#RolandMartinUnfiltered - #BlackStarNetwork presents: The State of Our Union | #RolandMartinUnfiltered

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

3.4.2025 #BlackStarNetwork presents: The State of Our Union | #RolandMartinUnfiltered ✨Get your "Don't Blame Me ... I Voted for the Black Woman" tee and #FAFO 2025 tee TODAY #RMU Merch 👉🏾 https://rolandmartin.creator-spring.com/ #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 #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. We'll be right back. Our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Well, today is Tuesday, March 4th, 2025. Coming up on the special edition of the Black Star Network, we're going to be, of course, covering the joint session of Congress speech by the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump.

He returns from the scene of the crime where he tried to overthrow the government four years ago in order to keep him in office. We're going to break down, of course, what has been happening in this country since the MAGA mayhem descended on the country. We have a number of folks to be talking with, including labor leaders, civil rights leaders, business leaders, talking to millennials, political activists, political consultants, CBC members, you name it, we'll be discussing it, talking about the state of our union, how African Americans are being impacted by the folks who are now leading this country. It is a lot we're going to cover over the next five hours. And, of course, when Trump speaks, we don't cover the lies live on this show.

Bishop Dr. William Barber will be giving the state of our union right here in our studios. It is time to bring the funk on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' It's a go-go-royale Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin

Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martel Martel Folks, welcome to the Black Start Network, our live coverage of the joint session of Congress speech happening tonight in two hours. We are two blocks away from the White House that is now occupied by a twice impeached, criminally convicted felon who is consistently lying and shaming this country. Why are we covering the state of our union?

Because when you look at what has happened since January 20th, it has been a vicious assault, not just on folks who do not align with MAGA, but specifically African-Americans. Donald Trump, his co-president Elon Musk and all of his minions came out of the gate attacking DEI as a reason for 67 people dying in a plane crash at DCA Airport here. You've seen the attack on civil rights. You've seen them firing fellow workers. You've seen them specifically targeting anyone who talks about the issue of race and diversity and inclusion. You've seen a Fox News anchor become a secretary of defense, replacing a retired four-star general in Lloyd Austin,

come in and literally fire the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he's an African-American. in Lloyd Austin come in and literally fire the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he's an African-American. We have seen a vicious attack, lies being spread. We've seen folks who are being terrorized, federal workers taunted, individuals saying that they frankly don't deserve their jobs. And what this says is that we right now are a country that has serious, serious issues. Now, Republicans are excited and happy

of what they're seeing, but they're so scared to death of constituents that they even are saying that, hey, don't have any more town halls because they don't want residents, they don't want constituents putting pressure on them, complaining about what is happening in the nation's capital.

But this is not just an issue what's happening in Washington, D.C. Understand there are federal workers all across this country. The decisions made by Elon Musk and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance impact the world. We see cuts in USAID

where people are literally dying as a result of these decisions. And what do you hear from the so-called pro-life folks like Franklin Graham and Tony Perkins and others? You hear absolutely nothing. We're showing their hypocrisy. So for the next several hours, what we're going to be doing is focusing on the state of our union. We're going to be talking with folks in a variety of areas, speaking to the issues that are at play.

What did I say last month? If MAGA wants to defund black America, we see an all-out assault on civil rights, on economic rights. We are seeing an attack on DEI, on core supply diversity programs happening in corporate America. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars that are being impacted in black communities. We're seeing HBCUs also under assault, programs that are being cut. We're seeing grant programs. I was talking to a nonprofit leader just last night telling me that their program and their events are being decimated by these various cuts.

One bank that was in as a sponsor of a gala pulled out a week ago simply saying, we're gonna rescind our invite. And so what we wanted to do was really crystallize this and put folks in the same place to talk about what is going on, but also to offer a roadmap. There's so many people, and I've talked to you all. I've seen you all across the country as I've traveled this nation, stopping me in airports and stopping me on the streets of San Francisco, also in New York, also in

Charlotte and Houston and other places. People saying, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I'm scared what's going on. And so our goal is to be able to provide you a roadmap and some information that you need to be able to confront what is happening. The reality is Donald Trump won the election. He will be there for the next four years.

Republicans control the White House. They control the House. They control the Senate. It is clear Republicans do not want to hold this man accountable. And so what you have are legal experts taking them to court, federal judges rendering rulings. But you have a lawless, a lawless administration. And it's literally said they will ignore the orders of federal judges. And so what we are witnessing, and people say, well, we've never witnessed this. And yeah, this generation has never witnessed this. But the reality is, when you look at the history of this country, we've seen this before. We've seen the likes of Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson, two of the most racist presidents

ever to occupy the Oval Office. And so history shows us what is going on. There's no doubt when Bishop Barber delivers his State of Our Union address to us tonight, he's going to speak to those very issues, giving us a sense of what we can do. Because for too many people, I keep hearing that they're powerless. People are saying that, well, I don't know what I can do, that we actually have no power. But that's actually not true. About 30 minutes ago, my phone rang,

and it was the Wisconsin State Democratic Party talking about the Supreme Court election that's taking place in that state on April 1st. If Democrats win that seat, they have a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court. You've got critical statehouse races. You've got gubernatorial races in Virginia, in Michigan, in New Jersey. You've got critical state house races. You've got gubernatorial races in Virginia, in Michigan, in New Jersey. You've got local races happening. So what I've been saying to folks,

we cannot spend our time talking about 2028, who's going to run, who's going to be the candidate. We can't talk about 2026, will Democrats reclaim the House or the Senate. The key to how do you focus on what's happening right now, right in front of you to be able to stop what is going on. And so what I want everyone watching over the next several hours to understand is that you have a role to play in this. You cannot be quiet. You cannot be passive. And this is also clear. Those of you who are watching and you've got millennial and Gen Z and Gen Alpha sons and daughters and nieces and nephews and friends and cousins and fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, we must be challenging them not to check out of this process because this is game on for everybody.

We have seen the last two weeks the town halls take place where Republicans have been scared to death because their constituents have been fighting back. Donald Trump comes out and says these are paid protesters. These are people who are paid agitators. But no, these are regular, ordinary people who don't want to see Medicaid cut, who don't want to see these jobs cut. You've got veterans who are being laid off. You've got people who actually voted for him who now realize that they are also being impacted by these cuts. This is a moment when regular, ordinary people must be willing to stand up and shout from the rooftops

and put pressure on elected officials and let them know that whether they are Democrat or Republican, they are expected to do what we want them to do. And that may mean taking it to the streets. That may mean going to those town halls. That may mean calling and writing and emailing them. But it also means you doing your part to stand up and let them know that we're not going to be silent. And so our goal, very simple, is to empower you with information, to give you an understanding of what is happening,

how significant what is happening, and for you to also then begin to move and take action. So many of you, and I've been getting text messages and emails, and I've been having folks saying, man, my grandmother sent me this, saying to watch your show. Well, guess what? Just like we've been sending all of these text messages

around, that's called mobilization and organization. And so we can use the exact same power to affect what is happening in this country. And let me remind somebody, every single one of you have two United States senators, and I don't care, because I'm from Texas, and just like in my state, both are Republican, but it doesn't matter. Every single one of us, we're still constituents. And so we should be putting pressure on them, letting them know that we are not happy with what is going on. They don't serve one party. They serve all Americans. And so this is not the time nor the

moment for us to be checking out of a process. This is a time for us to be checking into a process. We're going to begin our conversation tonight with labor leaders, folks who are under assault by Donald Trump, by MAGA, by Republicans, folks who claim they support the working class. But they're not actually advocating on behalf of the working class. When you look at the actions they are taking. So we're going to go over here and start our panel right now. So let me introduce, first of all, April Verrett. She is, of course, the leader of the service employees at CIU. April is joining us. Do we have April? April, how are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm all good. Glad to

have you on the show. Thank you so very much. Fred Rampman, Secretary of Treasury, AFL-CIO. Fred, you there? Yeah, I'm here, Roland. Glad to see you, sir. In studio, Randy Irwin. He is the national president for the National Federation of Federal Employees. Randy, glad to have you here. And Becky Pringle, she is president of National Education Association. Becky, glad to have you here as well. April, I want to get it started with you first. When we look at what's been happening, when we look at these attacks on federal workers, how does it feel to literally have leaders, people saying these people don't deserve paychecks, these people should be scared to death, these people, how they are being condemned.

What do you hear from your members? Because what I'm hearing from people, they were absolutely scared to death with what is what is happening right now in this country. Absolutely. There is so much fear and uncertainty and chaos, which I think is the point of the actions that you're seeing come out of this administration. But folks are also ready for a fight. Folks have not worked for the federal government for five, 10, sometimes 40 years. And that's after serving their country. We have to remember there's a large percentage of the federal workforce that are veterans that served our country in that way and wanted to continue to serve our country in this capacity.

And we're talking about people who work at veterans hospitals and the folks who make sure your grandmama get her Social Security check on time. To hear them called, you know, all out of their name, talked about crazy, is simply not right. And so it's not just a time to hunker down and be afraid, but it is a time to stand up and fight and show all of the American people that this federal workforce is ready to stand up and defend, not just their jobs, but the services that the American people depend on. Brian, when, I'm sorry, Randy, when you hear that, what I keep walking people through is

that federal workers deliver services. Right. Yeah, folks, whether they're Democrat, Republican, Independent, people say, oh, you know what, we can just get rid of those folks. Yeah, but when you need something, it's amazing, they want folks to be there. When natural disasters happen, they want FEMA to be there. When their planes are late, they're complaining what's going on. When you have too much air traffic, they're like, okay,

what's going on with the FAA? We could go down the line. And I keep saying that people are going to have to, and I hate to go there, they're going to have to experience pain to understand the role that federal workers play. And this is a moment to push back on the folk with the level of attacks that we are seeing because those federal workers are public servants. They have families. They have kids who are in school. They are homeowners. Sure.

They're contributors to our economy. But also, they are working on behalf of regular, ordinary people. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, federal employees are middle-class workers. Nobody in the federal government is paid excessively. And like you said, they perform so many essential tasks for the American people. I agree with you that, you know, with this whole Doge effort and what Trump's doing, you know, they're so hostile to federal employees.

They're really making everybody scared, forcing a lot to leave the federal government. But it won't take long. We're already seeing it. We've got about a little less than 10 percent of the federal workforce that has either been forced into resignation or fired. About 175,000 federal employees right now. People are really going to start feeling the pain with just that much. But DOJA's goal is 75 percent of the federal workforce. If they got anywhere near to that, this country would not resemble the country that we have today. And I'll just mention also, 30% of federal workers are veterans.

And since we've lost 175,000 federal workers already, that means over 50,000 veterans, middle-class veterans, no longer have their jobs to feed their families. That's not right. Fred, this has a direct impact on African-Americans. One in five federal employees are African-American. When you look at why is that important? Because for so many decades, we were frozen out of the corporate workforce. And so the corporate workforce is about 10 or about 10 percent. So it's double on the federal

level. So if you start talking about these massive cuts and one in five federal workers are African-American, if you take a million federal workers, that's gonna be a hundred thousand African-Americans. And we talk about the ability to be able to impact families. We literally gonna have an economic calamity in black America. That is what we are confronting.

No, you're exactly right. And that number is staggering, but we must remember when we look back, it was federal government, it was service employees, workers, people that work for states and local governments, you know, that really helped build the black middle class in this country. And black workers are being impacted in a way that is, you know, we have never seen before in terms of using weapons as furloughs and layoffs and firing people in order to really, really do damage to black people, to our communities. We are literally seeing the destruction of the attempt to destroy the Black middle class in this country. And when I say middle class, I'm talking about Black people

who work hard every day, who have, you know, been able to provide for their families, people who've been able to purchase a home in this country, middle-class Americans. And they achieved this through hard work, to go on to work every day, to being dedicated public servants. And we're seeing that being destroyed by this unconscious effort, an erratic effort by, I call them President Musk and Donald Trump. So, you know, we're in a moment here, Roland. We're in a moment that you and all your viewers know that we all must stand up, we must speak up, and we must do everything that we can in order to turn this around. Becky, the attacks are not just happening in the federal government. We're seeing what's happening in states.

Look, I'm born and raised in Texas. We see this massive voucher battle. It's actually a scam. Look, I created school choice as a black choice, and I can call and raised in Texas. We see this massive voucher battle. It's actually a scam. Look, I created school choice as a black choice, and I can call a scam a scam. And what we're seeing, the constant attacks on teachers, on educators. We're seeing it on workers. And to listen to Republicans literally say that they want trauma inflicted. Lisa Murkowski literally said that when Russell Vaught was going before, she literally said, we want to inflict trauma on workers. Yet when they start

making cuts in Alaska, hold up, wait a minute, what are y'all doing? And then, of course, the senator in Alabama, when he started making cuts to the National Institutes of Health. Hey, wait a minute. That's impacting Alabama research hospitals. And then we started seeing it in Republicans in other states. So I'm sitting trying to understand, did they not think that their folk were going to be impacted by this? Apparently, that's what they thought or didn't think. Roland, and, you know, we're at the National Education Association, of course, looking at thousands of jobs being lost, especially in those critical areas, making sure that

our students—who have been marginalized forever, historically marginalized—our students who are living in poverty, our students with disabilities, they are the ones at highest risk to be in larger class sizes so educators can't give that one-on-one attention. We're talking about the people who have dedicated their lives to teaching and nurturing and nursing and counseling and driving and feeding the students of America who are not going to have the resources to do the jobs they love. But the question we have to ask is, who is going to suffer the most? And we know who they are. It's the children, the students of America.

And by the way, when I say children, I'm talking about pre-K through higher education. Right now, we have a student teacher in Nebraska who wanted to become a teacher, but is at risk not being able to fulfill that dream because of the federal grants that have been cut. That's happening all over America. We did not fight so long to have an equitable, inclusive, caring community of learners and educators to allow this president to dismantle all of that. And what did Linda McMahon do on her first day?

What did she do? Our department's final mission, and we know what that's about, to fulfill Project 2025 and dismantle not just the Department of Education, but to destroy public education in this country. Let's be very clear about what's happening. So what do we do?

Fred, what do we do? People, I get that everywhere. People say, I'm scared. I don't know what's going on. Where do we do, Fred? What do we do? People, I get that everywhere. People say, I'm scared. I don't know what's going on. Where do we start? I'm depressed. I don't want to watch the news. I want to check out. And if people want to understand how serious this is, right now, I mean, I just checked, literally, there are about 65,000 folks who are watching us live. We just, that's the largest live audience. We're actually up to 71,000 folks who are watching us live. That's the largest live audience. We're actually up to 71,000 now.

That's the largest we've ever had. That speaks, yeah, the most we ever had was 29,000 when the Tyree Nichols video came out out of Memphis. And that speaks to people saying, I want a sense of direction. What are we doing? So, Fred, what is AFL-CIO doing? What do you want the people watching and listening to be doing and understanding? Well, first of all, I think we're at a moment where, as people, the AFL-CIO is really rallying behind not just our workers,

but we're rallying behind our communities throughout this country. And it's time for us to come together as a religious community, as a community of faith, a community of civil rights, a long history of fighting for rights and justice. And the labor movement must be part of that. We have been engaged in numerous efforts to try to fight this off, but it's not going to be won unless we come together as a people and understand that we're all at risk. We formed the Department of People That Work for a Living as our counter to DOJ, where we're telling people stories and giving people the opportunity to tell their stories. And we're also engaged in numerous lawsuits around this country. The AFL-CIO has filed six lawsuits. We're on breach with three others. So we're a party to nine different lawsuits in this country. But the key thing, Roland, to this is people must

come together. This is a moment that we must coalesce our forces and we must do whatever we have to do. If it means getting in the streets, if it means really confronting our members in Congress, we need people to go to these town hall meetings and we need people to really make sure that their voices are being heard. But we must do it together in unity

with those segments of our community that have always been the spokesmen and spokespeople for social and racial justice. April, SEIU has never been afraid to unleash their folks on the streets. Y'all were very active in the election as well. As I said in my open, I need people to understand you can't do anything about 2028 and 2025 or even 2026. This is a day-by-day mission. And it's not everything that's based about D.C. It's what's happening in your state, in your city, in your county, where you are, because these cuts are impacting everywhere, not just federal workers, but also the services as well. And we need to be rallying people to understand

this is not a moment where they can sit out. So, yeah, lawsuits are being filed. Labor's doing their part. But what do you say to that regular, ordinary brother or sister who's watching the role that they can play in trying to change what is happening. Yeah, Roland, now is not the time to do what we usually do between elections. We pay attention, you know, starting the Labor Day before an election in November, and then we tune out,

right, for another two years or another four years. Now is not the time to tune out. Now is the time to, as Kendrick Lamar said, to squabble up. We have to stand up and wage a fight for the cornerstones of our democracy. I believe that folks need to, as Fred's talked about, you know, staying in your congressperson's face, right? But now is also the time to talk about a vision for the America that we want, right? Not just what we are against. It's time to talk about what we're for. We are for that increase that we are still waiting for in the federal minimum wage. We are for the types of reforms that are necessary for people to be able to come together to form worker organizations like the PRO Act. It's time that

we continue to press forward on jobs programs and programs that end poverty and not just protecting Medicaid, but expanding the health care safety net, not just protecting what our children have in the Department of Education, but calling for an expansion of it. I think we have to talk to people's imaginations, right? Working people in this country voted for lower prices. They voted for more stability. And what they are getting is chaos. And so we have to remind people about what they said they wanted and invite them into a fight so that we can actually go out there and get it. Becky, what are you hearing as you travel and what are you saying to people?

First of all, I'm listening. We often forget that part of organizing. Organizing one-on-one is to listen. And what we're hearing from not only educators and parents, our natural allies, but the students themselves are rising up to, because they understand the impact that these cuts will have on them, not just the class sizes, but the after-school programs, the arts and sports and all of those things that help to make them those well-rounded humans that are prepared to be the leaders of a just society. So what we need folks to understand is their power. They are not powerless in this moment. They can take action right now all over this country, thousands and thousands of places across this country

today, educators, parents, community members, students came together for Protect Our Kids actions, and we're not done yet. So we're inviting everyone to text ACTION to 48744 so they know how they can get involved in actions that will continue to take place. We have to hold people accountable. And who was Shirley Chisholm, right? She said, if I'm not invited to be at the table, then I'll bring my folding chair, right? So we don't care if members of Congress will not meet with us in their offices. We'll be outside of their offices. We'll be at our schools. We will be calling them out for them making sure that Donald Trump's billionaire friends get more

and our kids are getting less. They, all of us, have a role to play. All of us need to know what our power is. All of us need to take action. Control room, who's on FaceTime? Okay, so give me one second. So before I go over here, Randy, hold tight one second. I'm going to get a final comment from Fred in April because we need to pull up Congressman Troy Carter. We got a number of different CBC members going to be coming on. And so I'm going to start with you, April.

Again, we are now about 82,000 folks who are now watching live. And all this in the chat is, what do you want us to do? They're asking, what do you want us to do? Yeah. Call your congressman and tell them don't cut Medicaid. Call them and tell them don't cut education. Reach out to your local CLC, the labor council in your area. Find out what you can go out to do, not just to support workers, but support community.

And join mailing lists. Sign up for text threads. I guarantee you we are going to see more ways for people to take action, roll out over the coming weeks and months. And we just need people to stay present and stay vigilant and most of all stay hopeful. And as Becky said, we are not powerless. Right. We have power. And that is exactly what they are afraid of. She asked the question, who stands to lose the most? Ask yourself the question, who stands to gain?

And it is not everyday working people in America that stands to gain. Right. It is the billionaires, the oligarchs that is trying to wrestle every bit of the resource of our country for themselves. And we have to put a stop to it. April Barrett, we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Fred. Fred, go ahead. Your final comment. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I lost—I lost for a minute. But look, I want people to really, really utilize this moment to go back to what April said. This is an opportunity for us not to fight for a draw, to come out to the America that—before Donald Trump. But this is an opportunity as we get into this fight together, all of us, then we need to use this moment as an opportunity to fight for the America that we want to have. For an America that is equal to all of its citizens,

for an America that respects people, we have to make sure that this moment is not lost with us not being able to take advantage, to unify, to come together as a people, to come together as workers, to come together as a community, and make sure that we never go back here again. We have to fight for the America that the American people deserve, an America that's going to educate their children, that's going to offer opportunities to its citizens, and America that's going to deliver on the promises of democracy. We need to use this moment to make sure that we fight for victory.

All right, Fred, we still appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, we're going to be pulling up Congressman Troy Carter in a moment, of course, from New Orleans. And let me also say, again, up to 86,000. I told folks I wanted to hit 100, again, so we're up to 86,000. I told folks I wanted to hit 100,000 so we're on our way. So y'all spread the message.

And while you're there, be sure to subscribe to our channel so you can be informed because we do this every single day. We've been doing it for the last six and a half years and we're going to continue. Randy, I want to go with you. How are you talking to the family members?

Because the workers are one thing. But to me, this is a moment where those wives, husbands, partners, children should also be letting folks know that when you, and I've seen some of those videos, that when you attack my dad, you attack my mom, you're actually impacting whether I can go to college. You're impacting my life as well. And so, you know, how are y'all communicating that to the families of workers? Well, you know, this Elon Musk and Trump, they're such hypocritical villains. They make it really, really easy to talk to children. You know, it's really easy to say, here's the richest

man in the world going after regular working people. And because of that, these critical services aren't being done that the American people rely on, that veterans are being hurt, and that regular middle-class people don't have the jobs that they need to be able to provide for their families. And so what does that—and kids get that. They understand. That means they're not able to feed their families. They're not able to think about going on a vacation. They're not allowed to, they're not going to be able to go to summer camp this year. All those kinds of things.

And I've been having those conversations with my kids, and I know all our members have been as well. We're going to be, is Congressman Troy Carter ready? All right, Congressman Troy Carter from New Orleans. Glad to have you here. Congressman, there are so many people who are scared to death about what's going on. But the thing is, we kept telling folks, you know, Axel did a story in 2021 about Project 2025. We spent lots of time explaining to people that this is real. When I was in San Francisco, the brother stopped me at the NBA All-Star game. He's like, well, he said, but we didn't think they were actually going to do it.

And I literally said, what the hell are you talking about? They said they were going to do it. And so this is a wake-up call for a lot of people. And look, in your state, and I covered extensively, it was too many black folks who sat at home and did not vote in the last state election that elected

Jeff Landry, that elected a MAG attorney general. And now people are saying, I can't believe they're doing this. But this is what happens when too many of our people sit at home and do not participate in the electoral process. Congressman? Yes. Go ahead. Roland, thank you very much. I appreciate it. You're absolutely spot on. Elections have consequences. And when people stay home, they don't participate in the process. You just voted for the worst person on the ballot. dealing with the work of Project 2025 that we traveled the country,

throughout the state of Louisiana, all over the country, telling people that this was the plan. And for Trump to say during the campaign, he never heard of Project 2025. He doesn't know anything about it. He certainly has been a quick study, because now you see the execution and implementation of every part of Project 2025 unfolding itself right before our very eyes. This is the president who said, if elected, on day one, the price of eggs would go down. On day one, the price of groceries would go down. On day one, we would not have a war in

Ukraine. Not only has the price of eggs increased, not only has grocery prices increased, the war in Ukraine has gotten worse. To watch a Democratic president nearly pledge his allegiance to a dictator, to Vladimir Putin, who has no use for America or Americans. We have to wake up. We are looking at the demise of our democracy happening to us in real time. We must push back. We must line up. We must be present. We must be vigilant. I'm telling you, as the first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, that we are not going anywhere, that we're going to continue to fight. We're going to stand

up to this president. We're going to stand up to this unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, who sees this as a $200 million toy that he's purchased. Well, guess what, Mr. Musk? We are not an etch-or-sketch game that you can just scribble around and shake up when you made a mistake. These are people's lives. This is our democracy. This is our economy. These are American people, and we are not going to sit back and let you unilaterally dismantle. In Louisiana, we have some 20,000 federal employees. The National Finance Center, which is in my district, is the housing, the location where some 700 federal employees payroll is processed. Yet, we're... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

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and the Ad Council. Finding Mr. Musk wanting to cut those very vital services, cutting them out. In fact, the person that is my guest, Ms. Shante Powell, is a recently fired employee of the National Finance Center because she was a probationary employee. And they used that loophole to get rid of her. But when I tell you what her job task was, her task was to be an enforcer and an auditor to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. So the question that begs to be answered is, if your intent is to root out fraud, waste, and abuse,

why would you fire the auditors who are in fact doing that? Her assignment prior to that was she worked with the Office of Inspector General, once again an agency that is tasked with rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse. They saved the taxpayers $100 billion last year. So why would you get rid of that office? So this notion that you're doing it for good government, that you're doing it because you want to rid us of fraud, waste, and abuse is a farce. It's a red herring.

They're doing something else. Musk is lining his pockets and continuing to get federal contracts worth billions of dollars. Congressman, I got to ask you this here. We just saw an election where Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden, numerous Democrats talked about that Donald Trump was a threat to democracy. You had J.D. Vance, who once said he was Hitler. And here's the issue that I have. So, for instance, when he speaks tonight, I'm not carrying him live. I don't call him president. I call him the twice-impeached,

criminally-committed felon, con man-in-chief, because he doesn't respect the office. And I can't use that title. But I didn't have a fundamental problem with, frankly, with a number of members of your party choosing to go to this speech, treating it like it's normal. And I understand folks who say we have a responsibility. But for me, if I'm going to sit in that chamber, I'm going to turn my back to him or I'm going to walk out. He should be talking to empty seats on one side. And so how, on one hand, can we

normalize this individual, but then say what's happening is not normal? What do you say to the folks who are watching and listening who have a problem with that? Well, let me tell you, and I got a different spin on that, and I respect and appreciate what you're saying. But here's the spin that I, as well as others who are going to sit in that chamber. The people of Louisiana gave me a seat in Congress to show up and to do my job. And I'm not going to let Trump or Elon Musk or anybody run me away. I'm not going to stand up for him. I'm not going to clap for him. But I'm not going to be run away by him or his ill-fated threat to the American people. I am here to fight for justice, to fight for democracy,

to fight for the people that sent me to Washington. And Trump or no one else is going to take the seat away in the United States House of Representatives that the people gave to me. And I'm going to go there with my righteous indignation to challenge this president and to challenge Mr. Musk and to challenge my Republican cohorts to do the right thing. And they will not cause me to run, to flee, or to give up the responsibility and the privilege that the American people, and more specifically the people of Louisiana, have given me to fight for them. Yes, I'm going to be on that floor and I'm going to fight for the people and I'm going to stand in front of this president and defy the lies that he intends to tell. Well, I'll say this here.

When Donald Trump came to the National Association of Black Journalists, I did MSNBC and I said, if the people in that panel don't correct him when he's lying, y'all going to hear somebody from the audience saying you lying. And then when that actually happened, people were saying, who was that talking? And he was referring to, I said, he was talking to me on the front row. So, look, the Republicans stood up and said, you lied to Obama. We saw how they acted with Biden. And I hope we know he's going to lie.

So I hope when he starts lying, y'all are real audible and letting folks know he's lying. Brother, you can count on us. You can count on us. Wait a minute. You can count on us doing You can count on us. Wait a minute. You can count on us doing the right thing. All right, well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that sign. And whoever made the sign was smart

because I noticed that's a black and gold sign, right? No, it's not. It's blue and gold, man. It's blue and gold. That looked black and gold. But I noticed you are wearing red and white. No, no. Let me help you out here, Congressman.

I know you're a capper, but these colors, these are my high school colors. Jack Yates High School in Houston, crimson and gold. That's the colors of my show, just so you know. Crimson and cream, and I respect you for having the wisdom to choose good colors. know. Crimson and cream and I respect you for having the wisdom to choose good colors. The only crimson and cream I go with is Delta Spigot Theta. All right, Conchish and I appreciate it, thanks a lot. God bless you, my brother.

Keep doing great work, man, we're proud of you. I appreciate it, thanks a lot. Randy over here like, I don't know, wasn't here like I just walked in. Hello! So, if you know about the Divine Nine? What's that? Yeah, he don't know, you don't know about it Divine Nine, he'll know. Randy, we're going to give you a quick lesson a little bit later.

Becky, Congress was talking about fight. And the thing there, that's what people want to see. And I'm telling you, they don't want to see the go-along, get-along. They want to see folks standing up, fighting, and demanding change. And I hear that everywhere I go. That's exactly right. And that's exactly what we're saying to folks, too. It's not only, yes, we want to see that from our elected members of Congress and other elected officials, not just Congress. One of the things that we know from what this president has done and what he has said in implementing Project 2025 is that we have to—in this moment, we have to make sure

that every elected official, from school boards to state legislatures to governor's offices, we need to use this moment to increase the rights of students and people from marginalized communities. We need to increase union rights. That's what we need to be doing right now. So everyone in an elected position has a role to play. And as people, we have to remember that power. But one thing I want to emphasize that April said earlier, this is so important, is hope.

People have to believe they can do it. That plausibility of the possible, that it is possible, even in this environment where they have the president, they bought the presidency and the House and the Senate and the federal court, the highest court, that we still have that power as people to not only speak up, but to hold them accountable. Before I go to Randy, a final comment here. When I sent out a text message, I forgot who I sent it to.

I really did. About our broadcast, and I had said that, turn the networks off. I said, let's hit 100,000. Last couple days, I've had more people hit me, and I got to give it up for all the black grandmothers. I've had more people hit me. And I got to give it up for all the black grandmothers. I've had more people hit me saying, my grandmother

has been putting it in the group family chat. I've had y'all, I am not lying. I've had 25, 30 people hit me saying, my grandmama sent me saying, we got to watch the show. I was chatting with actress Robin Lee who now lives in Paris.

She was like, you should've put our family chat. And I literally said, I said, you know, our goal, we wanna hit 100,000. So everybody who's watching understand, we're now sitting at 103,000 folks who are watching live. A broadcast. And again, they want to know, again, what to do.

Ranj, at that particular point, folk, this is a moment where you have to fight. They hold the power for four years. We know at least two years, depending on what happens in the midterms. And so the only way people can really step up is they have to express their outrage to what is going on. Yeah, I agree with you. And I agree with the earlier point that you made, which is we have to be fighting for right now. It's not a midterm congressional thing. It's not next presidential. We have to put the brakes on them right now because they are collapsing pillars of

our government. And we don't know what our country looks like if we don't stop things right now. And so I think we have to really use every opportunity to educate people really on the facts. And the thing is, they've given us the facts. People just don't know them as well. They kind of have a sense of what side they're on. And I have a feeling that folks on the left are definitely waking up. Union people, minorities of all kinds are waking up and getting involved. But I think we also have to have a concurrent strategy, which is to really convince these folks in the middle, politicians, some Republicans in Congress that don't want to be associated with the things that Trump has,

because we need them to kind of switch sides, at least with their voting, if not their, you know, changing parties or something. Because if we don't have a check on this president who is violating the Constitution six days a Sunday, we need folks in Congress to do something. And so we've got to educate people, change, you know, the president's polling is going down like crazy. Thank God. But we need more of that, and we do need to have a centrist strategy so that we can bring some people on our side and vote against this president and hold him accountable for all

the terrible things that he's doing to this country right now. All right, then. Let's give it up, y'all, for Randy Irwin, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association. I appreciate both of y'all being on the show. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.

Folks, we'll do a changeover. Y'all can go ahead and grab one of the mics. Go ahead. Don't worry about it, doctors. We do TV a little bit different. Y'all go ahead. I've been talking about the economic impact that MAGA wants to defund Black America. And what we're seeing, what we're seeing,

don't walk in front of the camera now. Now, if you're going to do this, you need to walk behind me. Don't walk in front of the camera. And what we're seeing, what we're seeing, don't walk in front of the camera now. Now, you're going to do this. You need to walk behind me. Don't walk in front of the camera. And so I've talked about MAGA wants to defund black America. And what we are seeing are those attempts. And so when we talk about what's happening economically in this country, that thing is real. I'm going to bring up several of our folks in just a second. Let me just remind folks, we want you all to be sure to support us by clicking subscribe on our YouTube channel. Also, we want you to support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club.

