I don't know. I mean, she's 13 years old, but I don't know what the hell's going on with us. I don't know how many years you've been with us. I don't know how many years you've been with us. I don't know how many years you've been with us. Alright, you are all amazing. Amazing, lovely, thank you so much. You are incredible, absolutely incredible.

Thank you so much. Can I go ahead and listen to the conference with Ms. Gregg? Come on, this is the right here. Come on out. This is the guy that you're asking for. All right. Thank you. Okay. Appreciate your patience.

Y'all can start bringing it. Thank y'all. So at this particular time, we're going to bring up the brother, David Ford, who's actually going to do an introduction, a quick presentation to his brother, Roland Martin. So I appreciate you as we go through this program. All right, Brother David Ford. One of those young ladies are amazing. The young people are amazing. Give them another round of applause. First, I want to thank Drew Woods for giving me the opportunity to present to you my brother, Roland S. Martin.

Over the... Over the... Over the... I don't have control of that. Try this. How's that? That's better. That's better.

That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. That's better. Over the course of a journalistic career that has seen him interview multiple U.S. presidents, top athletes, and entertainers in Hollywood, Roland S. Martin is a journalist who has always maintained a clear sense of his calling in this world.

Many have bestowed upon him the moniker, The Voice of Black America. Martin is the host and managing editor of Roland Martin Unfiltered, the first daily online show in history focused on news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports, and culture from an explicitly African-American perspective. It was launched on September 4, 2018. On September 4, 2021, Martin launched the Black Star Network, an OTT network that featured a variety of shows focused on news, culture, finance, wellness, history, and wellness.

BSN is available on Apple and Android phones, Apple and Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox One, and Samsung TV. For the past two years, Martin has produced a twice-daily commentary on iHeartRadio, Black Information Network, heard on nearly 40 stations nationwide. Martin is the author of four books. His latest is White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. His other books are Listening to the Spirit Within, 50 Perspectives on Faith, Speak, Brother, A Black Man's View of America, and The First, President Barack Obama's Road to the White

House, as originally reported by Roland S. Martin. Martin is a sought-after international speaker, delivering speeches and lectures to numerous groups annually, electrifying audiences with his deep understanding of history, politics, and culture. He has been named four times by Ebony Magazine as one of the 150 most influential African Americans in the United States. Martin was also awarded the 2008 President's Award by the National Association of Black Journalists

for his work in multiple media platforms. He is a four-time NAACP Image Award winner, including named best host for the last two years. Martin spent six years as a contributor for CNN, appearing on numerous shows and earning accolades near and far for his no-hose honesty, conviction, and perspective on various issues. In 2009, CNN was awarded the Peabody Award for its outstanding 2008 election coverage,

of which Martin was a member of. He is the former founding news editor for Savoy Magazine under the team of New York-based Vanguard Media and the former founding editor of BlackAmericaWeb.com. Mr. Martin is a life member of the National Association of Black Journalists, a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. He is a board member of the education reform group 50 can. Martin is a 1987 graduate of Jack Yates High School Magnet School of Communications. He is a 1991 graduate of Texas A&M University

where he has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Florida Memorial University, University of Maryland University College, LeMoyne-Owen College, Lane College, and South Carolina State University. He is married to the Reverend Jackie Hood Martin, author of Fulfilled, The Art Joy of Balanced Living, and Wedded Bliss, a 52-week devotional to balanced living, and the children's book series Hannah's Heart. They reside in Northern Virginia in the Dallas area. Brother Martin, can you approach the stage just for a minute, please? All right.

So with all these great accolades and all this work that he is doing, he is still a dedicated, faithful member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. And us at Alpha Rolanda Chapter here in Columbus, Ohio, like to welcome our brothers who come in. So we have for you a small token of our appreciation for all you do, not just for the fraternity, but for the community at large. So thank you very much for everything you do for the community, and it is much appreciated, and it is much needed here in the community, you know,

for us black folks to, you know, advance and strive for better things. So thank you very much. We appreciate you. Appreciate you. All right. Appreciate you. What, what, what, what?

Hey! All right. Go ahead. All right, sis! All right. You got your script? Yeah, go ahead. All right, cool. Appreciate it. All right. Sit here real quick.

How we doing? There you go. All right. Glad to be here. Glad to see all of you go. All right. Glad to be here. Glad to see all of you here. I think I probably, I was telling somebody this, but I think I've been, this may be my eighth or tenth speech here over the years. And someone was like, why is that the case? I was like, because folk there want to hear the truth. That's probably why. I'm like, I'm wondering why. Let me put this microphone on. So I am, we do double duty.

I did a show a little bit ago, and you heard him talking about Black Star Network. And so when you own your own stuff, you don't have to ask permission to do stuff. So we are actually, this program is, we're live streaming on the network right now. So folks can either go to our YouTube channel. So folks who are not here, let them know how they can actually watch it over our Blackstar Network app. In addition, our Blackstar Network, we're located on four different fast channels. So we're on Amazon Freebie, Amazon News, Prime Video, and also Plex TV. And the reason I say that's important because of March 16, 1827, Freedom's Journal was the nation's first black newspaper. And in the third paragraph, they said,

we wish to plead on our own cause too long have others spoken for us. And a study was just released showing how African Americans watch TV more than anybody else, which is good and bad. And they said that we have a mistrust of mainstream media in terms of how we are portrayed. And what often happens is there are things that happen in our community every single day that no one ever hears about. Things that are amazing that don't get covered. And we've always done that when I was at TV One, even when I was at CNN. But even still at those places, it was still dealing with bureaucracy and having to ask folk, can we do this and can we do that?

And when TV One ended, News One now in 2017, I made it clear that I was going to launch the platform because I wasn't interested in asking somebody else, can I? And it's always interesting, too, because I'll talk to folks and they'll be like, man, I saw you. Why are you carrying your own tripod? And why are you doing that sort of stuff? And I explained to people, this is not about ego and trying to look good, because I said, well, why am I going to pay somebody to fly with me, to set the equipment up, pay them a per diem, hotel room? I said, I can do it myself. I said, first of all, that ain't smart business.

And wherever I go, my cameras go with me. I said first of all that ain't smart business and wherever I go my cameras go with me and so by us being able to not only participate but stream this now folk across the country and across the world get an opportunity to actually hear the conversation, see

what is going on, see what's happening here in Columbus and that's why black ownership matters because again we don't have to ask someone on, see what's happening here in Columbus, and that's why black ownership matters. Because again, we don't have to ask someone. And so, so many of our fans have contributed to our show. They've given

in excess of $2 million. There are people who I meet across the country who say, I'm a subscriber, I'm a member of the Brain and Funk fan club, I want to see. And when we launched this, we made it clear. I said, listen, I listen, we're not going to send you swag. And so y'all give the PBS, they send you a tote bag, a mug, a hat. I said, no, every dollar will be going back into the show. And probably out of the 20 plus, 25,000 people who've given,

we've maybe had 30 to 50 people who complained, well, I ain't getting nothing. We said, yeah, you're getting this show two hours a day, the Roger Muhammad show two hours a day, a financial show, a wellness show, a history show, entrepreneurship show, plus our coverage of live events. And there's no other black-owned media platform, no other, not Essence, not Black Enterprise, not Ebony, not Blavity, not Byron, Al's The Grill, that does as much daily news that we broadcast every single day on a shoestring budget. But that's also what happens when you understand that if you control the narrative, then you're able to shape the narrative. And that's why ownership matters. And every single one of us in here, we've got to get out of this notion of white validation where we operate where we want to put CNN and MSNBC first and ABC and NBC and CBS and I'm sure folks here like oh man is the dispatch here where are the local TV

stations well I don't ask where are the local TV stations when I own mine. So if they never show up, we still are going to have the coverage. So those things are critically important. And so please support us. Download our Black Star Network app. Let folks know because

Gil Scott-Heron once said, the revolution will not be televised. And I added, but it will be streamed and so that's what's going on I always give a shout out to Congresswoman Joyce Beatty she's always supportive she comes on the show you know all CBC members have a

standing opportunity to come on and I can tell you. Now, Congresswoman Bailey, she'll be saying, hey, can I come on like next week or something like that. See, she'll do me like Congresswoman Maxine Waters. She'll call me at 540. She'll be like, hey, bro, can I come on the show? And I'm like, we're live in 20 minutes. She's like, I know.

I'm like, all right, you're on the show. So she'll give me 20 minutes notice to come on. But again, that's important because those networks are not putting our folks on on a regular basis unless they're discussing what they want them to talk about. And that's also why you've got to support Black-owned media. So I appreciate

her support, and I look forward to the conversation. Let me get right into this. Let me thank the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha, Return Incorporated. If you don't own Alpha, I'm sorry, you belong to a youth group. He walked in in that Kappa hat. I said, the only red and white I acknowledge is Delta Sigma Palaver. He's like, no, he's Christian and Korean. I'm like, you read it right. Stop. So glad to see members of the Divine Nine as well. Also, folks with the links in Eastern Star and Prince Hall Mason.

