#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black S.C. Family Suing Belk Dept. Store, Kendrick Johnson Family's $1B suit, Museuming While Black

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

9.21.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black S.C. Family Suing Belk Dept. Store, Kendrick Johnson Family's $1B suit, Museuming While Black A South Carolina grandmother working as a custodian in a Belk department has a medical emergency and dies in a restroom.  Her body isn't found until four days later.  Now her family is suing.  The family attorney is here to give us the details of this bizarre case.  The family of Kendrick Johnson, the black Georiga teen found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat ten years ago, is suing the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the  Lowndes County Sheriff's Office for a billion dollars.  Kendrick's father and family spokesperson will explain why they filed the lawsuit.  The black Missouri father whom a white museum employee harassed will be here to tell us if he ever got that personal tour he requested. I'll have a highlight video from the 10th Annual Cedric the Entertainer Celebrity Golf Classic! Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Martin! We'll be right back. Hey folks, Roland Martin here. Today is Thursday, September 21st, 2023. Coming up, I'm Roland Martin on the filter.

Sitting live on the Black Star Network. A South Carolina grandmother has issues at Belk Department Store where she died in a bathroom. What happened? Why didn't you get the help that was needed? We will give you those details with the family attorney. Also on today's show, the family of Kendrick Johnson. They continue

their focus to get justice for Kendrick Johnson. We'll give you the latest on that story as well. In addition, folks, I have highlights of our visit at the Cincinnati Music Festival, but also, of course, at the Center for the Entertainer Celebrity Golf Tournament. Plus, this year's Progression of Black Caucus Foundation.

They're focused on a lot of their sessions on black wealth creation, economics. We're going to talk about how that needs to happen. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter on the Black Star Network, let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland, best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling With Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling, Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rolling Martel Martel Folks, imagine your mother, your grandmother goes to work in a department store where she works as a custodian and never comes home. Bessie Durham, 63 years old, is working in a belt department store in Columbia, South

Carolina. Folks, she apparently died in one of the only family restroom at the department store. Her body was not discovered for four days. Her family wants answers. Joining me now is Chris Hart, the attorney representing the Durham family. Chris, glad to have you here. Just three words. What the hell? I have no idea, Roland. I can't explain it. We've been working on this case for over a year now, and we still cannot wrap our minds around how in the world did this happen? How did this beautiful lady go to work, clean bathrooms for

Belk and never leave out? And Belk says nothing about it. They do nothing about it. They allow her body to lay on the floor in the bathroom for four days, decomposed and so badly decomposed that the family could not even give a proper funeral and a proper burial for their mother. And Belk has said absolutely nothing in response to this. I mean, the first thing is, first of all, how many custodians are at Belk? Upon talking to the family, the family has told us in the entire store, there's only two, two custodians to clean the whole entire store. And that department store is humongous. So you have two custodians who clean the whole store, and one doesn't show up.

Is there no supervisor who's going, why is Betsy not at work? Where's Betsessie? Call Bessie's home. What's going on here? And then by day two, nobody's heard from Bessie. Where is Bessie? Then if you're the other custodian and you're there to clean bathrooms,

how'd you miss the family restroom for four days? You asked the very same questions we've been asking for the past year, which we have not gotten answers to. So the way it works is Betsy, she used to work for Belts for eight years. Then Belts contracted out to a company called KBS. So to get access to the building,

you have to log in on your phone through an app. So she logged in that morning and she went into the restroom shortly after she logged in. And once she logged in, she never came out. So for that whole entire day, the restroom was not being cleaned. There were people working, belts working, even her co-employees were working. No one said anything. She didn't log out. Her employer never notified the family that she didn't log out. It was only after a day or two that the family contacted the employer,

which the contractor reported, to say, hey, where's Bessie? They gave no answers. That was just on day two. They still could not give any answers. So they didn't give any answers. So a couple of days later, the family were grappling

with this about what to do and just struggling with trying to face reality. So they filed a missing persons report. And when they filed that missing persons report, that's when law enforcement contacted Belk and said, hey, go review your cameras. Figure out when did Bessie Durham, when did she come into the store and monitor her actions? Where did she go? And the camera showed that she went into the bathroom shortly after 7 a.m. and she never came out of it. But really, here's what's most disturbing. Her cleaning cart sat in the hallway for four days. Four days her cleaning cart sat in the hallway for four days and Belks did nothing. I don't understand. I still cannot fathom or wrap my brain around how this lady's cleaning cart sat in the hallway for four days and they did nothing.

They did do one thing. They continued the cash register ring. So her cart sitting there, nobody notices this cart just sitting in the middle of the hallway. Two, the company that she, that contracted with, how in the hell they didn't call Belk to review the video? I hate to sound like that. You have asked all the questions we have asked, and that's why this family is in so much trauma.

That's why they're suffering so much emotionally and psychologically, because they don't understand how did this happen. Especially Betsy Durham, she was beloved by everybody. She was beloved by her coworkers. She was beloved by her family, by her friends. Everybody knew her. But to go back to what you mentioned earlier, here's what we believed and we learned that Belts did.

Belts called the contractor to ask, why isn't the bathrooms being cleaned? But nobody asked, well, where is Belts? Where is she? How is she doing? Why hasn't her cart moved for four days? It's just unimaginable. It's unconscionable how something like this happened.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. So they called and said, why aren't the bathrooms being cleaned? And nobody thought to say, where's the woman supposed to clean the bathrooms? Nobody said anything except for why the bathrooms aren't being cleaned. So as a result, they have a duty. If someone dies on your property, in your house, in your business, you have a duty to immediately call 911 and law enforcement. And you have a duty to properly store their body up until law enforcement gets there. Because if you don't, what happens is what happens to Bessie Doolittle.

Here's the most horrific part that happened, Roland. As the family went to Belk's and they were bringing their mother's body out of Belk's, they could smell her decomposing body. The coroner said to the family, you do not want to see your mother in this state. You do not want to see her in the advanced decomposition that she's in. She is so badly decomposed, you do not want to view her body.

And they were not allowed to view her body. Here's what's even further damaging and so horrific to this family role. While they're at the funeral, they're sitting on the front row, and they could smell their mother's decomposing body inside of the casket. Therefore, they were not allowed to have an open casket, a proper funeral, and a proper burial. It's two things you always remember about your loved one. You remember the day they're born, and you remember the day they die. And the day that Bessie Durham died, this is the memory that's etched in their minds forever.

What's next for y'all? What's the next action? We have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family to hold them accountable. And that's the next step to make sure that Belch is held accountable. And also, we will be suing the employer for the damage that they've done. Wow. That is just absolutely stunning to me.

And it is beyond sad as well. Chris Hart, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. All right. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, we'll be right back. Roland Martin unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

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

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

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

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

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of golf tournaments is that business gets done on the golf course. All on the Next Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. 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.

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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. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it,

but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media, and then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Me, Sherri Shebritt.

I'm Tammy Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, gentlemen, today's panel, Greg Card. I'm the Greg Card, Department of Advertising for American Studies at Howard University. I'm Lawn Victoria Burke, Black Press USA. I don't know, I think I have both of you here. This is absolutely a strange story, Lawn.

How in the hell is a black woman missing for four days and it's like, no one really cares. The company that she worked for and built needs to seriously be paying up for gross negligence in this case. Yeah, they need to be at least paying our funeral expenses or negligence and probably so many other things. And it's probably bad enough that she was probably only making minimum wage. But, you know, it's a commentary on something that former presidential candidate

Bernie Sanders would refer to either in his policy or really directly, which is that we have disregarded the middle class, the lower middle class, the people who make the economy run, poor people. They just do not matter to people. And the idea that somebody is missing for that amount of time and nobody even notices and nobody values that person. And even in this moment, you could show that you at least cared. I mean, paying for a funeral for For a company like Belk's, $10,000, $15,000 is really nothing. So even in death, there's disrespect, right? But it's not, it's more of a bigger commentary on the fact that our country is, you know,

45 million people who live below the poverty line, who work in jobs that people ignore, who do things that people ignore and disregard and have no value for. And this is really the ultimate example of that in real time. Well, I think that right there, you know, Greg, we talk about Black Lives Matter. And the company that she worked for, they were contracting out.

