#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Debt ceiling agreement fallout; Texas passes Crown Act; Juneteenth inclusion drama

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

5.30.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Debt ceiling agreement fallout; Texas passes Crown Act; Juneteenth inclusion drama The recent debt ceiling deal agreement will change access to social programs and start student loan repayments sooner than expected. We'll examine how this agreement will impact black and brown Americans at higher rates and what lawmakers are doing to address these concerns. The Debt Ceiling agreement is causing a stir among Democrats and Republicans. With GOP members not happy about the debt ceiling agreement. We'll show you what some GOP hard-liners criticizing the bill said ahead of Tuesday afternoon's House Rules Committee vote. Over the weekend, the 11-year-old boy shot by police in Mississippi spoke out for the first time about his ordeal and how he felt after getting shot. We will show you what he had to say. And an update on Ralph Yarl, who was shot by a racist white man for an address mix-up. A viral video of a white woman harassing two black men over a parking mistake has made the rounds on social media. We'll have more on this story and how incidents like this contribute to racial tensions in our communities. And in our marketplace segment, we'll speak with Cocoa Asante, a company founded in 2018 by Ella Livingston, a Ghanaian-American who made it her mission to provide chocolate of the best quality using cacao from her home country Ghana.  Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Tuesday, May 30th, 2023. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The recent debt ceiling deal agreement will change access to social programs and start student loan repayments sooner than expected. We'll examine how this agreement will impact African-Americans at higher rates and also what lawmakers are doing to address the concerns. Now, again, it's causing a stir among Democrats and Republicans. GOP members say they're not happy. Some Democrats, progressives say they're not happy as well.

That's typically what happens when it's called a compromise. Over the weekend, an 11-year-old boy shot by police in Mississippi spoke out for the first time about his ordeal and how he felt after getting shot. Also, his attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit. Plus, an update on Ralph Yarrow, the young African-American shot in Kansas City. He made an appearance over the weekend. A viral video of a white woman harassing two black men over a parking mistake has made the rounds on social media. Her white nationalism was showing. We'll show you that.

Plus, in our Marketplace segment, we'll speak with Coco Asante, a company founded in 2008 by Ella Livingston, a Ghanaian-American who made it her mission to provide chocolate of the best quality using cocoa from her home country. Folks, it is time to bring the funk. A roll of Martin and the Filtron on the Black Sun Network, let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling.

Yeah, yeah. With Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know.

He's rolling, Martel. Martel. All right, folks, this is an agreement with a debt ceiling battle between President Joe Biden and House Republicans. Of course, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, both of them are proclaiming that it is a good compromise. But the reality is it is going to have an impact on the poor in this country. The deal is going to resume student loan payments hitting borrowers a month earlier than expected for 43 million Americans. Black women have been the greatest impacted by the student loan debt crisis, with women owning two-thirds of America's nearly $1.5 trillion student loan debt,

and black women carrying the highest student loan debt of any racial or ethnic group. In addition to the end of the student loan payment pause, the debt ceiling deal's impact on social programs is also set to change. The bill would add work requirements to get supplemental nutrition assistance programs, Medicaid, and temporary assistance for needy families. Those benefits for people up to 55 years old. Now, it would require states to impose work requirements. They impact, of course, poor and low-income Americans more heavily hit by COVID-19

and people rely on these social programs to make ends meet. Now, here's the whole deal. Republicans are complaining they don't have enough time to read it. Also, some progressives who are saying, hey, we're not signed on to this deal anyway, but the reality is it needs 218 votes. Then you got Senator Lindsey Graham, who's whining and complaining over in the Senate by saying,

oh, my God, this is going to somehow just destroy the military. When we spend nearly nine hundred billion dollars already on the military. All right. Shereece Crawford, nonprofit program director, research supervisor, and strategist, joins me in the studio to discuss how this is going to impact SNAP recipients.

Of course, my panel, Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, based in D.C. Randy Bryant, the DEI disruptor,

also in D.C. What happened to your shimmy new blouse, Randy? Yeah, I was cracking on you last week. Oh, you're dressed like a link today. Okay, gotcha. Or an AK, gotcha. All right, Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney out of Los Angeles. All right, glad to have everybody

here. All right, Ms. Crowley, let's talk about this whole deal. All right, so what's the deal here? I mean, look, Biden is saying it could be worse. Republicans are saying we didn't get everything that we want, and that's typically what happens. We have a compromise. Yeah, I think the center of all of this has to focus on the American people. And I think that that's where we have to draw the line. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just published their report five days ago stating that food is at the food increase is going to be at six point five percent up to 7.5% this year.

So if the USDA is telling us that people are going to be hit harder than ever before with the cost of food and the cost of living, then we need to be listening. Well, it does show you that I always talk about all the time how Republicans are not necessarily pro-life. When you want to sit here and cut food benefits, I mean, my goodness, that's kind of basic. Well, they need to follow suit. The District of Columbia, congratulations to us. We just published a unanimous resolution that's going to increase the Supplemental Nutrition Act by September 2023. So thank you so much. Councilman Jenny Lewis-George was champion for that, along with many of us who have been proponents of making sure that neighbors can have basic human rights like food.

Mustafa, we talked about this again, this agreement. I mean, look, the whole deal is just real simple. It's like they've been going back and forth. You've got McCarthy. He cannot depend upon his caucus. You've got the Freedom Caucus already yelling and complaining. And they say, hey, it is worth us defaulting on our debt in order to have these spending cuts. But they were kind of quiet when Donald Trump

jacked up massive spending and had tax cuts for the rich. Yeah, I think it was three times Donald Trump allowed ceiling to decrease. But, John, we find right here where it's so strong to be able to get the vote. Actually, Mustafa, hold tight one second because I'm hearing every other word from you, so let's figure out his audio. I'll go to you on this point, Randy. And, look, when you have these negotiations, they always happen. But, again, it's amazing how all of a sudden the so-called fiscal conservatives have decided to get real fiscal conservative when they had no problem cutting lots of,

first of all, cutting taxes to benefit the rich when Donald Trump was in the White House. Right. That's who they serve. I think they make it very clear that they are there to serve the people that are them, that are wealthy, that are white, and mostly male. And they are not thinking about how, well, they don't care about how these programs and these cuts will affect disproportionately black and brown people. You know, I'm getting a real kick out of this one here, Joe, and that is they tried to target the IRS in this whole deal. $80 billion, of course, was awarded to the IRS to hire more agents. Okay, now I'm confused.