And let me say this here. Our organizations, I appreciate our organization, but I wanted to remind us of something that Dr. King said in his book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos and Community. And he said there are four institutions that are primed to liberate black America. The Negro Church, the Negro Press, Negro Fraternities and Sororities, and Negro Professional Business Organizations. And he said that neither

one of these institutions have fully given themselves to the full liberation of our people. And I have traveled the country, and I've spoken this for years, and I've spoken at the AK Convention, the Delta Convention, at Sigma Gamma Rho. I've spoken to the Alphas, and I say to all of them, I say we have these amazing institutions, but I fundamentally believe we spend too much time on insular business as opposed to external issues. And if we're going to have a greater impact, then we need to see folk dressed up

in black and gold, pink and green, blue and gold, red and white, and our colors at the school board meeting, the city council meeting, the county commission meeting, the state capital, the nation's capital. And there should not be a single politician in Columbus when they see folk coming in their colors, they don't shiver with fear but when they say, those folk may very well put me out of office. And it's enough of us that we don't have to go every

month. The AKs can take one month, city council, the Alphas can go to the county meeting for another month. We can actually spread this thing out and when people understand our power, then they're going to respond properly and i don't just mean d9 it's a bunch of folks who are masons and eastern star and links and other groups we have all of this infrastructure in our community uh that that is that is not

is not properly utilized and that's what dr king was talking about. We sit here and we got excited. We got all of our, all the D9 folks bought out theaters to see the color purple. But I keep asking the question that we also have the power where we could be sitting here making sure we could be creating black owned bestseller authors every month on the push of a button. And we said to the whole D9 and others support by this book this month and we're going to buy this book next month is how we use our

infrastructure to change the community and that means going outside of our internal business. My wife was a Delta and I was like look y'all meet too much. I said y'all have all these meetings, they long meetings. I said you ain't got that much business.

And she's like, no, we do. I'm like, no, you don't. And I was at the Boulay Convention in August. They had a 14-hour business meeting. I said, what did y'all talk about in 14 hours that was all about a constitution of an organization with 5,000 people? And I said, how can we be meeting here in the Bahamas with our convention and we don't have a single meeting on public policy during an election year and there are members in here who are running for office.

And y'all gotta understand something, any group I belong to I'ma jam them up when it comes to how are we in public policy. And so I said, I didn't come here. I come to Bahamas anytime I want to. I said, but I ain't coming to a meeting if we're not talking about stuff beyond what concerts we're going to have later on. And so I said, y'all might have reconsidered letting me in because I'm going to jam you up. And a brother asked me the other day, he said, man, am I going to see you in San Diego? I said, we better be having a public policy conversation in San Diego or it's going to be a problem when I roll up in San Diego. And I said, and let me be real clear, and I tell everybody that's here, I will publicly call you out. And a brother said, they might kick you out. I said, I wouldn't advise that. And why do I say that?

Because we have to be willing to challenge our organizations. And my position is very simple. If you do good, I'm going to talk about you. If you do bad, I'm going to talk about you. At the end of the day, I'm going to talk about you. Because, again, my mom, her parents had eight kids. They had 39 grandkids. They got 70-plus great-grand or 100-and-some-odd great-great-grand.

I don't need friends. And so when you have that position, you're not worried about what the folk have to say or think. Let me speak to the issue at hand while we're here. We're about to have the fireside chat. I was flying here, and I left out of Dulles Airport in D.C. and there was a sister behind the counter. Her name was Clarissa. Clarissa was behind the counter. She was working and she said, she says, how's Jackie and how are the twins? I was looking at her like, how you doing, dog? Now granted, people know I raised six of my nieces at different variations, and so I've had the twins on my social media.

She says, oh, I used to do their hair. I was like, oh, cool. She said, so I let them know I said hello, and so she was pregnant with her second child, and she said, I hope they're doing well. I said, they are. They're in college back in Texas, and I said, so the twins are are doing well so I sent them a photo of her. Now the reason I say that is because again we're talking about black girl dad week and we're talking about the role that we play and I don't have biological children. Yes, I'm a 55 year old black man who ain't got no

kids himself. And a friend of mine who came to me he said well do you think that God wants you to adopt? I said, well, God ain't never told me to adopt. And it was two weeks after he said that to me, when one of my youngest sister fled to our home, I was only married less than six months, fled to our home, leaving an abusive marriage with her two kids, five and two. And I told him, I said that if I had biological children, I would not have been in the position to be able to raise six of my nieces

at different junctures of their life. And I said, so that was important. Now, not only is that important, is that it's not just raising those six nieces, if you also don't have a partner who's willing to accept that reality as well, then that couldn't happen. See, some of y'all sitting there like,

yeah, I don't think I would have been able to do that. But see, we can't sit here and talk about what's happening in our community if we won't even look inward at our own families. See, let's just be real honest. I told y'all I ain't got a problem saying some stuff. A whole bunch of us have Sunday dinner after church every single Sunday and we sit here and go to those dinners and we lament.

I hope they don't have that little girl and that little boy to say the prayer. We're going to be here all day. Because you are sitting here and you're like, man, this kid does not talk well. They take too long. They're too slow. Yet we then talk about the education of other kids, and I'm saying, well, if we're

unwilling to go to our own family members to challenge them on how they're raising their child and how they're not that child is not as doing well as this child because they are underdeveloped, then how are we going to care about somebody we don't even know? See, I can't be on television or on radio talking about how we need to be raising our children and how black men need to be operating if I don't actually do it myself. So let's just be real honest. If you're a godparent, raise your hand.

If you're a godparent, raise your hand. A whole bunch of y'all think being a godparent is a sin that gives twice a year, birthday and Christmas. But the reality is that when you accept the role of a godparent, what it actually says is that anything happens to the parents, you are to step in and be responsible for that particular child. See, if we really want to be honest, a lot of us play around when somebody asks us to be a godparent. We don't actually think about what that means. And so when we are living today in 2024, I think we have to be operating differently when it comes to how we are speaking to the next generation. A lot of us bypass folk all the time. You will see a young person and we just allow certain things to happen. When people come up to me and they say

they want to get a selfie. And this happens all the time with the young brothers. I don't let anybody who takes a picture with me stand there and do so as if it's a mugshot. Now, I want you to think about that. Some of y'all right now thinking how many times you have family photos and photos of folk who are not in your family. And when you look at the photo as young brother or potentially that sister, it looks like a mugshot. They are afraid to smile in the

photo. Brothers, we are raising young boys to be hard when they are boys. A boy is supposed to be joyful, is supposed to be happy. I can't tell a brother, a young boy who's 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

and 10 to be hard. How? I don't need you to be, I need, so I'm like, no. And I understand people, the lives they have, and so I'll say, no, we're not taking this photo unless you tell your spouse. And I had this one woman, she said, well, it ain't that big of a deal. I said, oh, no, it is. I said, she thought I was joking. I said, no, no, we ain't taking this photo. I said, oh no, yes it is. I said, she thought I was joking. I said, no, no, we ain't taking this photo. I said, I don't take jail photos. I said,

it's a photo. I said, your son needs to understand it's okay to smile in a photo. That ain't my kid, but I'm trying to get this shit to work. She's like, I never thought about that.

I'm like, yes. I pay attention when I meet young brothers and younger sisters, and they walk up to me, and they shake my hand, and they look at me. I'm like, no, no, no, look me in the eye. See, I know some of us are thinking, well, I mean, that's no big deal. But no, because understand that that person isn't taught how to do that. Then we are allowing them to go through life and they never make eye contact and they never look us in the eye and never talk directly to us. And so I pay attention to those things. I pay attention when a young brother or a young sister, when they give you a hug, whether they actually hug you or whether whether they give you this lean, or whether they sit here a real hesitant,

the moment I see a young boy or a young girl do that, I then question, is that child improperly loved? See, my nieces and nephews know, I don't care what age, since they were children, they could not walk into any house I'm in and not come speak. And you're going to hug. And I had somebody say, well, you should be forcing those kids to hug. You've got kids out here who've been sexually abused. I said, yes.

I said, but not in our family. I said, I'm going to teach my nieces and nephews. You're going to probably appreciate elders in terms of you're going to speak to them. You're going to praise them because in our family we don't know. And again, I had some folks tell me on social media, that's not right. I said, well, one, I don't give a damn what you do. Because these are not your nieces and nephews. I said, I am going to raise them that way.