That's the one that stands out to me the most. Like, what in the hell are they doing? What in the hell are they, like, how do they not follow up, not check on the status of Bessie and what's going on? That to me is just unbelievable. Absolutely, Roland.

I mean, and of course, I join you and Lauren and all the rest of us here at extending deep sympathies to the family of Ms. Betsy Durham. I can't imagine what that must have been like, that funeral ritual. And I echo what Lauren said. This is a symptom of a much larger problem as we sit, as the United Auto Workers strike forms. And more people, in fact, I read the other day that the workers in Canada, a lot of workers in Canada are talking about joining that strike in solidarity

as we are now in another month of the writer's strike and actor's strike, SAG-AFTRA out there on the West Coast. What we see is, as Lauren said, of the writer's strike and actor's strike, SAG-AFTRA out there on the West Coast. What we see is, as Lauren said, this is a deliberate undermining of the working class and of the poor. They subcontracted. And KBS apparently is the subcontractor, the largest privately held provider of facility services in North America, which started life back in the late 60s as a company

that cleaned mall stores, department stores. But we heard it from the attorney, two people to clean that whole store. And apparently that location had decided to lock its bathrooms in the wake of a shooting in that mall. So now the bathrooms are locked. And what we're seeing is, and we see this all over the country, as we know. We see the outsourcing. We see the union busting. We see the disregard for labor.

And so, of course, there weren't enough people there to even check if the bathrooms were clean. The bathrooms were locked. This sister was locked in that bathroom, passed away and stayed in there. This is a symptom of a much deeper problem. And so, you know, hopefully they not only get paid for funeral expenses, they go after KBS and they go after Belk and make them pay through the nose. And, you know, if reports are accurate, the family and attorney has said that if and when

they do reach a monetary settlement or win their case, they're going to contribute to a scholarship fund. So, and I know you'll always be following up on this story. So I guess we'll see. Yeah, absolutely crazy. All right, folks, hold tight. In one second, we come back. We're going to talk about a couple of things.

One, a court decision comes down from the Mississippi Supreme Court over the creation of these temporary circuit judges there in Jackson. That literally just came down in the last hour. We'll tell you about that breaking news. Also, we'll talk about the Directional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC, happening right now in the nation's capital. A lot of the traffic that you're seeing right now is because of that. And the focus in a lot of these sessions is on building a black wealth. How do we do that? I say start with all of those companies who are sponsoring the CBCF.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, if you want to support us, be sure to send your check and money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash tap is Donaldson, RM Unfiltered, PayPal

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of course, download the Black Sun Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV,

Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and of course, be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available bookstores nationwide. You can also

download the audio version on Audible. We'll be right back. All change is not growth. But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot. Well, and I'm a black woman in business.

Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business. Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change.

Respectful of pivot. Yeah. Fearful? No. Uh-uh. No. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. What do Deion Sanders, a lawnmower, and the phenomenon of invisible labor all have in common? They're all now part of, shall we say, a colorful lore at our historically black colleges and universities. Our Master Educator Roundtable convenes to

explain it all as we explore the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of one of the black America's national treasures. That's next on The Black Table, right here on The Black Star Network. I'm Faraiji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation.

You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys.

America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

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

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I'm sorry. Thank you. The Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă! Welcome back to Roman Martin Unfiltered. Some breaking news out of Mississippi.

Go to my iPad, please. The Mississippi Supreme Court votes eight to nothing that appointing four unelected Jackson judges is unconstitutional. Ashton Pittman has this story here where this was a particular bill with the Mississippi legislature. They were trying to create four unelected special circuit court judges

in Hines County. That's where Jackson is. They say you cannot create these special court judges, these temporary special court judges, when the judges are supposed to be elected. This is what they said, that

Section 1's creation of four new appointed temporary special circuit judges in the Seventh Circuit Court District for a specified almost four-year term violates our Constitution's requirement that circuit judges be elected for a four-year term. Now, while it says that while Section 1 calls these new judges special circuit judges on paper, we see nothing special or unique about them, certainly nothing expressly tethering them to a specific judicial need or exigency. They were a verse of lower court ruling.

Rather, Section 1's text merely creates four unelected circuit court judgeships appointed into Hines County to serve three and a half years instead of four. This was written by Justice James Maxwell. As you see here, if House Bill 1020 had been fully upheld, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph, who was white and recused himself from the case, would have appointed four unelected circuit court judges in Hines County, which is more than 70% black.

Opponents said doing so would have diminished the majority black population's ability to select their own judges. I don't know how many different ways. Now, granted, we're talking about Mississippi Supreme Court here, Greg, 8-0 decision. But I don't know how many more different ways I can explain to the people watching and listening why we cannot ignore the power of judges when it comes to. So we people spend lots of time talking about let's elect the right people. But the legislature can make their own decisions. People who we elect judges will determine whether they're constitutional or not. Folk need to realize judges matter. Judges will determine whether they're constitutional or not. Folk need to realize judges matter. Judges matter.

In fact, the guys that just wrote the book, How Democracies Die, have just published a new book, The Tyranny of Minority. And they say the United States, the federal judiciary, is the only democracy in the world where judges are appointed to lifetime terms. Every other place in the country, with the exception of Rhode Island, has term limits and has or mandatory retirement age. Mississippi is no different. So these appointed, these unelected judges would serve terms of three and a half years. But what the court did today is really not controversial. The plain language, as the court said, of the statute is that you have to be elected to serve on the Hines County Circuit Court. So these judges cannot serve alongside the elected circuit court judges. Now, the question is that if you are convicted in this new court, which they said was constitutional by the state constitution, who do you appeal to? Who is this made-up

white nationalist court, this improvement district court, who do they report to? And that is what is still being litigated, including the constitutionality of the case. Our brother Derrick Johnson, of course, an NAACP, is suing there in Mississippi, and the federal government has asked to intervene on the question of whether or not even establishing this is an act of racial discrimination, whether expanding the jurisdiction of this white nationalist carve-out in the middle of Jackson, Mississippi, is constitutional. And that's still being litigated.

But, of course, as you say, Roland, without us being fully engaged in the political process, this is what happens. They're playing all their cards now. They've pulled out all pretense. And they're just things to say. And people act as if, yeah, that judge thing, that's really no big deal and i keep saying listen whether we're talking about uh uh local judges where we're talking about these estate district judges these supreme court judges in the state on the federal bench the supreme court as well these are the people who are determining what laws are constitutional or not and we are seeing how the right has weaponized the court.

They spent so much time saying, oh, judicial activism, legislating from the bench, and that's literally what they are doing. Ellie Mistel has a piece out talking about how zany the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is and how they're nothing but a cesspool of Trump sycophants, and they are making decisions that will be appealed to the Supreme Court, and these people were appointed. And so I just sit here, and again, I go back to the people in 2016 who were like, yeah, I ain't down with Hillary Clinton. Oh, Trump ain't as bad as Hillary Clinton.

Look at the judges who he appointed. Hello? It's a wake-up call. No, absolutely. I mean, the danger is that, unfortunately, the other political party is driving apathy in this country with as many voters as they can. And being apathetic has caused the electorate to believe that their vote doesn't mean as much

as everybody says that it means. And we have it marketed to us, of course, by the Democratic Party, the black people, on overdrive, because without us, they can't win in a lot of these states, and, generally speaking, can't win nationally without enthusiastic black support as it pertains to the Electoral College. Of course, historically speaking, black voters have a lot of reasons to be apathetic and be suspicious about the entire enterprise.