Listen, our fan base, you have made this possible. Your contribution has made this possible. More than 35,000 donors since we launched six and a half years ago. Of course, if you want to contribute to our fan club, the goal is to get 20,000 of our fans on average contributing 50 bucks each a year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. If you want to contribute via

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RolandMartin.Creator-Spring.com. Go to the BlackstarNetwork.com. All right, folks, let's talk about economics. This is a huge issue. You see the stock market has been tanking today because of Trump's announcement regarding tariffs against Canada and Mexico. And no shock, his folks are already walking back saying he may pull those back tomorrow. Well, that's how stupid you are when you do those things because it's going to

be a counterreaction. Not only that, we, of course, we saw projections of a 3% increase in our GDP prior to when Biden-Harris was there. Well, because of the actions in the past month, now the Atlanta Federal Reserve is suggesting a negative 2 and a half percent when it comes to the GDP. All of this, though, impacts us. We've got boycotts against Target, against other companies. Jamal, that's the past of Jamal Bryant's Target Fast begins tomorrow. They've already got more than 100,000 people signed up for that. All these things are happening. And so how do we confront what's happening among African-Americans and the changes that are being made? And so we want to bring in our panel right now. Joining us right now virtually, always glad to have him, is first and foremost,

we've got Alfonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. We have, of course, Morgan Harper. Morgan is the director of policy and advocacy for the American Economic Liberties Project. Getting mic'd up in the studio is Ron Busby, senior president and CEO of U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. We also have Ryan Wilson, who's founder of The Gathering Spot. Glad to have all of y'all here. Of course, we also have Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia. Congressman, I'm going to go to you first. And that is when we talk about,

again, economics. And I said this early on. If you look at what they are doing, they are trying to attack the civil rights and the economic rights infrastructure that will have a devastating impact among African Americans economically. If we start losing, last year, $10 billion in federal contracts wasn't 2%, but it was the most ever. When you look at federal contracts, state contracts, county contracts, city contracts,

school district contracts, the tack on supply diversity in corporate America, we could very well be looking at the losses of several billion dollars to Black America as a result of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and MAGA. Well, you know, thanks for having me on, Roland, and you're exactly right. You know, the bipartisan infrastructure deal threw out $1.1 trillion into the economy. Black firms have always struggled to get a piece of that money.

The Inflation Reduction Act pumped an additional billions of dollars into the economy. That money is being spent, is being allocated to businesses across the land, including those owned by Black Americans. And we may not have gotten our fair share, but we were getting something. But when Trump came into office, Roland, of course, the first thing he did was to impound monies that had already been authorized and appropriated by Congress. He just stopped the spending and left a lot of firms that had already expended money and were getting reimbursed with monies that he impounded. So it has been a real hardship for many businesses across America, particularly African American-owned businesses. And then on top of that, federal jobs have been something that

Black Americans have gravitated to, and it has produced generations of economic viability. About 20 percent of the people who work for the federal government are Black. We are 13 percent of the population, but right at about 20 percent of the employees of the federal government. And so we're getting hurt there with the firings, with the mass firings that have taken place throughout the federal government. And, you know, it's not just black people who are suffering economically now. We're seeing the markets starting to react to what is happening out there with the deportations, with the tariffs, you know, prices going up, the economy, the stock market is tanking because there's no predictability now in terms of what will be happening tomorrow. And so two successive quarters of negative GDP growth is what is a recession. And that is what we're headed to in this country

based on Donald Trump's policies. All right, Congressman Hank Johnson, certainly glad to have you join us for this conversation. And it's clear our people want to hear what to do because we're now at 114,000. So, Congressman, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. I want to go to Alfonso. David, Alfonso, I know you have a hard out. This is real. And I was warning people during the election,

folks, don't play with this. This is why you can't stay at home. And we are already seeing it. They are going after everything civil and economic that has impacted black people. And we need to understand that it's real. It's happening. Corporate America, they're buckling. And so we've got to put pressure on them to say, don't you dare fall back because you still want our money. Roland, you're exactly right. And I think one of the things that we have to remember is that there are attacks on entrepreneurship.

There are attacks on education. There are attacks on employment. And all of those attacks are coordinated. There is a coordinated strategy that's being designed to dismantle the pathways to economic mobility and self-determination for black communities. These efforts are deeply interconnected. So if you lose your job—and you know the federal employees are now being laid off—if you lose your job, it makes it that much more difficult for you to get to that place of economic mobility. When we dismantle our education system—and we know that it's fractured as is—but when we dismantle our education system, guess who's going to suffer the most? Black and brown people. When we talk about entrepreneurship,

we know that a small business, 20 percent of small businesses close after the first year. But if you're a black business, 80 percent of those businesses close within the first year. We need to make sure that we are investing in black year. We need to make sure that we are investing in Black businesses. We have to make sure that we're supporting Black media, such as what you're doing here, Roland, supporting Essence, supporting what Angela Rye is doing. We need to make sure that we hold elected officials accountable at the local and state level as well. This is just not a federal game. What's happening at the federal level is disproportionately impacting black people. And we have to make sure that we are using our voices.

We are picking up the phone to call the federal officials, but we're also doing the same thing for our local elected officials because we have power and we have to make sure that we use it. And if we are not supporting black and brown businesses, if we're not supporting black media, if we're not reaching out to our local, state, and federal officials, we will ultimately suffer the brunt of these actions. And as you know, Roland, I had the privilege of representing the Fairless Fund in federal court. This is two black women started a venture capital firm to try to help other businesses, and they were sued for trying to provide grants to other black women. They are directly coming for black communities and our ability to engage in self-help. And this is a huge problem.

You have trillions of dollars that are being invested in other companies, and black people get less than 1% of those investments, less than 1 percent. And despite that disparity, they're still suing these companies. They're still suing these charitable organizations who are looking to address that disparity. So we have to engage. We have to support the black infrastructure, as I call it, of organizations, of businesses, of media that are looking to actually push us forward in terms of economic mobility and self-determination?

In terms of black economic form, then what is happening? And I'm going to keep putting this to everybody because what people want to know is what do we do? What is black leadership doing? They're looking, the troops are saying we're looking for the plan from our generals. Where do we start? Yeah. So as you know, I run the Global Black Economic Forum and we are working with small businesses around the country. One of our partners is New Voices Foundation. They work with more than 30,000 businesses to make sure that they are scaling their businesses. We need you all to support those businesses. When we invest in those small businesses, we need to make sure the

community is doing so as well, whether it be Myel or Honeypot. We need to make sure you are supporting those businesses to make sure that they grow when we are investing in them as well. Second, at the Global Black Economic Forum, we have a series of panels and interactive activations, I should say, at the Essence Festival of Culture. It's the largest festival in the country. We need folks to use that as an opportunity to mobilize. It's in July of this year.

We need everyone to come out and mobilize. Why? We will have resources. We will have interactive panels. We will have information for the Black community so that we can mobilize for the fight going forward. Because we can't just simply sit back as we are being attacked. We have to make sure that we take action.

We have to make sure that we're engaging. And again, it's not just simply supporting Black and brown businesses and media. It's also taking those individual steps to make sure that we are using our pocketbooks to make sure that we are communicating our values. Alfonso, David, I appreciate Alfonso. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you so much, Roland. Morgan, I want to go to you. You're an economist. You look at these numbers and all we heard were Republicans criticizing the Biden-Harris economy for all of that whining and complaining. I understand inflation, price of eggs, things like that. But it was a damn good economy that recovered after the mess that Trump left. One month in, he's already destroying a damn good economy.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the most critical things to be discussing right now is what is the state of the economy? How good is it? How do we know? And I mean, you're exactly right, Roland, that a lot of the numbers that are kind of like the top line numbers, and we discussed this throughout last year and certainly leading up to November. If we look at unemployment and overall economic growth and the declining inflation rate, we're suggesting positive indicators. But I think something that we've also talked about since November is that some of those numbers aren't fully capturing the economic picture of the entire country and certainly not the entire Black community. And those are things like fuel prices and food prices, like eggs, that's getting so much

attention right now. So when we talk about what kind of plan we need going forward, I do think it's important that we're making sure we're getting the perspectives of everyone's experiences in the economy. And right now, you're right that, I mean, some of the indicators already, since we've had the inauguration, are not positive for us on the cost of living in particular, which was the main factor that a lot of people cited as to why they wanted to change. Whether or not that was a well-informed position or not, that was one of the reasons why people said they supported a change in administration. So, you know, it's important right now, in my opinion, to be very direct and specific about what isn't working in our economic lives. We've already talked about eggs and food, but utilities is another area that is certainly something that I'm hearing a lot from folks in Columbus to just increase the price of utilities and health care. I mean, you know, if we're talking about and I know your prior congressman was talking about Doge and efforts to reduce government spending.

The biggest source of government spending is health care. And we have not heard any plans about how to reduce the cost of health care from this administration. But that's certainly are things that we could do. There are very clear policies that would do something about it. And we need to make sure that our leaders in Congress and at every level of government completely agree with that, are aware of what those levers are to try to make these moves and reduce the cost of living. And also call the bluff of an administration that said it, you know, intended to be populist, that was going to try to address the cost of living, but we haven't seen any evidence of that to date. From the flu to turn my microphone off. Ron, I want to go to you here. And one of the things that we're seeing and I was telling somebody this just last night, we were having a conversation because a person said,

hey, you know, I'm not sure if, you know, these boycotts are working. And I said, no, I disagree. Because what you're seeing is you're seeing in this moment where people understand the power of the collective. And you're seeing, I mean, I got a call today of someone talking about how they're putting together a website of all the black businesses that have businesses in Target. They have a one-stop shop.

What's happening with TargetFaz.org, which starts tomorrow with Pastor Jamal Bryant. I mean, so we are seeing black folks say, no, no, we're going to be more deliberate in supporting black-owned businesses. They recognize what's going on right now. You know, in our chance to go around the country and talk to black-owned businesses, they recognize what's going on right now. You know, in our chance to go around the country and talk to black-owned businesses and consumers, they say, we voted unsuccessfully, but we came out in mass. Policy. We have created policies

that have moved our communities forward. One of the panelists before talked about the attack, but it's really the attack on the middle class. And when you start talking about education and housing and business, that are the safeguards for black people to create that middle class force. I have Republican friends and they're saying, well, Ron, the last thing you guys have is your spin power. So the U.S. Black Chamber, after the murder of George Flory, created the Buy Black platform, because, at that point, we were all looking at the community, saying, what should we do? What can we do? And it was, well, we will do banking black or we will spend black.

But we didn't really have a tool to be able to tell people, here's where you go. And so Jamal Bryant asked us to participate in the Fast Target to be able to say, hey, we're going to fast from Target, but, to say, hey, we're going to fast from Target, but at the same time, we are going to be intentional about our spend. And the U.S. Black Chamber was that organization that created that platform for Black-owned businesses and Black consumers to come together. Now we have a tracker that will be able to tell you how much money you're actually spending day to day with black firms.

There are more than 100,000 people that have signed up to participate in the fast. But more than 115,000 people have saying we're going to commit to spending money with black firms during this fast. It's not just about not spending. We can't spend our way out of this, but we can support each other through this. And that's why the BYBLACK.US platform is there to be able to make sure that just like the green book back in the day, we can support each other as well as know where it is to be able to be safe and be able to find products that we know and love. But one of the things I also want our people to understand,

because I get this a whole lot. I had someone say, well, that's only 100,000. I said, well, first of all, 100,000 is better than 90, which is better than 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 10. And I said, you have to start somewhere. And I said, so imagine if you were starting this on tomorrow with 110,000, 150,000 people, and then now you build from there. That's what the whole point is.

Ryan, you understand that when you talk about the gathering spot. It just drives me crazy when too many of our folk want to ask, well, we should have more. And I'm like, listen, I don't talk about the folk who don't show up. I spend my time focusing on the people who do show up. This is a moment where us to use, as Dr. King said in his final sermon in April 3rd, 1968, the power of the black collective. Well, Roland, no, I absolutely agree with you. And I think one of the things that we have to remember is that the math is actually on our side. So some of the naysayers that put that argument forward simply aren't looking at the math.

When we come together, businesses and communities feel that impact. So we cannot forget that. The tanning of America, as we've been talking about for now decades, that is actually occurring. And I think that one of the things that we need to make sure that we're doing is to get our pen and pencil out, because many of these organizations that have a position that feels counter to our community right now are going to be coming back to the table. They simply cannot get to the numbers that they need to without us. And we need to remember that at every single turn. Black folks' participation in this economy is mandatory at this point if you want to get to the place that you want to go to. So I'm uncomfortable, like a lot of folks, but at the end of the day, I know where the numbers are going to lead us.

Ron, go ahead. The other thing that you've got to take into consideration is the other companies that are on that list that are walking away from the DE&I, they don't want that heat. They don't want that smoke from Jamal or other black organizations that are on that list that are walking away from the DE&I, they don't want that heat. They don't want that smoke from Jamal or other black organizations that are coming out. Which is why I need people to understand why you have to focus on one. Yes. Because if you all of a sudden, and I broke it down,

and I explained to people this, I kept showing it. Let me go ahead and pull it up again. And I do this all the time. And I saw, I heard Target, well, they announced it. Oh, well, you know, we've been, our price has been down. They're blaming the cold weather in February. And I do this, I want everybody who's watching, because I want y'all to understand this, because I'm always trying to break this down. And I have here one month. Go to my iPad, Henry.

This right here is one month. All right, now, if I go back six months, and if I show you on January 20, right here, on January 28th, on January, so Target announced on January 24th, they were getting rid of DEI. On January 27th, the Target stock price was $142.50. Today, the Target stock price closed at $117.14.

Y'all, that's a decline of, I mean, you see the number right there, okay? They're down 23%. Morgan, they can't just say, that's all is coal, things are rough. They are being impacted because black people are not showing up in their stores. They're not

buying online. And again, we keep this up. We drive Target's stock price down below $100. Trust me, there's going to be a reassessment of their position on DEI. And then if you're Walmart, you're the other companies, then we say y'all might want to be paying attention as well because y'all going to be next. Yeah, I mean, I love looking at the stock price as an indicator of just where the company is and what kinds of tactics are having an impact. And I certainly support both you and Ryan and what you're saying about and really all the panelists about the power of the collective

to come together and have that kind of impact on the economy. I do think it's important for us to note, though, is what would be an environment where we all just have to care a lot less about what these megacorporations are doing like Target? What would be an environment where we all just have to care a lot less about what these mega corporations are doing like Target? What would be an environment where we already have 10 other Black-owned businesses that we would be able to shop from and buy Black-owned brands, and we don't ever have to step foot in a Target if we don't want to? It does require reducing the power of big businesses over our economy and what we have seen so far in this administration and for prior administrations capturing our politics. And so, you know, we had congressmen,

we heard from Congressman Hank Johnson. He sits on the antitrust subcommittee in the House Judiciary and the U.S. House of Representatives. That area is what is necessary to break up these giants so that we can have room for all the small businesses that we'd like to take our money to, to really grow and thrive. It's not possible if we continue to have big businesses that are dominating every sector of the economy. And so when we're looking for what our leaders should be doing in this moment, what we should be asking for our leaders to do, it should be on the side of supporting small businesses and breaking up these large companies that have way too much power over us. Ryan, I'm going to go back to you. What are your members saying about these attacks on black economics? And what do they want black leadership to do? They want us to be very clear about what's going on. I think part of the strategy that we're seeing

playing out in front of us is that there's a lot of distraction, right? So every single day, it's just hard to keep up with everything that's going on. They want us to be very, very clear in helping to prioritize what actually needs to be being paid attention to. Beyond that, this season from a small business perspective is not about start. It is about scale. So I think Morgan's last point is exactly where we have to stay focused. It is not enough to be continuing to just encourage folks to just start a company. We need to be doing everything possible to get to higher heights. I saw a stat the other day that the vast majority, I think it's 95 percent of Black-owned companies, will not do even $5 million in revenue in a given year. That's a stat that absolutely has to change, because when you look

at the number of businesses that are employer firms, many of our companies simply just aren't able to employ anybody in the community. So they're looking for strategies and tactics to be able to scale their businesses, knowing that the only way that we're going to be able to resist is to do it together, but to do it at a scale that folks are able to meaningfully get to another place when the dust settles here. On the issue with scale, again, if you're gonna have an attack on federal contracts on state, city, county, school district, corporate, you're not gonna be able to achieve that scale.

And there were some people, I asked some people who were complaining when I said that last year was record $10 billion on the federal level, that wasn't even 2%. And they were complaining, I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said, of course we wanted to be 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%. I said, but we can't act like $10 billion is insignificant. So you've got to understand.

So we've got to protect the $10 billion. You've got to protect. So the reality is when we started counting the number, it was 1.5%. That was 2020. 2021, it went to 1.55. 22, it went to 1.61. 22, it went to 1.61. So we are progressing in the right way, and you don't think Trump understood that as well?

That's why he's saying we're no longer going to count the numbers. We're no longer going to disaggregate the numbers. Quietly. And what Biden-Harris did was they unbundled contracts. Unbundled contracts. The only Republican president in the last 30 years who unbundled contracts was George W. Bush. George Bush.

Every other Republican president bundled the contracts, making it harder for a black or minority firm to compete for those contracts. And on top of that, the largest contract that you can get under the SBA 8A program as a black vendor is $4 million. You can't build a freeway. You can't build a built.

You can't do a large contract at $4 million. But if I'm Native American or if I'm white and I got Native American friends, I can get a contract for $100 million. Wow. There are some policy changes that need to occur. So that's what we're fighting. If you're a black business, the cap is $4 million. $4 million, and it's been the same cap since the 90s. But if you're a Native American company, it's $100 million.

And if I'm a black firm, my length of time in the 8A program is nine years. If I'm Native American, it's perpetual. My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather could have been in the program and just passed the contract down to me and never have to rebid it. Wow. Those are things that we don't final comment. I'm going to go to each one of you, Morgan, you first. Again, people want to know, what can I do? What must we do? Where do we start? What do you tell them? Well, long term, I'm going to pick off of to pick up on what you all were just talking about, because I think it makes an important point. And this is what we should be demanding of our

leaders, is a really detailed understanding of what the heck is going on. And that isn't something that I think we're used to with talking points and the typical media. I mean, you create a platform, Roland, for us to have more in-depth conversations, but that is not the norm. And if we're going to create an agenda that's really going to take Black economic power to the next level, then we have to have a very detailed understanding of what's currently happening and what we want to see change. And then in terms of just, you know, anyone who's watching what they can do, I'm going to come back to my first point about being real. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer

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exclusive content subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts Sometimes as dads I think we're too hard on ourselves we get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else.

But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Really specific about what types of policies affirmatively we want to see happen. I think we're making a really clear case about why Elon Musk is corrupt, why he's using his position

to take advantage of getting as many contracts as he can that are in the billions of dollars. But affirmatively, what other policies would we like to see happen? Talking about entrepreneurship, I'm going to come back to health care, that every person in Congress, if they care about actually supporting entrepreneurs and increasing the bottom line for people, then they need to be breaking up health care monopolies and making it easier for us to control our health care costs so we can take risks and grow businesses and employ more people and afford to do that. I would love to see signs across the country that are saying, you know, immediately lower health care costs, immediately lower our utility bills. We cannot take this anymore. And that our representatives are taking that fight

to Washington, to state houses and to local governments, because there are policy solutions for at absolutely every level to address some of these things. Morgan Harper, we so appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Ryan, again, people are watching. We're listening. And look, we're up to 141,000 watching live. They want to know, what do you want us to do? I want folks to stay encouraged. We need to remember the tradition that we come from, knowing that that tradition is proud and strong and should be the North Star for how we will survive this time. At the end of the day, the math is in our favor. So, again, there's a lot of distraction that's happening during this moment. We have to be clear with one another and be in community with one another. This is not a time to be passive in our support. We have to find someone or a company or find a connection

point, right, in order to make sure that we are doing everything possible to weather this storm. But it is just that. The storm will run out of rain. Anybody that says that they are not interested in politics, remind them that politics is doing them, whether or not they are interested in it or not. And at the end of the day, though, stay encouraged. Our tradition, one that's powerful and one that, again, I think when it's all said and done, we are on the right side of history here. I'm very, very sad for folks that are going to be in pictures and videos years and years from now, and I think be embarrassed by the ways that their friends and family showed up, because what we're seeing right now is not going to play out well

in the long run. So I'm concerned, but at the end of the day, I'm optimistic. We'll get through this. Ryan Wilson of The Gathering Spot. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Ron Busby, final comment. Targetfast.org, buy black, B-Y-B-L-A-C-K.us. If we really are talking about saving our economy, we have the wherewithal, we have the tools, and we have the financial ability to be able to do it. When black people get together, we have the 16th largest economy in the world. What we've got to make sure is that we're being intentional, we're being transparent, and we're holding each other accountable. It's great to be able to say what the Republicans are doing or what somebody else is doing.

What are we doing? Check your brother. Check your mother. Check your siblings and friends, because this is a time when everybody's got to be included. The second thing, if you are a black-owned business, make sure you're onboarding your business and also look at mergers and acquisitions. We can't grow our firms quick enough. Right.

We can't get large enough in the amount of time that the contracts are presenting themselves today. So look to your friends. Look to white firms that are having the same challenges and say, you know what? Collectively, we can have a larger firm and go after some of these large contract opportunities today. We don't have to start businesses, but we better make sure that they have the scale. All right. Ron Buzz with U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. We're approaching 150,000

folks watching us live. We're going to go to a quick break. We come back. Our legal eagles, they are fighting the battle in the court to protect our hard fought gains. We will talk to them. We come right back. This special edition, the Black Star Network,

the state of our union. Reverend Bishop William Barber, he's actually on his way. He'll be here in about 25 minutes. And again, when Donald Trump starts speaking, we ain't listening from him. We're going to get the word from Reverend Barber on what we should be doing as well. We are doing it right here. We keep

it real. We keep it black. And that's the only way we do it. We'll be right now. Now, Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reid's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reid's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network,

for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you and the latest updates on the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of Black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern

at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. This week on the other side of change. Environmental disasters and systemic exploitation. From the wildfires in California to the unexpected snowstorms in the south. We are in the climate collapse. These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous. And it is black and brown communities that are often hit first and worst.

Watch us on the Black Star Network. So tune in to the other side of change. Coming soon to the Black Star Network. Well, y'all, when you're on that stage, and you're seeing two and three, four generations in the audience, that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all have become. Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break, and remember, I was watching this kid.

I could not take my eyes off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front row. Over on the right-hand side. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything. And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all.

We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying, seeing this young kid. Then you see, hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that see and hear our music and animation. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson I'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation.

Only on The Black Table, right here on The Black Star Network. How you doing? My name is Mark Curry, and you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered, deep into it, like pasteurized milk. Without the 2%, we getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. You bugger, bugger. All right, folks, welcome back to our Black Star Network State of Our Union coverage here.

We appreciate everybody who is watching. Pass the word, spread the word. We want to get up to 200,000. We appreciate everybody. I see all your comments in the chat. And a lot of things are going on. We're now in our second hour, of course. And then Bishop William Barber, he's going to be giving out the State of Our Union here in our studio. Initially, he was going to be in Philadelphia, but he's actually coming in. And so I was just texting him.

And so he has a word for us. We're looking forward to that. We, of course, are understanding the battles that are going on, and our legal eagles are out there doing the work as well. But before I go to them, I've got a couple of folks who are in studio. To my right, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Ohio. She said, now I'm good. I'll come by here. I'm not going to be sitting in the House chamber

listening to the twice-impeached, criminally committed felon-in-chief, Donald Trump, lie to the American people. Also joining us is the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin from Minnesota. I want to start with you, Congresswoman. First and foremost, why did you decide, you know what, I can't sit there and listen to that man lie? Well, because he lies. And I know for what he's done for the you know what, I can't sit there and listen to that man lie? Well, because he lies. And I know for what he's done for the people I represent, I felt I'd be a hypocrite tonight. But we are united as Democrats. And I went old school.

Martin Luther King Jr. used to always say, I'm going to leave some people behind to be on the outside, and I'm going to take some people on the inside. So tonight I have colleagues who are on the inside. But I have colleagues who are with me that we are not going to be on the inside. We're going to be with you. I have our chairman of the Democratic Party here. Jim Clyburn and I were streaming live earlier. And at nine o'clock, I'm going to have the Joyce Beatty show. And I'm going to speak to the Democrats and tell them why I am here protesting, because people are hurting. People are angry. People are frustrated. And they're saying, stand with us. So tonight I am demonstrating and standing with them because while it's the people's house, I don't believe he has a right to be there.

He hasn't earned a right to walk into the people's house after what he's done and continues to do to the people. He's returned to the sea in the crime. There it is. Ken, what I keep hearing from people, they say they want to see some fight out of Democrats. They are not happy with what they've seen from Democrats

in the House, in the Senate, in terms of leadership. There's been a change in leadership at the DNC. Jamie Harrison chose not to run. You were elected. And so what do you say to the people out there who say, I need to see something because they just feel as if that Republicans are just running amok and no one's really countering them? Well, look, I've been in eight states just in the last two weeks, getting the message out, making sure that the American people see that we're going to resist Donald Trump and the excesses of this sure that the American people see that we're going to resist Donald Trump and the excesses of this administration.

I'm really honored that Congresswoman Joyce Beatty has joined our team as an associate chair. We're going to be everywhere throughout this country standing up, resisting, making sure that people throughout this country know that we have their backs. When the stakes are this high for the American people right now, they need to see our party in this fight. We need to get ourselves off the mat, roll up our sleeves, let the American people know that the Democratic Party still is the champion for Americans.

And what we're going to see tonight is Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump does, which is he's going to pit one group of Americans after another. He's going to use hate speech. He's going to use vitriol. He's going to appeal to the worst of the American people and he's not going to do anything. He's not going to talk about one iota how he's going to actually improve people's lives throughout this nation. He broke every single promise that he made to the American people to make their lives better, to actually help them afford their lives. He's done nothing to actually help Americans and Democrats need to stand up right now, grow a spine, and fight back. And I'll tell you something. I've been proud,

Rowan, of our Democratic attorney generals, led by my friend Keith Ellison, of course, and many others. Aaron Ford, Tish James, so many, so many. You can name them all. But the point is, is they've been leading the charge, using the power of their office to push back against Donald Trump. I've been proud of our Democratic governors and local elected officials for building safe spaces for communities that are being targeted by this administration. And I'm really proud of our congressional members for actually using the power of their platforms and their offices to actually move public sentiment against this president. We're fighting back. We're going to continue to fight back.

There are a lot of Republicans who have been getting nailed at their town halls. And now you have the leader of the NRCC saying, hey, stop having town halls. Henry, go to my iPad. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said, that's a shame. If your Republican representative won't meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will. Hell, maybe I will. If your congressman refuses to meet, I'll come host an event in their district to help local

Democrats beat them. What are you saying to your other Democratic chairs? If these Republicans want to ignore it, are you going to say fine, we'll host these town halls? Absolutely. Because there may be Democrats in there, but also some first-rate Republicans. But I keep telling people, you're still a constituent.

That's right. And what I said is, look, whether you're in the Capitol tonight or you're not, I want all of our members of Congress to get back in their districts and do exactly that. Travel as Joyce is. Travel as other congressional members are throughout this country to get the message out. Hold those town halls. Give people. People are frustrated, and they are pissed off right now. Give them an outlet for that energy.

They need to be heard, right? And the Republicans are canceling these for a reason because Donald Trump's agenda for the American people is failing our people right now. He has every promise he has made, he has broken at this point, and we need to be there to fill that void. We've got Democrats ready to deliver. And the best thing you can do if you believe in the promises we're making is put us back in power. I'm here for one reason, to win, and so we can put Joyce back in the majority, and her and soon-to-be Speaker Jeffries can do good work for the American people. That's what this is about right now. There is a clear contrast between Republicans and Democrats. Once one of these parties speaks out of both sides of their mouth.

The other party is going to deliver if you put us back in charge. Before I go to my legal eagles who are nonpartisan, I do want to be a little bit more partisan with you, Congressman Joyce Beatty. What do you say—and I've heard this, and I've heard a lot of sisters say, you know what, we did our part, we tied, so we're just going to step back. And what I've said to a lot of people, this is not a moment to step back. I've been challenging millennials in Generation Z

and Generation Alpha. I'm like, no, no, no. Y'all have got to start making some deposits in the black bank of justice, because we've got folks who are in their 70s and 80s who did their part. What do you say to those people who said, I'm tired, and I'm just going to step back

and just let everything happen? Now, Roland, you know me. So when they come at me that I'm tired, and I'm just going to step back and just let everything happen. Now, Roland, you know me. So when they come at me that they're tired, I'll tell them, we don't have time to be tired. Fannie Lou Hamer wasn't tired. Rosa Parks wasn't tired. And so I looked at them directly, and I said, look, I'm crisscrossing this country to make sure that what happened to us in November doesn't happen to us in 2026. And sisters have been out there in the fight,

and the sisters that I know, we're getting more sisters, young sisters, win with black women. We're getting stronger by the minute. But I wanted to also echo what Ken said and to tell you, we just talked about this, a people's tour. I'm going to be a part of that, hopefully, in my new role. Our Congressional Black Caucus PAC has talked about it. So we have to bring our family together.

There is no time for complacency. There is no time for us to be tired, to give up. And black women have been the major base of this party. And so I'm going to say this. Biggest voting group, black women. Second biggest black men. Exactly. And so when we see, that's why

in part I'm here. You said to us, we need to show the folks and our constituents that we're fighting. We're going to go into those Republican districts that we can win and take back and we're going to do our own town halls there. We're going to meet with

those constituents there because right now Donald Trump's screwing everybody. He's screwed Republicans. We're going to meet with those constituents there because right now, Donald Trump's screwing everybody. He screwed Republicans. We have Republicans call in our office saying, I didn't know it was going to affect me. Like hashtag, we tried to tell you. Hashtag, you get what you vote for. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. Let me quickly do this here. I do want to bring in our legal folks. Janae Nelson, she's president and director of Council of the Legal Defense Fund.

Barbara Arnwine, President and Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director Laws Committed for Civil Rights Under Law. And of course, also Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Corporation. Oh, wait, wait. If we don't do all that tonight. No, I'm just saying. Now, come on. I'm just saying.

I mean, the rest of y'all groups, see me, y'all like. But I'm just saying, y'all like, y'all like, y'all like. Janae, I want to start with Now, come on. I'm just saying. I mean, the rest of y'all group, see me, y'all a'ight. Hello. But I'm just saying, y'all a'ight, y'all a'ight, y'all a'ight. Janae, I want to start with you, Janae. The battle is happening in the courts. Y'all have been, you know, dealing with some major fights. A lot of people don't see what's happening in the courts. But listen, it's real what's going down in the courtrooms across this country. Oh, it's very real.

And that's really where the first front of this battle is being fought. And it's not the last. It's not the only one. We absolutely need people power. We need mobilization. The courts must hold the line in the same way that they did in the first Trump administration, where the Trump administration lost more than a third of—or two-thirds, I should say—of all of the challenges against the actions and the overreach that it took. And right now, the Trump administration is facing 95 lawsuits, 95 lawsuits in 43 days of being in office. That should tell you something

about the lawlessness of this administration and how much there is an abuse of executive power. And if we really have a system of government where there is a separation of powers, you have Congress, you have the executive, you have Congress, you have the executive, you have the judiciary, ultimately the Supreme Court at the top, if that means anything anymore, we will see the Supreme Court ultimately step in and lay down the law quite literally against this lawless administration. If not, it is not worth the fabric on the seats of that court. It really isn't. And this is a crisis moment in our democracy. And I am expecting, and in fact,

we should all expect that the courts will hold the line. They must for their own integrity and for their own future existence. Otherwise, we will descend into complete anarchy, and that is no future for this multiracial society. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just to update, we had 151,000, so I want to thank all of y'all who are watching. I'm going to go to you, Damon. And again, it's every legal group who is filing lawsuits on behalf of federal employees, trying to protect civil rights, environmental rights. I mean, there's an all-out assault on the civil rights infrastructure. That's exactly right.

