#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Men Unemployment Rate Drops, 2022 Midterms & Black Women, MSNBC Fires Tiffany Cross

Episode Date: November 5, 2022

11.4.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Men Unemployment Rate Drops, 2022 Midterms & Black Women, MSNBC Fires Tiffany Cross October's job report was released today.  It says the unemployment rate for Black men dropped while it increased for most other groups.  But it could be for the wrong reason like Black men have stopped looking for jobs.  I'll talk to an economist who will break it down for us.  Early voting is winding down, with a record turnout of over 36 million people who have already cast their ballot.  The Black Women's Leadership Collective is making a last-ditch effort to let black women know they have the power and why they have the power to decide the midterms.  Holli Holiday will explain how they are getting black women to the polls.  Voters in a Pennsylvania county say they are surprised by a new policy allowing sheriff deputies to question folks voting.  MSNBC first the host of its highest-rated weekend show, The Cross Connection.  I have a whole lot to say about the ousting of Tiffany Cross.    Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, November 4th, 2022. Roland Martin on Filtrip, streaming live on the Black Star Network, broadcasting from This Is It Cafe here in Third Ward, Houston. We are here with the Communication Workers of America, also talking with folks to get out the vote.

This is the last day to vote early in Texas. We'll be talking to a number of local and county officials, talking about this election. It is just, folks, four days away. Huge implications for African-Americans. We'll be breaking this thing down. Some 36 million people have already voted early all across the country. And so we'll be talking about that also on today's also on today's show. We'll be addressing Pennsylvania. Some folks there are wondering why are police officers questioning?

Why are they questioning folks about voting? We'll tell you about that. Also, the October jobs report is out. More jobs are being added. Why do people keep saying the economy is so awful yet we continue to see jobs being added in the country? Plus, MSNBC terminates Tiffany Cross so they don't sign her to a new contract. Her show is over. I got a couple of words to say about that. It is time

to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks.

He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Marten Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Marten Now He's real, the best you know. He's Roland Martin. Martin. All right, folks, Roland Martin here. We're broadcasting from This Is It Cafe in Houston, Texas. Today's the last day of early voting in the state of Texas. And so we'll be chatting with a number of folks who will be coming through here, elected officials and others,

about the importance of this election, of course, which is four days away. One of the big issues that are being discussed, of course, is the economy, inflation. Also, the economic report, a new report comes out, 261,000 jobs added last month in the United States. Unemployment rate is at 3.7%. But what do the numbers show for African-Americans?

Joining us right now is Dr. Patrick Mason, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He joins us now. Glad to have you here. So, Doc, when we look at these numbers here, folks talk about this, talk about, you know, moving towards a recession or how bad the economy is, yet the jobs report numbers don't reflect that. And so, you know, explain sort of this, you know, good news, bad news when it comes to our economy. Well, the good news is that a large number of jobs were created.

But we could probably use even a higher number of jobs when it comes to African-Americans and getting our unemployment numbers down. So some people have concentrated a lot on inflation. And for them, that's their measure of how the economy is doing. But I always thought that the amount of joblessness is a better measure of how the economy is doing. I mean, if you have a job and prices are high, you can still afford something. If you don't have a job and prices are low, you can't afford anything. Well, that's absolutely a good point uh now what are the numbers show when it comes to black men and black women uh were they participating or dropping out of the labor force in the last month yeah the the so the not the unemployment rate for black men went down, but it went down for the wrong reason. You only count it as unemployed if

two things are true. Number one, you do not have a job and you're willing and able to work is the second thing. So if you don't have a job, but let's say you were looking for a job for the last, you know, for six months and and then 30 days ago you stopped looking. You're no longer counted as unemployed. You're counted as not in the labor force. So the black male unemployment rate went down because a large number of black men moved out of the labor force. If you go out of the labor force, then the unemployment numbers will go down. For black women,

there was some increase in unemployment because more moved into the labor force. There were more women looking for employment, but they weren't able to find jobs. I think a better number to look at, if you really want to gauge joblessness, is the employment to population ratio. That's the total number of people who have a job who are working either full-time or part-time

divided by the population that's available for work. It's basically a measure of the probability of having a job. And that number for Black men tipped down slightly. For Black women, it remained constant. So that means that even though jobs were created, it wasn't enough jobs to deal with the problem of joblessness among African Americans. Now, again, all the conversation and people are talking about the issue of inflation. And one of the things that I frankly think that the White House is not doing enough is laying out that part of that, the significant part of this is because of corporate greed.

We are constantly raising the prices, even though their costs are being covered and they're reporting record profits. That's that. I record profits that's that i mean that's why we're at this point uh a big reason why we're having inflation i mean just and they just continue to raise prices and they're just making money hand over fist and there's nothing any politician can do about that well there's something that could be done i mean you could tax away some of those excess profits, but I guess what can be done and what will be done may be two different things. But in terms of dealing with inflation, that's the, you know, that's one of the reasons for the inflation that I don't think we've focused on

enough. So you hear narratives about, you know, the assistance that people received during, you know, the height of the COVID pandemic. Well, it was too much money in the economy. It wasn't too much money for people who weren't able to work. So that narrative has received a lot more attention than looking at corporate greed, looking at specific sectors where prices have been rising quite rapidly. And I think we need to take better account of that, because I don't know if the Fed's strategy for dealing with inflation is to raise interest rates and eventually induce a recession. That may not necessarily impact companies who are being greedy and just raising their prices because they can.

Doc, can you explain that? I mean, Larry Summers has talked about that. Explain how inducing a recession actually helps the economy. I mean, at one point he even said that we need a higher unemployment rate. Tell that to people who don't have a job. Well, maybe in his neighborhood, a higher unemployment rate wouldn't be a problem. He comes from a very elite neighborhood. The idea is that when you raise interest rates, you make the cost of borrowing money more expensive. And because you're making the cost of borrowing money more expensive,

you in effect increase the price of everything for which you have to borrow money. So if you raise interest rates, you make housing more expensive, and therefore, fewer homes will be sold. People tend to buy automobiles by borrowing money. So if you raise interest rates, you make the price, you know, the cost of purchasing a car more expensive. Refrigerators, furniture, attending college, all of those things, everything that depends on borrowing money becomes more expensive when you raise the interest rate and people will do less, you know, make fewer purchases. In turn, those industries will then begin to lay off people. And as they lay off people, that will cycle through the economy because now those people will buy less of everything because they don't

have any money. So that tried and true way of reducing inflation, run up interest rates, keep running up interest rates, and eventually to reduce the volume of spending. But that's just another way of saying people will be laid off and you'll have unemployment. We'll have a recession and that will bring down inflation. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, again, I just don't think it makes any sense whatsoever to folks to be encouraging a recession to to deal with inflation. But that's I guess they supposed to be so smart. Dr. Patrick Mason, you want to make the point? Go ahead. Yeah, when it comes to inflation or bringing in high interest rates,

whether or not it's a good idea or a bad idea in part depends on who you are. I mean, so think about it from the perspective of lenders, creditors out there. So somebody might have an interest rate before, I mean, a mortgage on the interest rate on their mortgage from before COVID at, let's say, 3 percent or 4 percent. Well, right now, with inflation running 6, 7, 8 percent, you have an interest rate that's higher than the rate on the mortgage. Banks don't like that. In effect, they're paying the borrower interest to borrow money so that they want higher interest rates and lower inflation because it makes them better off. But for people who are net debtors, inflation actually makes them better off. So what's left out of the conversation is usually all the pluses and minuses of a higher interest rate or a higher rate of inflation.

It's usually discussed from the perspective of the banking community or from the perspective of people who are quite comfortable and not worried about losing their jobs. All right, then. Dr. Patrick Mason, University of Massachusetts Amherst. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right.

Thanks a bunch. I'm going to bring my panel. I'm Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney. Also, Nola Haynes, Ph.D., Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Glad to have all three of you here. Michael, again, economics, the economy is the fundamental issue that's at the top of all polls when you look at what voters actually care about. And for the life of me, I don't understand why Democrats have not been going a lot harder at corporations for jacking up the profits. You know, look, I'm here in Houston.

In the last quarter, oil companies made a $100 billion profit in the last three months as a result of jacked up oil prices. When you look at food, when you look at a number of different companies, I mean, these CEOs are on these earnings calls talking about how they are making far more money and how they're buying their stock back and rewarding their shareholders and screwing the customers. And so, again, Democrats are getting the hit for this, but they're not explaining to people why inflation is so high. Absolutely, Roland. This goes back to the conversation you and I had last Friday on the show. And you said at this point in the election season, it's about turnout. And I said, no,

it's about messaging and turnout. You have to explain to people why they're voting, what they're voting for, and explain what is going on right now. Because Republicans like Kevin McCarthy and a Republican senator from Utah, Mike Lee, they're on Fox News lying, saying that inflation is because of Joe Biden, it's because of the stimulus checks, things like this. No, 54 percent. Katie Porter has been one of the loudest, most vocal people on this. Representative Katie Porter of California, 54 percent of inflationary costs is because of corporate greed. And Republicans are not talking about that for the most part at all. One. Two, they have no policies to actually address inflation. When it came time to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act,

every Republican in the House and the Senate voted against the bill, voted against helping people save money on prescription drugs, on energy costs, things like this. And I want people to really go way back in time to 2017 to 2018. I know it seems like 100 years ago, this was the last time Republicans controlled the House and the Senate, the first two years of the Trump administration. There were three government shutdowns in two years with these idiots running the government because Republicans are not good for the economy. Lastly, Roland, I'll leave you with this. I talk about this document.

I want people to read this. This is the Biden-Harris administration advances equity and opportunity for black Americans and communities across the country. It was updated in June of 2019. I'm sorry, June 2022. It was updated. This walks you through step by step, policy by policy, how the policies of the Biden-Harris administration have been beneficial for the African-American community and help the economy as well. OK. And so this is this is the most when you talk about really the type of spending that has happened over the you kind of got to tell people what you've actually done. And I think what President Biden has done, unfortunately, is the exact same thing President Obama did. So soon people are going to actually know what they did. No, you must toot your own horn, use that bully pulpit to explain to people how you made their lives better, how you've also been very pro-union and also people are taking advantage of that,

how you are going after trying to increase wages as well. You kind of got to tell your story or otherwise someone else would define you in their own way. I think you're exactly right, Roland. And in addition to telling your own story, to borrow Michael's term, it's about messaging. And not only your positive messaging about what you've done, but also counteracting the disinformation. As we know right now, the Republicans are beating the drum of crime and inflation, crime and inflation, crime and inflation. And I think it's important for Democrats and for the Biden-Harris administration, to Michael's point, to walk people through all of

the wins and all the ways that they've made people's lives better and all of the disinformation that they're confronting, because that's the problem. Conversations right now are being co-opted. They're being co-opted by the loudest voices, which happen to be Republican voices, trying to scare people. A lot of what they're saying, if not all of it, is dishonest and is untrue. And I think the Democrats have not done a good job of counteracting that with not only the truth, but the good things that they've done for the economy. So I think that's exactly what they need to do in this continued push to Tuesday. And they need to let people know, look, what you're hearing is lies. This is what we've actually done. And that's it. I mean, it's that simple.

Nola. So I agree with the bulk of what everyone's saying. And first I have to say that these are my views and opinions, and I'm not speaking on behalf of the United States government, particularly the State Department. With that said, I do believe that when we talk about it being a messaging problem, part of the messaging problem is people are going to the store and they're seeing that their basic needs are, in fact, higher. So it's easy for the more or less party to say it's the Biden-Harris administration's fault.

You know, and people are not really wanting to hear the reasons why that is a lie. And so, you know, because, you know, the Biden-Harris administration and largely a lot of Democrat administrations are policy heavy, and it's about the policy, you know, to refute the lies, to refute the bombast, at the end of the day, people don't want to hear the policy. It's easier for someone to wrap their head around, well, you know what? The chicken was, you know, $3.97 a pound, you know, a few months ago, and now it's literally like $9.97 a pound, and it must be the government's fault. And so the last thing I'll say about that, you know, rolling to your point about these large companies, I think

a lot of our antitrust laws need to be revisited because I completely agree with you. If there's an opportunity to increase your bottom line, you're going to do it at anyone's expense. You know, no one gets to be a billionaire many times over by being a nice person. So I think that a lot of this goes to the way in which our country, you know, for economic reasons, will favor the big corporations who, you know, provide 70 percent of, you know, the revenue into the larger economy. So that's the problem. The 30-70 split, that's the problem. It's been the problem. And that's where the fixed needs lie. All right. Hold tight one second, folks. Got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk with some folks here in Houston. Last day of early voting here. Critical elections taking place

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Hi, how y'all doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seals. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What's up? Lana Wells, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back. We're at this is it cafe here in Houston. Today's the last day of early voting in Texas.