And I don't care what it is. I don't care. And again, I just told you, I don't care how old. My oldest niece is 27 years old. You're going to walk in the house and you're going to greet me properly. Look, my grandmother. My grandmother, she lived three doors down from my grandfather's sister both of them were in their 80's

and when I went to church I saw my Aunt Helen first I hugged and kissed Aunt Helen, why did my grandmama have an attitude she was like no you come greet me first no way, I ran into

Aunt Helen first. She was like, no, that's how I can hear you. When we walked to my grandparents' house, you had to greet your grandmother, grandfather. My mama had seven brothers and sisters, all of them uncles, all of those aunts. Then I could go talk to my cousins. We have to understand that that speaks to development we understand the importance of terms of family and the role that we play we're going to talk about this a little bit further in a second and i'm about to close and that is this here we talk about again our responsibility we

extend this beyond our own particular families i was sitting in the chair getting a haircut i live in arlington texas and i was telling jule about this and we're in the barbershop and all the brothers in the barbershop were talking about the basketball prowess of the barber's son. His barber nickname was Cotton. His son was Lil Cotton. And they were all talking about his basketball exploits. And Lil Cotton, he always had a basketball and so I said, Cotton, I said, what are you reading? He said, huh?

I said, what are you reading? I said, no, not what are you reading in school. What are you reading outside of school? I said, Cotton, I'm going to let them talk about your basketball exports. How many points you scored? How many rebounds you scored? I said, that means nothing to me. Every time I come in here, I'm going to ask you what you're reading.

I want the name of the book. I want the name of the author. I want the name of the author. I want you to tell me what the book is about. Cotton said, man, I apologize. I was like, for what? He said, you're asking something of my son. I don't ask him. I said, Cotton, that's all good.

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

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

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

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

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. He has basketball exploits. I need him to develop another side of his mind. He went, great high school player, went on to get Division I basketball player, got a scholarship at Southern Methodist University, but in his third year injured his knee. Well, Kyle still graduated.

Still finished college. I'm not saying that asking him that question made that happen and what his mother and father did, but what I'm saying is every single one of us now must rethink how we are engaging with the next generation whether they're family members or not

we must be willing to ask the next generation their mental health we must be willing to ask them how are you doing how are you feeling we must be paying attention in terms of how they ebb and flow because we don't realize what they may be enduring, whether it is bullying, whether it is issues at home,

whether it's also issues in other places. It's called being far more active in their lives and thinking completely different about them. That is how we must be thinking. So I love what this week is doing. I love the fact that Jules, he said, man, he said, I hate the fact that we don't have any room on Saturday. And I said, that's a great thing to be in the second year of something.

And there's so many brothers who want to be involved in that dance that you are out of room. Because there are a lot of cities in this country where this doesn't even exist. Where there is no place for it. Where you don't have anybody who cares enough about

this very issue to create a program that speaks to these issues. And so all of us must be appreciative of this. And what we should be saying is this must be replicated all across the country. I mentioned what Dr. King said, those four institutions. This is what we're talking about. We cannot keep talking about how do we change the condition of Black America if we don't fully love

black America. A lot of us, a lot of us talk about being black, but do we love black people? Do we affirm black people? Do we look at the next generation and begin to say, I love that brother whether I know him or not. Only our actions can determine our love. I'm wearing this hoodie,

and this is the final comment before we go to the next phase, because today is the 90th birthday of the great Bill Russell. His wife sent me this hoodie. And so normally I'm dressed up and stuff like this here, but today, February 12th, he would have turned 90 years old. And that was a perfect example of a black man

who not only loved his children, but loved his people. And we talked about the Netflix documentary on him was amazing. I texted his daughter Karen today. But the reason we talk about Bill Russell today is not because he won 11 rings, not because he was the first black head coach of the NBA. It's because

Bill Russell, his legacy is that he loved black people. And you are going to be measured when you become an ancestor based upon what you accomplish in this life and your love of black people.

And I'll close with this. It's a whole bunch of us if we realize. Go through this life and we leave no fingerprints and no footsteps. And then when someone goes on, no one ever talks about,

man, I sure miss so-and-so. It's because they left no legacy, left no imprint, did nothing in their life other than just exist. You have to make a decision whether you choose to be present or have presence. And if you are just present,

you just in the room. But if you have presence, when you walk into the room, the room shifts because they know that your presence has arrived. Thanks a lot for your audience. Cool. I'm going to grab my phone.

Give it up one more time for B. Roland Martin. Thank you so much, B. Thank you. So I want people to choose. They'll be able to help us, you know, being out at the DT time. So, we're actually going to move a little bit more quickly through the program. At this time, we're going to actually move towards the fireside chat, and we actually want to introduce Greg Krams, who's in at this time. Just one more minute for the fireside chat.

Good evening, everyone. We are privileged to have joining us in this conversation with a fellow member of the Thank you. Since 2013, they have been proud to be a U.S. first congressional district. In the 117th Congress, they have served as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. In this 118th Congress, they have served in service on the exclusive House Committee on Financial Services as a ranking member of the Self-Defense and National Security, the LISP-I finance, and international financial institutions. The Financial Services Committee oversees the entire financial services industry, including the nation's banking, securities, insurance, and housing industry, as well as the work of the Federal Reserve.

The United States Department of Treasury and the United States Securities, NILL, and Exchange Commission. Begay is a vocal leader and advocate for the issues impacting Black Americans, including... That's too much. That's enough. Okay. Including a voting rights reform, police brutality, financial inequality, diversity and inclusion, health care access, and gun violence prevention. In July 2021, as those of us know who will certainly remember, she was arrested while protesting for voting rights in the U.S. Senate. That same year, she was pepper-sprayed in Columbus while protesting the murder of George Floyd. As chair of the Congressional Black Conference, Beatty was instrumental in the crafting and passing of key bills and executive orders.

In 2021, she was credited with uniting Democratic Congress members in support of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, which will rebuild America's roads, bridges, and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in communities that have too often been left behind. That same year, she helped achieve a decades-long bill on the Friday of Juneteenth as a federal

holiday when President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. She also served as a key advisor to President Biden as he drafted his 2022 executive order addressing police brutality. As a vocal advocate for women, Congresswoman Beatty served as a key supporter of Supreme Court Justice Katonji Brown-Jackson during her reigning nomination period and even testified on her behalf before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Congressman Beatty was a loving, devoted wife and partner to Attorney Arnold Beatty Jr. until his death in 2021 and is a proud grand-mother to Leah Dispenza, beloved father of Mary. Thank you, Congressman, for making time to join us for this critical internal conversation and inform

our family as a national leader for making relevant for our constituents here in Ohio. May I present Congresswoman Joyce Stanton. Thank you. Testing, testing, one, two, three. Testing, testing. Can I get more audio on this microphone?

No audio. I'll give you this one. I'll take that. No, right there. Use that one. Okay. Testing. Testing.

Testing. Okay. I'm going to ask you this. We're going to do a little pivot as opposed to... We're spending a lot of time... Testing, testing. We got one. This. Okay. I'm going to ask you just, we're going to do a little pivot as opposed to. We're spending a lot of time. Testing, testing. We got one. This is good.

Go ahead. We loud enough. Okay. So there were three aspects that are going to be a part of the fireside chat. We're going to talk about black media, black mental health, and black politics. We're actually going to shorten the conversation, but certainly since the congresswoman has been here, I just want you to just start off with some opening remarks and any leanness on your spirit

before we go into some of the questions at this time. Appreciate you. Well, first of all, let's give it up for Jewel for putting this together. We don't salute our black men enough. I think I'm loud. You probably can hear me. No?

Well, I wanted to thank Jewel and thank you for applauding him because so often we don't talk about our black men in this light. We have a lot to say. But I just want to personally thank you. And Roland, thank you for being here. Stephanie Hightower opened it up today. And I want to say thank you to Roland thank you for being here Stephanie Hightower opened it up today and I want to say thank you to the Columbus Urban League because we have so much in

state and what you've done and what you've done with ENC with Jerry Saunders being here it makes a difference and what I want to say Jewel is this is great because we don't tell our stories enough. We complain when things happen

and that's okay. But we have a lot of good stuff that our black children are doing. We saw a brilliant young brother and sister who opened this. We need to go tell that story. We saw the dancers from Depa, including

a brother, on this stage. We have to be our own folks because you talked about black folks and what happens. Well, I always like to say that sometimes the threat is from within and that's what makes tonight so good. And when you talked about the difference of being present and having presence, it's just like when you walk in the room and you say, hey, what's happening? Versus when you walk in the room and you say, let me tell you what's happening.

Let me tell you what we have to do. And so I'm here to say thank you because we need a lot of help. We're in a very difficult time in this country. And one of the things we were talking about earlier is the young rapper that they had to take. Plies. Plies. Now, if you can get beyond some of the language in it, he was telling the truth.