And that is why it is very important that our black elected officials in particular articulate exactly why it's important to vote and what is changing in our lives when we do vote. And unfortunately, the party that most black voters are affiliated with and supporting, Democratic Party, happens to have an insanely bad long-term messaging problem. And so on top of everything else we're told to do as black voters in terms of voting for members of Congress and state reps and all of that, we have the judicial system in this country. So when you're dealing with four centuries of betrayal and your group is being subjugated to all sorts of injustice, it is extremely difficult to explain to that group of people why voting matters time after time, year after year, cycle after cycle. Even though we know structurally and, of course, we know that it's true that voting matters, we do have to see it

matter in real time in our life, and I think that's one of the disconnects. That's one of the biggest problems that we have. That's what drives apathy. And now, of course, we have a huge, serious problem with misinformation and disinformation out and out lying in the ecosystem of our politics, and that is extremely destructive.

Well, we are seeing it. The Supreme Court's decision when it came to Roe v. Wade, abortion rights, we're seeing it. The Supreme Court's decision when it came to Roe v. Wade, abortion rights, we're seeing it. The Supreme Court decision when it came to the abortion appeal, we were seeing it when it comes to the Supreme Court decision dealing with affirmative action in colleges and admissions, which the right is now using to say, oh, this now applies to every single program in corporate America, in other schools, in academia. They're going after law firms. They're going after everybody. This is what they're doing. And so that one ruling, they think,

has empowered them to target everything. They're going after black venture capital funds. You name it. They are going after everything. And I need people to understand, if we are sitting here walking around like some zombies, asleep at the wheel, need to understand that what they have in store

if they win the White House and the U.S. Senate pales in comparison to the evil that they have put in place over the last several years. It is going to be right-wing politics on steroids. And we're seeing they clearly don't

give a damn about black voters where potentially they could side with Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana in the creation of these black districts that clearly violate the Voting Rights Act and the right they want to completely get rid of the Voting Rights Act. Clarence Collins has said so himself, Greg. Absolutely. And as we saw yesterday, billionaire Ed Bloom strikes again. SFFA is now suing West Point. They didn't go after West Point in the North Carolina and Harvard cases, but the idea somehow that you will now say that West Point should not use affirmative action. Of course, if they win, that means all the service academies.

As you say, Roland, if they get back in office, if they get the presidency back in both sides of the federal legislature, and as Lauren just said, in this book, The Tyranny of the Minority, they also say that the Electoral College is the only system like that left among the democracies in the world, and also a dual bicameral legislature where the upper chamber is wildly unrepresentative, is the only one left. The United States of America is now set up to come apart. Imagine if they tell West Point, OK, we're going to make it easier for you to have virtually all-white officers coming out of West Point with a plurality, non-white people in the field in terms of troops.

This is going to be a problem. But I think their overreach at this point, and this case certainly shows it, shows that these are not—they're not ideologues politically. These are white nationalists. A city that's 70 percent black, and you're creating a white nationalist police force. You already have it in the Capitol Police. And then a court to try the people that the white nationalists round up in the area of the Capitol. It's the same thing you see here in Washington, D.C., with the Capitol Police. Up until 1-6, you know, when everybody's a hero and the brothers and sisters are trying to stop and

they got to help get help from the District of Columbia, but anybody living in the D.C. area know that the Capitol Police are infamous. And what they are doing, they have a playbook. This is coordinated and you're absolutely right, Roland. They get control of all three branches. They've already got the judiciary. If they get the legislature and the presidency back in 2024, as you

say, we need to buckle up because this is happening. This is going to move to another level. Indeed, indeed. Folks, hold tight one second. We come back. The family of Kendrick Johnson now suing the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. We'll explain next right here on

Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes, the amazing amazing drew dixon she gives us the details behind the hbo documentary that shed light i know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time have you ever had to shoot your gun sometimes the answer is yes but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback.

Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. On the alleged sexual assault by Russell Simmons. And we're talking about the Netflix documentary, Ladies First, right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Kopp. Democracy in the United States is under siege. On this list of bad actors, it's easy to point out the Donald Trumps, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, or even the United States Supreme Court as the primary villains. But as David Pepper, author, scholar, and former politician himself says, there's another factor that trumps them all and resides much closer to many of our homes. His book is Laboratories of Autocracy, a wake-up call

from behind the lines. So these state houses get hijacked by the far right, then they gerrymander, they suppress the opposition, and that allows them to legislate in a way that doesn't reflect the people of that state. David Pepper joins us on the next Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. All change is not growth. Right. But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the kid.

Well, and I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business. Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change, respectful of pivot, yeah.

Fearful, no, uh-uh, no. Right? 007 007 It's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. This is your boy, Irv Quaid. And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Folks, it has been 10 years since the body of Kendrick Johnson, then 17, was found inside of a mat at a Georgia high school gymnasium. No one has been charged with his death. Many believe there was a cover-up.

Lowndes County Sheriff's investigators concluded that Johnson died in a freak accident, stuck upside down and unable to breathe while trying to retrieve a shoe that fell inside the upright mat. The parents of Kendrick Johnson have filed a lawsuit against the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office about what they claim is, quote, false information connected to the investigation into his death. This has been a story that has gotten a lot of attention over the years. And we, of course, focus on this thing as well. And it's just, again, one of those stories that it still sort of boggles the mind.

Jonathan Burrs is the Johnson family spokesman. Glad to have you on the show, Jonathan. So this has been an ongoing saga. And so exactly when they say false information, what do they mean? What does the family mean? Well, what they mean is the information that the Sheriff's Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been presenting to the public is inconsistent with the material facts and the material evidences, all of the facts contradict what they are presenting to the public and this is evidence that they collected and or staged. Their own evidence contradicts their testimonies, and the synopsis from the sheriff's most recent investigation. And so what do they want the outcome to be?

Because with this lawsuit, it still does not get them closer to finding out who actually killed him if there was foul play involved. Well, the evidence certainly supports that there was foul play involved? Well, the evidence certainly supports that there was foul play. And because of the way the case has been handled in the past, at this point, this is what they're left with attacking the injustice that continues to interfere with their civil rights and adversely affects them every day. It is. It's still sort of I guess I guess for me, I still never understood how if a shoe was in a mat and it was at the bottom of the mat, why would somebody climb into the mat to get the shoe when literally you could just move the mat and the shoe's right there? Yeah. So, if you look at what the other

kids have been saying, kids stored their shoes over on top of these mats, whatever. They apparently had a process that they would go through to retrieve

these shoes without incident. Only this time does this process seem to not work. That is if you believe what the official statements have been. Of course, the material evidence paints a totally different picture. Again, it's just one of those stories that still just, I shake my head trying to understand exactly how they

arrived at all of this. Lawsuit has been filed. Hopefully, this family will get some answers. And, well, we just hope so. Jonathan, we appreciate it. Thanks so very much. Thank you. Folks, going to go to a break.

When we come back, remember the story of the black man trying to walk around the museum with his family? Well, he joins us to tell us exactly what took place there. Also, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference is taking place, the 52nd annual right now, at the Convention Center here in D.C. I've been over there for the past couple of days. A lot of the focus is on black wealth creation.

We're going to discuss that, and I fundamentally believe that if there's a starting point to that with corporate America, how about you start with those companies that are supporting the CBCFALC? I will unpack it for you right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do.

Send your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App, the dollar, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Of course, be sure to download the Black Shark Network app.

Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. You can also download the audio version on Audible. We'll be right back. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. We days at three only on the Black Star Network. We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. 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

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unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Folks, we told you a couple days ago about this story out of Kansas City. Black bands in the museum walking with his two children, showing them around, wanting them to learn about culture. Then all of a sudden, some white guy is literally walking behind them,

following them. Roll the video, y'all. They're just trying to enjoy themselves. Again, all of a sudden, they keep looking over their shoulder and like, why is this dude following us? What the hell is going on? Then finally, the father confronts him.

This took place at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. And Jay Colbert, of course, was with his two kids and was a little perturbed about what took place and told the dude, like, man, look, either give me a tour or stop following us.

