#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Colo. Cop Kills Unarmed Black Man, SCOTUS Gun Ruling, Summer Travel, Black Women in Comedy Laff Fest

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

6.21.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Colo. Cop Kills Unarmed Black Man, SCOTUS Gun Ruling, Summer Travel, Black Women in Comedy Laff Fest A Black Colorado family wants the Aurora officer who shot their relative—an unarmed Black man—charged with his murder. The family's attorney will explain what happened to Kye-Lynn Lewis. The Supreme Court upholds a federal law barring people who are the subject of domestic violence restraining orders from owning weapons. We'll talk to an expert about why this is the most significant gun control ruling by the nation's highest court in two years. Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson gave the world a history lesson about the racism he encountered while playing America's favorite sport. Are you having a hard time figuring out where to go on your summer vacation? We have a travel expert share some ideas for where to go for your summer getaway! And laughter heals the soul! We'll tell you how to catch the Black Women in Comedy Laff Fest in New York City and how it's opening doors. #BlackStarNetwork advertising partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbaseMass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls 6.29.2024👉🏾 https://vist.ly/37jmv Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 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 star-studded 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. 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. We'll be right back. 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 scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? It is Friday, June 21st, 2024, and I'm Candace Kelly sitting in for Roland.

Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A black Colorado family wants the Aurora officer who shot their relative, an unarmed black man, charged with his murder. The family's attorney will explain what happened to Kylan Lewis. The Supreme Court upholds a federal law barring people who are the subject

of domestic violence restraining orders from owning weapons. We'll talk to an expert about why this is the most significant gun control ruling by the nation's highest court in two years. Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson gave the world a history lesson about the racism he encountered while playing America's favorite sport. Are you having a hard time trying to figure out where to go on your summer vacation? Well, we have a travel expert here to share some ideas for where to go for your summer getaway.

And finally, laughter heals the soul. We will tell you how to catch the Black Women in Comedy Laugh Fest in New York City and how it's opening doors. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all.

It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, All right. The family of a Colorado black man who was holding a cell phone when an Aurora SWAT officer fatally shot him, once the officer charged with the murder following the public release of portions of body footage of the shooting. 37-year-old Kylan Lewis was shot as officers tried to arrest him on May 23rd. The officers, who appear to get out of unmarked vehicles, are heard on the video shouting at him to get on the ground. After taking a few steps next to his car and putting his hand right behind his back, Lewis appears to surrender, raising his arms in the air. Now, we're about to show you about a 12-second police video cam, and it may be

disturbing for some of you to watch. All right, Attorney Ed Hopkins is representing the Lewis family, and he joins us now to talk about the situation and what the next steps he's taking with the family. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me and allowing me to talk to everyone about this important case. Absolutely, and it is an important case, but for those people who haven't been quite caught up on some of the details, what are some of the things you are now going to bring in front of a court eventually in terms of filing a complaint, a lawsuit that you believe will make your family's voice be heard? Well, a couple of things. Number one, the entire tactics that they used to stop Kyylan Lewis couldn't be more incompetent. It was some of the worst policing that we have ever seen in the state of Colorado.

We are going to investigate their training because we are confident that they do not have adequate training because no one should be that incompetent when they're policing people in the city of Aurora. Their incompetence is deadly. Number two, it was clear that Kylan Lewis had raised his hands before he was shot. We are also investigating what appears to be some statements that he made prior to raising his hands. It sounds as though, but we need to get the most accurate body cam to determine for sure. It sounds as though he says, hold up, dude, I don't have a gun. And then his hands are up. And then Officer Deke shoots him. That shot follows him to the ground. And then he starts saying, I don't got nothing. I don't have

nothing. We can't see yet what kind of CPR they administered because we haven't gotten all the body cam footage, but we expect to see a similar amount of incompetence with the CPR when we get the whole footage. So, you know, we talk about so many things from training to certainly immunity, and we'll get to that point, but let's talk about training for a moment. In this particular situation, in what way do you think training could have helped? Because the training that many have when they are on the other end of police officers is to let them know what you are doing, to inform them that I'm reaching for a phone and to inform them I don't have a gun, which in this situation, it did not solve the problem.

Yeah. Well, here they were barking commands. There were at least two officers barking different commands at Kylan Lewis. One officer said, get on the ground. He yelled that to him. The other officer just was saying calmly, hands, hands, as if he was calmly getting ready to do something to Kylan Lewis. Now, both of these commands coming at him at one time, that's incompetence. There should have been one officer talking. One officer should have alerted Mr. Lewis as to what was happening. One officer should have tried to make sure everyone was calm. But here's something that's very important.

These officers have been following Kylan Lewis for two days. They chose the place, the time, the manner. Every aspect of that encounter was up to them. They say that they waited until the safest possible every aspect of that encounter was up to them. They say that they waited until the safest possible moment to make that encounter. Before they got out of their cars, they had an opportunity to see every aspect of Kylan Lewis's waist. They could verify and did verify that there was no gun there. How they can now argue that they had the belief that some type of gun magically appeared and just happened to be a cell phone is ludicrous.

So it's incompetence, but it is something more sinister in our opinion. We believe that the Aurora Police Department is just committed to failing to protect black men in the city of Aurora. They are not doing an adequate job of ensuring the right kind of police officers or police in the communities because this keeps happening. It happened in 2019 with Elijah McClain, who was choked to death. And then in 2015, it happened to Nashaulis Carter. He was shot under almost the same circumstances that Kylan Lewis was shot this year. So we're talking about 48 hours of casing.

And as you said, they thought that this was the most opportune time to actually make this particular arrest. I think what's interesting is, as you said, they had time to really plan every single detail as they were casing Kylan and then really messed it up by, as you said, having so many— It's more than messed up. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah than messed up, certainly. But I mean, in terms of the procedure that they had, nothing was in control, even though they had a whole 48 hours to get all of that in order. I think that's one of the most stunning things about this case.

It is one of the most stunning. It just goes to show how flippant they are, flippant they are with Black Lives and Aurora. We are confident that when we get their training records, we're going to see great deficiencies. We're not going to see them getting training in these types of encounters because you can't be that incompetent if you are getting adequate training. You have to know that only one of you should be talking. You have to know that you should have some hands, folks, get out and try to de-escalate once you have verified that he doesn't have a gun. There was just no excuse for the way that they encountered Kylan Lewis. Here's something else that we want the public to be fully aware of.

When they made contact with Kylan Lewis, they had time. They had time to look at every aspect of his body. He was wearing jeans. He was wearing a t-shirt. There was no way that they couldn't verify that he had or had not a gun. They knew he didn't have a gun. And moreover, when they decided to take the shot, only one of them took the shot. All the other officers saw exactly what Officer Deeks saw, and they decided not to take the shot. The reason why they didn't take the shot is because there was no justification. They didn't feel their lives were in danger because they saw what we saw. It was a phone in his hand. They heard what we heard. He had surrendered and he was saying, I don't have a gun. Despite all of that, Officer Deeks still fires a shot.

And so I would imagine that in terms of a lawsuit, there would be a violation of civil rights. What are some of the other things that you've discussed with this family that you want to see happen in this lawsuit and as a result of it? Wrongful death, violation of civil rights, all of those are going to be a part of the lawsuit. We also want some institutional changes, but we're having some difficulty getting through to the Aurora Police Department here in the state of Colorado. In 2015, after they killed Neshallis Vincent, who was unarmed at the time, they promised to fix it. They didn't fix it. In 2019, they killed Elijah McClain.

The attorney general had to go investigate the city of Aurora's police department. They got into a consent decree. And a consent decree is being monitored as we speak. They were supposed to be working on fixing this, and it happened again. Every couple of years, they're killing an unarmed black man. Every couple of years, despite the promise to fix it, despite the consent decree. So at this point, we can't rely on them promising to fix anything. We're just going to have to focus on making these economic incentives as powerful as possible and trying to persuade the voting populace of the city of Aurora to replace

their leadership and possibly outsource their policing because the police they have now are failing. And do you see that as a viable solution before we hit the break that outsourcing that police officers would be a solution here? Yeah, they need to hand over the job to somebody who's competent, somebody who's trained, somebody who can keep people alive. The SWAT team was involved here. The SWAT team specializes in saving lives and protecting lives.

They come out so that you keep people alive. They don't come out to murder people like this. So they need better police. These police aren't cutting it. Moreover, they're making things deadly for Aurora citizens, particularly black men. All right, Ed, I want you to stay with us. We're going to be joined by our panelists after the break. We have a few more questions for you. So stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, and we'll be right back. We are the culture. We blaze trails.

We define our future. We are the heart and soul of America. This Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom. Freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry, and vote. We are one America. And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you

to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons, along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today,

there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people be at the center of our politics. Living wages, health care, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard.

Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org, RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. And we won't desire And we won't desire Anymore Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin Unkilled.

All right. And we are back talking with the attorney of the family for Kylan Lewis out in Colorado. I'm joined now by panelist Matt Manning. He is a civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi, Texas. Kelly Bethea, a communications strategist. She comes to us out of Washington, D.C. And Michael Inhotep, host of the African History Network show in Detroit, Michigan. Thank you all for being with us.

I want to open up the floor now, and I'll start with you, with Kelly, for a question for Ed. Sure. So when it comes to the racial bias that was clear in this predicament, how much training do you think is necessary until... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st.

And episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We come to the consensus that there needs to be an overhaul of the system. I'm not afraid to say it. I'm not afraid to say it.

