#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Voting Power at Risk, Crockett’s Senate Fight, NABJ Future, Fanbase Equity Push

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

12.16.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Voting Power at Risk, Crockett’s Senate Fight, NABJ Future, Fanbase Equity Push A new report from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter warns that nearly 200 Democratic state legislative seats from mostly majority-Black districts are under threat. Black Votes Matter Executive Director, Cliff Albright, will break down the Southern State Legislature Effect Report. Democrats need to stop the infighting and let Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett have her shot at the Senate seat. I'll talk to a democratic strategist about why some a finding it hard to support Crockett.  The National Association of Black Journalists launches its Jubilee Endowment Campaign to secure the future of Black journalism. Allison Davis, one of the youngest founders, will be here to talk about the organization's history and future.  Fanbase, the creator-first social platform, is a day away from closing its equity crowdfunding campaign tomorrow. Isaac Hayes III joins us for a last-minute push. In our Black Star Network Marketplace, we're celebrating beauty, self-care, and melanin magic with Cocotique - a monthly subscription box created just for women of color. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. 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 I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down.

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Hold no punch you A real old Support this man, black media He makes sure the art stories are told I thank you for being the voice of black America rolling I love y'all All the momentum we have now

We have to keep this going The video looks phenomenal See this difference between Black Star Network and Black Own media And something like CNN You can't be Black on media And Beescape

It's time to be smart Bring your eyeballs home You dig December 16, 2025, coming up of Roland on the film, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A new report from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter warns that nearly 200 Democratic

state legislature seats from most of the majority black districts are under threat. We've been trying to tell y'all that Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. The executive director will also be joining us on the show. Democrats need to stop the infighting and let Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crock and have her shot at the United States Senate seat.

I'll talk to a Democratic strategist about this, issue. The National Association of Black Journalists has launched its endowment campaign to secure the future of black journalism, Allison Davis, one of the youngest founders. We'll be here to talk about the organization's history and the future. Fanbase, the creator first social platform found about Isaac Hayes III. One day away from closing

its equity crowdfunding campaign, Isaac will join us for the last minute push. Plus, in our Black Star Network Marketplace, we're celebrating beauty, self-care and meldon magic with Cocoaic, a monthly subscription box created just for sisters and women of color. It's time to bring the funk, a roller mark on Filcher on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. Months, there is a massive effort to defund attacking every single institution in Black America, attacking politics, attacking economic, attacking academic, attacking nonprofits,

everything, because the goal of Donald Trump and MAGA is to completely to destroy the black infrastructure that has been in place, since the last 60 years, but even really before that. And so a part of this is this recent report from Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund.

It lays out the 191 state seats currently held by Democrats, most of them which represent majority black districts. The report called the Southern State Legislature Effect highlights concern arising from the Supreme Court's potential ruling and Louisiana versus Kelly decision, which could very well weaken Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

An earlier analysis suggested, if Section 2 were gutted by the Supreme Court decision, Republicans could very well redraw electoral maps potentially creating 19 additional Republican seat in the U.S. House. Listen to clearly, y'all, that's the U.S. House. but the ruling by the conservative justices could also lead to gerrymandering

state maps but you've got to go deeper county maps cities school districts that's how serious this thing is Cliff Albright as a co-founder executive director of Black Voters Matter

joining us down from Atlanta you know Cliff on this show we had been yelling and screaming this for a very long time. And we have been trying to connect the dots to get people to understand that when you lose political power, you're losing economic power.

I was having a conversation today with a book that I'm working on, with the writer. And I was saying what people don't understand is that, one, when Republicans typically get in, that they believe in smaller government. What then happens is when they get control,

they say let's wipe out government jobs. African Americans, one in five on a federal level. We are also over-indexed state government, county government, city hall, school district. So if Republicans expand power, you have job losses, public sector. That impacts folks who own homes. That impacts spending.

That impacts, supporting a nonprofit that impacts tithing at church, that impacts everything because we were shut out of corporate America but so long that the places where you typically going to find African Americans making 75,000 or 100,000 are going to be in government. People really do not understand how this one decision is going to have a, not a ripple effect, a tsunami effect on black America. Yeah, Roland, I mean, you're exactly right.

right about that. You know, we talked about the impact of what would happen at the congressional level, right? If the Calais case strikes down section two of the Voting Rights Act, basically gutting whatever's left of the Voting Rights Act. And you've made the point that this report talks about the impact

at the state level, 191 seats, 191 seats that could be wiped out, you know, almost overnight in these 10 southern states. And as you've just been saying, and the point that I always make is, no matter what your issue is, no matter what it is that you're passionate about,

you can't get action on affordable housing, on education for our children, on living wage, on health care. Just tell me whatever your issue is. Whatever it is, you can't get action on it if we don't have representation, not just at Congress, but as you said, in the state legislatures, on the county commissions, on board of educations, etc. But clip,

is not the representation. And see, and this is where all of these simple Simons drive me crazy. Man, all you do on your show is shield for the Democrats.

All you do on your show was trying to make us vote Democrat. Okay, fine. And this is what I always say in response. Please show me the issues that you want addressed.

And please show me when I step back and I look at Democrat, your average Democrat candidate, your average Republican candidate, which one of those two supports that issue? I dare say

that if I came up with 10, the Democrat, the generic Democratic candidate is probably going to support minimum seven of my 10. likely nine of my 10 and a Republican candidate at best

is going to be two out of 10 or one out of 10. So when these Yahoo's start talking about oh you try to force to vote Democrat, no what I keep saying is that if we do vote here we have to make them

deliver but the guaranteed way not to get again, Democrat my agenda, Republicans, the guarantee way not to get my agenda is not to vote here or here to sit out and you're guaranteed never to have your issues addressed.

Yeah, I mean, that's the bottom line. We can't get our issues addressed. If we are put, if we are gerrymandered into districts, there's no way for us to get a candidate of our choice. It's not even necessarily even about getting a black, candidate, right? Because the impact of this isn't just that black folks won't get elected to these positions,

although that's true. But even if you're, okay, well, maybe I can get me somebody who's kind of okay on the issues, who's progressive, they're not black, but they're okay. No, we would be gerrymandered into districts where we would be so diluted that we simply would not

have the power to get any candidate of our choice, meaning any candidate who moves on the issues that we're trying to get movement. Republican ain't even going to meet with us. See, that's what I keep trying. I keep trying to explain to people. They ain't even going to meet with you.

And see, Cliff, we keep trying to warn people. This is how deep this is. Go to my iPad at least. Trump's White House is warning universities that if a student even writes an essay mentioning DEI, that's unlawed. awful.

What? This is political power. So because they control the White House and the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, their whole deal is we're going to impact everything. College admissions.

We're studying data. We're impacting, look, the disparate impact ruling that they made a couple of weeks ago we discussed on this show. They are using political power to drive an agenda that's impacting universities, impacting corporate America, impacting law firm. Babes, what are you doing?

What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says, Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on...

Smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey, bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast, hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an evening. independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. ...impaq impacting nonprofits the entire America infrastructure. AT&T said we're getting rid of our DEI initiatives because the FCC will not approve an acquisition unless we do it. that's political power impacting

economics. Right, and it's very similar, it's very reminiscent, and we've made this analogy before, I know you've talked about it. You know, when we talk about reconstruction and post-reconstruction, we talk about the court, the court that ended a lot of these,

because this is not new. We had voting rights. We had black members in Congress. We had black senators. We had Hiram rebels. We had others, right? And all of that was undone, and not just, again, not just the elected officials and the voter rights, but everything

by the Redemption Court that filed Reconstruction that did a series of cases, not just one, just like with this case. Yep. Just like with this court, it's not just one case. It's a series of cases just like that redemption court, which ultimately led to what, Plessy versus Ferguson.

And before that, and before that, for people who do not understand, and this is why I keep trying to explain to people that this is a war that we are in. Go to my iPad. 1875, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed. The Redemption Court clip is talking about ruled this to be unconstitutional. There were hundreds of bills that were offered civil rights bills between 1875 and 1957.

They were all rejected. The other day, I listened to because I was, because I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, picked up Cairo's book, Master of the Senate on the LBJ. They talked about the speech that Senator Hoover Humphrey, this rousing speech that he gave in 1948 at the Democratic National Convention

for them to add civil rights to their plank. Not a single bill. So even the 57 bill was massively watered down. But the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which really is talked about because frankly it did nothing. That was the first civil rights

bill that was passed since the one in 1875. So what people need to understand do the math, what we are chancing here is with this Cali decision, on the federal level, the state level,

we may be seeing the wiping out of civil rights for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years because they will control the courts and the legislature slash Congress.

That's right. And we need to make it clear. Like, we got to sound that alarm. I was speaking in a panel a couple weeks ago where I said, look, you know, we don't try to motivate through fear, right? Because, you know, I said, Black voters matter. We believe in love and joy and culture and power, right? And so I said, you know, we don't usually like to use fear,

but I need you to be a little afraid right now. Like, I need you to have a little sense of urgency. I need you to have a sense of this history that we're looking at it. Yes. that we went through once, but we're not trying to go through again. And so I need you to feel that, but we don't need to sit in that fear, right? We need to understand the urgency, but then we need to snap out of that moment and get the work. And there are things that we can do to push back against this court by keeping this issue alive.

There are things that we can do to push back and fight for federal legislation. Even if we don't have the numbers right now, we still need to push for the federal legislation that we were trying to get a couple of years ago, right? that battle's not over. We need to push for state-level voting rights. Even in some of these states that are hostile right. Yes. We still need to organize and push for those things. If they can try to get Obamacare overturned 60 times when they knew doggone well,

they didn't have the votes, then we can still push our agenda and keep our issues on the table because you can't get the harvest later on if you ain't plant the seeds today. And so we need to be doing this work. We need to be organizing for this legislative. We need to be doing rallies. We got MLK Day coming up next month. We need to be using that holiday to

commemorate, yes, but to also push for action on these issues that we're talking about. And we got options that we can do. Get connected to an organization, even if it's not Black Voters Matter, get connected to Fair Fight Action, get connected to Southern Poverty Law Center, support LDF that has been

arguing many of these cases and doing an amazing job. Get with these organizations, because we can win. We can keep this history from repeating itself, but we got to understand that it's possible for this history to repeat itself. We can't have this notion, this American exceptionalism, that, oh, we can't go backwards, or this notion that, oh, we've been here before, and therefore, you know, we'll just be okay. Automatic, no, it'll be okay, but we got to push and we got to fight for it to be okay. And if we do that, if we believe in our power, then ultimately we will win.

but I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture about the nature of the opposition and the nature of the threat that we're up against. This is as serious as against, and we need everybody to be very much awake about that. So I want to freeze that there because I understand the point, and I hear people say,

man, y'all can't be coming here, y'all trying to scare us with all these scared tactics to get us to vote Democrat. Do you know what the right did? The right use scare tactics to say, if we don't do this, they, the left, the liberals, the progressives, they're going to control this, they're going to run this. That's what they did. And so what we're doing, we ain't scaring nobody.

But we're just trying to tell y'all not what we think is going to happen. We're telling y'all what is going to happen. I mean, I have been sitting with this writer for a week. and Cliff, it has been so enlightening but also frustrating to hear me recite these things and me talking about this book, White Fear, and seeing

literally every single thing I said was going to happen actually happen. And then I'm talking to certain black folks and it's kind of like, oh, yeah, man, I know you said that. I'm like, y'all don't see what the hell's going on? Y'all don't see what's happening. I go back to, y'all, this is real.

They are actually challenging universities over the issue of DEI in tests. I'm sorry, in essays, they are driving everything. They are challenging everything. And I think a bunch of us, because you mentioned organizations, this is where I need black organizations to recognize. And clip, I ain't got no problem saying it. We've had a lot of black organizations

that have been stuck in the mud for more than a year. They were not active after Vice President of Kamahars lost. Black people were saying, hey, where are we going? What are we doing? There are a lot of black organizations that are sitting in silos, only kidding about their business.

And what I keep saying is, no, Every black organization must be in a warfare state of mind because with him sitting in the Oval Office for the next three years, we are in the middle of a war. This is the first year of a battlefront, and it's going to be a steady, nasty, nasty, bitter, cold, rough, battle, and when this decision comes down and based upon their questioning, we know how they're going to roll, folk have no idea. This generation has no idea

what it's going to look like the next day. Right. That's right. And at the end of the day, look, you know, people talking about this country and a slide into authoritarianism and a slide into fascism. And there's two things that I know for sure. One, it ain't a slide. We all. already there, right? I mean, in many ways, domestically and internationally. Let's just remember

that these people are blowing up boats in the middle of the Caribbean, right? And so... Seizing a villager-weil and oil tanker and said, we're going to keep the oil. Damn, y'all, we're going to keep the oil. Right. Right. And so, you know, if this is, if this was any other country doing this, we'd be very clear about what it is. We'd be very clear about, like, what the actions like that are, right? That's just, you know, sea water piracy, right? We'd be very clear about what's going on in this country in terms of ethnic cleansing. We would call it what it is.