Jay Colbert joins us right now on Rolling Mountain Unfiltered. Jay. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th.

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We'll be right back. save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at this is pre-retirement.org brought to you by AARP and the ad council. How long did it take you to figure out why is this dude behind us? Tell the truth. Be honest. I'll glory to God.

Thank you for having me on here, my man. Thank you. Let me say that first and foremost. All glory to God. But tell the truth and be honest with you. Soon as he first approached me, he was already had been like went to two different rooms with us. So I was already seeing and following him. But really, I thought at first it was just because of the way I look.

I get this a lot. People think I'm ignorant because I am of the culture. So I look of the culture. So they think I'm ignorant. So I'm thinking, oh, he's seeing me with these kids. He's thinking I'm a black man with kids, don't know what he's doing. Little did he know, you know, I do this for real. I take my kids to the museum all the time.

This is nothing new. This is what I do this for real. I take my kids to the museum all the time. This is nothing new. This is what I do. So when he first approached me and even said the things energetic to me, when he said, make sure the kids don't get energetic around the pictures, I already knew he was trying me right then and there. When he said, don't make sure the kids don't get energetic, I knew right then and that moment he was trying me. So then from there, he went two different rooms with me. I thought it fair for a minute. I gave him the benefit of the doubt maybe he's telling me stop

recording you know because i record and i do this vlogging of me and my kids uh throughout all my social media so i'm like maybe that's what he's doing but when i seen him peeking around that pillar like that i just had to address it because my kids were even looking because if you hear me in the one part when i stumble over my words and say wound and womb instead of tomb is when i seen him in the corner of my eyes and in that moment i had to slow down and get myself together because at first i wanted to react in the way they wanted me to react they wanted me to react as if you know what they wanted to paint the picture of an ignorant man you know what know what I'm saying, an ignorant black man, but I'm far from that. So I had to slow down and get myself together,

and then from there, that's when I addressed the situation. And when I called him a little girl, again, I'm an author. I have published six books. I'm a publisher. I own my own publishing company. I'm using descriptive terms. You're sitting here rolling your eyes,

having a conversation with me, acting as a child, as a female child. It wasn't, you know, to tear that man down in whatever his orientation is. I could care less. I could care about the way you present yourself at me. You're following me and my two young children that are five and six. And you're doing it maliciously because you already approached me so once you approach me it was over with I said okay no problem I didn't give you no fall back in even though you thought that by saying the word energetic I

didn't know what that means you basically try to say you want to make sure your badass kids ain't do jumping around or something then what he wanted to you know and that's the thing that I mean for black folks that we just could make sure your badass kids ain't do jumping around or something. That's what he wanted to say. You know, and that's the thing that, I mean, for black folks, that we just get sick and tired of. I mean, just trying to mind our own business, doing what's right, and folk just continue to show it. And as you point out in your video, that family over there got kids for all they ask.

Yeah, and then, okay, I'm going to just give you a little bit, Tim, more information here in Missouri. Think about this. Right now here in Missouri, they just passed a bill to be able to ban what books come in and out of Missouri prisons. They have to come off of a approved reading list. So for anybody to think that this ain't a malicious act and trying to deter us from getting information, you really need to open up your mind. This is a culture around here. Right now we have a governor, electee, trying to run for governor, that is running on the format of he's going to burn books, walk books.

He's going to burn books, have public names like Bill Elish or something, look him up. You know what I'm saying? Look up the bill about the prisons. Right now we are trying to make sure that we can get books into prisons because they're starting September 23rd. September 23rd, they're not going to allow inmates to be able to order their own books or their family to send them books unless it's on an approved mailing list,

and they have to order them themselves so the prisons can control what their mind is doing. So not only are they locking up bodies now, they're locking up minds. This is here in Missouri. So it tells you it's a culture. Like I said, this ain't my first time being to the museum with my kids. Just for context for people, I've been being a single father for 23 years. I had my first child when I was 16. I am not new to this. I am true to this. Two of my children are published authors. One is a college student in Houston, Texas. He is the CEO of a company that has international sales. We are not new to this at all.

We are very true to this about me giving my kids the best of everything I know how. And when I say single father, I have custody of my kids. So, again, he didn't know who he was walking up to. He thought he read a book, but he read the wrong book. Questions from the panelists. Lauren, you're first. Lauren, you're on mute.

Sorry about that. To me, it's another example of policing black people for absolutely no reason. And that was the Trayvon Martin scenario. That was the Michael Brown scenario. It's a very unusual thing to happen in a place where you are, in fact, expected to wander around and look around. You know, as somebody who's worked in the press, you know, you get a lot of people who are in pseudo security positions who are not sworn police officers who have deemed themselves the authority to ask you questions and do all sorts of nonsense. But in this case, it's just some dude with no no authority whatsoever other than to maybe guide people around that wants to be an annoyance and a little bit of a stalker. I mean, I you know, I've had this sort of thing happen. I really don't have a question.

I just feel like it's an annoyance. And typically when somebody does that or follows me around, I engage them in a conversation that makes them stop and get very uneasy. But I think you're a nice guy for the way you handle it. I don't know if I would have handled it quite the same way. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Greg? Thank you handle it. I don't know if I would have handled it quite the same way. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Greg? Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Brother

Colbert. I must say, Tighten Up is now in my lexicon. Tighten Up! Brother, that was brilliant. And I must confess, the only museums I've spent any time with in Kansas City are the ones down at 18th and Vine, brother. Of course, the Negro League Museum and the Jazz Museum.

Although they've got a bust of St. Walser III from ancient Egypt at the museum you were at, the Nelson Atkins I would love to see in an Aaron Douglas piece here. But you know, Lauren says she didn't have a question, but what she said at the end really is the question I was going to ask. So I'm going to ask you, how did

you keep your cool? Because clearly you are all the way real. You're just authentic. But the way you engaged this guy, that was almost like that would have come out of somebody having a caucus with a bunch of other people saying, how should we approach this? But you did it so quickly and effortlessly. What was forming in your mind

in terms of your responses as this stalker was sliding behind pillars trying to take a peek at y'all? How did you come up with those answers so quickly, brother? Well, I tell the truth, brother. Like I said, that was just me being myself. Anybody who knows me, my family, my kids, my kids watched the video and said, oh, that

was light work. You know what I'm saying? It was like, that was light work, Dad. He didn't even get that real work. I said, I didn't. I didn't even give him the real work like I wanted to, you know, because I was trying to keep myself where I need to be because I do walk with God. And I got to know that when we get put in these certain situations, that it's not a test of – this is spiritual warfare at this point.

They've been doing this to us for over 500 and something years, man. Come on, this is spiritual warfare. So I got to stay prayed up in the armor and keep myself where God would have me be. Because otherwise, I can't have it. Right now, I'm being blessed to be on this format, on this platform, to be able to talk to y'all about issues in the community.

I got to be able to shout out for the prisons right here in Missouri. I got to talk about the governor that's out here trying to burn books. So I got to say, this was God's work once again, and I give glory to God. But speaking of the Negro Museum, see, this is how funny the world works. Your boy, while he's up here approaching me, hey, I'm not no regular guy. I got my books that I'm speaking of.

They didn't sell at the Negro Museum down on 18th and Vine. All my kids' books is in there. So, you know, like I said, he didn't know who he was out of his weight class, but he judged the book by its cover and then realized I'm more than just one thing. You know what I'm saying? That's the thing they keep forgetting about us. We're not one

dimensional. We never have been. That's right. And there you go. Brother Coble, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me, brother. Appreciate y'all. Glory to God. All right. You have a good one, Doc.