I don't think the training is going to fix it. I think the only solution when you fail this many times, this consistently, when you're killing this many black men every couple of years, you're going to have to get more black officers. You're just going to have to make more black officers police the community. Black officers don't kill black men as frequently as these white officers. Everybody's thinking it. I'm going to say it. So I think that's the solution that we need to start looking at because everything we've been doing in the past has failed. They're supposed to be checking the box, getting this type of cultural anti-bias training. They're still killing black men and they're still incompetent. So I think we need more black officers out there who understand what they're looking at.

These white officers don't appear to understand what they're seeing. They're fearful and they don't understand. They don't have the cultural competence to do safe policing. And before I go to Matt, what you're saying is that they don't kill as much. We know that they do kill sometimes, but you're saying that in the scheme of things, when we break down the statistics, that they kill at a way much lower rate. Yes. You're going to have a higher likelihood that you're going to be dealing with a culturally competent officer who's going to understand what he's dealing with, who's gonna be less fearful,

who is not going to have in the back of his mind, this is a big black man and I need to pull this trigger as fast as possible. You need people when they look at this black man that they see somebody that they would see at a family reunion. They're not going to be as frightened and they're not gonna be as quick with that trigger.

All right, Matt, question. Yeah, first Ed, let me thank you for doing this important work. I do it myself, and I appreciate others showing the burden. I have really a two-part question for you. The first is, what is the effect of Colorado's recent promulgation of that limitation on qualified immunity? I mean, as it relates to how you're looking at the case and how you approach a case like this where officers would customarily claim qualified immunity. And the second question for you is, what is the importance to you of this being a SWAT officer as opposed to an officer who's a normal patrol officer, considering they usually get

way more training? And in this instance, as you've already said, this officer shot and a number standing around did not shoot, which to me goes to the unreasonableness of it kind of per se. What are your thoughts in those two respects? DERRICK GARCIA- You're talking about SB 217. Colorado might be leading the nation with respect to the level of accountability that we're able to hold these officers when they do things like this. So we do plan to take advantage of this new law.

And this new law is going to limit or eliminate qualified immunity in this case. Once we can show that this officer did not have an objective, reasonable basis to be fearful for his life or to be fearful that any of his colleagues were going to be endangered, once we establish that, SB 217 is going to enable us to not only hold the Aurora Police Department accountable, but also the officer accountable individually. So they're not going to be able to run away from this. So that's the law that you're talking about we think is going to give us an extra tool to try to hold them accountable.

As you well know, it's difficult. It's difficult to hold them accountable in other states that don't have a law like SB 217. Now, when you're talking about SWAT team officer, I am as concerned as you are. I don't know why everybody in the city of Aurora isn't outraged. These are supposed to be the most highly trained officers on their police force. These are the ones who are supposed to get the most hours. These are the ones who have the best body armor, the best gear. They are the safest. They are designed, their whole team is designed to keep things safe.

And when that still is not enough to prevent them from killing a black man in cold blood, what are the citizens of the city of Aurora supposed to think? When the very best you have to offer is killing black men in cold blood after they put their hands up, what are you supposed to think? This is becoming the modern equivalent of a sundown town. Michael. All right, Attorney Ed Hopkins, thanks for coming on and sharing this with you. I had a quick comment and a question. So, you know, I've been saying on this show, I totally agree with you. We need more right-minded African-American police officers with a guardian mentality, not a warrior mentality, because there are two types of mentalities.

The guardian mentality sees people, especially African-Americans, as those who need to be protected, whereas the warrior mentality sees them as people who need to be—you need to enforce laws upon them. They need to be policed. So, I totally agree with you on that. One of the questions I had was, I couldn't find out how many officers were on the scene, because I know only one officer fired a shot. Do we know, in total, how many officers were on the scene? We've gotten mixed news. It's four to six. So we can see at least four in the body cam that we've been able to see. At least one is still inside the car. So we think that's at least five. But when we talk with the city of Aurora, the police department, they have given us between four and six. Four jumped out of the two

unmarked vehicles and only one shot the weapon. Now, I think two of them had AR-15s, and I think the one who shot him was using a 9-millimeter. Okay. Can I ask a follow-up question, Candace? Absolutely. Okay. So, in reading the article from the Associated Press, it said that the officers were there to—an arrest warrant was issued for Kyla Lewis, who was suspected being involved in the May 5 shooting in Denver.

So, now, have you been able to verify that the arrest warrant was valid, that they—maybe they have the wrong person? Is there any information regarding that? And do they—I'm not an expert on issuing arrest warrants, but if, you know, people jump out of an unmarked police car and nobody's wearing a police uniform pointing guns at me, you know, I'm going to be scared. So is there any insight you can give us into that? I can give you a lot of insight.

We're investigating the circumstances under which that warrant was actually issued. We have a copy of the warrant. Unfortunately, it's a heavily redacted copy. But here's a couple of the highlights. One of the things that you see in the warrant is that the person who allegedly, who allegedly was the one that they spoke with, is someone who claims himself to be legally blind. Let me say that one more time. The person that they're using as a witness told them that he was legally blind. He didn't at any point in time tell them that he saw Kylan Lewis shoot him. He said that he was shot, but there are other circumstances that they are

aware of, and those circumstances indicate that there was someone else on the scene who had a gun that was not Kylan Lewis. There is no one who saw Kylan Lewis shoot a weapon. And the person who was shot does not know. And he says as much. He does not know who shot him. I do not know why that was a sufficient amount of information to issue a warrant for Mr. Lewis. But we're going to be looking into it. And we are following up, investigating the actual circumstances that led to the warrant, and we have already uncovered some suspicious activity. Ed, all of that is unsettling and ridiculous. I am wondering, if you have had conversations with police officers or anybody from the Aurora Police Department about this at all, what those conversations are like, if you can share with us anything that they're telling you at this time to move the needle in one way or the

other. Well, they're not talking very much to us at this point. They're in the process of trying to spin this in their favor. One thing Aurora Police Department does very well is protect its own. So they do that better than they protect black men. So they're not communicating with us freely. In fact, we are still waiting for the Aurora Police Department to release all the records that we have demanded under state law. They have 21 days, but they don't have to wait 21 days to fulfill our demand for those records. They are going to wait, we suspect, until the very last day. And the reason why is because there's something on that body cam. There's something on that body cam. There's something on that body cam they don't want us to see. And they want at least a week of news cycle

to try to spin this propaganda as much as they can to get as many people misled and on their side as they can before the facts come out. All right. Well, Ed, I'm sure as more information comes, we will have you back so you can give us a full update on what is going on with this case. I want to thank you for being with us and thank you for your work this evening. I thank you for having me. And one last word. This man should have been arrested on May 23rd. The officer who shot Kylan Lewis committed murder.

He should have been arrested on May 23rd. Or our police department let us down by letting him go on. That's all I wanted to say. All right. Ed, again, thank you. Have a good evening. You too. All right. More of Roland Martin unfiltered when we come back after the break. So make sure to stay with us. 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. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds

there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital 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. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. If you look at all the best men, the movies, and then, of course, Sears on Peacock, why do you think it resonated so well? Well, I think it's a reflection of us.

You know, I think it's a reflection of authentic black people, the way they see themselves. And, in some instances, aspirationally so. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million and now is your chance to invest. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the qr code another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits parkour executive producer a proud family bruce smith creator and executive producer of the proud family louder and prouder you're watching Roland Martin.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the government has the authority to disarm those who have a restraining order against them for domestic violence. The case centered around a 1994 law barring people who are the subject of domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns. Sabrina Tlutler, the director of the Women's Initiative at the Center for American Progress, invites me to discuss just how significant this ruling is. Sabrina, thank you so much for being with us. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, indeed. So when we look at this case, this certainly is a turnaround from what was on record by the Supreme Court two years ago when it came to giving people the right to have guns.

What does this essentially mean? Because we have Justice Thomas, who was the only dissenter. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here, and he said, look, this is not in the Constitution in terms of domestic violence and taking away the rights of those who want guns is not fair.

Well, what happened today is that the Supreme Court issued a ruling that essentially provided more guardrails to the Bruin test that came out a year ago. In the Bruin legal test, the Supreme Court said that in order for a gun safety law to be constitutional, that there needs to be an historical analogous law to it from the 18th century when the Constitution was drafted. And for the first time in Supreme Court history, that meant that something like public interest and important government regulation was no longer considered when it came to firearm regulation. And so the Bruin test that came out really just changed the game and

completely upended legal precedent when it came to gun safety laws. And what we saw today in Rahimi is the Supreme Court majority in an eight to one decision said that the law that exists from the 18th century doesn't have to be an exact twin. It only has to be analogous. So today the court said that there were laws in the 18th century that prevented people who society deemed violent from owning guns. And that's good enough to find a rational basis for a firearm regulation today that we really have to keep talking about it because it's such an effective and sensible gun violence prevention law. States that use this law have seen a 27% reduction in intimate partner homicides. And the reality is that the only reason that survivor

safety was questioned, and then this law that's been on the book for 30 years was questioned, is because the Supreme Court upended legal precedent last year on a whim in creating this new test. Yeah. And it certainly has had the attention of everybody since then, because it seems to make better sense, obviously, the way that they decided today. What they were saying essentially is that, listen, we weren't necessarily dealing with domestic violence. And even if we were, men would have had more rights years ago anyway when the Constitution was made. But be that as it may, we know that if someone is in harm's way, that that person who may be putting that person in harm's way should not have a gun. It's just sensical, even though it does not

spell out specifically, as an originalist would understand it, to say specifically that that is the case. A lot of people have been talking about the impact of this on Hunter Biden's case. I think he's letting out a bit of a sigh today because this doesn't work in his favor. Well, I think that, you know, what's happening with Hunter Biden is really a separate issue because this case, this, you know, U.S. Virginia is really about domestic violence survivors. And again, I think that's something that we needed to keep talking about because domestic violence is exceptionally interconnected to gun violence. And whether or not firearms are in the home is an entirely different question.