Okay, they were going to hire more agents over the next 10 years to go after the folks who are cheating, who is largely the rich. And isn't the job of the IRS to bring back more money? So if you have a fiscal problem, don't you think it's a good thing to get more money? But to Randy's point, those are largely rich white folks and they don't want the IRS going after them? It's law and order as long as we're good with it, as long as it's fun to us and as long as it's not focused towards our friends. Yes, it's common sense that they would get more money if there were more IRS agents collecting things that were out there. But regular folk are already getting hit by the government.

We're not cheating that way. When you're talking about hundreds of thousands to millions and more, the potential to collect that, that would seem to be something that you'd want to do. But instead, of course, they want to get rid of the FBI, they want to get rid of the IRS, they want to get rid of everyone that has the potential to bear down on their friends.

And so you've got this very little bit of discretionary money that you can touch. Most of the things that are in the budget can't be touched at all. And, of course, we can talk about some other time how this is a whole other discussion that should not be this hostage-taking situation. And so now you just want to cut on the regular people. And so here's where you are. I think we got you back. Mustafa, go ahead and finish making your point. Mustafa? Yeah. I mean, we just got a lot of work that we got to do. We got to continue to keep a spotlight

on this. We know that we got 34, 35 million people who go to bed hungry every day. When you have these types of actions, you are continuing to impact vulnerable communities. They put the Mountain Valley Pipeline also as a part of this debt ceiling negotiation and agreement. And we know that that's going to run through lower wealth white community, black and brown and indigenous communities. It's going to continue to drive the climate crisis. And then, of course, on the student loan side of the equation, we know that we carry a disproportionate burden for our education. So they continue to weaken and deconstruct

the things that are necessary to help us to just be able to get to a baseline. So I hope that folks find ways to address these additional impacts that they're now gonna bring into our communities. Yeah. Here's the whole deal, Sharice, though. It still has to be voted on in the House.

And then, of course, it also has to go to the Senate. So it's not like, I mean, this is just an agreement between the White House and McCarthy. Ain't like it's a done deal. Yeah, it's not a done deal. And neither is our bill. I mean, our bill that just passed unanimously at D.C. Council still has to be approved by our mayor. And because D.C. is not a state, our bill that provides increase in supplemental nutrition act still has to go through Congress. But now's the time for local government to become heroes. Now's the time while Congress deals with the national policies, local government can step in and say, we're going to

observe our fiscal responsibility. We're going to see where our dollars can be reallocated. That's what we've done here in the District of Columbia. That's what I'm proud of as a district resident. And local government around the country should follow suit while our congressional members are working out larger details. I want to go back to that whole defense point. Mustafa, I'll start with you. I mean, I really am cracking up laughing when Lindsey Graham talks about how, oh, my goodness, this is going to cripple. This is going to cripple our military. Last year, eight hundred and fifty four billion dollars went to the Pentagon. What the hell is he talking about? Yeah, there were no significant cuts to the military

in relationship to this debt negotiations and deal that now seem to be in place. So I'm not sure where the senator gets that information from. The military is fine. It is the other folks whom the military fights for who are the ones that are dealing with these disproportionate impacts that exist inside of this agreement so he really should be focused on the folks there in South Carolina who are hungry he should be focusing on the folks in South Carolina who are tired of dealing with the floods and dealing with the hurricanes he should focus on the educational needs that exist in South Carolina if the senator wants to actually be focused in a direction that has real meaning.

I mean, I just sit here and I really do laugh at these people. Last year, Randy, Congress gave the Pentagon $30 billion more than what Biden was even asking for. How in the hell is it going to cripple the military? Right. But there's no problem with them, as we have seen in the past, of spreading wrong information to prove to get what they want. The Republican Party is built now on fear. How do we scare Americans into making decisions that keep us in power?

And so if you pull out there that all of a sudden the United States of America is vulnerable and we have nothing to protect us and we need to be fearful of the rest of the world, people will make bad decisions and not even think about who's going hungry at night, not think about how will people who have already been disenfranchised now have to take on these student loan debts again, that the only reason that they had to get them and the only reason that we have to—that we black people have to get them at a higher rate is because of white supremacy, because we started out being property. I mean, they're not they don't they don't care about that. It goes back to everything. There is a vein of how do we make Americans scared? And if they're scared and people believe people believe the dog, they're scared.

They make really poor decisions and don't think logically and will vote against themselves. Joe, I mean, my goodness, just, again, $854 billion. We are approaching $900 billion. We're not far from $1 trillion being spent annually on defense in this country. The people who are jumping up and down are the military contractors. Right, for sure. And some of us have folks in our families, et cetera, that have been overseas and worked. And, you know, the folks at the top have quite, you can go back to Halliburton and Dick Cheney and everything else. I mean, the folks at the top have quite a thing going. And by the way, war and, you know, Afghanistan and the things that were

going on over the years kept them in business, allowed them to expand, allowed them to continue on. And so it's interesting whether we have a war or not, we always feel like and therefore prioritize our militarization, our financing of militarization. And so here we are again, where the military is a sacred cow and, you know, everybody wants to feel safe and be safe, et cetera. We all got folks in the service and whatnot. But that being said, you know, when you're passing people that are hungry and homeless to make the point, it ends up being a problem. All right. Hold tight one second. When we come back, I want to talk about, again, how much money we actually spend in this country on

food. Because you need to understand, you need to juxtapose what we spend on SNAP compared to what we spend on defense. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

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

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn mind 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.