I'm certainly glad to be here. Last night we were in Arlington, Texas, there with the folks in Tarrant County, Deborah Peoples and others. She is running for Tarrant County, Deborah Peoples and others. She is running for a Tarrant County judge, trying to make history there. And joining us right now, somebody who made history in the last election, Lena Hidalgo. She's the judge here in Harris County, which folks need to understand is as big as a whole bunch of other states in this country. But how are you doing? I'm great. I'm in the thick of it with the election. Indeed, indeed. And so it has been certainly a wild four years,

if you will, but also dealing with a Republican governor in this state who's trying to do everything they can to stop the progression of progressives here in this county. Absolutely. Look, Harris County, you said it. It's larger than a lot of states. We're about the progression of progressives here in this county? Absolutely. Look, Harris County, you said it. It's larger than a lot of states. We're about the size of Louisiana in population, square miles the size of Rhode Island, so we'd be the 25th largest state. Now, the state for 30 years has been controlled by Republicans

as the Republicans have gone farther and farther to the right. Harris County, as well as you well know, had been controlled by Republicans for a generation. I ran for as well as you well know, had been controlled by Republicans for a generation. I ran for office in 2018, you know, one of the women that thought if Donald Trump can win so can I. And I didn't even have a primary opponent. That's how much people didn't think that Harris County leadership could change. Well we won. And in the past few years, it's not just been dealing with floods and fires and the pandemic and the winter freeze, but also giving a voice

to folks who didn't have a voice under this far-right leadership. So we're giving a voice to people who care about voting rights. We're giving a voice to people as we reduce homelessness, as we invest in early childhood education, as we invest in small businesses and environmental protection, you name it. And what the Republicans are trying to do is stop that progress on some level, I think, because they're scared. They're scared to leave that power behind, and they're scared to see responsive, transparent government that's really bringing our communities in where in the past we didn't have representation. And that reflects potentially the future of this state. So it's a very tough, tough election we're facing, but we're fighting for the people and for the continued

changes. Well, you also hear them talk about how they believe in local control. Well, but you have them literally sending election monitors into into Harris County. You and others, the mayor, I know Commissioner Rodney Ellis and others, they asked the federal government to send monitors here. Have you all heard back from the Department of Justice? Yes. So that one is a 2020 election happened in September 23rd, 2021. Former President Donald Trump, he put out a statement. You don't have to call him former president of my show. Trust me, I don't even use that. I just call him the orange dude.

I don't even, trust me. Look, when I first met him in the White House, when he met with television anchors, I stood there and I was like, damn. I was trying to figure out what I was going to call him. And it was, did you say Mr. President? Did you say Mr. Trump? No. When he walked up, I went, hi. That's all he got.

I didn't give him anything else. I don't know that much more was deserved. But anyway, he called in 2021 for an audit of Harris County's 2020 elections, within eight hours, Governor Greg Abbott had ordered an audit of Harris County 2020 elections. Now, if folks will remember, 2020 elections in Harris County, we had drive-through voting. We had 24-hour voting. We had the largest turnout in a generation. Because we were also dealing with COVID. Right.

And it was so beautiful to have people. We had a voting location. The idea of expanding voting, wow, what a shocker. What a shocker, right? We were the ones that the governor tried to, to, to have us have just one drop off location in the entire county. So anyway, that audit went forward. And then recently the audit results are finally out. And now the state is saying that based on this 2020 audit then now they have to send election monitors so what we did with commissioner ellis uh with mayor turner as we said um and with with uh christian menifee our county attorney is we asked the department of justice to send monitors to monitor these folks because at best they will delay our count and at worst they might

try to interfere and And we've actually sent questions to the state to say, hey, what's this about? And they answered one of the questions, the other one, they said, we'll take it up with the attorney general. So we did hear back. I'm sorry, you mean the indicted attorney general? Correct. Gotcha. Okay. Correct. So the Department of Justice did respond. They're on standby. And I hope it doesn't get to that And I hope it doesn't get to that. I hope it doesn't get to that. But I think the other side thinks they're going to intimidate us. I think they think that they can pander at will. I'll tell you, I'm running against an opponent

who is a Harvard graduate. It took her until October 17th of 2022, almost two years, to finally admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 elections. First of all, I make no assumption that anybody went to Harvard is smart. Well, I'm a Harvard dropout, so we're good. There you go. But look, the Harris County Commissioner's Court, and this is the case in many counties around the country. There was news about this in New Mexico, in a county in New Mexico recently. The county government is in charge of certifying the results of the election in the county, like what led to January 6th. In Harris County, we've always done that as a routine process.

I don't even remember it having happened in 19 and 20. It happened, but it was so routine. We just went, we voted and we moved on. Right. In 2021, it wasn't even 2020. One of my Republican colleagues refused to certify the votes in Harris County. My opponent hasn't said she's going to do that yet. And so Republicans are trying to out far right one another, out Trump one another. And we're not just saying we're going to make things better. We are making them better. Crime is down. Homelessness is down. Economic job growth is up. These major investments on issues that really matter. I tell the community, you may, some folks say you, you see Lena Hidalgo's policies come through the door before you see her, because I'm

not out there giving out turkeys. I'm out there making a difference and that's what scares them and so what we need to do right now We were a little afraid the turnout was looking like a little below 2018 turnout It's catching up and and look we talked about this it's serious issues democracy in my mind at the heart of all of it and People need to vote people need to vote obviously. I'm on the ballot. I want them to vote a certain way But frankly, I just want people to participate. And so for everyone who's listening, if you're in Harris County, participate. We have early voting until today at 7 p.m.

And then Tuesday is Election Day everywhere in the nation. It is Election Day. And we need people to come out and make their voices heard because democracy literally depends on it. We cannot allow this type of extremism and pandering to win. I spent a lot of time on my show trying to walk my viewers and listeners through it because we also podcast the show. I've got commentaries on iHeartRadio's Black Information Network. And I spent a lot of time saying, folks, you cannot ignore the down ballot races. There's so much attention, obviously, on president, on U.S. Senate,

on House members and governors. But people are far more impacted by what happens on the county level and the city level as well. And we're talking about billions of dollars. We're talking about roads. We're talking about, yeah, public safety. We're talking about transportation, all of those different things. And what I'm also trying to explain to them, the point that you made about the've actually been clear that they want to shrink the number of people because they say if they know, if they shrink it, they get a better chance at trying to win or steal elections as opposed to expanding it. And they've been on record. If we expand the electorate, we lose. And that's, it's trying to get that through the, you know, just the everyday person to understand that this is that serious. Because what we saw January 6th was the precursor. This is, to me, the second quarter. 2024 for them is the fourth quarter.

That's right. And I think part of it is one silver lining of the pandemic is that we recognize the importance of local government. It's who was in charge of your public health response was it someone that was comfortable pandering to the anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and mask haters and the mask haters or was it someone that understood we need to do what's best for everyone who was in charge of the elections apparatus to your point criminal justice i mean look crime has gone up all around the nation based on COVID. And it would be very easy to just say, let's repeat the tough on crime, lock everyone up policies of the 80s and 90s.

But we can't do that. We know where that's sent. You hear that, A.R. Young? You can't do that. No, and that's part of, you know, you can actually tackle this. And we are we're reducing violent crime by doing things differently in a way that works, that doesn't lead us to incarcerate more people than China. And of course, the people that are incarcerated are mostly black and brown people, as we know. So we don't need to forget George Floyd in order

to tackle the crime wave. And all of that is determined at the local level. Look, the MyPillow guy, and he came after me, and there's one thing he said that I agree with him on. He had $100,000 a table fundraiser against me. And he said, as goes Harris County, so goes Texas. As goes Texas, so goes the nation. That's why he came here to Harris County to do that. He's not from here. But, you know, we are seeing over 10 million dollars being poured into this local race against me. And I want folks to know something else. Your local elected officials figure out the way the financial contributions work in Harris County and in most counties and cities around the nation. The local elected officials are allowed to take contributions from people who do business with the county or with the city. It's allowed.

It happens here. 80% of contributions are from contractors that the government then turns around and hands them a contract. I felt that was icky. I'm not one that has gone around and kissed the ring. I'm my own person, and I represent the community. And so I said, I'm not going to participate in that. I'm not taking any contributions from people who do business with the ring. I'm my own person and I represent the community. And so I said, I'm not going to participate in that. I'm not taking any contributions from people who do business with the county because it doesn't feel right. It might be allowed, but doesn't feel right.

I heard of a mayor in a city in Texas, Edinburgh. He said he's going to take my same pledge. I'm hoping as people pay more attention to these races, that we can also clean up the way that works, because I think ultimately it'll lead to better governance. But look, there we're hoping for the future. Right now, it's about this election. It's about democracy, about policies that work. It's about truth. It's about truth.

You know, it's too easy for people to go and exaggerate and make things up. And it just is not right. And it's incumbent on leaders to not allow that to happen. But leaders are going to go where the votes are at. And that's why the votes need to be with the truth, with tolerance, with participation. We cannot take this election for granted. Well, I just finished reading the New York Times piece that was this week where they were talking about Fort Bend County.

And folks there are not happy that it's becoming a Brown County. And the thing about that article that jumped out, they said, we wish we could build a wall between Harris County and Fort Bend County. Literally, they said that in the article. But what the article also said that I keep telling people, the article said that white voters are the minority in Texas. Latinos, African Americans and Asians are the majority, yet white voters make up 60% of all votes cast. And so what has to happen, African Americans, Latinos and Asians must be voting and maximizing their numbers. They must be voting at 70, 75, 80% to offset that because what I keep telling people, it doesn't matter if you have

numerically the numbers as the majority. If you're not voting as a majority, it's irrelevant. That's where the power comes from. That's right. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. And they're counting on us not participating. The draft bills on the voter suppression law in Texas, one of them was starting voting much later on Sundays to stop souls to the polls. Now, you know, the voting in Texas starts at 11 on Sundays, but you can't bring more than six people to the voting location without signing an attestation that might lead to criminal prosecution. And so it's harder, okay? But it was never going to be easy to change a state as large as this one. And yes, we need to make sure that we

all participate. All right, Judge Hidalgo, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Keep swinging. I'm registered in Dallas County. I'm still there, but my house is there. Oh, come on, but your home is here. I'm from here, but I still own the house there and it's paid off. And mom and daddy live in it. So, you know uh but it's all good but i do have i have enough relatives in houston trust me uh four or five hundred here so as we got lots of votes in my family here here in harris county good well thank you for having me i appreciate it vote vote vote all right thanks so much good luck thank you i appreciate it all right folks uh i'm gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk with Ron Reynolds. He, of course, leads the Blackhawkers here in Texas. He's also an alpha

man. He's a good man as well. We'll also talk with Communication Workers of America and others here from This Is It Cafe. Folks, if y'all are watching you from H-Town, come on by. Y'all can come take the show out, take a selfie. It'll be good to see you. We'll be back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Exercise your right to vote. If the lines are long or you're getting turned away, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. We've got to stand up. Republicans are banning abortion rights, tearing down democracy, blocking progress. But when Democrats stand together, we win. Because we voted, Democrats stood up for black lives, voting to ban police chokeholds, stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court, stood up for black lives, voting to ban police chokeholds, stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court, stood up for our families, lowering cost of healthcare and prescriptions and capping insulin,

and stood up for millions by slashing student debt. This November, let's stand up together and keep making progress. -♪ -♪ When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe,

we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. I am Letitia Hill-Gadet, owner of Adendorf Laboratories. In America, our freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest is a wonderful thing, but faith without works is dead. Will you take souls to the polls?

If you don't vote, all of your activities were done in vain. I am an ordained minister, a presiding elder in the AME Zion Church, a wife, a mother. I am spending my time and my resources to encourage you to vote. Paid for by Eidendorf Laboratories. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on?

It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, Roland Martin here, back at This Is It Cafe here in Houston, Texas. Glad to be here. Black women are playing a crucial role in this election, turning out in significant numbers. Joining us right now is Holly Holliday. She's the president of Sisters Lead, Sisters Vote. Here to talk about the power of black women voting.

Holly, glad to have you here. You all have been out there all around the country. What are you seeing? What are you hearing? Are you seeing Black women focused and motivated to turn out in this year's election? Absolutely. Not only are Black women focused and motivated to turn out in the election, they are getting other people to turn out in this election. In many places, especially across the South, we're seeing record levels of turnout. We're getting reports that black men and women are turning out above their vote percentage, which is excellent.

And we want to see more of it. We're not done yet. I like to say I'm looking at the early vote totals and not the polls, because that's really where we're seeing a big push. Now, there are some places where we're seeing a big push. Now, there are some places where we need to do a little bit better. So we need to encourage folks to be getting out to vote and doing all the things. But certainly right now, we're encouraged. In terms of obviously you've got some critical races, you've got Congresswoman Val Demings, who's running in Florida.

You've got Sherry Beasley in North Carolina. And again, so the opportunity to put an African-American woman in the United States Senate is certainly one of your priorities. Absolutely one of our priorities, but not just in the Senate. Listen, you may not know this, but we actually have black women running in 44 states across the country. We are seeing Black women on the ballot at every level of government, from U.S. Senate to precinct leader. And so the opportunity to better our representation and to get more voices speaking on our values and our issues is almost unlimited. So we have an opportunity to not just be quality voters, which we are, but to be leaders in our community. And obviously, early voting is ending in many places. And so

it's going to be a big push on Tuesday. What are y'all doing? Are y'all phone banking? What kind of things are happening between now and Election Day? Yep. Well, we know, for instance, in Georgia, early vote ended today, but in lots of places, we still have early vote opportunities over the weekend. So we are phone banking. We are strolling to the poll. We're taking souls to the polls. We are marching to the polls. In a few places, we're going to be at your homecoming activities. We are canvassing a lot of new mail. A couple of mail pieces will be dropping this weekend. We are phone banking. We are text banking. We are shouting from the streets.