Weapons can be used—firearms can be used as weapons of coercive control. And what's really interesting about U.S. v. Rahimi is that there are a lot of opinions in this decision, and none of the opinions agree with one another. Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan, in their concurring opinion, brought up something that you just said, that we are bringing back laws from a time where women did not have the right to vote, where women were considered property, where marginalized communities were not given a meaningful seat at the table. And she has an incredible quote, which she says that these hamstrings are democracy.

And again, that's exactly what the Supreme Court is doing. By upending legal precedent and politicizing the judiciary, they're putting the safety of marginalized communities at risk. And so what are your thoughts about—I guess, you know, there have been so many lower court decisions that look to previous precedent, and now they're on record. I would imagine that a lot of people are feeling a lot more at ease to maybe come back with their restraining orders to make sure that their person—that the person who might be putting them in harm's way does not have the right to keep that gun that they were able to get years ago. Absolutely. There was a great article in the

New York Times today about a day on the call with the National Domestic Violence Hotline. And this case just caused so much confusion. And this case has been in process for a while, you know, almost two years. I'm sorry, over a year and a half. And it's caused so much confusion. And this case has been in process for a while, almost two years. I'm sorry, over a year and a half. And it's caused so much confusion for survivors, for case managers, for state and local officials on how to manage this problem that we have of domestic violence and gun violence. And it's just so common. And we know that nearly 2 thirds of all mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 occurred during a domestic violence incident.

We know that the presence of a firearm in the home during a domestic violence incident increases the risk of death fivefold. And we know that women of color bear the brunt of all of this. And what I'm hoping is not that survivors rush to the courtroom and flood the courtroom with orders of protection. I'm hoping that this signals to gun lobbyists and to people who viewed Bruin to be a case that allowed them to do whatever they want that they can't do that,

that there are guardrails now, and the Supreme Court cannot be owned by gun lobbyists. Yeah. And, you know, I think that the implications, before I go to the panel, is they are widespread. As you said, you can't just own a gun just because of the Second Amendment. There are going to be guidelines, the same way that we have guidelines on the First Amendment, right, that we all have to follow depending upon where we are and when we are saying something. But with that in mind, we're talking about a case that is precedent-setting that's not just going to affect those that have a temporary restraining order against them, but anybody who is believed to be unsafe enough to have a gun. And that's why I mentioned Hunter Biden, because if he was an addict or any addict that has

a gun, that person probably would be deemed that it's not in their favor and the best interest of the public at large for them to actually own a gun. All right. Well, with that in mind, I want to open up to the panel. I want to start with you, Matt. Question for our guest today. For breaking this down, I'm actually here in Texas. And I guess something I missed with this is what was the court's discussion in the dicta or otherwise about due process? Because obviously, the way it works with a protective order, what we call it in Texas or a restra due process, because obviously the way it works with a protective order, what we call it in Texas or a restraining order, is that there's a finding by the judge

of likelihood of continued domestic violence. And that was my concern on how they were going to address this. So how did they address the due process concerns as it relates to this? Sure. So I'm a former public defender from New York, and I can talk about this all day. But this actually doesn't pertain to the due process issues that happen at criminal court or in civil court or in a county court. 18 U.S.C. 922 G.8 is a completely separate federal law that does not deal with the due process issues that happen at the basic municipal court level. And so what happens is that what happens with an order of protection is dealt with separately,

completely by the criminal, civil or family judge within that county. However, if someone is found to have an order of protection or they have violated that order of protection, that has been extremely effective for the last 30 years in reducing intimate partner homicide is because a separate court determines that this individual has something that makes them dangerous to another individual. And because of that, after triggering the federal law, this takes away their Second Amendment. I'm sorry, not takes away, but this intersects with the Second Amendment issue. Can I ask a follow-up? You sure can. Go ahead, Matt. And I'm sorry to interrupt. I think I maybe asked the question the wrong way,

because essentially what I was asking is, did they address the fact that the separate court, having found there was the basis to protect the survivor, did they discuss that, I guess, as opposed to the historical underpinnings? Because that would be the due process concern, right? They didn't address that at all? They did not, because this isn't an issue of constitutional due process or criminal procedure, even. That was actually an argument that the NRA made in their amicis briefs to the Supreme Court, that maybe there's an issue of due process here. However, because this is based on the Bruin test, and the Bruin test determines the constitutionality of a gun safety law, that is what the Supreme Court's framework and analysis

is based on. It's not really in the concurring opinions. It's not really in the dissent, because again, we're determining the constitutionality under the Second Amendment of this law, not whether or not there are Fourth Amendment due process issues. Got you. Thank you very much. Kelly. Got you. Thank you very much. Is it on a situational basis, or is there, like, levels of that, you know, somebody's rights are taken away based off of something that isn't necessarily domestic violence. Am I making sense? I don't want to make it victim-friendly, but- Absolutely. No, I absolutely understand what you're saying, and I'm so happy that you brought that up. So I think what, I'll break

it up into your, I think your question was twofold, and I'll address it that up. So I think what, I'll break it up into your, I think your question was twofold and I'll address it that way. So the first part of your question about like, what level of scrutiny are we looking at? Normally levels of scrutiny are dealt with, you know, we talk about that with violations of the equal protection clause, like the 13th and 14th Amendment.

What's interesting about this case is that until the Bruin test that came, there was basically Supreme Court did not rule on gun safety laws. They ruled on one case in 2008, which was called Heller, and then in 2022 with Bruin. And previously they said that there was an important government interest in maintaining the gun safety law. then the constitutionality of that law was upheld. So from a very, very long time ago to 2008, the Supreme Court never issued a ruling on gun safety laws, or they said that it's an important government interest. Public safety is an important government interest. So these laws are constitutional. And that is until Bruin came, which is why Bruin was so

unprecedented and really highlights how the politicization of the judiciary is impacting so many various aspects of our day-to-day life, whether it's dogs, whether it's Rahimi, it's completely changed the nature of how we interact with one another in the world. But to your second question about the relevance, about the use of the criminal and civil legal systems within this framework, I completely agree. And this actually came up in the Fifth Circuit decision, where Judge Ho said that the criminal legal system is an adequate substitute for the Second Amendment. And I think that's really the distinction of this case, is that this case is about the Second Amendment and what is considered public safety in that lens. And at the Center for American Progress, we've written a product on how the criminal legal system has failed survivors of domestic violence.

And this case Rahimi underscores that survivors deserve more accountability. The criminal legal system, how it's enforced, how orders of protection are accessed, dealt with, et cetera, is extremely ineffective for survivor safety. Not only are survivors more likely to be arrested, particularly if they're women of color within a domestic, within a domestic violence situation in the household, but every single study for the last 10 years has shown that the criminal legal system has failed to protect survivors, has failed to have effective orders of protection, and most importantly that this is not something that survivors want. The criminal legal system shouldn't

be the only option when you are dealing with someone who is an abuser because that may not be what a survivor wants. And so avenues like restorative justice, avenues like community healing circles need to be considered a viable alternative. Otherwise, you get trapped in this narrative of if you're in the criminal legal system, you're automatically a really bad person, which if you're someone from a community that has been surveilled, that has been criminalized, you know that's not true. And the danger of this case, the danger of Rahimi was that the criminal legal system would be viewed as a substitute for the Second Amendment protections that survivors and the public are supposed to have. All right, Michael, All right. Thanks for coming on.

And I wanted you to try to explain more Clarence Thomas' dissenting opinion. SUSAN COLLINS, I can try. MICHAEL HAYES, OK. And so, I know—like, looking at this piece from The New York Times, it says, in his dissent, you know, he said, the court and government do not point to a single historical law revoking a citizen's Second Amendment rights based—Second Amendment right based on interpersonal violence. But it's like, when we—I was looking at an article here from MSNBC from November

2023, and they talked about the Bruin case, and they talked about the Rahimi case being filed. And they talk about how, in 1791, it was legal to beat your wife, unfortunately. And they said it wasn't until 1871 that any state punished husbands who beat their wives. And it took until 1920 for every state to criminalize wife-beating. So it was a totally different world back in 1788 when the Constitution was ratified. Incidentally, this is the anniversary of the U.S. Constitution being ratified, June 21, 1788. Can you try to

make sense of this contextualist? Because you—I mean, his dissenting opinion doesn't make any sense to me, but I got my law degree from Trump University, so just— Well, you know, I think this was a really big blow to Justice Thomas' ego because he wrote the decision for Bruin. He is the one that led the test. And in that test, he said that you need...that what I described before of having an important government interest doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is that there was a law that existed

when the Bill of Rights was enacted that is similar to a law from today. In the Bruin opinion, he wrote that we don't need a historical twin, but we need a strong historical analogy. And so Rahimi was really a test of Clarence Thomas's decision. And you're absolutely right. And Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan completely agree with you that if we try to legitimize our rules today based on the laws from the 18th century that we are completely looking at life through the prism of a time when women, people of color, and just every marginalized community you can think of were disenfranchised from these conversations. And it would mean that the rights of marginalized communities, which have been gained over the last, you know,

hundred years, and still there's so much, of course, work to be done on that, but none of that would be relevant within the world of gun safety. And although, you know, far-right conservatives call this framework originalism, the idea that you decide laws based on how the Constitution was written or how the framers are written. Conservatives call it originalism, but it's not. It's just a way to undo the work of the Warren Court, the way to undo the fights that happened in the 1960s and 70s. And we've seen the Supreme Court majority strategically and precisely try to roll back those exact initiatives that marginalized communities have fought for for decades.