I have a couple. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! It's a real revolution right back. media and something like CNN. You can't be black on media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Black TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob

Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Stay woke. All right, folks, welcome back. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We're talking about the debt ceiling. This agreement, of course, is going to lead to a variety of cuts, things along those lines. Sharice Crawford joins us right

now. We also have Mustafa, Randy and Joe as well. Sharice, how much money do we spend annually on SNAP benefits in this country? So it's really averaging we're talking about the family, average family of three would spend about $24,000 to $25,000 in excess cost. And that number fluctuates whether

the family of the U.S. family is larger or the U.S. family is less. So this is based on an average family of three being about 50% of the population. Well, the point is we only spent, okay, so here's the deal. Snap spending went from $63 billion to $127 billion. So let me be real clear. So we spent $854 billion last year on the Pentagon. Yeah. And they're complaining, but they want to cut Snap benefits. We spent $127 billion. There's no comparing the two.

How do you compare food safety versus national and foreign safety? You just can't. This right here, Mustafa, is the problem that I have because it speaks to priorities. And again, it's a little hard to say. First of all, how can you have, and I'm going back to remember when we put in place food standards in schools because that was called a national security risk because we had, frankly, malnourished Americans. And so all these people are complaining about, oh, defense being cut. Well, guess what?

They also are seeing record lows in the number of people who are actually even going into the military. Y'all might be more concerned about who the hell is not signing up than throwing more billions at defense. Yeah, and it's a deeper conversation on the military. I handled those issues when I actually worked up on Capitol Hill there for a couple of years. You know, so we got to actually take a look at what's really going on here. You know, the folks whom are the ones who are hungry in our country are lower wealth white communities, the black and brown communities, and people have often seen our communities as sacrificable. And we see that playing out once again in the prioritization of where the cuts are happening across our country. So, you know, we have to change that dynamic because we impact education. We impact people's ability to be able to work. We impact

a number of things when people can't have, you know, clean and healthy food to actually put into their bodies. I mean, that right there, again, for me, is the problem, Randy, how people don't want to deal with that. Again, this notion that we are not spending enough on defense is crazy. In the last year of Obama, a report was released showing that the Pentagon had $125 billion in waste. $125 billion. Okay? The budget now is $854 billion. If you actually look at what they deem to be waste in SNAP programs, it's about 4%. That's a lot higher waste in the military than it is when it comes to food. But you're talking facts.

Facts. And these people don't deal in facts. They deal in propaganda. There's no way they could look at those numbers and truly believe that there's a shortage or be worried about what we're spending in defense. But there's a lot of people that get very wealthy, as someone mentioned earlier, like Halliburton, off of these defense contracts. Also, that's some people. Some

people love for us to show patriotism through war. And we see it as our country is and as we try to invest in Department of Defense. But even these people walking around with these guns and things, it's seen in the American way. And she's absolutely right. My research is focusing specifically on behavior patterns that deal with food insecurity, behavior patterns that deal with malnourished people.

And research is showing that much of the gun violence and the violence we are seeing is directly related to unhealthy and poor health people. So we need to look at our domestic violence as a part of that and allocate resources from the domestic budget for defense to food safety. Joe, final comment, Joe. Yeah, you know, the problem is it's not politically expedient

and politically advantageous to tell the truth and say, here's where our problem is. Let's take care of each other, make sure we're eating, we'll act better, we'll do better, we'll hurt each other less, and we'll be better off for it. But that's not popular to say. Do you expect folks who advocate for the poor to be quite vocal

as this thing makes its way through? First of all, it's a 99-page agreement. They got four days to read it, which is a lot fewer pages than that 500-page tax cut Trump imposed. So do you expect the advocates for the poor to try to make changes

to this agreement? Absolutely. I mean, not advocates for the poor, advocates for human rights, advocates for human decency are already stepping up because they're showing what the deal is in our local budgets. So they're going to keep applying pressure. They're going to get the pressure from their local voters who actually put them in the seats and not the folks that they're negotiating deals with on the Hill. So absolutely, everyone needs to step up to make sure that there's equity in food access. All right. We certainly appreciate it, Sheree. Thanks a lot, folks.

Going to break. We'll come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, if you're on YouTube, hit the Like button. Also, download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, MSN, Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Also, support us in what we do. Your contributions make it possible for us to travel this country. So please join our Marina Funk fan club. Send check-in money orders to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, RMartin Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And, of course, you can get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target. You can download your copy on Audible.

And don't forget, if you want to watch our 24-hour streaming channel, simply go to Amazon Fire, click Amazon News, and you can check us out 24-7 right here. I'll be right back. That was a pivotal, pivotal time. I remember Kevin Hart telling me that. He's like, man, what you doing, man? You gotta stay on stage.

And I was like, eh, I don't think, I don't know. You know, I'm young, I'm thinking, I'm good. And he was absolutely right. What show was the other time? This was one-on-one. Got it. During that time. So you're doing one-on-one.

Going great. You're making money. You're like, I don't need to leave. I don't need to leave from Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday. I just didn't want to do that. I was just like, I'm gonna stay here. Oh, I didn't want to finish work Friday, fly out, go do a gig Saturday, Sunday.

I was like, I don't have to do that. And I lost a little bit of that hunger that I had in New York. I would hit all the clubs, run around. Sometimes me and Chappelle or me and this one or that one, we'd go to the Comedy Cellar at one in the morning. I mean, that was our life. We loved it. You do two shows in Manhattan, go to Brooklyn,

leave Brooklyn, go to Queens, go to Jersey. And I kinda just, I got complacent. I was like, I got this money, I'm good. I don't need to go, I don't need to go chase that because that money wasn't at the same level that I was making, but what I was missing was that training. Yes. Was that, was that.