But because it's America, because we've got these notions of things that simply could not happen here, people still aren't really understanding. And so, you know, so one, I know that it's not a slide we're already there, but two, this is what I know. If you're trying to figure out how to get out of authoritarian and fascism, you better ask the folks who know it best.

in this country because this ain't the first time, right? We just talked about the history of we've been living through authoritarianism and fascism ever since we got here. And so we are going to be in the middle

and I know there are folks that say, oh, we're going to wait for other folks to do XYZ and all that stuff. And yeah, those folks need to, you know, we need more folks to be involved, but be clear that there's no battle against American fascism and authoritarianism that can happen

that is not rooted in our experience and fighting against it. At the end of the day, we got us. Yeah, and let me tell you something, Cliff. I literally was talking to a sister who was an African immigrant who campaigned aggressively for Trump in 2016 and 2020,

2024. And I said to her, he don't give a shit about y'all. I said, I want to be clear. Now, she wasn't aware, because some other things happened in her life, she wasn't aware of what he said about Somalians. But for everybody to understand, this just came down. They've now added five more countries where they're restricting them from coming to the country.

Now, you see Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Africa, Republic of Congo, Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Africa. Eritrea, Africa. Haiti, black. Iran. Libya, Africa. Somalia, Africa. Sudan, Africa. Yemen.

Look at this. Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Africa. Togo, Africa. Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Look at this right here. On Tuesday, they've added Burkini Faso, Africa, Mali, Nigeria, Africa, South Sudan, Africa, Syria.

Look at that. People South Sudan facing major travel restrictions. They do not want black people, brown people in this country. They want white people. And not just any old white people, right? They bring it over what? The Afrikanis from South Africa. The apartheid whites.

That's right. That's right. You know, which, by the way, keeping in mind, that's where Elon Musk is from. Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. In additional 15 countries are also being added to the list facing partial restrictions. Angola, Africa, Antigua. That's a black country.

Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Africa, Dominica, Gabon, Africa, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, Zimbabwe. This is what they are doing right now. So reach out, if you are watching this, you know, text us, text We Matter to 25225. That's We Matter, one word, the 25225.

Hook up with us on our social media, Black voters MTR, Black voters MTR. But I'll say it again, this ain't about us. It could be another organization. You want to connect with a local organization. Guess what? We got friends and comrades in like 25 states. Reach out to us and we'll put you in touch with a local organization

that you can do some stuff with, right? But we got things that we can do, but we got to do it together, right? We can't do this as individuals. We can't even do it as individual organizations. We got to be in coalition with one another. And I'm going to tell you, coalition is hard, y'all. It is hard work to be in coalition, but it's no longer an option. We have got to do this together.

And if we do it together, what our history shows is that we will win. But we got to be clear-eyed about the nature of the threat that we are up against. Based on what you just said, I swear you were listening to my call with this writer. Cliff Albright, I appreciate it, bro. Thanks a lot. All right, man. Going to a break. We'll be right back.

Rolla Martin Unfilted right here on the Blastard Network. This week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking about the ups and the downs of the holidays, the ebb and flow of life, those things that keep us running and gunning. But you know there comes a time each of our lives where we need to just sit down, sit back, and relax, giving you a chance to really find out who you are and how you're going to move your life forward. How do I learn? How do I grow from this? And that's where, you know, resilience comes. I'm literally walking this out in real time. It's just giving myself all the grace, all the space, all the permission that I need. We're talking about all of these things this week on a balance. life for Dr. Jackie here on Black Star Network.

This week on the other side of change. Both fans, anti-intellectualism, and Trump's continued war on wisdom. This is a coordinated backlash to progress. At the end of the day, conservatives realized that they couldn't win a debate on facts. They started using our language against us, right? Remember when we were all woke and the woke movement and all that kind of stuff? Now everything is anti-woke, right? When we're talking about including diversity, equity, inclusion,

in higher education. Now it's anti-D-EI. All this are efforts to suppress the truth because truth empowers people. You're watching the other side of change only on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D. Jakes, and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered.

30. Come back to me. All right, folks. We're sounding this alarm because this thing is real. It's real. And there are too many people. who are just running around, oh, no big deal, whatever the hell.

I'm trying to tell y'all, this thing is real. And we're sound of the alarm because we know what the impact is going to be. History tells us this. When you hear the phrase, history always repeats itself. It does. It does. We have said numerous times in the history of America, you've never seen a period of black success not followed by white backlash.

Never. You've never seen it. And so what we're looking at right now is that very thing. And folk had better wake up and realize this. Dr. Mustafa Santiago, I believe former senior advisors for environmental justice at the EPA, Joneses at D.C., Randy Bryant, entrepreneur, author, speaker, creator of the truth in game out of D.C.,

Joe Richardson and civil rights attorney out of L.A., Joneses right now. Mustafa, I'll start with you. People need to recognize this thing is real. What's happening right now before our very eyes, it's going down. Yeah, and the way you and Cliff framed it out is the exact way. You know, all you have to do is I encourage folks to please read, because when you read, you have a better understanding of what transpired in the past so that you're prepared for what could happen in this moment.

And it is about the backlash, right? It's about the black political power that has been garnered over the past couple of decades, the changes that have been able to be made, even though we still know that there were many things that we still needed to improve upon. But if you actually are a student of history, you don't even have to be a student of history. If you want to watch video, you can watch a video, or if you want to read, you can read, go back. You were talking about education. You were talking about education earlier. When you go back and look what happened after the reconstruction era, You actually had federal support for black education collapse that was intentional. Everything with the Friedman bureaus, they attacked that as well. Legal segregation was codified. So when we talk about Plessy v. Ferguson back in 1896, all of that was a part of the reaction to black power, to black folks being able to get educational systems in place. You had a short amount of time there where folks who were illiterate, who were then able to be able to garner the information, to be able to learn to read,

right, and that made folks scared because then people's expectations began to rise and they began to demand basic amenities, if you will. You saw massive disinvestment also after the reconstruction period around literacy. You literally had schools in counties, black schools that were shut down. It might have been the only school, and they would shut those down because they understood the power of education. And it all goes back to the reconstruction era. When, you know, we finally had black folks in office, both on the local level, all the way up, who were beginning to move our agenda forward to make sure that there was actually some equality and some justice.

So you're seeing the exact same playbook. When we used to talk about Project 2025 a couple of years ago and no one wanted to pay attention and then we talked about agenda 47, all of this stuff comes back from history of the things that white supremacists have done in the past. They went back and got many of those same. actions and brought them forward and put a 21st century veneer on them. So instead of the Ku Klux Klan coming and burning something down, they burn it down through the laws that they put in place and through limiting access for you to be able to push back.

So that's exactly what's going on in this moment. I mean, it's amazing to me, Joe, and maybe again, I guess it's because people don't actually read, that folks don't see what's going on, not understanding that, yeah, you had the 14th, 15th, 13th, 14th, 15th amendments were the Reconstruction Amendments, led by radical republicans. Go back. This is a Senate.gov. Charles Schumner, Charles Sumner, Republican from Massachusetts, he had a heart attack. He was 73 years old. He says, they said that Sumner predicted that the Civil Rights Act would be the greatest achievement of reconstruction. Very few measures of equal importance have ever been presented, he proclaimed.

He was dying. He said, don't let the bill fail. The dying sumner pleaded to Frederick Douglass and others at his bedside. You must take care of my civil rights bill. It got through. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire.

Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water. Then stir it with a shovel. Wow. You sound just like him. Then he said, If it's still warm, then do it again.

Where can I learn all this? It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target, and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast, hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most.

DeLulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcasts. Awards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Pass in 1875, 3826, but just eight years later, you see it right here. Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 1883. In a consolidated case known as the Civil Rights Cases, the Court,

found at the 14th Amendment to the Constitution granted Congress the right to regulate the behavior of states, not individuals. The decision foreshadowed the 1896 Placid versus Ferguson decision in which the court found that separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites

were constitutional. What we are seeing, Joe, right here, is a right, hard-right Supreme Court, literally gutting numerous civil rights, voting rights protections. This is,

absolutely an attempt to have Jim Crow 2.0. And remember, after that 1876, the contested election, 1877, the great compromise of 1877, that's what started Jim Crow. And that lasted for 80 plus years. Yeah, and, you know, they're coming back to rewind all of that back if they can. And the hardest part about it is that they're doing it in plain sight. This is something that Project 2025 talks about extensively. People shouldn't be surprised that this is what's going on.

But what's the most difficult about it and you're talking about it is the lack of urgency that we seem to show related to this. This is it. This is going to change everything and bring us back to a place where it's going to take decades to, recover. That's a fact. That is what is happening here. And it is true. Every time I, you know, I connect this to the Obama backlash and everything else. Every time black folks can take a step forward, they want us to take several steps backward, even as they're pushing us back. And interestingly,

you know, we must be awfully special because we're 12, 13 percent of the population. Look at all of the attention that we're getting and the rollbacks of our people. going on. Look at all the attention that black countries are getting, African countries are getting, as it pertains to these things that, you know, these vans on immigration, on people coming over. Paying no attention to white countries at all. You know, look at all the attention that's being paid to brown people at the border of Mexico and talking about that, like, you know, that's the only place people come into the country. when they're not doing anything like that over the top, over at the top of the northern border,

because they're not concerned about it. And meanwhile, back at the Rams, they expect brown folks, my brown brothers and sisters, to keep voting for Republicans on some level, more than they ought to, they are. That might be changing a bit. But you look at where we are right now.

Once and for all, we have to get an urgency. We have to get an urgency and we have to keep it. Because literally, it's going to, going to be more than never was, governing by the few, over the many, doing things that most people don't want, unpopular, attacking everything. And listen, to your point, people talk about all Democrats, this and that, and they aren't doing enough, this and that. Voting rights, if I was a one-issue voting, voting rights would be my one issue, and I would be voting Democratic because of it, because Republicans go out of their way to take away voting rights because they know they're getting

ready to be outnumbered. But if we don't vote, then being outnumbered doesn't end up mattering. That's why Texas is so important right now. Sixty-one percent are people of color. 60 percent of the voters are white. We have to make sure we deal with that with urgency from once and for all. And the thing that's hilarious to me, Randy, are seeing these millennial white men who oh my god that DEI stuff was hurting us and was impacting us and this is it's so sad and unfortunate that was a piece that i responded to earlier today that was on twitter mcclop in a second and it was such it's called this is in compact mag.org it's called the lost generation it's got jacob savage and he writes how oh he was scalping tickets trying

to find a career writing scripts and then all of a sudden in 2014, 2016 as a Gen X white guy oh my God, he just couldn't get a job. Look at this year. The door seemed to close everywhere and all at once. In 2001,

2011, the year I moved to L.A., white men were 48% of lower-level TV writers. By 2025, they accounted for just 11.9%. That's lower level. Well, who the higher level.

Okay? Look at this. The Atlantic editorial staff went from 53% male and 89% white in 2013 to 36% male and 66% white in 2024. White men fell from 39% of tenure track positions in the humanities at Harvard in 2014 to 18% in 22nd to 3. See, Randy, but here's what he won't talk about. He won't talk about how those same white men before him, they were the ones who got boosted.

because they were ignoring black people. They were ignoring white women. They were ignoring Hispanics and Latinos. See, this is what these white guys never want to talk. They never want to talk about how they wish they could go back to the mad men days. Yes. Well, they didn't do it. And in fact, a report came out today showing,

and this is, again, this is what is so hilarious with this BS. The Hollywood reporter dropped the story today stating that of the streaming show, shows last year. I think 90% of the showrunners of the streaming shows were white men. So how, things were just so great

for white women black people and people of color. But this is the game they're playing. This is why the rollbacks are happening because white fear. How the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. These white men

are angry because they now have to compete and they don't get everything because they're white men. Right. They talk about DEI. It's so funny. They always want to call black people and say that we're playing the victim card and who is it that is playing the victim card and always acting as if they've been victimized?