We are standing on street corners. We've bought billboards. We've got digital ads. We've got all the things going because we want to make sure in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, that no stone is left unturned. All right, then. Holly Holliday, president of Sisters Lead, Sisters Vote. We certainly appreciate you joining us. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Folks joining us right now, he's Representative Ron Reynolds. He leads the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. Ron, how you doing? Hey, Fred, it's good to be back on your show. The last time I was on your show, we had fled from here in Houston to go to D.C.

as refugees for the quorum break. So it's good to be back here with you on the set, Fred. Of course, dealing with a wild bunch there in Austin. You heard me just talk with County Judge Hidalgo. And the reality is they are still angry that they've been losing. They changed the law in this state getting rid of straight ticket voting under the guise of, oh, no, we want everyone to think about every single one of those races. Knowing full well for the longest, they benefited from straight ticket voting. But when they started losing in Harris County and Dallas County, that's when those things begin to change.

In fact, Frat, it was the 19 black women that won right here in Harris County. The black girl magic. I came here. They said, hell no. And guess what? The lieutenant governor's son, Ryan Patrick, was one of the judges that got swept out in Harris County. And he said, oh, no, no, no, we're not going to have no more of that. So they instituted the end of straight ticket voting. And that's one of the things that, again, as I walk our audience through to understand the depths at which they are going in order to try to control these elections. It is not just Washington, D.C. It's not just on the state level. It is absolutely all the way down to the local level. That's what the strategy is.

Absolutely. And you referenced something. I have the piggyback on it with Judge Hidalgo. You referenced the article from the New York Times about the change in tide or demographics in Fort Bend. I'm the first African-American elected state representative since Reconstruction in Fort Bend County. Fort Bend County was one of the counties that had whites-only primaries until the 1950s. Roland, they had whites-only primaries. There are many in this state government, in this state under the MAGA movement that want to take us back. They want to take us back to those Jim Crow days, not with bubbles in a bar of soap,

not with poll taxes and literacy tests, but voter suppression, keeping black and brown folks from voting. Senate Bill 1 has done more damage since the Voting Rights Act was passed to limit people of color from voting. And it is doing exactly what they did. They wanted to suppress black and brown folks. Black and brown people make up the majority of this state. There are more black Texans than any other place in the country, more black folks in this state. And so they're afraid of those changing demographics. All of these black and brown and Asian folks voting Democrat. Hell no. We want to go back to those dark days of Jim Crow, voter suppression 2.0. One of the things that I keep seeing has to happen, and I just finally said enough is enough, and I've said

it on my show, and this is going to be so Democrats get prepared for the next two years. I have been telling my audience I don't want them sending any money, and I know your elected officials may not want to hear this. I said I don't want them sending any money to candidates or to parties. It should be going to third- party groups like Black Voters Matter that put the money on the ground to turn our people out. Because part of the problem here, because we had to be at the polling from Terrence Whitberry earlier this week from Hit Strategies, that a number of black surge voters from 2020 said once the election was over, they never heard from anybody.

And I said, we must have a 365 day strategy where we are keeping our people apprised of policies that are going on, touching them, informing them, and not trying to restart something when the election comes around. And unfortunately, if we're waiting on the Democratic National Committee, the DCCC, DSCC, and I've said it before, those are white strategists who are controlling those dollars and we're giving money to them and then begging for the money to come back to us. And I'm saying enough is enough. Let's send it to third party groups who are going to put that money in black communities. Fred, I'm not going to disagree with the principle of that. I think they're far too often many of these groups take us for granted, us being black folks.

I've talked to Bishop Dixon and Claude Cummins and others about making sure that we have an apparatus that works around the clock to engage the black community. We cannot be an afterthought. We cannot be, oh, elections are around, let's go back to the black community. We have to be at the forefront because we're the foundation, we're the bedrock of the Democratic Party, and we're sick and tired of being sick and tired of being taken for granted. So we do need more organizations like Black Voters Matter. And that's why I was happy to greet Cliff when he came here for the bus about two weeks ago in Houston. He's a great asset.

But it's not a either or. It's both and. I think we need to strengthen the Democratic Party. We need to make sure that more African-Americans are there in decision making. And that is why many of us, including Carole Robinson, the chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, demanded that the state party get an African-American. We were able to get a brother there, Jamar Brown. So we need more. But even when we have folks who are in those positions, they still don't necessarily have power. Well, we have to change that. My whole deal is, this is what it boils down to, who controls the money?

Yes. Okay? Yes. And so I've dealt with folks, DCCC, DSCC, DGA, all of them. And again, they got black folks there, but still who is controlling the money? Even in a lot of these campaigns. Even in these campaigns where you have black Senate candidates, it's been hard as hell pulling out dollars targeting black people. I'm just simply saying that what has to happen between now and once we get past Tuesday, and I know for a fact right now that there are a group of black men who are preparing to send a scathing letter to all of those Democratic constituencies,

making it clear that they better have a black male strategy as well and actually fund it. We talked about that. Bishop Dixon would tell you we had a group call for black men with Beto and faith-based leaders because far too often, and I love our sisters, but they're leading the pack. Black men have been

left out of that conversation. So we do need to do that. We need to do a full autopsy on what is right and what is wrong. And unfortunately, many of our brothers have been left out and we got to pull them up. We can't let them hang in the wings. We have to do that. So I agree. We need to do a full autopsy and we need tangible solutions going forward. I hope that we do great on November 8th, but I want us to do a full autopsy in terms of what did we go wrong? How can we improve? What can we do better? From all the way from Biden, all the way down at the local level, we need systemic change. We cannot continue to have disparities within our own party.

And that is why it takes conversations like this and demanding. We're not going to say, hey, can you get us? No, we're demanding. That's it. Representative Reynolds, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you. Noel, I want to start with you. That particular point we were just making about having an infrastructure of that that exists beyond the election. And look, I've been saying this for years, that the election is the end of one process and the beginning of another. Nola, you're on mute. My bad, y'all.

My bad. Nola, hit the doggone button. You're on mute. Lord have mercy. Go ahead. All right, all right. My bad. You knew all those folks need to learn how to use.

You knew all those folks need to learn how to use your computer. And I didn't want to interrupt your little conversation, okay? That's what happened. Why are you on Instagram in the middle of the show? You were busy.

I multitask. That's what black women do. Can I answer the question? No, make your comment, please. Thank you. You can answer the question later. Go ahead. Speaking of black women, the whole time I'm listening to y'all's conversation, I'm thinking about higher heights.

And I'm thinking about how they have engagement yearly around the clock. We are always thinking about, you know, women to advance, to run for office. It is always engagement, you know, from Sunday brunches to always talking about, you know, going out there and talking about the organization and also lifting up the voices of women who are running around the country. And so I completely agree. I love the infrastructure. I love the engagement. It doesn't feel like you're just knocking on my door because you need something. It actually feels like I'm a part of something,

and it feels like something that, you know, actually has weight to it. It's not just this thing where, you know, that family member calls you up because they see you on television. And that's how we've been, you know, traditionally have been treated in politics, because for the large, you know, for the larger part, you can count on our vote to vote in a particular direction. But at the end of the day, you know, people need some TLC. You know, you need a little massage. You need a little dinner. You know, don't just show up because you want something. And so I completely agree. I think infrastructure is important. Michael, when we're talking about these elections, again,

if you're having to restart the wheel every time there's an election cycle, it makes it more difficult. But if you are consistently engaging people, now they are involved in the process. Absolutely. And, you know, Roland, when I was on the Faraj Muhammad show a couple of weeks ago, the culture here on the Black Star Media Network, I talked about this, and I've said this before here on your show as well, we have to have an African-American political infrastructure that we control and finance, that educates our people politically, educates our people on politics, how politics works, educates them on the law, et cetera, so we can mobilize our people when it comes to election

time. But it's something that is continuous. It's not a start and stop. The other thing is, is that for this 2020 election cycle, these past two years, there was a story on MSNBC about this. The GOP has been financing in Latino communities. They've been financing these welcome centers, information centers. They're brick and mortar centers in various communities, and they do outreach to especially the Latino community, okay? They have movie nights. They educate them on politics and issues and things like this. And it's not that the Republicans' policies are better, but they're the ones who are making the outreach to various people in the Latino community. And sometimes they're the only ones making the outreach. Okay. And Democrats have

to do the same thing in the African-American community continuously and also the Latino community as well. So this is, voting is the end of one process and the beginning of a much longer process between those two years and four years. So this is extremely critical. Michael, I'm sorry. Sorry, Matt. The only thing I would add is that I wonder how you not only continue to build that infrastructure, but how you become more effective at communicating to people what the end result of these policies are and why it's so important to vote for particular candidates and particular ideas. I hear so often people say, you know, it doesn't matter. My vote doesn't matter. You know, we talk about that a lot on the show, but I think one of the things

that's missing, not only through a consistent push, is making information more digestible to people. And I think part of it is, look, people have to be motivated to find it. I get that. But I think one of the other problems is we're always kind of talking to ourselves. We're not talking to people who are not, you know, either politically inclined or who are going to follow politics and campaigns and various issues. So I think we have to be better of finding a way to make people understand that voting for that local bond package is what turns into your pothole getting filled on your street. Like once people understand that marriage of things, I think they're more inclined to be involved. And I think that has to be an integral part of that infrastructural push that you're talking about. Well, that's why you heard me say for the longest we need to have schoolhouse rock 2.0

or citizenship training classes uh to teach folks basic civics uh folks uh here this is the cafe joining me now is uh harris county commissioner uh former state senator uh rodney ellis i know y'all don't recognize him because every time he's on the show he's wearing his biking outfit uh with it with a helmet and. So you decided to get dressed up. He was on the Zoom with the vice president. So I guess you couldn't wear your biking outfit. I didn't wear my biking outfit because I was with the vice president. But you notice I don't have my coat on rolling because I ride my bike and I eat healthy because as an old black man, I want to get older.

Oh, I understand. I understand. But like I said, y'all, I ain't seen him dressed up in a long time. I'm dressed up now because, hey, they after the woman carrying the ball. They after my judge, you know, it's the Slim Martian, three, two, three Democrats, two Republicans. So we fighting like hell to hold on. Tell all your listeners, send some money to Lena Hidalgo's campaign. Did you hear that?

I'm not even asking for any money to my campaign. Send that money to her campaign. The point you're making there, explain to folk again, who get so much attention is always on D.C., the United State capitals. The difference between having a 3-2 Democratic majority on the Harris County Commissioner's Court as opposed to what has been the case for a long time in this county, Republicans were running it. It's a five-person governing board. These are the largest precincts. Four of us represent precincts. The judge is the chair, she's county-wide. Total budget? About four hundred million dollars that each commission... I'm talking about the total budget of the county. Total budget is about 2.5 billion dollars.

There you go. If you count everything we control, it's about five billion dollars. You count the hospital district, everything that we control, it's about $5 billion. You count the hospital district, everything that we control, the five of us control, it's about $5 billion. And again, the reason I wanted folks to understand that, because I'm always trying to say, if you ain't having a money conversation, you're not having an American conversation.

It is about the money. You know, 90% of what happens in any public office comes to the money. The rest of it's important, but a lot of that is poetry. Now, policies are important on how you implement the money. But look, this is a big county. This county, Harris County, only two counties larger. That's Cook County, Chicago, Los Angeles County. So this county is larger than 25 states in America. So think about it this way. More people live in Harris County than all my friends in Louisiana. More people live in Harris County than all our friends in New Mexico. More people in this county than in the entire state of Arkansas.

More people in this county than the entire state of Oklahoma. So that's big, and it's massive. And it had been run, the largest county in this state had been run for Republicans for a very long time. When Democrats ran it, they were pretty much Dixiecrats. It was so long ago. So when I came on this board, I was the only Democrat, only person of color six years ago. Two years later, because they had some great candidates running, no doubt about it. And also because Beto O'Rourke was running for the United States Senate and raised about $80 million. Spent a good portion of that in Harris County. Because in a lot of ways, as this county goes, the state goes.

So that's extremely important. Thank God Beto is running again. He's doing well in the polls. He's still working. As though you wouldn't think he's a couple of points behind. The only poll that matters is on Election Day. See, this is one of the things that I also explain to folks. Because I've had people say, okay, Beto lost for the United States Senate, ran for president, didn't do well.

Why is he running for governor? He's going to lose again. What folks don't understand is you don't rebuild something overnight. You don't rebuild infrastructure. There were a lot of people who thought after the 2008 Democratic primary that was hotly contested between Senator Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton that, oh, that you're going to see some advances here. Frankly, it didn't happen. And in many ways, what he has been able to do with those runs is somewhat similar to what Stacey Abrams in the New Georgia Voter Project did there. That is really beginning to connect the dots and all of a sudden begin to make advancements because there were a number of people on the local level.