And it wasn't the money. It was the money, you know, it was that, that's what I needed. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a badge of honor. Like, you even hear black women, like,

aspiring to be this ride-or-die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman, so at their own expense. Next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network. Hey, everybody, it's your man, Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. 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. 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 a Ricky Williams, NFL player, Hasman trophy winner. It's just the 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.

Martin! All right, y'all. Texas actually did something good for a damn change. That is, they passed the Crown Act. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 567, also known as the Texas Crown Act, into law on Saturday. Of course, the Crown Act deals with, again, outlawing discrimination based upon hair texture or predictive hairstyles associated with race. The bill received overwhelming support in the Texas Senate with 29 to 1 votes and in the Texas House, 143 to 5. Now, remember, Republicans dominate the Texas House.

But remember, Republicans in Congress blocked the Crown Act on the federal level. But it was finally passed in the House, but then, of course, the Senate chose not to vote. It promotes inclusivity and respect for diverse hair types and styles. And what gets me, Randy, are these people who say, oh, we have enough laws against this. We don't really see this as a problem. Yeah, because you're white.

Right. I was just looking at the video of the people who voted and I'm like, and we expect them to represent us and advocate for us. But I am so happy that the Crown Act passed. It's a shame. I don't I don't think people recognize that it is legal for most states to discriminate against us for the way that our hair grows out of our heads. In most states, the majority, the vast majority of states. So, you know, but these steps are important. And I'm happy to see that, you know, we've made another small step, particularly in Texas. Absolutely. And look, and the reality is when you look at this particular bill in this problem, I mean, look, there have been problems in Texas, Joe, where folks have not been allowed to literally graduate. individuals who have had these problems when it comes to being in school.

It just makes no sense whatsoever. This here was the vote in the Texas House. Yeah, I mean, hold on, Joe, one second. HB 567 by Bowers, latent discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective hairstyle associated with race. Chair recognizes Ms. Bowers to explain the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker and members. This is HB 567 that we strongly voted out yesterday, the Texas Crown Act.

I want to thank you that we passed this yesterday, and I hope we'll do so today. I move final passage. The question occurs on final passage of House Bill 567. This is a record vote. The clerk will ring the bell. Chair, Ms. Bowers voting aye. Have all members voted. There being 143 ayes,

5 nays, House Bill 567 finally passes. Joe, the thing here, again, we have seen students who have been impacted because you have folks discriminating against black people because of their hair. Right, and you've actually seen this nationwide.

You know, people that were trying to play ball or doing whatever they were doing, and they would say, oh, I think one was a wrestler in another state. You can't wrestle. You can't compete. You can't do what it is that you're supposed to do unless you cut your dreadlocks, unless you cut your hair, unless you somehow present differently than fundamentally what you are. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm surprised that Texas did this, not because

Texas isn't diverse enough. Texas is diverse enough. Texas has enough different types of people to understand this. But on so many ways, frankly, Texas gets it wrong. I'm pleasantly surprised that they got it right, because this is a fundamental thing. People should not be discriminated against because of the way that their hair grows. And so I'm glad that they got it right. Mustafa, it was our alpha brother, Boris Miles, who actually carried this forth in the Senate. Here's him speaking on the Texas floor. Senate rule order of the order of business to take up and consider House Bill 567 by Ritter Andrews, known as the Crown Act.

Members, House Bill 567 prohibits hair-based discrimination, which is a denial of employment, education, and housing opportunities because of hair texture or protective styles, including braids, locks, and twists. Members, I want you to know that this is a good bipartisan bill that passed out of this chamber in the 87th legislative session. It has to do with discrimination of things. Discrimination like this is new, is nothing new, I'm sorry, with 80 percent of black women stating that they have had to change their hair to fit their work setting. This leads black women to use hair straightening products, which according to new studies, can increase the chances of developing uterine cancer.

The bill will prevent Texas from being denied employment or housing simply because they choose to wear their hair in a natural protective style. This bill will not interfere with OSHA regulations on job sites or safety or hygiene. It does not create a new protective class and it does not harm our business community. HB 567 will prevent discrimination. Members, Ms. President, I move suspension. Senator Shirley is out for the final passage. House Bill 567. Secretary, read the caption. House Bill 567 relating to discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective

hairstyle associated with race. You are recognized on final. Mr. President and members, I move final passage of House Bill. Again, Mustafa, this is something that we specifically impact. It first passed in California. They try to get it on the federal level. So the folks who support this, they've been going state by state by state. There really should be a federal bill. Oh, without a doubt.

I mean, this is common sense legislation. So it's good to see, first, our brother pushing this. But secondly, that the Texas legislature finally has moved forward in a positive direction on something that impacts our communities, and let's also be clear, other communities as well. So hopefully the feds will finally get it right and do this also, because as has been shared, this discrimination has been happening for a long time. I've wore my hair in the style that folks see for decades now, so I know some of the conversations and some of the impacts that can happen in that space. But it really is a message

for young people that they can truly be who they are, and we can finally start to also make sure we're addressing some of these Black maternal health issues that are also connected to hairstyles and straightening and other things that our dear brother just shared. So it's the right act at this time, and hopefully it'll happen on the federal level. All right, folks, I got to go to break. We come back. Some breaking news. Remember that New Jersey councilwoman's assistant was gunned down outside of her home? Well, authorities announced an arrest about an hour ago. We'll tell you exactly what happened in that particular case. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it, and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause

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makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, the necessity of believing in things you can't see. It's called faith. It comes in all shapes and sizes and it's powerful. And it's a big part of being able to live a balanced life.

The valley I experienced being a cancer survivor was one where my footing was completely unstable. I had no idea what to do. And in that instance of not knowing what to do, I had to rely on faith.