There's an all-out assault, and we're fighting back, and we're fighting forward. And as Janae said, we're drawing a line in the sand, and the courts have to stand on that line. You know, two things are happening right now. Trump is trying to weaken federal civil rights infrastructure, but he's also trying to weaponize it. And his Jedi mind trick is to actually say that all the things that companies do, that schools do, that workplaces do, to comply with federal civil rights law is now somehow

illegal. His blanket articulation of illegal DEI, there's nothing illegal about harmless anything that happens in DEI. In fact, what's illegal is what Trump is doing. He's violating the Constitution because his executive orders are vague and overbroad. He's violating the Constitution because he's violating due process, taking away grants that nonprofit organizations earned and that federal contractors earned. He's trying to take that away with the stroke of his

pen and the diarrhea of his mouth. We're not going to let him do that. That's why you see so many different lawsuits, different types of organizations, different types of individuals in different federal courts targeting different federal agencies' action. We actually had them covered like a blanket, and it's not going to stop. Barbara, they're trying to go after every civil rights office in all of these different departments. Yes. They've already announced they are withdrawing the DOJ lawsuits against fire departments and police departments for discrimination. They are not going to protect non-white people.

Not at all. And indeed, what people need to understand, this man is delusional, right? He actually thinks he's king. He actually thinks he's a dictator. He actually believes that he's a fascist leader. It's important for people to understand that today when he tweeted out

that he's going to, quote, punish illegal protesters and talking about he's going to, quote, punish illegal protesters. Right. And talking about he's going to expel people from school. Banning masks, all that. What power does he, what university does he run? Does that apply to the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers? Exactly.

I'm just curious. I mean, seriously, I mean, this is delusional. I wish people understand this, that this is dangerous. And it's so important that the legal sector stands up. You know, I'm not happy with that ABA statement on DEI. That has to be addressed. I am happy with their statement on the constitutional crisis we're in. I think that was a good one.

I think that what we have to do is understand right in this moment, it's the courts, the Supreme Court, it's also the legislature. You know, it really bothers me that you got this concession and rollover going on in the GOP senators and legislators. But I also want to tell people in the street that it's you, too. We're on our way to Selma. We'll be in Selma this weekend. That's right.

Where 600 people changed this nation. Right. And we want to remind folks that it's your personal power. When you see something wrong, like John Lewis say, do something. Do something. We need you to be fouling these lawsuits, be bringing up. I actually think when you add up all the individual lawsuits

that individual people have brought, it's over 4,000. Jenea, I got really sick and tired of hearing people complaining about the black federal judges, Biden-Harris appointed people saying that wasn't a big deal. I think people probably now understand

why even one federal judge makes a huge difference and why we were so focused to go as hard as possible to get those 200 plus judges and the most black female federal number of Black women, of people of all backgrounds, LGBTQIA, people from Middle Eastern backgrounds, Latinos, Latinas. Everybody got a fair shake. And now we have a federal judiciary that is filled with people who are highly qualified, who represent the American people and what we look like and all our glorious diversity, and people who have professional background diversity, folks who were public defenders, folks who represented indigent

clients, folks who come from just a variety of backgrounds and therefore can bring the best legal thinking to the complex issues that we're facing in this moment of backgrounds and therefore can bring the best legal thinking to the complex issues that we're facing in this moment of threat and challenge in our democracy. So that will be President Biden's most lasting legacy. And there's reason to be hopeful, which is why I do have hope in the courts. When we were facing the court system in the first Trump administration, and when we were left at the end of that administration, he had completely left the courts imbalanced with extremists, many deeply unqualified judges on the court. So it was incumbent upon President Biden to do what was necessary to try to rebalance the court. So we now have far more intelligent, credible judges to do the important work of upholding

our Constitution. And I got to tell you, the founder of the Legal Defense Fund, Thurgood Marshall, who was the first black Supreme Court justice, when he was being sworn in in 1967, he said the truth is more than a mental exercise. The truth takes action from all of us. And that's what we're doing tonight. We can't just sit there and let the truth be manipulated. And in less than a half an hour, we will see how that can be done. Truth takes action. And so it's going to take the action of the courts. It's going to take the action of the legislature. It's going to take the action of the courts, it's going to take the action of the legislature, it's going to take the action of the people.

And that is what the charge is right now on the table. I'm going to quickly go to Damon and Barbara. And I've been posing this question because we have Wendy in the wings, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congressman Kweisi and Fumey. What do you want people to do? People want marching orders. People say, I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. What do you tell them?

Number one, speak out, speak up. Be vocal. Leveraging your own voice, our collective voice, but also what we call your reputational capital. If you are a minister, if you are a teacher, if you are, you know, a sanitation worker, we need people from all walks of life speaking out and speaking up and doing it together.

The second thing is we need some people to be brave in the face of this fire, knowing that there's something that people are putting on the line. That means being a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits that we filed or are trying to file. That also could mean speaking truth to power when you're directed to do something that you know is patently illegal. There's a lot on the line for folks, but we're all going to be there to defend people as well. The last thing is we have to demand more of our elected officials, regardless of party affiliation. We have to put the fire under them, because if we don't, some folks are going to walk away scot-free as if it has nothing to do with them.

Folks, this is a live look of the U.S. House floor right here again. And so who are we looking at? Oh, clueless Nancy Mace and really clueless J.D. Vance. Barbara, go ahead. What do you want? What do you people want to know what I do? What do you tell them? Right now, the number one thing we want people to do is use their economic power to force these corporations to do right.

These corporations have power. They should be speaking out to protect our democracy right now. The fact that they're not speaking out to uphold the DEI policies, the fact that they are letting these folks raid Medicaid and other systems so they can have a tax break. Are you kidding me? It is absolutely important for people to really use their dollars. Every one of us spend at least a dime a day. Let's decide how we use those dollars. So TJC, if you go to TJCoalition.org, you're going to see our No DEI, No Buy program.

And we are serious about that. We're also saying to everybody, as Damon said so eloquently, get in these lawsuits. Be a plaintiff. You've got to put your life, you've got to put your soul on the line. Do this, people. Do this. Janae, what do you want them to do? I echo everything that my fellow legal fighters have said. And I would say, listen,

we have to hold our elected officials accountable. You all need to have in your phones this phone number to the Senate, which is 202-224-3121, that's 202-224-3121, and call your senator. Call your senator and say that you will not vote for them if they pass certain legislation that is antithetical to democracy. If they are not enforcing civil rights laws and supporting an administration that will do that, if they are taking actions that are lawless, if they are kowtowing to a bully wannabe dictator, that is unacceptable. And if you want to represent the American people, you need to represent everyone. That means people who look like you and me and the beautiful mosaic that we all are. So we've got to all get engaged. We've got to get involved. Some of us have never walked in a protest. Some of us have never had to use the restraint from buying something that we want.

Now is our time. If you ever imagined who you would be in the face of those water hoses, in the face of those growling dogs, in the face of Jim Crow, in the face of enslavement, this is your moment to stand up and show who you are. And we need everybody to do that because the future generations are on the line. Indeed, indeed. Janae Nelson with LDF, I appreciate it. Of course, my frat brother, Damon Hewitt, I appreciate it.

Barbara Armwell, I appreciate it as well. Folks, we're joined right now by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congressman Akwesasne Mfume. Are we going to go first to that introvert from Los Angeles, Congresswoman Maxine Waters? My chairwoman. Congresswoman, we've seen you out there trying to get into these federal buildings. And what I keep hearing from people is they want to see a fight from Democrats. They want to see them challenging Republicans every single day, every single hour, every minute, every second. What have you been saying to your party what needs to happen in this moment? What I'm saying to my party and everybody else is we've got to

get in the streets. We can't just sit at home and go to the different platforms and think somehow everybody's listening to us. We've got to show that we're willing to fight. You're absolutely right. Not only did I go to the Treasury Department for our first protest action, and then I followed that up with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where I protested and I spoke. And then early in the morning, as cold as it was, over to the education department to try to get in and face down with a security officer. And I want you to know, on Saturday, in my district,

in front of Elon Musk's office, we protested with about 3,000 to 4,000 people. And yesterday, I was at HUD trying to get up to see this new secretary of HUD. I'm not stopping. It takes action. When people ask, what can I do? When the call comes out, get up and go. Join us in the protest.

Let our voices be heard. As a matter of fact, I'll ask the lawyers here, don't you think that the more we protest, the louder we are, the more we identify what we care about, will that have some possible influence on the courts and the final decisions that they have to make? These are temporary decisions. But if we're not in the street, if we're not talking about how terrible this is, I don't know if we will be taken seriously. So I'm in this fight. And I'm not moving. And I'm going to be on

the street every opportunity that I get. And so that's my answer to what should we do. Get on the street. Congressman Kwazie Mfume, you made it clear you were not going to be sitting in the House chamber listening to a litany of lies. Why was that? Why was that important for you to make that statement? Well, it's important because otherwise we get taken for granted in many respects. And Maxine and I are in lockstep totally on this, that in order to change opinions, we've got to be in the street. We can't fight this any other way. This is not for the faint at heart. This is not for those who think this is a weekend event. This is going to take some time. It's going to take just what the people took in the 50s and 60s

to get us to where we are. And here we are now, 60 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and less than 11 percent of all elected officials in this country are Black. And I don't mean this in a wrong way, but 100 percent of that 11 percent is not doing enough right now. So there's got to be pressure on elected officials. People have to take it among themselves also in their communities to put together clusters. We ought to have something going on in every city where the educators and the faith community and the businesses that are running in those communities and the elected officials and everybody else is putting together strategies. We can't win this without a strategy. Donald Trump knows exactly what he's doing. And Elon Musk has been given

the freedom to do whatever he wants to do. On that particular point there, Ken, this requires organization and mobilization. It can't just be haphazard. And so what are you saying to your infrastructure, national office, your state chairs, your county chairs, what they must be doing? Well, right now, exactly that. Making sure we're serving as a convening force,

bringing together all of our partners in justice, bringing them to the same table to strategize, to make sure that we have one strategic lens in which we're doing this work together. You know, look, the reality for the Democratic Party is this. We are a big tent. We've got a lot of different voices in this tent. And my goal as a Democratic chair

is to make sure that all of those voices feel included, but most importantly, that we're in the same boat, rowing in the same direction towards the same goal. And that's difficult, because right now we have 20, 30 different boats all rowing in different directions. My job, Congresswoman Beatty's job, and others is to make sure

that we are all together in this fight right now. We have to be unified. Now, no one in our party should confuse unity with unanimity. We can disagree, but at this fight right now. We have to be unified. Now, no one in our party should confuse unity with unanimity. We can disagree, but at this moment right now, we need to stay unified in this fight in front of us, and that means we're all rowing together towards the same goal. Congresswoman? Well, let me just say I agree with what Ken just said, but I think my colleagues, Congresswoman Waters and Ifeume, just said it best. And we're good examples of showing people that we're not afraid. People have to understand that there are people who will stand with them.

And when you look at what this administration has done across the board, you have people in here talking about being entrepreneurs, talking about health care. He is destroying the very fabric of what we've worked for. Sixty-two members in the Congressional Black Caucus, the largest that we've ever had in the history. I know that when we look back to Lou Stokes and Shirley Chisholm, they're expecting us to stand on their shoulders and fight. And that's what we're doing not only today. We're going to be on the Capitol steps tomorrow. We're going to go back home to our districts. And we're not afraid to go into Republican districts. But right now, Republicans are afraid. So we're having victories. We're winning in the courts.

We're winning in all of those litigations that we're doing. They're putting stays. They're putting freezes on the dollars that he tried to freeze. Now we're able to get some of those dollars back. And I think what you're doing, but we have to be in this together. Hold us accountable. My record speaks for itself. Maxine Waters' record speaks for itself. I was out there with her and other people. But we also need media to tell our stories as well.

We have to let the people know that we're in this together, just like you're doing with the lawyers. You have to call us out for the good we're doing, because if we don't give hope to the least of us and to the black Americans and to all of Americans, and that's another part of unity tonight, that I'm calling on all of media, and especially black media, to give hope and to say we're in this fight. We're following some of the things you've asked us to do. We have been unapologetic about not being in the room with him. That's the people's house. And he has no right or privilege to be there. And for Elon Musk, a billionaire, to be the spokesperson, unelected, unvetted,

and unqualified. So we're calling them out and I will continue to stand with the Democratic Party. I will continue to stand with my good friends who are here today because they're making a difference. Congressman Mfume. Roland, let me make- Yeah, I was going to you. Go ahead. We're running tight on time. Go ahead. I'm going to repeat what I said before.

This is not for the faint of heart. We've got to find a way to recognize that this is a real deal, and they're going to come after all of us. Maxine will tell you how many death threats she's gotten in just the last 10 days. I've got police outside of my house now. Jasmine Crockett had to have two federal officers accompany her on a trip. It's that kind of situation. So we need people to recognize that we've got to step out. And I think more than anything else, we need a real crisp plan, a Magna Carta of where we get to the next level. level, just like the contract on America was 10 points that everybody understood, everybody agreed

in, and everybody worked around. We need something simple like that for our people, for our struggle, and we need all aspects of our community to be a part of forming it. Well, and Congresswoman Waters, you know this. You and I talk about this all the time. We talk about the importance of Black-owned media because we're living in a world now where mainstream media are used with these uh these uh led by these billionaires uh they're capitulating they're giving in yes uh and it was fun it had a lot of people who were who were angry and upset uh when we got 350 000 from the kamala harris campaign and i'm like y'all know 600 million was spent on ads and so you whining about

350 000 and i'm like you can't do what we're doing here for free. And so we've got to have investments in black-owned media. We've got to be able to, as Dr. King said in his book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos Our Community, we must focus on the substantive and the militant when it comes to advancing our issues. Because when you see mainstream media folding, this is where independent alternative media can step in.

Yes. Well, you are the best example of why it is absolutely necessary for us to have our own media. You have done what was necessary to get the resources together so that you could have us on a program like this tonight. You think NBC or ABC or CBS would have all of us on for this long talking about our issues? Kwaiisi and I, you know, we talk about this stuff all the time. And Kwaiisi and I have made some decisions. We're not going tonight to be insulted by the low-down, dirty, no-good, nasty president of the United States of America. We're not going to sit there and hear him say whatever he has to say. And I just hope that he keeps revealing his own self about how dirty and cruel he is. But would we

get this opportunity to interplay sales? We've got to own our media. We've got to understand that they need the resources to do what is necessary to get the truth out, to get the real word out. We've got so much to talk about, so many stories to tell, so many needs, such a big need to educate people about how this government works, how this system works. So I thank you for having the persistence, for having the necessary strength to do what you're doing to keep us talking. And Kwaise, I want to thank you so very much. And all of you, Joyce, everybody in the room tonight are people who can not only speak up for what they believe in, but they do it every day. Not everybody does that.

But thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this opportunity tonight to be able to speak truth to power. Well, I appreciate it. Well, you know, I wanted us to speak truth to power. Well I appreciate it. You know I wanted us to hit a hundred thousand and we're now sitting at a hundred and sixty nine thousand. Congresswoman Waters I appreciate it. Congressman Infumia I appreciate it. Ken final point I want to go to you. You had some influencers they were at the DNC on Capitol Hill earlier. Talk about what y'all are doing to really focus on alternative media. The right funded that for a long time and progressives ignored it. They've ignored black-owned media as well. And they saw what happened in the last

election. Talk about that role that's going to play as you as the chair. Well, I mean, you hit on this, right? We keep ignoring independent media outlets like yours at our own expense. We keep ignoring these new class of information influencers, people who are out there actually getting our message out to the masses. Look, I'm a hunter. People ask me, where do I hunt, right? They think I'm going to say my favorite deer stand or my favorite hunting spot, right? No. When I go to hunt deer, I go to where the deer are. We know right now people are getting information from lots of different spaces, right?

From all across the social media, from podcasts to gaming services to vertical video, all these new places. Yet these D.C. consultants continue to put money in behind tactics that don't work, that are old and antiquated, that are not reaching people. We need to meet people where they're at. That means we need to invest as a party in black-owned media. We need to invest in the party in these young influencers who are reaching young voters like never before, and everything in between. So we need to do a better job, because to your point, and we've talked about this before, Roland, the Republican Party kicked our butts in this last election cycle because they were meeting voters where they were getting the information. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporer incorporated on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, binge episodes one, two,

and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th, ad free at lava for good. Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

Music stars Marcus King. John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. You have to do a much better job on that. And you have my commitment. We're going to do a much better job with this DNC than previous DNCs. the U.S. Department of Health pastors lineup. We're bringing in Dr. Greg Carr. We're bringing in Nola Haynes. We're bringing in our other panelists. We're also getting ready for Reverend Dr. William Barber, Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Thanks a lot as well.

And so, folks, do me a favor. Support the work that we do. We don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting us checks. I tell you, I went to the P.O. Box the other day. There were 386 people who mailed in checks and money orders. Now, it took me six hours. It took me six hours having to open an envelope, pull them out, sign it, catalog it, and post it. But the money still counts. But the reason that's important, because I need people to understand, is regular, ordinary people. I told y'all, I was talking to Pastor Bill Lamar.

He said he had five different cousins sending him the message about tonight's show. I had people saying, man, they grandmamas and mamas and grandfathers were saying, you know, y'all going to watch Roland's show. We launched this show September 4, 2018, for the very reason because we understood what mainstream media was not doing. In the six and a half years, we've gone from 157,000 YouTube subscribers to now 1.7 million, on our way to 2 million. And that's just the hard work. And so we want your support. If you want to contribute via Cash App, this is the QR code right here.

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I keep seeing y'all comments. And so the shirt I'm wearing, let me stand up so y'all can see the shirt. So I wore it to the All-Star game, and a bunch of folks won. They said, don't blame me. I'm going to put a black woman. So y'all go to the site. We also have our shirts, hashtag, we tried to tell you, FAFO2025. Go to rolandmartin.creator.spring.com

or to blackstarnetwork.com. Short break, then we'll be back with our pastors, our political panelists before we go live to Reverend Dr. William Barber. We're going to record what Trump has to say. We know he's going to lie. We ain't going to show any of it.

We'll show clips after Barbara's done, but we're going to have it all covered. I've already seen some excerpts. They already going to be, they're going to definitely be attacking black people and poor people. So we got lots to say about that. You're watching the Black Star Network with 175,000. Tell your friends and family, let's get to 200,000 back in a moment. next on a balanced life we're talking everything from prayer to exercise to positive affirmations

and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way. That's on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Have you ever had that million dollar idea and wondered how you could make it a reality? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to meet Liska Askalise, the inventress, someone who made her own idea a reality

and now is showing others how they can do it too. Positive, focusing in on the thing that you want to do, writing it down and not speaking to naysayers or anybody about your product until you've taken some steps to at least execute. Lease gut, ask a lease. On the next Get Wealthy, right here, only on Blackstar Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not regret that. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storming the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of

what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white

people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. This week on the other side of change. Environmental disasters and systemic exploitation. From the wildfires in California to the unexpected snowstorms in the South. We are in the climate collapse. These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous. And it is black and brown communities that are often hit first and worst. Watch us on the Black Star Network, so tune in to the other side of change.

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PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is R.M. Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Coming soon to the Blackstar Network. Well, y'all, when you're on that stage and you're seeing two and three, four

generations in the audience, that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all have become. Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break and remember, I was watching this kid. I could not take my eyes

off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front row with his parents. Over on the right-hand side, yes. Yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything. And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all.

We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff, because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying, seeing this young kid, then you see,

hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that sing out, hear our music and animation. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson. I'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee.

Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation. Only on The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint.

Hey, Saraz. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl London show. Well, it shouldn't be the Cheryl London show and the Roland Martin show. But whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good. Thank you. of Congress. Kneel down. There you go. There you go. Kneel down. Come on. Go ahead. Go across. Just kneel down. There you go. You're good.

There you are. It's going to be a joint session of Congress. Of course, the twice-impeached criminal commission felony in chief has returned to the crime scene giving the speech tonight. And so we're going to be hearing here from Bishop William Barber who is here. This is a live look

of the House floor. The cabinet is walking in. You know that cabinet of really rich folks and one black dude who's probably the brokest cabinet member in the Trump administration. Lots of people. We've been talking about labor, business leaders. And, you know, we were talking about the need to fight, and some

folk need to understand fight. I love this scene from the Tuskegee Airmen. Let's see here. I love this scene from the Tuskegee Airmen. Let's see here. I love this scene because I think it speaks to where African Americans are. Let's see here.

Are y'all seeing it? Give me one second. I'm going to have to do a reset. I had it shown a little bit earlier. And I always love to play this because I think this speaks to the reality of black people all the time. Henry, go ahead.

Let's see, he's going to come up in a second. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this glorious day. We ask that you send your angels down to surround us as we fly through the sky. We know that it's part of your master plan that we've made it all the way from Tuskegee here to Ramateli. We are very confident in our abilities,

but we ask that you give us the vision, the sight, and the speed and power to make it through this mission. All the airmen say, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Nothing's difficult. Everything's a challenge.

Through adversity to the stars. From the last plane, to the last bullet, to the last minute, to the last man, we fight. We fight. We fight. We fight. We fight. We fight. We fight. So I figured we have a pastor's panel. We might as well have a prayer before the

pastor's panel. So I went ahead and played that. Joining us right now in studio, William Lamar, pastor, the fourth pastor of Metropolitan African American Episcopal right now in studio, William Lamar, pastor, the fourth pastor of Metropolitan African American Episcopal Church here in Washington, D.C. From Memphis, Dr. Kenneth Whalum Jr., New Olivet Center at Woodland Hills.

Out of Baltimore, Empowerment Temple, Reverend Robert Turner, and also Community of Hope AME Church, Reverend Tony Lee. Glad to have you here as well. Of course, we got other folks here in the studio. I'm going to introduce them in a bit. I want to kick this thing off with you first, Pastor Whalum.

You're there in Memphis. And Dr. King talked about where do we go from here, chaos or community? And right now, it's a whole lot of chaos. People are frustrated. They're upset. And they really are upset also with a lot of black church leaders who they think have been far too quiet and compliant. What would you say to the message to black preachers where they need to be in this moment facing this insurrectionist who sits in the Oval Office. Yeah, thanks, Roland. I couldn't be more excited to be on 120-plus thousand people on this show tonight.

Speaking of Dr. King, man... We up to 185,000 watching right now. Hallelujah. Tell the Lord thank you. We close to 200,000. Tell the Lord thank you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Yes, sir. Listen, not only did Dr. King say what he just said, what you just quoted, he also said that worship is not a weak, namby-pamby pursuit of time. He said it is powerful and it can bring down mountains. And that's what I think we have to do as faith leaders. We have to worship. Another thing that our people are feeling that I didn't hear in that litany of traits that you just recited was fear. Man, a lot of our people are afraid, and it's up to faith leaders, pastors especially, to remind our people that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. And a sound mind comes from worship. It comes from God consecrating our minds

and giving us a man toward the long game. We got to have a long, patient outlook toward what lies ahead of us. Pastor Lamar, again, people are in the chat. I keep getting the emails when I see them in person. They're like, man, look, I don't know what to do, but I want to do something. What do we do? Where do we start?

They're looking for leadership to speak. What do you tell them? I think the first thing, Roland, is we have always drawn strength from one another in the community. So we have to make sure that we do not atomize at this time, that we find spaces to gather, we find spaces for joy. Even tonight, what people do not see here is that you are feeding us. The people do not see here is that we're surrounded by the beautiful

to nurture our spirits. And after we've done that, the power of our being together in spirit and physicality leads us into the world to change it. So my argument is, if we don't have spaces to be together designed by us for us, we will not be able to do what's next.

Now, what's next? Also, we have to have a clear political aim for our gathering. Every religious situation is political. The question is, what are the politics served? So the politics of that Negro who gave the benediction at Trump's inauguration are not our politics. We have to remember that at the height of that Negro who gave the benediction at Trump's inauguration are not our politics. We have to remember that at the height of enslavement, they outlawed our gathering because they knew that there was power in our organizing, envisioning, and building a new world.

So that is my argument. We must demand from our church leaders, clearly, what is the political end that you seek? And right now, it has to be to protect our people, but we have to continue to build something alternative within the American imperial system, which we have done at our best. Pastor Turner, you led that historic church in Tulsa where black folks in 1921 fled during that race massacre. And this is a moment where the black church needs a massive revival, needs to assert itself

because, frankly, when we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, Pastor Jamal Brown and I talk about this all the time, that was the first time in American history a massive black movement was not led by the black church. What do you say to the church right now in this moment, what it needs to be doing? First of all, thank you for having this great conversation. The church right now really needs to be the church. And as Dr. Lamar mentioned, organization is at the key of that.

Nobody to this day sees more of our people on a more regular basis than the black church, still, even in 20 and 25. And so we need to utilize that not only merely for singing and praising and dancing, which we do very well, or just for preaching, but to use that space and that time to organize and inform our people about what is happening in the world that we live in. And in addition to that, when preachers who are still considered to be a part of the leadership fabric of most black communities, when preachers or pastors are invited to go to several gatherings and galas and events, to, if we attend those events, to not simply represent ourselves or to drink good beverages and eat fine food, but to represent the masses of people and to still, in those settings, also speak truth to power, and not allowing people to come and pimp our

pulpits merely for votes, but to demand from them what is the necessary and agenda item number one for black people. And you know I got to say it. I said it in Tulsa and I said it in Baltimore, reparations, which should be agenda one, two, three, four, and five for our people. I want you all to understand, while Pastor Turner was speaking, Donald Trump was walking down the aisle. Y'all can go back to the shot.

And normally, when they're coming down, a president comes down the aisle, they'll greet people on both sides. Nobody on the Democratic side reached out to shake his hand. He was only shaking hands of Republicans. He was completely shunned by the Democrats, as well they should. Tony Lee, what is the challenge to the black church in this moment in time? We got you on mute. Now we got you. Go ahead.

Yeah, I think the challenge, Roland, for us, the black church, is to remember where our power comes from. I think so often that we forget that we've seen this kind of thing before, whether it's in our community, whether it's even in Scripture, that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego dealt with a king who set up a big golden statue of himself. Seems like similar to Trump, and that ad about Gaza, this gold statue. But they understood and told the king they would not bow down. But they did it collectively.

They did it in solidarity with each other. And I think that we need to remember that just because somebody has position doesn't mean they have power. That Bull Connor had position, but our folks had power. And they had the kind of power that now relegates Bull Connor to seem to just be an antagonist in our victory story. But yet in the midst of it all, that we had the power to be able to get past Bull Connor. That's what we've got to remember. We've got to remind folks that we have the power. And remember,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace, three of them. But King Nebuchadnezzar looked up into the furnace and said, I threw in three, but now it looks like four, because he didn't realize they had a power source and that God was with them. And we've got to remind folks that we fight because we know that we don't fight by ourselves, but we fight because God is on our side. Folks, as Pastor Lee was talking, the Republicans were praising their God, Donald Trump. You see how they still are clapping for him.

You see on the Democratic side, they are silent. No one is clapping at all. And you know, so you see the smug look of the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon in chief. This is what we expected, Dr. Greg Carr. And in a moment, he's about to speak. But we're going to go live to Bishop William Barber, who's in our studio. Just Greg, just real quick, just share your thoughts before this thug speaks. Empire's fall. The United States was never going to be here forever, and this is just accelerating the inevitable.

In terms of domestic policy, what he's going to say tonight about his boss Putin, what he's going to say about tariffs in a world that will now be truly multipolar, should scare the hell out of everyone. Domestically, white nationalism has always been at the center of this. I have to disagree with my friend Janai Nelson on this. The Constitution is no guarantee of anything. In fact, it will protect white nationalism,

to read Ron Walters correctly. So tonight, when he starts talking about the things that he did to make America better in the six weeks, firing all these people, we saw as we were on our way over here that Elon Musk said that he should pardon Derek Chauvin. This is white nationalism. Right. And so our fight, which you're showing tonight on the Black Star Network, as these numbers soars, we get ready to hear Reverend Barber, that 24 hour thing that was done today, folks gathering. That was very important. What's more important, however, is black-owned independent media because the black church,

the black institutions, and this black network now must decide if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said they ain't bowing down to the king, what the hell are black people going to do in a criminal enterprise called United States of America? We are not fundamentally Americans to these people, and this is our time to prove it to ourselves and to them. Well, it's only perfect that we start with Reverend Barber right now. Donald Trump is speaking. And literally, just as you finished, Greg, we hit the 200,000th of folks who are watching us live. Let's double it.

And so, folks, we're going to have clips after this here, but we think it's important for you to hear the state of our union from Bishop William Barber, one of the leaders of Moral Mondays, of course, Cochabena Repairs of the Breach, Poor People's Campaign. He has a word for us. He has a direction for us. And so let's right now hear from Bishop William Barber. Thank God for all of you who have gathered here tonight and thank Roland for calling us and assembling us and pulling us together in community where more than 200,000 people have joined. And that number is continuing

and continuing to grow. The assignment tonight is to wrestle with what is the state of our union. Saint Augustine of Hippo out of Africa once said that wherever people say or whenever people say the times are evil, the times are evil, it is essential to remember that we are our times. Or, as James Baldwin said it so clearly, responsibility can be abdicated, but it cannot be lost. As long as we claim to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, then we the people have a responsibility to guard our union. And we would be wise to begin by remembering what binds us together though imperfectly but remember what binds us together

Our ancient religious traditions teach us that love justice and mercy are the responsibilities not just of individuals but of governments in fact Isaiah chapter 10 says woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor and women and children of their right. It is a terrible thing to open the Congress, for instance, with prayer and pray, P-R-A-Y, and then go forth to pass policies that P-R-E-Y prey on the very people that God cares about the most. The poor, the widows, the children, those who've been pushed to the margins. One of our own prophets reminded us that Amos prophesied in God's name,

let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. But if you read back up in Amos 5, that same text, those rivers of justice only roll down when a remnant of people come together and cry out in the streets, shut down the malls and everything and declare not on our watch. God says that when a remnant comes together that says, not on our watch, not now, then God says, I will visit you and help you, and then justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Jesus was clear that nations, not just individuals, but nations, Roland, will be judged by how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, and the least of these. Nations would be judged, not just individuals. And we can never forget that. We can never forget that nations will be judged, not just in some hereafter,

but even now nations will be judged because how we treat the vulnerable is how we treat God. There is no way to declare in God we trust, but then the vulnerable cannot trust us with power or trust us with the realities of our government. Not only our moral traditions, but what Abraham Lincoln called our ancient faith, but also the commitments of our founding documents. Dr. King would never throw these documents away. So, wait, he once said to America, if I was in some other country, I might not protest like I do, but I protest here because you had the nerve to put it in writing and write it down on paper. The Declaration, for instance, of Independence, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons, all men, are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And I see my dear lawyer friend in the House tonight, and she'll tell you that there's something else in that Declaration of Independence. It says that when there has been a long train of abuses, it is the duty, it is the responsibility of the people to rise up and to change that form of government. Our Constitution says we the people. In order to form a more perfect union, right there, our own Constitution confesses that we are imperfect and argues, excuse me, that we have work to do. And part of that work is to establish justice, to provide for the common defense,

to ensure domestic tranquility, and to promote the general welfare. Yes, welfare is in the founding principles of our nation and of this Constitution. Now these words from both Scripture and our founding documents set a high standard for what any nation, particularly this nation, should be about. And when we hold the state of our current union over against this standard, we all must confess that our union in the hand of Trump and Musk, or Musk and Trump, and the current congressional leadership is pretty low down. It does not reach the high standard to which we are called.