White men, they are constantly whining these days. They want the world to be the way that it used to be. where they made all decisions and were given everything. It angers me so much when people say DEI is not good because everyone should have, you know, should be competing equally and not be given anything based on race or color. What about racism? What about white supremacy? The whole idea of whiteness was created specifically to buy white men, to give white men an advantage in this country,

to give them white privilege, to provide them with the majority of jobs and the majority of power in this country, which they still maintain. And then when programs like diversity, equity, and inclusion came up to slightly level the playing ground. And let me say this in the article you just stated what's happening in these Hollywood studios, they always want to blame black people. but I promise you, they specifically kept saying white males because still those jobs that were obtained by DEI programs were for the most part given to white women and then other women of color. It benefited black people the least. Yes, it was a benefit, but the least. And so, as you state, they're so fearful because now we're trying to, we were trying to create a system that all people could at least be considered, all people who were equally qualified, and they now have to compete,

and they don't like it, and they're whining, even though they still have the majority of power and money in this country. And so they are systematically pulling back all DEI programs, and I really want people to understand the severity of it. It's not just that they're saying, if your college, you're a prospective student who wants to go, to college writes an essay that talks about DEI, it suggests that they in any way have overcome something because of their race, because of their gender, because of a disability, they could be disqualified. We're not just talking about colleges. We have people who are creating cases on the elementary school level that have DEI programs that say we want to have a day campus, a diverse student body. They are people who are suing and saying, no, that is unconstitutional. That's not fair. So they are attacking black people, and really all people, if you're not white and male, from getting an education at kindergarten, preschool, elementary school, high school, and yes, college, and the professional schools. So when I say that we are being attacked, so we cannot, in any,

any way move in this country, people need to take it quite seriously. We thought it was something to be able to get our children in these schools. The foundation of the way black people thought that we could make it was education. We always said, get something in your head. But they're making it where it's virtually impossible for them to, for us to do that, and understand it is strategic, it is planned, it was written out. So that is on, that is in every area. they are attacking us, and we cannot win a fight or a war if we don't recognize that we are at war and we are being attacked.

Absolutely, and it's happening in politics. We come back, a quick break. We're going to talk about what's happening in Texas. While all of a sudden, folk want a black woman not to be in the race because they are sure that a white man can actually win it, or even Latino men. It's how stupid it is, y'all.

I'm going to break it down next. a roll of an out filter of the Blackstead Network. Said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat. So they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws.

Polling place shutdowns. Purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it. They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes, and political power. Yeah, that happened.

These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app. Support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community. Quake, you know, giving Roland Martin something to do, because you know he don't know what to do. He's from Texas. That ain't his fault. Go, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockin, now she's running for the United States Senate, and all of a sudden, man, the haters and the bots all of a sudden came out,

and they're talking about Israel and Gaza and all these issues. And now you've got a bunch of people saying, oh, my God, there's no way the black woman can win. Oh, my God. She is just too divisive. Oh, my God. We don't like how she talks. And, oh, you read the comments that we're going to lose. We're guaranteed to lose.

I'm sorry. Texas has not voted for a Democrat. statewide since 1994. That year four Democrats won. They had one since. Not one. So I'm trying to figure out how you somehow are guaranteed to win. Now here's a deal,

what people are concerned about is that on the Republican side, you've got crazy deranged MAGA, Attorney General Ken Paxton, that corrupt fool who's trying to take out Texas, longtime Texas Senator John Cornyn. Now, there are Democrats who believe it, oh my goodness, that this could be our best chance at winning as a real thing.

result. Well, that's true, but it's still not guaranteed. So I'm trying to figure out what the hell all the people are talking about. So there was a piece I saw on The Daily Beast that made a hell of a lot of sense title Democrats must stop bickering. Jasmine Crocker deserves her shot. The author of the piece is Kavanaugh-Defi, Democratic Strategist, who, and an attorney. I'm glad to have you on the show. This is what was just dumb to me. I don't understand. state representative James Tala Rico announced that he was going to run for United States Senate. Former Congressman Colin Allred

who ran last year, got blown out by Senator Ted Cruz by 10 points after raising $80 million. He pulls out when Crockett gets in. And so all of these people like, oh my God, this is crazy, she's going to guarantee we lose. There hasn't been one since 94. So what the hell of these people talking about? Right, and I think to your point, right? We haven't won in 30 years.

So maybe it's time to shake up the playbook. You know, All right, I think he was an okay candidate last year when he ran against the truth. He was awful. He ran. No, no, no, Kaivan. No, I'm going to say it. He was awful. He did not.

Because it's the same old moderate playbook of trying to win those swing voters at the margins. There you go. And that hasn't worked for Democrats time and time again. And so why not try something new? And I will say, you know, there's a lot of discourse online, as you noted. But when you have a candidate that's digitally viral all the time like Jasmine Crockett that says she wants to expand the 10, reach new voters who are disengaged. By the way, the last midterm cycle in Texas, 2022, 10 million registered voters did not show up. So this is about mobilization and reaching those folks. And then third, candidates that speak to truth to power, out MAGA, when it's a grand platinum, when it's a Zoran-Mam-Doney, when it's an often-ben, when it's a white person or a man, they get anointed the future of the party. When it's

Jasmine Crockett, suddenly everybody's pearl clutching and she doesn't even deserve to get in the primary. By the way, when have you ever heard this said about a white man? She shouldn't get in the primary because she's going to win the primary. That's the problem people have with her. Right. So I'm sitting

here listening to these people. And so I pulled up some stuff and I was like, huh, okay. Let me get to take a look. So if I go to, I was sitting here, let me try to find it. Because I was trying to pull up all the names. And so let's see here. And I wanted to pull up, like, who ran last time? And I wanted to see.

So we know Beto O'Rourke ran against Ted Cruz in 2018. he lost. Then Colin Allred, and let's be real clear, there were a number of people who ran in the Democratic primary in 2024. Colin Allred did not run unopposed. He had to run in the primary. So I don't get why. Hell, let's see if it's Crockett-Telarico, who campaigns the best, who makes the best arguments, and then if you win the primary, you go on to the general. I let's check. That's called Democratic Process. Right, and I think this is an argument we see from the far left all the time, which is that they don't feel like they have to pay their dues to the Democratic Party. And I don't mean the establishment.

I mean the voters and the organizers and the local folks who show up and do the work every single day, not just around an election. And whether it's Bernie Sanders or somebody else, they think they should just get to skip to the end. They don't ever have to win a primary. and everyone has to listen to them. And I think the other dynamic we're seeing here is, sure, some of the takes in post-20204,

and I heard you talking about this in the previous segment, have focused on woke and DEI and culture wars. What's more of a culture war than saying we can't let a qualified black woman run in a primary because she's unelectable? There's nothing more than that. By the way, you want to talk about racism. I think it's so clear when you look at the issue of Gaza

and you compare James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett. This is the issue a lot of folks want to preclude her from joining on. They pretty much have the same position. The only difference is James was pretty much irrelevant. He wasn't in Congress. He's not in the Senate. Nobody cared what he thought about the issue, but when he's spoken about it,

he's been aligned with Jasmine Crockett. So to say that's your deciding issue against the black woman, of course that reads as racist. Actually, as I just pull this up, this is right here. Colin Allred, this is just last year, Kyle Von, Colin Allred defeated eight other candidates in Democratic primary. There were nine people that ran. Oh, including state senator Roland Gutierrez.

He's Latino. Carl Sherman, who's African American. You had some white candidates too. It was nine people running. So we're losing it because some people, people they think, like this one guy posted, James Tellerico is a dream candidate. And I said, can you define for me how he's a dream candidate?

I'm still waiting. And again, this is not shading Teller Rico. I've been to, first of all, I'm from Texas. Texas didn't graduate, okay? And I went down to the state capital. Telarico was one of the biggest voices against Greg Abbott's stupid scam voucher bill. I sat with Telarico in his office and made a video with him. Okay?

I'm not opposed to the guy. What I'm opposed to are these ignorant, democratic progressives, and most of the ones I see talking ain't even from Texas. They got no vote whatsoever opining on a Texas primary when they don't know shit about Texas. And also, it is interesting, right? I agree with you. You know, I think James Tolariko brings some different ideas

and a different approach to the table, much like Jasmine Crockett. And so the idea is we have two candidates trying a new approach, trying to reach new voters with a different message, let them both get out there and communicate instead of forcing somebody out of the race before they've even had the chance to compete. And I will say the other thing that seems so messed up about this conversation, for lack of a better word, is that the idea that Jasmine Crockett is so dumb that she got tricked or duped into joining this race. And I think, first of all, this is somebody who's gotten themselves elected to Congress.

She's an attorney. She's proven at every hearing that she's absolutely aware of her own facts. She knows how to do the research. There's no chance. That's the reality of the situation. Mind you, at the same time, the same critics of her were running around with an NRC SC poll talking about Graham Platner and justifying his run with that data. So there's just so much hypocrisy in this conversation.

And it's interesting to see James Tallerico obviously felt that this is going to be a drag on him, the toxic online mob, that's something. supporting him that he had to put out of video after Crockett announced, basically saying, we're going to treat her with respect. We're going to talk about our ideas. And I think that's good leadership for him. Of course, are they going to listen? We'll see. Kivon, I got another one for you. The 2020, Texas Democratic primary. There were 12 people who ran. There were 12 candidates. M.J. Hagar and Royce West, State Senator Royce West.

They went to a runoff. Hagar beats West, West who's African American, Hagar who's white. In the primary, she goes on, gets beat by 1.07 million votes. And again, that's the other thing.

Okay, so 2020 in this race here, Hagar wins a Democratic primary, loses by 1.07 million votes to John Cornyn. Beto runs against Cruz in 2018, loses by 215,000 votes. Conn Allred, who a lot of these people were saying, oh my God, he's a perfect candidate. Why did Crockett get in? He lost by 960,000 votes to take Cruz.

So let's see here. So if you're trying to win Texas, let's see. 61% of Texas is minority, meaning Latino and black, Asian, Native American. But 61% of people who vote are white. So let's see. Conn's woman Crockett is saying, yo, um, I'm. I'm not trying to compete for Republican voters. I'm not going to be Republican light.

What I want to do is go after, turn out Democratic voters, or go after people who are registered or not registered, but who likely lean Democrat. That, to me, makes some sense because the strategy of converting suburban Republican voters, I haven't seen any evidence that that actually has worked. Oh, and by the way, don't have what you notice, Guy Vaughn, how they're now trying to rewrite. Beto ran as a progressive.

No, he didn't. By the way, the same people that are clobbering Kamala Harris for daring to embrace Liz Cheney, which, by the way, is a totally overstated rewriting of 2024, they've been hammering her on that for months. They now want

Texas Senate candidate, the Democrat, to run the same playbook. And they want Crockett out with that same logic. So it doesn't add up. And by the way, Texas, as I'm sure your viewers may be more aware than the general viewer has the most black people in the country, in the state. So Jasmine Crockett will be the only major black woman female candidate in this race. And it's, again, not about identity politics. It's about speaking to communities

that are under attack, under this administration. It's absolutely a compelling message. And by the way, if it wasn't compelling, she wouldn't have the platform that she has. And people, the usual pundits, don't understand a candidate like Jasmine Crockett because I saw people criticizing her out the gate with her viral video and they said she's too focused on herself. People know who she is. She is a star of the party. And by the way, she's not like a boring candidate

who has to get every word in in that first launch video. People are going to follow her. They're going to pay attention to her. They're going to hear from her over the course of this campaign all the time. Yeah, I mean, I just, it's amazing. And I did something the other day. and I said point blank, I said, I'm from Texas, all my family's there, I've talked to a lot of people, Israel in Gaza is not the dominant issue in this race.

So to all of a sudden say, she's just like Kamala Harris. No, we see what's going on here. And I warn people, don't fall for the bot game. Don't fall for that okie doke. And again, if that's your issue, that's your issue. But here's the deal. Know what's going to happen? You've got to look at what Tala Rico's record is, what Hersy is, and what Corny and Paxton's is.

So whoever wins Democratic primary, they're going to be running against somebody who is hardcore Israel. Hello. It's called winning. That's the point, right? It's like, if that's your issue, I saw some ridiculous account that they disqualified both James. It's a pro-democratic account or a pro-left account, disqualified both Jasmine Crockett and James Talaico. They put a big social media post out with an X on both of them. So what do you want?