That's all next on A Balanced Life, only on Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, some breaking news out of New Jersey. About an hour ago, authorities announced that a Virginia man has been arrested for his involvement in the death of a black pastor who also was a councilwoman there in New Jersey.

This is the Associated Press story right here. Of course, Eunice Duomfor was shot and killed in her SUV outside of her home in February. Rasheed Ali Bynum, who is 28 years old, of Portsmouth, Virginia, he was actually arrested in the death of a 30-year-old woman. Authorities traced his travels from his cell phone and vehicle location. Apparently, they knew each other from the particular church there. His phone number was actually in her phone as well. They were part of this Prosperity Gospel Church Champions Royal Assembly, as well as the related church, the Fire Congress Fellowship, which has a branch in Virginia.

No word on exactly why uh this actually took place uh but again they don't know as you say here beyond that he did not know the nature of their relationship and the prosecutor declined to discuss a possible motive and so uh it is a final an arrest in that particular case uh You might remember she was a Republican councilwoman there in New Jersey. And again, people were shocked and stunned at her death when she was actually gunned down. Her 11-year-old daughter heard the gunshots as she was pulling up to the home. And again, this 28-year-old man out of Virginia, he has been arrested in connection with her death. Certainly a sad story there. Folks, let's talk about

Mississippi, where we covered, had the attorney on the other day, the 11-year-old young kid who was shot by a cop in Mississippi. Well, today, Carlos Moore actually went to federal court and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family in that particular case. An 11 year old gave an exclusive interview to ABC News. It didn't. When Greg shot me, I did this to my chest. It feel like a taser, like a big punch to the chest. That's what it feel like getting shot. And do you remember where your mom was at that time? Did you collapse? Did you fall down?

Mm-hmm. She was outside. Then I ran to my mom. Mom. And then so I was bleeding, bleeding from my mouth. And then I would just remember singing a song. And what song were you singing? No weapon for my kiss me shall prosper. Absolute miracle that he is alive again. This is what Carlos Moore posted on social media.

Headed to file a federal lawsuit today against the city of Indianola, Chief Ronald Sampson and Officer Greg Capers for shooting my 11-year-old unarmed client named Adirian Murray on May 20th. Justice is within reach. It is absolutely stunning, Joe, that that young kid is able to talk about that shooting, where, again, he called the cops because of a domestic disturbance. Joe, hold on. 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. I'm Greg Glott. 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. I'm mute. Guys, turn his mic up. Let's go. Go ahead, Joe. Can you hear me? Yes, now I'm being... Yeah, once again, you're dealing with the adultification of a young black boy. That's what he was, what he is. He's 11 years old. He's young.

And he comes out compliant. He's the one that called the police. And he finds himself shot. It's absolutely incredible. But he is a miracle. This is why you see miracles. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. And so he'll have nothing to repent about because I think that he'll live a long life and he'll do some wonderful things. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm glad the lawyer is suing them, suing them now, suing them hard, suing them well, and suing everybody up and down the line because there's no reason that this young brother should have gotten shot in this particular instance by the police that he called to help him be safe. This is what I keep saying to folks that we have to deal with, Mustafa. And unfortunately, look, we got to be as aggressive in going after these police departments and going after these officers personally than anyone else to get change.

Yeah. My grandmother says when you know better, do better. Many of these police departments, some of these police officers continue to not do the right thing, so they have to be held accountable just like each and every one of us would be. And, you know, you continue to break trust, and when you break trust, that means people are not going to pick up the phone when they actually need you. People are not going to, you know, rely on you to keep them safe. And we continue this spiral. And we've just got to change this dynamic. I'm so glad that that young man was able to survive because the impacts, the mental impacts of being shot are going to follow him throughout his life. So I hope that folks will make sure that the resources and the tools that he's going to need and the therapy he's going to

need continue to be in place. Randy? Who do our children have to call? I mean, you think about, you raise your children and say, if there's an issue, you can call 911 or if you see a police officer, ask for help. But he did that. The 11-year-old child did that and was shot for no reason. And guess what? The police officer who shot him is on paid leave. He is on paid leave. So it's just, it's infuriating.

It's infuriating. It is. Now, speaking of infuriating, have y'all seen this video? It was a black woman on an airplane, and she was sitting next to this guy, and he decided to, you know, let's just say, tweet a few things. Sorry, text a few things. And what he didn't realize was that she could see what he was typing. Now, what then happens is, what then happens is, about four hours go by, and she was like, you know what? I really need to say something to this fool. And she did and of course uh what she had to say uh went viral when she decided to jam uh homeboy up let me see i want to pull up this video uh because uh man talk about uh it got real uh uncomfortable uh on the um it got real uncomfortable on the plane.

But see, here's the thing for me whenever I see this. Okay, so she busts the guy, and then you hear him saying, ooh, you know, I'm sorry. And she wanted to let him know that, yeah, I see what you're doing here. I see what's going on. And, again, you know, she confronted him. And I was with 100% because I'm telling you right now, if that had happened to me on the airplane, yeah, it would have got jumped on. I'm going to pull the video up in a second. But I don't understand these folk, again, who love to show their racism.

And he made it the comment that he made. Mustafa was having to sit between a big black woman and these gay people on the plane and actually say they should they should raise the prices. You know, people's foolishness has no bounds, if you will. And that's why you got to put people on blast, put a spotlight on racism and racist individuals so that the world can see exactly who they are. And so that the repercussions that also come from your foolishness, from your bigotry is also out there. And in many instances, folks lose their jobs. They lose the respect of folks around them, and rightly so. This is the actual, let's see here.

I want to make sure this is the right video here. Y'all, check this out. So you can see what he had to say. I wasn't going to say anything. I wasn't going to say anything, but I decided I want you to feel as uncomfortable as I do. And I want you to know that I saw your text messages and I think you're disgusting. What text messages? You know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not going to repeat it because everybody doesn't need to know. But I want you to know that I know.