It falls far below the call of love and justice and mercy. It is far below the government of the people, by the people, and for the people that Abraham Lincoln called us to preserve. It is far beneath what even Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed. Once Franklin Delano proposed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, in these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice, the path of faith, the path of hope, the path of love toward our fellow man. Then he said on another occasion, 1937, I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad,

and ill-nourished. And the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. And the global vision of peace that so many from this nation fought for, what we're seeing now is far below that. What we're seeing now is low down.

It's far beneath the vision that Dr. King articulated when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the nation about his dream for full realization of the promise of this nation that has been made for every one of us. And remember at the March on Washington, it wasn't just about the dream, it was about living wages, about education and voting rights and labor rights. Or remember when he preached and said,

a country's true greatness is not measured by its material achievements like tall buildings, but by how it values and remembers its justice and equality. And it seems, he said, one time in a sermon, he said, it seems as though this morning that I can hear God speaking and I can hear him speaking throughout the universe saying, be still and know that I am God. In America, if you don't stop, if you don't straighten up, if you don't stop exploiting people, I'm going to rise up and break the backbone of your power. The dark vision being followed by this administration is far beneath those lofty visions I just spoke of. And instead, they are rooted in some immoral ideas. And this dark vision demands that we embrace the call of the hymnist who taught us to sing in the second verse of one of our national hymns, America, America, God mend thine every flaw.

God in this moment keeps trying to tell us something Tell even this administration something think about it the inauguration falling on the day That we remembered the prophetic work and voice of dr. King was I believe a warning a first warning America don't let the nation go down this path Without being maladjusted to the unjust and evil actions, the greedy and love of money actions, the power actions that forget the people. And now tonight, I think, is another warning. Again, the first State of the Union is on the night before Ash Wednesday, a time, a

day when we, it is a call for repentance. And I hear the Spirit saying again to the nation and to the current leadership, repent, yes, repent. And I hear it saying to us, stand against it, resist it, resist what you see happening. Repent of what you see driving this administration's effort. Their immoral philosophy can kind of be summed up in eight statements. The first thing we see happening that we have to resist is the deliberate attempt to use executive orders as a way to intentionally violate the Constitution, thereby creating enough confusion to distract the people from what's really going on in the Congress that does have the weight of law.

See, an executive order family doesn't have the weight of law. It can be overturned. But what the Congress passes can't be done that way. And there is some sense, Bannon has said it in a video, he said, we told the president to create 100 days of thunder. Do everything, do anything you want to do, so that while people are distracted, we can be working on undermining the so-called administrative state and putting things in place in the

Congress. Secondly, we are seeing their philosophy is the tyranny of technology and the dehumanization of people. The third thing we are seeing is the attempt to make people justify their existence, which has its roots in racism and apartheid and slavery and fascism. You know, when you were in slavery, you had to justify your existence. You had to have a piece of paper.

Apartheid, piece of paper. When the Nazis had a piece of paper, now someone with a computer sends a note over and says, prove to me that you're there. That is a dangerous philosophy to be pushing throughout this democracy. And then the fourth immoral philosophy is the denial of equality on every front. And the fifth one is the outright violation of freedom of speech, due process in the law,

the attempt to undermine equal protection under the law for all persons. The 14th Amendment is what saved this country. Had it not been for the 14th Amendment, you would not see the America, you would not have seen the progress that we have today. And anybody that messes with the 14th Amendment is literally trying to rebirth the country, but not in a good way, but in an unrighteous way.

Birthright citizenship was the hallmark. If it wasn't for birthright citizenship, many of the slaves would have never been able to be citizens, because their parents were born in Africa before they were snatched away. The sixth thing that we see is the outright betrayal of liberty. The seventh thing, Roland, we see is the idolatry of certainty, of the certainty of white supremacy. White supremacy operates on the premise that we are certain y'all are different. We are certain that we are better. We are certain that some folk matter and others don't. And the idolatry of certainty is one of the worst sins you can ever commit.

To suggest that you are certain that somebody else is not created in the image of God like you. And when you begin to implement that into policy, it is dangerous. And then the eighth thing is the misuse of religious Christian nationalism in an attempt to falsely claim that their immoral actions are moral, to take religion and twist it to make right wrong and wrong right. And that's why tomorrow morning, with fellow clergy and moral leaders from all of this nation's many traditions. We are gathering here in D.C. tomorrow in full vestments and standing in the prophetic tradition

with heavy hearts but also with committed spirits determined to go into the Capitol, into the rotunda. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know how they're going to respond. But we tend to go to every congressional office to say, you're wrong. Repent, because we hear the call of God and bear the sorrow of the souls in our care who

are worried about their country. We're not coming together as Republicans or Democrats, but as faith leaders who know from our work in communities that our common life depends on our shared moral commitments. We are coming to issue a call for repentance and truth-telling because our political leaders in this current administration have betrayed our most basic moral commitments. And it's not just a momentary betrayal. It's a betrayal every

day. Someone asked me the question the other day, what do you do when you have an administration in office that violates what God hates every day? You look at the six things that God hates. A proud look, shedding innocent blood,

lying, stirring up the community. Every day! what do you do? We come from many traditions, but we are united by the moral proposition that Abraham Lincoln called our ancient faith and the conviction that all people share an equality. In the face of a tyrannical king who refused to hear the positions of his subjects, this moral conviction that we are created equal and endowed with undeniable rights, united our nation in its Declaration of Independence. When the tyranny of chattel slavery, not just slavery, but chattel slavery, threatened to

destroy our nation, this moral commitment to equality and freedom sustained a long and painful struggle to not only preserve our union, but also to reconstruct it by guaranteeing equal protection under law. When the tyranny of white supremacy reasserted itself under the guise of separate but equal was constitutional. A moral movement of everyday people tapped the power of nonviolence to compel the nation

once again to face the truth about equality and freedom and repent of the ways that it had been betrayed. We have struggled to realize a republic committed to equality and freedom and all. We've never finished the struggle. We're yet struggling. But we've made some headway. But these moral commitments have united us as a people. It's not been a perfect world.

The moral commitments that we as black people and other people have committed to justice has inspired a global community. It's amazing how We Shall Overcome has been sung from Alabama to Tiananmen Square. Now many of these values are recognized as universal human rights as a basis for shared peace. However, the moral failure of our political leaders threatens all of this in a way that has been unseen in recent history.

Walk with me now. They have the power, excuse me, because of the apathy of those who think this is just an anomaly That will easily pass They have the power because of the absurd abdication of responsibility By those who say nothing can be done We cannot follow this apathy or this absurd abdication. We have to take action.

We have to be advancing. We have to be fully aware. This must be our attitude. Now we must answer the call for full resistance. We are daring to say to America and the current leadership, you cannot hide behind false notions of exceptionalism and perfection. No, you must confess and repent.

And if you won't tell it, then we will. That we have become subject in some ways to the tyranny of technology. That tyranny of technology, that tyranny of technology awed by the possibilities of progress and the promise of limited growth. You know, Musk said on a CNN interview that he expected by 2035 all jobs to be replaced by computers and smart engines.

Our political leaders in this group have allowed corporate power to go unchecked for decades. This is how we got here. Our courts have ruled that corporations should be treated like people and people should be treated like things. In the richest nation in the history of the world, poverty has become epidemic. That's the fourth leading cause of death. 800 people are dying a day from poverty right here in America. Even though we know what could be done to end this death-dealing poverty, and we have the means to do it.

We have allowed extreme inequality to foster and fester like a sore, like a raisin in the sun in our common life. And then this false populism has emerged in response to pit us against one another across dozens of dividing lines. But we must not be divided because this is a crisis not of just democracy. This, my friends, is a crisis of civilization that is being orchestrated to tear apart democracy forever. Bannon said in one of his interviews recently, and I'll make sure that Roland puts it up

if he's not already shown it, we want 100 days of thunder to allow them to do what they want to take America to the golden age. Bannon said that this is war, all-out war. He said that their plan was to target 4,000 federal jobs, specifically, just like they targeted 2,900 precincts in the election to target 4,000 federal jobs because those 4,000 federal jobs control the other 10 million. And that 10 million controls a $5.5 trillion budget, and that budget is connected to $75 trillion in assets. My friends, they're not playing.

This is not a time just for cute bumper sticker protests. Mm-, they're not playing. This is not a time just for cute bumper sticker protests. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Our faith traditions and moral traditions provide a firm foundation upon which to stand against the divide and conquer strategies of these extremists. In this moment, like never before, we must believe in a moral agenda that stands against systemic racism, labor exploitation, poverty, xenophobia, and any attempt to promote hate

toward any members of the human family. We must be openly and deeply disturbed by the Trump-Musk-Johnson Republican agenda, and never separate them. They're all one, one for all and all for one. This is their focus on cutting programs for the poor to give tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations and more money for the war machine and mass deportation. And we must tell the truth about what's going on because you cannot organize a movement without an analysis. You have to have an analysis. You have to know what the real truth is, what the battle lines are. It's truth-telling time. And truth-telling in a time of lies is one of the most radical forms of nonviolent action

and civil disobedience known to humanity. Only the truth can set us free. We say our people are afraid, but we must do the analysis to understand why they're afraid and what's causing their fear? And what will remove their fear? We must tell the truth until everybody knows. For instance, Elon Musk, connected to South Africa, the unelected head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, announced in January that he aims to cut $2 trillion in spending,

or 30% of the current federal budget. Tonight, as I walk through, I'm going to focus specifically on the budget, specifically on the budget, because one of the things you have to come to understand is that these people do not run for office to give out keys to the cities and certificates. When they run for office, they are running to write statutes and to control the money. That's their purpose. And so he wants 30%

of the current federal budget, but without major cuts to the Pentagon and war spending or defaulting on interest payment. We must tell the truth, Barbara, that such drastic slashing would be mathematically impossible without gutting vital programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicaid. Every time you hear them say, we want to cut $2 trillion, you must understand that is mathematically impossible without gutting programs like Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare.

We must tell the truth that while Republican leaders of the House and Senate haven't come to a consensus yet on the specifics of their tax spending plan, the Republicans in the House are aiming for what they call one big, beautiful bill that would make $2 trillion in cuts over 10 years. Now, you know what happens about 10 years from now is when the demographics shift in this country and you no longer have a majority white country. First time in Western Hemisphere when the folk that were brought here as former slaves and the people who were brought here to work from Mexico and other Latin American places and black folk from Haiti and from Africa, those people brought in will become the majority. In South Africa, they were always the majority.

But we've never seen this, where those who were the slaves and those who were the workers become the majority of the country that enslaved them. And that country had the greatest gross domestic product in the world. They say they want this budget 10 years, $2 trillion. And the programs that are likely to be targeted include, let me tell the truth, first of all, in Medicaid. This is what a state of the union is about. You need to know, in Medicaid, the Republicans are considering changes that would shift billions in Medicaid costs to states that take coverage away from millions of people. The House budget alone, my brothers and sisters, calls for $880 billion in cuts

over 10 years. Medicaid is a joint federal program and state and federal program that gives health coverage to low-income people. Now, there are 140 million poor and low-wage people in this country. 60% of black people are poor and low-wage. That's 26 million. 30% of white people are poor and low-wage. That's 66 million. So when they're going to cut Medicaid that provides health coverage to low-income people, that means that cut is going to come straight down the heart of the black community.

As of October 2024, more than 72 million people were enrolled in Medicaid. 72 million. Excuse me. Another 7 million were enrolled in CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program. And somebody told me one day when I was sharing this with them, they said, Reverend, that's boring. And I said, that's your problem. People with evil intent operate in the border. They bet on you not paying attention to the numbers so that you really don't know and understand what's going on.

Some of the proposals for cuts to Medicaid could result in the loss of coverage for 36 million people. We must tell the truth. In 20—now, what this means, in 2023, 39.5 percent of the total Medicaid enrollees were white. 18.5 were white. 18.5% were black. 29% were Latinx, Latinx. And 4.7% were Asian. And the rest were native or multiple races. More than 7 million older Americans and 10 million people with disabilities also rely on Medicaid. So when you talk about cutting Medicaid, you're

talking about cutting the heart out of coverage for poor and low-income people and particularly cutting the heart out of the black community. More than 60 percent of nursing home residents rely on Medicaid. Y'all think about grandma and them right now and auntie and them right now. This is what they're talking about cutting. Drastic cuts to Medicaid would reduce care and coverage. It would also close health care facilities, particularly the ones in the rural areas, and particularly those in the southern rural areas, where the majority of black people that are poor live in the South, and one-third of all poor white folk live in the South.

We must tell the truth. We must tell the truth. We must tell the truth. Boston University Medicaid experts have stated that deep cuts would be catastrophic for patients. And we know what we've always said. When the rest of America catches a cold, black folk end up with pneumonia. Medicaid sure needs strengthening, but it doesn't need cutting. In the states that have refused to accept Medicaid expansion, do you know that all of them except for about two are Southern states? Southern states where large portions of black community live, and they refuse to accept

Medicaid expansion, hurting both poor blacks and poor whites. All of these Southern states, we must tell the truth, they want to cut food assistance. They are considering a long list of proposals that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of SNAP, not millions, billions of dollars over the next 10 years. The House budget resolution calls for $230 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. Remember what Isaiah said, woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights? Right now, these proposals could affect

40 million covered people. Watch this. In 2024, SNAP served 41 million people. One in five children. Of those who benefited, 37% are white,

26% are black, 16% are Latinx, 3% are Asian, and 2% are Native American. We must tell the truth. They want to cut Head Start. Many of us don't remember that Head Start came out of the Poor People's Campaign after Dr. King had been killed. That was one of the things that they won that summer in 68.

Head Start preschool serves about 650,000 children around the country. And recently, excuse me, recently about 650,000 children around the country found they were locked out of a government website used to access grant funding. Many more people, children are in it than 650,000. The website went back online, but now some of them are still having problems. From 2020 to 2021, 37% of head stocks were Latinx, 27% were black, 24% were white, 3% were Native American. And the House budget resolution is calling for 300 billion in cuts over 10 years. We must tell the truth. You have to know the truth.

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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

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

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think Plus on Apple Podcasts. for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad.

That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. So serious about this resistance. In federal rental assistance, this program serves 5 million poor and low-income households, 69% of whom are children, older Americans, or people with disabilities. At a time of housing affordability crisis, this program is already vastly underfunded. Nearly 23 million low-income renters pay over half of their income on rent, subjecting them to the risk of eviction and homelessness.

And just a few weeks ago or months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that you can't even sleep on a bench outside at night if you're homeless. The House budget resolution calls for $1 billion in cuts over 10 years. The truth is also that Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has said Republicans will not touch Social Security or Medicare. However, it's impossible to achieve Elon Musk's goal of $2 trillion in federal spending without going into Social Security and Medicare. You cannot do it. Social Security.

In 2024, 68 million people received Social Security benefits. And in 2023, that program lifted 27.6 million people out of poverty. And black folk, we need to remember that when Social Security was first put in place in 1954, we could not pay in for the most part, because the only people that were allowed to pay in were people that did not work in the agrarian culture or in the service culture, i.e. maids. They weren't allowed to pay in. Excuse me, in 1935. We were allowed to pay in in 54, the same year the Brown decision.

So it was 19 years before many of our people could even pay in in 54, the same year the Brown decision. So it was 19 years before many of our people could even pay into Social Security in the first place. And here we are, they want to go after Social Security. And as of 2021, 42% of Americans age 56 to 64 had zero retirement account savings. Think about that. Upon retirement, many will be entirely reliant on Social Security, which paid an average monthly benefit of $1,800 a month. And this crowd is saying, in order to give more money to corporations,

we're gonna go after even Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, even though they're saying they won't, but there's no way they can't. In 2024, Medicare provided insurance for 61.2 million older Americans and people with disabilities. Cuts to this program would leave millions of seniors struggling even harder to pay their health care bill. And if by now where you're sitting, you are saying this word, damn, that's the word you should be saying. That's the word. It's the same word Jesus used when he saw that fig tree fronting.

That's what you should be saying. They're that ruthless, that ruthless. In 2023, one in four Medicare beneficiaries lived on incomes below $21,000, while half lived on less than $36,000. People of color have lower medium incomes in their retirement years than white Americans, reflecting racial discrimination in education and employment and lower access to pension benefits. And yet, they're going to go after Medicare. And the taxes and inequality in 2017, the Trump GOP tax law delivered huge windfalls to these rich and large corporations.

And you know, the corporations said, if you give us a tax cut, we're going to invest it back into the American society. What they did was they used that money to buy their own stocks and propped up their own companies. And that first tax cut was more money transferred from poor and working folk than was transferred during the height of slavery. Two trillion dollars. The new House budget resolution calls for 4.5 trillion in tax cuts that will benefit the ultra-wealthy. In the Republican-held Congress, they want to extend the 2017. Now, if they just did that, they want to do so much more.

But if they just did that, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that it will cost $4 trillion in lost revenue over the next decade. The way that these people are moving, it could be possible for black folk and brown folk and progressive white folk to win offices and have the government to run but not have any money to run it on. of U.S. families, while the richest 0.1% of families would pocket an estimated $314,000 per year. This is the game that they're playing, and it is not a game. This group wants to go after child tax cut credit, even though we found that when you give child tax cut credit, they actually can relieve children from poverty. All the gains that we've seen in employment and wages, you've heard Roland talk about it,

are now under threat as this Trump-Musk-Johnson administration and Republicans in the Congress push an economic agenda based on mass deportations, severe cuts to federal spending, and staffing at federal agencies. And you heard me say that their goal is to control 4,000 workers so that they can control 10 million workers. And when we talk about these cuts in the federal government and in the jobs, remember that decent job for black workers, black workers make up 18 percent of federal employees compared to 12 percent of their share of the total workforce. You have an administration where Scott Besnett, the President Trump's Treasury Secretary, and his Commerce Secretary,

all said openly, with not a stutter, in their confirmation hearing that they did not support raising the minimum wage. The minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009. If you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, 43% of black people would come out of poverty with one raise. But they say, if you make $7.25 per hour and you earn $15,080 a year, you're not poor.

You're on the lower, lower middle income. So here we are. If we don't raise the minimum wage and if we don't start understanding in our civil rights organizations that you cannot, you have to connect voting rights and wages. Remember Dr. King in 1965, the end of the Montgomery, the settlement of Montgomery March, he said that the greatest fear of the racist oligarchs in this country was the fear of the masses of black people and the masses of poor white people

coming together and forming a voting bloc that could fundamentally shift the economic architecture of this nation. They won't raise the minimum wage while more than one in five black and Hispanic children are poor. And these children are three times as likely to fall below the poverty line. Trump wasted no time going after labor. No time. He illegally removed the board chair of the National Labor Relations Board, basically shutting it down, making it so it didn't have a quarrel. It's worth adding that the $290 million that Elon Musk paid to influence the 2024 election is on par with the NLRB's $299 million budget.

Unions we know down through life. We fought to get in union. In 19—I was telling Roland one day that in 19, I think, 35, civil rights group and union folk came together to bridge the two, civil rights and unionism. And we wouldn't have some of the improved earnings and working conditions, what we have today, without the focus of union. Those in unions, their wages are 13.5 times more than those who are non-union. This is the truth.

And my friends, I know, I know that sometimes we don't want to hear it and we want a cute bumper sticker or we want a rhyme But these folks have a plan and it's very statistics just like project 2025 It's written down and you don't really know how big the fight is and how important the fight is unless you understand Right now they're talking about adding $345 billion in new spending to the Pentagon over the next four years. $150 billion spending to the Pentagon, $175 billion in mass deportations. And you say, well, Reverend Barber, so?

What does that have to do with anything? Because the Senate bill alone, $86 billion per year, would provide health insurance for all 4 million uninsured children. If we took that same money, we could expand the enrollment and head start for 3.6 million children in poverty. If we took that same money, you could provide public housing for all 3.9 million families who receive eviction notices in a typical year.

The truth is, when we look at this, this is a constitutional crisis, which has not been resolved by a system of checks and balances. In violation of the law, Donald Trump and Musk and Johnson are abusing the power of the presidency. They're abusing it by allowing Elon Musk to freeze funding allocated by Congress. The courts have issued injunctions against these illegal acts, but Trump and Musk are defying the rule of law. While Congress has a responsibility to check this abuse of power, it has instead invited its rogue executive to address a joint session of Congress while instructing its committees to prepare a budget based on the same lies that have been used to justify the illegal funding freeze.

We must be clear in this confession about the state of our union. Our moral objection is not about personality. It ain't about style. It's not about political opinions. It's about the size of a government. It is about, it's not about the size of a government. It is about the tyranny of technology and our refusal to bow to the God of efficiency because the distorted faith violates our moral commitment

to equality and freedom that an imperfect government was fashioned to sustain. If people's lives and livelihoods can be dismissed as waste, waste, without due process, we forsake our moral commitments to equality. So we refuse to bow because if an unelected technocrat can delete the financial commitments of a government established of and for by the people, we betray our moral commitments if we bow to that. Who knew that one person could give out all your information? That one person could walk in one office and tell one person to push one button

and they had access to all of your information and could then probably on the back end make it so that even if they give the information back, they still have access to it. We refuse to bow because if political leaders are willing to forsake their oath to establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility in order to appease billionaires, if we bow, we reject our faith and the moral foundations of our common life. We refuse to bow because if Congress does not stand by our commitments to partners and vulnerable neighbors around the world, we will abandon the moral foundations of the fragile peace we hope to sustain.

We have to refuse to bow. And the truth is, when and if our political leaders have bowed to fear, to the tyranny of technology, to greed, to supremacy, in doing so, they no longer represent us. A Yale professor just last week said Trump is no longer the president must declare that we are not afraid of the false god of efficiency. We must declare we are not afraid of lies. We're not afraid of greed. We're not afraid of injustice. We're not afraid of religious and white supremacy and we must declare

that bowing down is not an option it's not in our spiritual or historical DNA we will not bow to any tyranny that claims that they have control of our common life because we know that the people of our communities have power we actually have power to the people of our communities have power. We actually have power to reclaim our moral commitments. We have power, power, and it's going to take time and it will take a sustained effort,

but it begins by telling the truth. In South Africa, they used to say only a dying mule kicks the hardest. Langston Hughes used to say that we must take back our mighty dream again. America's never been America to me, but I swear this oath that America will be. We have power. Did you know Trump, with all their money, won in the battleground states by a total of around 800,000 votes. But in those same states, millions of black people and brown people and poor and working white didn't even vote. And if we began to organize now for 2026 and move and inspire and unite those votes, we

can shake the power of this nation. And we have to because bowing down is not an option. We must reclaim our government. We must reclaim pledging ourselves to the reconstructing of America. We must call on lifting every voice to sing. In 1850, the Dred Scott decision came down, Barbara, and it was a low-down decision.

It was a low-down president and a low-down Supreme Court and a low-down Congress. And after the Supreme Court was stacked with slave owners and they codified white supremacy into law with the Dred Scott decision and they declared that Chief Justice Tannen, who was rushed onto the Supreme Court, he gave in to the slave masters and ruled on the Dred Scott decision saying that black folk in America didn't have any rights that white people were honored and bound to respect. And in the midst of that, one of the sisters of the movement saw Frederick Douglass depressed, and she asked Frederick one question. Is God dead?

Are you going to trust Tanny? Are you going to trust God? Frederick Douglass said it shook him to his core. He said he had to speak. Got in a speaking engagement with the abolition group, said to them, Earth and Heaven will despise this edict of Tanny. And I want my people to know, he said, as he talked to them, as monstrous as this moment appears, as monstrous as this decision appears, we can meet it in a cheerful spirit because this very attempt to blot out forever the hopes of an enslaved people may be the one necessary link in the chain of events preparatory to the downfall and the complete overthrow of the entire slave system. Then he said, the whole history of the anti-slavery movement

is studied with proof that all measures devised and executed with a view to allow and diminish the anti-slavery agitation has only served every time to increase,

intensify, and embolden our agitation. My brothers and sisters, justice-loving Americans, black folk, folk of conscience, wherever you are, if Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, could refuse to bow down in 1850s, then surely we must declare now that bowing down is not an option.

They are afraid of you. They are afraid of you. They are afraid of your votes. They would not be working this hard to suppress you if they were not afraid. Trump and Musk, even the filing of executive orders is proof of fear because they know they could never get it passed through the Congress. They are afraid. Their crowd is afraid. They are afraid of the power of love, the power of truth, the power of justice, the power of unity.

They are all scared of our power, but they are betting that you will be afraid of them. But this is the time, as Frederick said, to increase, intensify, and embolden our agitation, and to declare that wanting to be a king or want to be king is only a king if we bow down. That's the only way it can be a king is we bow down, but bowing down is not an option. My knees and your knees are not made for bowing to a power drunk neophasis. We bow only to God. Otherwise we stand tall. When they attack everyday people with bad, mean, hurtful policies, we must stand tall and increase and intensify and embolden our agitation and say no.

It's time for our pulpits to stand tall, to call on the people to increase, intensify, and embolden our agitation and declare not on our watch. In our protest, we must stand tall and increase, intensify, and embolden our agitation. If black and white folk and women and gay and straight and Christian and Jews and Muslims and Unitarians could do it 60 years ago in Selma, if they could stand tall and advance and never sound retreat, then surely we can stand tall now and intensify

and increase and embolden our agitation. We must do it in our organizing. We've got to increase and intensify and embolden our agitation. We've got to stand tall because bowing down is not an option. It may take a mass call-ins, but we've got to increase, intensify, embolden our agitation and stand tall. It may take mass nonviolent sit-ins. It may take mass pray-ins. It may take labor striking on election day to ensure that all the workers are out getting people to the poll. But that's all right. Whatever it takes, we've got to increase, intensify and embolden our agitation.

It may take massive lawsuits and class action lawsuits of the people, but we've got to stand tall. And if we stand tall, their plans won't work. As long as we stick together and stand tall, stand tall in every precinct, stand tall in every voting district, stand tall in every city, stand tall in every state, stand tall because what has been created and done can be undone. If we stand in the truth, stand in love, stand in justice, the God of the universe will be with us and change will come because when we stand with God's truth and God's love and God's justice, I learned this a long time ago. One can chase a thousand and two can put ten thousand to flight because when we stand with God's truth and God's love, dark Fridays, mean political Fridays can become new Sunday mornings of mercy and righteousness.

But when we stand with God's truth and love, ashes of repentance can become great moments of renewal. It's time. It's time, y'all. It's time, family. Wherever you are, sitting with a family out there in a church, sitting in your living room, thank God you're hearing this tonight. The lies and the greed cannot have the last word. It's time to increase workers' protests. The people can put together their lawsuits. We can do all the kinds of ends we need to do because we love justice and we love righteousness and we hate injustice. We may have to do it all. I suspect we will. I suspect and prophesied tonight that when it gets warmer, you may see in America the same thing you saw in Egypt in places. You may see a fresh freedom summer, organic, just coming up because there comes a time, as Dr. King reminded us, people just

get tired, get tired. If they tell you as a a worker you got to leave your job Illegally, why don't you just sit there? Make them arrest you and then file a lawsuit against us Somewhere I read like that. Can we got the right the freedom of speech? We got the right to assembly We got the right to life liberty in the pursuit of happiness. We've have all these rights. It's time now to believe it Stand on it. Believe it. Don't back up from it. We in this moment must use every moral tool at our disposal and every nonviolent method to embolden and intensify our agitation for love and justice and righteousness.

Stand up in every pulpit. Stand in every federal job. Stand in protest and expose what they're doing. Stand with every American, no matter who they are. If they believe in one nation under God, indivisible with life, liberty, and justice for all, stand with them. Flood the congressional phone lines. Flood them with calls of protest and moral dissent. Stand up in the town halls. Go to their offices. Stand with facts and with faith.

Stand and don't bow down and declare that as long as you got breath in your body, as long as you're clothed in your right mind, as long as you have a portion of health and strength because you care about this generation and the generation behind you, stand up because God can do more with the remnant that will stand than a crowd that will bow. Stand. Stand. And don't let anything keep you from standing because bowing down is not an option now.

God bless you. And Lord, help America. Amen. I told y'all when we were doing this, I said why we were not going to carry the lies of Donald Trump, and he's still lying right now. And I said that we need to hear the state of our union from Reverend Dr. William Barber. That was so on point. It was so unnecessary. We've got a full house of folks joining us virtually. Reverend Frederick Douglas Haynes, the Third Friendship West Baptist Church out of Dallas. My dear Alfred

brother, glad to have you here. Pastor Robert Turner is still with us. We're going to get Pastor Tone Lee back on the phone in the studio. We've got Dr. Greg Carr, Department of African American Studies at Howard University. We've got Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown. Yeah, calm down. First of all, don't you even start. Don't you even start. I didn't say nothing. When Reverend Paul was over there preaching,

you were over here giggling and laughing. That was Greg's fault. That was Greg's fault. So don't start. We got Judith Brown-Diana, Director of the Advancement Project. We got Judith Brown, Diana's director of the Advancement Project. We got Eugene Craig, who is a distressed Republican. We got Therese Garnier.

She, of course, she served in the military. I know she's got something to say about the craziness that we're seeing from these folks. Randy Bryant, DEI Disruptor, joining us. Jelena Porter, formerly of the State Department. Of course, Pastor Lamar is here as well. We're going to have CBC members. Y'all, we're going to show y'all the moment when my alpha brother, Congressman Al Green, stood up and walked

the hell out of Donald Trump's speech. We'll do that in a second, but I'm just going to just quickly just go around, folks. Freddie, I'm going to start it with you. The word that Reverend Barber gave us, the direction that he gave us, just give us just your thoughts because that was something that we needed to hear because so many people have been crying out saying,

man, I just want something to happen. What do I do? Where do I start? Go ahead and kick us off. Yeah, well, Roland, first of all, I want to thank you because you are modeling what we need to be doing in this hour. What you're doing basically is applying what? Kuji Chagalia, self-determination. We can speak for ourselves. That's how the black press was born. And so I want to thank you for that. But also, we can pay our own way.

If we do this, then we can also have our own message. Tonight, whatever mess was going on on Capitol Hill, as you said, returning to the scene of the crime, that was a state of dissing the union. And tonight we heard from Bishop Barber a real state of the union, a real vision for where we need to go and how we can get there. And so I want to salute Bishop Barber for his prophetic witness. You heard tonight what real theology sounds like and looks like. Roland, you asked in the earlier session about, you know, what the black church needs to be doing.

First of all, we need to get rid of white Jesus and embrace fully black liberation theology, a theology that liberates and empowers. As long as we got white Jesus, it's going to be hell for black people. And so what William Barber did tonight was basically articulate a theology of liberation. And then in the spirit of Sankofa, he reached back to what Dr. King had been telling us as he was being assassinated and still speaks to this day. And that is, number one, understand that the demonic triplets of this country are now at work as never before—racism, militarism, and economic exploitation and the greed of capitalism.

And so when William Barber brings back to the front of the stage our responsibility to the poor, our responsibility to those who are suffering and struggling the most, after all, this nation calls itself about God and Jesus. What Jesus said in the end, he's going to judge nations by how they treat the least of these. And right now it's going to sound like he's going to say, I was hungry, but you cut SNAP benefits. I was thirsty, and you had contaminated water in Flint, Michigan, as well as Segalville, Texas, not to mention Jackson, Mississippi. I was in prison because of your prison industrial complex.