So, Sabrina, as we close, I want to ask you this. The election is coming up. Where do you think this moves the needle in terms of how this will be used in the election and how both candidates from the GOP and the Democratic Party will actually potentially use this? What's your opinion? Well, my hope is that this case is viewed as a warning, because the Bruin test has still been legitimized and it has been used in order to uphold the Rahimi ruling, uphold the Rahimi framework.

So that means that future gun safety laws are still going to be decided at the whim of something that, some law that existed in the 18th century. So I really hope that the Democratic Party really understands that it's time for elected officials to be held accountable, to push gun safety laws to the highest degree possible. And for the opposing party, you know, I think that they will, you know, they'll say what they have to say. But I hope that this is a sign that the far-right Supreme Court extremist majority is not unanimously in favor of every single conservative, every single far-right extremist policy platform by Project 22.5 or any other extremist agenda.

All right, Sabrina Taluta. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Businessweek We'll see you next time. learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

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

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Director of the Women's Initiative at the Center for American Progress, thank you so much for being with us. We know this is not the last that we will hear of this because now comes the implementation of the law and everybody's got to get on the same page.

Thanks for being with us today. Thank you so much for having me. All right. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. Stay with us. We'll be back after a break. We are the culture.

We blaze trails. We define our future. We are the heart and soul of America. This Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom. Freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry, and vote. We are one America. And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now.

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The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle r martin unfiltered venmo is rm unfiltered zell is rolling at rolling s martin.com parkour executive producer a proud family you're watching rolling martin unfiltered All right, so recently we heard how black people were better off during the Jim Crow era, and we've been hearing this phrase, make America great again. People want to go back for centuries. Well, listen, Major League Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson described how he was treated when he played in Birmingham, Alabama with the Athletics AA team in 1967 before he called up to the big leagues later that year. Reggie, the baton has been passed for over a century here.

We've been talking earlier about if it wasn't for the Willie Mays, the Jackie Robinson, the Reggie Jacksons, the three of us wouldn't have an opportunity to play. How emotional is it for you to come back to a play that you played with one of the greatest teams around? Alex, when people ask me a question like that, it's like coming back here is not easy. The racism that I played here when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody. People said to me today, I spoke and they said, you think you're a better person? You think you you won when you played here in Concord? I said, you know, I would never want it to do it. I want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and said, can't eat here.

I would go to a hotel and they say, the n**** can't stay here. We went to Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome home dinner and they pointed me out with the N-word. He can't come in here. Finley marched the whole team out. Finally, they let me in there. He said, we're going to go to the diner and eat hamburgers.

We'll go where we're wanted. Fortunately, I had a manager, Johnny McNamara, that if I couldn't eat, if I couldn't, thank you, if I couldn't eat in the place, nobody would eat. We'd get food to travel. If I couldn't stay in a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay. Had it not been for Raleigh Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and

Sharon Rudy, I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The year I came here, Bo Conner was the sheriff the year before. And they took baseball, minor league baseball out of here because in 1963, the Klan murdered four black girls, children in 11, 12, 14 years old at a church here and never got indicted. It was there from the Klan. Life magazine did a story on them like they were being honored. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. At the same time, had it not been for my white friends,

had it not been for a white manager and Rudy Fingers and Duncan and Lee Myers, I would have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight some. I'd have got killed here because I'd have beat someone's ass and you'd have saw me in an oak tree somewhere. Reggie, I can't

even imagine. It's awful you had to go through that, but I appreciate you sharing the rawness and the honesty of it with our audience. I mean, really, it's. We love you, Reg. Yeah. Thank you. Quick history lesson right there.

That's a great history lesson. Reggie Jackson telling us all about it, preaching. Wow. That's unbelievable. Yeah, Matt. Talk about a history lesson. I'm not sure they expected that answer. But then again, I'm not sure what they expected. Yeah, I don't know. And I appreciate Mr. October's candor,

getting right directly to it. It's interesting because it's kind of invoked something I was talking about at lunch, is that when we talk about history in this country, we act like all history is ancient history, but it's not. In his lifetime, one of the most famous baseball players in history experienced virulent racism right there in that very city and at that very field that they were sitting on. So, I think we'd be good to remember that. And I'm glad that he spoke without any varnish, because often you have people who try to put this in the most palatable terms and make people feel good. He spoke right to it. He said, I would have been in trouble because I would have beat someone's ass.

And I appreciate that, Kandahar. We need that, Kandahar, to remind people of the seriousness of what people experience, but how recently they experienced that and how we still experience racism today. To that end, if you look at a lot of social media posts regarding the MLB's decision to include the Negro Leagues records, I mean, there is some of the most hateful, virulent racism against that inclusion by the MLB, and that's in 2024. So it doesn't surprise me that this was his experience, but I appreciate him speaking so directly on it. Yeah, you know, Kelly, it's one of those things where we look at the integration,

if you will, of the Negro Leagues in the MLB statistics. Listen, a lot of these leading white men that we have learned about growing up and know their names, they've been displaced. You know, but people and the way that they behave on the Internet and on the streets in real life, they really show who they are. And I think this was an amazing lesson, especially from someone. When we talk about a sports figure, people tend to listen a little bit harder. Well, for sure. I just want to make a note that Reggie Jackson is 78 years old.

Wow. He looks good. He looks good. He looks good, but in my family, that's still pretty young. My grandparents have since passed, but they passed away at 93. My great-aunt

passed at 98. So longevity runs in my family, but in the grand scheme of things, 78 years is not a long time. And the fact that this man as famous, as talented as he is, had to go through something so heinous so recently. I want to be clear. This was recently, in the grand scheme of time. For us to think that this is over, that racism is over, or that we have come so far. We have not. It was literally yesterday for a lot of our elders, right? And the way that he said it proved as much, you know? And

so when we talk about these things, we shouldn't be thinking, oh, wow, you went through so much and it was so long ago. It was yesterday. And also be clear, this probably also happened to somebody literally yesterday. People are still getting lynched. We just had a segment on a black man in Aurora. That was a modern day lynching, right? So we can't talk about this as though it is in a history book permanently, as though history does not live, as though history is truly up in the past. This happened yesterday. Michael, what are your thoughts about his history lesson? Unfortunately, very timely. But I think a lot of people listened. Absolutely. And more and more people are listening. And he said it on Fox Sports as well. There's a

lot of people that heard it who would not normally tune into that type of information. So first of all, this is a fantastic message during Juneteenth season. Number one, he delivered this June 20th, the day after Juneteenth. Number one. Two, there was a lot of truth-telling. Now, I remember when Reggie Jackson was playing. I don't know if Kelly and Matt remember when Reggie Jackson was playing, but I remember Reggie Jackson in the 1970s. I had Reggie Jackson tops baseball cards.

I remember when Reggie Jackson was on the episode when it originally aired. And he's talking about when he played in Alabama. Now, Rick Wood Field is in Birmingham, Alabama. So, he was there in 1964. He talked about the year before. He talked about Bull Connor, who was the head of the public safety department there in Birmingham, Alabama. This is during 1963, which was the Birmingham campaign led by Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. And Shuttlesworth invites Dr. King and SCLC to come help break the back of segregation. This is what he's talking about. And that's the same year the 16th Street Baptist Church killing for the Ku Klux Klan bombed the church.

Four black girls were killed September 15th, 1863. It was about two and a half weeks after the march on Washington. So, you could hear the hurt in his voice. I don't know if anybody else could hear it. I could hear the pain in his voice. It's still hurting him to date at 78 years old, OK? So, this is a real history lesson for America, but this is the type of damage that has to be repaired. And the reason why you had taxation in Birmingham, Alabama, and all throughout Alabama was because

of the Alabama state constitution of 1901 that imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and incorporated segregation into the law. This is why you had that. And incidentally, June 21, 1964, today is the anniversary of the three civil rights workers, Gilmer, Schwerin, and Cheney, being killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, as well. Yeah, two sides, two sides in America that he has seen, the side that loves him, the side that hates him, some that continue to hate him. But it is one of those things that is hard to try to figure out and understand what America

is saying. But he said it very eloquently and gave us a history lesson in the meantime. All right. You are rolling Martin unfiltered more after this break. So stay with us. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall

Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be right back. of the breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor

People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today, there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons.

There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people be at the center of our politics. Living wages, health care, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard.

Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org, RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody rises. As we won't be silent. As we won't be silent anymore. I'm Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, so as we all know, Juneteenth week, and we've got some folks spewing vile, racist rhetoric about the holiday. One of those people is running for Missouri Secretary of State Valentina Gomez,

whose MAGA campaign primarily consisted of homophobic stunts, told black Americans to get the fuck out if they still want reparations for slavery. Reparations from slavery and black victimization is about to be shoved down our throats for the most w ratchet holiday in America. BLM raised millions, but what did they do for black lives? It is outrageous to see people asking for reparations, even though they never went through slavery. These ungrateful people should be celebrated

because they were born in the greatest nation to ever exist. Here's a tip. If you don't like America, finally, get the fuck out. Okay, a newspaper in Miami, Florida is catching a whole lot of heat after running several pro-Trump political ads filled with racial slurs.