We don't brag enough. So one of the things I was like, let's not be our own threat within and our own enemy to black people. We got enough other folks that do that to us every day. So let's talk about fathers and daughters and fathers and sons. Let's talk about the black folks we have who are fighting for us every day, whether they're school teachers or a superintendent or elected officials, because nobody wants to do these jobs. And sometimes it's because of us. And so I just want to applaud everybody for being out here. I know you could be somewhere else, but you are our strongest support team because we have so much work whether it's domestically

or internationally but we say this I'm gonna end with this we always say this is our most consequential election in our lifetime what it is when you think about what's at stake for black America is black men, it's black children, it's black women. Roe v. Wade, 50 plus years, gone, black women. It's looking at what we can do when brothers and sisters come together. We had an election in November. No one thought on women's reproductive rights that we would win. Nobody thought when they wanted to change the Ohio Constitution to make it 60-40. But I have some good news. Brothers came out and voted. Brothers came out and voted. Sisters came out and voted. And if we can continue to do that for our healthcare, for them not taking

away our rights and our freedoms, they want to control what little black children can read. They want to take away our funding for HBCUs. And my belief is because when we are smarter, when we are educated, whether it's academically or with our hands in skills, they're afraid of us. So thank you. Thank you. This one doesn't work. Now it's on right okay

can we get audio actually to kind of check off the mics and see what's happening with that appreciation so and in the tradition of hip hop we'll just pass the mic until that happens so what I'd actually like to do is just to take your comments and personalize it to this brother right here.

And what I mean is, if we're talking about black media, one of the things that mental health, Congresswoman, we talk about the difference between information and wisdom. So I can ask everybody in this audience, where do you go to get information? You might have some things that come to your mind. But if I ask you where do you go to get wisdom, that might not be the same answer. And so when we think about the importance of the areas where we get both, talk a little bit about what this man right here, Roland Martin, has meant as an example of somebody who represents independent black media as, you know, what has been called the voice of black America. What does Roland Martin mean of black America, what does

Roland Barber mean to black America at this time? That's for her, baby. Got it. Well, I've known Roland for a long time, and I know I'm about the selfie thing, because he takes my phone every time and makes us smile and look good. But let me tell you what we have with this brother. He's unfiltered. He speaks truth to power.

And I can tell you he had an issue with the White House, at the White House. They invited him to the White House, and he didn't do like a lot of black folks would do. Get there and be happy just to be in the room. He changed the room when he walked in. A lot of people don't like Roland when they hear him telling the truth because it makes them uncomfortable and nervous. We got to stop doing that. We have to stop being nervous when people like Roland Martin makes a difference. We have things because he has spoken up, not for himself, but for us. He can walk in any room as Roland Martin, and I have watched him, and he is unfiltered and he doesn't change.

He's fighting now for black media because that is where we know we can get information that we can get information that we can trust from our black scholars, because they're not afraid to tell us, and they're brilliant in knowing our history, but we have to be about a cause, and one of those causes Roland has put in the lap of Congress and especially the Congressional Black Caucus.

The data is frightening. When you look at everybody wants him at every event because it's always good to have some black folks in the room. But then they don't want to come and spend money with us. And that is the biggest fight that we're doing right now with black media. But he makes a difference in our educational system. He makes a difference when we talk about history and scholars. We were earlier, and I'll end with this

because I know time is short. We have our superintendent here. We were talking about funding to HBCUs. And we were talking about the Pell Grant. When you think 75% of black folks go to school on a Pell Grant. When you think 75% of black folks go to school on a Pell Grant, when you think about black colleges only make up 3% of the colleges, but check this out, 40% of all black engineers went to an HBC.

50% of all teachers went to an HBC. And it gets better. 70% of all doctors and dentists graduated from an HBC. And it gets better. 70% of all doctors and dentists graduated from an HBCU. And black judges, 80% from HBCUs. And did I remind you that our vice president

went to Howard and graduated? And so when you think about what we get, we have an administration that has put more black women in cabinet positions than all the rest of the presidents added up together. Part of that is because Roland Martin has asked the question, what are you going to do when you're in the room? Are you going to be present and make a difference? And I can tell you it has made a difference for this country.

It has certainly made a difference for us who serve in Congress. And I just want to personally say thank you. And you've been here so much. And I know of those 10 times I've invited just seven of them was because we did something with them. So thank you for letting me say in my hometown how much I value and revere his scholarship and the words that he says.

It has helped me being on his show and knowing that I had to be responsible to go back, whether it's environment or housing or education, but he is always black. And so thank you. So let me explain the money. If you're not having a money conversation, you're not having an American conversation. Understand there's only one federal agency that shares along with the White House.

Treasury. White House represents power. Treasury is money. Power, money, money, power. You can literally take 100 steps out of the side of the Treasury and you'll be in the east wing of the White House. And what has happened historically is

our focus has been on the Department of Health and Human Services, HUD, and the other agencies. But we always ignore the money. Now understand, if you look at nearly every single problem that impacts black America, money is tied to it. Money is tied to public education, illiteracy, health, housing, you name it. It's money. So when we talk about what's happening and let me explain this here

we use the phrase black media we gotta be very specific there's black targeted media there's black owned media black targeted media is now BET that's owned by Paramount Viacom

when you look at other, when we look at the money that goes to digital that targets African Americans, they send that money to Complex. Complex owned by BuzzFeed News. So black targeted, not the same. The Root used to be black owned. It's now owned by a white hedge fund.

They are black targetedtargeted. So what happens is these corporations prefer to give the money to black-targeted as opposed to black-owned. 24 years ago, when BET was black-owned, it was sold to Viacom. For $2.4 million, the assumption of $5 and 40 million in debt, for 2.8 billion. In the New York Times article, it said that black-owned media was getting 1% of all advertising. 24 years later, black-owned media is getting 1%. We're talking 340 billion dollars spent every single year

by these companies on advertising. And so we are buying products from companies that literally will not reinvest and support black-owned media. And then we go, well, I don't understand why our media can't cover this, this, this. Well, if you don't have the funds and the resources to do so, you can't hire the reporters, can't hire the producers. When the Congressional Black Caucus walks out of their weekly meeting on Wednesday, there is not a single

reporter from black-owned media outside the room because we can't afford to pay a congressional correspondent $80,000 to $100,000 to only cover Congress. It comes down to the money. See, so you have to start looking at these corporations in a completely different way when it comes to how they spend.

So you've got 20 Fortune 500 companies right here in Columbus. Oh, yeah, I call names. So now you have to be thinking differently see let me be real clear we have to recognize that in our community we have a collection of

the least expensive negro the least expensive negro is the one that accepts a company's check for a table and not realize that we're leaving a billion on the table. I don't think some of y'all understand what I'm talking about. I'm going to walk you through, just use a couple of examples PepsiCo has a five year ten million dollar initiative with the National Herbal League to stand up black

restaurants totally supported PepsiCo ranked running commercials where they want to drive a hundred million in receipts to black owned restaurants over five years totally Totally support it. The problem is you can't track it because if the black restaurant people said, how do you track it? PepsiCo spends $3 billion a year on advertising. If 5% of PepsiCo's money goes to black-owned media, that would be $150 million a year.

That's $750 million over five years. Now you tell me which one of those has a larger impact on black people. Five year, $10 million program with the National Urban League, $100 million in receipts to black restaurants over five years, or $750 million. Now, that's just PepsiCo. I guarantee you, black people drink more than 5% of PepsiCo's products. But I'm not just talking about PepsiCo, Pepsi itself. They own Lay's potato chips.

They own Grandma's cookies. They own Aunt Annie's pretzels. I ran this thing down on my show. PepsiCo has an entire snack division that we all support. So I'm talking about billions of dollars that we're leaving on the table. A couple weeks ago, a brother from J.P. Morgan Chase called me and said, hey, the Federal Reserve is doing something. I would love to get someone from JPMorgan on your show.

I said, that ain't going to happen. He said, why? I said, because I've been talking to y'all for three years about advertising, and not a dime has come our way. I said, I flew to New York and met with your senior leadership, laid out our capabilities. I said, and nobody has been responding. I said, now tell what they do in the game they play. So one of the games is they go, well, we don't advertise on news shows because there are controversial issues and opinions.

So it's brand safe. Okay. brand safe. Okay? Brand safe. I said, now I'm confused, because you will hire certain artists who we know ain't brand safe, but you will pay them to promote your product, but then when you say, well, you can't

because you take an opinion where you have a viewpoint. Fox News has a segment on the five, which is completely opinion, hardcore right wing. Mercedes Benz sponsors a segment, a branded segment on the five, and we have not been able to get Mercedes Benz to do jack with us but they'll spend money on the five.