And I was a stranger of color, and you did all you could to keep me out so you can go to hell. And the country's gonna say, win, Jesus. He's gonna say how you treat the least of these is what you've done to me. So Bishop Barber tonight reconnected us with the militancy of Martin Luther King Jr.,

gave us a vision of where it is we need to go. And now we got one responsibility, and that is to agitate, educate, legislate. And when we put together education, agitation, legislation, it's going to bring about the transformation of this country. And so here it is. As far as I'm concerned, William Barber just told us Freedom Summer 2025 has got to be what we are about. Pastor Kenneth Whalum. Economic empowerment, again, long game. Montgomery bus boycott, 381 days, it achieved the end that it was intended to achieve. Our mayor here in Memphis has challenged black pastors to take a year, starting March 18th,

select a black-owned business in your neighborhood or in your congregation, patronize that business on one day of the month or one day of the week. In 365 days, we are going to transform the economy of Memphis, Tennessee. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound man. Sound man gives us strategy. Every pastor on this panel, every pastor watching among the 245,000 or so people we've got watching, you can mobilize your congregation to implement a boycott, a boycott in reverse. We ain't talking about not spending money with white folk, although we are, but we are focusing and being intentional on spending our dollars with black-owned

businesses starting March 18th. Let's go to Baltimore, Pastor Turner. Senator Turner, you're up. Yes, sir. So the speech was very empowering for me. One thing that faith leaders, we know how to do is reading from our texts. We know how to deal with kings. And we have a person occupying the White House who really doesn't want to be president. He wants to be president. He wants to be king.

And he's trying to act as though he is already king. Unfortunately for him, he's not a king. He's not even the president, really. He is not even the vice president. In my opinion, Elon Musk is the acting president and Vladimir Putin is the vice president. And Donald Trump is like the court jester. He's the joke, trying to assume powers of a king. But our faith teaches us that when we are encountering king-like personalities, that we have to mobilize and organize and activate.

And that's one of the major things I really appreciate about Reverend Barbara's speech is talking to us in a language in which we all understand, but challenging the faith community and people of faith in general to take direct action and be willing to put their lives on the line. And that's something that personally I identify with, even with my monthly walks from Baltimore to the White House, because it is time for us to stop just talking and stop just singing and preaching,

but time for us to take action. Pastor Lamar, I said on this show a couple of weeks ago that what is required now are modern day Nehemiahs to rebuild the wall of resistance. And what I said on the show was that the beauty of Nehemiah having the vision, but he took it to the people, then the people said, let us rebuild. Because so the people are a part of this. We got up to almost 250,000 folks watching live simultaneously.

And what I'm trying to challenge them is, this is not just about what preachers are supposed to do, what civil rights organizations and others. No, we need the people to say, let us rebuild. You know, in the moment of rebuilding, they had tools of building in one hand and the implements of war in another. And what I keep thinking about now is a song... Because there were haters saying,

y'all ain't gonna let y'all finish this war. Oh, exactly. And they were designing death upon the people. So what I continue to think about is a song that we would sing growing up. He's a battle axe in the time of a battle and a shelter in a time of a storm. We have to be on war footing now.

This is not going away. We came here loving and we came here fighting. If we're going to stay here, we must do both. Now, what you're doing with this media, with black-owned media, you're taking us back to the best of the tradition of black media. So from the mid-19th century up until the 1920s and 30s,

we use the black media to find each other. Mothers would write saying, I have not seen my son. Sons and daughters would write, I have not seen my father. We connected with one another and built loving environments that sustained us. We have to remember that there is something in them. I think Frances Cress Welsing was right in her assessment of this sense of something genetic that makes you want to put out the fire of love and joy.

All we have to do is be beautiful, and they visit violence upon us. But what we do is we keep being beautiful. We keep being wonderful and extraordinary. And I really believe the only hope, Dr. Carr is right, this empire, there's something we'd say in the South when people are dying, it's called a death rattle. You can hear the American empire death rattle. Donald Trump is that rattling. Donald Trump is mucus in the lungs of the body politic, struggling, struggling for oxygen.

We need to understand, though, that some things must die so that life can come. My grandfather told me when he was approaching death, I was sitting with him, he said, boy, when the fruit gets ripe, it falls from the tree. But what he also understood is that he had planted

seeds so we may not see him physically, but we would keep coming up, doing his work, cultivating, growing. That's what we've got to do. This is death. This is weakness. We know it.

They know it. The question is, will we live into something different, and will we be prepared for the opposition? We must never, ever believe again that they let anything slide without a backlash. We think that we have won, and they are circling wagons again. So we've got to continue to love each other and continue to fight, continue to be human and let none of what they do or say take that away from us. Judith, the New York Times had a piece. I need to do a praise dance.

That's not as great. I'm talking about a New York Times. That's right, man. Yes, sir. New York Times had a story they followed 11 black folks and they talked to a sister her last name was Wilder she was a public school classroom aide so this is what they wrote

Ms. Wilder, a democrat said that she's in Milwaukee said that she didn't vote because she believed that Mr. Trump was going to win. Now she is preparing for what she believes he would do in office in food assistance, Social Security and housing assistance, among other programs for the poor. Quote, I already know that everything is about to end. So I've just been I've been trying to get myself together and look for better paying jobs, Ms. Wilder said. Racism was here before I was born. The battle I choose is employment.

Can we get more pay? I work in the public schools and I make $17 an hour, but it's not enough. Her name is Keosha Wilder. She's 39 years old. And I'm sitting here going, I didn't vote because I thought he was going to win. Baby, you in a battleground state. That's right. And that was part of the problem.

There were too many folk who thought the same thing, and then by not voting, they made sure he was going to win. Sitting back. I mean, it don't make no sense, right? There's no logic behind that. At all. You know, to sit back and not participate in an election where fascism

and authoritarianism is on the ballot is crazy talk. Now for some people, some people were hoodwinked, some people were bamboozled, others just tuned out and let this go. But I think, I wonder, Reverend Barber reminds us that first, when he talked about a king, he's telling us that in order for there to be a king, people have to bow down.

Sitting on the sidelines and not voting is bowing down. It's capitulating to what is to come. And for people to sit out when we are people that don't bow down. In order to be a king, for someone to be a king, that means that there are subjects. The people who were once considered chattel in this country will never be subjects again. And so for us to think about this moment, we have to do what he said. Reverend Barber talked about we're going to litigate lawyers like me, we're going to go to court, etc. But I always say the revolution will not be litigated because these courts are not our courts. This law is not our law. But the difference is going to be

whether or not we are going to stand up. We are going to... 92% sisters, oh, we on vacation. Get your ass on vacation right about now. Because we don't have time for that. We have to be in the streets. We have to be organizing.

We have to be advocating. We do have to be suing. And we have to be voting. That sister did the F-A-F-O, whatever that thing is. And now, figuring out that lives are on the line and you sat

home and you're sitting with the guilt of that. Never again. You talk about a king. Now Freddie Haynes accuses me of encroaching upon the territory of preachers. I told him, that ain't what I do. But when

called, I'm going to do what I have to do. Jelena, I did a segment on this show where I said, America wanted a king. You got a king. But I remind people in 1 Samuel when the people of Israel said, God, we want a king. He's like, hold up, y'all got me.

No, no, we want a king. He went, I'm going to give you a king, but I'm going to tell you what the king is going to do. He told them in advance how evil the king was going to be, and they still wanted one. These fools out here, they said in advance what they were going to do, so all is crying now. I'm like, hold on. Y'all wanted a king. Now y'all got him.

So these farmers in Kansas, in Texas, who are mad about losing $2 billion in USAID money, these other folk, veterans who voted for Trump, now whining and crying. I saw some guy on Wall Street say he voted three times. This was not what we voted for. There was a teacher in Kentucky. She said, this is not what we voted for. No, boo. The king told y'all what he was going to do.

Now they all of a sudden regretting it. But our whole deal is, as Reverend Barber said, we can't bow down in this moment, and we can't bow out. Speak to that. I think, well, that's a lot. So let's unpack that, okay? First of all, the Trump campaign, that's what they did. They campaigned on cacophony.

They campaigned on confusion. They campaigned on chaos, right? So they said, hey, all we have to do is manipulate. We're going to tell you we're going to do all these things and then focus on what we're going to do in the background. So, for instance, right now, Trump has put us in the middle of a trade war. He has stopped military funding for Ukraine and obviously dismantled USAID, among other things. But remember when he was talking about taking over Greenland and Panama Canal? Like, what happened to all that, right? Just noise and talk. But if that's how a king acts,

that's what they want. That's what they got and they voted for. And the young lady we're talking about, she's not the only one we've seen. There were a lot more people who actually did go out and vote for Trump and lots of white people, to be frank. And they're like, listen, they've radicalized me now. Now because I don't have access to IVF or whatever the stories are. But I think what we've done, obviously, there's been a dangerous precedent. And obviously we've seen or we've heard in some of the speech tonight, we've had one of our own CBC members who left or I think got kicked out of the room for disobedience. And I want to go back to something that...

That's Congressman Al Green. We're going to show it. Congressman Al Green. And he still says, shame on all y'all. Right. But I want to go back to something that Congressman Carter said earlier. And I can appreciate it because I like that we have kind of the inside-outside baseball with some of our CBC members. We had some who were like, listen, I'm just not going to go. Also, Conjuring Jasmine Crockett walked out. And we love her too.

But we also have members like him who are like, I'm not going to let this wannabe king, even Elon Musk's little baby said, hey, you're not the president, right? He got told by Little Child, you're not the president. I'm not going to let this man... Little Child said, shut your mouth. Shut your mouth. I'm not going to let him scare me out of doing my job

that I got elected to do. And for those of us in this room who have been the first or the only in all white or spaces that don't look like us, you need to be there to make yourself seen and to make them be uncomfortable. Because Trump shouldn't be able to go there and think like, I'm just talking to my homies and this is what I'm going

to do. He needs to see us. We need to be there and be present and make our presence known. Therese, 30 percent of the federal government are veterans. And, Lord, a lot of them who voted for Trump, now they're crying because they're getting laid off. And I'm sitting here going, he didn't love veterans. That man don't care. He skipped out on the war. And he said, what did he say?

He said trying to avoid STDs was his curse for Vietnam. That's literally what that fool said. And so all these people who fell for that nonsense, he didn't love the military. Now they learning. Yeah, they learning real quick. There's three issues that I take with the felon in chief. First and foremost, this war that he's causing with our allies. He's putting military service members in danger by doing this.

They're already saying they're not going to refuel our carriers. Okay, that's just step one. Okay, secondly, all these veterans that are complaining, we voted for him and we're, you know, how could he do this to us? You knew what was coming. He's been saying this. Even for the folks at home you served. How long did you serve? I served a total of seven and a half years.

Go ahead. Okay, so Air Force and then National Guard. So you have these individuals who voted for him who say, oh, we didn't expect him to do this, but he's been saying this. As service members or as military, if our commander-in-chief says they're going to do something, we're going to assume that they're going to do it. So for them to come back and say, well, we didn't think it was going to be this bad. No, the issue was you didn't think it would impact you.

Boom. You did not think it would impact you. So that's my third issue that comes up. Now we have veterans who did not vote for him, including myself, who are now being fired, who can't get healthcare, who are having all these other issues, who served now being fired, who can't get health care, who are having all these other issues, who served their country valiantly, honorably.

And now we have to fight for health care somewhere else because— And they're doing massive cuts to the VA. The VA. They're looking at cutting benefits as well. And so all the Republicans, they've all been lying about how much they love the military. Absolutely. Absolutely. They love to send troops to war but not take care of them when they're at home.

They like the idea of it. They like to claim that they're patriotic, but they don't follow up with it. And Trump, throughout his first presidency, he made fun of different service members who were held as prisoners of war. I mean, he has time and time again shown that he does not respect the military, and yet we have service members and veterans who still voted for him. And now they're crying. And I see these posts all the time, and yet we have service members and veterans who still voted for him. And now they're crying. And I see these posts all the time, and I'll comment and say, you know what?

As a service member myself, I don't feel, or as a former service member myself, I don't feel sorry for your situation because we tried to tell you. But you didn't care because you didn't think it impacted you. And now it does. And so now we're in this predicament that now we have to try to rally them all together. And we still got veterans who are saying they still support him after being fired by him. I don't understand that. But, you know, at this point, I'm just praying that people will start getting some common sense and start fighting back. Whether it's through words, whether it's showing up protesting, this being nice and sending letters and roo-roo-rah-rah,

that's not going to do it anymore. And as someone that's in the military, we believe in force if needs be. So some people need to be thinking, what do we need to do to make sure our voices are heard? No, that was a Democratic group who released some research and data that they were sending around. And let's just be real clear, that data was to appease the white people. And one of the things that they said in there was, hey, you know, don't really bring up USAID, don't really bring up Doge,

because that's popular among a lot of people. But the USAID, the reason that's important, because the reality is folk are about to die. They've already died. And I've specifically been calling out these fake conservative evangelicals because these fake evangelicals ain't saying nothing about folks dying. So I'm like, oh, I thought y'all were pro-life. And the reason folk need to stop acting like USAID is because these people run around saying,

well, we should stop spending money abroad. There's a reason we do that, because that also plays. That's called the soft part of diplomacy, as opposed to the hard part, which would be utilizing troops. You start doing that. You're about to really open the door for Russia, for China, but also for ISIS and the recalibration of Al Qaeda? Absolutely. You know, diplomacy first. Right. And first and foremost, I want to say that. Thank you for your service. I feel is is empty. But as a national security foreign policy person, both my parents were in the military, including the Air Force, and a lot of my work includes military folks. I truly admire the sacrifice that you all make for this country. And what is happening now to veterans boils my blood.

My mother, who just died a year ago, was 100 percent disabled because she was injured when she was in the military. And that is how she lived. That is the money that she lived on because she was unable to work. And to hear veterans, you already kind of have to tussle with the VA. Like, it's a dance. It's a whole other language that you learn. So it was already a very interesting system to kind of navigate. But now, now it is virtually impossible for people who serve this country with their body, bones and blood to recoup any benefits from saving from serving their country.

So I just want to say that first and foremost. In terms of our adversaries now, allies, threats, real threats around the world that are looking at us, they have been literally watching their little clocks like, OK, we're going to see which way this is going to go. And one of the things that I think about a great deal is that we are definitely open to kinetic attack. We are open to extreme espionage. The workers who were let go, they are rightfully angry. How do you handle a group of folks who know things? There was a report that Russia and China said, oh, they are targeting a lot of these disgruntled federal workers. Yes.

Let me tell you something. The people historically in this country that have spied against this country were mad about not getting a job promotion or feel feeling left behind. How do you think American federal workers feel today about their government right now, right here and now? Right. How do you think people feel right now? And, you know, this entire, I say this thing where none of this is sustainable, and it isn't. You know, you are firing people, you're not paying attention to what office expenditures,

you're not doing this carefully line by line, you are taking a hacksaw, and not are you only doing that, but then you are also sullying these people's reputations so they cannot get work after this. You are saying that they have poor performances. That is how people go into the world after their federal government stints and get other paying jobs is by their job performance.

What do you get out of firing people and then cutting off their ways to get future employment? How evil, how cruel must you be? And when I think about what Reverend Barber was saying tonight, and, you know, I sit here wearing multiple hats. And right now I'm a dive into my MDiv hat a little bit. And what I want to urge is when we are talking about the very crucial moment that we are in now and we are talking about black coalitions. I'm a black Catholic born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Three million of us, three million, including not just folks from Louisiana and Maryland and Baltimore, but also our diaspora brothers and sisters.

Right. And then also there are 2% of the Muslim black population. We are talking about almost 10% of other faiths that need to be part of this conversation. That's just something that's really important to me because we are often left out of these conversations. And I know the black church plays such a huge role in what we are doing, but this is all hands on deck. As another black Catholic, I second here black Catholic churches are part of the black church black Catholic churches were more black church that's being black being Catholic. Let's just be real clear. Our lady started to see

Catholic church in the future. Okay, I'll say we started to see, but we don't... But... No, no, no, because that Catholic church was founded in my grandparents' living room. What those Catholics? What those priests at? What they at? What those priests at? Clarence and

Imelda Lamont. And those nuns, because nuns go hard, too. That was a black Catholic church. Nuns go hard, too. Right, right. It's right now. No, that's right. Randy, in Trump's line of speech, of course, they yell, Merritt is back, which is hilarious, because he didn't introduce some of these grossly unqualified people in his cabinet. But the thing, we played a video yesterday where there was a sister who started crying.

She was the chair of a water board, and she started crying. Two engineers, two engineering degrees, all these different degrees, because this white Republican was jamming her up on DEI. And she had to take a while to collect herself. And I understand. I said, I'm not talking to you. I said, but damn that. I'm not letting these white racists break our folk down and cry. We got to understand, it's a bunch of

grossly unqualified, can't do any of these jobs, white folks. And so, when Trump stands up there and the rest of them yell, holler, and scream who's not qualified, they yell DEI for that plane crash when 67 folks died. Then when they found out all the pilots were white on the plane and the helicopter,

the story went away. But this is a moment where we got to just learn how to tell some folk, y'all can kiss my ass. I'm not about to sit here and defend my integrity and my academic pedigree with some folks who can't even carry a lot of our suitcases. I know people are very offended by what's happening with DEI

and I understand why the sister broke down and cried. But this is it. That we should feel so incredibly complimented. The fact that here we are brought over here as property, that we were, you know, raped and used and these people have 400 years ahead of us. And to have and to create some initiatives, something aspirational to say, we're going to create some diversity equity and inclusion initiatives to give other people a chance now let's just be really clear it wasn't just for

black people but i know that they marketed as such because they knew that people would accept the ripping apart of it if it were about black people right um and so the fact that that's all we've had i mean everything else has literally been us by our grit. They gave us, you know, the worst vegetable at the time and we made collard greens. They gave us the innards of the pig and we, you know, we made chitlins. Like we have always made something out of nothing. And then we have these initiatives to say, hey, let's just be aspirational to have a diverse workforce because the world is changing anyway. Let's have pay equity, maybe pay people the same for what they're doing. Let's make it where

everybody feels included in this workforce. And they're so threatened. They're so threatened and scared of us. The little bit they gave, they said, we're going to wipe it away. Should be a huge compliment to us. I don't even know how we made it this far with nothing. To be honest with you, we are miraculous. You know, so there's a video going around saying that black people are walking miracles and indeed each of us one is. Everyone watching today is. So I understand right now that it is frustrating.

But what I will say is that they can't stop the world from being diverse. The numbers are going to be the numbers. They can't, they can't, right. So we're going to be here. They ain't going to have time to go to work if they're going to be screwing that much. Right. And we are not going to stop being great. We're not going to stop being who we are. As you've seen... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth.

Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. What has been happening, here you have this, I can't even call it administration. The circus has come to town and the clowns have rolled out. And you still see with all these that black people are still just doing their thing. We are.

And so, you know, listen to Reverend Barber today when he said that we can't sit this out. We never have. And even when we talk about the 92% and the 88% kind of chilling, I don't really know any of us who are. I think what we're doing is what we've done

tonight and is that we are hyperusing on each other right now. We've tried to get everybody. We've tried to tell everyone, come on, y'all, this is the way we got to vote. This will help all of us. But they didn't listen. And so I think right now we are gathering our nuts, right, and we are preparing for the winter because we know sometimes it's going to be a little dark and cold. But we got this because we've always it's going to be a little dark and cold. But we got this, because we've always

had this. We've always had it. So diversity, equity, and inclusion, people ask me, what do I think is going to happen? It will be renamed. It will. It will be renamed, rebranded, but you can't wipe it away. Eugene, we are not seeing profiles

encouraged from Republicans. And I'm laughing how now they are trying to avoid town halls because folks are kicking their behind. It's scary. They're people. It's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot.

It's going to be a lot more people kicking their behind because when they watch all this, like Trump's still running his mouth. Still talking. Still talking. Nuh-uh. And all he's doing is constantly lying the whole time. That's crazy. Look, they about to find out, and they are finding out.

In real time, look, you're dealing with a party, you're dealing with people that, first and foremost, let's go back about 15 years. A lot of them came to power via town halls. They came to power during the Tea Party wave. So you're dealing with people that are literally, and I like to sort of go, we can quote, baptized in fear. You know, they're fearful of Elon Musk. They're fearful of Trump. They're fearful of their own voters. You know, the fact that the NRCC is telling their members, do not talk to your voters, is literally nuts.

And it's because they understood. Look, in 2010, you had, you know, FreedomWorks, which was down the street from here at the time. You had Heritage. You had Groundswell. You had a lot of these organizations coming together and literally funding the Tea Party movement. They're saying, hey, these are fake protesters, because at the time when Democrats had town halls around Obamacare and the stimulus package, they planted fake protesters and then sent Fox News out to cover the fake protesters. So in their mind, when they see real protests, they're thinking it's fake protests, when in reality, you have disgruntled federal employees that were illegally, per a federal judge,

laid off from their job. You have, you know, cities and states and localities that are going to be affected by budget slashes. You know, Speaker Johnson now is terrified that they may not be able to get Trump's package or agenda done because he's going to need Democrat votes. They won't. You know, you already lost Massey.

Massey's gone. So you lose another one, it's a wrap. That's right. So the thing is this, right? I think Democrats are in a unique situation. I say this as a Republican, a unique situation. You're in where Republicans were in 2009. But Republicans made a

decision to do everything in their power to stop Barack Obama. Democrats have to make a decision to do everything in their power to stop Donald Trump. These special elections that are coming up, get ready and prepare for them. Hey, guess what? If Elise Stefanik gets appointed to UN

ambassador, her district borders Canada. Doug Ford said today, listen, you give us a tariff, your electricity is going to be cut off. You know whose district borders that? Elise Stefanik's. You just had a Democrat win an Iowa in our 24th district.

So my thing is this. You're dealing with a party baptized in fear. We're literally right now, you know, Padme said, Revenge of the Sith, that, you know, the republic dies with thunderous applause, and it's what's happening right now with this address to the joint session of Congress.

But, you know, there's always new hope. You know, we're hoping tomorrow, hurry up. But in order to get there, folk got to fight like hell. You know, Greg, if that was a moment, I think back to the massive Black Lives Matter protest. In May, May 25th, was marked the fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd. You referenced earlier how Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk

and these white boys, they want Derek Chauvin to get a pardon. Sorry fool, he got convicted in state. And so ain't no Republican governor in Minnesota and Trump, you ain't got no control over state. And you can see who they want to be as

their leaders, as their martyrs. They bring back the Tate brothers. Okay, so charged with sex trafficking, healing them up as their leaders, as their martyrs. They bring back the Tate brothers, okay, so, you know, charged with sex trafficking, healing them up as their heroes. And what I'm saying, you know, to the folks, a lot of those folks who were protesting on college campuses and other places for Gaza,

where y'all go? To the Black Lives Matter folk, I'm like, if there's a moment for you to come back and hit the streets, this is it. The earlier panel was right. Public pressure, pressure in the streets has an impact on court cases, on public opinion. But folks staying quiet gives the impression

that everybody is good with it. And so I don't think folk can be quiet about this moment. There should be massive protests in cities all across this country saying, hell no, we're not accepting this. Right. Of course, I agree. You know, Reverend Barber laid it out. And it was interesting as he was talking and looking at Trump, the parallels, community, nation, identity,

everything on the other side, rage, lies. And, you know, there was a long article in the New York Times magazine this weekend by David Lenhart about Denmark, most progressive country in the world, arguably, social welfare, college all the way through, graduate school. And the one area that they are criticized on is immigration. They are very intolerant of immigration. But the idea is that they have a culturally homogenous society.

So the idea is that because they come out of the same culture, generally speaking, people are willing to buy into something where those who have more money will take a little bit off to take care of everybody else. That is not the situation here. And that's why this country will collapse. Because what Reverend Barber was talking about is something they don't understand. There is no common culture in this country. So when you quote Abraham Lincoln to them, they think, what the hell are you talking about?

And I must, you know, again, thinking about what you just did, Reverend Lamar, that's the kind of theology that we brought on those boats with us. I don't call it Christian. I don't call it Muslim or Jew. That's African spirituality. That was the basis of Vodun, the Haitian Revolution. That was the basis of Nat Turner.

That was the basis of Harriet Tubman. And I'm saying you have to understand there's no common culture here. What we saw tonight, and he's still talking, that looked like Lenny Reifenstahl trying for the will, the Nuremberg rallies of 1934 with Hitler, who was a Christian nationalist. National socialism was a Christian movement. I don't know what that sign that Elon Musk made

when he stood up, but it wasn't no random hand palsy. This guy was sending another message. I'm saying all that to say this. The diversity that you're walking us through, very important to understand, the only diversity in a white nationalist settler state is whiteness. The diversity of whiteness, Italians and Irish and Spanish, they all become white. The only type of equity is an equitable distribution of whiteness

so that the poor whites will rally with the rich ones against everybody else. And that means the ultimate inclusion is to make sure that whiteness stays monolithic. God bless Reverend Barber. God bless the monolithic. But I think Martin King had a very different conversation in that last book, Where Do We Go From Here, Care Us, the Community. He's not anchoring that in patriotism. There's a spiritual dimension. And the only other thing I would say about that is what we saw tonight in terms of a tangible strategy, Al Green walked out. We saw Ilhan Omar walk out. We saw Bernie Sanders walk out.

I don't know who's left in there right now. In fact, we had some members who stood up, took their jackets off and had shirts and said resist. Resist, including Jasmine Brockett. No question. And what I'm saying is that ultimately, that type of resistance now, we haven't reached the stage now

where you're going to see it go to the bricks. Eugene is right. The reconciliation process, when these white boys had to put their name and their vote on, where are you going to cut? It was good to pass a resolution, but now we've got to talk about Medicaid directly. Now we've got to talk about Social Security directly. The resolution process, maybe that's why Hakeem Jeffries is keeping his powder dry. Although everybody's reporting now that the Democratic Party is leaderless. I'm not sure I disagree with that. But at this point, they will go to the bricks in the process that way.

The lawyers and Rev, we saw what y'all did to the Proud Boys. That was with a law firm that said, we're going to do this pro bono and help you. But these boys just attacked the white shoe firm that backed up Jack Smith and took their security clearances, meaning what? When they go after Smith, his lawyers might not be able to get the federal documents they're going to need to defend them. They're trying to now threaten the bar. All of that having been said, we will not make common cause with these people. They are enemies of our common humanity. Calling them Hitler is too generous.

It's too generous. We saw the Bund rally before the election, and here what we're seeing, this is like Nuremberg in 1934. You can't make common calls with them. There's no common language you can speak with them. You've got to roll over them like the sea. And it starts with black media that does that.

On this issue of protest, you know, the stakes of protest are much higher right now. Yes. So we have to be clear. For black people, we are taking a risk. If you look at what happened in Atlanta with folks who protested against the construction of a $30 million facility to train cops who will be killing our people down the road, right, after George Floyd is murdered, et cetera.

People got charged with RICO charges. That's right. In Atlanta, there are states, many states have passed anti-protest laws because Republicans know the power of protest. They passed anti-protest laws upping the ante. Did you see? So that you can get... There are states...

Yes, there are states where you can get... If you are blocking a street now, someone can hit you with their car, and there is no liability if you were in a protest that was not under a permit. And so, right, and so Trump's doing this new tweet about college campuses, we're going to deport you, we're going to arrest you, et cetera,

we're going to expel you. By the way, you can't do that, Trump. That's not your job. Anyway, this is... But the military has judged advocates, though. He got rid of the judge advocate in the military. Right, but the point is that this is, that the ante has been upped

because they understand that dissent is a powerful thing right that's right that's right I think Hakeem Jeffries is doing the right thing

and just getting the hell out the way you want to complete control of government you got it no no no no no no

the republic listen hear me here because I said the anti is up that didn't mean that the anti don't protest no, no. No, no, no. Listen, hear me here. Because I said the anti-Zap, that didn't mean that I'm saying don't protest. No, no, no. I'm not saying don't protest. What I'm saying is this. Republicans want a trifecta in government.

You want it both houses. You want the presidency. All right? I think the Democrats in the House and the Senate are doing the right thing by not giving them a single vote on any consequential piece of legislation. When it comes to this budget, you figure it out and you own it. Let the natural wings of the Republican Party cannibalize each other.

And then they'll dispose Speaker Johnson, put somebody else in, and go through the process all over again. I think a lot... And more importantly, there's two special elections already in the books in Florida, and the one coming up in New York, you've got to fight like hell in them. I think a lot of people, first of all, don't even understand the basics of Congress.

The reality is, on the House side, Democrats are severely limited in what they can do. The reality is, one senator can do a lot of stuff. They can hold up nominations, things along those lines. That's right. And so the reality is there's not much they can do on the House side. And so when I listen to these people, when I listen to a lot of these folk who are attacking House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries, I'm sitting there going, okay,

so what are y'all actually suggesting? They can't actually define it. And so I get the whole point about how you speak, messaging, things along those lines, having the right messengers, sending the folk out there. But that's also a representative of just what happens with mainstream media, who they're trying to talk to. So to me, that's a whole bunch of process stuff. I think the most basic fundamental thing, Pastor Lamar, which we've been talking about is this notion of having a fight in you, saying something, doing something. Somebody suggested, I saw a tweet that they said that this weekend Democrats should have 435 town halls in every congressional district in the country. And I agree.

You know, I've said, and I've texted Ken Martin directly. I said, every time you see one of these folks who have been impacted, who have been fired, I said, that's when it should filter down who's in each state, going to their state chairs, going down to their county chairs, and driving it down because you've got to put a face on it. You've got to make folk realize that that's actually somebody right there and too often that's what's not happening.

But I need our people to realize this ain't a time to only go to brunch, to only try to get your passport stamped. I ain't got no problem with travel. I ain't got no problem with any of that. But the problem I'm having is

when we check out, I'm looking at our vote totals. I'm looking at the number of elections that our numbers have been going down. And my problem is, if we're not maximizing our voting power, we make it that much easier

for them to win. That's right. I was watching the documentary about Walter White recently. Did you see it? Yeah. Extraordinary. And the thing that keeps sitting with me is that these leaders innovated something that heretofore had not existed. The strategy of Walter White, along with Charles Hamilton Houston, they were building on the work of Pauli Murray. They innovated something new jurisprudentially. What I am hoping that we can understand is

what the new thing is that must emerge. Something is struggling to be born. And I believe that our vocation is that of midwifery. We have to set the stage for the thing to be born and for it to thrive. Now, birth is not easy, bloody, painful. And as the thing is coming, it is always teetering on the precipice of death until it can finally get here. So what and a big piece of what has to come out, I was paying attention to this guy. He's written a media theory. I think he's a little wacky. But what he says is true, that our institutions have followed communication. So we grew up with Walter Cronkite.

You watched him. That's the way it was. He didn't have all this different stuff. Now media is fragmented, and that means that our institutions have been fragmented by the communications. So we've got to figure out how in our moment we hitch up with technology. So Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the two Africans in the continent first to get a copyright, used a printing press to refute what they were saying about Africans in Philadelphia during the Yellow Feet. King and those during the movement used television, another technology, to bring into the homes of Americans who would deny their violent

white supremacy, you couldn't deny what you saw in your living room on that black and white TV. What we have to do now... Before King used television, he was in Ebony and Jet. Exactly. Using the black media. He used the black media. It was black

press that set the stage for then, when their lives were in danger, then white media covered the movement. Right. But even when they were in Little Rock, the black press was in the living room with Daisy Bates. So... Had done the work. So the point there is, if you do not have black media

there, because you can't wait for the white folk to show up. No. Because they're going to always be late. Always. White media's going to always be late. Oh, they're ambulants. But, you know, you just raised something very interesting, and it speaks to that novel theory, perhaps. Because you're right, these thugs now, they're taking

all the leashes off. Like I said, it was one thing to get rid of Chief Brown, but these judge advocates, the ones who say that's illegal, to get rid of them is a serious step. But this new strategy, like you said, they used the 14th Amendment. And we're still talking about the 14th Amendment, which in some ways is the thread that stitches this country together because it makes the federal enterprise work. The Fifth Amendment was only, you know, obviously.

But what about the First Amendment? And when you mentioned King, it made me think, OK think okay New York Times versus Sullivan which they're trying to kick the team out of right now that came out of Fred Gray and them that's the case that made the Supreme Court out of the New York Times and the ad in the New York Times for Supreme Speaks the black press now faces Black Star Network being

tip of the spear in this they're going to try to make it illegal to say anything about them and so but I'm saying in terms of freedom of association they're going to try to make it illegal to say anything about them. Yeah. And so, but, but I'm saying in terms of freedom of association, the first amendment,

a novel approach. I think we have underutilized two amendments, one from the reconstruction area, the 13th. Cause if you look at a million versus life with voting rights case out of Tuskegee, that was a 13th amendment case. They didn't even use the 15th in a way.