I saw you. And I think that you're disgusting. You don't have anything to say to that, right? Yeah. I didn't think so. And speaking of, yeah, you should. And speaking of airlines weeding people out, maybe if they raise prices, you know, maybe you wouldn't be able to afford to sit with your family. That way they don't have to sit next to black people.

Okay? Yeah. Yeah, you don't have to be sorry to me. You're sorry because I saw it. But I want you to feel as uncomfortable as I do sitting next to you. Uh-huh. You should be.

Hey, these folks love showing themselves, Randy. And I love that the sister girl, sister woman called him out. I tell people make racism costly either to their egos or to their pocket. But don't let them be comfortable with showing out. Joe, I would assume you agree. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no doubt about it. And she did it real classy-like. Didn't call the stewardess.

Didn't call anybody else. Didn't call the air police, as it were. Just let him know, listen, I see you and I hear you, and you ain't nothing, and it's not a secret. And so I like that. She did it real good. Mic drop. You know, and again, look, these folks sit here and they do these things. And, again, they show themselves repeatedly.

And, look, I'm all about utilizing the device. And so I'm going to let y'all know again. I just want to give y'all a tip. So if y'all have to deal with these crazy races, I want y'all to shoot this direction. I want you to shoot horizontal or landscape, so that way it fills the whole screen up. Otherwise, go back. Otherwise, when you shoot like this, it looks like that.

So that way, we need to get all of their stuff in the screen so we can see exactly what they're posting. So you see right here how she, you know, how they froze it. So, yeah, just a little tip, y'all. Just go ahead and just shoot horizontal landscape. All right, I got to go to a break, and here's the deal, y'all. There's a couple of videos we're going to show y'all which, I mean, are absolutely crazy. One of them, this white attorney in New York,

why does he snatch the wig off of a sister's head? Walking down the street, he just snatched the wig. He ain't got a job today. Then you got a white woman mad because somebody parked for 30 seconds and she just had to block them in her car. Then folks are really outraged

over some Juneteenth banners in South Carolina with white people on the banners. All these stories, absolutely mind-boggling. And we're going to talk about them right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Don't forget YouTube.

Hit that like button, y'all. We should win a thousand to 1,500 likes every single show. Also, download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Senior check and money orders to

PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Tape with me, Greg Carr. We welcome a towering intellect, activist, master theorist, prolific author, and unstoppable firebrand for change. The one and only Dr. Errol Henderson joins us to talk about his new book, The Revolution Will Not Be Theorized, Cultural Revolution in the Black Power Era. And this is what's going on in so much of academia

and in some movement circles. It's an anti-Black national. It's an hour of power that you don't want to miss. That's right here on The Black Table on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor

and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard.

Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Gavin Houston. Hi, I'm Carl Payne. Hey, what's up, y'all? This is your boy, Jacob Lattimore,

and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. All right, I keep telling y'all there are some absolutely crazy and demented people in this country who just do stupid stuff, but you have to let stupid people do stupid stuff so when they lose their job, black people can get applied for the job. So there's this singer in Brooklyn named Lizzy Ashley. So Lizzy posted a video, y'all. She posted a video on social media where she was just minding her

business, walking down the street, walking down the street, and, you know, just minding her business when this fool decides to literally snatch her wig off. Okay? So she just minded her business. Minded her business, walking down the street, and he just snatched her wig off. Now, she posted this video on social media. It's gotten just hundreds of thousands of views since she posted the video. So let me go ahead and get it ready here.

All right, so y'all, so this is what she posted on TikTok. For what reason? For what reason? For what reason did you take my wig off? Because what made you think that that was the good thing to do? What made you think that that was the good thing to do?

For what? For what? Why did you do that? What makes you think that that's okay? Is that funny? Is that funny? You don't even fucking know me. Do you hate women or something? Please. Why did you take my wig off and keep walking?

Hello, Anthony Ulrich of New York City. All right. So, so she put it out on social media and look, people were like, um, yep, we found this dude. And so she actually was quite interested. She goes, damn, y'all good. She goes, it didn't take y'all long at all to find this guy. Watch this. Why?

Why did you take? Because you had a bad day. You take it one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around. You say you don't know. You tell me don't lie. You work at a spot. Did not take long for Lil' Anthony to be found.

And so what ended up happening was they found out that he's an associate lawyer in New York City or I take that back he was an associate lawyer in New York City because after folks found his employer and then they found it on social media this what was

posted here we have been made aware of a video of a non work related incident involving one of our associates circulating on social media. We take seriously any inappropriate behavior by any employee, whether inside or outside the workplace. This associate is no longer with the firm. All right, F around and find out, Joe. You know, this cat just wasn't thinking. 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 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 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. You know, at the end of the day, and on top of everything, as a lawyer, you're supposed to act a certain way.

You're an officer of the court. You know, it's okay to take a load off and to relax, but you should not fall into moral turpitude. You should not fall below a certain level. And if not for your own enlightened self-interest, don't do anything that will get you in trouble legally or morally because people will bang on you. I was just saying last week on a thing we do called the legal moment. Do not do anything. You know, let's have a discussion about what you should post on social media, what can get you fired or whatever else. Anything you would have to explain later, don't do it. Hello?

But in any event, my dad used to say a hard head makes a soft behind. I didn't know what he was talking about, but I do now. And I imagine that our former associate knows as well. You know, obviously this sister was greatly bothered by what took place, Randy, obviously. And there were several different posts that she made on her TikTok channel talking about what took place. And again, it was when, you know, when the posts continued and all of a sudden other people began to see it. They began to pick up on it. And then it began to pick up steam.

And, again, this is just a sister who's minding her own business. This right here is the first post that she made after that video. I'm safe. But look at this. If you pull the wig, it looks like it's going to come off, right? And then it gets stuck because it has combs in it. So he ended up pulling my hair. In order to officially take it off, you have to then yank down and then try your best. It's still not coming off.