So this full-page ad ran on the back cover of the Miami Times' June 13th through 19th print edition features several uncensored uses of the N-word, as well as misleading, a misleading quote of President Biden using the slur in 1985. Now, the quote was taken from a 1985 hearing in which then-Senator Biden quoted racist remarks made by a state legislator during the redistricting process in Louisiana. At the time, Biden was questioning William Bradford Reynolds, a deputy attorney general nominee who oversaw the redistricting process. I tell you, Michael, what do you make of this young woman, four years old, Valentina Gomez, an immigrant herself, what do you make of all of this that she is doing online, from the gay slurs to the racial slurs to her disposition on how she sees America?

This is—there's so many levels to this right here, OK? First of all, if she was a few shades darker, she would have to wear a sign at the January 6th insurrection saying, I'm one of the good ones, because they may have used those gallows on her, OK, number one. Number two, this is—people have to ask the question. You know, there's a conversation that takes place, and some African Americans say, well, you know, immigrants coming from other countries hate African Americans, or some of them hate African Americans, things like this. And my response to them is partly a response that Malcolm X gave—I think it was probably

in 1963, when Malcolm X asked, who taught you to hate the color of your skin, the shape of your nose, the thickness of your lips, you know, etc.? So the same people who taught people outside the country to hate African Americans are the same people who taught African Americans to hate themselves. OK, so this is what we have to understand. Now, she's appealing to this MAGA wing of the Republican Party, all right? And she's grossly ignorant of history.

She's 25 years old. She's grossly ignorant of history. And if we understand the fight for reparative justice, it's not just for 246 years of slavery. It's for the harm that was inflicted after slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Depression, theft of land, being locked out of massive land giveaways, like the Homestead Act, which gave away 270 million acres of land for 124 years. They gave away land from 1862 to 1974, OK? I was born in 71.

So we're not talking about ancient history. They gave away—the U.S. government gave away 270 million acres of land for 124 years. African Americans who worked the land largely for 246 years were largely locked out of that massive land giveaway. So, when we look at the structural inequities that exist today, the eight-to-one racial wealth gap, it's not because white people worked eight times harder. It's not because white people are eight times smarter. It's because the laws and policies now distributed wealth, power, and resources into their hands.

So, when we talk about repair to justice, we're not talking about a handout. We're talking about repairing the damage that America did, OK? So, Juneteenth—you know, I just spoke at some Juneteenth celebrations, Motown Museum and Joseph Walker Williams Center, things like this. And one of the things I talk about is how we have to utilize Juneteenth as a tool to educate America on a history that Republicans are passing laws and state legislatures to suppress the teaching of that history in schools. America must have a massive history lesson. And the type of reparative justice laws that we need to get passed, you're really not

going to be able to get those laws passed and keep what you get once you get sued to take it away in court—that's a whole other conversation—until America has this lesson. So, we have to utilize Juneteenth, not's a whole other conversation, until America has this lesson. So we have to utilize Juneteenth, not as a party and to get drunk. We can have fun, but we have to have this history lesson and force this conversation. You know, Kelly, I think

one of the sad parts about this is that she's got an audience, they are listening, and they are being riled up because they like what she is saying. What is your take on just her whole approach? Again, a young woman who might have family members that, you know, have history that are connected to you and me. The one is used very, very loosely here because that's a hard looking 25.

Let's start there. And I think it is rooted in something that says a lot is that hate ages you. Right. And I, I am past 25. I'm actually, I'll be 34 this year. And if I do say so myself, I look better than that. And it's because I don't carry that kind of hate in my heart. Like, hate truly does age you. But to your point, Candice, about, you know, the level of history that she just simply does not know or doesn't want to know, because it's not like the information isn't out there, right?

I think we need to reframe how we're looking at people like her because I don't think they see themselves as Latinx. I think they see themselves as white people who speak Spanish. And there's a difference there. And we see that in our history, Michael, back me up here, when Cubans immigrated here, white passing Cubans immigrated here and assimilated to whiteness. You see it from Europe, you know, Italians who assimilated to whiteness, other Eastern Europeans who assimilated to whiteness upon immigrating here. So I think they see themselves as white people who speak Spanish. And if you look at it from that lens, you at least understand, however loosely, where that rhetoric is truly rooted in whiteness. It's rooted in the fact that I'm not like them because I'm white. I just happen to be bilingual, right? So that's where I, that's my take on this, aside from her ignorance of history, aside from the, you know, part of her

aging like a bad avocado, you know, there are levels to it. But the one that needs to be seen the most is the fact that she does not see herself as a minority. Matt, what is your take? I mean, this is someone who walked through a neighborhood that was the LGBTIQ neighborhood saying, listen, don't be gay. You know, be strong. I would imagine that there would be some especially young white men who would say, yeah, I don't want to be gay. And yeah, I'll be strong. That's a message that resonates with me.

What's your take on what she's doing? Well, first, I can never, ever pass up the opportunity to say that Michael is much longer in the tooth than I am. So I didn't watch Reggie Jackson play bass. But I look younger than you, Matt, though. I look younger than you. Of that, I was a year old when he was done playing baseball. In any event, Candace, here's my take on it.

I think they're both right. Both Kelly and Michael are right with all of their commentary. The two things I'll add is, first, one of the gross ironies here is that the country of Colombia actually has a reparations program itself for those who are victims of the gross ironies here is that the country of Colombia actually has a reparations program itself for those who are victims of the violence, the internal conflict there in Colombia. And I think that's important, because it comes from a country where they have found a way to implement reparations to some extent.

There are some problems with it. It's based in international law. But the larger principle is, she literally comes from a country where they have figured it out. Our country doesn't take the time to figure it out because it doesn't care about us enough to figure it out. And two, they always put up policy barriers to have conversations. But I think the bigger issue with this is actually less about the substance of what she's saying and more the fact that she's running for secretary of state. How is this any of the potential things she intends to do as the secretary of state. How is this going to remain any of the potential

things she intends to do as the secretary of state, who does not customarily deal with policies like this? They deal with policies related to elections and other matters. I say that to say there is no consequence for hot-button political conversation these days that makes people, you know, foment certain hate. And she sees that as a valuable thing here. And that's what she's doing. She's leveraging that. But it would infuriate me if I were a Missourian, because I wouldn't want somebody who's running for office thinking about things that they cannot do in their purview. You only do this because, one, you embody the hate, and two, because you think there is a political benefit to embodying that hate. And that's what

you're seeing here. And I think it's absurd that we allow this. It happens everywhere. It happens in every statehouse. The state legislatures in particular—legislators in particular are trying to co-op issues that don't even have anything that they would have any control over. And that, to me, just indicates that she sees that mega-wing and sees it as leverage to her ends of getting elected.

Yeah, as we go to break, I want to end with you, Michael, just quickly. Do you think she has a chance of winning at all? With her being 25 years old, Secretary of State, I don't know what the landscape is, who the competition is. Probably not, which is probably why she's pulling the stunt like this. She's trying to tap into the white supremacists there in Missouri, which, you know, quiet as it's kept, Missouri stayed loyal to the union. They were allowed to keep their slaves at the Emancipation Proclamation.

They were not a Confederate state. You would think they were, but they were not a Confederate state. So, but this is, once again, why I say America needs a massive history lesson, because she's dropping a message like this on Juneteenth or right around Juneteenth, trying to tap into this hatred. And this is another example of why, when I delivered my presentation to the Detroit Reparations Task Force on March 2nd, 2024, which is online, people can watch it, I told them, don't—I said, don't put the term reparations on anything that you want to get passed, because it's an automatic trigger

for white supremacists, and they will vehemently attack whatever it is that you're trying to get passed. All right, listen, it had millions of shares, but hopefully millions of people will be seeking the truth on that one. All right, stay with us. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network,

and we'll be back after a break. We are the culture. We blaze trails. We define our future. We are the heart. We blaze trails. We define our future. We are the heart and soul of America. This Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom. Freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry, and vote. We are one America.

And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we meet Ricky Fairley. She was given a death sentence by her doctor 11 years ago. But for Ricky, giving up was not an option. She declared war on her disease, turned her entire life upside down and won the battle. I know that God left me here to do this work.

And when you talk about faith, faith is what got me through. I mean, I had to relinquish my faith and give my life to God and say, OK, God, what have you got for me? And he gave me my purpose. And that's why I'm here. Her amazing story of strength, balance, and survival, here on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy.

This next-generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million, and now is your chance to invest. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. You're watching Rolling Mark. Until then. Xavier Allen has been missing from his Hampton, Virginia home since April 25th, 2024. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 155 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes. Xavier was last seen wearing black

pants, black Timberland boots, and a black and red jacket. He was also wearing a chain with the word stacked on it. Anyone with information about Xavier Allen should call the Hampton, Virginia Police Department at 757-727-6111. All right. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey says he's filing a lawsuit against the state of New York after Donald Trump's conviction last month. On social media, Bailey posted, I will be filing suit against the state of New York for their direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump. It's time to restore the rule of law. Bailey says this lawsuit is an effort to fight back against a rogue prosecutor and alleges that the verdict sabotages Missourians' right to a free and fair election.