I mean, badge of servitude is something we should revisit because if we're going to put all our marbles out, Katonji Brown Jackson has been fighting like hell for the 14th Amendment. She's outnumbered, but there are novel theories we can develop. But the other amendment, finally, is the first. And I'm saying it this way. If you're

going to go for vouchers, if you're going to pancake public education and go for charter schools, then we want the charter schools for our black charter schools, then we want the charter schools for our black church schools, and we want the tax money. What? No! The First Amendment. Y'all love the First Amendment so much. But see, we have such a deep investment

in the idea of America as a concept that we are blind to the fact that it has never been a nation. We need to fight fire now with fire. Pull back on this imaginary myth-making and take some of their tactics, and we come up with a novel theory. I'm not saying go all the way, but we need to, everything need to be on the table.

This is why, I mean, first of all, for folks, and Glenn, the car, I see you there. I know Melanie Campbell's here, so y'all just hold tight one second. The thing that, why tonight was so important when we decided to do this. And I really want everybody who, you know, we hit 250,000 tonight.

We still are. We are. We're four hours in and we still at 177,000. But when I sent the text out and I said, we're doing this. Reverend Barber's going to be speaking. We're not carrying Trump. Don't watch the networks.

I said, let's hit 100,000. Spread it to your friends, family. I sent it out. I sent it out. My expectation, because of what we've done previously really was twenty five thousand because I know what I know. I know what the numbers are. I know what we've had before. But in the last 48 hours and this is when I need people really to pay attention because, see, I need a lot. A lot of our folk, we keep acting like old black people

are somehow irrelevant. I was in a chat room and they were talking about how we need to be teaching our old black people YouTube. And I said, hold on, y'all have no, I literally said, y'all have no, I said, y'all have no idea what the hell y'all talking about. I said, the highest group of folk who watch this show, if you look at

our YouTube dashboard, if I pull it up, and if it says, I can pull it up right now, it says in the last 28 days, we had 32 million folk who watched. If I hit analytics,

and then I hit audience, the highest percentage of people watching, 65 plus, is 30.8%. Wow. I said, so y'all acting like older black folk can't find this. I said, that's the highest rate.

I said, no, I said, I travel the country. These black people know how to find you. They're like, oh, baby, I see you. So nearly every text I got was, my grandmama or the matriarch of our family put this in the family chat. And that thing reverberated. And earlier, we were just all talking and

four of us, they were like, man, yeah, my mama, my grandmother, my grandma, they were all talking about it. That's how we hit 250 because them black grandmothers were like, no, no, no, y'all don't sit y'all ass down. Y'all don't watch this here. Which means more than one person was watching too.

You ain't even captured it. So people need to understand the reason you have to have a mass medium because show me any other way. I need people to understand what I'm talking about. A quarter of a million people were watching this simultaneously. That is three Louisiana Superdome's.

That's Essence Festival sold out three times. See, we keep underappreciating the value of media. The ability to reach a quarter of a million people at the same time simultaneously. There is no other black platform tonight that can say that because black radio

wasn't carrying this. Black radio has not been on for the last four hours. Not black newspaper. There's no black show. This was not carried on a single black cable hours. Not black newspaper. There's no black show. This was not carried on a single black cable network. Not BET. Not TV1. Not Aspire.

Not Up. Not any of them. This is the only place. And so, this is why we have got to stop downplaying black-owned media to realize we do this every day. And so what you're talking about, what needs

to be birthed, this has to be birthed through Black-owned media because you ain't going to get it anywhere else. Because you ain't going to get it on CNN or MSNBC or NBC, ABC, CBS because there

even the Black folk who got shows, they don't control their shows. Somebody else tells them what to talk about. And so I hope in this moment we realize, stop thinking white ice is colder. Yes, sir. Stop thinking that, oh, man, well, they mentioned us on

MSNBC. You got a mention there, but you can actually have a dialogue here. And so, that's what is happening, I think, in this moment of folk who are supporting black-owned businesses, the Target Fast, black people are now

realizing we've been spending so much time trying to wear their stuff, impress them, satisfy them. At this moment, it's forcing black people to look inward and realize y'all people keep running around talking about Kendrick. What is they not like us or whatever the hell? Well, if we don't keep saying that, when are we going to say, do we like us? No question. When Dr. Carr said, when you said, we've been in love with Americanism,

and when you were talking earlier, I think when you were talking about how vets voted against, how veterans voted against, you know, the right way, they voted for Trump, I think that what we've had to realize in this moment that I think will be powerful is that we fell in love with the idea of Americanism, but we have to realize that they didn't see us as Americans.

Right. They didn't see us as Americans. They never will. And so here we are. That's right. As, you know, visitors or enemies of the state in a way. Seriously. And we have to figure out what we do.

Where we at. And who we have. And all we have is us. Glenda Carr, Higher Heights, what are you hearing? Are you seeing a renewed fight interest among black women to run for office in the face of this fascism? Absolutely. What we find is that black women are still engaged in this democracy. Right, Roland? To understand how we got to a Kamala Harris 107-day historic run, we have to look at a 10-year acceleration of Black women's political power and leadership.

In 2014, we just had one Black woman serving as a mayor of a major city. We now have seven. There was just 241 Black women serving in state legislatures in 2014. We now have 283. There were only 18 black women serving in Congress. We now have 31, including two black women serving in the upper chamber, the first time we've ever had two black women serve in the U.S. Senate. So this has been a steady gain. There is still strides to go. Black women are still underrepresented in most of our American democracy. But there are black women who are plotting runs for a local school board, the understanding that the importance of local governance more than ever. But there are black women sitting in state

legislatures or local business leaders or activists like a Judith Brown. Diana, she's going to kill me for saying this because she's not running for office. But that's the Kamala effect, right? The continuation of Shirley Chisholm's. There are black women who were inspired. My goddaughter sat on the quad on Howard on election night and on the next day to hear Vice President Kamala Harris. And you could see in her eyes the spark of activism, the spark of her leadership, and that it'll be generations of black women who are going to be inspired by this moment, because they know that their families and their communities need their leadership now more than ever.

We are—we're past 11 o'clock. Trump finally finished running his mouth. Um, and so, um, it's, uh... We've got, uh, yeah, at least not, slotnick is speaking. Y'all don't even, we ain't caring that. I ain't got no time. I ain't got no time to be hearing from her.

Uh, so it's a lot more we're gonna be covering here. Uh, so, uh, so we're going to be covering here. So we're going to do this here. I'm going to ask Glenn another question. I'm going to bring in or I'm going to swap out four folk with our panel on here. And so let me just do this real quick. I didn't figure out who it's for,

but I'm going to do this real quick. I want to hear a final word on what you want folk to do from this point forward. We've had great conversation on this night. What do you want them to do, Teresa? What do you want them to do? Pray.

Lots of prayer and also be safe. Get together as a community and support each other. I think that's the biggest thing. If you've got to have people over at your house to commune, to pray together, I think that's so important right now. We need that mental and emotional support before we can take on the fight that's coming. Jelena? Someone said it earlier, but I want to underscore just speaking truth to power. As you know, I've been on here before, both as a government official and as a private citizen,

speaking truth to power about our inequities within our halls of government and as someone who actually used to work on the Hill to, again, knock on your members of Congress's door, write them. It is powerful because I've had plenty of people for me when I was working in the administration, you know, can you tell Tony Blinken? I said, no, I can't because that's not how it works. But you, do you know who your member of Congress is? Or better yet, do you know who your local electeds are?

That's how you're empowered and that's how you make a difference. Noah? I just want to say, you know, this is a very, I think about this moment when I think about black history coming from a very, very, very, very black city. A very black background. And for me, so much of this is like, duh. But then I have to put myself in other people's shoes. You know, when you think about kids who were born after the 80s and the 90s, and they were born in a post-integration world, they were born in all the post, post, post, post, post, post. And they were told, this is a new America, different America,

you can do what you want abc and d and so for a lot of those folks who were still trapped in that americanism that you two mentioned i don't fault them because this is the promise of the country that they said that they would deliver on right so where we are right now in this kind of revolutionary renaissance moment i'm i'm here i'm here for it. I'm like, let's go. But also, it's because of what I come from. You know, like, blackness is just what it is in New Orleans,

Louisiana. Like, I don't care what your zip code is or what your bank account says. That's just what it is. But I absolutely, you know, for younger folks out there that are confused about what's happening, they're like, I just want to go to brunch, back to our brunch conversation.

I want to go to brunch, too. Don't nobody love brunch more than me. Listen. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody loves brunch more than me. Nobody. Loves brunch.

Bottomless. You heard where I'm from Bottomless. Bottomless. Bottomless. Bottomless. You heard where I'm from, right? OK. OK. Listen. Let's do this. Listen, I'm just being honest. I asked Roland where was the king cake. Listen.

He didn't play ahead. It's Mardi Gras. It's Mardi Gras. It's Mardi Gras. It is. Wait, I have one. Y'all didn't bring a damn thing. No, no.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. There it is didn't bring a damn thing. Oh no, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. There it is. There it is right there. Hold on, hold on. Hold up, hold on. That's the blackest thing said tonight.

Hold up, hold up, let's be real clear. That's the quote. Let's be real clear. I didn't pay for the damn caterer. That's the quote. I didn't pay for the liquor. They couldn't bring a key page. I didn't pay for all, hey, y'all.

That's why we ain't bring nothing. Y'all ain't bring no damn. Y'all didn't bring a damn thing. Y'all ain't bring no damn things. You have all the things. Y'all ain't bring a damn thing. You have the things. Y'all some fake ass New Orleans people. Randy, what's your comment?

I just go in the world. No, you are not questioning. I got me distracted by bottomless. Listen. What do you want people to do? I need to get to finish my thought. Build community with your people. Hell yeah, because you gave a thesis.

And that's why I'm here. Build community with your people. Yes. Whether it be over brunch or at a place where you ain't got no cake. Build community with your people. Cake. First of all, first of all. The baby got to be in the cake.

Let me be real clear. Let me be real clear. It's some goddamn red velvet cupcakes. Oh, I didn't see that. Y'all might want to call me out on that. I didn't know you said cupcakes. You said Bill Community. Judith, go.

I mean, of course I'm going to say vote, right? I voted today. I live in Prince George's County. Judith, go. I mean, of course I'm going to say vote, right? I voted today. I live in Prince George's County. We have a special election for and that's a county exec position, but it's important because that's the person who's going to protect me from the crap that's happening in Washington.

Absolutely. Glenda, what do you want folk to do? That's a great point. I didn't get to finish my thought. I think black women need to continue to vote, run, win, and lead. But I a great point. I didn't get to finish my thought. I think black women need to continue to vote, run, win, and lead. But I am inspired by what I heard from you today, Roland. I got your text from

five of my everyday black women. Someone from my church, someone from my sorority, someone from my girlfriend. So the power of our collective is unlimited. Like, our power continues to be unlimited. And so it may be, as the vice president said on that November 5th,

when it's the darkest, you can see our brightest lights. We are the brightest lights. And so the power of organizing, organizing with organizations like Higher Heights and Advancement Projects and many of the voices that you've had on all day. Yep. That's where you should sow your money and your time and your treasures.

But organizing every day, grandma organizing still works, y'all. And that's what we need to do. It absolutely does. And when, again, so people need to understand a window into this. When TV won, canceled, news won now, I knew exactly what I was going to do. And the reason I launched it, even when they offered me a new three-year contract, I told them no. Because I knew Tom Joyner Morning Show is going to have a negative impact on black America because, and there's no disrespect to all the other current syndicated radio shows, but if you combine all of those shows together, they literally do not do the kind of content that happened every day on Joyner.

And I said then, we're going to have a problem heading into the 2020 election and then beyond. And so we saw all of this coming. Yeah, that's the presidential... Going back home. Going back home. That's the... The motorcade. No, that's the J.D. Vance motorcade.

He going to the observatory. Yeah, his ass going. So... So I need people to understand that was the understanding. And I need people to pay attention. I need you to understand that... We got some other folks who are coming up,

but you've had LDF on, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Transforming Justice Coalition on, Advancement Project, Higher Heights. You've had a multitude of groups who did not get called by any of the other networks. Come on. Come on. I need y'all to pay attention on. Come on. I need y'all to pay attention. I need y'all to pay attention. Yes, sir. Not only did they not get called tonight, they're not going to get

called tomorrow or afterwards. The reason that is important is because y'all have seen tonight. Y'all, we still got about eight other people we're about to bring on. Y'all have seen more black experts tonight than you're going to see

on the three broadcasts and the three cable networks combined for the entire week, I dare say next two weeks. So this is why I need our people to understand that if tonight, if 250,000 people could tune in tonight,

you know what you've just proven? Yep. You can actually do it every night. We're going to do another Million Man March. You got to show them off. See? I got to show you every night. Friday the 3rd.

Your new show, Friday the 3rd. So again, I need people watching. I need you to understand what I'm saying. The moment you show the ability to mobilize and organize and prove the collective, now, how do you replicate it day in and day out? So if you do a quarter of a million, and if I show y'all, if you do a quarter of a million every night, literally, that's more than watch Newsmax, more than watch OWN or HLN, more than watch a number of shows on CNN. That is literally our power as if we're willing to actually use it. So we're going to go through this here.

Y'all don't go anywhere. It's a quick break. We got literally a quick break. We're going to bring in our next group of panelists for a continued conversation. I have a number of millennial voices. I got something to talk to them about. They got something to say about.

Yeah, we got something to talk about because I keep saying my pants. You did what? Huh? He had a brunch, too. Oh, man. Yeah, we all know her ass. She's so black.

Any time she sent a brother a text, her ass had brunch. Anyway, so we're going to take a quick break. We're going to also, we're trying to get Congressman Al Green on the phone. We're going to show you all the video where he interrupted Donald Trump's speech and they walked him out. He represented all of us. We're going to show you some of the other stuff.

Did he bring impeachment? He also was the only one to yet again bring impeachment charges, right? Again. Wasn't he the one last time to do it? Right. But they still walked your brother out, but don't worry about it. We got his back. So we'll be right back

on the Black Star Network. And again, if y'all watch and support the work that we do, join our Bring the Funk fan club. You can contribute via Cash App.

Use the Stripe QR code right here on the screen. Go to BlackStarNetwork.com if you're listening. I see your check and money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.

20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo, R.C. 20037-0196, PayPal R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo RM Unfiltered, Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Y'all remember, ain't nothing happening tonight free. Just so y'all know. Because there was no king cake. Just so y'all know.

Oh. But don't worry about it, because we're going to take Nola's credit card. Oh. Oh. And she's She gonna be paying for some stuff. If her ass keep talking, interrupting me, I'll be right now. Now, Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk.

In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reeve's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network

for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of Black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is

power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. This week on the other side of change. Environmental disasters and systemic exploitation. From the wildfires in California to the unexpected snowstorms in the South. We are in the climate collapse. These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous. And it is Black and brown communities that are often hit first and worst.

Watch us on the Black Star Network. So tune in to the other side of change. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson, a betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book,

The Counter-Revolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow, and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation. Only on The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Next on A Balanced Life, we're talking everything from prayer to exercise to positive affirmations and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way.

That's on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Have you ever had that million dollar idea and wondered how you could make it a reality? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to meet Liska Askalise, the inventress, someone who made her own idea a reality and now is showing others how they can do it too. Positive, focusing in on the thing that you want to do, writing it down and not speaking to naysayers or anybody about your product until you've taken some steps to at least execute. Lease got, ask a lease on the next get wealthy right here, only on Blackstar Network. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though.

I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha.

Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Black Star Network, we got some great new voices here.

Joining us, Bria Baker. She's an author, activist, and she's co-host of a new show here on the Black Star Network, The Other Side of Change, along with Jameer Burley. Eric Bell, he's a Georgia State representative. Glad to have Eric here. Gavin Reynolds, contributor to The Root, former speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris. Also joining us

on the panel, we got Tiffany Lofton. Y'all see over here. Tiffany, Tina Lofton. We got Tiffany Lofton over here. You see her with the blonde head over here. So, yeah, glad to see you. Hey, everybody.

We got Breonna Cartwright. I don't know what we're going to call Breonna. She's just a confused millennium. And so we're always going at it. She is not a millennial, but a whole lot of them work for her and so she is with Melanie Campbell

National Coalition Black Civic Participation Black Women's Roundtable how many other damn titles Melanie got I don't know your friend

you got she got she got she got she got the Africa earrings going a lot I mean

got the earrings all my life I mean, got the earrings. Oh, my life. Yes. Yes. Say it again. Yes. Say it again. I see you flossing.

And I didn't miss your little big, big old red glasses. I ain't miss them. I was at Busboys today, and a girl gave, Shannon gave these to me. And I said, they match my shoes. I'm wearing my roller shoes. Oh, wow. I just got these glasses. I work them.

See? Oh, I'm matching ones. You said, let me know. I like them. But they're not prescriptions. We know that. We know that. I have.

I did it for one. We know that ain't prescription. We know that show is so black. Okay, hey, your microphone, what you say? Nobody gave it to me. Well, clip the damn thing on. To where? Just put some tape on.

Your people are supposed to come up here and do this. Well, you're the one sitting there wearing your shaft outfit. I mean... You're Michael Jackson. You don't like my pants? It's an hour. You don't like my pants? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. I told y'all. I told y'all. This is up there by the... Oh, yeah. Oh, this is Jordan that's what I'm, oh yeah, put it, oh this is Jordan. Yes indeed.

Black history like this every day. Thank you Dr. Clark. That's it, that's it. There we go, go get by the school. I'm bringing it back to you. Chelsea, how you doing? I'm good. I'm trying to, y'all sitting here just gone here.

Okay, first of all, first of all, let me, hold on, now, hold on, let me, let on. This your first time, right? Yeah. Yeah, you ain't never seen this much blackness on a TV show before. I know you've been watching a lot of white TV. Baby, this ain't nothing. She looking like, oh my God.

This ain't nothing. Hold on, where you from? Brooklyn. You got a large black family? Yeah. Okay, that's what this is I'm just letting you know okay

so like cause you like damn everybody cutting on each other oh this is funny I'm entertained I'm entertained listen

if we weren't talking if we weren't talking about each other they'd think everybody's sick so that's that's what's going on here let

I want to I want to start here. Bria, this has been, Bishop Barber gave a fantastic sermon tonight. In terms of moving forward, what do we do? Where do we go? What is your message for millennial,

for Generation Z, for Generation Alpha, for folk to understand that we need all hands on deck in this moment? One million percent, yeah. Young people have always inevitably been part of the resistance, leading the resistance, and we have to do that now more than ever. We've seen the Trump administration is coming to attack student protesters, talking about he will criminalize and deport those who have been doing

the organizing that he knows is going to keep him at bay. And so the answer is not to cower. The answer is not to get apathetic. The answer is not to unplug. But we have to resist, resist, resist, stop complying in advance, stop turning the other cheek, so to speak, and really, really lean forward in this moment. We've seen a lot of amazing millennial and Gen Zers in office who have done that. You know, Maxwell Frost was also escorted out with Representative Al Green, I believe, wearing a shirt that said, Not My King, and resisting Elon Musk as he takes over the administration. And so we have to lean into that sort of organizing and recognize that we are going to be a main part of the resistance to this administration because we know we are not going to inherit a world and take this at face value. Representative Bell, you are a young brother elected to the Georgia State House.

You know, at the end of the day, you know, we've got to have next generation who steps in to many of these elected positions that have been occupied by many of our elders, it's time for some folk to retire, to enjoy life. It's a little hard to lean on folk who are there in their late 70s and 80s and want them to be vigorous and active in leading the resistance. Oh, well, I definitely agree. It's not that our seasoned individuals don't have the wisdom, but sometimes

we need a different foresight. Sometimes we need a different MO. Sometimes we need a different mission or someone who's just been seen in a different light or been in this world in this current stance, in this current economic situation who can really speak truth to power. Years ago,

respectability politics was a thing that we did or the thing that was perpetrated because that's how things got done. We've seen that you show respect to a certain animal or beast or faction in our government and it gets you nowhere. It's time to fight fire with fire. It's time to fight fire with fire. It's time to fight truth with power. And it's time that not only people get involved, but we stand change.

We make sure that people are all in part in their place and make sure that America is prepared for the people. America is prepared for small business. And we make that heard on a state level, national level. And if you're not involved now, there's no time for you now.

If not, who are you? Kevin, at the end of the day, again, we've got to push as many folk to be engaged in this. What are you seeing? What are you hearing out there? Well, Roland, first of all, thanks for in this. What are you seeing? What are you hearing out there? Well, Roland, first of all, thanks for having this. I mean, tonight, I don't know for those who tuned into the speech at all

or heard any of the clips on social media, you know, any young person watching that, it was incredibly demoralizing. It was a lot of, more of what Donald Trump always comes with, you know, attacking DEI, demonizing federal workers, blaming everyone except straight white men. But I think the fact that you sort of have this space

here tonight for us to come together and for what you've always done to bring young people, to bring young leaders, young Black leaders into the fold, because let's face it, there is a full on attack on young Black leadership today. What do we think all these attacks on DEI are all about? It's because they know if they can get to us early, they know if they can get to us young and cut off the water sources to the roots, then we're not going to grow up to be the powerful, strong trees that they know

and they fear that we one day can and will grow into. But Roland, I mean, young people right now are feeling really, I mean, it's an incredibly difficult and challenging time for young people. Just looking at everything that Donald Trump is bringing back into the fold in our politics right now, I think what a lot of young people are hoping for, we're ready to lead. We're ready to roll up our sleeves. I think it's important that other people in the Democratic Party do what you do, Roland, every single day, which is to pour into us as young leaders. I think on the right, you could argue that they sort of have done a

better job in some ways at investing in the bench. And on the left, I think we're a little bit behind on that. And so I'm looking to our leaders to do what you're doing, Roland, to make sure that we don't forget about us as that next generation coming up and coming behind. And I know Melanie Campbell is there with you. I had the chance to get to know her at the DNC last summer and working with her and her and so many others who have done so much to inspire and uplift young people. We're ready to do that and to pay it forward, but it can't be any one of us. It's got to be all of us. So thank you, Roland, for having this space, for including us as young leaders. And I guess my charge

to my fellow young people is to recognize that we need to act and lead in this moment. And my charge to those who are older and have been walking in these steps for a long time, know that we're right there with you and we're ready to run this race with you. When Eric was talking,

I saw Bria over there. She thought she was like on Love Jones at the spoken word thing. Anthony, go ahead and kill a light. I figured, you know, you wanted a little cool setting, Bria, you know, because she was over there just like popping her fingers.

I'm going to lit some damn candles for a second there. And some incense. Oh, Lord. You know, she pop, I was like, go ahead and like, let's go live our cool vibe set right here. For Bria since, you know, she with her popping fingers. See Chelsea, I told you this a black as hell show.

And the turn light's back on. See y'all, she is right. First of all, them white networks ain't got LED light. No, I'm just saying. They ain't how they do it. I'm just saying. They ain't how they do it. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

I'm saying. This ain't just the black people on the set got color on here. The artwork, the light, and everything. All right. Tiffany, I see you. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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She wanted to be in the studio We're going to have her But she couldn't be here Tiffany, I want to go to you Look, you have been for a long time First of all, you about to graduate Out of the young leadership That's what they keep saying? I know, you trying to

hold on. No, I'm not! Y'all keep inviting me back! See, Tiffany is like that young preacher, pastor. Oh, no, no, no. All of the youth events, then it gets to a certain point where like... Oh, you about to be mad at my answer. You about to be mad at my answer.

You about to be mad at my answer. I mean, yeah, you closer to my age than you are when you were the president of the United... You sound like Derrick Johnson. Keep going. Okay. That's what he said. Okay. But remember, I said

that was a pathway he should have put you on to be the first CEO of the NAACP. No question. You did say that. Publicly on. No question. You did say that. Yeah, I damn sure did. Publicly on television, you did. I damn sure did say that. By the way, it's almost Aries season. I'll be 36 in three weeks.

I'll be 36 in three weeks, so you're welcome. Y'all niggas really want me to like some incense and candles. It's for what? Hey! Where'd you find her at? Zodiac.

Zodiac. I'm April 6th. Hey! You put all the April babies next to... Go ahead with your question. I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry. What was you gonna ask me?

Give a damn about no signs. Come on with y'all black people. Lord, y'all talking about Aries. Aries, give a damn about signs. Lord Jesus.'all talking about Aries. Aries giving them about signs. Lord Jesus. Okay. Anyway. What is your sign?

Anyway. What is your sign, Roland? Baby, you can't tell, Scorpio. Y'all keep it up, you're going to get stung. So the moment we're in, the moment we're in. I'm listening. I keep hearing, I keep hearing, oh, my God, we tired. We tired.

We just, we gave so much. And I did a whole thing. I said, I'm sorry. I can't hear. I'm going to cuss somebody out from 18 to 50 if I hear I'm tired again. 18 to 50. No, I am because I'm sorry. Look, my dad's 78 next month, mom in November.

They can be tired. I can't listen to somebody 30, 32, 35 talking about, I'm tired. This is not the moment for those folks to be tired. We need them engaged fully. I'm going to say three things. One, the folks that you have heard say that they're tired are not the same folks that I'm working with. I know you just tried to kick

me out the young people group, but let me say something real quick. I'm a badass organizer. Amen. Doesn't matter what age I am. No question. And young people, I just did a big event in Omaha, Nebraska this past Saturday. I leave up out of here and I go to Riverside, California to speak to every black student union

in every high school in the state of California. And they are in, the black student unions on college campuses, in high school campuses, they in trouble. And that's why, and guess what they call? Me. So I am flying down to Riverside, California to speak to those students there.

And at the end of March, I am bringing together 150 college students from around the country, right here in Washington, D.C., to meet with their elected officials. And they are going to organize around two big issues. Freedom of speech, their First Amendment rights, which are being attacked, as Judith

talked about a little earlier on the panel. And college affordability, because the Pell Grant is under attack. Student loan debt is gone. We ain't getting that no more. It's not going to happen. But there is a budget reconciliation process that is happening that is attacking the finances that go to every institution, including land institutions and HBCUs.

And so my students are pissed. And they are the ones who are being targeted. And let me be very clear about the strategy of what that means for young people. Once you understand, and this is not a new fight since Trump's been the president the last 100 days. This has been a fight for the last 8, 9, 10 years.

And we had the unfortunate happen, not that any of us had to go through it, where the pandemic created a very severe leadership development gap for our young people. Where leadership turnover did not happen, black student unions, student governments, all that came back and and people were virtual, trying to figure out how to take governing documents

and how to run programs. We had to restart our alpha chapter at Texas A&M. Literally. Things had to restart. And people forget that the pandemic was just a couple days ago. And our students were the students who were seniors in high school coming into college at that time. We are not out of the pandemic phase yet for leadership development.

So this national student organization, because there right now is no national student voice, needs to be built. And I am the only advisor volunteer who is helping to do that. And right now, it's not just random pick students I'm picking. It is student government leaders who have passed resolutions in their student government.

So right now on paper, with the representation who have passed resolutions in their student government. So right now on paper, with the representation I have of resolutions that have been passed, we're at 3.5 million college students across the country. And they are coming to Washington, D.C. So here's my two points. One, I don't know who's tired. I know people who are pissed off and mad.

And some of the reason why they say they're tired is because they don't really have instructions on what to do. One. Two, the re... I'm gonna do three things. Two, the resources have been cut. Yep.

So when we talk about financing the students to come, I got students right now at FAMU who are like, we want to bring 35 people. Come on, Florida Agricultural Mechanic University, October 3rd, 1887. What? Okay, so I did not go there, but I'm a big fan. Shout out to Florida.

Shout out to Florida. I went to a white school in California. Shout out to Angela Davis. Okay, so what happens is, so what happens is, the organization that we are building, the resources, right, are being challenged. Tell me to go back so you boo too fast. Sorry.

Yeah, 35 students at Florida A&M. Oh, thank you. 35 students. Yeah, the family thing distracted me. Thank you, Roland. The 35 students that are trying to come to D.C. Right. Who do not have the resources, the financial resources,

to pay for a hotel and a flight. No, no, wait. That's not... Wait. Here I go. Wait. Flight and hotel. Because I told these students registration is free.

And alumni and philanthropy are coming together to help sponsor and pay for the conference. But students need to get to D.C. to make that happen. Hold on. I got that. But see, you're not giving numbers. You said 35. What's the number?

Like the cost? Yes. I don't know. I can get back to you on that. I don't know off the top of my head. I got flight and hotel and I got to do the math. I don't know. Okay.

So, okay. So, okay. So, I'm going to go. It runs usually cost about $1,000. Okay. So, I'm going to go. See, that's meals and like cost of everything math. I don't know. Okay, so, okay, so, okay, so I'm gonna go. It runs usually up to about $1,000. Okay, so I'm gonna go. That's for, see, that's meals and, like, cost of everything else.

Okay, okay, okay. But we're not charging students that. Okay, okay, got it. I need, hold up, I need, I need, I need, I need everybody,

I need everybody to breathe. I need, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm gonna go to Chelsea. I go to Chelsea, I need you Chelsea and then you get your calculator out so you can give a number. Because if you got 150,000 people who are watching, then we can direct folk to meet the number.

So I don't want to speak in general terms. So I want a number. Got it? Yeah. But can I say one more thing? Okay. Yeah. I'm coming back to you.

I'm trying to get to your number. I'll try to draw it out. Don't worry about it. Trust me. I'm doing something here, but I'm trying to tell you so we can get that number. Chelsea, in terms of what are you hearing? What are you hearing among your peers? What are they saying?

And are they prepared to meet this moment? So I think that's an interesting question. And I just want to take a step back because I think in the nature of this conversation, we have to be honest here. I definitely think that there is this desire to organize. But I also think that there is a huge fatigue that is taking place. And a lot of that has to do, and Tiffany spoke about the organizing, the leadership gap that took place in 2020. But let's also talk about the trauma that took place in 2020, right?

And the fact that so many young people, myself included, I'm one of the co-founders of Freedom March NYC. We were on the front lines leading some of the largest youth-led protests in the country. And when you talk about the resources that were available to us to make sure we could sustainably do this work, when you talk about the fact that even last year, we had young organizers in New York that were getting domestic terrorism charges brought against them for organizing in the city. we now in this moment? Where was everyone else two, three years ago? Where was the philanthropy space to fund our organizations? Where were the legacy groups who had the funding to then support young frontline organizers? We were paying for people's bail. We were paying for people's housing because they were experiencing homelessness on the front lines because so many of the traditional structures were not able to support the young people, the displaced folks, the folks who were in homeless shelters and still on the front lines doing the work. And so I think for me, what we've witnessed across the space is that a lot of

the new organizers coming out and not from the traditional organizations, but I'm talking about from the movement, right, dispersed, because we know that this is a decentralized movement, a lot of what we saw is that they are now going into protective mode, right? They're trying to figure out how to survive. And so I think that across the board from Gen Z, millennials, a lot of what we're seeing, I'm on the cusp in the middle. And so I think that there's a lot of young people, and to the point that Tiffany made, that do want to do the work but don't know what next looks like. And I think also we're getting incredibly tired of the false promises. And I also think it has something to do with the fact of media, right?

And we haven't really spent a lot of time talking about the impact of what we've been seeing across the divisiveness, the silos that people are existing in, the way that the algorithms are changing and impacting the way that young people are then receiving information and knowing what to do with it.