So you're not part of anything. You don't care. You just want to get engagement. You just want to sort of be a detractor and be angry. But certainly that approach is not a solution where, okay, Democrats have no candidate that meets your purity test. But to your point, if you compare these candidates on that issue and you say it's your issue and somehow you magically come down that only Jasmine Crockett is disqualified,

then we have to talk about your other biases and incentives there because it's so blatant. They have the same position. And not only that, and again, this is what happens when you pull history in 2014, the U.S. Texas, U.S. Senate primary, one, two, three, four, five, there were six people that ran. In 2018, with Beto O'Rourke ran against Cruz,

there were three people who was running. So I don't get these people who's something. somehow think, oh, no, let's just have one person coast to victory. And not only that, Kai Vaughn, you also, one of the reasons why you need a primary, which I've always said, no job is guaranteed, you also need a primary because you need both of these individuals to travel the state. You need both of these individuals putting together a statewide infrastructure. Facts are facts.

state rep James Teller Rico has never run statewide Yeah, he doesn't have the enemy Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett Has never run statewide And so the other thing is You need them Learning how

Frankly how to run statewide In the primary Because they're gonna Because the primary is March Is in the first Tuesday in March You're gonna need whoever wins To have a state infrastructure April, May, June, July, August, September, October

for November. So I'm like, what the hell y'all are talking about? Literally shut the hell up. By the way, by the way, I don't understand the people that think James Telerico would have this lockdown.

He's exciting. He's viral. Yes, like, have a bunch of people seen him go viral in 30 to 60 second clip sort of doing Bible judicious on Republicans and saying, oh, you say this about the Bible? Here's what it really means.

And like, do I like to see that every once in a while? Sure. Is that going to carry him through through a general election in a Senate race? Is he good in a debate? Can he actually throw a punch? I haven't seen any of that. So I'm not saying he's a bad candidate, but a primary will at least test both of them. And the reality is, Jasmine Crockett has a lot of the skills that we've seen are effective. And by the way,

she may be running against a major criminal, right? Ken Paxton. So she would be well positioned to prosecute that case uniquely. We haven't seen that skill set from James. Yeah, to be, it's laughable and it's crazy. And, and there's no such thing is, oh, my God, she's going to guarantee we lose when you haven't won. And I think the other thing, too, is like, I think there's a certain segment of the left that thinks that we're not going to talk about race and we're not going to talk about gender and we're going to talk about these things because that was their takeaway from 2024 that we focused on that too much. First of all, we just had an election cycle that I think proves that's not the case. We've already made gains back with the young voters, Latino voters, seems to be very laser focused on short-term economic ups and down. which has always been the case in politics.

So I think that's way overhyped. But when you were blatantly racist against a candidate, like Jasmine Crockett, by the way, right, talking about her, why are we reading articles in national media about her acrylic nail? The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success.

Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded out together.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense.

I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to. not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics

with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year

by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. And her fake eyelashes and they're so angry that she was the background on her phone.

I mean, get a grip. Obviously, that's worthy of pushing back on hard. And I have to say, I really admire and appreciate your show. because if you look at the new media ecosystem that Democrats have built, it is so non-diverse, and they are losing the perspective on so much of the party and the base of the party on these issues.

Well, it was interesting. Just today, I saw this graphic that somebody posted, that was very interesting about all of these Democratic candidates who want to run for president and the podcast that they were appearing on. And I saw it and I was like, that's interesting.

We're not mentioned. And at least five of these people have been on this show in 2025. So I DM'd and tagged the person who put the list together and said, you listen to 431 podcasts. How many of those were black? I'm still waiting. I'm still awaiting an answer. I'm just saying.

you go to the Midas Touch Instagram page, right? That's the main outlet for Democrats right now. How far do you have to scroll to find a black face that's not Barack Obama? And again, that doesn't mean that we need to cancel those folks or that we can't watch those folks, but it does speak to a lack of strategy, right? It's not about DEI. It's not about woke. It's about wanting to win.

And when you don't have communicators that represent diverse communities, you are setting yourself up to failure. And we've seen that with Latino voters. You do not turn out black people in Texas. You're guaranteed to lose. You kind of need them. Kaibon, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Thank very much. Go to my panel. To me, this ain't that hard, Randy. It ain't that hard. And again, I believe in competition. I don't, do I believe that when Crockett jumped in, Tala Rico should have jumped out?

No. Now, I personally believe, because I said this actually in July, I personally believe that Representative Tala Rico should have run for governor. That's just me. But again, Representative Gina Hina Hose is running. Okay, got it. So I don't get these people, but the level of attacks on Congresswoman Crockett were very clear and to me was absolutely outlandish and crazy. The day after she announced her bed, I woke up to such an onslaught of a tax.

towards Crockett from places that I did not expect, to be honest with you. And it was very disheartening. You know, you would hope that instead of saying, nope, the minute a black woman decides to stand up and be a leader, there would be some hope and they would see that we can be leaders. It seems as if they're so dependent on black women, but when it comes to supporting us, when we are trying to lead us,

there immediately is this aversion. You know, people became so offended when former First Lady Michelle Obama said that we are not ready for a black president, a black female president. But we're seeing the way and what happened with Kamala and we're seeing the way, you know, Harris and we're seeing the way that Jasmine Crockett is being treated. I mean, they really, she really spoke some truth. And I think that people don't like the ugly truth because I think Jasmine. McCrackett is a fantastic candidate when you look at the Democrat, the demographics of Texas, that she can win it, but she certainly can't if the people within her own party are immediately just, you know, saying that she doesn't have a chance in discounting her.

It is, it is quite, again, the word I would say is disheartening, that they do not support us. And yet she has given so much hope to us lately. She's been the one out there fighting when people wanted and needed someone to fight. And I think people want someone who will fight for us and that shows a level of strength. And she has that. We want the fire. We want the fight. We want someone who's courageous.

And she has that. But Joe, it's real simple. No job is guaranteed. And let's be clear. If you want to support Tala Rico, great. statewide. But tanning her down, is that the way you actually do it? Because if she wins, you're going to have her running against Republican,

and you want to stand behind her. Right, absolutely. And, you know, I like Talarico a lot. I've seen him on this show. And, you know, he's got his head together in a good way, and he does some things that a lot of people out there do. I think him and Crockett, Jasmine Crockett, ended up making each other better candidates, actually,

even though there's an idea, maybe he should have run for governor. But that being said, I think they end up making each other better candidates. And in any event, people shouldn't be coming out of a bag because of sisters running. And here's the deal. Like, it ain't like, again, the Democrats can say, we haven't won one since what, in Texas since what? Ann Richards or whoever was, it's not like they can say, well, you know, let's get the white guys back because the white guys are the ones that are winning. No, no, no. Right.

Nobody's winning. So they got to do something different anyway. look at it and why not have somebody up in there that's fighting and that's doing what needs to be done and they can connect to people. And then let the people decide but

there is some fear that the Republicans have, the Democrats fear that maybe they fear that she'll she'll lose. But maybe they also fear what the Republicans feel. There's some white Democrats out there that don't want the sister to win. Maybe.

And so let the people decide. Let all the people decide. And the great thing about Jasmine Crockett is that I think she can bring more people to the table to vote. Folks that are going to be excited about voting that are going to want to vote and that they see an actual fighter. Because right

now, the reason why Jasmine Crockett has the lane that she does, she did what she did anyway. The reason why she's getting so much national attention is because she's a fighter. It's because she is in Donald Trump's cranium. Donald Trump probably talking about her behind closed doors right now. Like

she has a deal. She is in his brain, big time. And so, you know what? That's a pretty good start. So let them roll, let them ride. Let's support who we want to support. And, you know, Democrats don't seem to know how to win in Texas anyway. So, hell, let's try something else. This is what I, this is what I always say when you have stuck on stupid Democrat, Mustafa. Well, you know, black brilliance, black excellence is always threatening, right? So I'm not going to take anything away from the other candidate who will be a part of the primary or others who might get in. But all we have to do once again is look at history and remember all the challenges that Shirley Chisholm went through, right? Whether when she was running for the House or when she was running for

the presidency, folks had all these reasons why she shouldn't do it, why she wasn't qualified, why she would probably end up losing. So all you have to do is then also take a look here in this moment. You see a number of the very same things from people inside of the same party. who are saying the same things about Jasmine Crockett, even though she has proven to be a 21st century candidate, right? Because she's been able to be elected. She's been able to mobilize individuals. She's been able to bring a set of energy

that many other candidates would love to be able to have. So, you know, we'll have a fair process, which we always talk about. But at the same time, let's understand those additional hurdles that folks continue to put in front of Blackwood. women when they run for office. Well, I'm just sitting here just laughing again when I look at all of these candidates and the people who ran, and I just see name and name and name and name. I'm just like, if y'all even just checked the facts, there were multiple candidates.

In fact, the only race that I found, the only year I found so far where there were fewer than four candidates was 2018, when there were three. having two this year. That's actually the smallest number. They've actually had run of the primary in 20 plus years. But that's called facts. All right, yeah, I've got to go to break. We come back.

50 years of National Association of Black Journalists will talk to one of the founders next. You're watching Rolling Button on the Bluefield on the Black Star Network, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars are critically important for us to do the work that we do. Listen, when it comes back into the show, we just listen.

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unelected, and without any checks and balances. By the end of the current Supreme Court session, education, the workplace, who gets to elect our leaders, and so much more could radically change. This week, we reconvene our legal roundtable and look at what the new America may look like and how we should respond. That's next on the Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. What's up, everybody? It's got to be the funniest dude on the planet. And you're watching. Roland Martin unfiltered. Folks, black journalists absolutely matter. And so that has always been the goal,

the National Association of Black Journalists Advancing the issues. But what happens when, frankly, we return back to how things used to be? We are seeing a dramatic drop in black journalists all across this country. We're seeing folks laid off. We were seeing all sorts of consolidation

happening in the news industry. And so what is the path forward? One of the folks who's been in the business, she was, again, one of the 44 founders of NABJ at that meeting in Washington, D.C. in 1975, is Allison Davis spent time working at a number of media institutions, including NBC Today's show.

She joins us right now. Allison is probably more of a tech geek than I am. That's probably by... Oh, yeah, I have something new to show you. I knew you had something. I knew you had something. I know I had something new. Hey, hey, yeah, I got a little something new to show.

What is that? That's the Insta 360 Ultra. The Insta 360 Ultra. Oh, I'm. already have that. Hold on. Hold, let me see it again. Let me see it again. Instant, it pops out? Yeah. Let's see, pop it out. Let's see, all right, says, you want to sit here. See, I told y'all, come on, go to that wide shot. So, see, you know, Allison want to sit here.

Allison want to sit here and play. Okay, says, you want to sit here. Hold on. See, I, I wasn't even trying to go here. Let's see here. You mean that into 360 right here? You mean it's bad boy right here that I can just pop right on out and sit here and where's the body camera so we can go here and do that one. Oh, that DGI Action 6 is on order. It'll be coming in real soon.

Let's see. Let me see, hold up. You're going to, you know, let's see here, what I got. So, you know, I care. See, y'all got to understand, I'm always ready for something. See, so we got the, we go by, so this is the DJI Action 2 right here.

that's that's been a while round a while then of course we got that that original insta 360 right here I got that but I got the 360 Insta 3603s okay and we got we go here and got the the GoPro 360 hero right here let's see here hold up I got some other I got some other stuff in here now

so I took I was doing a Zoom earlier so I took up my action four and five, but I got them in here. So, yeah, we always, we always ready. We always good to go. Then, of course, the DJI microphone right here. Oh, yeah, mine it. Yeah, I got, I'm actually charging mine right now.

Oh, well, shoot tomorrow. But this is the mini. I have the regular DJI, too, but this is the mini. Oh, really? Oh, you mean the mini? Yeah, yeah. You mean the many? You mean, oh, yeah, we got the many, too.

But, you know, one of the things that I'm very involved in now, Rowland, is stabilizers. So, you know, I'm sure you have... Right, well, we just ordered a... Wait, wait, wait, wait. That comes out, oh, does it have a tripod in the end? Oh, who cares about that? Does it have a...

Oh, hold up. Hold up, now. See, y'all... It does not. See, Allison, you're going to sit here. Let me just go on since you just want to go ahead and show off. You mean, like... Something like this here, that's also a tripod that can hold the phone,

that can also be vertical and hold. Yeah, but what you need here is the magnet. So you don't want to keep having the downside for your eyes. You want the magnet. No, no, no. And you want to be able to put accessories on it as well. No, no, see, I don't do the magnet. I don't do the magnet because that sucker can slip off, fall off,

demagnetized. No, I believe in screwing that. No, I've never had a problem with it. I believe in screwing that sucker in tight, so we can always be good to go. But, and then again, and then, of course, when you're standing around so much, sometimes, you know, you've got to go ahead and make sure you massage your back. This is all the back, too. So anyway, yeah, so, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, since we're going to go there.