I'll look at Fox News and it shows what ads run and then go that's interesting. Y'all don't buy news but you buy that news. You don't buy our news. Oh but, grand say, understand

what goes on here. That's why they're able to have two, three, four, five, six hundred reporters and producers because they're getting a lion's share of the money. Let me also tell you how they treat us. So if we do get a meeting, so we'll go to the meeting and they'll bring in

the DEI person, the global diversity person, and the foundation person. And I told y'all I don't really care. I'm sorry, why they here? Especially why it's the foundation person. So let me tell you what they do. They bring the foundation person to the meeting with black-owned media to talk about all the good stuff they do with black people. I say when y'all meet with Disney, you

don't bring the foundation person. When you meet with Comcast, you don't bring the foundation person. I'm having a marketing conversation. I don't even want to talk to them. I want to talk to the chief marketing officer because that's who controls the budget. So you need to

understand they are systematically freezing us out. Then they'll send us to the ad agency. 90% of all ad agencies are white. They'll send us to the agency and they will reward us with meetings

and more meetings. And we say, everybody in here getting paid to be here except us. And so you need to understand the game of money. And when you begin to understand that and the same thing happens on the federal level.

I'm going to tell you all what happened. The Congressional Blackhawks had an additional $70 million put into the budget for the census. They were supposed to spend $350 million on advertising. Let me tell you what the white ad agency told the CBC. They told Congressman Stephen Horsford, who's now the CBC chair,

who was the CBC's census liaison, said to him, we will not buy any ads in any newspaper 50,000 circulation or less. Y'all, that's 98% of all black newspapers. Now, mind you, the extra money got put in the budget because the CDC said, we want to make sure black people are reached when it came to the census. The white ad agency froze out the black ad agency, didn't kick her, kick her limited amount of money. Y'all, number ain't hard. If Carol H. will use it, they had controlled 70 million of the 350, and they do a 10 to 12% fee of that. That means that on the low end, the agency

would have earned $7 million in business because of that. No, but you take the $70 away and they earn less than a million. So what does that mean? The black ad agency can't hire more people, can't grow their business because you limited their money.

They made us fill out this form, go to our portal, Philadelphia, and did that. So five months go by, and I'm like, yo, the Trump vote cut six off a month early, so I go, hey, to my ad person, what the hell's going on? We don't hear nothing. It's okay, cool. I start blasting them on social media, blasting them on the show.

The white ad agency called the black ad agency, oh my God, what's going on? She's like, y'all didn't cut the brother a check. They were like, well, where's this coming from? She's like, y'all haven't responded to him in five months. Then the white ad agency goes, well, what can we do? She's like, I advise y'all to cut him a check because he's going to keep talking about y'all every single day. They call us in 48 hours and we get a $250,000 immediate buy for one month of work.

Now, somebody might say, and this is how they do blackball. Man, but that's awesome. No, that ain't awesome because you screwed me out of six months of money. Had I gotten six months of money, that would have been $1.5 million. You only went to the last month, and you were forced to give the $250. Had I not said anything,

you would have never picked up the phone. And so I tell black on me, they have one guy tell me, well, don't roll, you know, we can't do like you because, you know, we might not get any money. I said, did you get any money last year? No. Did you get any money last quarter? No. Did you get any money last week? No. Did you get any money yesterday? No. Did they call you today?

No. I said, it's a pretty damn good bet. You ain't getting no money next week, next month, next year. So why are you going to be quiet when you are getting jacked and you can't pay your bills? Y'all, it's the money. So every single one of these corporations, Owens Corning, Kroger,

Amazon, Discover, Fifth Third Bank Corp, Sherwin-Williams, all of it, NetJets, Anheuser-Busch, Intel. Y'all should be saying to every corporation based in Columbus, what is your annual black-owned media spend? We called out general voters in 2021. They were spending barely 1% with black-owned media. Now they've committed to spend 8% a year by 2025.

So that's the marker. And then once you do that, then you say, but we not done. Or that scene from Malcolm X where he says, I'm not satisfied. You now got to then say, now I want to know, do you use black transportation companies? Because y'all use limousine to know, do you use black transportation companies?

Because y'all use limousine car companies. Are you using black PR companies? Are you using black audiovisual companies? Are you using black caterers? Are you using black event planners? Are you using black law firms, black accounting firms? Y'all, these companies are spending billions of dollars a year on contracts. They are spending miniscule amounts with us, and we allow them to come to black civil rights events, hand them awards because they bought a table, and we literally are leaving billions on the table every day of the week.

Let me ask you a question. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser

Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. and this is season two of the war on drugs podcast we are

back in a big way in a very big way real people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh Ricky Williams NFL player Heisman Trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by

Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I can give you a hundred right now. I know what I'm going to do. Because finally, and this is just the sentiment behind things, perhaps not in spoken. So Congressman Ruben, you just talked about early on the consequences of what we face. And the reality is besides facing a narcissistic sociopath who might be president, the reality is there might be some of us who still feel like in many ways, well there's really no difference between folks in the parties. And I actually just wanted to mention, and I want to thank everybody about Rowland's book, but there's a book that people might have heard of recently by Clay Payne called The Grip. The downward spiral of black Republicans from the party linked into the cult of Trump. And the only reason why I mention that is because part of the reason why we were excited to have you here, Roland, was there was a report that 41% of African American males voted for a Republican party in this state in 2022.

Is it 41? 41%. And I know one of the things that you've been very specific about is creating space for you to have conversations with black Republicans and black conservatives. So I know one of the things that you've been very specific about is creating space for you to have conversations with black Republicans or black conservatives. So I want both of you to talk a little bit about, as we sort of end this section, about not only is, what do you say to these people who don't see a difference, who don't see a difference between the Democrats and Republicans, and specifically for some of these African American males who are actually believing that maybe some of the policies of the Democratic Party just don't actually see them as men. And so this whole masculinity from the Republicans or these conservative values. So the Tim Scotts, these other men that we see on social media constantly talking about liberals being weak. What is really at stake when it comes to this next election and what do we need to be saying to black folks

about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties? Well, you mentioned Tim Scott. So whether it's Brian Donalds, whether it's Jane Johnson, these are the five, six now, who serve in Congress with us. And they vote against everything that's black. They vote against everything that's health and human services. But they get a lot of attention.

They go to the media because media will ask the same question. And they will say, we don't need it. Because, see, we pulled ourselves up. And there is a mentality because they come to Congress to be on social media, to be on TV, because they're in the minority, but they get singled out. If I walked off that House floor and Tim Scott walked out and we met in the middle. Two reporters would go to him and one to me until I became CBC chair. And so at that point, being very outspoken, I have to take, you don't have to take the brothers on,

but we have to say to them, don't you see the numbers of the number of black men who are dying? Don't you see the difference between crack cocaine and crack what happened? But it was the brothers, it was the Hakeem Jeffries, the Stephen Horsfords, the Jim Clyburns that did the First Step program. Many of us don't know about it,

where brothers and sisters got released for their misdemeanors. Every one of them voted against it. We still are trying to get a voting rights vote in 2024. John Lewis is still fighting for it, what he fought for.

Every one of those black Republicans voted against it. They voted against educational funding. They voted against women on Roe v. Wade. And so when you ask me, when you look at the two, you may say there is no difference between Trump and Joe Biden. They're both old.

They both have been president. While that may not be a fact, you need to look at what, maybe not you, but your parents, your grandparents, your children. How is it going to affect the life of those young people that danced on this stage? When you think about, my grandmother and mother had more rights than I have now. 53 years they've taken Roe v. Wade. Some of you are old enough to know the back alley abortions and the hangers. Some of you are old enough to know that you have to say to your son or grandson that conversation. That you have to tell them to kowtow as a black person when a police officer comes over that could be a bad police officer. All

police officers are just like all black people are not good or bad. But we have to make sure that you understand what's at stake. Roland's book gives you an amazing outline. We don't do enough to remind us of our history. We don't do enough to share what you have. You can name a topic. And I can tell you that this administration, when you think about having Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court and what that means, Trump packed it with three justices so they could take away Roe v. Wade. Very

strategic. And we have to do that. They've taken us back to slavery days. You know, we talk about we need affordable housing. I get more letters about people, what are you going to do, baby, about affordable housing? You're right, we need it. They vote against it every time we go up. If we're not in charge, you would not have gotten those $1,400, those $2,000 checks. You would not have gotten that before we were in the majority and issued those things. If you look at what's happening, now you watch the news. Have you ever heard that a party would let one person come and say, you can be vacated as the speaker? The speaker is the second most important person after the vice president to run this country and one crazy republic and got up there

said we want mccarthy out and they all voted for it and people dare call me say well why didn't y'all vote to keep you me and that's not our problem they didn't vote for anything for black people and brag about it whether it was the the Confederate flag, whether it was education, whether it was food. I mean, they voted against SNAP and WIC and told us we didn't need it. And so what I think, Jewel, we don't get excited or angry enough because when we get angry, we march. Black lives matter. We did that. Roland and I was talking about it.