A jury convicted Trump on May 30th on 30th for falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actress. Trump's sentencing is scheduled for July 11th. Kelly, you know, I think that this is just one of the things that was to be expected. We saw a lot happen during the case. Many people showed up. Many officials showed up as he came out every day talking after his case. I think that this was probably to be

expected. What's your take on this? A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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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I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

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

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It's expected, but it's also annoying, like most things that are happening surrounding Trump, MAGA, the right, and the like. Mainly because in his case,

mind your business. Worry about Missouri. Why are you suing New York? Right? Why are you using taxpayer dollars in Missouri to do something in a whole nother state that is frankly outside your jurisdiction? You know, you have the power to do that. Sure. Should you? No. And that's that's where I'm at with it, right? And if you really want to dig deeper into it, Missouri is not that rich of a state. It is, you know, as far as economy and, you know, all of those things regarding economy, jobs, classes, housing. I mean, pick an issue that affects the rest of the country, but certainly in the Midwest, you got other things

to worry about, sir. Let's focus. Matt, a lot of resources being used anytime that you file a lawsuit. But when you look at the lawsuit itself, just content-wise and argument-wise, anything persuasive in there? Absolutely not. Judge Manning rules that this case is dismissed upon its filing because they don't have standing. First off, Candace, ask me these questions first and not Kelly because she stole my thunder, okay? Where I was going to do it. I mean, you weren't alert. Sorry. I don't have standing. She's 100% right. I don't think Missouri can sue New York for a criminal prosecution under New York laws. Customarily, as I'm sure you know, if states are going to sue each other, you know, it's going to be in federal court because they're two sovereigns. And there would have to be a reason. Good example, Texas and New Mexico are embroiled in litigation over the Rio Grande River that runs, you know, here through Texas.

But this is not that situation. This is completely disparate states. And this is him attempting to get in front of his challenger, who, my understanding is, is supported by Mr. Trump. This is purely political. And this is the kind of thing, frankly, that should be unethical for him as an attorney to do, and, two, that the people of Missouri should be able to hold him accountable for. This is purely government waste.

I think it's far-fetched to argue that Missourians are having their rights divested by a state criminal prosecution across the country in New York. This is purely political theater, and it's abhorrent that he move his office. But see, also, Ken Paxton does this kind of idiocy, so we're used to it at this point. Yeah, frivolous lawsuit and no standing. You know, Michael, the way I think about this, I think that one thing it might have done, though, was show supporters of Trump that they've got politicians out there working, so that—as Matt said, it becomes a political question to show that, you know, they're doing what they need

to do, even if it's nothing or ridiculous. They are doing something. Yeah, you know, when reading this article, that's what I was thinking, what Matt said, that Missouri has no legal standing. They're not the injured party. Because I was trying to figure out, OK, so how can they file the lawsuit? And the criminal conviction of this convicted felon on 34 counts, it does not prevent him from still running in the campaign.

So it does not prevent Missourians that want to hear this fraudster. It does not deprive them of being able to hear this criminal. They can hear—they can listen to this fraudster criminal all they want to. So it was just a nonsensical lawsuit. But this should serve as a clarion call to people who have an ounce of sense in this country, especially African Americans, of what's to come if this traitor gets back in office, who incited an insurrection to over the government, OK? Because if he gets back in office, he's not going to leave when his term is up.

Dictators don't just give up power. That's not how dictatorship works, OK? No. So, the second time is going to be much worse than the first time. This is why we have to stop this threat. All the lights are on the dashboard of democracy. And you don't wait till your house burns down before you replace the battery in the smoke detector, and the smoke detector has been chirping for a week.

OK? So, all the signs are there. But, yeah, this is like the difference between a religion and a cult. In a religion, your savior dies for you. In a cult, you're asked to die for your savior. This is a MAGA death cult, and they have to be stopped at the ballot box. You know, I'm looking back at the tweet, Matt.

He says, this is a direct attack on our democratic process through constitutional lawfare against President Trump. But, Matt, we saw weeks of due process. We saw weeks of the process, in terms of he got a jury that was selected. There was a voir dire process. In fact, throughout the whole process, it was Trump that was acting in a way that violated

the Constitution and the democratic process. I think you're spot on. You know, I think what's really problematic about this and that we see as obvious political pandering is that conservatives are always the ones who talk about local control. Don't bother us, big government, here in the state of wherever. We're allowed to do whatever we want by virtue of our state. How is Alvin Bragg, a prosecutor in New York, not allowed to prosecute New York laws? There was no constitutional attack, no attack that Mr. Trump was divested of any kind of due process. This is precisely what conservatives

want. The issue is it's outcome determinative here because they don't like the outcome, so now they're claiming the process is systematic, right, or that it's an attack on people thousands of miles away, and it's not. I mean, we know that's malarkey. This is purely political theater. Also, I really like that Dabbard and Leitz metaphor, Michael. I might steal that for the future. Kelly, let me close with you. We know when you put these prosecutors and the attorney general on the TV screen, it is not missed by many that they are all black. And this is not something that the attorney general, Andrew Bailey, I'm sure he didn't

. So, he talks about how the prosecutors and the attorney general are just overstepping their boundaries and guidelines. There are some serious hidden messages there, Kelly. Sure. So your audio cracked a little bit, but I think I got the gist of what you're saying. point, which relates to your point, Candace, about how much we have tolerated as people who are not aligned with Trump and MAGA and the right—you know, the extreme right, if you will. And I feel like, you know, the analogy of having a frog in boiling water or, you know, some type of amphibian, lobster, whatever, in the boiling water and you get in cold water, you just slowly crank up the heat. And as the heat rises, they get more comfortable.

And all of a sudden they they're dead because they're bored. They don't even know it. I feel like that's where we are as a country, but more specifically with the Democratic process and the Democratic powers that be, right? Because at the end of the day, we really did take Trump as a joke in 2016 and prior, right? And every single year since then, there has just been increments of just pure BS, but because it wasn't as bad as the time before or whatever, it's just like we've gotten acclimated to chaos to the point when Project 2025 is implemented. And unfortunately, it will be implemented because we are the frogs in the boiling water. We are at a loss, right? And we had the time, we had the tools, we had the resources, But because we were so comfortable in this hot tub, we don't have a plan to combat the ultimate chaos that will be Trump. Whether or not he gets into office, I'm not trying to speak his election into existence.

But the project itself is more than Trump. The project itself is more than Trump. The project itself is more than the presidency. It is literally every aspect of the democratic process, every aspect of the American experiment being upended, right? So even if he doesn't get into office, that plan will still go into effect. But because we just took the boiling pot of water for our hot tub, my fear is that we are going to be comfortable even in the ultimate chaos. And as you said, ultimately die some ridiculous death that we saw coming. Listen, all these building blocks, we have to be careful about, see what people are doing, and know

the reading behind what they are doing, because as the attorney general, of course he knew this was a frivolous lawsuit and would be dismissed right away. All right. Stay with us. We have Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network on the other side of the break. We celebrate freedom, freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry and vote. We are one America. And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now. I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Dexter Jenkins is a faith-based financial mentor with more than 20 years in the financial services industry.

He's passionate about helping families build generational wealth. Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking about things about reading the word. I'm talking about things like fellowship. I'm talking to members who are dealing with losing their houses or I'm talking to members who, because of a lack of the handling of finances, they're working two or three jobs. And so what I'm finding is that they're not coming to church because they don't have a handle on their finances.

We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our finances on the next Get Wealthy right here, only on Blackstar Network. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, louder and prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me?

All right. It is officially the first Friday of summer. If you haven't done so already, it's time to start planning your vacation. And if you don't know where to go, don't worry. We've got you covered with travel expert Tamika Jones. She's here to tell us how to find the best places for us to go in summer vacation. It's a hot one, though. I mean, I don't have to get on a plane to go to some warm weather here out in New Jersey.

It is a hot one. Thank you so much for being with us today. Oh, I'm not sure if you can hear me. Tamika, I think you're muted. All right. Tamika, are you muted? Let's try this different. Can you hear me now? All right.

There we go. Hello. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm sorry for the technical issues, but you know, we're going to talk about travel. Listen, blame it on the heat. It is a hot one here.

I was just sitting in New Jersey. I don't have to go anywhere to get to any warm weather. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Listen, there are a lot of places to go. For some people, it is just cost prohibitive. I just wanted to know, what are your suggestions for someone to put together a really tight vacation, especially if they might have a big family, for example? That's a great question. You know, we are always looking

for adventures and experiences that are budget-friendly, most definitely. So when it comes to budget family travel experiences, I do recommend a site where you can book your travel, and that, I would say, is Expedia. Expedia is good at being able to highlight travel deals that are available to all travelers, whether it be for family travel, solo travel, girlfriends travel, group travel. It's a good opportunity to kind of really find some of the best vacation deals that are out there. So I recommend, again, Expedia. And also you can check out things like Hopper. Hopper will let you know where our different flight deals are taking place. So there are other apps out there that will help you when it comes to budget-friendly travel experiences. Now, in terms of where you might want to go,

let's say that you can afford something a little more extravagant. I know that you are probably a, you are a, a, a, a, a, a traveler who's traveled all around the world. What are the places that you would highlight are worth going to visit? Where would you go back a second time that you would also recommend to somebody else? Oh, great question. So I just returned from Alaska and Alaska happens to be, yes, Alaska. And a few weeks before Alaska, I was in Austria. So I would recommend both destinations. And I'm going to tell you why I'm going to start with Alaska. Alaska, according to AAA, happens to be a hotspot right now due to the cruises.

Well, I was there last week. I wasn't participating in a cruise, but yet I enjoyed like a remote island. So for travelers who are looking for a destination that may not be packed with tourists, I highly recommend Alaska. And also we talked about those hot temperatures. So if you're looking for cooler temperatures, Alaska can be an ideal location,

just as well as Austria. Austria is absolutely gorgeous and a destination that is welcoming to all. And that is something I know black travelers or travelers of color are looking for is a destination that is safe and that is welcoming to all. So I would recommend both Austria and Alaska. And for people who are thinking about it in the way that you just presented it, I'm a person of color, I'm traveling, I want the best experience.