Yes, he didn't win for U.S. Senate, but there were people who were down ballot who did win because of that turnout. We in Texas owe Beto O'Rourke a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he did. But let me tell you, first of all, Beto and Stacey are running to win now. Look, I've been putting my name on the back for 39 years. Hell, nobody goes through this just to help others. I mean, but, you know, look back. But the point is they're running to win. Oh, he put us in.

But the point I need people to understand is that, one, you have to run folk because when you run folk, because a lot of times Democrats just stop running people. You have to run people because part of running is also mobilizing and organizing. You can't be a national party if you don't have somebody at the top of the ballot. And maybe you can skip a few. You got me? But let me tell you, look, by the way, Stacey Abrams put Warnock in the United States Senate. If she had decided to run for the United States Senate last go-around instead of running for governor, she probably would have won that seat. So, Beto, you look back this way. You were in college then, I think, when Ann Richards ran. Who really thought Ann Richards was going to win?

If it was clear that Obama was going to run, hell, everybody would have been running. I mean, who really thought that an African-American would be president? Well, you've got to understand, my parents were on a campaign when Kathy Whitmer became the first female mayor of Houston. Yeah. So I remember that. Oh, yeah. And so when you're groundbreaking, when you are a first, most people don't see it coming. Let me tell you, Beto has a Robert Kennedy persona.

He's a unique human being. You know, so is Stacey Abrams. Most people could not galvanize that kind of support. And he's got a shot. Let me tell you the way he's working back in Houston today, going to Austin, coming back tomorrow. I mean, he's going to work until the very end, as was the case with Ann Richards. So you heard me talk about what needs to happen for African Americans, and I fundamentally believe this, that there has to be, the day the election is over, there's no stopping, because you have to maintain the mobilization in the organization. Because again, the polling data that was revealed in the survey from the Black Census Project is that many of those voters said, I didn't hear from anybody. The calls stopped.

The texting stopped. And they weren't aware of a lot of things that actually got passed. But then we're informed. We're like, oh, we'll agree with all of that. And so that, to me, I think has to happen because we're in this thing every day. We live and breathe it. But it's a bunch of folk who don't. And if we're not creating

an apparatus that's teaching, that's constantly putting information out, then we're going to have a bunch of people walking around who are saying, y'all Democrats ain't done nothing. You didn't accomplish nothing. You did nothing for black people. I'm wasting my vote. Well, Roland, I want to make this point. It's important for us as African Americans to start financing some of these campaigns.

Yeah, yeah. You got me? I've been doing this since being a kid. Since I was in high school, I've been working in campaigns. Had my name on the ballot since 1983. And let me tell you, it's difficult to both govern and keep coming up with the resources. I do a lot, more than most, out of my office to make sure I educate people on what's going on. And I try to use technology.

You've done that with your career. You try to use technology as best you can. But look, some of the burden is on us. I got a lot of people right now who are upset because they don't see us as much as they'd like to see us. People tell me, you told me my family are pretty nice people. I'd like to get to know them. You got me? It's tough to go do that.

Right. Some of that responsibility is on us. Yeah. And young people can use social media. You know, instead of tick-tocking about your latest song, why don't you tick-tock about some of these issues that matter? So don't just put it all on people who are in the elective office. We will never have the money. In Lena's race, can you imagine? I put the figure at least $12 million on independent money. Her opponent has raised more money

than all but one person running for governor in the last 90 days. Governor of a state with 30 million people. The county has 4.8 million people in it. So we will never have the resources to have on the other side. And with Citizens United, the unprecedented amount of money you can put in. So we deal with shoe leather, but we also rely on word of mouth. We rely on the media. In a lot of ways, a lot of folks in the black media don't crusade, my friend, the way you do. Sometimes you buy an ad and they'll kind of, you can hear crickets on some of these issues that matter. I see it all the time.

Well, I think part of that is because in King's book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community, he actually said there were four institutions that are prime positions to liberate black people. The Negro Church, the Negro Press, Negro Fraternities and sororities and negro professional organizations but specifically about the negro press what he says is he said the negro press needs to maintain its militancy yes he said uh as advocates on issues and one of the things that i am consistently saying to political campaigns uh is that uh what often happens, and trust me, I've gotten those phone calls. They want us to do things for free. You take Sinclair, conservative-leaning Sinclair.

Sinclair is going to pocket $340 million in political ads alone this year. That's just political ads alone this year. That's just political ads. And so their budgets for 2023 are already set based on their political ads in 2022. And so when we then, being black-owned media, don't get those ads, don't get those resources, but folks want me. I've gotten calls. They wanted me to come to Texas, Michigan, Florida, like five states. And I go, y'all, there's only eight days left. And we had been telling folks for six months, we're here.

And I keep saying, like one group called me, and they were like, well, what is it going to take? I said, you know, I don't want to talk about myself. I said, there's staff, we got equipment. It's expensive. You walk through this whole thing, I'm like, I said, you know, I said, I don't talk about myself. I said, there's staff. We got equipment. We got. It's expensive. You walk through this whole thing. I'm like, I said, you know, a broadcast is actual, a broadcast. We ain't holding the iPhone up. You know, and I had to walk.

I mean, these folks through. And they were sort of like, well, but you can't do it. I'm like, like. It's such a. And then I tell them, I said, I got 10 people in the control room back at the office. I get it. Roland, it's a big issue. But let me tell you, in the tradition of Ida Wells,

can you imagine how much money she could have made if she'd sold her soul? Of course. Remember her building? The reason there's no copy of her newspaper today is because the building got firebombed. Yeah, but look, it's sort of like sometimes I think about, you know, and you've watched my career over the years. I mean, the progressive issues that I fight for, do you imagine how much somebody would pay me to go argue the other side?

Of course. If I had hair and I just combed my hair up the wrong side of my head, I won't call names out, but you don't talk about the handkerchiefs. If I put that handkerchief on my head, do you imagine? Look, I said If I chose to be like Larry Elder, I'll have a hundred million in the bank. My point is, you are in

the tradition of Ida Wells. You got me? It's the tradition. You think of how many churches. I saw Bishop Dixon walk when I walked in earlier. Sometimes I walked, I was in my biking gear. Yes, my pastor now. I got to get saved, man. At my age, I show up in there and he was giving a sermon one day and he was going on and on. He said, you know, this church should be full if I was running an entertainment ministry.

You got me? But he's running a ministry based on issues that matter. Right. You know, hey, most Sundays, Martin Luther King's church was not full. I mean, you know, hey, now we know in history when he got real aggressive and started using kids because his boycott efforts were losing the middle class organized by stock. Yeah. And Bevel had argued with him for years to do it. Finally, when he did it, it made a difference. Right. You know, so look, my point I'm making is we will never have the money. In a lot of ways, the reaction to Biden and Harris winning was because people were fed up of Trump. Well, Trump, all those issues on the ballot again. Right. So right here in my county. Now there are three hundred and forty Trumps who are on the ballot.

Look, do you think after that, after the George Floyd deal, these people weren't mad and they were sitting back waiting? Why do you think even when crime stats are down in this city, in many cities around this country, they were plotting and scheming. They were angry. Well, that's why I had to. So we've got to hope your viewers, our followers, are thinking beyond it. Oh, yeah. And if not, you're're not gonna be just fine well that's why i had to do a rebuttal to ed young's uh sermon on mok uh how he praised mok but it really was a sermon where he

was taking a shot at black lives matter oh yeah and woke folk uh and so uh i had a few words for ed uh i might swing by his church if i if i was staying i might swing by on sunday hey the first the first lady would be going to some black churches. Swing, now let's swing by after the election, particularly if we win. Oh, I...

And put our hands up and say, Lord, forgive him. All right. But he knew what he was doing. If I roll up his church, I don't know, I might put my hands up or lay my hands on.

Well, you can't get bail around here now. That ain't a problem. I got enough bail money. It's all good. Roland, I appreciate your leadership. I appreciate it. Just get all our folks to vote.

Thanks for coming. Well, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Love you, brother. All right, thanks a bunch. Folks, got to go to break. We're here. This is the cafe here in Houston.

Last day of early voting, and polls close here in 47 minutes. And if you're in line, you can stay in line. You don't have to leave. So if you're in line, stay in line if you are in Texas voting early. All right, folks, we'll be back on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Know your rights before you vote.

If you have any questions or a problem voting, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Creating. Making moves that move us all forward.

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007 007 Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lele. And we're SWV. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Joelle Hudson has been missing from Gary, Indiana, since October 18th. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 10 inches4, 219-881-1214.

All right, folks, we're back here. This is a cafe here in Houston. And, of course, judicial races are important. I keep telling you all, we talk about down ballot all the time, not just the top of the ticket, but district attorney's attorneys races judicial races uh land commissioner railroad commission uh we can go on and on and on uh and there are hotly contested judicial races here uh in harris county uh republicans are angry uh because uh as you heard earlier uh back in 2018 when you get a significant number of black judges who won, Latino judges who won.

And so they have been partnering with law enforcement, with police unions running these prosecutors because they are against bail reform and all of that. They're against bail reform and all of that. So right now we want to talk to a couple of folks. Judge, is it Collier? Judge Collier, how you doing? Good, how are you? And then Judge LaShawn, how you doing? I'm doing good.

How are you? All right, then. So for a person sitting out there, for a person who's sitting out there, again, they go to vote and they see all these folks running for judge. And we talk about mass incarceration. And folks are always trying to say, what bill can we get passed here and here and here but really the two individuals that play the biggest role in dealing with mass incarceration is that da and the judge talk about that well there's another party too um there's the da the judge is there to call strikes and balls and to follow the law

the district attorney is the one bringing the charges and so when you're talking about mass incarceration the judge is doing sentencing based on what's presented the judge is not the person ultimately making the decision unless someone

asks the judge to do the sentencing. And at this level, state level, that's not what they're doing. So in a way, what you're saying is right. We're civil judges. I am a Harris County Civil Court at Law Judge LaShawn A. Williams. I'm on the ballot. And I'll let Ravia introduce herself. So I'm glad you asked the question because it's an important one,

and it's an important distinction because Judge Williams touched on something that's really important, and we want to emphasize to the community that when the face of the judiciary changed in 2018, there was something that was revolutionary that happened in the courthouse, and that applied to judicial discretion. And that's where it's so important that we elect judges that are from the community. So some of the things that we've worked on at the courthouse within the judiciary on the local level is including an implicit bias jury instruction. And so when Judge Williams is talking about a jury that ultimately decides certain things, the role of the judge is to make sure that the case is tried in accordance with

the law, to make sure that prejudice and bias don't come into the trial. And so this is revolutionary in Harris County because judges weren't doing this before 2018. We weren't talking about bias. We weren't instructing our juries that you can't let this come in. And although we are civil judges, this is something that we've done and we've made sure that the Harris County Judiciary is taking very seriously. And that's what I mean by that, because again, the average person, the voter out there, we're talking about the legal system. Yes, it's engraved in stone above the Supreme Court, equal justice under law, but we also know that's a fallacy.

And so when you are changing the people who are part of the legal apparatus, who are bringing to bear a different viewpoint as opposed to, let's just be honest, a white male, largely conservative viewpoint, then you tend to have different outcomes. Exactly. And one of the things Judge Collier is talking about when she talks about the implicit bias that we vet out during the jury selection part is we actually took the Chauvin instructions from the George Floyd trial. I know her court, my court, gives those instructions. They were excellent instructions. And again, that doesn't happen unless you have Keith Ellison, who is the attorney general, because a Hennepin County district attorney was going to have a different sort of prosecution focus.

And then he brings in a special prosecutor. And again, that doesn't happen unless he's the attorney general. And you have people of color, such as Judge Collier and myself, who have relatable life experiences. So when the parties are before us, we see differently. We think differently. We know what it means when you're standing in front of us and you give us a story about why you're in the situation that you're in. We understand because we have those relatable life experiences, and we do that every day in court. And so it's changed the face of the judiciary, and that's what's at stake right now, Roland,

because if you don't know, you will know you will be whitewashing the judicial system and taking us back to what it was before women and men of color took the bench, whitewashing all white males with, again, that same unrelatable disrespect, you're just a number, all of those things. And so you don't want that. That's what's at stake here when you talk about the judiciary. So as we were preparing, we were setting everything up, there was a radio commercial that was playing on one of the black radio stations.

And it was a Latino woman talking about some case. And all of a sudden, at the end, it says, vote against all Democratic judges. And so they're angry about cash bail. And they're assigning that all around the country as, oh, this is the reason why there's a crime surge all across this country. But those of us who are in Texas know, if you don't have that, Sandra Bland likely is still living. That's why she was stuck in jail over the weekend in Prairie View just 50 minutes from here because of this bail system. of all these problems tied to that is actually absolutely nonsense because these folks not want to take into account how this system is stacked against, frankly, poor people. Well, we're proud of the work our misdemeanor judges are doing.