And so I think it's a melting pot and a combination of things. And I always say that there's nothing new under the sun. We've been here before, but the conditions have changed, right? Brian, I'm going to go to you. I remember when Black Lives Matter, there were different organizations that were starting. And I remember I was having conversations with folks. And I kept saying infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, and there were people who were like,

no, no, no, no, we gotta focus on the work. I said, no, you're going to need infrastructure. I said, cause you gotta pay rent. You gotta pay lights. And I remember there were people who were raising money individually. I said, no, you need to make sure that you run that through organizations.

I said, because you don't want to get hit by IRS fees. And it was interesting because there was a lot of pushback from folks who was like, okay, are you an old head? I was like, listen, you can have an old head all you want to. I said, but what I understand is infrastructure is what sustains you over a long period of time. Infrastructure allows you to walk away and take a break and the work still continues and you can come back. And I think that that has been a growing pain. Tiffany is shaking her head. you to walk away and take a break and the work still continues then you can come back and and i think that that that that has been a growing pain tiffany's shaking her head we've had these conversations for a lot of young organizations young organizations your energy can only last so

long but the infrastructure piece is still important so the reason so the reason and i know some people who are watching who are kind of like not understanding, so the reason I stopped Tiffany where she was because I wanted the number is because when you have an opportunity where people are to meet that particular

need, because what often happens is we talk about, well, we need, but we then don't say, okay, well, how much you need? Can you give? When you need it, how can we actually raise it? And that to me, I think, is as we're talking about how do you build this resistance movement, it is going to take our folks internally to say, how do we begin to pool resources to do those things? And all we start, okay okay what's the

number what's the need things along those lines and this is the way this is the why we have to have these conversations because folk they're out there but if we're not providing the support we're never going to be able to have that next generation be able to step up and step in. Speak to that. I totally agree about the infrastructure, right? What is an organizer? That organizer is supposed to be able to organize themselves out of job. And I think a lot of our community towards the older generations to even down to Generation Z, because we keep talking about millennials, but the Zoomers, I call them Zoomers,

are there to really should have been where the... Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Well, Generation Alpha is still kind of young. Yeah, but they doing stuff. Yeah, my nephew is Generation Alpha too, and he's in elementary. But I'm just saying, I get that. But Generation Z is definitely where I would say when we first did our first tip about what a millennial is,

is really where Generation Z is, right? And millennials, I just feel like we're kind of behind a generation. And going back to what it is for infrastructure into organizing is someone should feel comfortable to organize themselves out the job. And I think we're trying to find or be the next leader and make it about an individual versus about the community. And so they're afraid to organize themselves out the job because if the infrastructure is there. Right. You leave. And the reason why folks are getting tired is because if you're that

organizer, there aren't that many resources. Right. You said the number so forth. You don't have housing as you stated. You put a lot of sacrifice. Right. You could be a lot of things. And you said, you put a lot of sacrifice, right? You could be a lot of things. And you said, you know what?

I'm not going to be a corporate lawyer. I am going to be a nonprofit lawyer. And then you have everybody come at you at all different types of way and not appreciate it. You sacrifice. You do 2016. You try to say, you know, we try to tell you this is for your good and x y and z and it all falls apart and you get tired because you keep repeating and sacrificing

sacrificing sacrificing and you may not know where you're laying your head you don't may not know where your next meal is because an organizer isn't there for the money. Right. But the thing with infrastructure, when you build a community, you can have a job. And that doesn't take away from you still fighting for the community. But you have to make sure that the infrastructure is there. I will go back to the generations of organizing out the job is I think the lack of mentorship. We said that, you know, Melanie, we've been great with millennials, was there at the Warnock campaign. You, even though we fight, you always have our voices there.

Oh, we always fight. We have our voices there, right? And there's not enough of the mentorship. And I will say this. I already did my shout-out to Florida. Shout-out to Michigan. I started in 2008 really in electoral politics with Gary Peters. He is no longer going to be the senator of Michigan.

Not running in 26. Correct. He's not running again. And so there's that open. And, you know, everyone was up in arms about it, but he's not old. And I'm proud of it because I am tired of elected officials

dying in their seat. There needs to be more grooming within our party. Who's the next person? Right? The Republicans do that all the time. You can't die in your seat. It's a claw. We see the voice.

Go back to Michigan. Go to Detroit with Congressman Conyers, right? And we have no black congressman in Michigan because we decided we're going to die in our seat. And so I do think that there needs to be mentorship. I do think that we need to learn how to take ourselves out of it. We do need to learn how to organize ourselves out of a job and teach the next generation. And I do think that we need to come together, have community, provide the resources, have multiple streams.

Right. And try to do better together. What's the number? $39,100. All right. So first of all, if people give, where do they go? USstudentassociation.org. Okay. Top right-hand corner is a donation button. All right. So first of all, if people give, where do they go? USstudentassociation.org. Okay.

Top right-hand corner is a donation button. All right. So there are 101,000 people who are watching right now. First of all, if they give, is there a way to put a code in there or something? No, but I don't know what time it was. All right. So we'll do this here. Okay.

So the 101,000 people who are watching, you said 39,000? $100. Okay, good. So we're going to make it $40,000. Yep. you watching right now um we will match up to twenty thousand dollars um who contributes in the next 24 hours so so i need you to give a control room listen to that i need y'all to create a lower third so what's the website us student association.orgudentassociation.org usstudentassociation.org I'll text it to, what's the name?

And pull the website up, and I want y'all to show where to donate. So again, all of y'all who are watching, and so this is going to pay for 35 Florida A&M students. Yes. And matter of fact, hold up. I'm about to call them on FaceTime. You want to talk to them on FaceTime? No, no, no, no.

Hold up. No, no, no. See, you calling the wrong... I just texted it to... No, you see, you calling the wrong person. That ain't how I... No, congratulations also to Zaylin, who just won president student body of SGA. That ain't how... Hold on.

Look, I don't play that. Hold on. Hold on. Who is this? This is the blackest show in the world. I don't play that. He stops the program to make a this is the blackest show in the world I don't play that he stops the program to make a phone call that's what I'm gonna say when you own your shit you can do that trust me

all the folk all the folk who work on our production know I will call somebody in the middle of a conversation. So here's the deal. So he not answer. Don't worry about it. It's all good. So here's the whole deal.

Frat, what's up? Will Packer. So here's the deal. That's Tiffany Lofkin over there. So Tiffany's having a student conference. It's a national legislative conference. National legislative conference. When is this conference? Where is it?

When is this conference? March 21st to the 24th. All right, March 21st to the 24th. They are 35, they're 35 Florida A&M students who are trying to come for the conference.

The number we're trying to raise is $40,000. So we got folks who are watching and going to be giving. So I'm going to match up to $20,000 in the next 24 hours. So let me know how much you're in for.

Hit Rob Harder for me as well. And then let me know so we can make this happen. All right? So hit me back, 06. Okay. Melanie, I'm going to go to you. He's got a brand new book that he just came out with. Yeah, don't worry about it.

We're going to get that money. I'm trying to love him, my brother. Melanie, I'm going to go to you. He's got a brand new book that he just came out with. Yeah, don't worry about it. We're going to get that money. I'm trying to love him, my brother. Melody, I'm going to go to you. And I got two more things I got to ask. Okay, I got you. Okay, but I got other people I got to call, too. Melody, I'm going to go to you. The point I'm trying to make here is that our people are looking for direction.

And you've been operating in the multiple spaces. There's a component of what y'all do where y'all have your young organizers, and then you got the sisters, you got the seasoned saints, all of that. Speak to where we are in this moment where Baby Boomers Gen X, to the point that Breonna's made, that Chelsea's made, Tiffany's made, need to be operating not just in y'all need to be doing this, but operating in what can we do to help you

to get it done? And speak to how you have been, and how y'all have been doing that and been successful. Well, first of all, it's just good to be here in the middle of the night. When I got that time. Do you drink? being successful? Well, first of all, it's just good to be here in the middle of the night. Well, when I got that time. Do you need a drink?

Do you need a drink? I'm going to clip all right in a second. Let me know if we got alcohol over there. You need some wine? You got the brown stuff? I'll be sitting on that till I'm surprised. You don't drink?

Drink? You don't drink? I know know you don't drink. You got water in here. You don't drink? I know a bunch of girls drink. That's for hearts. It's not that Tuesday no more. Oh, my God. Hold on. What you want, Judith?

Oh, no. Everything. Judith, what you want? Something with some vodka. Vodka Gimlet. Can you make something with some vodka Gimlet? Lord have mercy. Just bring it over when it's ready.

Melanie, go ahead. Just give me a ginger ale. Okay, bring a ginger ale for Melanie. Okay, there you go. But, you know, Roland, you know, I'm going to say. She'll say, like, damn, this is black. She'll be like, damn, this is from Brooklyn, though. You're ordering drinks over here.

You're from Brooklyn, right? Where are your people from? Go ahead, Melanie, go ahead. Jamaica. You from Brooklyn, right? Where your people from? Go ahead, Mally. Go ahead. Jamaica. Jamaica. See, I knew it. When I got the notice that it was 1030 at night, I was like, it's movement time. Yes.

Right? And there's these moments. I've lived, you know, six decades around the sun. Yes, ma'am. No shame in that. No doubt. Game. Yes, ma'am. God bless. So, y'all see these earrings? Yes, ma'am. No shame in that. No doubt. Game. Yes, ma'am.

So y'all see these earrings? Yes, ma'am. Because I was not always six decades around the sun. So this is a time that I've been reflecting on when I was you, right? And understanding that what we have to do, yes, you got to support you all. But we also have to be real with you because this is a different kind of a moment that we find ourselves in. I've been at this game for 40 years and I've never seen anything like what we're going through. Not that we haven't, our ancestors haven't gone through what we've going through. Not that we haven't, and our ancestors haven't gone through what we've gone through, but what that means for me is part of it is,

yes, we will provide all the resources we can, but it is your moment, right, for us to figure out how to support your generation because that's what happened for us 40 years ago. We were fighting a fight. We've got a whole system that is being dismantled. When Orange Man said he was going to give us some black jobs, they're serious about getting rid of all of the upward mobility

for black people for your generation. And for those of us who are around, making sure that we're impoverished when it's time to step off of this game. I know that I spoke to what, and I'm not going to call names because I don't want people out there. I know someone that's very close to me whose father they found out who's a

veteran who got his check today that would normally be $1,200. Guess how much the check was? What? A hundred and something dollars. Wow. To this day. I've got folks in my family who it's not just what's going on with the civil service, but what companies are doing and getting rid of folks' jobs.

So there is a real attack on there not being a middle class in this country. That's right. So we've got to go underground in some of this because, you know, I'm just looking at you because I'm like, the lawyers are kicking ass. I don't use cuss words. That's the 40 years. Melody, Melody. Is that right? Melody, I can't.

Motherfucker. Don't even worry about it. Look at that in the car. Don't even worry about it. I heard him say that. Right. Hey, hey, hey. Right?

The lawyers. I'm filtered. The lawyers. I know the owner. Don't worry about it. Okay. Don't worry about it. I know the owner.

Right? The lawyers. I know the owner. Are doing what the lawyers need to do. But we have to go underground with some of what we're coming for. Because that Justice Department is going to come for all of us. That's right. So in some of the places, we've got to organize it where they don't hear or know what our game is.

That's critical. And that's where my concern is. What I've been doing is I haven't been, you know, I ain't calling on you like I normally call on you, but I'm about to call on you, right? Why? Because we can't have everything on Zoom. That's exactly right. Come on. We can't have everything

on the damn phone. Why? Why? Because when you think about who sat behind that man at the inauguration, oh, they letting us know what time it is. Right. And they're going to try to take us out, so we have to organize

ourselves underground as much as we can. Yep. Old-fashioned. Where ain't nobody... You got to know who the hell in the room with you. That's right. And if you're doing a Zoom, you better know who on the Zoom with you. That's right. Right? Those are some of the things that I've been working on. And turn your phone off.

Cliff all night. And turn it off. That part. Take it away from where you're organizing. Because they're listening. So the conspiracy theorist in me, right, feels that this election was stolen. Oh, no question. Oh, he admitted.

Let's take a vote. Who thinks the election was stolen? Because I do. Oh, okay. Good. Just a second. No question. He admitted. No holds barred. He said Oh, okay, good. Just a second. No question. He admitted it.

No holds barred. He said it. And Elon said it. Go ahead. No holds barred. I want to bring in Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Hey, Cliff! Hey, Cliff!

Hey, Cliff. I told y'all this. Love you! I told y'all this is a black show. Cliff, to the point, what we're talking about here, Cliff, really is and why we're so emphasizing this, we have to be in, right now, an organization mobilization

mode. To Melanie's point, meetings have to be taking place where we are meeting privately, individually and it ain't always about posting stuff, because you have to plan the action

ahead. Speak to that. Yeah, well, first let me just say I'm so jealous that I'm not there in that studio right now. This is the blackest State of the Union coverage. Easily. Easily, right? But on

a real tip, I mean mean what you're talking about and where i want to pick up where melanie left off right because the thing that i've been saying is we need to be doing everywhere we are wherever we're organizing our groups and our communities in our homes we need to be having some conversations in fact if you're watching this right now google letter from birmingham jail because we need to be doing some real discussions around what I believe, you know, Dr. King's letter from Birmingham jail is like a master class in the teachings, the concepts, the discipline, the rationale of nonviolent civil disobedience. And that's the moment that we're in right now. We got to be clear about that. There's a lot of strategies that we need to be doing. Some of them are economic. Some of them

are, you know, are media, like what we've been talking about. But we are at a moment, we're going to have to go even deeper on our civil disobedience than what we did back in 2020. Right. But we've got to ground that in like a real understanding of what that is. You know, in Dr. King's letter, he talks about the rationale. He talks about what makes up a just law and an unjust law. He talks about the white moderate. Right. He talks about, you know, all these. He talks about the tension, the creative tension that's got to exist in order for nonviolent civil disobedience to work. He talks about why, you know, when we hear wait, it sounds like never. And so we need to have some discussions

so that we can ground what needs to be done in this moment, because we're not going to phone bank our way out of this moment. We're not going to text our way out of this moment. And so I want to see us having some real conversations around that. And like Melanie said, some of that has got to take place offline, not on nobody's. And the last thing I want to say is this, because y'all were talking about the intergenerational stuff. I think it's very telling that tonight at that speech that you had Al Green, who was the first to disrupt. But he wasn't the last. And he was followed by, you know, so Al Green being one of the more senior members of the delegation of the Congressional Black Caucus,

but also joined by people like Maxwell Frost, right? And so, who I think is the youngest member of the delegation. And so that's just a metaphor of the type of intergenerational movement that we've got to have right now in this moment. We're joined by Congresswoman Yvette Clark. She is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Congresswoman, glad to have you here. So many people, they're like, what are they doing? What is CBC doing? What do we need to do? What do you want? I mean, even now, I mean, we started at 7 p.m. It's 12-11 and it's still 90,000 people who are watching us. What do you want to tell folk that the CBC is doing to hold the line and fighting on behalf of black folks?

Well, first of all, I'm glad to be here with y'all. It's great to be among family. What we're doing is making sure that in every committee of jurisdiction, we have a resistance movement and current happening on the Hill. I have to remind people we're legislators. Oftentimes, people are looking for us to be the activists. We need the activists. But it's an inside-outside strategy. And right now, we got to stop some really nasty things from happening in the House of Representatives.

We have the votes to do it, and we also have the organizational infrastructure on the outside that is also agitating and making sure that they're mobilizing our folks behind the issues that are impacting us from the layoffs, the massive layoffs, to the assault on DEI. In addition to that, we are also, of course, doing the litigative strategy, working with our lawyers teams. We've got over a hundred of those going on right now. What we're asking our folks to do is be educated, be informed, be ready to roll, and be out in these streets, period, full stop. This is not a moment where we can necessarily uh uh hold up amendment to see what's going to

happen next we know what's happening they they did project 2025 was their manifesto and is going into full effect as we speak we've been able to a large extent to to sort of push back because there's a two to three vote difference between the Republicans and the Democrats in the House of Representatives, but they can pass anything they want at any point in time. And so part of the pressure is, well, people are asking, what is the CBC doing? We're doing the fight. We got to take the fight to them. In so many parts of this country, our people are living under members of Congress who are Republicans. And they make no demands on them. We've done all we can do. We're united. There has not been a vote that has gone down where the Democrats have been fractured.

Hakeem Jeffries has done a masterful job in holding us together. And we're very diverse. You know, people think that just because we're all black, no. We got folk from Oregon. We got folk from Rhode Island. They don't have

no black people except their families in their district. You know what I'm saying? So it's know what i'm saying so it's a really you know it's a massive uh undertaking the great thing about the cbc is that everybody is unapologetically black and so that is what is i think helping us in terms of our strategy we intend to be out in these streets, mobilizing in different parts of the country,

but I think our people need to be educated. They need to be informed. They need to understand what power is and what that power dynamic is all about. That power dynamic is the franchise and the fact that we have not fully embraced the power of the franchise is something that we have to work on.

And Congresswoman. I want to ask you, as he stopped and asked about the number, right? We want to put action back into social action. So as a leader of CBC, if there's one bill that you want us to come and rally, bring our troops, help and show the power in numbers

behind what we want in a bill, is there one you can say today that you need our help to do? Just one. It's not a bill. Okay. It's not a bill. It's the budget. That's right. It's the budget. The reconciliation do. Just one. It's not a bill. Okay. It's not a bill. It's the budget.

That's right. It's the budget. The reconciliation process. Full stop. Reconciliation. If these people go for it, we're cutting Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. Pell Grant.

It's over. Pell Grant. I mean. Yeah. Right. Right now, they're trying to cut $880 million out of health care. That's right. Oh, have mercy.

Yeah, but Congresswoman, actually, hold on one second. I want to go to Bria. I want to make a comment before I release her because I know she's got. So, Bria, on that particular point, you heard the Congresswoman just talk about how critical that budget is. That is going to be, I think, the biggest fight. And a lot of people really don't understand whether we're talking about a health care education, we're talking about SNAP benefits, we're talking about, I mean, you name it. From your perspective, how do you see talking to people, messaging folk to get them to

understand why their voices must be heard to fight that battle? Yeah, you know, I do think the tough part about budgets are they don't feel sexy to people. So you got a lot of young people who are like, OK, I'm hearing something about a budget, but what is that actually going to translate? These numbers sound so big and that's scary, but it also is not as immediately applicable to what they're seeing in their day-to-day life. And we have to start making those numbers make sense for people. We have to start breaking it down for people. Roli, you brought up Gen Alpha. There's ranges for these age groups. The oldest Gen Alphas are sophomores in high school. So these are people who are on the media, who are active in their organizing, and who are very afraid and don't even realize what's at risk. So we do need to start making these unsexy topics priorities for sure.

I also think that we need this leadership to do so. You know, I know Congresswoman was saying some of the praises of some of these, you know, folks like Hakeem jeffries i want to see the leadership of folks i want to see more jasmine crockett energy i want to see more aoc energy get on twitch and stream and talk to young people about this budget break it down what does it actually mean what does each line item mean why should a gen z or a gen alpha be concerned about social security what are going to be the implications be the implications on the grandparent who's raising them, on the auntie or uncle who is sending them money for whatever the case may be, on the college that they're going to be applying to in the next one to two years? But we've got to make this make sense for us as well,

and also help them understand who they need to be putting the pressure on to get these budgets thwarted and get our needs met through them. So I definitely agree with you, Congresswoman. I think that we need more visibility on these issues. But right now, I don't think that we have a communications crisis where leadership is not speaking to young people in their language about these issues. And so it's kind of going over people's heads. And so people are showing up and they're showing up for legislation. They're showing up for anti-masking laws. They're showing up for these attacks on student organizing. And that also matters. But if we don't have any funding for a lot of these other issues, we won't even be able is going to be cut to student groups and to public institutions if they are not complying with this administration.

So I just think that we have to really break this down for people. It goes back to some of the issues that we have with the courts as well. You know, we have a huge issue with these federal appointees that the Trump administration put in back in 2016 who are thwarting things like affirmative action, who are thwarting things like DE&I. But if we don't break down what this is, young people are expecting someone else to make that their problem, and we are supposed to

show up for something different. So I appreciate that you said that right here and now. And we have to do even more. We need more infographics. We need more people getting on live and explaining and going down each item. We need more participatory budgeting. These are dollars that we are funding, that we are putting in.

And we got billions going to foreign governments and nothing going to our communities. So give it up for... Hold on one second. So give it up for Bria Baker. Bria also is the newest member of our Black Star Network. She and Jameer Burley hosting our show, The Other Side of Change. So y'all check it out

on the app. Bria, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Congressman, you're going to make the point. I was going to say that we got to be a force multiplier as well. If you're waiting for Hakeem Jeffries, who's trying to negotiate the budget right now to be out in these streets, then in two weeks when that budget is due, we're not going to be ready. It's happening in two weeks. So,

how do we become force multipliers? Speaking to folk where they are, where we are, so that they understand the implications of it. What is it that needs to be said between now and the 14th of March?

Yep. State Representative Bell, I want to get your final comment. I want you to speak to that. What would you say as the youngest elected official in the Georgia legislature, how they should be communicating these arcane budget issues

to millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha? The reason I keep bringing up Gen Alpha, because some of them are going to be voting in 2026, their first election. So we need to stop thinking that, oh, yeah, they might be sophomores. Listen, they will be voting in 2026. So, Representative Bell, go ahead. What do you think how they should be communicating?

Well, Brea made a good point. We've got to talk to us. We've got to talk to them, us, me, and our language. And shout out to y'all, because this is like the blackest town hall I've been around. From Southside Atlanta, Clayco, shout out to everybody on the Southside.

You know how it is. But anywho, back to my representative. See, you know it's a black show, but I let you give a shout out. Right. For the folks that really know me on T-Road, that's who I'm talking to right now. But we got to talk to them in their language. For students right now, for budgetary concerns,

we got to talk about funding lunch programs. We got to talk about funding daycares. We got to talk about funding resources in your schools, what your books look like. We got to talk about funding what your neighborhoods look like when the budget comes down. And even on a local level, when you're,

when you wonder why one side of town has four foot or 10 foot sidewalks that are for commuter, for commuters, vices, a three foot sidewalk that only a few people can fit down. It goes back down to your budget. Even when you got people talking about what confers you want to go in and people talk about why I want to be a contractor. In the

state of Georgia, less than .001% of the state contracts go to minority contractors. And that's like, so what is our budget going to? Right. An interesting thing, people will talk about, shout out to the city of Atlanta. The city of Atlanta is the number one

place for someone to come out of economic poverty and that's a 4% chance and that's number one but we only we can also attribute that to the budget the city of Atlanta's budget has the largest carve out for minority

businesses so that looks like you're going that looks like purchasing from small retails from women and veterans and black people, Hispanic people, that looks like your budget going to work to reinvest in your community. That looks like

when you can want, that looks like when the tap water, even when you turn on the faucet, why does the tap water taste different in this side of town and that side of town? That's because where is your budget going? Who decides that budget? The people you vote for.

And I believe that message is directly or they can go directly into someone's phone app, text message, and they can understand that. They can understand why their streets aren't paved. They can understand why the mail aren't paved. They can understand why the mail takes longer to get there. They can understand why the bus stops are so far in between when you talk that language. But when you're saying things like the fiscal oversight and

the appropriations aren't being made into the right pinpoints, you lose people. Absolutely. State Representative Bell, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much. Before I go to Congressman Bobby Scott, I do want to go to Scotty Smart, community organizer, activist in Atlanta.

How would you, listen, you've got the chair of the CBC here, you've got Congressman Bobby Scott, earlier we had Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Ken Martin, who runs the Democratic National Committee, we had Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congressman Troy Carter, Congressman Hank Johnson. We had Congressman Kweisi and Fumey. I don't think I missed anybody.

And so how would you what would you say to them how they should be messaging these issues over the next two weeks to reach Black folks, especially young Black folks? I think the biggest thing in messaging is being able to make it digestible. As my good friend Eric Bell just said, we're not talking to them in their language. It sounds like it's above other people. And what we suffer from is not wanting to sound ignorant. And we don't get any spaces because we're intimidated by the language, right? And so I think we have to do a better job in messaging that, but also being able to tell people who represents them in public arenas. Most people don't know who their congressman is. Most people don't know who their senators are. Most people don't know who their state representatives are, their county commissioners, their school board members. So it goes all the way down the ballot. And we're not looking at the

small, small races that we aren't really having big turnouts out. We have a lot of space where we can win. We have predominantly Black neighborhoods that don't have Black representation. And it's because we're not focused on Black turnout. We're thinking the good old boy network that's been working for centuries is going to continue to work. And as we just saw in this last election, that backfired. When you have Democratic Party on the same hall as a Black organization, but they don't come and speak to us to talk about Black male topics, right? And so we have to be able to talk about the language, but we also have to be able to be in community and meet people where they are at. Sometimes we think that they should come to us, but the job of an elected

official, I believe, is to bring resources to that community. So how do we engage at that space where you are in community with your constituents and understanding how many votes each person got to get in office? Because if they aren't doing the work that reflects of the community, that the community really needs, then we can unseat them. Cliff Frank, Cliff Albright, marching orders. What are yours? I mean, first and foremost, you know, we got to get involved. We got to get connected to some organizations. You went through a whole list of organizations

that you've had here. You know, there's a whole bunch of other organizations that were on the 24 hour coverage. There's organizations in our communities, organizations on your block, there's organizations on your campus. Right. And so've got to get connected because at the end of the day, this is not, we are not in the position that we're in because we're dealt a certain way as individuals. We are in the position that we're in

because we are dealt a certain way as a nation, as a nation within a nation, as a group. And so the only way to come out of that is to come out of it collectively. If we know that

one of the oldest techniques that's been used against us literally for centuries has been divide and conquer, then it stands to reason that the only way to get up out of this situation is to reverse the divide and conquer and to come together and to organize, right? And so that's my marching order for everybody. Find some folks that you are like-minded with and then get about doing the work. Absolutely. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Scotty, we appreciate it. Actually, Scotty, if you want to just hold tight, I want to go back to you for something else. Congressman Bobby Scott, you are an expert at the budget, at the numbers, especially when it comes to education.

Tell our folk what's at stake. Well, you know, I think we're making this budget thing a little too complicated. It's pretty simple. They want to give massive tax cuts basically to the wealthy, the top 1% in corporations, massive tax cuts. They're going to pay for it by going after programs. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country,

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And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a

dad. That's dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. And they haven't defined them specifically, but the outline lets you know that they're going after health care, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, education, access to college, access to education, and nutrition programs, SNAP, school lunches, things like that. And at the end of the day, they're going to increase the deficit. Now, we saw the president up here get a standing ovation when he came out for a balanced budget. Just a couple of days ago, he endorsed this budget that increases

the deficit. Now, let's get a little historical perspective. Every Democratic president since Kennedy has left for the Republican successors a better deficit than they inherited. Everyone without exception. Every Republican since Nixon has left for the Democratic successors a worse deficit without exception. And we sit up and listen to all these pious speeches as if they're doing something. President says balance balanced budget gets a standing ovation and then they endorse a budget massive tax cuts to the wealthy cut health care education and nutrition programs and end up with the worst deficit than they started with if they'd just gone home they'd have a better budget in terms of balancing now i i know, you know, how to message that. You know, young people got to talk

to themselves. Maybe if one of them can figure out what's going on, they can tell the rest. I'm old. But, I mean, when you got tax cuts to the wealth, unless you're making about $700,000 a year you're not going to get much out of this uh but you will lose health care uh nutrition programs access to education and you're going to end up with the worst deficit that the younger people are going to end up one day paying um so you know we can talk about how complicated this thing is. It doesn't seem that complicated to me. I'm against it. Now, we need three Republicans.

People can get all worked up and get the Democrats all. Democrats are solid. We cast all 215 votes we had. One sick didn't show up. We had 214 votes. We got one Republican, 215. They had 217. If we'd gotten one more Republican, it would have died on the top. And most, we need three Republicans to join us. So if you're going to get people worked up, find three Republicans. Now, you've got to find people, you know, protest,

protest in a way that will suggest to a Republican that his seat is in jeopardy. Yep. A bunch of Democrats yelling at him, hey, look at that, and say, well, you know, I beat you last time, I'll beat you this time. Find some others to join in and make it look like

this seat is in jeopardy. And they're about, what, 15, 20 that... That's a problem for them. And you had plenty of Republicans in seats that Democrats carried in the last presidential election.

Go and organize in them. There you go. plenty of Republicans in seats that Democrats carried in the last presidential election. Go and organize in them. There you go. And protest in those districts. Yep. And we've got about 20 targets. We need three. So here's what we're going to do. So what we'll do is you don't have to give it to us right now.

Yeah, no, we're going to get the list. So we're going to have the list and So we're going to have the list, and so we're going to tell y'all on tomorrow's show who those 20 are, because the whole point is to stop those particular cuts. Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom. Tamika, the thing that someone was suggesting earlier, you were talking about creating the memes, videos, things along those lines.

Listen, that ain't what members of Congress do. But this is where if folk are doing that individually and then we're simply sharing that amongst. So I don't believe in doing the same work over and over and over again. So if one group would say, yo, we're going to create the memes on education and one said we're going gonna create the memes on education and one said we're gonna create the memes uh on something else we can all circulate and share this is a moment where we have to begin using the collective to be able to drive the messaging

so our folks are aware what's going on absolutely and i'm about to fall out sleepy right now um so i'm not gonna stay with y'all too long, but I do want to say, first of all, Roland, that in terms of messaging, what you have done this evening and what you have continued to do is so important that we know if there's nowhere else for us to go

to get the truth and to get real information, we know we can turn to you and to your network and just to your platforms in general. And so I just want to say thank you. Also, I see that you had a lot of young people that I respect so much on your programming today. Super, super duper important. Let me just say that, yes, it is true that some of us are going to do the messaging. Some of us are going to make the memes. Some of us are going to make the videos. I don't do TikTok, but some of the people who you had on today, they're experts at TikTok. What we have to have, though, is information sharing. That even though

one of our congressional members or maybe an elderly person is not going to actually get on a device and make a meme, But if we're not in relationship with one another, we can't even put out the information that needs to be spread to our community because we don't always know. As much information as I take in every single day from listening to you, watching the news, reading things, and just trying to keep myself abreast of everything that's happening. There is no way that I can know at the same level that Congresswoman Yvette Clark knows what is happening inside those chambers and what is actually in some of these bills and executive orders that we see flying around. So we have to be working together. If we're not

in communication together at this point, I don't know when we will ever be. And I suggest that, you know, for anybody who's saying, what can we do and how can we come together? We have to be in community with one another. Kimberly Crenshaw teaches about intersectionality. We're not going to all get along. We're not going to all speak the same language. We're not going to all see things the same way. But in this particular moment, I think we're in the most critical place. And we have the most, as my pastor would say, we are pregnant with the most possibility to actually move the needle because everybody is paying attention. And the people who need to know, know. And the people who need to be in the room

are starting to gather outside we're coming on to the house so let's do the work together brothers and sisters i love y'all so much and thank you roland for continuing to be you because that's who you are is you to make i appreciate it go to sleep good night i appreciate it thanks a lot congressman go ahead you wanna make a point i You know, one of the problems with sitting through that speech was we had to listen to unrestrained attacks on basic civil rights. Like we haven't seen since the 1960s. When they kind of start carrying on about DEI, you got to break that down what they're against. They're against diversity. What are they for?

Segregation? Yes. And they're against supply diversity, contracts. And if you have a problem with diversity, you can't do anything about it because they're against diversity. Now, put this in perspective. In Trump's last

term, he appointed dozens of judges that would not say during their confirmation hearings whether or not Brown v. Board of Education was properly decided in 1954. That's right. Like, segregated schools is something that's up for debate. Yeah. Okay. They're against it and proud of opposition to diversity. They're proud of opposition to equity, which all that does is rings that old saying true that for those who are used to privilege, equality seems like oppression. So we can understand why they're against equity. And if you're against inclusion,

what are you for? Discriminatory exclusion? I mean, these guys just, and they just come right on out with it, just loud and proud against civil rights. And we found out tonight they're not discriminating just against civil rights. The immigration policy. Am I the only one that heard him say that he endorsed the Eisenhower deportation program? Yes, sir. You heard him. You know what that was called? You know what the name of it?