Are there groups that you would recommend that people join or websites to go on to to find out places that, as you said, are welcoming and will really assure that you have a good experience overall. Absolutely. So there's a website I highly recommend. It's called Green Book Global. Green Book Global is actually a site where Black travelers rate and review destinations they've already visited. So for places that you're looking to travel to in the future, it's a website you can check out to learn more about some of the top-ranked destinations. Another app that's out there I recommend, it's called ABC Travel Green Book.

That's an app. The ABC Travel Green Book is really great for travelers who are looking to stay connected to the Black diaspora around the world. So you can literally curate a travel experience that is catered to Black-owned businesses around the world. Now, let's say that I wanted to jump on the plane. Where are you based? I'm based in Atlanta. All right. So let's say that I want to jump on a plane. Where are you based? I'm based in Atlanta. All right. So let's say you want to, you know, get three hours. You know, some people do it that way. I know I do. I always say, is it over a three hour flight? Where are you going to get on a flight between one and three hours from where you live? Let's say Atlanta that you would recommend? Okay, so we would say what? One hour from Atlanta, I would likely, roughly time, New Orleans. I mean, it can be New Orleans when it comes to the food and the culture and experience.

Definitely a great destination to book even last minute. And then, of course, if you're looking for beach vacation, Miami. Can't beat Miami. Miami, Tampa course, if you're looking for beach vacation, Miami. Can't beat Miami. Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando, great destinations for warm weather and beach. And when we say, where else can I think of? Oh, when you're talking about the Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda. That's about a two, two and a half hour flight, maybe even three hours from Atlanta. And these are two destinations.

So you really can get two vacations with one, two trips with one vacation. All right. All right. All right. I want to open up the panel right now. Michael, I want to start with you. A question for Tamika this evening. All right, Tamika. So I wanted to know with people traveling internationally,

is there any type of special health insurance that people should have traveling internationally? So if they get sick, if they break a leg or something like that, they can be treated at the hospital and, you know, it won't be an exorbitant cost. Is there any type of special international health insurance? Great question. And I would recommend looking into travel insurance before you travel to that international destination. Highly recommend that. Travelers insurance can cover anything from, as you mentioned, hospital visits to last-minute cancellations. So I highly recommend doing your research prior to, and you can find a variety of travel insurance companies out there that are budget-friendly. Okay. Matt? Yeah. So, Tamika, thank you for joining us. My

question for you is, do you have any suggestions on particular financial vehicles for people to save that you found are optimized for travel? Because obviously everyone loves to travel for the most part, but it's cost prohibitive because it's easy to eat, especially when you go places. So what suggestions do you have on how people can save to go on trips? You know, something that I've noticed more of, there are options now where you can purchase vacations where it is experience the trip now and pay later. Let's say, for example, if I use Delta Vacations, they have options where likely you can go to their website, look at booking a vacation, and they would have services like Affirm that allows you to literally

pay monthly installments to pay the trip, but you could take the vacation in advance. But also you could just look at just saving some money, a couple of dollars here and there, every paycheck. If you are one of those kind of travelers who's like, look, I just like to pay it all off. And then last recommendation are travel advisors. Highly recommend travel advisors because travel advisors can allow you the opportunity to make payment installations to go to your trip. So maybe you just have to pay a couple of hundred dollars in advance and then pay over time and to help pay off the trip before the excursion. All right, Kelly. Sure. So I love to travel. I actually just came from Jamaica last month and I'm going to make it in December. So I try to get as much travel in as I can because work.

But my question to you is actually twofold. One, how do you feel? I don't remember if it's still around, but how do you feel to search the laws so that you don't get caught up? So I am sorry, but it kind of blinked out for a minute. Do you mind repeating the question for me? Sure. So it was twofold. So the first one is apps like SkipLagged. I don't know if you've heard of them. I've heard mixed reviews on apps like that. I wanted to know what your thoughts were as a travel expert. So what are your thoughts regarding the extent to which you need to research the laws of other countries before you visit them so you don't get caught up? That's a great question.

So I will say I have not heard of the app you refer to, Skip Lag. I'm sorry, I haven't heard of that app. But I will say doing your research prior to traveling really to any destination, but especially abroad, is extremely important. I'll give you an example. If you travel with prescription drugs or any kind of drugs, you may want to make sure that those drugs are legal in the destination that you are visiting. So good resources to be able to find out what is best to take on your trip when you're traveling abroad. The CDC website, as well as being able to contact the U.S. Embassy in that destination you're planning to visit to learn more and to be better prepared for your trip. That is great information. Really quickly, we have about 30 seconds. I know that people love these digital and technical electronic devices. One, that what you put it on your luggage and you can see where

your luggage is on your phone. Anything else that we need to get just technically speaking in order to help us travel more safely and efficiently? You know, I would not say one thing I like to always recommend to travelers separate from just gadgets, because as we know with technology, sometimes technology fails. So always just making sure you are prepared and being prepared is arriving at the airport several hours early. I'll give you an example. I went to Austria. As I mentioned, I was flying into Germany. Well, I arrived at the airport two and a half hours early only to recognize that I left my passport at home. Well, yes, I'm a travel expert, but that expert, that happens.

But guess what? I made my flight thanks to a friend who was able to come to my home and bring it to me. So you just never know what can happen. So give yourself time to arrive to the airport early or even get on the road because you never know when you can encounter some a lot of traffic. And pack your patience, especially for travel seasons like this. Summertime is expected to be a busy one, especially during the 4th of July is coming up. AAA reports that more than 70 million people will be traveling this holiday season are likely to be traveling. So pack your patience and arrive early.

Right. I like that because an app could not have helped you get that passport. I want to thank you so much for being with us, Tamika, and giving us some travel plans to make our destinations a little better as we travel this summer. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. And thank you for having me. Absolutely. We'll be right back after the break.

A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows

up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

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

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

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

A lot of y'all have been asking me about the pocket squares that we have available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here. It's all about looking different. And look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying to tell fellas, change your look, please. You can't wear athletic shoes every damn wear. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square,

these shiboris, because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here, versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares. But also, I like being a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey at Essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser.

I saw this feather pocket square, and I said, well, I got some ideas. So I hit her, and she sent me about 30 different ones. And so this completely changes your look. Now, some of you men out there, I had some dudes say, oh, man, I can't wear that. Well, if you ain't got swagger, that's not my problem. But if you're looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket squares saying, see, check mine out. And so it's always good to see them. And so this is what you do. Go to RollersMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. You can order Shibori pocket squares or the custom made pocket

squares. Now for the Shiboris, we're out of a lot of the different colors and I think we're down to about two or three hundred. So you want to get your order in as soon as you can, because here's what happened. I got these several years ago and the Japanese company signed the deal with another company and I bought them before they signed that deal. And so I can't get access to any more from the company in Japan that makes them. And so get yours now. So come summertime when I see y'all at Essence, y'all could be looking fly with the Shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket square. Again, RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares.

Go there now. Me, Sherri Shebra, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin unfiltered. All right, nothing better than a little laughter. It is not easy for any female comedian to build a reputation in the world of comedy. And if you are a black female comedian, it's even harder. Ask Monique. Well, the Black Women in Comedy Laugh Fest in New York City wants to change that. It is now in its fifth year. Hundreds of women have braced the stage to perform. Founder Joanna Briley says she created it to unlock the full potential of Black female

comedians, and indeed, they are rising. Joining me now is a comedian, musician, and writer who's a favorite of so many, Rita Brent. She performed and recorded a comedy special during this year's five-day Laugh Fest festival that ends this Sunday. Rita, good to see you. Good evening. How are you? Thank you so much for having me. No, absolutely. Listen, I know that it is very, very important for women to be in spaces, to get up on stage and be funny. What do you think that a comedy festival like this does for people like you? I mean, people come from all over the country, even out of the country,

to get their chance on stage. Well, first of all, I think it's amazing that we are in New York because you just never know who can be in the audience in terms of people in the industry. Even at my one woman show, there were people from HBO and Apple TV. So just a show that you think is just a show, it could become something life changing if the right person sees you. But it is amazing because folks are coming from Philadelphia, from New Orleans. I came from Mississippi and this is just a platform that we don't always get in the South. And so it is up to us to take advantage of it. Now, in terms of what you see happening in the industry, some people, you know, a friend of mine said, why didn't you tell me Rita Brent was going to be there? I said, I didn't know to do

that. But you have a lot of fans. Some people would say, she's so popular, she's made it, but you're not at a conversation. You said, you know what? You've got a little bit of a different take when it comes to making it because of the extra steps and the joke that you've been on as a Black woman in this male-dominated field and also white male-dominated field. Yes. Well, you know, I think a lot of it is social media. When you have something that goes viral repeatedly, folks consider that success. And I,

it depends on what your definition of success is. Mine is financial success for one thing. Now, of course, having the community and my peers respect me, that is a beautiful thing, but I want to have a financial breakthrough with my talents. So social media fame, social media fame and all that is cool. Uh, but I think the key is just to be consistent and find those different avenues to shine. So social media is that, I mean, I think it's probably the reason that I'm on here. Roland has shared some of my stuff. You know, I think it's just taking advantage of each of those moments and not treating them small. That's right. That Marjorie Nutella Greenville, that music that you created, yes, was shared on here, went viral.

What are your thoughts about how, you know, Black women have to survive in the field of comedy? You have a mentor in the name, by the way, of Ricky Smiley. Very fortunate, I think. But a lot of people don't have that. But you've been working with him. You've been on his show. You've done work on many stations.