He dead pulled my whole wig off. Like, I just got home. I'm safe. But look at this. You tell in the video, homeboy is inebriated. But, again, this idea that you can just walk around and just grab a black woman's hand

like, yeah, we all good. It shows that he has no risk. He had no respect for her as a person. He illustrated that he thought that he was superior to her. Why would you do that? And, you know, I get sick of people always using alcohol as an excuse. He said, oh, I was drunk. Drunk people don't go around just ripping people's wigs off or even feeling as if they have the right to touch people, particularly people that they do not know. So I am happy that the law firm dealt with him swiftly. And I'm particularly happy that that sister recorded her reaction and what happened. There's power in recording these days.

Indeed. And this is what she said after his identity was determined. Everyone, because I know people are writing like, yo, I did this, I did that, I did this. Yo, I appreciate y'all. I did not go to waste. I did every single thing that certain people told me to do. I can't go into too much detail.

But Tuesday, I will take action. Today's a holiday. So have a good day, guys. Peace, peace. Thank y'all. I'm unable to say more at the moment as I move forward legally. I appreciate everyone who identified, called, and emailed. Once I receive an update, I can share, trust, and believe

I will. Thank you again. You know, Mustafa, we were talking about the Crown Actress a little bit earlier. And what folk don't get is you got these folks out here who just believe

they can just walk up to black women and touch their hair. And there's somebody fascinated by that. I can give you numerous examples of folks who have had to deal with that over and over and over again because you got these folks who just are stuck on stupid and think that they can just... In fact, Rachel Ponder, I'm going to find this here. She posted something on TikTok, same thing, where this guy wanted to just pat her head. She was like, do you think it's patting me like I'm some damn pet? Well, you know, there's a long history in our country of white folks being fascinated with black people's hair and having all this mythology

around our hair, wanting to rub our scalps for luck and a number of other things. And that goes back to that whole privilege thing of thinking that you have the right to be able to do whatever comes into your mind in relationship to African-American people. And this is just another example of power and privilege. And this individual believing that there would be no ramifications for his actions, and he was incorrect. Albert Einstein said there are two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. And he said, I'm not too sure about the universe. And this individual showed that human stupidity is just, it is rampant, unfortunately, for some folks. All right, folks. So I was talking about Rachel Ponder, a young woman I know in Atlanta. She posted this on her

TikTok page. She pat my hair. And I was just hella confused because i'm like is this man this dumb where he is just culturally unaware of the dynamics that exist between white people and brown people like what the hell and so um i'm going back and forth with him i'm like yo no i ain't nobody touch my hair and then he he goes, oh, okay, I see. I see how it is. I see his tone changes. I see him sit down. He's, mind you, he's drunk. He's got a beer in his hand. And then he says this, don't worry. I'm going to get to touch it anyway soon. It took everything within me now to blow the fuck up. Like, I'm talking like, like my whole body was just like on fire.

On fire. Covered over my spirit. And I was like, no the hell you won't. And I walked inside. Now I was shaking, I was angry. I didn't even feel like getting up on the mic to sing no more. I'm like fuck this shit. And it reminded me of this, I was angry. I didn't feel like getting up on the mic to sing no more. I'm like, fuck this shit.

And it reminded me of this video I saw yesterday. Sir, for what fucking reason? For what reason? For what reason did you take my wig off? Because what made you think that that was the good thing to do? What made you think that that was the good thing to do? Batman has been found. TikTok, like Twitter, did they sing? But to have that happen has been found um tick tock like twitter did they sing but to have that happen

less than 24 hours i was i was a little triggered like the whole thing it just it just was upsetting and um it made me also realize i'm like yo does the black friend know he like this or the black friends because one of them had left but do they know he's like this and i feel like one of them does the best friend i feel like he does because you too comfortable you're way too comfortable and it reminded me of the fresh prince episode where um carlton is in a locker room and his best friend is saying the n-word all willy-nilly and will walks in and basically has to check the fuck out of them so it's like this i don't care what y'all do in private, but make sure when you get in public,

you check yourself. Have some decorum. Because, baby, you'll get yourself hurt. Yes, y'all. So he asked to pat my hair. They gonna roll up on a wrong black woman who will be with somebody, and you just want to reach out and touch their braids or their hair, and it's going to get real, real fast.

Joe? Sorry. Yeah, it is going to get real, real fast. He's really lucky that somebody didn't jump on him. And by the way, from a legal standpoint, that's assault and battery. It's a harmful and offensive touching. And there is a route that way as well. I don't know if prosecutors are looking. I don't know if she's looking at our lawsuit options.

It sounds like maybe that she is. But, yeah, it's legally wrong and it's also morally wrong. And some people out here in these streets will tax you on that. It would be a problem if I saw somebody do that to my daughter or my wife, for sure. We would be looking to put, we don't know how it would come out, but we'd be looking to put something on them that's up and didn't wash off, I'll tell you that for sure. And again, Randy, there are people who,

I got some fool in the YouTube chat saying, Roland, don't encourage them. I'm not encouraging them. You walk up to somebody, and you put your hands on them, and you have no permission, they can stand their ground. They'll know what you're going to do.

You might end up beating up a shot. I'm being real. Absolutely. The stand your ground people need to know that that goes both ways, right? And if people don't want you to touch them, they don't want you to touch them. So you get what you get. You know, I may not start the fight, but if you invite me to it, I don't like anybody touching me. And, you know, you said

earlier, there's this fascination with black hair. I'm like, there's this fascination with black people, period. You know, and people feel as if they have rights to access us in any way they want. And what people don't seem to understand here, Mustafa, when you talk about that history, there's a history of black people literally being museum pieces, ogling at African-Americans in a lot of these traveling circuses. So this is not just, oh, y'all just overblown this. No, this is what black people have had to deal with for centuries.