Since we're going to go there, uh-huh, let's talk about it. But on that point, I do, I want to go there because. Because the reality is, and you've been one of the folks, I've been screaming it for years, that what today's black journalists are going to have to do, and if they're not, they're way behind, is understand how the business has shifted. This is not 1975 or 85 or 95 or 05.

You really don't have newspapers anymore. I keep saying, I said it, NABJ, stop saying you work for a newspaper, a TV station, or radio station. No, you work for media companies because a TV station is doing written stories, they're doing audio, they're doing photos, radio people are hitting me for interviews. Can we get you on Zoom? I'm like, what happened to me just calling in? And so today's black journalists, whether they are in the business or their students

who are getting ready to graduate, they all stuff that we were just sitting here joking about, they have to know what all this stuff is, how to use it, and how it actually builds and advances their career. Well, you know, Ronald, every year at convention, I do something called the innovation bubble. And one of the things that I have realized is that it just continues to grow. We're getting folks, and we have a lot of, you know, a lot of competition, but we manage to just get folks.

Yeah. And it is so funny. I remember, I remember, I guess it was 2017. And I forgot who was president. And they were like, hey, Roland, can you do a session that was literally called my backpack? And there were people who were like, dude,

you carry all that stuff around. And actually, the stuff that I normally carry around in my case, I don't have with me. And I was like, yeah. I said, because you don't know when something jumps off. And the other thing is we're in the content business. Everything is content. The ability to be able to live stream, the ability to be able to record things.

And also, the world has changed. This is no longer about, oh, no, we need to have the lines of resolution. It needs to be this. Listen, that thing left a long time ago. And now it requires for the journalists to have to think the who, where we're in how and why, but also the tech piece to understand how they both merge.

Right, right? I got to pull this up. So I want you to speak to this here, just so people, let's see if I can find it, you know exactly what I'm about to pull up. If y'all want to understand how hilarious this is. So, let's see, hold up.

Let's see, Katie Couric. Yeah. You know, I'm about to pull up. Yes, I do. So just so y'all know, Katie Couric and Today Show and Internet.

So y'all, when the Internet became a thing, that was a conversation on Today's show about it between Katie Kirk and Bryant Gumbo. Like, what is this thing called the Internet?

Go to my iPad, go. As I was doing that little tease. All right, let's hear we go. Back now at 56 past, I wasn't prepared to translate that as I was doing that little tease. That little mark with the A and then the ring around it. At? See, that's what I said. Katie said she thought it was about.

Yeah. Oh. But I'd never heard it. Around. I'd never heard it said. I'd always seen the mark, but never heard it said. And then it sounded stupid when I said it. Violence at NBC.

Yeah, it would be around or about the lunchroom the other week. See, there it is. Violence at NBC, GE. Come. I mean. Well, what Allison should know? What is internet anyway? Internet is that massive computer network, the one that's becoming really big now.

You heard that Katie Curry say, Allison should know, this is Allison he was talking about. That was 31 years ago. And now, Allison, we're at the point where literally AI is taking video and taking stuff and turning it into written stories. It's improving the quality. It's taking a photo and turning into a video. That's, I mean, so it has to blow your mind every time you look at that clip and to know how crazy things have gotten in the last 31 years. No, absolutely.

And, you know, I have to tell you that, you know, I do spend a lot of time looking at AI, dealing with AI. I'm also someone who judges scholarship applications. And I'm also noticing how those scholarship applications are being. used how they use AI. I mean, there's one scholarship application that I review on a yearly basis. And truth of the matter is that there are five essays. And four of those essays are the most amazing literal.

It's like Shakespeare. And then the fourth one is their own writing. And you can tell that they have used AI. So I think that's really... So let me ask your question. And when you see that, do you penalize those who are using AI at to that extent? I identify it. It's not up to me to penalize other than to say this person has used AI.

And most of the scholarship organizations now are asking that question. Do you suspect AI? And when I do suspect AI, I will say that. I'm not the only judge, though. Well, I know me. I'll be penalizing because, again, original thought. is kind of important. On that point,

when you look at where NABJ is, and I was having this conversation earlier with Cliff Albright, who was talking about how organizations are going to have to come together and then to get to work together. What I keep saying is that

our black organizations cannot survive living in these silos. That we're going to have to say, hold up, what are y'all doing? So if you're a business group, okay, how do we partner with you, a tech group? How do we partner with you as opposed to trying to figure out ourselves

because you have all this capacity? We have to be utilizing our expertise and it has to be moving this way as opposed to to sort of living in our own world. Your thoughts on that? You know, I agree with you, but I also think we have to strengthen ourselves as we grow and as we continue to be impacted

by the politics of this country. We are. There are people who very clearly, you know, use I call Trumponian tactics to run an organization. I would like to see us to become a lot stronger. So when we are sitting at that table, we are at the head of that table. And I, frankly, you know, I'm confident now, you know, rolling, you're in the executive position in the organization. And I think you understand the importance of us strengthening ourselves as an organization before we get gobbled by other organizations. And I think that, you know, we're at the point where we're close to strengthening ourselves, but, you know, there's still a lot of issues, as you know, that we have to deal with before we begin to come together as a group.

Absolutely. questions from our panel for Allison. Joe, you first. Great to see you. What advice? Let's play game and act like, you know, I've got somebody coming up that might be a daughter about 24 years old. Member of any BJ in her second city at NBC Louisville.

What advice would you give somebody that's coming up in this business, particularly young black women, that are concerned? about the things that you're talking about. How much the industry is changing? Will these jobs still be around, you know, how to turn the corner and see what's happening around the corner and to get there first? Well, you know, I may be pretty stupid, but I think that there are far more opportunities now than when I was 22 years old.

You know, we had the three networks. You know, there weren't any online services. There weren't any opportunities to be entrepreneurial. So to be honest with you, you know, I kind of feel that the one, I spend a lot of time with our student projects and the great Carol Grant, Gant, who has led us for the past few years. And I have a lot of mentees. One of my mentees is 25 or 26 years old,

and she's at the White House for MSNal. And what I have always told students is to, number one, I ask them to make sure that they journal every day, they write every day. And I also really want them to understand the importance of doing research, of spending the extra time to understand the historic context, been watching Roland and Roland has said

you know everything old is new again I think that's what you said and that's true and folks have to understand these young people have to understand that they're not the first to do this so find out who is and I'll tell you just one small little story

my dad was a Johnson appointee started the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission but before that he was with the AFLCIO and I had the opportunity and my dad's there with A. Philip Randolph and again with Bayard Rustin. And my father is on the screen left. The bottom line is that I started to do some newspaper archive work,

and I put my dad's name in there, and 137 news articles showed up. And I got so shocked because for us, he was our dad. You know, he'd come home on weekends, and we'd be, you know, because he worked in Washington. He would, we lived in New Jersey. My mother refused to move to Washington because it was very segregated at the time. Hence, what we ended up, what I found was how important he was to getting the Voting Rights Act passed in the 60s. I mean, he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the second go-around with King.

I didn't know any of this stuff. And so I say to all young people, know your health. history. There's so many ways that you can find your history. And so find your history, know your history, and tell your history, along with your present. Randy? It is so great to have you here. Now, because of the internet, we are seeing, you know, the news, we receive news differently. Of course, we don't have the three stations we used to have, and we have independent people out there sharing the news. And I have been happy to see. And I have been happy to see that many people who are non-black are interested in issues that affect the black community.

Knowing that, why do you think black journalists matter, though? Is there a difference? Why is black, why do black journalists matter? Absolutely. Black journalists matter because we can uniquely tell our story. We, you know, we don't have to, at least most of us don't have to acquire cultural competency, you know, as it relates to black folks. We are already culturally competent, I hope. And hence, you know, I feel very strongly that, that, you know, we are the best storytellers of our story. And also you have to remember that, you know, and this is what's scary.

There are going to be some states that school children, white school children will never learn, ever learn that there was slavery. I don't trust our story with people that don't understand our history. Great point. Mustafa. Ms. Allison, it's wonderful to see you. You always give a masterclass, at least a few times I've been around when I heard you speak. I believe it was what, 1827 when the Freedom's Journal was launched, if I'm correct.

March 16, 1827. The role of the journalists then had a, a, significant role and the role of journalists now have a significant role. Do you see similarities between when we first launched and where we are today? Oh, you know, absolutely. Yes, there are similarities. I think that both, you know, the folks in the 1800s and the folks now are after truth. And I hope at least that, you know, our new general is after truth. I know we were. I will tell you, you know, my background, you know, I, before at ABJ, I was in the Panther Party in Boston. And, and I will tell you, I wasn't, I was a journalism student, but I wasn't a journalist. And I remember so vividly, you know, certainly

reading about the history of blacks in journalism and understanding that they had gone through tremendous struggles. And I felt very strongly that I needed to go through those same kinds of struggles and recognize what we were up against and what I would be up against as a working journalist. And I do believe that that has not changed. At least it certainly hadn't changed with many of my fellow founders that I've known through the last 50 years. Well, it's a lot of work that we have to do. Of course, we always have to position everything for the next generation. That's one of the reasons why we lost our Jubilee Endowment campaign. The target goal over the next four years is to raise $15 million. And to your point,

Allison about how we have to also look inward. We create a golden circle. The goal is to get 100 members of corporations if they contribute 100,000 each. That's at 25,000 a year that would raise $10 million of the $15 million endowment right there. And so that's really what the target goal is, I have been saying that in, with these attacks on DEI, what's happening in Washington, D.C., how they are attacking corporations, black organizations, African Americans, who are going to have to.

do more as individuals to support our institutions. We must be looking at self if we're going to survive in the future. Absolutely. And I would also add, you know, again, everything old is new again. I remember when I was talking to the board members many years ago about development and the importance of raising money. And so we did talk about a capital campaign, and I'm hoping and praying that you get much more traction than we did.

But I don't want you to forget the fact that there is also planned giving. Many folks are, and I hate to say this, but many folks are beginning to pass on, and it's important. I know that NABJ is in my planned giving. Now, my kids would like it to reap the benefits of whatever we've made, but we were very clear about organizations that we felt, my husband and I felt, we're important to both of our growths. And so I hope that you can also add plan giving as a source

to help boost the campaign. Absolutely, and that's the conversation that we definitely will be having as well. Allison Davis, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, going to break. We come back. Black Star Network Headlines with Brittany Noble back in the moment.

If in this country right now, You have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself.

And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat. So... Babes, what are you doing?

What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says... Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... Smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips.

Right. Thanks, honey, bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target.

And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House, ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years. who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at iHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. They erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws, polling place shutdowns, purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it. They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes, and political power. Yeah, that happened.

These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app. Support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community. This week, on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking about the ups and the downs of the holidays. the ebb and flow of life, those things that keep us running and gunning. But you know, there comes a time each of our lives where we need to just sit down, sit back, and relax, giving you a chance to really find out who you are and how you're going to move your life forward.

How do I learn? How do I grow from this? And that's where, you know, resilience comes. I'm literally walking this out in real time. It's just giving myself all the grace, all the space, all the permits, All the permission that I need. We're talking about all of these things this week on A Balance Life for Dr. Jackie here on Black Star Network. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning,

and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. we are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion.

And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to me. make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate,

don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. Hey, I'm Tasha Cobbs, and you are watching. Roland Martin unfiltered. But I need a little filter. I need a something. Blow me out. Make me a little 35. Time for Black Sun Network headlines with Brittany Noble.

Rolling, the unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in November, marking its high its level since September of 12. 2021. Employers nationwide added 64,000 jobs during the month surpassing economist forecasts. The release of the government's official employment data for October and November was delayed by the 43-day federal government shutdown that ended last month. Well, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened an investigation to the city of Boston's housing policies, alleging that the city prioritized people of color in ways that may violate federal anti-discrimination laws. In a statement, HUD said, we believe the city of Boston has engaged in a social engineering project that intentionally

advances discriminatory housing policies driven by an ideological commitment to DEI rather than merit or need. Boston officials are pushing back, defending their approach and saying the city will continue its work to expand equitable and affordable housing. They can't say that the federal probe of politically motivated attack collective efforts to address longstanding inequities. Well, the U.S. Supreme Court will review the taste of Terry Pitchford, a black man on death row in Mississippi. Pitchford, now 39, was convicted of capital murder for his role in a 2006 armed robbery in which an accomplice fatalist shot of store owner. Although more than half of the original jury pool was black. The final jury that sentenced him to death included only one black juror. Pitchford's attorneys argue that prosecutors excluded black jurors because of their race.