We thank the folks for that. We were doing that in the 60s and the 70s. Raising our fist. Black power. We have to go old school. You have to get angry. When something happens to one of our children in this community, we're going to gather. Well, think about where we are

now that this is taking away the freedom from all of our children. They're against Social Security. They're against Medicare. They're against Medicaid. They're against public housing. They're, by the grace of God, though, all of us. Now, let's just not forget about that we may have two nickels today. They take away your health care. You in the hole out there asking for government help. And everybody has a bobo or a baby in their family that has had some challenges. Everybody in this room knows someone that needs help.

They don't believe in that. But let me just say one thing. Or Roland or Joyce or other folks that are out there. This whole economic justice is very key to our future and our children's future. When you think about corporate America, and I'm not anti-corporate America, but I'm not afraid to speak up with him. I went on, you heard Tracy read my committee, to have a sister that's on national security, international finance, and illicit finance, that I have, we're the majority,

this little black girl, subpoena power, we brought in Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase. We brought in Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and they had to come before Maxine Waters and Joyce Beatty. That was one fun day. And if you ever think that people like Roe and I don't stand up for you for justice, I tell you, go Google what Facebook used to be with Zuckerberg. When he came before my committee, he told the black lobbyists,

I may go and what can they do to me? I'm one of the most wealthiest, young, brilliant folks. He hadn't met Maxine Waters and Joyce Bain. So when you Google Zuckerberg and Bain, you will see him coming before my committee. And we did everything but rape him to make him know that black people don't play because we have fought, been enslaved. And so when people tell me about what's happening, I'm black. You know, my grandmother and great grandmother washed enough dishes and took care

of folks and fed people that we have to stand up to everybody. And lastly on Roland's point, corporate America, the big giants, when George Floyd, one of the greatest things I think black people did, when George Floyd died, we came together. Didn't matter if you were educated, if you were Greek, if you ran a program, we stood together.

We took on corporate America. They pledged $60 billion to go in to black organizations, black companies. You know how much was realized? $250,000 is all they paid. So I joined Roland with going after them. And I'm guilty of it. The Congressional Black Caucus, many of you

come in September when we do our annual legislative conference. It is the place for black folks to be. Not to party, but for the intellectual stuff. Roland comes every year. So we went and we raised $10 million off of that all

for scholarship. So we started calling those companies. We listened to Roland. I was chair of the CBC. And so I said, I'm not taking this little $100,000 and being happy. And then you send everybody black that works for the company. So

we also want you to send the chairman of your board. We want you to send the people who look like me in the C-suite. So they didn't do it. So now we've created an endowment. They said we were too small because, you know, the room can't hold more than, you know, the 7,000, 10,000 people. So the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has created an endowment. I am chair of the endowment.

We have a $50 million goal for this year. We wrote to every one of those companies and we said the Congressional Black Caucus dove. We're going to tell them to stop using your product. And black people will do that. Black people will do that.

Lastly, to bring it back home, Wendy's had a racist white man on his board, and he came up and told every Wendy's employee, you know, many of them look like us, to go vote for Donald Trump. I called the president. He said, but that was a person on my board. And he pledged a million dollars to them for voting for Trump.

Stephanie, I know what I'm talking about. I said, we got the Urban League, and Christy Angel was chair of the YWCA. So I called him and said, I need a million dollars today or else. Now, I don't know what that or else was going to be. But I know we got the million dollars. And I said, I'm going to tell you where to send it.

And they're not sending you anything but a letter saying we're 50C3 and we serve black people and Stephanie and Christy Angel got that million dollars within a week so there is power because see I had to go on Roland's show the next day and I didn't want Roland to put me

on the spot but the point is we have power in this room we have to in this room. We have to do a better job of bringing you on board with us to exercise that power and to take on these folks who are taking advantage of us. So I wanted to just be able to say. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

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

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

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

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

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

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tetherpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I don't ever like to leave with the glass filling half empty, because we are sitting here in one of the oldest institutions in this community. In many programs, somebody mentioned the Merrymakers earlier, many of the programs, my chief reminded me just the other day, that it was black men, because of segregation, that had graduated from here, that came back here because they didn't have anywhere else they could go to meet.

And they met here at this high school to stand up for justice. So here we are later, some 50 years, with two powerful black men calling us together to stand up for justice. I don't think that's by accident, Jewel. For the work that you continue to do, we blame black men for not taking care of their children or not having relationships with their daughters and their sons. So what you're doing is changing the face of black relationships. So thank you. So let me go back to this here. If you are 65 years or older, raise your hand. Older than 65, raise your hand. Alright, if you're 55 and older, raise your hand.

Alright, if you are 54 and younger, raise your hand. Alright, so keep your hand up. Keep your hand up. Now, just look around the room. Now, if you are if you are 35 to 54, raise your hand.

Okay? If you're 18 to 33, raise your hand. There it is. Now, you have 18 to 33, raise your hand. No, raise your hand. One, two. Back there. Three, four, five, 5, 6, 7

so there are less than 10 people in the room who are 18 to 33 the two lowest voter participation groups are 18 to 39 now if you start breaking down who is more likely to identify as a Democrat, 65 and higher,

who is more likely to vote, 65 and higher. As you go from 65 and higher down, the likelihood of you self-identifying as a Democrat drops. The likelihood of you voting drops. So I've really been paying attention to this. I graduated from college in 1991. And so I'm Gen Ed. So I begin to see my generation really stuck.

My generation started the trend of less self-identifying as Democrat. Now, self-identifying and likely voting are two different things. But when you start looking at each successive generation, it's fewer and fewer. The further you get away from the Black Freedom Movement, known as the Civil Rights Movement, the more likelihood that voters are not going to identify with a party. So what now then happens is the party has to now recalibrate and its politicians as to how they interface with the most important voting bloc for the party. Black women are the number one voting bloc among Democrats. Black men are number two.

2012, there was a nine-point gap between black men and black women for Obama-Romney. Everybody keeps thinking this thing started, oh, it was Hillary because brothers didn't want to vote for a woman. No, there was a nine-point gap between black men and black women in 2012 between Obama-Romney. It expanded 13% in 2016, and then it expanded again to about 17,

18, to 2020. This is the presidential level. Everybody kept, and I even had sisters on my show who kept talking about, oh, it was misogyny. No. It's because they weren't listening to black men. Too many people were running their mouths talking. They weren't understanding the

dynamic that was actually happening. Black men, in 2012, many were frustrated that Obama wasn't doing enough. Two, and this does speak to the reality of paternalism and misogyny, you've had 10

plus years of black girl magic, black girl magic, black girl magic. Not a problem. Doug Jones wins the special election in Alabama in 2017. All of the stories were like, Doug Jones became the U.S. Senator because black women. The number was 96. What was 92? Black men. Nobody brought that up. And so what you're seeing is

now there are absolutely, there's without a doubt you do have sexism, misogyny, paternalism weaved into this. But that is not the beginning and the end of the story. What you have is you have an increasing view

of black men in different parts of the country who believe the party has abandoned black folks not done enough and so what then happens is people do one of two things they either listen to somebody else or they don't vote what you also have is an increasing number of black people who are younger who now own businesses What people need to understand is the flip side of being a part of being an entrepreneur is you want to keep more of what you make. So you now have to now factor in public policy and taxes as it relates to what they're talking about. I was in Georgia on the ground for Warnocker

in 2022. Went to a coffee shop owned by a sister. The sister said I ain't having kids, so abortion is not, and reproductive rights ain't my biggest issue. She said, tax policy is. And so the problem is that we are continuing, when it comes to black people, having

a post 1970, 1980 conversation, and we're not having a 21st century conversation. What you also have to understand is that the Democratic Party is dominated and run by white consultants. Those white consultants don't want to listen to black people. Every election cycle, CBC members, black pollsters, black strategists are in a battle with white consultants. They control the financial apparatus

of these parties. But who do they must depend on? Us. They are still running the old playbook. Now, do people get mad at me when I bring up Obama? They go, man, you can't criticize the president. Actually, I can. Understand, Reverend Jackson runs

for president. I need you to. Understand, Reverend Jackson runs for president in 1984. I need you all to understand because this thing goes deeper than people understand. Reverend Jackson runs for president in 1984, 1988. He changes the rules of how you get elected from winner take all to proportional delegation. Obama

doesn't become president in 2008 unless Reverend Jackson changed the rules in 1988. in 2008 unless Reverend Jackson changed the rules in 1980? Now, when Reverend Jackson changes the rules, Ron Brown becomes the first black chair of the Democratic Party. The late Dr. Ron Walters

assists Reverend Jackson in changing this, so what then happens is you then now have a black infrastructure that is now put in place inside of the Democratic Party when it comes to get out the vote, when it comes to advertising and those things. Obama runs. He doesn't need the black political infrastructure that was put in place. So that political infrastructure was completely decimated because he didn't need it. He didn't need the infrastructure.