Folks, going to go to break. We come back. First of all, we reached out to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art for a statement about the incident. And we got no response to our email. Obviously, we're not shocked by that. All right, folks, we come back. We've got some headlines for you also. We finally have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

the second African American to ever hold that job. We will show you and tell you exactly what happened. Plus, CBCF ALC, they're focused on a lot of these sessions, wealth creation, contracts, opportunities for African Americans. Where do we start? How do we mobilize and organize

to go get that money? How about we start with the people who are sponsors of the CBCF? I'm going to unpack that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. YouTube people, hit that like button, y'all. I know a lot of

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

that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

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

Add free at lava for good. Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs. But sir, we are back in a big way, in a very big way,

real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

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

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

We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

Right now. Right back. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting.

I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes

because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white people. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie. We're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it, and we need to teach common sense,

embrace it, and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell the teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media. And then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. Me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll be right back. Middle River. Anyone with information about Kendra Valencia Scott is urged to call the Baltimore County Maryland Police Department at 410-307-2020. 410-307-2020. Folks, General Charles Brown has finally been confirmed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After Senator Chuck Schumer moved forward with a closer vote, they were able to overcome the obstinance from that idiot from Alabama, Senator Tommy Tuberville.

Three heads of the military branches were actually approved as a result. And so Charles Brown finally moves forward. The same, this brother here, of course, has talked in the past about, again, the importance of what it means to be an African-American soldier, what he has gone through and what this means. Of course, the first African-American to get this position was General Colin Powell. And so he becomes second. And so what you now have, the top two positions in the United States military

held by African-Americans, Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, General Charles Brown is now the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Here is some of what he had to say about what it means to be a black soldier. As the commander of Pacific Air Forces, a senior leader in our Air Force, and an African American, many of you may be wondering what I'm thinking about the current events surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd. I'm thinking about how full I am with emotion, not just for George Floyd, but the many African Americans that have suffered the same fate as George Floyd.

I'm thinking about a history of racial issues and my own experiences that didn't always sing of liberty and equality. I'm thinking about my Air Force career, where I was often the only African American in my squadron, or as a senior officer, the only African-American in the room. I'm thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceived had expected less from me as an African-American. I think about having to represent by working twice as hard to prove their expectations and perceptions of African-Americans were invalid. I'm thinking about the Airmen who don't have a life similar to mine and don't have to navigate through two worlds.

I'm thinking about how these Airmen view racism, whether they don't see it as a problem since it doesn't happen to them or whether they're empathetic. I'm thinking about our two sons, now we had to prepare them to live in two worlds. Finally, I'm thinking about my historic nomination to be the first African American to serve as the Air Force Chief of Staff. I'm thinking about the African Americans that went before me to make this opportunity possible. I'm thinking about the immense expectations that come with this historic nomination, particularly through the lens of current events plaguing our nation.

I'm thinking about how I may have fallen short in my career and will I could continue falling short, living up to all those expectations. And thinking about how my nomination provides some hope, but also comes with a heavy burden. That's what I'm thinking about. I wanna know what you're thinking about. I wanna hear what you're thinking about

and how together we can make a difference. Of course, we were in Dallas last month when General Brown, when he actually spoke at the Alpha Convention there. It was also a lot of those brothers who were in the military, they were there. They were so happy to see him ascend to this position. And here's just some of that video there as he greeted many of those particular brothers. I've had some people, Greg, who folks are like, I had one woman say, oh, I'm not happy at all.

These are killing machines, and we shouldn't have black soldiers. I said, well, clearly I don't think you know anything about American history because you've always had brothers who put that uniform on, even when this country did not love them back. And you're going to see the right-wing folks mad because this brother has talked about diversity. He's talked about how if there's a problem, we don't get people more training, more understanding. And we don't promote more people of color.

They understand he understands why you've got to have brothers and sisters who are black and of color in positions of power in the U.S. military. Yeah, the military is a is a fact of life. I am absolutely against, as I think we all are, violence and killing. And I'm certainly no fan of the United States military. And people talk about the fact that black people have fought in every war this country has been in. It's absolutely true. And, of course, historically there were more black people who ran away and fought with the British than fought with George Washington.

So, I mean, we should always be historically accurate when we're talking about why we fought. We fought for the reasons that we hear General Brown talk about as his voice was quivering. And clearly, he was very emotional. You know, we're fighting to make a better way for our people. And we're fighting against the people who wear the same uniform that we wear, which is why this is important. Kortch Tuberville, that illiterate hillbilly from Alabama, is playing with fire, just like the billionaire Bloom is now suing the service academy services, starting with West Point. What he's tampering with now is something that you won't be able to put back together.

The United States military now is all volunteer force, and they're struggling to recruit, I mean, to keep at the 1.4 million persons in strength they have now. The concern, of course, that this hillbilly is playing with, and they're talking about negotiating some deal to maybe get the one and two star generals up and going, this hillbilly's got his hillbilly toes and heels dug in on this. But the concern is the captains, majors, colonels, and generals who have met the 20-year service requirement that lets them retire.

Because you see, in a volunteer army, the private sector is telling them, you ain't got to wait on this hillbilly. Come over here and make some money. This could be a real crisis, Roland, as you well know. Yep, absolutely. And of course, Greg,

go to my iPad, please. We also certainly celebrate because Greg, he is one of our brothers. So, shout out to drop the lower third. We're going to show all of it. General Charles Q. Brown, he pledged

alpha at Texas Tech University. And he is, like I said, when he spoke there, he had some amazing words about what it meant to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha when he's at Texas Tech. So shout out to Brother General Charles Brown. Lauren, Tommy Tuberville continues his sheer stupidity. And he said, well, if they back off his abortion policy, I'll back off. I mean, even Republicans are tiring of his antics, but they are afraid, they're scared because they're running around. They're so deathly afraid of Donald Trump

that they don't even want to tell Tommy Tuberville, you idiot, shut up and just approve the positions. I think they actually are telling him that on some level that we just. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

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

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. two of the war on drugs podcast we are back in a big way in a very big way real people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne for brothersborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

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

and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way,

you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.

We don't necessarily see all of this, but I do think that there's a lot of anger in the Republican Party about the holding up of the military promotions and this entire Tuberville situation. And there's one thing that the Republican Party really does not like is to show that they're not doing something for the military. It's been one of their major talking points in so many campaigns, and, of course, it's incredibly against brand. So yeah, you'd be surprised. I think, you know,

people like Ted Cruz are extremely disliked in the caucus, in their own caucus. And they've earned it. Yeah, people like Tommy Tuberville are as well. And it bubbles up sometimes. It actually did this week when a group of Republicans took the House steps on the House side and basically said, this is crazy. We're holding up a defense bill. We're not serving our military well. And so there was a break off there, one of the few break offs you see in the Republican Party. Absolutely. All right, folks, go to a short break. We come back. We're going to talk. I've got a few headlines here, but we're going to also talk about the CBCF ALC taking place right now in the nation's capital.

Their focus is on building black wealth. How do we start that? I got a good idea. I'll explain when we come back. Back in a moment. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.

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You're watching Roland Martin. The family Virginia man who died after being admitted to a Virginia psychiatric hospital has reached a multiillion-dollar settlement with the state and the county and sheriff whose deputies were involved in this deadly case. Folks, a Henrico County Circuit judge approved the $8.5 million out-of-court settlement, out-of-court wrongful death settlement in the Ervo Otieno case. A 28-year-old black man died in March after being pressed to the floor of Center State Hospital for about 11 minutes by a group of Henrico County Sheriff's deputies and hospital

employees while handcuffed. Seven Henrico County Sheriff's deputies and three Central State Hospital personnel were initially charged with second-degree murder in his death. Second-degree murder charges against two of the three hospital staffers, Sedaris D. Williams and Darren Blackwell, were withdrawn. The remaining eight faced up to 40 years in prison. A Maryland man wrongfully convicted of two separate violent crimes finally gets a formal apology as well as compensation for spending years behind bars,

including over a year after being proven innocent. Demetrius Smith will receive about $340,000 for spending more than five years in prison for murder and first-degree assault. Governor Westmore apologized to Smith, noting that it's been over a decade since he was released in 2013 and the state never publicly acknowledged this miscarriage of justice. And of course, it takes a black governor to go, hey, we are sorry. Figure out why governments are so afraid of saying sorry for things or making statements that we apologize for something. But governments, usually it's because of, of course, the threat of legal action or some sort of worrying about legal action. But nobody ever just wants to say we made a mistake.