And as you know, the bail reform, that case was all about what was happening in misdemeanor courts. And a federal judge found that what was happening with bail was unconstitutional. And it was our misdemeanor court judges that came in with us that settled that lawsuit and did the bail reform. And so you shouldn't be locked up on a trespass or some vandalism and you can't afford the bail. And so you're locked up unfairly until you can come with the money. Which also costs taxpayers far more money. I also want to make sure that we highlight the work that's being done by the judiciary, because I think that's significant when you talk about public safety.

So the judge's role is to make sure that our constitutional rights are upheld in the courtroom. We follow, we make sure that the law is being followed in the courtroom. And when COVID hit and all of the other counties in the state of Texas were shutting down their courthouses and shutting down jury trials, it was Harris County that was leading the state of Texas in the highest number of in-person jury trials. Because we understood the importance of those that are in jail, those that are victims that are waiting for their justice, right? We understood that the system needed to continue. And so we created an operation at NRG Stadium where we would pick out juries and we had over 600 jury trials during the peak of COVID. While everyone else in Texas was not doing the work that we were doing. And there were no jury trials.

Those people who were just sitting in jail waiting. Yes. And Harris County is very unique. And this is what you don't hear in mainstream media is that we were suffering from Harvey in the court system up until COVID hit. So when I was elected in 2018. So you had two tragedies gone. Two major.

So when I was elected in 2018, I actually gave the court that I preside over, the physical courtroom, to two felony judges. And every single civil district judge did the same thing. And so I did not try my first case until this year from beginning to end in the courtroom that I was elected in. And so what does that actually mean to your listeners? That means that judges in Harris County were literally going from courthouse to courthouse trying to find a place to try a case. And we still had hundreds of cases go to trial, even though we did not even have the facilities to go to trial.

And I want to add, and I love that, because the other thing people, they want to know, well, why aren't y'all saying this in the media? When people are attacking you and they're telling these lies, why aren't you coming out and you're speaking against it? And as you probably know, as judges, ethically, we can't talk about, first of all, pending cases. Secondly, we have to be very careful about cases that have even been adjudicated because we can't get in at that level right how i wish we could because because we would have a whole lot to say but guess who can the voters and the voters

know when they hear malarkey i'm gonna use that word they know when it's not true and it doesn't sit right well guess what they what? They can vote. Their vote is their voice. But they can also deal with it right then and there. The information is available. We just can't be the voice. The voter is the voice for us. And so we're asking for them to come out.

Put all that to shame, because it's all a lie. I can say that. Judges, especially the criminal court, they've started the Fresh Start program. That program gives listeners who know you've got a record, you can get that record sealed, get it expunged because those kinds of judgments affect your livelihood, your credit. My court and evictions, we are getting representations for all the tenants so that they don't get a judgment against them. You can't get housing if you have a judgment against you. And so we care. Every day we're looking at the people who come in our court, and we're trying to get at the day-to-day life level. How does this affect

your daily life? And so, you know, we want to ask the voters, don't be tricked. Don't be fooled. Stick with what you got. We're doing a good job. We're working hard every day. And you be our voice. Vote and show everybody exactly what you think. All right. Judge LaShawn, Judge Collier, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We thank you.

Matt Manning, I'm going to go back to you first. Look, you're an attorney. You understand what this means when you change the face of the judiciary. Again, how do we get folks to understand when they're going in to vote, why these things matter? Because it's so important for people to understand that it has a direct effect on their life. I mean, both of those honorable judges you had there are district court judges, from my understanding, in Harris County that do just civil cases. But in the state of Texas, the district court is the primary court for trials. So anybody who's charged with a felony is going to go to trial in a district court. And just like I did yesterday to get a client on a PR

bond, it's important that I was in front of a judge who not only was a former prosecutor, but who has tried cases and understands that poverty is really the biggest issue as it relates to the criminal justice system. And obviously, there's other issues, including mass incarceration. But you need judges who have been in the trenches. And ironically, I'm a treasurer for somebody running for judge right now. And that's what I've been saying for like nine months. Why would you want somebody who's never tried cases, who's never stood next to somebody to defend them, who has never prosecuted a case to sit on a bench. They don't have any idea what they're doing. And the decisions that they make are often political decisions. And judges are

not supposed to be political. In fact, in Texas, we're one of the few places where they still declare a party and you still have direct elections of judges. And I've been a big proponent for getting rid of that. The reason is judges shouldn't be political. They should be calling the strikes, just like Judge Williams said. And frankly, you need to make sure that whoever you put on the bench is truly qualified to be there. So having judges of color and having judges who have been in the trenches is crucially important because they are the ones who are really making the decisions as to whether somebody is sentenced for a longer period of time, a shorter period of time, gets a rehabilitative option that they might not otherwise have. And that comes from

the voters knowing who they're voting for and what that judge is standing for. So it's crucially important. And the last thing I'll say is, you know, the district attorney is really the one who has the most power in the county. So right now around the states, you're seeing a lot of fights between, you know, conservative interests and progressive prosecutors, where they're trying to get progressives out of office. But if you look at the numbers, fewer people are going to prison for long periods of time, and there are more rehabilitative options. And that's ultimately what we need. We're trying to incarcerate our way out of problems that need to be fixed by other issues.

And when you have district attorneys who understand that and who have actually represented people and stood next to them and understand the larger socioeconomic issues, you have better outcomes and shorter sentences and fewer people going to prison. That's why it's important to have the right people sitting on the bench. And that point right there, Nola, again, when you heard what those judges laid out in terms of how they have changed the system, that's the kind of stuff. I mean, you're not having those deep dives, frankly, in mainstream media. You don't have the same local reporters as you used to in newspapers. And so all of that is and they just see these judicial names, they're kind of like, OK, I don't know who these people are, but is having a direct impact on many of the folks who we know, love in our families, our friends and our churches every single day. Absolutely. And this is an issue that's actually near and dear to my heart. Anytime when I'm teaching a politics and law class, you know, one of the things that really

stand out to the students is the issue around judges and how, you know, students will always ask, well, if it's supposed to be impartial and the politics are not supposed to be part and parcel of legal decision-making, why are they declaring, you know, if they're a liberal judge or a conservative judge? And, you know, that's what one of the judges were speaking to. I think that it's a mistake to politicize the legal system, but here we are. And, you know, if we had a system where precedent or stare decisis was actually equitable, then there wouldn't have to be judges that are thinking about making decisions that are more policy-based than more precedent-based.

And the thing about it is, the truth is, the way that our legal system is set up in our country, and I'm speaking more on the federal level, thinking about Brown v. Board, if we didn't have, you know, a Thurgood Marshall arguing the way that he did to contextualize the problem for the judges and for them to kind of rule on the side of policy, you know, we wouldn't be in these spaces having these conversations that we're having today because of precedent. So I think it's very important to have different opinions on the bench. I think it's very important to have people on the bench that absolutely understand.

I think one of the judges used the term relatable, and I like that idea. I like that concept. But then we run into the same thing again. We run into, okay, are we taking relatability to the bench? Should that be part of a legal decision that if precedent was actually unbiased, should already have an answer for? So, you know, the long and short of it is the legal system in many ways needs to fix itself because you have to have people that are advocating for change. But the way to do that is to also kind of bring your political view to the bench, if that makes sense.

So there's a lot that needs to be undone and redone when we're thinking about the legal system. But one of the things that definitely needs to be taken out of it, the decision-making process, whether it be precedent, whether it be policy, is this idea of liberal and conservative judge. I think it has no place in the legal system whatsoever. Michael. You know, Roland, judges are extremely important. This is why the Heritage Foundation and the Fairless Society presented a list of nominees to the federal bench to Donald Trump. He ended up getting 226 federal judges confirmed, and those are lifetime appointments. When you have judges that you can vote on, that's extremely important as well, at the

local level also. And then you have one thing that is really important for our people to understand is that the judicial branch of the government interprets law from the legislative branch of the government. So at the local level, it could be city council. At the state level, it could be coming from the state legislature. And at the federal level, it can be the federal court, federal court of appeals, U.S. Supreme Court. They interpret law. So everybody talks about reparations. We have a reparations bill here in the city of Detroit that's going through the process. People want reparations.

Whatever reparations gets passed is going to be challenged in court. Do you want a fair judge to preside over that court case, or do you want a Trump judge to preside over that court case? So a lot of times people focus on getting a bill passed, but don't focus on being able to keep what they got when it gets challenged in court. And this is why having the right type of judge in office is extremely important. Yep. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. We'll talk more here with folks at This Is It Cafe as we, again, count down just under 30 minutes

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And so read the book. Everything you see happening in politics right now, you understand right there. Get it at available bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon. Of course, also order through your favorite black bookstore or download your copy on Audible. I'll be right back. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe,

we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Know your voting rights. If you are unsure where to vote or don't know if your polling location has changed, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine.

Together, we are Black beyond measure. We've got to stand up. Republicans are banning abortion rights, tearing down democracy, blocking progress. But when Democrats stand together, we win. Because we voted, Democrats stood up for black lives, voting to ban police chokeholds, stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court,

stood up for our families, lowering cost of health care and prescriptions and capping insulin, and stood up for millions by slashing student debt. This November, let's stand up together and keep making progress. and stood up for millions by slashing student debt. This November, let's stand up together and keep making progress. This is Judge Matthews.

What's going on everybody? It's your boy Mack Wiles and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to This Is It Cafe here in Houston. We are here partnering with the Communication Workers of America, encouraging folks to get out to vote, talking with local elected officials as well and community activists about how valuable and how critically important it is when you come to the issues and why we must be utilizing our power. Joining us right now is Bishop James Dixon, who has been involved in numerous efforts here in this city for a very long time. And, Bishop, one of the things that for years, for years, politicians, various groups have focused and locked in on the church community.

But the reality is this voter today is different. Older voters obviously turn out at a much higher rate than anyone else. Younger voters do not. And so we always know what typically happens. Folk bombard our churches in the last weekend before elections. And what black voters are saying now is that old playbook is not going to work. You're going to have to come to us in a much different way and not come to us late in the ballgame. Thank you for having me on, Roland. Thank you for being in H-Town, your hometown.

We appreciate that. But you're absolutely correct. It is a new day. And the young voter is more sophisticated, the more educated, and more evaluative. And so we've got to start doing education and engagement long before election. In fact, elected officials need to do this ongoing, like whole forums in the church, right, or in the community. When you first get elected, what's your plan to keep the community connected, engaged, and informed? Because today it's about connectivity. And if you come back without ever doing that, when it's election time, you're treated like you're just pimping us. And so we've got to stop that. That model doesn't work anymore. It used to be a time where, you know, a certain person

endorsed you, and you can go to the black church and all of a sudden it's a man and we go vote that day it's over because people now want to understand what exactly are your policies what are you doing that's going to actually make a difference and an impact economically primarily right how how is it going to benefit me and my family my community economically and in terms socially and educationally if you get a vote. And what I what I try to walk people through a lot is that, again, you can vote for a candidate. But one, if they don't win, then they can't do what they promise you do. But then if even if they do win, you then have to also understand that they can't do it themselves.

Commissioner Ellis talked about it. There are five members of the Harris County Court. You need three votes. If you've got a city council, if you've got nine votes, you need five votes. And even right now, I see these people on social media. They're constantly telling me, oh, look what happened. Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. Well, there are a number of bills that were passed in the House,

but because it's 50-50 in the United States Senate, they died. And then folk, they'll go, well, Democrats didn't do this. Well, no, they did in the House, but it dies in the Senate. And if you don't understand politics and how it works, you just run around mad and upset,

which is why you hear folks say elect Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Sherrod Be you hear folks say elect Mandela Bonds in Wisconsin, Sherrod Beasley in North Carolina, Val Demons in Florida, Fetterman in Pennsylvania. And then, of course, make sure Warnock goes back from Georgia, Kelly in Arizona, Hassan in New Hampshire, because all of a sudden, if it's now 53-47, 54-46, that changes the equation because you now have taken away a lot of the power that Sinema and Manchin had. But that's understanding how the game works, as opposed to just assuming, oh, that, oh, you got it, so you should be able to get whatever we say you want. It just doesn't work that way.

We need community education and civics and how government really works so that people will not be emotional. They'll be intellectual and understand the process. civics and how government really works so that people will not be emotional. They'll be intellectual and understand the process. To that point, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act has not passed in the Senate, passed in the House. Congresswoman Celia Jackson Lee just carried a bill for us on sex trafficking. And that's a huge issue in our community, right? $30-plus billion interest in the U.S., $150 billion interest worldwide, black and brown children the most victimized. She carried that bill.

It passed in the House. It now has to go to the Senate. It will protect every school in America from trafficking. But if it can't pass the Senate, it dies in the House. And then after this midterm elections, everything that was done before gets restarted. So it could have passed the House before, but guess what? It's got to go again. It has to go again. And so, again, and trust me, it drives me crazy when I listen to some of these people out here who yell tangibles, tangibles, tangibles.

But then you ask them, who's your state rep? No clue. And no clue. So it's like, what the hell are you talking about? I mean, you can't... I do it all the time. That's why somebody asked me and they said, man, you should run for office. I said, I can never run for office. I said, I probably would start with about

20,000 votes and end up with five because I would cuss out the other 15. Yeah, yeah. Seriously, I can't deal with somebody who comes to a politician saying, what you going to do about education? Then you say, you have any kids in school? Yeah. Are you involved in the PTA?