A claim, they say, is supported by the trial record. and filing history. Also, two Republican lawmakers are facing backlash after calling for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the United States following a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. Florida Congressman Randy Fine called for a Muslim travel ban, mass deportations, and citizenship revocations in the social media post. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville echoed similar rhetoric, writing on the X that Islam is not a religion and claiming Muslims are here to conquer, ending his post with a call to send them home.

Also, instead of a Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, the U.S. Capitol will now display a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who challenged segregation in public schools. Johns was just 16 years old when she led a student strike in 1951 to protest unequal conditions at her Virginia high school, a case that later became part of Brown v. Board of Education. The statue is in great. with her words, are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it? We'll have more for you on the other side of this break. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. Book fans, anti-intellectualism, and Trump's continued war on wisdom. This is a coordinated backlash to progress. At the end of the day, conservatives realized that they couldn't win a debate on facts.

They started using our language against us, right? Remember when we were all, well, and the woke movement and all that kind of stuff. Now everything is anti-woke, right? When we're talking about including diversity, equity, inclusion, higher education, now it's anti-D-EI. All this are efforts to suppress the truth because truth empowers people. You're watching the other side of change,

only on the Black Star Network. They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat. So they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws. Polling Place shutdowns.

Purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it. They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes and political power. Yeah, that happened. These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day

on Roland Martin unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app. support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community. Michael McMillan, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. You know, one of the things that we often talk about here is how crazy these things are.

Oh, yeah, I mentioned this here, okay? What's happening there in Boston? It has been two more years since the Supreme Court ended race, Congress' affirmative action. Trump administration is now ramping up pressure on the colleges to prove they are not considering race in admission. The White House has demanded detailed admissions data and is escalating this crackdown on DEI and higher education.

By targeting personal essays, where students discuss race or identity, how about freedom of speech? Mag officials say, argue that essays highlighting diversity as students of color, adversity as students of color, amounts to ban discriminatory practices that circumvent the court's ruling.

No, it doesn't. Since the 223 decision, black and brown enrollment has dropped sharply at 20 selective colleges, Ivy League schools, according to the Associated Press analysis that decline is unfolding even as the White House frames DEI as a problem rather than a solution.

Over the past year, federal officials have flagged cues such as personal essays, narratives about overcoming obstacles and diversity statements as potentially unlawful stand-in for talking about race. So I guess, Mustafa,

I guess white folks from rural America can't talk about overcoming adversity. I'm glad you raised that because everybody, a lot of folks know that I actually come from dirt roads. I was raised in a rural community. And, you know, I saw

plenty of folks when I was going to college as a part there, you know, the information that they were sharing with those institutions talking about where they came from. why they were proud of where they came from, the challenges that they faced. And it was just a part of their narrative.

So we should be able to actually share, you know, both of the beauty and the challenges of the spaces that we come from and how education can help us to move to a higher level. But of course, these folks are not interested in black and brown folks being able to garner higher education, because, again, they don't want to have to compete, not only just when we're going to school, but also after we graduate and get degrees

and move into the job market. So once again, this is just another way of erasure. This is another way of restricting people's ability to be able to move forward. Randy? And I think what people don't understand is that a lot of white people feel as if they're deserving of every position that's there,

every position at every college that exists. And that the only reason we get in is because of either DEI and this white guilt they always talk about. You're hearing them, you know, keep talking about the only reason that white people are in any way sympathetic to us is because there's white guilt, not because we've earned any right or earned or anything that we have. And so they're trying to suggest that they should get rid of in any program that's that they feel sorry for us. Sorry, I'm rambling a little bit. But I think that is the problem that's happening right now,

is that they just want to say white people don't even listen to black people's stories. We need to do everything that we can to suppress the truth. And the only way that we have ever earned any sort of recognition or position in school is based on them feeling guilty or us being victims. And we all know that that is not the truth. Yep. And you know what? These white folks always talk about, oh, you're playing the victim.

they're doing a really good job, Joe, of playing the victim. Yeah, well, normally it's the same old thing. There's all this deflection that's going on. And, you know, what they're accusing us of, frankly, is what they're doing. Playing victim, woe was me. I said more than once, listen, at the end of the day, this system was not created for us. And I am very sympathetic to hardworking folks. of whatever color. But that white person still has an advantage of privileges, you know, what Paul

Mooney used to call the complexion from the protection. And so life is not fair. It's inherently unfair. And so is grace and mercy. So it works two ways, both to the good and to the bad, the life isn't, quote, fair. We try to make it fair, but it'll never be totally fair. Most people won't switch with us when it's time to be in a car on a dirt road late night with the police following us. And so, you know, they get five out of six spots, born on third, sometimes stealing home. And then they want to learn, they want to have a discussion about why the six spot doesn't go to them as well. They have the force of tradition, the force of relationships, the force of familiarity. And then what they're trying to do with us is take away the force of law.

And so, you know, it's interesting. And there's this presupposition to Randy's point that they're the ones that actually belong in the first place. And that's a suggestion that was never true, but it's been perpetuated and etchedon stone so much that people think of it differently. People forgot that that even legacy was about white people keeping Jewish people out of the Ivy League. That's where legacy came from. Legacy was a changing of the rules. It was a flex and a change so that people that way may have been unqualified, unqualified, could get it. Legacy does not demonstrate or prove qualification, but nobody wants to talk about those types of things.

So, you know, it's a pretty dishonest argument fundamentally, and it's a difficult one to hear because it's bullcrap. If you've ever been concerned about the, how could they actually express having concerns about DEI? When you look at this administration, you've got a DEI president, you've got a DEI Secretary of Defense, you've got a DEI, oh, excuse me, sorry, Secretary of War, you've got a DEI Justice Department, and you've got a whole bunch of DEI judges if DEI is negative people that don't necessarily qualify, okay? You know, they're okay with doing that as long as it's theirs. All right, folks, for months we've talked about fan base, the Series A raise to focus the rate about $17 million. to really expand a social media app.

Lots of things going on. And guess what? Just one day left before the crowd fund end. Joining us right now is the founder, Isaac Hayes III. Isaac, glad to have you here. So the goal was 17 million. I saw the other day you had a post. Where are you at now?

Is it 15 million or have you raised more? 15.5. We've raised about $331,000 just today. Gotcha. So, yeah, it's a, we've got to. got one day left. And the thing that you've constantly talked about it, and we talk about this all the time, if we talk about

stock market, when we look at these individuals who invest in companies, first of all, people don't realize when you're in the stock market, that company goes public. So, you've already had people who invested early, and then when it goes public, if it blows up, they make a whole lot of money. There was an example you used of a guy who invested, what was it, five grand

in Uber or something like that? Yeah. Five grand, Oregon Michaels put $5,000 to Uber, in 2010 and in 2019 and the company went public is $5,000 is worth $24 million. And so the reality is what often happens is that as African Americans I mean I'm sitting here

iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPhone I'm looking at Charger, I watch all this sort of stuff like this. I'm looking at DJI equipment. Well guess what happens is we are early adopters. We use all this stuff but we are never the ones making money as equity owners. We are consumers of products.

Absolutely. And when it comes to things like social media, we are the number one consumer of these products, and we push these platforms to trillion-dollar status. You know, Facebook is right now. Meta is a $1.8 trillion company with a T, like with a trillion dollars in 20 years, it's become a $1.8 trillion company, largely because of the innovation and talent. and creativity of young people in black culture primarily, but no one ever really got the call to invest in Facebook in 2004, right?

The 2004 Facebook crowd was Peter Thiel, who owns Planteer and who's a big Trump supporter. And, you know, those guys are the ones that are worth billions of dollars, you know, 21 years later. And so with fan base, I wanted to build an infrastructure just as infant as Facebook, but then scale it to a multi-billion-dollar company. But this time, the general public can have an opportunity to invest in it, right? So what Peter Till has done with his billions is take his money and work against the benefit of

black people on a platform that black people help build. So what really makes the social media platform valuable are the users. And so the technology is really something that takes capital to build. But we are the essence. And we are the soul of social media. And so if we can do it on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, we can do it on Fanbase. But before we do, let's invest and own that platform. So then when we go public or we get acquired, then we have multiple Peter Thiel's that are involved.

But they're black people. There are people that believed in Fanbase before everybody else. They're investors that came in early. Even at the small amount, the minimum amount of this round of $399. If you think about Fanbase going from a $160 million company, which it is now, which is amazing, but just say $160 billion, which is still 10 times less, like I said, than what MET is worth now,

10 times less, five times less of what Instagram is worth now. That's still a thousand X return, right? So that's in theory or in possibility, someone putting $399 into an investment a day and six, seven years from now being able to make $39,000 off their investment. And we can do that. We have the ability to do that. We got AI technology.

We have coding involved. that we can use the AI. We built a brand new algorithm. So this is the time when all these apps have spent the last year telling black people that we don't want you. We don't want DEI. We're ending all our initiatives.

Cool. End them. We're building microdramas. We're building a social media platform for the entire world to use. And it will be diverse and equitable and inclusive all at once. We also want people to download the app.

So explain the people exactly what fan base does. So fan base is social media through the lens of black ownership. And the reason why I say that is important is because we've maxed out on features. I don't think that we're going to get any new features. I don't think another social media platform is going to come out and innovate video, audio, or photos, right? We maxed out on those.

What the difference is is monetization and ownership. So fan base allows anybody that uses the platform the same way you would use Instagram or TikTok or YouTube to have subscribers from day one, still free to use, and people can tip you for your content. So the videos and the photos that you post on Instagram, on fan base, you can make 20 cents, 30 cents, a dollar, $5, as much as people feel like they want to give you for the content that you post. And then, again, people owning the platform.

It's a social media platform. And so there's always going to be new apps. We've seen pretty much the death of Twitter the last, you know, a few years with Elon Musk taking over X. And we're seeing the transition of TikTok become, you know, the TikTok of a true social with, you know, with Trump and his industry. individuals purchasing, acquiring that platform.

So we know it's about to happen over there. So we're going to need new spaces. We're going to need new platforms. And so if we're going to need new ones, this time, let it be owned by the users. And then make sure that black people have a space of equitable visibility in the platform because the algorithm is not going to work against black people on fan base. It's going to work on behalf of all people. And that's what doesn't even exist on social right now.

Questions for the panelists. Mustafa, you first. You know, Isaac is good to see you. You know, if we look back five years or, you know, we go five years into the future and take a look at Fanbase. What do you hope is accomplished in that moment? I hope in five years fan base has completely absorbed all media. And what I mean by that is I hope in five years that you actually have to log into your Netflix account or you can log into your Netflix account through Fanbase. You can log into experience content through fan base.

but by doing so, you'll be able to experience content in a different way. Audio rooms, clipping, sharing, DMing, all these other things that you can do because social media is the new television. And so I want us to take advantage of the fact that if you don't think that social media is the new television, you're sadly mistaken. Everybody is going to be watching all the content. I'm talking about the stuff that you're looking at on Disney Plus and Netflix and Hulu and DirecTV.

All of that stuff is going to be watched and absorbed and viewed inside of a large community, a large social network. And so that's what I see the vision for Fanbase being. Randy. Randy? It's good to see you, brother. I'd like to say that I am an early investor in Fanbase, not big, but there. And I'm also a content creator and have an account on Fanbase.

So I believe very much in what you're doing. What I'd like to ask you is, what do you think is, why do you think some people are hesitant to be, participate in fan base. Do you think that there is an issue with our minds being colonized that we don't quite easily adopt when one of our own does something big and different? No, I think it's a combination of capital and dopamine, right? Like the platforms like Meta and TikTok have spent an enormous amount of research understanding what triggers the mind to be excited and want to stay on the platform. And that's disability and views. And so one

of the things that people say when they first get on fan base is, oh my God, I'm not getting the same views that I get on Instagram or TikTok. And I'm saying, yeah, of course, because those platforms are multi-billion dollar platforms that sync a lot of money and technology into hooking you into using the platform.

And so then on the investment side, we've never been here before. Like I said, I ask anybody to count on one hand, count on three fingers. You got Black Planet, you got Fanbase. Name another one. Name another like Black founded social media platform

that has come anywhere close to fan base or Black Planet in 25 years. And so we've never been here before. So people are also worried about the unknown. I think what's going to happen, though, is that people are going to be forced to move to other platforms simply by the way that they're going to be treated. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health,

even running back Bijon Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure. I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game playing for your mental health at love your mind playbook.org.

Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Zers in jail. The progressive media. whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm gonna take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target

that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories

in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride

who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is,

you can decide who takes home the 26thiHard Podcast Awards, podcast of the year by voting at iHeartpodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. And some people will still remain on platforms like TikTok, but I think that people are going

to be, uh, get a root. awakening come 2026 about the plans of the current administration and the people that acquired TikTok of what they want to do with it. And this is the perfect time. Like this is the time to once again, these companies have spent the last year saying we don't want diversity, we don't want equity, we don't want inclusion. What they count on is somebody not building an infrastructure that can absorb all that diversity and accept all that equity, you know, and include all that inclusion into the product. And that's what Family says. They're counting on. one to come to a platform like fan base and they didn't count on me to build something like

fan base. So that's going to be the big surprise to them in 2026 is, oh, because when the microdramas take off, when the black microdramas start going crazy, all those same companies are going to come try and lure all of us back. They're going to say, hey, we want diverse microdramas. We want diversity. We want equity. Yeah, because there's millions and billions of dollars behind it. And when you see how much money you're losing and people are using a platform like fan base and advertisers are coming to fan base because they want to reach black audiences, they want to reach diverse audiences. Then the whole conversation is going to switch because money, this is all about money to a lot of these major corporations. But this time, the money is going into the hands of the users and the

investors. Well, and as Jeff Carr said here, the black people, bring your eyeballs home. In the reality is, we make these platforms massively rich by virtue of our eyeballs and our creativity. So how about we do it on the platform? that is not just only for us. Anybody can join a fan base, but if we invest in it, we can actually build up our sales with all of our amazing and incredible talent.

Joe, I'm sorry, Joe, you ever ask the question, right? Yeah, no, I haven't. Thank you. Brother Hayes, good to see you, blessings. Let us know what someone who may not have looked at a fan base in the last year or so, what can they see now that they? didn't see this time last year?

You can see we built a brand new algorithm that we've been working on since July. We just rebuilt content migration. So when you go to fan base, it's easier to migrate your content from Instagram and TikTok over to the platform. What you cannot see

on the back end is the talent we've been able to hire. It costs a lot of money to hire really great talent. Hold on, no. No, stop right there. I think you to repeat that again because I need people to understand the person who is sitting here watching and there's a whole bunch of

Negroes who've been shitting on fan base, bitching about stuff don't understand that meta, that Twitter, that Instagram, all these platforms, they put in to three, four, five, $700 million, a billion dollars into staff, engineers, all that sort of stuff. And so it's a whole bunch of stuff. And so it's a whole bunch of us expect a black-owned platform to operate just like those platforms.

And no, don't nobody want to ask, well, what was the level of investment that went into it? Meta was hiring engineers from Google. Google hiring engineers from Apple, all this sort of stuff like this here. And as I always say on this show, if y'all want quality, it costs money. It don't just happen just because. Now, go ahead. Yeah, we've been able to actually hire some things. talent from Meta.

You know, we have a product owner that's part of the company from Meta. I have two amazing advisors that used to work at Meta senior, senior level black executives that were at Meta and Snapchat. And so we've been able to get better because those have led to us finding a young black man who's going for its doctorate in mathematics. Shout out to Quincy who helped train our algorithm. So you have a young black man understanding that as we train an algorithm to recognize, you know,

images and faces and features that it's not bias against black people, right? And all these things matter. Like, these are really, really important things and they don't understand that. But Roland, you said something like so important and you just kind of glossed over it, but we-

Oh, I ain't gloss over it. Hold on. No, listen, this is what you said. You said, like, think about this. Every time black people download and use applications that are owned by white or Asian people and make them the most successful companies in the world. And on the back end, right, somebody white or Asian owns those companies. They sit on the cap table.

And my point is this is like this time, I guarantee you when our talent, wherever our energy, wherever our culture, wherever our talent is, those people will come. So this time, when they come to fan base, right, the people that own fan base look like us, right? They look like us. They talk like us. They sound like us, right? And they believe like we believe.

And so, and they will use those products the same way. You're telling me right now that if the NBA had all black, black owners, that they still wouldn't come see black people play basketball? No, they wouldn't. They would absolutely still come. But the problem is that that ownership piece is so hard to get to in the very, very beginning. You have to think about that. You have to strategize about that.

You have to say, before I leap, I have to look and plan. And so before we blow up another social media platform, I was like, this time I'm going to build something. before we blow another one up, but we're going to blow anything up, we're going to blow up our own stuff. And so this has been a really, you know, a calling on my life,

a real big challenge. I'm really happy about what I've, what I've been able to accomplish. It's purpose-driven. There's a lot of energy and effort that goes into the entire team that helps build a platform like this. And the investment side

just brings it all the way home. I think, like, you know, people never get an opportunity to invest in startups like this. But I promise you, between now and the rest of the year, You were here people running up parlays on prize picks and talk about playing the lottery. That's out of billion dollars and going to Vegas and gamble.

And they want you to do that. They put primarily black faces in front of these commercials that tell you to gamble. I'm no shade to anybody that gets paid to advertise to gamble. But every time I see a commercial about gambling, I see Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Jamie Fox, Drewski, Joe Button, all in Beast Mode. I see all black faces telling you, no, go over here. here. Spend your money over here. Parlay, gamble, do all the blue collar gambling, but leave the white collar gambling, which is investing. Leave the white collar gambling to us. Let us invest in the invidians and the apples and the Microsofts. Those are the things that I'm talking about.

Well, and the thing that I'll say when I made that point, and I've said this numerous times, that black people, we are great at making non-black people rich. I mean, our track, record is amazing. Whether we're talking Hollywood, whether we're talking music, whether we're talking anything. And what I need our folks to understand,

I need our folks to understand, is that if you use the fan base app, you can post photos, you can post videos, you can have subscriptions, you can make money, you can do all those different things. You've got audio rooms, you can live stream, and again, the zeal

by which we jumped on Clubhouse during COVID that shot that app to a $4 billion valuation how we have made TikTok sexy and Instagram sexy and Facebook and Twitter and not only that

when it was you made this point here and it was stunning these these black targeted and so-called black-owned outlets when they were talking about banning TikTok it was stunning to watch these black outlets

touting other apps out of China and other places that they ain't never heard but they actually saw it on some white site and totally ignoring fan base as if fan base didn't even exist. Yeah, I mean

I'm not even going to name the app but I just need our people to understand if there were black outlets touting these other apps to download if they shut down TikTok and we're totally ignoring fan base and some of these sites and platforms located right there in Atlanta

where fan base is based. Yeah, I think, again, we have a problem enriching ourselves beyond ourselves, but I do want to say something about black people have an amazing track record of blowing up other businesses. Let's not forget that there has been a systemic barrier in people getting funding,

especially like founders like me being able to get funding, to be able to build our businesses. Like, you know, there are companies that have been given hundreds of millions of dollars to pay forward. But here's why I made that point. I made that point for a very, I agree with that. But that's not why I made the point.

Because what I need our people to understand, I need people who are watching and listening to really understand the point I'm about to make. And I'm going to go back to our first year when we launched this show I was at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and it was a panel that Procter & Gamble was sponsoring it was the day before the Cincinnati Music Festival

and you had a brother who was sitting next to me Kid Capri was to my right and the brother who was a business owner in Cincinnati this is what he said he said y'all we really got to support Rolla Barton unfiltered. He said, now look, it's not going to look as good

as CNN. And I say I stopped by saying, I said, the fuck is not. That's literally what I said. I stopped him. He's like, no, no, no, bro. I understand. I said, no. I want you to understand what you just did. You just literally spoke

second class. I said, I've got 4K cameras in my studio. I said, I've got lighting. I've got this. I said, now, to your point, I don't do a billion dollars in profit like CNN. I said, but if you articulate to the public that I don't look as good, you are speaking second-class status into existence. It's no different than I had a brother, Isaac, when I was at TV One,

a brother said to me, Ronald, me going to get you a show. I said I'm I said I'm confused I got a daily show he said no no no I know about your TV one show but I mean a real show he said like on CNN or MSNBC

now I wanted to cuss his ass out but I froze and I said brother let me ask you a question I said are you aware that when when was this day, my God, he was the anchor at NBC News.

Not Peter. Williams. Y'all know. Brian Williams. I said, you're aware that when Brian Williams? I said, brother, you're aware that when Brian Williams come to D.C. to do NBC Nightly News? He sits in the same chair that I sit in.

He was like, I'm confused. I said, do you know there's a plexiglass table that's right next to the chair? and there's a bristle brush on top and there's a brush for white people's hair on the bottom. He looked to me like I was crazy. I said, you didn't realize that the set, the backdrop, the cameras, I said that when he's here, they send it down the fiber optic line to New York,

but when I host the show, we're sitting down in Denver. And he's like, I don't understand. I said, bro, we contract the studio from NBC News Channel. I said, so you just said, I don't have a real show when I'm literally using the exact same studio as NBC. And the brother just froze. And that's part of the issue here, Isaac, that there are black people,

there are black people who have hated on you in the app. He ain't got this, ain't got that. It don't have it is. Oh, this functionality, this ain't working, without realizing for a long time Twitter had bugs, Facebook had bugs, Twitter still got bugs. Facebook, Twitter had bugs, Facebook had bugs,

Instagram didn't always have 10-minute videos. I remember when instant, it was a thing, it was a big thing when Instagram went to 10 seconds or 15 seconds. Those things are a function of money, growth, money and growth

allows you to have more growth to invest in the product to make it better, to make it faster, to make it more efficient. That's how this thing works. I literally just okay today, $175,000 in expenses on camera and audio gear.

Guess what? I couldn't do that when I launched in 2018. That's what money and growth does. Absolutely. You know, what's interesting, is that what makes this challenging is that our floor is everybody else's ceiling. So I have to start where Instagram is today. I can't start where Instagram was in 2010 with just photos and filters, right?

I couldn't dare do that. I have to compete on a level with these other platforms of the products and services that they provide to consumers and users every day with one 100,000th of the capital to be able to do so. But I dare anybody to download fan base, create a profile, and see like, dang, he's been able to do this with, look, $24 million, $23 million, is nothing to scoff at. But when you think some of these platforms,

if we mentioned the four mentioned clubhouse, have raised $300 million, $350 million, and all they've given you is audio rooms that aren't monetized, that don't allow people to tip you, and they want you to pay to use the product. And we already have that in fan base plus five other core functionalities and subscriptions and tipping and an algorithm. We're like we're spinning yarn into gold over here.

We're taking this capital that we raise and building a product that's competitive to the current platforms that we're able to pull people over and have them use fan base. And that's the thing. When I see that the innovation is some of the things that we build over at fan base wind up over on Clubhouse or wind up over on TikTok or wind up over on Instagram, I smile

because I say, oh, money is the only thing that separates us. You need to take our ideas. You have the capital. And so, that's what this raises about. It's about funding the app to then scale it to another level and then raise 150 million and then build it better and then raise 600 million. And so my point is, but the people that are on the, when we raised, you know,

this 17 million, that's a different, that's a different valuation. The valuation of the company is going to continue and increase, which means the likelihood that you'll see a larger return for your investment in series D is way different than series A. And we haven't even really done a series A. This is all still seed funding. But this is the longest seed round in history because we've had to go to the people. But I prefer we do it that way because this is our platform. This is the this is the platform that belongs to the users. And something that I'll say to you, Roland, is it's funny how how the world has shifted so much to where they're on a user.

your side of defense now. Now, everybody's coming to YouTube. Some people don't have a choice. Some people have to create YouTube channels now. They don't have network television to go to. They don't have terrestrial radio to go to. They have the infrastructures of platforms that they build, and you had the foresight to go independent long before anybody else did. And that's why I always give you your flowers because everybody makes it not sexy to go independent, right? Oh, yeah, not a good show, whatever. But now, no, this is where everybody's headed regardless. You were just early. Fanbase is just early. We are visionaries. We are people that see

where things are going long before everybody else, and 99.9% of the people don't see it. So they'll mock it, they'll ridicule it, they'll make fun of it. But that 0.1% they put their money down. They invest. They watch. They support. They tell others. And then before you know it, everybody's

going to be like, I knew Roland was going to make it. I knew fan base was going to be a success. No, the people that know it are going to see it with their wallets. They're going to be able to talk that talk. Like, I invest it. No, I was there in the beginning when it was when it was lean and mean over there. And Isaac was doing these, these conversations were rolling. And now look where they are.

And that's the point about investing early and being an early adopter. Because people bite themselves. Everybody has that story. Man, I wish I would invest in Uber. Man, I wish I invested in Apple. Man, I would have invested in Facebook. Man, I wish I would have had a chance. This was your chance.