The only time I can remember New York ever saying that they made a mistake on a police shooting was years ago. I can't remember the fellow's name, but it was Ray Kelly who basically apologized and said the person should not have been shot by the police officer. It was a real rare event. But frankly, I don't know why these things don't happen more. Yeah, it was like it ain't that damn hard. But that's that's what we often see, Greg. No, absolutely. I mean, and it's not uniquely American, but in fact, sometimes it may be considered that. I just read an article today, a brother who was killed, 24-year-old black man in London, that officer has been charged with murder. And in the last several years, about 100 London police have been arrested and charged on various for various charges. And this after people have taken to the streets to complain and to protest anti-black violence from the police.

In one case, a cop was out there brutally raping women and sexually violating women, and he is doing a life sentence now. There's something very American about this, even in the context of these white countries, where it's hard to be a nonwhite often. The United States of America overly policed too many people in jail. It just seems as if we're just not going to get any traction around this until enough of us get involved to change it. And how does a man spend a year in jail, Roland, after the man been acquitted? That's just, it's stunning. That's because these folks figure they can do whatever the hell they want to do.

Defamation trial of Rudy Giuliani has been set by a judge in Georgia. It will take place on December 11th. It will determine what damages Giuliani will have to pay two former Georgia election workers. He was found liable for defaming. Last month, Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani liable for defamatory comments he made about the mother-daughter tandem of Ruby Freeman and Wondrea Shea Moss. The judge sanctioned Giuliani over his erroneous remarks, accusing the two black election workers of fraudulently manipulating ballots on Election Day 2020.

Giuliani says he does not contest the factual allegations, but his statements were, quote, constitutionally protected. The former New York City mayor already owes more than $130,000 in legal fees for the case. Boy, I hope they take... Now, Francois, we know he broke. He's probably hiding money, but I sure hope they take all of his money for his sheer stupidity.

Folks, we come back. We're going to talk about building black wealth. That's the focus of a number of sessions at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. Where do we start? I got an idea. That's next, right here on the Black Star Network. Next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes,

the amazing Drew Dixon. She gives us the details behind the HBO documentary that shed light on the alleged sexual assaults by Russell Simmons. And we're talking about the Netflix documentary Ladies First, right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraiji Muhammad, live from L.A.

And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey,

we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's The Culture, weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it and give it to those who need it most, our kids.

So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media and then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepard Talk Show. You're watching Rolling Mark. Until tomorrow. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have Black Army.

Right now in D.C., the 52nd Annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference is taking place in the nation's capital. There are a number of sessions taking place, and many of them deal with this topic right here. That is, go to my iPad, come on, building black wealth. okay? And so a number of sessions are talking about diversity, equity, inclusion. They're talking about redlining. They're talking about contracts and procurement and on and on and on. A number of people have been speaking there. Robert Smith, of course, of the richest black man in America, Sean Diddy Combs. He's there as well.

Kevin Lyles and so many others. They're there talking about these very things. Now, we're we've all often talked about on this show, this segment called Where's Our Money, where the money is in this country. The trillions of dollars are being spent every year. The federal government spends five hundred and sixty billion dollars on contracts a year after Americans are getting are getting 1.67% of those contracts. Now with the attack on the 8A program, because white folks sued in Tennessee and made changes. And so now you're seeing, okay, what do we do with this program? Of course, affirmative action, the college decision has led these white Republicans to attack law firms and corporate America, saying

all these programs targeting black folks, Latinos and others. These are all illegal programs. You have Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who on August 23rd released this. She sent letters to the top five banks wanting to know where they stand. A detailed report on the equity commitments they made in the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020. We've seen estimates ranging from 30 to 100 billion dollars in terms of these commitments that they have actually made. But one of the things that you have to understand, folks, is that what we're also seeing is we're seeing a retrenchment, if you will, from a lot

of these people who were focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion and how all of a sudden they are now shifting and now they are changing. In fact, NBC News had this story, how diversity, equity, and inclusion is changing. Hamstrung by golden handcuffs, diversity roles disappeared three years after George Floyd's murder inspired them. And the reality is many of those workers who are still there, many of them are still white. Look at this.

The attrition rate for DEI roles was 33% at the end of 2022 compared to 21% for non-DEI roles. Amazon, Applebee's, and Twitter led the way with DEI layoffs since July 2022. We could go on and on and on. Y'all have heard me say numerous times, if we're not having a money conversation, we're not having an American conversation. You always have to follow the money. So the CBCF, the CBC members are talking about this wealth creation.

And if you're going to have a wealth creation conversation, then what you have to do is you must deal with where the money is. I'm not interested. And you've heard me say this here. I am not interested at all. And I appreciate the foundations, the money that people give and stuff along those lines. But you've heard me say white philanthropy, corporate philanthropy ain't going to be the answer to solve this problem. If we're going to talk about how do we deal with this issue, you must deal with the money issue. You must deal with the contracts issue. So what do I have to do with CBCF?

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

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

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else but never forget yourself self-love made me a better dad because i realized my worth never stop being a dad that's dedication find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the u.s department of health and human services and the ad council let me perfectly clear my I picking on any company? Nope, I'm stating simple facts.

CBCF put out a press release just the other day, today, talking about kicking it off, and so you see it here, you go through here where they say, this is what they're doing and this is what we're doing, the backdrop, the attacks on DEI initiatives and things along those lines. You see Nicole Austin Hillary, she's president and CEO. She's being

quoted. Then you get to the paragraph right here. It says right here. This is, give me one second because I'm pulling something up. I want to show you the contrast. I want to show you all what's going on right here. This year, AOC 52 is being presented by Amazon,

which has provided $1.5 million in support to support the renowned Washington, D.C. convening and its popular signatory events, Community Breakfast and Health Fair, National Town Hall, Gospel Extravaganza, Day of Healing, and the Phoenix Awards. Amazon also affirmed its steadfast support of CBCF's mission to educate and empower future black leaders through the creation of a new HBCU scholarship.

Brian Kenner, Amazon's head of community engagement, is quoted there as well. Now, you've heard me say I certainly appreciate corporate support, how that is critically important, but I believe it's also important we put things into proper context. And when I say context, I'm talking about the money. So if we're talking about Amazon, and again, I appreciate the $1.5 million contribution to the CBCF. Here's what I also know. Go to my iPad. This is the market capitalization of Amazon.

Amazon is a $1.33 trillion company. Let me say it again. $1.33 trillion. At the close of the stock market today, Amazon stock was $129.33. $1.33 trillion. So we start talking about money. I want you to also see this here. I'm going to pull up for you the annual advertising spend of Amazon. And I want you to remember that number.

Okay? Look at my iPad. On an annual basis, Amazon spends $20.6 billion on advertising. $20.6 billion.

Now, why am I talking about the money? Amazon, Apple went to their reception yesterday, Google, Coca-Cola, any number of major corporations. If you have a list, Lauren, I'd love for you to read more of those names. I was trying to grab before I left. Major companies, in fact, the tables at the Phoenix Awards on Saturday

have been purchased by a number of these corporations. I don't have a problem with 1.5 million, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000,,000, $15,000, $20,000, and $10,000, had no problem with that. But none of that is going to create black wealth. None of that. What will create black wealth? Give you a perfect example. That $20 billion spent on advertising.

Let's say the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC, says, Amazon, we want you to make a commitment that you're going to spend 5% of your advertising budget with black-owned media every year. That means that Amazon, if they committed to that, over the next five years, would spend $5 billion just with black owned media. It's a billion dollars a year. I want y'all to understand something. The federal government spends a billion dollars a year on advertising total.