No. What the hell are you coming asking me for if you can't ensure we're the PTA meeting? If you can't do at your house what you're supposed to do at your house, don't come up here to the state house expecting us to fix that. You've got to teach your own kid, make sure your own kid learns, and show up at the school other than for a ball game. Now, we'll go to a football game, but those PTO meetings, PTA meetings, you don't have time for that.

But we've got to really reassess what is our obligation. You mentioned something, too, Roland, the need for us to understand coalition building. Right. If we don't support coalitions, we can't pass agendas. Right. There's got to be a policy agenda that's embraced by a coalition of elected officials. That's why it's a Boris Miles and a Rodney Ellis and a Lena Hidalgo and a Garcia and these judges, because you build coalitions around policy agendas. Then you can effect change in systems at the local, state, and federal levels. Well, that's why after the Hopwood decision here in Texas when Senator Rodney Ellis and others, they were trying to figure out, okay, how do we now deal with race and admissions,

and then they need to come up with a race-neutral way, then that's when it came to the top 10%. What they did was, how do they get it passed in the Texas legislature? They went to rural Texas and said, you know, y'all have the same problem we have. Your rural students can't get into the University of Texas and Texas A&M, just like black and Latino students. So they partnered with the rural folk. That's how it got passed. And so that's the whole point. You've got to

figure out, if I need to get something passed, who do I align with to actually get it done? I need to figure out what motivates you and what motivates me. We often talk about voting for a person. Voting for an individual is good. But if you're not voting for

the coalition, you're not voting for an coalition, you're not voting for an agenda. You're voting for a one-off hero, and no hero can change policy in love themselves. I don't care how charismatic they are. You've got to decide what coalition are we in alignment with. But you mentioned something else about the church, Roland, and I want to kind of get back to that. Because I believe one of the other differences we face today, the black church, in

many ways, have really we've lost our way, right? We were a battleship. Again, I go back to those four institutions MLK said. He said that a prime position to liberate black people.

He said the Negro church, the Negro press, Negro fraternities and sororities, and Negro professional and business organizations. Absolutely. And he said all four have never fully committed themselves to the true liberation of black people. Never have. Never have. And I want to say this. The black church, everything God has ever done for black people has been done through faith. That's just his history, right?

And when we think about the black church, the black church was our battleship. But the black church now has become our cruise ship. Ooh. Okay. And so what we have now is we got cruise ship captains. Now preach. You feel what I'm saying? We got cruise ship captains. Now preach. You feel what I'm saying? We got cruise ship captains rather than battleship captains.

And a cruise ship captain plans entertainment. He makes money. The owner of the boat gets paid. The people on the boat have a good time that they're willing to pay for. But nobody gets empowered battles and cruise ships steer away from voter suppression and protest and and advocacy right but battleships are built for war and so the battleship captain is looking where is the trouble like where the problem at the problem is in in the jails the battles problem at? The problem is in the jails. The battleship

goes there. The problem is in the schools. The battleship goes there. The problem is in the statehouse. The battleship goes there. We can't get cruise ships to show up. But it's easy to build a cruise ship when you got a cruise ship market. And so we got black folk now who will take their money to a cruise ship until they get in trouble. And then they'll call a battleship, can you come get my son out of trouble? And then they'll take that bus right back to the cruise ship and give the money. So when I look at your show, because I watch you, right, I'm saying I know, I feel your pain. You are a battleship in media, right?

You got a platform. You go to war every day for our community. Why can't you raise money? Because cruise ship minded Negroes and others won't advocate for a show like yours because they want to be entertained. Now, they'll watch entertainment all day and night. Right. But they won't watch you.

They're not raising their kids to watch you because they're raising some more cruise ship kids right behind. But as you said, except when they get in trouble. Except when they get in trouble. Because, oh, I got the e-mails. I got the e-mails. And blowing me up. Hey, I need to hire a lawyer or my son was wrongfully convicted.

Hey, roll on. Hey, roll on. I can hear right now. And then, but the politicians, too. I know I hear you. Trust me. When all of a sudden, hey, this is happening, this is happening, and then I turn around and I go, now, you do know the federal government is spending a billion dollars a year on advertising,

but black-owned media is getting 51 million. See? Where you at? Where you at? Where you at? And I'm like, and I said, guys, I said, those are real numbers. And the advertising industry, the advertising industry is going to spend $322 billion this year, and black-owned media gets 0.5% of the $322 billion.

And so that's why every time there's a cabinet secretary that comes on my show, when I did the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, he knew I was going to ask about the advertising contract. And when the commerce secretary come, I said, who controls your advertising contract? When HHS? I said, make sure y'all spend it. Look, one of the first things I did

when Biden was elected was meet with Susan Rice. I'm like, since you overracing equity, let's explain to you what the whole deal is. And so, and then I got to walk folk through, because again, their whole deal is, well, man, can you come here and here and here and cover this stuff? And I'm like, okay,

you don't fly for free. And so then I walked them through that, but then I got handkerchief-haired Negroes who then go, well, I don't know. How dare you take this Democratic money? You've been a shield political ads.

And I'm like, but Sinclair got three hundred forty million political ads. I heart cumulus. All the other media companies getting advertising money. Oh, but y'all saying black media can't. You're supposed to do it for free. I'm the goodness of your heart because your brother. And I'm saying that's because people don't understand that the battleship takes money to operate. Right, like right here.

Like some dude put on our chat, he goes, Roland always after the bag. Well, you need the bag to stay in business. Hold on, hold on. I mean, it's real simple. The Bible says money answers all things. The Bible says that. money answers all things. The Bible says that. Money answers all things.

It's amazing that we don't mind seeing others prosper in their craft. You shouldn't just have to survive to do this, right? You got children and all that, too. But here's my point. But also, we want to be in a situation where we have 100 staffers. So you can do more. Right. We want to be in a situation where we have 100 staffers. So you can do more. Right.

Because bottom line, imagine, imagine, and look, I already have the blueprint. Imagine, and I've walked people through this. Imagine if $10 million is coming in on an annual basis. Now all of a sudden we go from 15 people to 50 people. Now, all of a sudden, I have people who are actually located in five cities. So when something moves in Atlanta, Chicago, they're already there. We can live stream. We can do all of that. We have folks who are writing stories. Now, all of a sudden, then when these things are happening, we're not, oh, hey, hey, hey, MSNBC, could y'all please come cover us?

I'm like, no, we're not asking anyone now. Now we're building capacity. That's how it is. So when I walk folks through, because we had a whole segment called Where's Our Money? 95% I watch you. Oh, I know. I got you.

I can preach your sermon because I listen. But it's all connected when if you're unable to drive the revenue, you can't cover, you can't travel, you can't advance the stories. And then folks say, well, why is it we didn't know? Because you're watching CNN who gets a billion in profit. And they're not going to tell you. Fox News gets $1.8 billion in profit. MSNBC is doing $700 million in profit. And they're not going to tell you. Fox News gets 1.8 billion in profit. MSNBC is doing 700 million in profit, and you don't have a single black-owned media entity.

And even of the ones that are largest, Essence don't do what we do. No, no, no. Urban One don't do what we do. No. Black Enterprise don't do what we do. Blabber don't do what we do. There's no other black-owned media outlet No, no. Urban One don't do what we do. No. Black Enterprise don't do what we do. Black is covering stories.

And I'm going, but to your point, but we will cover entertainment. Listen, we will make sure Negroes know how to look good, smell good, sound good, feel good. But that's entertainment, that's not empowerment. And people need to understand the difference in that, right? And I was, here's my question, because I listened to your whole deal about the media and the budgets and did research after that.

Because I said, the point the man is making, people are still missing it. If we don't see to it that we leverage our collective spending power and voting power to make sure we've got independent black media. There you go. We'll never have an independent black message. No. All right. So everybody else has that message, right? Yeah. That's why that movement was able to garner what it garnered to stampede the Capitol. Yeah. Because they have messages every day. Oh, the conservative billionaires.

So you take Dennis Prager, PragerU. Yep. Their C Capitol, it's two conservative billionaires in Wiley, Texas. They gave them $7 million to start. To start. They raised $22 million their first year, $25 million their second year. The New York Times does this huge article on them saying by their second year, they hit a billion views. Now, mind you, okay, by year two, they hit a billion views.

They were funded $47 million in two years. Wow. Okay. Wow. So now you take the Daily Signal, the Daily Wire, the Daily Caller. You take Breitbart. You take Steve Bannon's operations, Alex Jones' operations. You can go all on.

So what you have is you have an entire media ecosystem. That's all that's alternative. But then conservatives took the same money and they bought, they took Salem Radio. So all of the Christian radio stations, they got that. Then they bought Sinclair. They got that. Then they're buying other station groups. So now, so then you take, so then, so Fox News is the Death Star.

They basically send the signal out and then drives everything else. So that's why now, if you are Republican and you're running in Wisconsin, you don't worry about mainstream because you hear every single one of those conservative radio talk shows, podcasts, and the digital operations, and that's what you're doing. On the liberal progressive side, they actually fund entertainment. They got animation and entertainment. When Air America Radio launched, I actually flew up to New York and interviewed with them. And they had comedy writers. And I was sitting in the interview

and I was like, why are we talking about comedy? I thought y'all launching this to compete against Rush Limbaugh. And their answer was, yeah, but we've got to make folks laugh. I'm like, no, you don't. I'm like, what are y'all doing? And I was sitting, and they

literally said, hey, well, the reason we didn't hire you, because we didn't think you could be funny. First of all, everybody that watches my show knows I'm funny, but I ain't trying to joke all doggone day. Roller, but that takes us back to our history, right? That all we need is a song and a dance and a joke. And they're still treating us like that. And we keep buying into it. That's why what you're saying right now is so necessary.

They have no, and again, and this is what I've said to just, again, to various groups to understand how, first of all, when you know how to do this. Yep. When you know how to do this here. So we'll do, we'll probably end up doing $2.75 million in revenue this year. We should have done $2 million in political advertising alone. Alone. We'll only do $187 million.

That's disgusting. That's disgraceful. We should have, on the low end, we should have did 500. Yeah, that's on the low. That's 25% of what we should have gotten. Yeah. We'll end up doing 187 total. But now people expect you to operate.

Right, right. Absolutely. Like you got the full deal. So now, so imagine now, imagine now, and again, and I purposely try to walk the audience through this. Yeah. So they can understand how you're now able to build this. So we've got this show, five other shows, three shows in development.

We signed a deal. So we'll be launching the 24-hour streaming channel. Now, what folk don't understand is I'm already worried about how they're about to get paid in 2023. You're making brick without straw. Like, people don't understand. I'm literally sitting here going, okay, all right, no, I'm not spending $200 on that because how much I'm going to need in April. I'm already there. I'm already there in terms of, okay, this pending recession, What's going to happen to advertisers? And so now all of a sudden, so imagine if all of a sudden it's, all right, you get a total allocation.

Let's say someone comes at $2 or $3 million or $5 million, and you've got a major sponsor. Now all of a sudden, you can breathe. Now you can now build out. Now all of a sudden, you're now saying, now I can play on a larger field. Now all of a sudden we can broadcast from more places. We can now market more. We can now build more. And now we can drive messaging.

What the right is doing is that they're using media to drive messaging. Absolutely. And so now all of a sudden... And on Christian TV. Go back to that. They're not the same thing. So again, to that. So, again, it's messaging. Rollo, please, I don't want you to miss this.

You talked about they started the show. Yes. Talk about Christian media on the conservative side driving the same messaging. Yes. That comes from Fox. Yes. And they're validating it with a Bible. Absolutely.

And so, and that's why, that's why when we started this, I purposely didn't do a subscription because a lot of people couldn't afford it. Yeah. And so I said, no, we're going to keep it open. And look, there are people that say, Roland, all I can give is a dollar. I'm like, your dollar is as important as that person who gave $5,000. But when I walk them through, and that's why, like, every month, I say, y'allall, we got to get 2,000 people who can get 50 bucks each. It's 100,000 for the month because the monthly expenses are 172. Wow.

Okay? Yeah. So I walk them through that to understand that. So what happens today? MSNBC doesn't, they end Tiffany Cross. Right. Okay? Yeah.

Her show's now gone. Gone. Okay? So again, but remember, it's their network. See, the only person who can cancel me is God. Yeah. Talk, Doc. That's it.

That's it. That's it. There's nobody but me, but God. Talk, man. So what people have to understand, and I try to get them through this, black people have not gotten to this point in our history if it wasn't for for a Chicago defender, Houston defender, Atlanta Daily World, Ebony Jet, on and on and on. But black people supported those institutions. So if we didn't have those independent black media sources still not covering our stories, not elevating our people.