He was like, look, they're going to vote for me anyway. Now, here's the problem. I was saying, and trust me, Obama and his people were not happy with me. I didn't get invited to any of the birthday parties. But I didn't care because I kept saying, y'all, he's only going to be there eight years. There's going to be a party after he leaves. And so what happened was the entire black political infrastructure inside of the party got completely wiped out. In fact, the party got wiped out because you had Obama for America, which was a part of his political campaign, then they converted

that and some resources were shifted. The problem is the white consultants inside of the party kept using the Obama playbook. Oh, we don't have to reinstitute the black political infrastructure. We can just send him out and they're going to follow him. No, because he's not on the ballot. So in 2008, he wins North Carolina by 14,100 votes. Republicans in North Carolina changed the rules. You begin to see

the falling back of voting rights beginning in 2010 with the midterm elections and all of a sudden Republicans taking control over state legislatures. D.C. shall be beholder. That's made the whole thing up. So now what you have is, you now have

a Democratic Party that now has to appeal to Jewel to represent the baby and me in three distinct different ways. They are used to talking to us in one way. Same initiative, talk to black civil rights groups, talk to churches,

visit them, roll folks out with endorsement. That doesn't work anymore. You now have to micro-target black people. And you can't micro-target black people based upon the country, the state, the city, the neighborhood, the street, and the house. You're not talking to black people. Who are the black people who want to talk about tax policy? Who are the black people who want to talk about tax policy? Who are the black people who want to deal with voting rights? Who are the black people who want to deal with reproductive rights?

So we now have a much different black electorate, and they don't want to confront that. And so the poll you were talking about was the governor's race between DeWine, who was it, Whaley? So 41% of black men, but the key number was 25% of black women. Black women hate the Republican Party more than anybody else. So if 25% of black women in Ohio voted for DeWine, you've got to now be asking, first of all,

what was he doing to appeal to a broader black electorate? But that's not the first time. His name is forgiving right right now but he was the mayor of cleveland uh and then he got elected governor and united states senator if you go back what's his name good one of these he had a significant percentage of black people because first he didn't ignore black people right he talked to black people he met with black people that's why larry hogan won re-election in mlection in Maryland. And that's why Maryland has a problem right now. Right now he's jumping in the race. He's running as a Republican. That may very well be a seat that Democrats thought they had taken off the map because he's going to get plus 20 percent of the black vote.

So we've got to understand what then happens. And so I'm going to say it right now. When Tim Ryan ran for senator in Ohio, he ran an awful campaign reaching black people. I said it and let me be perfectly clear. I't do it. I was like. I literally said. I will bring my show to Ohio. Talk about the issues. They never called. And so Tim Ryan. I got his cell phone. He did not talk to black people. Because he thought.

The path to victory. Was talking to aggrieved white democrats. And he got blown out. he on election day, he now trying to call around to Cincinnati and Cleveland and other places. Say, bro, you too damn late. So what we have to recognize is we have to be talking about what are the issues. I have never self-identified. I talk about these are the issues that I care about. Now, where I stand economically,

I could easily say, man, forgive the Democrats, I could make more money over here, but I love black people to understand what my issues are. And so the first thing is we must be listening to black men and doing what Ella Baker told Snick

in the 60s. Don't go to these poor old black people who you don't think are smart because they are and they don't have degrees. First, ask them what is it you want to do. See, we are having the reverse conversation.

We got too many highfalutin smart Negroes with degrees talking to black people saying this is what y'all need and not asking them what do you want? What do you want to achieve? And we then have to then follow it up to now connect the dots to explain to people public policy. You can't go to Congresswoman Beatty on every issue because that might be the county. That might be the city. That might be be the county. That might be the city. That might be the school board.

That might be the state. And so what should be happening right now in black Columbus and in Cincinnati and in Dayton and in Cleveland, we got to go back to freedom schools. We got to go back to where we are literally teaching civics 101. But we are walking people through public policy. And once we do that, we now are educating people on really how politics work. So if there's a brother right now in Ohio who says, well, look, them judges, I don't care about all them black women buying the point.

That has no bearing on me. That's an absolute lie because these federal judges are ruling on congressional districts. These federal judges are ruling on issues. If you are a black man and you care about criminal justice, it was a white woman in Louisiana, a federal judge appointed by Obama, who said to Louisiana, remove those juveniles from Angola prison for the conditions, and you have one week to do it. But guess what? 85% of those juveniles were black. So when somebody says a federal judge has no impact, no. A ruling of one federal judge anywhere in America could stop public policy nationwide.

One Trump judge in Amarillo, Texas, ruled against the abortion pill, and that literally stopped the access across the country. Again, how do you think long-term? There are 930 federal judges. Biden and Harris' opponent, about 150. Now, if Democrats win in 2024, the likelihood that Biden and Harris is appointed about 150. Now, if Democrats win in 2024, the likelihood that Biden and Harris, if Democrats keep control of the Senate, are likely going to appoint another 200 federal judges. That's now 350.

If Democrats win 2028, you're likely going to see another 200 judges. We're now at 550. How many federal judges did I say there were? 930. And so, if Democrats win the next two presidential cycles, they will have more than half of all federal judges in the country. If they win 24

and 28, you're likely going to pick up two Supreme Court seats if a legal implant comes off. Now it's 6-3 conservative. Now it's going to be 5-4. The reason people who set out in 2016 because of Hillary Clinton and I was in Ohio

interviewing people who were like, yeah, I went ahead and voted her. I really didn't want to. That's the same folk who were pissed off with the affirmative action decision who were pissed off with Roe v. Wade and I'm like, see, you didn't understand. Your willingness not to vote in 2016

because you didn't like her didn't realize that those are lifetime appointments, and Republicans are purposely picking federal judges between the age of 35 and 45. Last point, Trump picked a white female who was 11 years out of law school who had never been in a courtroom to be a federal judge. If that woman serves as long as Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, who died in 87, that woman will be a federal judge for the next 46 years. Y'all not hearing me. She will not come off

the bench until 2065 or 27 if she lives as long as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that one federal judge. And so we have to learn to connect the dots to say, you don't think re-electing Sherrod Brown is important, but if Dems control the Senate, then you're able to get these policies. But if they win the Senate and win the presidency and control the House, they can literally overturn significant things.

And guess what? The $140 billion in student loan debt relief that has happened the last three years completely goes away. Any, any federal protection with voting rights goes away. Understand, the 8th Circuit in Arkansas has ruled that outside groups do not have the authority to file voting rights lawsuits, only the government. See, some of y'all are looking at me me like I don't know what that means that means the NAACP LDL the Lawrence community for civil rights under law or any civil rights group can file a voting rights lawsuit that means that it will require only the Department of Justice that's gonna go to the Supreme Court you just got a black district in Louisiana and a black

congressional district in Alabama because the courts ruled that y'all were sitting here. It was racist against black people. A federal judge ruled last week Louisiana must redraw their state maps because they are impacting black voters. Understand all of this stuff is connected. So you can't be in Columbus saying, man, we need more resource sources for our schools. So if you're more likely to get resources through a Democrat president than a Republican who you vote for this person, then what you don't understand is what are their policies. That is the mistake.

And we've got to stop telling people, man, vote because somebody died for it. That doesn't work. And in fact, to a poster, black poster, Terrence Woodbury, and actually, I think when you spoke, again, language matters. Terrence Woodbury's research says, do not use the phrase voter suppression. Right. Because

when a black voter, young voter, 18 to 40, hears voter suppression, they think civil rights movement. He said, but if you say to black people, they're closing down voting locations, they're switching voting locations, they're getting rid of ballot drop boxes. They go, I'm against that. Say voter suppression. They think, oh, that's old stuff.

So we've got to change the language and listen to our experts to now know how to communicate. That's why Terrence Wilbury and Cornell Belcher and other black pollsters are important because they are doing the surveys and the focus groups to understand. Last point. voters, your vote could make the difference between winning and losing. There's a 30 to 40% greater chance that they will vote. So you can't just say we need you to vote. No. You have to say your vote

will make the difference between winning and losing. And so that's why we have to understand the psychology behind voting, the language that we are using. We, even as black people, are using outdated language to communicate

to a 21st century black voter who doesn't go to church like we used to, is not listening to a pastor, but who is following social media, and they're getting bad information, and we've got to understand because some of y'all grandmas in the room

been spreading some stuff on Facebook I'm going to tell my mama check with me before you see any damn thing out because we are specifically being targeted with misinformation and disinformation because Donald Trump

thanked black people for not voting in 2016. And if any white nationalist says to black people, thank you for not voting, that's damn sure the person who we cannot vote for. And yeah, I'll be real close up in a minute. Tell them that Terrence is also a young brother. Yeah, Terrence Goubert is a young brother. Yeah, Terrence Blueberry is a young brother.