This is just Amazon. Let me look up Apple. So I want you all to keep a calculator out. You take Apple. Right here. There's estimates that Apple spends several billion dollars a year on advertising. Okay. Let's say

Apple spent, let's just say five in the middle. Let's say Apple spent $5 billion on advertising. CDCF says Apple wants you to achieve 5%. $5 billion. 5%.

$5 billion? 250 million. 250 million over five years? 1.25 million. So we got Amazon at $5 billion. Now we got, see, I'm walking you through. I'm walking you through. If we start going through the numbers.

Now y'all, some of y'all are looking at me going, oh, you're talking about advertising. I hope you're getting my point. Now what you start doing is, y'all in control, we're trying to figure out what 5% of $5 billion is. I see y'all over there like, is that what it is? So, yeah, I done do quick math right here.

So here's what I want you to understand. Now let's talk about all contracts. Professional services, legal fees, accounting services, catering, transportation, public relations, audiovisual, construction, engineering. If the CBCF, Congressional Black Caucus, says

to every single one of our sponsors, we appreciate your support, but we want you to make a commitment to hit 5% of your contractual spending, listen to me clearly, in each category. I don't want to hear diverse.

I don't want to hear minority. Black. That means that if you've got 20 companies, let's just say 20 companies, and let's say out of all the contractual spins, let's say that 5% number comes up to, let's say, 10 billion. You know what? Lower it all the way to 5 billion. You know what? Lower it all the way to 5 billion. That means that an additional 5 billion dollars just from those 20

companies will be flowing to black America. You don't think for a second that if additional 5 billion dollars flow to black owned businesses that then you will not in turn see the hiring of more that if additional $5 billion flow to black-owned businesses, that then you will not in turn see the hiring of more black people,

you will not see more contributions to HBCUs, you will not see more contributions to black organizations, you will not see any of that. You absolutely would. Okay? So now, NAACP, who are the corporations that are you dealing with? And then you say to them, 5%. National Urban League, you want the good housekeeping civil approval? Saying you're a partner of the Urban League?

Your number is 5%. You heard me use this before, talking about PepsiCo. You heard me talk about how PepsiCo is a five-year, $10 million initiative with the National Urban League to stand up black restaurants. You heard me say that. And you heard me say that PepsiCo has been running ads, trying to drive $100 million in receipts to black-owned restaurants over a five-year period. Yet the same PepsiCo, go to my iPad, spends anywhere from $2.5 to $3.5 billion annually on advertising. Let's say it's $3 billion. Let's say PepsiCo committed. Let's say PepsiCo committed to spend 5% of the $3 billion with black-owned media.

Y'all, this is just media. That means in five years, that's $750 million. Five years, $10 million to help black restaurants. Drive $100 million in receipts to black restaurants. $750 million. Now let's go to the other categories. Do y'all now see what I'm talking about? So now, CBCF says, a couple of y'all dealing with us, 5%.

NAACP, Urban League, National Action Network, Rainbow Coalition, now all of a sudden you are going to see literally $5, $10, $20 billion flowing back to black people. That is how you leverage your power. That is how you do it. Now

there are going to be those companies and I've had to deal with them. There are going to be those companies, and I've had to deal with them. There are going to be those companies, Greg and Lauren, who are sitting here, people who are watching and listening. They're going to sit here and say, you know what? That's not right. That's not fair.

You really shouldn't be doing those things, and you know what? But guess what? Those same companies, they don't mind our products. By 2030, it will estimate that African-Americans will be spending $1.7 trillion. $1.7 trillion. And some of you are looking at me right now. Y'all saying, damn, Roland.

But, you know, man, these people doing some nice work right now. Okay. But I want y'all to remember that the night before he was killed, Dr. King spoke about this issue. Go to my iPad. This is what Dr. King said on April 3rd, 1968 in his mountaintop speech. Matter of fact, let me help some of y'all out. See, here's the deal.

A lot of y'all, y'all see me fast forward. A lot of y'all only have seen this part of the speech right here. I don't know what's going to happen to me now. We've got some difficult days ahead. See, I want y'all to see this in print. A lot of y'all, most of y'all have spent your time and energy showing the video, showing the same thing, showing,, quoting this, running this, and all your programs, you've been doing this for years. Y'all have been showing that.

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

Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

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

by AARP and the Ad Council. At bottom paragraph, the last paragraph of M.O.K.'s speech, but what you did not do... Show all the rest of this. What you did not do... Is talk about this one. You did not talk about. Now, the other thing we'll have to do is this. Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal.

Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that?

After you leave the United States, Soviet, Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and Akron and the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than $30 billion a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States and more an annual income of more than $30 billion a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that?

That's power right there if we know how to pull it. He then says we don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, meaning today, corporate America, and to these massive industries in our country, corporate America, and say, God sent us by here to say to you that you are not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do

have an agenda that we must follow, and our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you. And then in the same speech, King names several companies. In the same speech, he says, as Jesse Jackson has said up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling the pain. Now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies, and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike,

and then they can move on downtown into a mere lobe to do what is right. Here's what I'm trying to explain to y'all. If our black institutions use their power to change, use their power for good, use their power to achieve the black wealth creation, it can happen. But it's going to require folk being willing to tell somebody, what's that line from The Color Purple? Until you do right by us, you're going to have some problems. I want you all to know, there ain't a corporation in America that wants Black America to call them out. There ain't corporate corporation in America

that wants black folks to say, we're going to stop buying your product. We have got to learn what return on investment is. It has to start with our black institutions choosing to flex their

muscles and use their power. Lauren. Yeah, I don't even know that it's really the, you know, that the solution is even that complicated. I actually think I'd be happy if the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation just used a majority of vendors

that were black for the annual event. It's too small. The amount of money they spend is too small. I'm talking about billions. That's not even millions. We're in the DMV, and the DMV has Virginia, Maryland, which is an extremely black state,

and, of course, Washington, D.C., which is an extremely black place. There are black restaurants. I mean, look, I know we can't do everything, but if there's one thing that black people can do, it's music, it's food, it's printing, particularly the printing of T-shirts. Are you kidding me?

But, Laura, I agree with you, but that's small. That's only a three-day conference. Yeah. What I'm talking about is the 365 days of spending in corporate America. If it's so small, then why doesn't it happen? Why am I walking into the thing

yesterday to register and there's a white company printing a credential that anybody could print at Kinko and it's some white company instead of a black person that could have done the exact somewhat funny. I'll tell you. Instead of a black person that could have done the exact same thing. I'll tell you.

We can fumble around with the printers. It's intentionality. It's intentionality. So if we're not doing the small stuff, we can't do the big stuff. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no.

If we can't do the food and the printing, then why would I expect that they would do millions of dollars on anything else? No, no, no, no. Follow me here. Follow me here. I'm not asking the CBCF staff to lead

this effort. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you are the Black Caucus or your groups that are around, you take the list of folk. See, here's what Roller's going to do. When CBCF

is over, Roller's gonna do when CBCF is over Roller's gonna take the list of sponsors and I'm gonna get all of them and I'm gonna go to my advertising team and I'm gonna say go after every single one of them I'm gonna take the very see we're gonna create another

list we're gonna take the same list and my team is're going to create another list. We're going to take the same list, and my team is going to go to them and say, we noticed that you were responsible for the Congressional Black Caucus, AOC. And we know that you care about the interests of African Americans. We're calling on behalf of Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black

Star Network, to ascertain what is your black-owned media investment? How much are you spending with African Americans? So that's what I'm saying. I'm saying they already have the list. So let's not create. Let's use the very people who say they're down with black people and then go, where the money? Yeah, the problem is the failure, whether we're talking big money or small money.