MLK was in everything before people knew about him nationally. Then you don't have a black civil rights movement. At all. So the problem now is, the problem we have now is, we are hoping and begging that white media will do what? Covers us

and we are praying will they show up as opposed to saying, okay, if y'all don't show up fine, black media shows up to drive our messaging. Listen, I was talking to Dr. Amos Brown a couple weeks ago on the phone and I asked him a question. I said

Dr. Amos Brown passed the second Baptist in Oakland. I mean a real father in the movement. And Kamala Harris is pastor. NWCP board member. All that. Global. So I said, a real father in the movement. And Kamala Harris is pastor. NWCP board member. All that. Global.

So I said, Dr. Brown, how did you get started in the movement? He said, I was a kid when the Jet magazine was circulated, Emmett Till's picture on the cover. And it made me so angry. He's like 12 years old. I was so angry, I went around the corner to the NAACP office where Meg Evers was the president. And I said to him, I'm angry.

I was so mad. And Meg Evers said to me, don't just be mad, do something. But here's how that happened. Here's how that happened. Y'all go see the movie Teal. It's a scene in the movie. Mamie Teal walks, Mamie Mobley walks out of the funeral home. And she says, you, come with me.

Yes. It was a black photographer. Yes. The black photographer goes in and she says, shoot my baby. Take the picture. The photo runs on the cover of Jet, also on the cover of the Chicago Defender. Okay? What the movie doesn't also portray is that it was reporters from the Tri-State Defender

and the Chicago Defender who tracked down witnesses and secretly drove them into town to testify. Wow. Black newspapers did that. Black newspapers did that. That's who did that. Ah! Okay? So if you don't have black media...

You don't get... That... You don't get... That's why when I... So when I ran Chicago Defender, when they exhumed his body, I put his... I put his...

I got chills. I put his photo back on the cover so this generation could see that image. I got chills. Look, man. That's why... That's why it might happen. You gotta have... Black media. I got chills. Look, man. That's why. That's why it might happen. You got to have black media.

You got to have, no, no, no, no, black-owned media. No, no, you're not. Not black-targeted. No, no, when I say black media, I mean black-owned. Because see, what happens is black-targeted media has gotten more of the dollars. Then black-owned. But we ain't deciding that. We just work there. Well, that's because it's than black owned. But we ain't deciding that. We just work there.

Well, that's because it's not black media. No. If it's not black owned, it's not black media. Please hear that. If it's not black owned, it's not black media. If it's not black owned, it's not a black funeral home. Don't stop me. So I'm saying, so Amos Brown says that to make an effort. He said, what can I do?

There you go. And make ever said start the youth chapter for the state of Mississippi. So at 12 years old, Amos Brown starts the first statewide youth chapter for the NWCP because he sees in the tills picture on Jet cover. Look, this is amazing. So now when James Byrd was killed, Reverend Sharpton and I went to the funeral in Jasper, committed Don King. I was there covering it.

You were there. I was down in Jasper. But you know how many Negroes never showed up there, right? Right. And so we committed Don King to $100,000 for the family without asking him, right? And then called him afterwards. Flew to New York with the Byrd family, got that of me with Don King for $100,000, and Emmett Till's mother met us at the dinner and testified to the Byrd family the very story you just told.

And Don King said $100,000 is not enough. Here's $200,000. I'm trying to say what black folk can do when you own something. Right. We've got to understand the power of that and understand that you never start where the others already are. Our problem is we want you to already be right where the others already are. It doesn't work like that. You got to build something to have something. I will give you I'm going to give you this last one before we go to break. We didn't talk about Foley yet. I'm sorry. No, no, no. But actually, it's all tied.

It's all tied. Yeah, yeah. So we all have seen that image of Berdice on the lap of Coretta Scott King at the funeral. Monita Sleet, he becomes the first African-American to win a Pulitzer prize for photography because of that photo but here's people don't understand white media said no black people could be in the press pool no black people black people um larone bennett ebony simeon booker jet go to coretta sc King, and they say, Miss King, white media will not allow any black media in the press pool to cover N.O.K.'s funeral. Wow.

In a black church. In a black church? She said, let them know that if Ebony and Jett are not in the press pool, there will be no pool. That's how Monita Sleet was in the pool. That's how he could shoot the photo. That iconic photo

that went to Pulitzer Prize because Coretta Scott King said ain't gonna be no pool unless they're in. Which is why what I tell politicians, black folks who work in corporate America, if you don't make it clear that black-owned media is going to have a place at the table, don't do it. When Barbara Jordan had her funeral, they tried to move me. They said, White House press pool's sitting here.

I was like, well, I've been here since 7 a.m. They got to go around. And literally the Secret Service agent said, no, you got to move. I said, no, you might want to go talk to that brother right down there. I said, his name is D.Z. Cofield. Yeah. You go talk to him and then you let me know. Yeah. And they were like, they looked at me

and they then went around. And that's the piece. A lot of our folk don't have the back of black on media to let folks know. No, they stay. They stay. Y'all. Y'all might not.

You may not make it, but they're going to be in the room, which means that for those black folks who are in corporate America, who are also in these institutions, they're going to be able to say, we better make sure there's a line item in that budget for them and not just for them. And that's why we've got to only vote for people, whether they're black or brown or white, who are going to support our agenda of empowerment. That's what the coalition is all about.

Because there are some white people, I can tell you right now, point blank, there are some white people who work in major companies who have said, no, we are going to support Roland Martin Unfiltered. And there are some black people who have said, don't buy. Don't buy. Oh, I can do a roll call. That's plantation buy. Oh, I can do a roll call. That's plantation mentality. Oh, I can do a roll call. So give me a white conscious person over a clueless brother or sister any day. Well, what black folk got to understand is you're respected more by white America

when you stand for your community? When I joined the board of the Harris County Sports Convention Corporation, NRG, I started asking questions like, where's the black minority participation? Is there a policy? There was no policy. We're looking to it. Research came back. Within a year, full policy, 30 plus percent

participation. So you were not just there just to sit at the table and be happy? No, I'm there to be who I am. And to help improve their quality by adding black brilliance to their repertoire of procurement. There you go.

Which also builds black economics. Absolutely. Bishop, always good to see you, Doc. May y'all go vote. Don't forget, don't vote. Always good to see you, man. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Going to a quick break. We'll be back on Roller Martin Unfiltered with Black Start Network in a moment. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, you'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. Check some 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 RolandSMartin.com. Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Godfrey, the funniest dude on the planet. And you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered.

And... And... All right, folks, welcome back. Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Panel is there. I want them to give their final comments. This is, of course, last time y'all will chat with us before voting takes place on Tuesday. And so, Nola, make the case for somebody sitting out there right now who is undecided about going and vote.

What are you what you have to say to him? The vote is very simple. If you are undecided, think about if you want rights. Think about if you want freedom, if you want to wake up in a country where freedom is actually respected. Think about if you want to wake up in a country where women do not have to worry about what they look like or what they say. Think about if you want to wake up in a world that's moving forwards and not backwards. And it's really just as simple as that. There are people who want us to move backwards.

And that means if we're moving backwards, if women's rights are trampled upon, that means other rights are going to be trampled upon. Affirmative action is on a chopping block. That means perhaps interracial marriage is on a chopping block. That means perhaps integration is on a chopping block. And then we don't know how much further people are willing to go. So fight like your life is on the line. Fight like your children's lives are on the line. And fight like your grandchildren's lives are on the line, because it really is. All right. No, we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Matt.

Look, they work for us. We don't work for them. And what we have to remember is that when we go to the ballot box, we tell them whether we want to keep them in that job and or who we want to replace them with. So your vote is crucially important because if you don't go and vote, then you don't get to have a say on who's representing you. And beyond that, as we've talked before, the reason you go and vote, particularly in down ballot races, is because if you want that pothole field, if you want better books for your kids' school, if you want better options as it relates to government programs, you have to go and speak your voice at the ballot. So we need to get out of this idea that, you know, they just make decisions in some far off land and give us what they decide to give us.

It doesn't work that way. They work for us. We don't work for them. So in order for them to do the job that we need them to do, we have to tell them how we feel about the job that's being done. And we also have to tell them what we need. So make sure you know everything about local propositions, local bonds. A lot of those things that seem like Greek to us, a lot of times are the most important because they'll tell you how your city is going to fund the street budget or whatever issue you have for the next 10 years. So make sure you know what the issues are. Make sure you know who's running. Make sure you go vote. There are too many people who lost their lives for us to have the right to vote, for us to squander it. Rolling shirt is perfect. So make sure you do right by the ancestors and go exercise your vote that they fought, bled, and died for.

Thanks. Michael. Well, politics is the legal distribution of scarce wealth, power, and resources, and the writing of laws, statutes, ordinances, amendments, and treaties, the adoption, interpretation, and enforcement. You don't vote for exercise. You vote for power. And when we look at what's happened in this past administration, there have been numerous policies put in place, numerous bills passed to benefit African Americans, $5.8 billion for HBCUs in 2021, a record amount of funding for HBCUs. When we look at the $1.9

trillion American Rescue Plan that saved the economy, that helped African-Americans, whether it was stimulus checks, whether it's $46.5 billion when it came to rental assistance, whether it was funding to hire more teachers, whether it was also the $4 billion in debt forgiveness for African-American farmers, Latino farmers, et cetera. Now, white farmers sued to block that. That's going to be handled in the courts. But if it was not for people like Senator Raphael Warnock, who helped put that in the bill, you would not have that. You have the Inflation Reduction Act. You have the Emmett Till anti-lynching bill, the first anti-lynching bill in the history of this country. It took 122 years to get that. That happened under this administration. You have student loan forgiveness. Five hundred thousand African American families are going to be moved from a negative network to a positive network. It's

going to wipe out the remaining student loan debt for a little more than 25 percent of African Americans who hold student loans. So there's so much that's taken place, executive orders on policing, things of this nature. So do your research. Once again, this document, people said they couldn't see it before. The Biden-Harris administration advances equity and opportunity for Black Americans and communities across the country. Whitehouse.gov is last updated June 19th, 2022. It's 22 pages that walks you through step-by-step, shows you how that makes a direct connection between the policies from the Biden-Harris administration

and how they're helping the African-American community and compare them to Republicans because they have voted against most of these policies and are trying to take us back and block more policies being put in place that are beneficial to us. Yep. All right, then, Michael, I appreciate it. So, Nola, Michael and Matt, thanks a bunch. I appreciate you joining us on today's show. Don't vote. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

All right, folks, we're back here at this is a cafe in Houston. Joined now by State Senator Boris Miles in H-Town. All right, folks, we're back here at This Is It Cafe in Houston. I'm joined now by State Senator Boris Miles here in H-Town. How are you doing, Fred? What's going on, my brother? All good. All good. Good to see you. You know, I'm glad you finally told people the truth.

You've never been filtered, my brother. For 14 years I've been knowing you, you've never been filtered. I went to elementary school. That's right. Trust me, I got in much trouble at Clinton Park in Pleasantville. Yes, you did. As a matter of fact, I was talking to somebody, and they said, so I don't know if it was an interview.

I think Jemele asked me. She said, when did you start to gain your voice? I was like, out the womb. I said, trust me. I said, I've been checking folks for a long time. So I said, this ain't nothing new. Ain't nothing new. Look, Texas legislature, there are 31 state senators, two black.

Two blacks. And that's one of those things that I'm always. We have the smallest body of state senators in the country. Right. And it's a perfect example of how real estate plays a part of this. And what we're now seeing in this country, what happens in many of these red states, in these red counties, it's a whole bunch of people who are represented by land and not actual people.

That's correct. And so the politics is changing, if you will. And we see it even happening, yeah, in this state, in these counties. And you have all this acrimony against blue counties and blue cities. But I'm always trying to explain to people, yeah, but a lot of broke folk in them red areas, that gets checks. They're suffering, too. But, yeah, they're suffering, but they're getting checks as a result of the folk in those blue areas. That's correct. And hence the reason why $8 million has come into this county for our county judge's seat.

Okay? $8 million has come in from across the state and across the country to take out one little old Hispanic girl who just so happens to be a Democrat. And the things on the county commissioner's court has changed. You interviewed Commissioner Ellis here earlier. A lot of things have been put in place that they intend to reverse if we don't get out and vote. Right. Okay? This is the most important vote for black Texans in the history of Texas is this vote right now.

The state of Texas has more black folks than any other state in the country, Roland. And all we have to do is get out and vote. You know, you were talking about plantation media and marketing. We do the same thing right here, plantation politics. You know, we have people that come into our communities. They want our votes but don't want to spend their money with our black media. They don't want to turn on our African-American political machines. I'm so glad to see Claude Cummings and Trey here with CWU. I mean, I don't know what black Texas

would be. I don't know what black political Texas would be without Claude Cummings and Trey. Okay. It's just that doggone simple. They always come to our rescue. They're here right now. See, that's why when I'm, when I'm trying to, when I'm always calling people out, I'm trying to explain to folk, um, no, it it's not do you have a black face in the room. Who is control of the checkbook? Of the checkbook. And it's not about just having a black face in the room. But the Dixon can have been any black face in the room at Sports Authority.