So I don't want to hear anybody in the community talk about, man, how come you ain't let people invest in fan base? What about the people? The time is now. Like, this is, you know, I'm looking at my world. watch you got you got a little time left when we hit when we hit 17 million dollars the raise closes regardless so so no matter what amount of time that is left in this round if we hit 17 million dollars tonight the raise closes right and we like i said we raised in in a day 300 and almost

$335,000 just in today right and that's the day before this is the day before the round is closing so I tell people not to wait tell a friend make it Christmas gifts tell everybody that you know that We need to support and build because in 2026, you know, I'm taking no prisoners on the way that black culture is handled and treated because these apps have told everybody all year long, we don't want you. And we beg anyway. We don't want you on our apps and we beg. And I have no time or no energy for any of that in 2026. So we're on our own, be on our own wave in 2026. Indeed, indeed.

All right, folks. So if you, first of all, one, download the app, fan base, go to that. Apple store, go to the Android store, download it. But if you want more information, how to invest. And again, that was somebody, I did, okay, there's somebody out there. I didn't bring her name, and the problem is, y'all, I don't know even know how to reach her. She sent me a $399 out of check for Fanbase. Y'all, that's not how it worked.

You can't send me money. Okay, you can't do it. You've got to go to startengine.com forward slash fanbase. StartEngin.com forward slash fan base. All the information is on there. It closes tomorrow. What time tomorrow? Is it midnight?

Is it 5 p.m.? What's the time? It's midnight. It's midnight West Coast time. So it's technically 3 a.m. Eastern. So it really closes on December 18th at 3 a.m. Eastern.

But West Coast time. So y'all, that's it. We've been talking about it. We've been running promos. At the end of every single show, we talk about it, for months now. So y'all can't say, I ain't know. You can't say, I ain't have a shot.

Now what's the minimum investment, Isaac? $399. Okay. All right. So again, y'all, and again, look, there's no guarantee that the investor will pay off. But here's what I, to Isaac's point, we spend a whole bunch of money on stuff that we have thrown out a year or two later. But the opportunity to be able to build and grow and see your investment payoff is critically important. And, yes, a lot of us been buying a lottery tickets.

And listen, I don't spend no money at a casino. If I'm going to gamble, hell, I'm going to gamble on a golf course. Well, I know what my skill set is. Hell, I know what I can do. I think we're appreciative. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. All right.

Final point to the panel here. And Mustafa, I'm going to start with you. Man, I see this so often. So many black folks who literally will drag and crap on black-owned companies. It ain't this, ain't that. And, man, we will give white folks shot after shot after shot.

And folk got to understand. You cannot grow and get big if you don't have capital. I would say this here when I sit in these meetings and they go, well, you know what we really need for black-owned companies, we really need more investment. I said, nah, I'm good. I said, I ain't got no debt. I don't want

I said, I don't need investment. I need contracts. if I get contracts, I can grow. I say contract money is the same as investor money. Actually, it's better because you ain't given up equity. But that's what we have to recognize that we have to look at how business works and the ability for us to be able to invest in something that will pay off bigger down the road is stuff that we normally don't never get a chance to do. That's just real.

I love that quote that says bet on black. I mean, we bet on so many other things. I'm so blessed my father at a very young age with myself, taught me about how important it is to utilize a stock market, to utilize investment, to make sure that you have exponential growth that happens over time. And I'm just one who believes that if we say that we love the black community, then for those who have done the work, right,

who've built the infrastructure, who have thought critically about whatever the entity is, then we should support them. And by supporting them, one, we're doing the right thing and helping to uplift our communities, but we are also helping to build wealth inside of our communities and for our families. And we are always talking about the wealth gap that exists inside of our country. This is an opportunity through investment to actually make sure that we are shrinking that and one day eliminating that and also making sure that generation upon generation of the folks who come after us have what they need to be able to continue to thrive,

not survive, but to thrive. So, you know, folks, do your due diligence, do your research, but make sure that you are investing inside of our community and our entities. Randy? The only way we get power is if we build up our economy. You know, we, many of us as black users on these social media sites and things, we're oftentimes being silenced. We get put in Facebook jail,

just by simply talking about our issues. Our voices are always diluted, are completely silenced. And it would be power when we have our own site and someone who wasn't scared about us talking about our issues. Just like you have power rolling in owning your own network, you can cover the stories that matter to us. You don't have to worry about being silenced or our message diluted. So we absolutely need that power.

And, you know, we're so patient with other people. I think about how now we're spending $1,200 on an Apple iPhone and we're getting updates every month because it has bugs in it. It doesn't quite work. We go to McDonald's. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now?

Okay. What's first? Smokey bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stirred with a shovel. Wow. You sound just like. him. Then he said, if it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on Smokeybear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires.

Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media,

but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is,

You can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at iHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com.

Order isn't right. So we need to understand and be patient as we do get capital and we build up and build our sites and our products to be better and better. Joe. Is Joe there? All right, Joe looks frozen. All right, we'll figure it out. Let's go to our marketplace segment and roll it. Talking beauty, self-care, celebrating our melanin.

That's right, Cocoa Teak is a subscription box created just for black women and women of color delivering curated beauty, hair, and wellness products right to your door every single month. Cocoa Teak founder and CEO Dana Hill Robinson joins us from Marriott, Georgia. Dana, glad to have you here. So where does this idea come from? This subscription box that comes, like, is this what it is? comes every single month? Yes, yes.

Sometimes it comes in a tote bag. This is one of our tote bags that we did for the Boho collection, which is also being offered, and then sometimes it'll come in an organza bag. But I started Cocotech in 2013 to provide a platform for women of color to discover products that are curated especially for them. Every month, you'll get five to seven full-size products that range from hair care, skin care, makeup, everything under the sun that pertains to self-care. And a lot of times, you know, women say to me, oh my God, this is just a present to myself because so many women don't make themselves a priority. And so co-cotech is that

gift yourself to put yourself to remember to practice self-care and to prioritize yourself. So I'm looking at it here, so we've got this, an extra long 60-inch satin wrap, and the rent is over to salivating. We've got collagen, supreme mask. We've got a couple of these in here. We've got, we've got edge control. Yes.

We got, let's see here. What is this called? Double-take. scoped and what is this? It's a highlighter stick. Okay, all right, a highlighter stick.

Got it. We've got a couple of those. What we got here? What's this little bit of thing right here? Jelly juice? What's jelly juice? So that's a really beautiful lip gloss.

Kind of like a cherry lip gloss. So there's a lip gloss and then also a lip scrub as well. Cool. We got all I need serum? Yes. This serum just, takes care of everything under the sun from dryness.

You want some glow to your skin. You want to get rid of those wrinkles. This takes care of everything. Cool. Alice, questions. Randy, you first. Well, you know I do. You're right about this.

I absolutely love this idea. I'd love to know, are there levels of the packages you can receive? Like, is there a deluxe package and a premier package, or is there just right now one level? package that you can get? Yeah. So right now there's just there's one package. And every month you'll get anywhere from five to seven products, although this one box actually had 10 products in it. And that was one of our mega boxes. But all of the products are full size generally. Every now and then we might do a travel size. But I love to spoil my subscribers and my customers by giving them the full

size products so they get to immerse himself in the full experience. Mustafa. Well, Ms. Hill Robinson, congratulations on everything so far. I guess I'm the science guy right now on the show. Could you talk a little bit about your products and how they're developed and, you know, I'm sure they're healthy, but I'll let you say that. I'll let you talk about that. Sure. So I don't actually, these are not my company's products.

So I actually work with different brands, different brand partners who supply the products for the box. Now, generally, I'm very, very concerned with the ingredients. I take, you know, I make sure that they're mostly toxin-free because so many products these days have ingredients that will over time hurt you in terms of, you know, they say hair care products have all kinds of ingredients that may cause cancer and things like that. So a lot of the products that I've included in the in the box are clean products that you know are formulated

to work but at the same time are not going to damage your health well folks if y'all want to actually see now also so the monthly subscription so afford this what is it every month it's $30.99

every month and like I said it's all full-sized products we also have products the one box that we have is our Boho takeover box. And this is if you have braids, this box has five full-sized products with everything under the sun that you need to take care of your braids. You have your Boho Fresh. This is from Jamaican Mango and Lime, this company. So you have your Boho Fresh, which is a nice cleaning spray, but also it's fragrant. So it's going to

help with, you know, keeping your braids smelling fresh. We also have the detangler. We have a braid wash as well. Now, a lot of people don't want to wash their braids because they're afraid they're going to mess them up. But, you know, you have to wash those braids and keep them fresh and keep them clean. And this is a foam. And so you're able to go in there and spray this on your braids without disturbing, you know, and making them frizzy. And then we also have the flexi. foam as well. Once you've washed it, you can lay down your braids with the foam. And then we

have a scalp oil. So you've got to take care of your scalp while you have those braids. And this is great because it has a nozzle. So you can really get in there in between the braids to nourish your scalp. All right then. Well, again, folks, if y'all want more

information, go to shop blackstar network.com. Listen, Christmas is coming up real fast. If y'all want to get this, give someone this is description as a Christmas gift. Go to shop blackstar network.com. Pull it up, shop blackstar network.com. You actually see Cocoa Teak. It's right

there on the website. You'll be supporting black owned businesses. You'll be supporting Dana's business. You'll be supporting our business. And so go to shop, blackstar network. com. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, folks. We went over time. Let me think Mustafa. Let me thank Randy. Also, let me thank Joe.

Shout to Randy. Randy just celebrated her birthday. And so you know she's been out there, acting a fool. So, Randy, happy birthday. And I think Nola's birthday was on Monday, I believe. Nolan's birthday was on Monday. So shout out to her as well. So y'all appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Hey, folks, if y'all want to support the work that we do, please join our Breed the Funk fan club. You want to contribute to be your cash out. It needs to strike, cure a code. See it right here, Bob left-hand corner. That's for credit cards as well. PayPal's Rmartin-Martin-un-unfiltered.

Z-M-Miltered. At Roland S-Martin.com. Rolling at Rolidmanman-Smartin-Miltern. Check some money order. and make about payable to Rollin Martin Unfiltered. P-O-Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 2,003-7-0196. Download the Blastard Network app, Apple Phone, Android-The phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You want to get a copy of my book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their mind. Available at Bookstores nationwide. Get it online. Get it at Bookstores as well. Get the audio version I ran on Audible. If you want to get our Rolling Button Unfiltered,

with BlackSutnetwork swag. Go to Shop Blacksutonnetwork.com. T-shirts, who it is, wallard, mugs, all kind of stuff, shop, blacksuton network.com. All of these products you write and see right here, we're going to add some to the stack right here. All these products are black-owned companies

available at shop, blacksuddenedwork.com. Go to the site, support those businesses. And as I said, download the app fan base. You got until 3 a.m. Eastern on the 18th. If you want to invest in fan base, after that, y'all ain't on me. start engine.com 4 slash fanbase

Start engine.com 4 slash fanbase Folks, that's it I'll see y'all tomorrow right here. Roll it on unfiltered. Oh, hold on, before I go, let me go ahead, kill the music, please.

Before I go, let me see this here. I got this yesterday and so let me do this here. I'm going to let me air drop this here. Shout out of sad news. Charles Robinson. Charles worked for Maryland Public Television.

I think we actually had Charles on the show once. Charles was a good brother. I knew him through NABJ. Absolutely great brother. He also was a Phenomena Alpha brother as well. Charles passed away yesterday in Maryland. He also was the 19th editor of Alpha Phi Alpha is the Sphinx magazine from 1991 to 1993. And so definitely wanted to give him a shout out.

again he was a really really great brother Charles was always Charles always had a smile in his face he was always talking trash golf games sucked he's always talked he's always talked trash about golf but we I would always see him at NABJ but I see him in Maryland hadn't seen him in a while so condolences and this is a funny

just to you understand how crazy Charles was Charles came to me he was like man he said I'm sick and tired of him my wife call your name in our bedroom I was like what he was like yeah she's always watching your show talking about go rolling, go rolling. And, you know, every time I see Charles, I was like, Charles, your wife still calling my name

in the bedroom? We were crack up laughing at that. I'm talking about, because he didn't want to tell him the story. So condolences to his wife, to his family. Again, we will miss Charles. He was a phenomenal alpha brother. He was a phenomenal journalist, hard

worker in the National Association of Black Journalists. And so condolences to Charles and his family. Folks, I'll see you tomorrow right here on Rolla Martin Untfield. Howell? Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn.

No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says, Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... Smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey, bear.

Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the ad council. The social media trend is slanding some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online

in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is you can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible.

There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.