Let me tell you where the failure is because I've been in these meetings. I've worked in the government, New York and Virginia, the federal government as well. The failure is not asking. We're not asking. All these other groups are asking. All right. So whether it's a million dollars or a thousand dollars or a vendor that only does, you know, $300,000 worth of business or a vendor that does 10,000 a year. You have to have somebody at the table that is demanding and asking the question and making a demand. And if you don't have that,

you're gonna lose every single- No, no, no, and that's the- How much money we're talking about. But that's what I've laid out here, Greg. I'm laying out how you make the demand. But you have to make the demand by starting with numbers. You have to make the demand by understanding the much larger picture.

One of the fundamental problems, Greg, for African Americans is that when we do go to the table, and I've actually seen people do that, we go small. We walk in... We walk in going, can we get $5,000? And they're looking at me like, Roland, what are you going to ask for? I'm like, 50 million.

So what I'm talking about here, I'm literally talking big. That's why I specifically gave the advertising numbers alone. So if somebody goes, wait a minute, all Roland is saying is 5%. He ain't even saying to meet the black population of America, if it's just 5% from Amazon alone, that's a billion dollars. Now you look at the other areas. And so to me, if we're going to talk black wealth creation, there has to be a starting point.

And you start by the folks whose logos are already on the signs, Greg. That's true. I mean, I agree with Lauren that it seems fairly simple on the surface. And as the two of you all were talking, you know, when, you know, Lauren, when you asked, you know, why don't we even see the people who are printing the damn badges be black? And Roland, your response was intentionality. I think that really resonates. And that's what you've been saying all along for many years now, certainly since you launched

The Black Star. You've been walking us very meticulously and very deliberately and in great detail through how to do this. And for folks who watch every day, watch the various shows, watch faithfully Roland Martin Unfiltered every day, and think perhaps this is all that you're doing, you know, with speaking engagements and covering things remotely, no. In fact, I would say this is probably, you know, my guess would be this is the minority of time that you spend. You and your staff are spending time trying to execute this. In fact, executing it, having these conversations, going to these meetings, presenting well-developed proposals, making demands. But the intentionality, and by that, I mean, the intentionality of having all of us moving in the same direction is what's

absent. I mean, you know, in the years that I've gone to the legislative caucus retreat or has sent students or gone down and been on panels and have conversations, I always leave informed. I leave inspired and I leave depressed. Because the rhetoric is often very powerful. The case studies of people doing things around the country and beyond. But somehow we don't get to the promised land. And then, so when you said intentionality, you know, you've got to fight. I mean, you're right.

We come in glad to get a nickel. These people spent more at lunch. Amazon spent more at lunches around the country and around the world than they have done spending at this several-day event here in Washington, D.C. So how do we crack the nut of intentionality so that when you go into a room to make a presentation at an automobile manufacturer or a fast food restaurant or a service provider of any size, be it Amazon, Apple, or anywhere else, how do we move to a space where you have been

reinforced by Black elected officials at state, federal, and local level? You have been reinforced by Black folk who've got money, who have other companies. You have been reinforced by Black people who are partnering with you on this so that they can't say, let's just play the long game and cop Roland Martin and hope he goes away, realizing you ain't never going to go away. How do we do that, Roland? How do we get everybody moving in the same direction so every year we get hyped up and then leave depressed? Well, the first thing is I don't bother with the idea of getting everybody together. That's first because the reality is you cannot show me

anything in black America or any other movement that started with a collective first. So what it requires is just a handful of people. I talk about all the time in my speeches, it really was a handful of people who were in the basement of a church in Montgomery. It was not all of black

America. It was a handful of people. But I also think about what Dr. King said in his book, whether we go from chaos or community. Go to my iPad. He said, there are already structured forces in the Negro community that can serve as the basis for building a powerful united front.

The Negro church, the Negro press, the Negro fraternities and sororities, and Negro professional associations. We must admit that these forces have never given their full resources to the cause of Negro liberation. There are still too many Negro churches that are so absorbed in a future good over yonder that they condition their members to adjust to the present evils over here. Too many Negro newspapers have veered away from their traditional role as protest organs,

agitating for social change, and have turned to the sensational and the conservative in place of the substantive and the militant. Too many Negro social professional groups have degenerated into snobbishness and a preoccupation with frivolities and trivial activity, but the failures of the past must not be an excuse for the

inaction of the present and the future. If I first start with the Negro church, what I would then say is, I don't need all churches, just give me one or two to start this thing with. If I'm talking about being a Negro fraternities and a sororities, I'm not talking about all nine. I'm saying I can just start with one, the AKAs with their credit union, starting that.

My deal is you starting with that. Then you go on, when you talk about black media, I can't spend my time on all these other black-owned media folk and what they're doing and what they're not doing. But my whole deal is I'm going to go talk to those who can. And so, I'm going to start that way. And then

what I'm going to do is, I may not go out and look, what we did with the Black-Owned Media Collective, what we did is force companies, General Motors, Target, all these companies who then begin to make commitments on getting there from going from half a percent or 1% to 2% to 4% to 8%. And now, and this is the most critical point, what's the follow-up? So when Ayanna Pressley is saying to the banks, well, you report, what we're saying is you committed 4% or you're meeting it. Martin Depp wrote in Operation Breadbasket,

1966 to 1971, the greatest failure of Operation Breadbasket was not that they signed the Memorandum of Understanding, the MOUs, but the greatest problem was they did not follow through to make sure that what they negotiated actually got done. And so what we're talking about can happen. But I think first what we have to do is we have to properly put in context for our viewers and listeners that we ain't interested in a leg. We interested in the big piece of chicken. Daddy, daddy interested in the big piece of chicken.

Daddy, daddy got saved the big piece of chicken. I don't want a breast, a couple legs, a couple of wings. I want a whole table full of breasts. Everybody get the big piece of chicken. We have to create a mentality that a crumb is not a meal. We have to learn to teach people that no is fully acceptable if

you're not getting your worth. And so I am very hopeful. I'm hopeful I will be a glass half full brother that coming out of this, you're actually going to see that. But the Black Caucus also

knows, because I've been on it to many members. I know whose ass I'm going to stay on. Who? And it's going to be those four institutions that the king talked about. That's it. I've been

riding Alpha Phi Alpha. I've been riding Alpha Phi Alpha. Yeah. I've been riding the boule. Yeah. I've been riding the National Association of Black Journalists. Any group that I am involved in, I'm saying, what the hell y'all going to do? What's the point of having numbers

if we ain't flexing our muscles? Right. But the last point I need everybody watching to understand. What y'all gonna do when I tell y'all it's time to move on some people? Hmm.

Everybody watching and listening. That's the question. When I come to you and tell you that I have been spending two and three years trying to get

these ad agencies to get off the money and they don't. And then when I start naming the corporations and that ad agency controls the money, the question is, are we as black people going to do what MLK said when he said, collectively we must move, are we going to then say,

said company, we ain't buying your product. And when they start seeing a 1% and 2% and 3% drop in their market share, when they start seeing the market cap of their company, the value of their stock go down, oh, I guarantee

you they're going to come to the table with that 5%. But it's not going to happen if black folks go, eh, I hear you, but I'm going to keep buying that product.

I'm going to keep drinking that product. I'm going to keep eating at that particular place. I'm going to keep buying this. Yeah. Y'all, you cannot pine for your liberation and then not want to sacrifice something for your liberation. That is what must happen. And in the words of that great money man

from the movie American Gangster played by Denzel Washington, when he said a whole bunch of people in this room owe Bumpy some money, and I'm going to get that money. That has to be our mentality. We're going to get that money. And that's why this segment is called Where's Our Money? Greg, Lauren, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Folks, that is it for us right here. Roland Martin, Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Y'all know how we do. We're trying to build something here because the reality is we ain't playing small. We want to create the world's largest black news and media operation, but it's not gonna happen. It will get your support as well.

Senior Check and Money orders at P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2007-0196. Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo's RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at Roland S. Martin.com. Roland at Roland Martin Unfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app,

Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and of course, you can also get a copy of my book, Why Fear? How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Folks, I'll see you tomorrow, right here,

on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Ha! Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told.

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

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network.

Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Do you ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world that's consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me,

Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad.

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