But he's the wedge in the door that's going to hold the door open and allow other black folks to come on in. The proper black folks. It's the proper black folks that's going to ask the questions, the hard questions. And you know what? Like you said, sometimes we're not liked by our own people, by our own. It's just that plantation mentality. You know, I know I'm not the most liked African-American elected official in Houston,

but I'm one of the most effective. And when you're in trouble, you're going to run to me. Okay? And we're going to get it done together. Well, it's all interesting. When I was talking to Bishop, first of all, folks, Boris asked me, he said, man, how many phones you got? You got to understand, first of all, normally I have three iPads up here and two phones. And I'm working all of them.

And then folks don't think when they're making comments, I'm reading their comments. Right. You know? And I had someone's brother was like, why Roland talking about himself? Well, first of all, it's called an example. It's called

an example. It's called the Roland Martin Unfiltered Data Digital Show. And if I'm telling you about something that happened while I'm in the room, how else you going to get the story? But to your point, some folk. It's plantation mentality, man, and we've got to shake ourselves from it.

Okay, we've got to, like Bishop Dixon said, we've got to build stuff and own stuff so we can have stuff to say about. Okay, unless you own something, unless you can point to something and say, I've done that for the community, unless you can show some black folks that you've helped along the way, some young black kids that you've helped along the way, unless you can show this community that you've bettered in some kind of way, don't sit back and criticize us for those of us who are trying to make it better,

who are trying to make it better. Most of the time, we're our worst-owned critics. We're our worst critics. It's gotten to the point where we just have to be dull to it and keep it moving, keep the faith, keep the fight. Look, I have no, I have no, first of all, I appreciate haters because I actually walk higher because I actually step right on top of them. Keep it moving. See, some people like to say they step over them. No, I actually step on them, you know, because I ain't got no problem stepping on them.

Because, again, I'm not sweating all your whining and complaining. That's why when we talk about this election, when we talk about what has to happen, when I have these folks who yell, oh, you're trying to be a Democratic shield, I just walk them through. Show me your five issues. And I tell them, I say, just give me your five issues. Give me your five issues. In fact, there was a brother who came up to me last night. We were in Tarrant County.

He was working at the golf club. And when we started, there was another brother. He's like, man, you know that? He said, that's Roland Martin. Dude was like, man, I ain't never heard of him. And so, no, no, no, I was fine. But here's what happened. Here's what happened.

I mean, that's it. We started. He said he ain't never heard of me. Well, then we started doing the show, doing all the interviews. Well, he didn't go Googles. And when it was over, he said, hey, can I holler at you? I'm like, yeah. He said, man, look,

he said, I don't know nothing about this voting stuff. He said, he said, I was, this is what he said. I was raised to vote on Democratic plantation. I said, stop. I said said why are you using plantation language he's like i really can't tell you why i said so we i said okay i said i want you to use democrat i said what's the give me three things you care about and so he threw out three things i said okay this is how republicans voted on your issue how democrats voted on your issue, how Democrats voted on your issue.

And I said, now give me three more. And I just walked them through. He's in Texas. But democracy is at stake right now. This brother said, and I said, I asked you whether you're a Democrat. I said, what do you care about? I said, so on these six issues you care about, Republicans voted against all six. I said, now how how you going to vote?

Brothers, he said, man, he said, I sat here and I listened to your show. I ain't never heard of you. He said, but now I have a totally different understanding of why vote matters. That's what I'm saying, Brother Martin. This is the most important vote for black Texas that the history of Texas has ever seen. Democracy is literally at stake. Let me tell you something, man. In the statehouse that I serve in, in that Senate, there's only two African Americans.

The rules change as they want to. The Constitution is bended and twisted as they feel free. Everything is at stake right now, okay? And there's only two of us fighting that fight. We have our Hispanic brothers and sisters in the Senate. There's probably seven or eight of them. And together as a coalition, Bishop Disick, we still can't win none of the fights.

I've been serving for 17 years now, Brother Martin, 17 years. And I've served as a double minority throughout the entire 17 years in a Democratic Party that's never been in leadership and as an African-American. And I still try my hardest to bring bacon home to the community. And let me tell you something. I wouldn't be able to do it unless I owned and had something. OK, I was called a free Negro. And I tell people that all the time. I'm a free Negro. I finance my own campaigns. My campaign still owes me six hundred fifty thousand dollars. And I'm proud to say that.

Because I can tell them, kiss my ass. I will not allow you to do this to my people, okay? I just won't. I stay in the fight. I'm in the fight. Thank you, brother. I stay in the fight. I'm in the fight.

And it's biblical. Okay? And when people come to me, when people come and say, we need the black vote, we need the black vote, the black vote. Our political machines take gasoline. gasoline gasoline costs money food okay food and if not for people like claude

like we said earlier for claude cummings and cwa i don't know where we would be brother i just don't know but this vote tonight is just the polls just closed early. All they have left is Tuesday. We will be out on the streets making sure that everybody is reminded this is a critical vote. It's an important vote. You have to get out and vote. The last day is Tuesday because we have a lot of state as African-Americans in the state of Texas. Thank you for being here, brother. Appreciate it, my friend. Thanks a bunch.

All right. Thanks a bunch. Folks, our last guest is going to be, you heard, I ain't got to introduce Claude now. Bars handle all of that. We appreciate Claude and I running each other several different times. I was here in Houston a couple Sundays ago for a GOTV rally. We were talking about coming back, doing something here,

and he said, we're going to get you back, and we're here. So I appreciate it. Claude, let folks know your title was CWA. I'm glad you're here, first of all. And you know now that my mouth and my feet move in the same direction. That's great. So my name is Claude Cummings, Jr. I'm the vice president of the Communication Workers of America.

I represent about 50,000 union members in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. And I help fuel some of the battleships for the GLTV. It's the labor union. The labor union, we represent a number of different unions across the country, very amalgamated, AT&T employees, Verizon employees, state workers in the state of Texas. As a matter of fact, I'm probably elected because of the state workers. They're the largest local in CWA, as well as the airline industry, manufacturing industry, and other industries. And one of the things that, I mean, our first partner for this show was Aspen, Lee Saunders, my alpha brother.

And they were the first partner. If it wasn't for them, this show doesn't get launched. Right. And it was interesting that after the Janus decision, there were a lot of people who thought unions were DOA. But the reverse has happened. The reverse has happened. And that is more and more Americans now are saying, you know what? The hell with this right to work or just

taking everything. We now understand why you got to have collective bargaining. Exactly right. And one of the things that it helped unions do is start talking to their members again. There you go. We started working. We started working again and it has made a difference. But if I may, I want to address just two or three things

that you've talked about on today, especially when it comes to our get out the vote effort. As of today, there have been four point nine million Texans that are voting right now. We're eight point eight percent of that that vote. We need to be at 11 percent at least. I'm talking about African-American voters that we We need to be at 8.8% of the early voting. We need to be at at least 13 to 15% to win. If we're at 13 to 15%, we win. If we're at 18 to 20% of the total vote in the state, if we're 18 to 20% of the total vote in the entire state, we win every election, including Beto.

Now, think about that. Boris, Senator Miles, and some others, we have more African Americans living in Texas now than any state in this country. And if we can get them registered and get them out to vote, we flip this state. We flip this state, we change the country. Simple as that.

And so my efforts have been to work on GOTV and African-American community. Now, one of the things that happened after Citizens United, when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, it also did one other thing. It gave unions the ability to spend money outside of their membership base. And so since Citizens United, I have diverted a lot of the resources that I would normally give to candidates and put it into independent expenditures and on the ground. Simple as that. And that was what has made a difference in Texas and the counties that we have won. Now, remember, and your listeners need to know this, all of our large counties in Texas,

we won. We're blue in Houston. We're blue we won. We're blue in Houston. We're blue in Dallas. We're blue in Austin. We're blue in San Antonio. But what has killed us, and you mentioned this earlier, is that we have not been able to get the Democratic Party to have candidates in some of these smaller counties. We have 254 counties in Texas. And I have been begging and I have been pleading for years. Put people and races in these small counties. We have 254 counties in Texas. And I have been begging and I have been pleading for years

put people in races in these small counties. Are they going to win? No. But it will give us an uptick in the total amount of votes. The Republicans are running unopposed. No reason to turn out. No reason to go vote for

any of the candidates because they're not running anybody. And so I made a conscious decision to start putting my money into independent expenditure and to GOTV programs strictly for African-American communities, for media, for media, you know, as well as newspapers, as well as radio. And that's where I invest a lot of my money. And it has made a difference. The mayor of Houston would not be elected today if it not for the program that I helped design and put together to drive out the African-American vote, you know, in this city. And because of bar sentences, that's right, and others.

And a lot of people in here know that, that on election night uh sylvester was down you know by about 400 500 we predicted a thousand votes but because we put money into ford bend that portion that's that represented in houston i helped pay for that we uh we knocked on 450 dollars just strictly doors, just strictly African-American GOTV, nonpartisan NAACP. And because of that, the night of the election, he won by four hundred and fifty some odd vote. And so what's so what I'm saying to all of you, and I wish the Democratic Party could understand this. Instead of putting money into consultants, white consultants, why not put some money in the African American community? We have been there and have been the backbone of the Democratic Party for years.

And I personally am tired of our communities being taken for granted. The fact that they think we're just going to automatically vote for their candidates without putting any fuel into our GOTV programs in our communities. And so that's what I have been doing over the last several election cycles. And I believe that other unions are catching on to it now. And I think the more we do that. And are you meeting with them saying. We are meeting with them.

Let's show you the strategy. We are meeting with them. Teams have been investing in some of the programs. The plumbers have been investing in some of our programs, the plumbers have been investing in some of our programs, because they get it. Right? They get it. And so I think as we begin to continue to show how successful we've been with our GOTV efforts,

and listen, I still give the candidates, but I just don't give as much. Because we try to explain to them that signs don't vote, cards don't vote, but people vote. And so that's where the investment should be. And also, I think you want to win.

And you want to win. And if we can show you here's a track record to help you win, you might want to listen to us. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So that's what we have been doing, and we've been successful because of it. So the polls are closed now. So we've got Tuesday now. We need people of color. So the polls are closed now. So we've got Tuesday now. Right.

We need we need people of color. We need African-American voters and and Hispanics to get to the polls and vote. So if we get that up, get that number again. All right. Now we're at about eight point. We're at about eight point eight percent of the total vote for the state. We've had four point nine million that have voted, 8.8%. We need to be around 13 to 15% in order to win, in order to win. And that's the thing that I keep telling our folks all across this country. Right. We can, black people, if we take our numbers up to 65, 70, 75%, those who are eligible.

That's correct. Who are registered, we can actually lock down races eligible. That's correct. Who are registered. We can actually lock down races all across the country. We can do that. But the question is. Even in the South. Yeah, the question is, when is the Democratic Party going to understand that? When are they going to start putting money into our media and our consultants instead of all the time just having white consultants?

And that's how Hillary Clinton lost? There you go. Oh, absolutely. Without a doubt. And that's why, to me, that's why I've been telling people, shift the resources. That's why I've called them out by name on national

television and will keep doing so because we, look, we don't, we can't sit here and mess around. I know what the other side's trying to do. We know exactly where they're trying to go. And I'm not having any part of that.

So we got to keep swinging. We are. And we are. We're going to continue to swing. Claude, we appreciate it. Thank you. Glad to partner with you coming back to Texas. Right.

Look, we ain't got to wait, you know, again for election year. Let's keep doing this thing. And I say all the time to folks, all the times I was in a meeting with one company, and they said, so we would love to do something, so who should we call? I was like, I don't have no team. They're like, what do you mean? I said, no, I have a team. I said, I let them know what we're going to do.

I said, but I ain't no meeting when I leave here. I understand. I said, I'm the meeting. I got you. I got you. Let me say this for a while. I have to give kudos to Bishop Dixon, who is the president of the NAACP. I'm on the national board of the NAACP.

I'm his first vice president. He's done such a great job in a nonpartisan way driving out the vote. And I just have to say something about Senator Miles. When you're talking about a real fighter for us in the Texas Senate, this man here fights for us. There you go. He's a fighter. And his mouth and his feet move in the Texas Senate, this man here fights for us. There you go. He's a fighter. And his mouth and his feet move in the same direction. If he says he's going to fight to get something done,

he delivers the bacon. Right. So thank you so much. His mouth and his feet, but his feet does not move in the same direction when he's swag surfing. Does not move. Yeah, get out the vote. That's it.

Get out the vote. Simple as that. Folks, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you, man. Folks, that is it for us. Remember, Election Day is Tuesday, not just in Texas, all across the country. Y'all have heard me talk about why we have to vote, what is at stake.

I was going to address the issue with Tiffany Cross. I will do so on Monday's show. I'll be back in studio in Washington, D.C. Hey, Talladega, Alabama, I'm there tomorrow. Your president, my frat brother, Dr. Gregory Vincent, is being inaugurated tomorrow. I'm in seeing his inauguration gala. So I'm leaving here in the morning flying to Talladega, Alabama. So I'll see you guys tomorrow night and see you all Monday in the studio for Roller Martin Unfiltered.

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We always end the show with the folks who give to our show. And so we'll do so now. Folks, thanks a bunch. Glad to be back in Houston. We didn't get to be in Tarrant County last night. I'll see y'all on Monday. Ho! Thank you. this is an iHeart podcast