Terrence is a young brother. He was trained under Cordell Belcher. Right. So we have the expertise out here, and we do have to challenge the party to say, you're going to have to invest in our community. And I'm telling you, the way the game is played, the white media strategists, they make their money off of TV buys. So y'all hear me. They don't make their money off of grassroots box so y'all hear me it'll make it money off grassroots they got a percentage of TV box so they want all the money to go into TV and not on the ground and understand on the ground is

how you win if they lose they still get a check they can move to the next campaign. We lose. We literally lose. Y'all came to see a five-star test. We're on the top of time. So, obviously we're well past time, so I'd like to pass it over to you to give some summary comments about whatever you've heard,

whatever you're thinking, whatever you're feeling before we wrap this up. So at this particular time, just anything that you is on your spirit, any areas that haven't been covered. There's a lot on the street, but I really want to appreciate people's time. So just summary comments and reflections before we actually dismiss people. I think Roland has said it all. It's important to vote because it makes a difference. In some places, one vote. A sister ran for Congress, put $2 million of her family's money in Florida.

She won by one vote. Some places, they flip a coin. Terrence did a presentation for me and members of our delegation two weeks ago. A young brother. Let me say, because in this audience, when you ask people to raise their hands from 19 to 35, they are no longer also party affiliated. They're issue affiliated.

So they support issues where the environment is very big to young folks. So they speak on issues, and so we have to understand public policy. And I think nobody does it better than Roland Martin in bringing it down so we can understand it. So we have to do a better job of chats

that gives our folks the information. I can't be an expert in the judicial system or as a doctor, but this is important and I think tonight we all had a policy lesson because that's what voting is all about.

It's making a difference of who's going to create a policy or take away a policy that affects us. So unlike the 18 to the 39 year olds, we have to understand policy, we have to vote on the issues, and black people have historically voted on the issues. But when anybody can tell you in a party, if you take a senior citizen

a glass of water while they're standing in line to vote, that that will then be something you can be arrested for. So you better think about how you vote and the difference that it will make in our community. And lastly, thank you. Thank you for the support to tonight. Thank you for supporting Jewel. Thank you for supporting me. And we will all win when we all work together.

You must understand that the battle that we are in requires hand-to-hand combat. You must understand that if a lie is presented you cannot allow the lie to stand i don't let anybody come on my show and start lying i have people say man why why are you always interrupting republican i said because when they come on they lie there are other republicans who come on, they lie. There are other Republicans who come on my show and they don't lie at all. And the reason somebody's talking and a lie is presented, and I say nothing, the audience goes, well,

what they're saying must be correct. And so what you have to be doing is making sure on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Fanbase, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, any of these platforms, you cannot allow, you must challenge every lie because people literally are walking around spreading crap and they are specifically targeting us. We now know that the largest Black Lives Matter page on

Facebook in 2018 was a troll farm. It was the largest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook. You must first ask, if you see any of these things, who is behind this page?

I love these simple Simon Negroes who say, well, Roland is talking for his handlers. The only person above me is God. I own it 100%. My mom and daddy can't tell me what to do with my network. My wife can't tell me what to do with my network. My wife can't tell me what to do with my network. No, she can't. Now, why is that important?

You must say, wait a minute, who's behind this? There are deliberate misinformation agents in our communities right now who are spreading information that is designed to suppress our vote, to keep us from actually turning out. If you come across anybody and they say, man, I'm thinking about not voting or I'm not going to vote, don't sit here and get indignant. You should say, brother, sister, name me the three things that you care about. I love when people go reparations.

Can you name me one Republican who supports reparations? No. I said, so if you can't name me one Republican, that means the only way you're going to get what you want is through a Democratic Party. I said, so when you say Democrats ain't nothing, but I want reparations. I said, that's your avenue to getting what you want. I said, I'm just saying it ain't smart politics to crap on your one path when this path don't exist. They look at me like I'm crazy. Like, oh, I'm like, precisely.

I need you to think. You need 218 in the House. You need 60 in the Senate. You need a bill signed by the president. Otherwise, we ain't having a real conversation. We have to do that. And if they begin to say, well, it's of the issue, of the issue, take the time to walk them through, because as Congresswoman said, they matter.

Ran for Supreme Court justice in North Carolina, lost by 400 votes. I can guarantee you there were more than 100 plus thousand black people in North Carolina alone who never voted. Mike Espy lost to Cindy High Smith in the special election in 2018 by 65,000 votes. There were more than a quarter of a million black and poor white votes who didn't even vote who were eligible. We don't have eligible black voters. Even with Beto O'Rourke running for governor, 80% of young voters 30 and under in Texas did not vote. So 80%.

So if you are a millennial and Gen Z voter and you keep complaining about I'm sick of all these old people understand you are the largest voting block in the country if you vote.

So you can't complain about why these baby boomers are running everything it's because baby boomers show up and vote. And so that's what we have to do. Educate people. Educate

a lot. Explain to them what's actually happening. They have a completely different understanding. It's not easy. But I'm telling you, we are going to suffer financially, economically, educationally, politically, if we allow Project 2025 to come in.

And this is the last point because you ain't thinking about it. African Americans over index in government jobs. We have more African Americans who make six figure in government jobs than we do in corporate work because that's been the place we need to get jobs. I think y'all hear what I'm about to tell you. When a conservative fiscal Republican says, I want a smaller government, that means they're going to cut federal, state, county, city, school jobs. If we disproportionately are in government jobs, when they say smaller government,

they're cutting us. When they cut those jobs, we're not replacing those jobs in corporate America. And that's when the ownership rate goes down even further because in 2008, we lost 53% of black wealth due to the home foreclosure crisis. We need to understand who is going to be impacted. They are saying right now we are going to have a requirement

that any government worker must accept what matter principles or we we going to fire them. Y'all ain't understanding what's coming down the pipeline. This thing goes way deeper. If you thought you had four years of crazy from 2017 to 2021, there right now are well-funded groups who are in D.C. who are putting out something called Project 25 that is going to completely remap and reshape government. And I'm telling y'all, there's a bullseye on black people. Do not play games with November because they are not playing.

Thank you. And we have to be able to talk about this in the time I have. Dr. Ushri is the president of the Columbus MPAC. I've got to give him the mic. Oh, your mic. This was... The mic is Jeffrey, and we're representing the National

Council of Columbus. And first, I'd like to give some thoughts to you. A multiple member of the New York City Council got to hop off the side. The brother he was talking about earlier, Bill Russell,

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there

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

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

a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus

King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

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

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by opportunity at work and the ad council Okay. Okay. We do a lot in the community. I see a lot of unsolvents, but I'm going to step up to the toes. I see some of y'all that I've never seen before, and I'm always out. So I challenge each and every one, whether it's within APAC or whether it's within your prospective chaplain, to step up.

Being present means being active. Next Tuesday, we'll be right back here for a candidate swarm for the county prosecutor's office. Everybody knows about the Casey Goodman case that's going on, right? That's the Ferry County prosecutor, okay? Know that. Know the things that impact us. Also, scholarships. Joyce and I, Joyce is the ambassador for the class of Fort Lauderdale.

That's another way of impacting our community, giving scholarships to our youth. But the one challenge I'm going to ask all our NBAC organizations, we all have our youth organizations, Acadets, Acro Esquires, Capital League, we probably all reach out to that 3.0 student. We need to figure out a way to reach out to that student that's struggling, that 1.0 student, that student that doesn't come through. Go over to the kids you really need to figure out. We need to get a new paradigm and figure out how to impact them. And lastly, just keep doing the end of service. And, okay, you got to text the guy. doing, being of service, and and okay.

You got to text God. I think he did mention to the camera, INS and and our I would have fought to get close. I mentioned that too.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. Also, I've known this gentleman for a couple years now. We have a suicide prevention. Black suicide prevention. So keep your eyes out for that. Thank you. Alright, we want to thank Brother Lutry. Before everybody goes, who here wants to buy a Roland

Martin book? We want to actually make sure that we sell some books tonight. Alright, if all you folks actually want to buy books, we're going to make some space for that. So, you came here for a five-side chat with Roland Martin, and I hope you enjoyed studying. That's what you got. I apologize for the delay, but

thank you so much. This is a consequential time of black people's lives. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. I get right back there and it's bad. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Lazer Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback.

Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.