As you said, you just recorded another special yesterday. But what do Black women in comedy face that people just may not know about? Ooh. Well, we already know about the, the Me Too movement and some of the challenges that happened with that. Fortunately for me, I have been able to tour with people like Ricky Smiley and Cedric the Entertainer, and it's been a lot of respect there and a lot of teaching me the business and the game. And I, as no quid pro quo things, I don't have to do things to get on tour, but be funny. But

unfortunately, some of my counterparts have gone through things like abuse and harassment. And, you know, there's retaliation when they reject advances. And, of course, there's the equal pay thing. You know, you can have a female comedian with the same resume, with the same accolades as a male comedian. And just because she's not in the club or doing locker room stuff, she may be excluded. But I think the good thing is there are people like Adele Givens, there are people like Kim Whitley, those type women who I have a relationship with who pour into me and who will take me on tour with them and create those opportunities for us when they're not created otherwise.

So I think it just takes that unity among women comedians looking out for each other. And I think that is the thing that makes the difference. You know, we've talked earlier and we were talking about people stealing material. We hear all the time. We've been talking about a lot with Cat Williams and his example. But you made a really interesting reference when you were talking to me about if your material is stolen. Share to the audience, with the audience, what you shared with me about, you know, what that means perhaps about your material, if it is in fact being stolen. Okay. So when I was young, I was about that life. And if you stole my material, I straight up approached you, but it's because that's all I had. You know, I was year in, I had about five

minutes of material and a guy stole a joke that I had and I confronted him with, hey man, why are you stealing my joke? But then I realized, well, this is an opportunity for me to grow. This is an opportunity for me to write because if I am hanging my whole career on one or two jokes, then I'm not doing enough as a comedian. But also the thing I learned from someone like Kevin Hart is just the more unique your story is, your material is, the harder it is for somebody to steal. Like if you think about Kevin Hart's material, it is so specific. Ricky Smiley's material is so specific that it's hard to steal. So the less generic you are, the more you'll set yourself apart,

and it'll be harder for folks to steal your material. But it was just a challenge for me to just write more. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I like ending on the slight subject. I want to open it up to the panel. First, let me go to you, Matt, question for Rebrett. I don't have any questions. I just have to say that your gospel version of rep Crockett song. I've watched that probably 10 times in a row. And I have to get so funny. It was so brilliant on every level. I almost went home and transcribed it a little bit, but, uh, I appreciate it with us. It was, it's, it's incredible. And you are incredibly talented and I wish you great prosperity continue going forward that financial breakthrough you talked about.

Listen, thank you so much. Thank you. And shout out to my to my sorority, Jasmine Crockett, for the inspiration. Yeah, I didn't know it would go like it is, but I do it live, too. And folks are up holy dancing and everything. So it's a vibe. Yeah, yeah, it is a whole vibe. Michael. All right, Rita. Well, Candace stole one of my questions dealing with joke stealing. So I'm going to go to my third question, which deals with on your website, you talk about your three missions and one of them is advocacy and advocacy for mental health, wellness, things of this nature. Can you talk about how you incorporate that into the comedy or the event? And how do you offer that? How do you all offer that mental health wellness?

Oh, yes. And that's the founder. That's Joanna Briley. I'm sure that Rita can talk to the mental health and wellness that you have to kind of maintain while you're on the road in those grueling schedules and dealing with a lot of things? Yeah, because if you think about it, you know, for some of us, we may travel eight, 10 hours to get to a spot. And, you know, when I'm gigging with Sid, I got a 15 minute sit, you know, and I'm there and I'm leaving. I may not get the right food. You know, I have family at home, big things that I'm missing. So I think it's really important to set boundaries for yourself and not just as an entertainer, but any arena of work that you do, because you will work yourself to death. You're burning out, you're burning out, you're trying to be successful.

And now on social media, you have to show that success or people may deem you unsuccessful. So it's just a lot of pressures that we're dealing with. But to answer your question more specifically, my comedy shifted when I got more vulnerable about my mental health. There was a point about maybe seven years ago where I was going through some things and I felt a little suicidal and I talked about it on stage. I brought levity to that issue and I connected and related to people. And it also helped just free me mentally, you know, so comedy is, is completely therapeutic, you know, and, and then when folks are in the crowd and they see you talking about it, they're like, oh, okay, well this kind of freed me as

well. And I also encouraged therapy that was helpful too. But, uh, I am just very fortunate to be able to use my pains and turn it into punchlines. They meant that. Thank you. Yeah. And I know that the Laugh Fest, they do have workshops that they deal with women and give them the help and the therapy that you're talking about. Kelly. So, first of all, hi.

I really like your comedy, so I'm a little cute right now. Thank you. So right now, when we talk about comedy as a whole, especially now, you know, post 2020, you hear a whole lot of, you know, snowflake talk and, you know, oh, we can't do comedy like we used to anymore. Can you talk about how you can be funny without being tasteless and mean to marginalized communities. Yeah, I always say you can say whatever you want to say, but you just have to be prepared for the consequences. You know, you need to make sure that's a heel that you want to die on, you know, and especially with the LGBT stuff. You know, some folks are always trying to be provocative or doing shock value things. And it's not even them, you know, they, they may just be trying to go viral or do shock value just for the heck of it.

But if it's, if it's not your experience, you know, because I'll hear some people talking about family stuff with LGBT, you know, that's a little different, but when it's a, it's an attack, that's completely different. And it's, and it's unnecessary. There are some things that I won't even touch on, you know know because it's like once you say it you can't take it back and now you may have offended or alienated an entire community and you have to ask yourself was this worth it you know

and if you're saying something you need to really think about why you're saying it you know what point are you trying to make so I'm just careful I pick my battles when it comes to material but the best thing to do for me is just speak to my personal experience. And that can't be discredited. Yeah, I believe we have a little video. I think that that was what was shared with me quickly.

If so, we're going to throw to that right now. She got a bleach blonde bad build butch body She got a bleach blonde bad build butch body That Marjorie Taylor green Lookin' like a lima bean And forgot she had a bleach blonde bad build butch body Representative Jasmine's about that line She about that And She's about that And she looks like she can really fight

An amazing politician Ain't got no competition Ain't worried about a bleach run Bad deal, butch body Marjorie tried to cause a scene Forgot she had a butch body Marjorie tried to cause a scene Forgot she had a butch body Marjorie tried to cause a scene. I got she had a butch body.

Marjorie tried to cause a scene. I got she had a butch body. Marjorie tried to cause a scene. I got she had a butch body. So, I have to be honest. Seeing that video, I did not even realize that was you. You really transformed yourself with that wig and your singing. But you actually have a musical background. You have a musical background. That's why you're getting all those notes.

Yeah. Y'all have to watch the other video where I played like nine characters. I did the whole Ricky Dilla director thing. So I came back and did another video. After that, I went to the studio and recorded the song professionally and released it. But my mother is also a musician. She's a minister of music. She has been since she was six years old. She put me on the drum set at the age of eight years old. And I was a musician before I was a comedian. So I served in the Army National Guard band, the 41st Army Band, as a drummer for about nine years. And then halfway through, I said, I started doing comedy and I decided to get out of the Army and take comedy seriously. So this is just a meshing of my talents and things that I've always done. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. As, as we

leave, we have about 30 seconds. I just wanted to quickly talk about the fact that a lot of women are taking the stage, um, but they also are keeping their day jobs. When we talk about pay and pay and equity, uh, how, how far away do you think you are from reaching that financial max that you are looking for? Ooh, max. I hope I never reached the max. I just want to keep going and going. Well, let me say this. I worked for an NPR affiliate, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, for about six years, and I quit in 2017. I said, God, send me a sign that it's time for me to quit. And at the time he sent Steve Harvey's manager, Rashawn McDonald,

to my office in Jackson, Mississippi. And he was like, why are you here? And I quit in 2017. And I am just making more money than I ever would have had I just continued working for the radio station. So it is important to take chances and believe in yourself because when you have that crutch, well, then you don't dedicate the same amount of energy and time to something if you have something to fall back on. So I gave myself that ultimatum that I wasn't going to have anything to fall back on and my success is my responsibility. Uh, so yeah, I hope to not reach a max. I won't, I won't be ungrateful. I am doing well, but I'm still looking for that big break. And so I do appreciate you guys for the support.

And something like the Black Women in Comedy Festival, it could lead to that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to thank you for being with us. For those of you who are interested, the Laugh Fest is still going on until Sunday. It kicked off on Juneteenth at the Lincoln Center. It really was extraordinary. And, of course, Rita, your set, it was perfect. It really was extraordinary. And of course, Rita, you said it was perfect. It was just amazing. So people who don't know about you or FFest, check them out. I also want to give

a quick little shout out to the Black Girl Giggles Festival down in New Orleans that also happens where people come together and they do some of the same. Good to see you, Rita. You too. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. All right. Absolutely. All right. I also want to thank our panelists, Matt and Kelly and Michael. As always, we've had a good time. We have. We always do.

We do. We tell you what we do. Hold it down. So you know you're one of my favorites. Hold it down. Thank you. And the timing. It's the timing for me.

Like, you respect our time. Thank you. And the timing. It's the timing for me. Like, you respect our time. No shade. I'm here for the 8 o'clock clock out. You're here for the 8 o'clock. All right. Some of Behind the Curtains things, we're giving up to the audience tonight. All right.

Good to have all of you. And thank you, everybody, for joining us. As always, good to fill in for Roland, who will be here next time you tune in. And make sure to check out the podcast Not All Hood with Malcolm Jamal Warner. I'm co-hosting the show along with Mayusi Baraka. Good to see everybody tonight. Hope you had as good a time as we did. Nice to keep you

informed. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Have a good night. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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 Glott. 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. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.