Is that Trump and Whitback? Operation Whitback. Yeah, Whitback. Now Google that and you'll find out that they rounded up about a million and some people, many of them citizens. And that's what he endorsed. And got a standing ovation. There you go.

So we're not the only ones he's after. Oh, absolutely. But we have to, if you're not interested in health care and access to college and nutrition programs and the budget, you ought to be interested in your civil rights. Congresswoman Clark, final comment. What we are facing, and I think for someone like myself and maybe some other folks from my generation, because born right after the civil rights movement, right?

The idea of white supremacy had been something that we read about. We're in the midst of a real insurrection of white supremacy and i think that uh there have been too much tiptoeing around the fact that this is what is going on and so we have got to awaken and and really enlighten it and i keep going back to educating because like so many others that have come after me, the access to that information has been episodic. Those who were right in the... So I'm New York, so we Black Power Movement. We weren't Civil Rights Movement. It was a different vibe coming out of Brooklyn.

So you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. So we grew up with the self-image and understanding of who we were as black people anchored in that, right? There's a generation now that's a little bit removed from that understanding, from those sacrifices.

And so being rooted in history helps you in a moment like this because then you know what you're dealing with for a lot of other folks it's entertainment there's an entertainment value in it and they figured out how to i tell people i i compare the trump administration and their sort of media ecosystem to the WWE. Oh, no. Right? And our young people are entertained by it until they feel the pain. But if you're in pain all the time, you're not sure where that pain is coming from.

Amen. but if you're in pain all the time you're not sure where that pain is coming from then you can justify going in for more pain right so there's a lot of work the cbc sees it very clearly and uh again we're looking for partners and i said force multipliers because the way I talk coming from Brooklyn is a little bit different than how some of the young people in this room talk to their peers and maybe even talk to others. And so I'm going to need someone to interpret. You hear what I'm saying? For some of their peers, what I'm talking about and get them moving. Because in this moment, I remind people, I wasn't there,

but I visited the monument to the young people of Montgomery. These were children who put their lives on the line. Absolutely. Okay? So let's remind our people that children put their lives on the line,

and it's our time now because this is white supremacy in full effect. Congresswoman Yvette Clark, Congressman Bobby Scott, we appreciate y'all joining us. Thanks a lot. We got 20 minutes left. Scotty, I'm going to go back to you, and that is, and I keep going back to his terms of marching orders. We still got 75,000 folks who are watching.

So, Scotty, this night's over. The speech is done. Budget battle's coming up. We've got local elections in 2025, midterms in 2026. What do you want folk to be doing beginning tomorrow morning first I want people to understand who are their voices in all public arena

I want you to understand who represents you on the school board we have a race in that this year who represents you in your city council we have a race there who is your county commissioner we have a race there who is your state representative who is your state senator? And then we can talk about federal things. Right. Because that has already taken place.

I want us to have a better conversation about political education, about accountability, not only just knowing who these people are, but then showing up in public arenas to hold them accountable once they're voted into office. How many people have been to a county commissioner's meeting, to a school board meeting, to a city council meeting to see what they do, what they vote on. As y'all talked about on a federal budget, all of these other forms of government have budgets as well. And they have budgets that affect your community and have a direct impact on your community.

So I need us to have a better conversation about political education and strategy and targets. We can't to have a better conversation about political education and strategy and targets. We can't just keep a widespread conversation happening. We have to be able to say, these are the people that control my community. And how are they showing up as my voice for me? Who are the 435 Congress people? Who are the 50 senators in the White House as well? We have to know who our voices are in public spaces and be able to show up and go and talk to them. Right now, in the state of Georgia, we're getting ready for crossover day. Most people don't know what a crossover day is. So if we want change to happen, we have to be in these spaces where the change occurs.

And then we can report back to our community to be able to say, hey, I'm actively trying to pursue change. I'm working on change for our community. How can you show up? How can we be bigger voices for our own communities? Scotty, we appreciate it, my brother. Thank you so very much for joining us.

Thank you for having me. If folks want to read your organization, how do they do so? Just hit me on Instagram, be smart trouble. Say it again? Smart trouble on Instagram, and then we'll converse from there. All right. I appreciate it, Scott.

Thanks a lot. Thank you. We have 17 minutes. Actually, we got 15 minutes, and then I might have to close it out for two minutes. And so let's just let everybody know. Let me breathe. The thing that jumps out, again, I'm all about what's next, what's next, what's next. Because one of the greatest things, we are excellent.

We're excellent, Pastor Lamar, at convening. We're excellent, Pastor Lamar, at convening. We're excellent at having discussions. I saw some folk this week, they were talking about, you know, we need to do the State of Black America the Tavis was doing. And I found it to be interesting because in the last six months, I've gone back and I've looked at a lot of those conversations. And I looked at what a lot of folks said.

I looked at what a lot of stuff that wasn't done. And I've always said that one of the greatest gifts of black people is also a curse, is that we love rhetorical leaders. We love people who know how to

speak, who can spin the word. But it's always a different conversation when you say, but what we doing on Monday? And I was invited to something and I didn't go.

And somebody said, why didn't you show up? I said, because I want y'all to invite me to the follow-up meeting. And 99% of the time, there is no follow-up meeting. Right. So with that, One trick pony. Right. So with that, what do you see as the thing for tomorrow morning? Once folk got some sleep and then say, okay, now we do the work.

So a couple of things. First, we have to stop praying for divine intervention. I believe that the divine is praying for us to become the intervention we seek. That's the prayer that's going on there and amongst the ancestors. They must become the intervention. So Harriet Tubman became freedom. Richard Allen became freedom. So Joyner Truth became freedom.

So we need to stop looking for some force outside of ourselves to do the work. We must understand that there is a force in us that will move us in the direction. And one more thing, that we are co-creators. So the myth that we see in Genesis is very clear that we are placed in this space to co-create, to tend what is here. So I think you're right around speech because our ancestors understood speech to be a thing. What was said was materialized. The best of our tradition is that this separation between the word and deed is an infestation it's not who we are and so we got to do is we've got to root out the invasive species next door to our house where i

grew up in georgia there was kudzu now kudzu was not native to georgia but it would come next door and it would just take everything down trees like these fish that people get, and they put them out in the streams. It eats up everything, kills everything. We have to return, and we have to get rid of these things that are destroying us. Amongst preachers, we got a foreign theology. Amongst our business owners, instead of leveraging capitalism to do anti-capitalist things, our minds have become colonized by capitalism. John Hope Bryan said, you can't

give away money like a socialist unless you make it like a capitalist. What I am saying is, I'll tell you what I'm committed to doing. I'm going back and reading Milton Cernet's anthology of what black religious people were saying and doing during the period

before Reconstruction and right during that because we were producing we need to go back and I think if we go back we will find where our ancestors appointed us that's that's what I'm that's what I'm doing She done got her vodka. She really ready. You knew I was going there. Brianna. I was praise dancing before. I got you right. You're right. Appreciate the praise dance.

It's lubricated praise dance. There you go. Lubricated praise. Yeah, lubricated, lubricated. There you go. You know, we say find your church home. Find your political home. Right?

Find where you belong. Start being a leader there. Organize. Reach out to people. Lead. But there's so, as Cliff said, right? Black Voters Matter says, there's so many organizations that already exist.

Find your political home. Get underground. Doesn't need to be televised. But it needs to be spoken. Spoken quietly. Figure out whatever political home, whether you're an artist,

whether you're an attorney. Figure out what niche is for you. Talk about it quietly. Turn off your phones. Because they hear you. From Metta. I'll tell you more than you need to know about meta but turn off your phones and and figure out what part of the wheel you will be because there's many parts of the engine right and so we all can contribute but we need to do it

together we don't need to replicate right the wheel reinvent the wheel but find that home because numbers are power so you doing on your own won't work but we need you and so I think it's very important to make sure that you're not lost in the sauce and it's not just about voting it's about you know being able to whether it's a bill or the budget being heard and for them to be able to reach out and for that that voice to vibrate and so my encouragement is to find that home and do the action yeah Chelsea so sorry as you guys talk a lot of things I went through my head I think

the biggest thing that stands out is if you are calling on the younger generations to show up, do not be afraid when we get here. And the reason why I say that is because the energy of this generation is a revolutionary energy. It is the energy that when they say that the KKK is coming with helicopters, when they are sending the police to come and lock us up, we are outside writing numbers on our arms and showing up anyways.

It is the energy that in the midst of a global pandemic, while we were fighting for our lives, we were also trying to end SARS in Nigeria. And so if you want us to come, be ready when we get here. And do not close the door on us. Do not say that we are too radical, because we've come from a very radical tradition. And allow us to take up the space, allow the challenging to take place, and open the doors. And so when you asked Roland, what's next? I said, what time are we meeting tomorrow? Because don't let this outfit fool you.

I was on the front lines with a gas mask on and a hoodie. This is new. This is fun. But if you want us to show up with the energy of a generation, let's figure out what that looks like because we can't have

what happened in 2020 happen again. And then Chelsea, I just want... We'll be... We meet every day, 6 p.m. And then Chelsea, I would just want... We'll be, um, we meet every day, 6 p.m. Eastern. Chelsea, I just also want to say that we can make our own Project 2025. Yeah. Yeah, when's the

meeting for that? And there are people who actually work on that as we speak. Judith? Um, so, find your political home, definitely. Um, two is I want folks to watch The Eyes on the Prize 3. That's when it's out.

Which is out on HBO Max, which will inspire us to remember that we have power, that we have done incredible things, and it covers from 1977 through 2015, including the Dream Defenders takeover

of the state capitol where Harry Belafonte was there with us. Do that. And then here's a little action. The government set up a website called NDEI.gov. And it is the moms of liberty talking about how their white kids

are experiencing discrimination. I want every black person in America to fill out that form and say why they have had discrimination in universities, colleges, K through 12. We need to flood that thing with real discrimination stories. Melody. Thank you. Well, we are meeting tomorrow, so I'm going to see if you can show up. 6 p.m. Can't say the time or location.

Just know it's tomorrow. Come on now. There you go. But I think one of the things, they talked about that budget. So we do need to really focus on pushing back because the things that they have been doing that's illegal, they're also going to try to make that real in the budget so that when you talk about the cuts and all of that,

we have to really get down and get focused on those of us who can fight, fight that fight. We're going to be on the Hill next week, right? So I invite folks to show up with us. You know, the reality was when we were resting, and we did, I was one of those sitting on the thing like, don't call me, right? But January showed up, and here we are. Yes, ma'am.

But we've got to still show up. Yes, ma'am. And show that we, because I tell people who are afraid, right? It's like, you can put your head in the sand all you want to. They're going to snatch it out. Yeah. So where I come from, if the enemy comes for you, don't turn your back so they can stab you. Turn around and face that enemy. And we've got to

do that. That's right. I'm going to be honest with you. Don't wait for nobody to open the door. Right? Don't wait. Don't wait because at the end of the day, everybody's not going to be able to have the courage that you talk about, that you've got. And so I don't blame

people who don't have the courage that you talk about, that you've got. And so I don't blame people who don't have the courage, but we have to be strategic. I tell folks, don't call me right now about going somewhere and just showing up and standing on the fence and getting locked up and then I'm gone for the next 25 years. We have got to find ways to be strategic

in a moment where they are developing an ability to do martial law. They're setting up, I believe you, they're setting it up for them to be able to declare martial law. Everything that man said he was going to do, they're testing it. They got the

Justice Department. They got Homeland Security. They got the frickin' Pentagon. Those three are the ones I'm watching. So how we go about making sure that we secure ourselves, but yet face that enemy. And so wherever we are, face that enemy.

Don't let them stab you in the back. And that's where I am about it. I'm like, whatever dash I got left, I'm going to stand. But we got to stand together. And I've learned that you have to in this moment, because history has taught us. Right.

And so we know where this is going. Right. And they are serious about putting us back in the cotton field because you won't have access to opportunity. And so this is the right now moment that we have to face. So, and lastly, we're doing a buy, what's called a buycott. We got to vote with our dollars now. What Jamal is doing, I think, you know, what Jamal and others and Tamika and everybody's doing. Target fast.

We have to organize. And the last thing, last, last, last thing is join fan base. How about that? The reason I joined fan base is because I heard you talking about fan base how about the reason i joined fan base it's because i heard you talking about fan base yes right i gotta put some money in it though i gotta talk because i know it's going right i had a chance to do that but that's a part of it too because you know the reality is the things that we use for communicating and organizing around has now it's like really with facebook i sorry, with Facebook and all these other ones,

they are on the side of the enemy. No question. Right? Tiffany. I had to write it down before I forget. So let me say this one. I did not hear this tonight and I want to make sure that viewers receive this encouragement as well.

If you can't find your political home, build it. Over the last 10 years, we have had a major attack on non-profit institutions, training facilities, Wellstone is gone, New Organizing Institute is gone, Color of Change is going down,

we got organizations that are disappearing, chapters across the country are gone, USSA had gone down. We are not talking about the apparatus that used to exist that birthed organizers and activists like me, and it is very different. And not only is it different, there are gaps that are

missing, and we need people to rebuild them. The second thing is, the fast is a practice. The fast is a practice. It is discipline. It is a practice. And so we need to figure out individually. It is an individual question. What level of risk are you going to be able to take?

Amen. And the question has to... And set yourself up for the risk. And the question starts now because you have to prepare yourself so that when the time comes for you to make the decision to take the risk, you are ready and able to do it. That's right.

And that includes everything from the silly game we play around. What's your talent during the apocalypse? What's your talent during the apocalypse? We're not playing. If you need to get the skill, if you need the resource, if you need the generator,

if you need the life straw, if you need the book, now is the time for you to prepare to do that. So when it comes time for you to take the risk, do that. Everybody can't take a risk, but a lot of us can. And so we need to make that choice now because we already know what the last hundred days look like. And the next 17, 14 days is going to be a mess. And the last thing I'll say is this. It's going to be dangerous. And in the process of it being dangerous, there are opportunities where we have to invest in each other. So, Roland, I want to thank you,

not only for always making this space, and I do that every time I come visit you, in this beautiful studio. Beautiful, that's right. Beautiful studio, where we feel so celebrated, so seen, so respected, so honored. I feel like there's holy places in this office where we can reverence our civil rights leaders and reverence the music and the art that came and brought us together.

And you have spent so much intentionality behind designing this studio. So this is a sacred place for us to have honest discussion. And you did something really incredible tonight. The students were texting me videos and screenshots of your show because they're all tuning in and watching. And they said, thank you for making sure that you were able to fundraise on your show today. So we're going to make sure that all those students, not only, let me be very clear because you know me, but some people don't know me.

I'm not fundraising for a conference. Right. I am fundraising for two reasons. I am developing new leaders across the country who are going to now speak truth to power by meeting with elected officials who they otherwise would have never had a chance to meet. And the conference is the breeding ground to birth a national organization. There is no national student voice right now. Those students on college campuses don't know where to organize, where to go, who to trust, who to listen to, nothing. And I'm not asking them to

trust me. I'm asking them to trust themselves. So thank you for calling Will. Thank you for putting it on the show. Thank you for your commitment because the students are going to be able to come to D.C. to continue that dream, but to build that national student power that we have been missing because it has been attacked by Donald Trump and all his friends.

Greg. Tomorrow night, there's another show, five days a week. Nobody else can say that in the country. This is a black network, and I want to echo what you said, Tiffany, and what everybody has said. This is a black space controlled by black people for us, by us. Since I was an undergraduate at Tennessee State, fighting when they were trying to destroy black colleges,

stipulation of settlement, federal stipulation of settlement. We marched on the governor's office many times, I was student body president, to this day. I'll be 60 in April. Understanding—what are you looking at me like? April! I'm very happy to be 60. Yeah, that's right. 27th, though.

I'm an idiot. You're a sassy. But, yeah. Where? Well, that's a good question. You gonna to say I just hate every student I ever had? Anyway, and that's really the point. That's every book you ever read. Well, the thing, though, individuals don't beat institutions.

Kevin Roberts, who's the quarterback of Project 2025, the Harris Foundation, is an Africanist. He got his Ph.D. at the University of Texas writing about slave rebellions in Louisiana between 1791 and 1831. 1791 is the Haitian Revolution. 1831 is Nat Turner. Kevin Roberts understands black history better than just about everybody I know.

Wow. His dissertation was about how you break down barriers between people and assimilate them into a larger project. But he's talking about Africans. We are amnesiatic. I reject the concepts of generations because I read William and Neil's book, Generations, where they made up millennials and Gen X and Gen Y. These are all intellectual projects. Individuals

don't breed institutions. And so the only thing I can say here is that we have a platform, because of the Black Star Network, where we have everything we need to reach everybody. Come on. Absolutely. The only thing we need to do is connect all that. Right. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company

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

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

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

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

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

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. We need to overflow the boundaries of these funky lines that they drew 500 years ago and redrew in the 19th century. You mentioned SARS, absolutely, the economic freedom fighters in South Africa, what's going on in Congo and Sudan. These are young people in Haiti, you know, where they're closing schools, but the young people are educating themselves. Many of the SNCC veterans live here in the District of Columbia. Sure do. Bill knows they be in your congregation, but you know what I'm saying? Courtland Cox,

Judy Richardson, Bob Moses, I mean Bob Moses as well. I say his son just, Omo just wrote his piece with Charlie Cobb. Yeah, his book is fantastic. By the way, Omo Moses, his new book just came out about that struggle. They were all young. Eyes on the Prize 3, I haven't seen yet. I read Juan Williams' companion volume, but for me, when Henry Hampton was alive, who was the architect of the first

Eyes on the Prize, and then made transition, people talk about Ken Burns couldn't hold the draws of Henry Hampton and that crew that did the original Eyes on the Prize. I don't trust any narrative that folds us back into this criminal enterprise. Nobody was ever organizing to

make democracy real. We use democracy as a defense mechanism. We wear that flag as a defense mechanism. Leave us alone. I'm saying that education has to be at the center of this work. Because we don't understand

how we got to this place. And they understand. You don't hear them having intergenerational squabbles like that. When you look at Turning Point USA, when you look at CPAC, these white nationals have a, exactly!

Little Face Charlie these these people have it now we however because we are living in an age of distraction you know whether it be chris hayes's new book on you know distractions and all this the sirens call these devices this thing has penetrated us such so that we look at everything that we can do as a performance. Look at Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar didn't do anything on that stage of the Super Bowl that wasn't pre-approved by every lawyer in the NFL. If you think that was revolutionary, you have been cut off. This is my point.

And so I guess what I'm saying is that this conversation we're having tonight, we can really deepen and extend it because whatever we did tonight, tomorrow night we're going to have a list. We've got a list of the congresspeople we need to straight up target. Because Chip Roy and them funky ass Chip Roy, that budget hawk, so to speak, who was making a beeline to shake Donald Trump's hand tonight, he can be peeled off. We can turn these white nationalists against each other because Because the nature of white nationalism is cannibalistic. They will cannibalize themselves. But we have to understand how we did it last time. Bill, I'm with you, brother. That 19th century,

we just need to look. Man, that period between the 1840s and 50s and the 1870s and 80s, all we did was study that. We got the keys to how we get out of this myth. And I think that we just project the myth

that young people don't care about previous generations. Last year, I spent the entire year interviewing some of the last living survivors of Freedom Summer. We ended up interviewing two dozen, today, living survivors to capture the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer. So many young people were a part of that. And so I think the question that you even posed was like, what do we do with the energy, but with the knowledge?

And how do we combine the two? Because it was designed for us to be divided. And so where are the gaps and how are we filling it? And I feel like that's one of the biggest things that at least as I'm leaving here tonight, that I think that's my call to action. I would agree with you, and I know you're gonna close wrong, but this is a very, when Congressman Clark said

that she's from Brooklyn and they came through the black power phase, that SNCC group turned to black power. That's right. And that's when they became enemies of the state. Understand that John Lewis met Malcolm X in East Africa, in Kenya, as you know. And so when you start talking, Marumba Aani was on my dissertation committee. She's a pan-Africanist to her heart.

She was Donna Moses. She stood outside 16th Street Baptist Church with Dori Ladner with an American flag in her hand at the funeral of three of those girls that got killed. And I'm saying, y'all can't see. So I know in interviewing those folks, whether it be Cortland Cox, you understand, it was the turn to overflow the national boundaries that made SNCC the enemy of the

state. That's when Fannie Lou Hamer is in Guinea, because Julian Bonham raised that money, and Secretary Rae sweeps her up in his arms, that's when the state said, these Negroes got to be stopped. And I'm saying, when Congresswoman Clark says, Brooklyn, and you're from Brooklyn, Brooklyn is geographically

in New York, but it is a pan-African formation. This is the point. And Elon Musk and Steve Bannon are white internationalists. Not Steve Miller. That bastard is an American

white nationalist. But Steve Bannon is an American white nationalist. But Steve Bannon is a global white nationalist. We're not going to beat global white nationalism by doubling down on American identity. We've got to overflow those batteries. And I know those SNCC folks said it to y'all, because when they went to black nationalism, that's when they went after them. So there are a number of people who are scared. There are people who don't believe that they have what it takes to fight in this particular moment. Anytime I think about that, I think about there's this great scene in the movie Selma. And it was this great

scene between Carmen Yjogo, who played Coretta Scott King, and Loretta Toussaint, who played Amelia Boynton. And so the Yjogo character has to go meet with Malcolm X, who comes to Birmingham. And so she was nervous. And Toussaint, playing Boynton, this is what she said to her. And I think it's important of every person who's still watching to listen to these words. I'll tell you what I know to be true. It helps me in times when I'm feeling unsure, if you'd like. Please do, Ms. Bonson.

I know that we are descendants of a mighty people who gave civilization to the world. People who survived the hulls of slave ships across vast oceans. People who innovate and create and love despite pressures and tortures unimaginable. They are in our bloodstream, pumping our hearts every second. They've prepared you. You are already prepared. Important, favorite person, because a lot of us have self-doubt. There are people who say, well, where do I start? Where do I call? Who do I call?

Is somebody going to allow me to do it? And the reality is you don't have to ask anybody's permission. You don't. Stokely Carmichael once said that you cannot find an African-American who has made a difference for black people who did not do so by being part of an organization. A point that Greg made earlier. So there are organizations who are waiting for you. They've been waiting for you to call, waiting for you to email, waiting for you to join.

And so we don't have to actually create anything new. But what has to happen is that we have to accept that when we begin to be on this path of truly, as Dr. King wrote, committing ourselves to the liberation of black people, we must understand it is not going to move with microwave speed. We have to understand that it's gonna be starts and stops and fits and it's gonna be things not happening, not moving fast enough, but the only way things actually change is when you're in the continuum of just keep doing it.

People literally said that this show was not going to work. People said that there's no way you can actually get it done. And I know, again, somebody's watching, and you're sitting here, and you're looking at all the things that we have right here, but y'all got to understand, our previous studio was across the street. And it was just one room, three offices.

And it was five monitors behind us glass tabletop uh if we had chairs uh didn't have a set uh but we didn't concern ourselves about what we did not have we focused on was how could we take the the small resources that we did have to turn out a quality product every single day and actually build to what it is that we did have to turn out a quality product every single day and actually build to what it is that we wanted to get to. And that's how that thing began to happen. So a lot of folk want to start at 30 million views a month, but see, I remember when it was only 2,000 views. So again, you can't get to 30 million unless you start with two. And so you need to understand that if we're going to be fighting this battle,

it actually begins with you starting exactly where you are. Y'all keep asking, why do I keep referencing Nehemiah? Because, again, if you read Nehemiah chapter 3, he details, and I said before, the names of the people who built this portion of the gate, which means you have to start exactly where you are. So if you're sitting here watching, and I see it's still some 61,000 of you. If you're in Charlotte, I need you to focus on Charlotte, but not just in Charlotte. Focus on your particular neighborhood and then your block, your street, and your house.

You can't be concerned about what's happening on the other side of Charlotte if you're knowing what's literally happening right in front of you. You can't be sitting here at your university wondering what's happened by the university across the country if you literally are ignoring the town that you are in. You must start exactly where you are. And also, you must stop waiting for other people to show up. I love it when people say to me, I was at a church speaking,

and they said, man, this place should have been packed. I said, I spoke to the 500 in the room, not the empty 2,000 chairs. Because if the 500 who I spoke to brought one brother next month, it would be 1,000 in the room. And then if the 1,000 the next month brought one person, it would be 2,000 in the room. And then by the third month, if the 2,000 brought one, there will be no available seats for the 4,000. See, we spend so much time and energy focusing on who didn't show up, who didn't answer our email, who didn't return our call, who didn't respond to our text, that we overlooked the folk who actually did. Right. Come on. So when Tiffany says we're trying to raise this money, I immediately start

thinking, who are all the folks I knew who are Florida A&M graduates? And if I'm sitting there saying, fine, how do you raise $40,000? I can sit here and say, fine, hit 10 people. Can you do 4,000 each? Or can you do 10 people at 2,000 each? That's $20,000. It's understanding how do you do that. See, so some of y'all were thinking, well, man, I don't know how they're going to do the 40, but I'm sitting there going 40 people, 1,000 each, that's 40. Or then 20 people, 2,000 each. Who do you know?

How do you utilize your circles? How do you utilize the areas of influence? This ain't about you as an individual. Can you fund the whole 40? But do you know 20 other people who care enough about the issue to say, fine, I'll throw in two or I'll throw in 500? Too many of us

are so fixated on can we have the big general meeting? Can we get everybody together? Can we get everybody together? Can we bring them all in the room and come to consensus and actually start? Well, guess what? You can't show me a movement in the history of the world that started with consensus. You can't show me a church that started with a thousand people.

Every church started with one person saying, hey, let's get together. Actually, most churches came out of Bible studies. So too many of us are so fixated on the problem and the issues and what can't be done as opposed to what actually can be done. The serenity prayer. Tomorrow is an opportunity for you to decide what are you going to do and what are you prepared to do to be a change agent for our community. You can only decide that. I can't decide

it. Pastor Lamar, Greg, Tiffany, Judith, we all cannot decide. You have to actually make that decision. Your grandmama who made you watch can't decide that. Your daddy, your mother cannot make you decide that. Only you can decide whether it is you are willing and able and ready to lead. But understand this.

Everybody is not meant to lead. Leading doesn't mean you're the CEO. Leading doesn't mean you're the senior pastor. Leading doesn't mean you're the CEO. Leading doesn't mean you're the senior pastor. Leading doesn't mean you're the convener. Leader doesn't mean you're the director of the department. Leader doesn't mean that you're over the organization. Leaders also are followers. Leaders can lead without titles. And so what we need to understand,

and in this moment, what is required is for regular and ordinary people, not folk with big names and big titles, not folks with big saddles, but regular ordinary people making a simple decision, are you willing

to actually be a participant in your own freedom? My cousin Sharonda sent me a text this week because she made her $50 contribution to the Breonna Funk fan club. But it wasn't her $50 contribution. It was actually her mother's $50 contribution, my Aunt Betty. My Aunt Betty has been an ancestor for the last five years. My Aunt Betty, on her deathbed, told Sharonda,

you must give every year when I'm gone. Wow. You who are watching are here because somebody who is gone prayed for you, stood up for you, and they wanted you're spitting in the face of some folk who said prayers for you when you weren't even aware and they are waiting for you to step up to get engaged because they know that you were supposed to step up. This moment is for us to stop complaining and whining and crying and to recognize that this is a moment for a new generation of freedom fighters. And if 50 years from now we're talking about Fannie Lou Hamer in the present, then those of us today fail to do our job. We should not be evoking the names of those folks. 50 years from now, there should be a whole new list of names that have been added to the roles of the folk

who were a part of rebuilding the walls around black America. So when you sign off, get some sleep, take your rest, get a drink of water, do whatever you need to do. But when tomorrow comes, I need you to show up prepared to do battle. And as Nehemiah said,

he said, build with one hand, but keep your other hand on your weapon. We are facing people who want to take us out. And we must understand that in this kind of fight, you better keep one hand building and the other hand on your weapon. And faith has always sustained us. And in this moment, if they have not seen this generation move like previous generations and they thought they killed Black Lives Matter, they thought they killed that moment and they are exalting right now thinking that, oh, that all the things in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd have now dissipated? No, send them a different signal and let them know, no, you didn't kill us.

You did not destroy us. What you've done is you've awakening a spirit that the ancestors put in us. And if you want to say you move in the spirit of Harriet and you move in the spirit of Martin Delaney and you move in the spirit of Frederick Douglass and you move in the spirit of Harriet, and you move in the spirit of Martin Delaney, and you move in the spirit of Frederick Douglass, and you move in the spirit of Robert Abbott, and you move in the spirit of Otterby Wells Barnett, and you move in the spirit of William Monroe Trotter, and you move in the spirit of Mary McLeod Bethune and Septima Clark, and if you move in the spirit of those folks, then they have no idea the hell that they are about to face because we ain't backing down. The question is, what are you prepared to do? We thank everybody who's participated in our show.

All of you who have watched the panelists, the folks who've been virtual, to our crew, everybody involved in making this possible. We thank all the hard work. And again, we'll see you tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern, right here on the Black Star Network.

Don't forget, Tiffany, what's the website again? USStudentAssociation.org. Again, the contributions, up to $20,000 that we raise in the next 24 hours that we will match. And so I've already seen a bunch of y'all. Y'all have been commenting in the chat that y'all have been donating,

and we appreciate that. If you, again, want to join our Bring the Funk fan club, like I told y'all, we don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting checks. We don't have these folks who are doing it. This show has been funded by 35,000 donors, folks who have been sending us checks and money orders and who give to us on platforms ranging from $1 up to $10,000. One sister sent us $10,000 cashier's check last month,

and we appreciate that. And so your donations are critically important. We plan to take this show on the road broadcasting from around the country to hear from you. And I keep telling y'all this here. There's nobody else in the black-owned media doing what we're doing.

Okay? Ebony ain't doing it. Essence not doing it. Urban One not doing it. BET not doing it. Black Enterprise not doing it. None of these for blavities not doing it. None of these people are doing it. Byron Allen not doing it. Black Enterprise not doing it. None of these for blamities not doing it. None of these people are doing it. Byron Allen not doing it. It doesn't matter. And so we are doing this because unlike some folk, we actually love black people.

And this is about us reaching and teaching and educating. And so you can contribute via Cash App. This is the Stripe QR code. I told you all Cash App closed down all of our accounts because they changed their rules on companies that can have accounts. And so if you want to contribute via Cash App, this is the Stripe QR code. To access that, go to BlackstarNetwork.com

if you're listening. Also, see and check your money order at Peel Box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037-0196 PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo RM Unfiltered, Zelle. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Be sure

to download the Blackstone Network app. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available in bookstores nationwide.

Get the audio version I read on Audible. All proceeds of that book go right back into our show. Y'all have been commenting on the shirt I'm wearing. If y'all want to get this shirt or our other shirt, hashtag, we tried to tell you, FAFO2025, or our other gear, go to rolandmartin.creator-spring.com. Rolandmartin.creator-spring.com.com or go to BlackstarNetwork.com Melanie mentioned Fanbase. Be sure to download the app Fanbase. Of course, and if you want to also

invest, I think Isaac's the last point. They've raised $10.1 million out of the $17 million series they raised. And so go to StarkEngine.com forward slash Fanbase. And so we're going to be back this tomorrow. We all going to get some sleep.

Let me thank all of you. When we started, again, we hit 250,000. And here we are closing out at 123, 123 a.m. And 55,000 of y'all are still with us. And so we certainly appreciate it. And so y'all know how I always close the show out. I'll see y'all are still with us. And so we certainly appreciate it. And so y'all know how I always close the show out. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! Outro Music I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you gotta pray for yourself as well as for

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