This is another form of dehumanization of our people. And that's why you have to take it serious because it starts with the touching of hair and then being able to put your hand on somebody's shoulder and then be able to put your hand in some other location because folks unfortunately don't see us always as humans so that's why you got to check it in the beginning and don't let it escalate our parents parents teach us very simply, when we're going to the playground, keep your hands to yourself. And don't forget what Terry Crews dealt with.

He was at that party in L.A. when this white agent grabbed him, grabbed his crotch in the middle of the party. That agent was later fired. But Terry said he did not whoop his ass because he feared being the angry black man. I would have whooped his ass, but I'm just saying. But again, I mean, folks got to understand

this is what we have to deal with as African-Americans. All right, go to break. We come back. My goodness, y'all. Okay, I'm a native Texan. And so now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, I think we're going to have to explain to some people how we are supposed to act and behave about Juneteenth,

especially some clueless-ass people in South. 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 call 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 man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

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

Carolina. Wait until we break this story down for y'all. That's next. Roland Mark Dunn filtered right here on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not. White people are losing their damn minds.

There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. 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. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch. I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America.

All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? Hey, everybody, it's your girl, LuMail. So what's up? This is your boy, Earthquake.

Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, so let me just do some explaining here. So Juneteenth was a celebration that started in Texas to mark freedom or the end of slavery in that particular state. Now, it really wasn't the end of slavery until the 13th Amendment was passed later that year, in December, by Congress, the amendment. But,

so, it became a state holiday in Texas in 1980. Now, I'm born and raised in Texas, so we've celebrated Juneteenth my entire life, okay? It's about freedom. Freedom,

okay? For black people. Okay. It was the, it is the only annual holiday or event that actually even acknowledges the reality of slavery in the United States. All right. That's what it is. So things got a little interesting in South Carolina. When in Greenville, this brother decides to have this event. Okay, so they recorded some banners in South Carolina. Now we're talking about South Carolina, y'all. That was the first state to secede from the union because they wanted to keep slavery. So out of anybody, they really wanted to keep slavery. So here are the banners that went up in this city right here. So you see these banners.

You got a couple of smiling white folks, Juneteenth, and it says an upstate, drop the lower third, please, an upstate celebration of freedom, unity, and love. And so you see, now go back to the other one, because I want you to see the website, because the website is, go back to the other, is JuneteenthGVL.org. JuneteenthGVL.org JuneteenthGVL.org And so obviously that is for Greenville Well Let's just say that You know when Those banners

Got posted A lot of folks were like What the hell is this What the hell is this Now What the hell is this? Now, so these were the banners, okay? So the organizer apologized for featuring whites and Latinos. So Ruben Hayes, who's the executive director of Juneteenth Greenville, he initially defended the banners, saying they intentionally represented a varied spectrum of racists. Now, here's what he said in the Greenville News initially. Juneteenth is about celebrating freedom, celebrating culture through music, food, art.

Freedom is worth celebrating. I think we can all agree about that. I've celebrated the, listen. He said, I've celebrated the 4th of July all my life. It's the most important, it's the most American thing you can do, right? But that Independence Day did not include all Americans, and until all of us were free, were we really free? That's why education about the history of Juneteenth is so important.

It represents the complete freeing of America. First of all, he wrong as hell. He don't even know what the hell he talking about, okay? Now, he was asked, what do you say to people who don't look like you? People who may be reluctant, who might feel like it's not their holiday to celebrate. Like that, it is a black holiday. Okay. So he then goes on to say, like that, it is a black holiday celebrated because it was a black thing that happened. But in order for this holiday to even come, half a million Americans had to die in the Civil War.

If you really know the history or really understand it, there's no denying that this is one of the most significant holidays in our nation's history. The most American holiday. It just is. It's just that it happened on the backs of African-American slaves and some folks just don't want to make that connection or association. That's just the fact of the matter. It is an American holiday. Okay.

Reuben. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Poor Reuben. Well, Reuben got a lot of heat. And a lot of folk had a lot of trouble. Lord have mercy. Poor Reuben. Well, Reuben got a lot of heat. And a lot of folk had to sit here and jack him up.

So he later apologized. After that, those initial comments didn't go over well. So here's his apology. This is from little Reuben. We would like to offer an apology to the community for the presence of non-black faces being represented on two flags representing Juneteenth. We acknowledge this mistake having been made and will correct the error quickly. This error was an attempt at uniting all of Greenville

and thereby a slight oversight on one individual's part that prevented us from fully embracing the rich potential and celebrating the depth of the black culture through the message and meeting of Juneteenth. He did not capitalize black. And for that, we apologize to you, the entire community. The flags in question will be removed as soon as possible. Now, go to my iPad.

This is the website. So clearly they went ahead and made some changes to the website. And then so you see all of these different events they got down here and all the stuff they're doing. And this is what, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is the whole thing. This is their event schedule. So you see they got Truth and Revelation of Freedom,

Freedom Ride, Job Fair, Black Economic Mobility, Royal Gala, Wellness Event, Mega Fest, all that sort of stuff. All different things that you can do in Greenville for Juneteenth. At the bottom it says Honor the Proud Legacy of Black Americans.

Now, let's be clear, Mustafa, and people who understand history, there were white folks, there were abolitionists, there were people who fought slavery, there were people who absolutely believed in freedom for people who were enslaved of African descent. But what people need to understand is that

now that Juneteenth is a national holiday, I really need a lot of black folks in other parts of the country to maybe come holler at us in Texas to learn how Juneteenth is to be celebrated

so they don't screw up this nonsense again. Yeah, that would probably be to everyone's benefit. You know, you got to be careful. Also, the commercialization that begins to happen to holidays and when that begins to happen, people then want to make sure that that everyone can feel like they played a significant role in whatever that particular holiday may have been. And even though, as you said, there were abolitionists and other white brothers and sisters who helped,

the formerly enslaved folks to find freedom. Yeah, representation matters, and the representation should actually be our faces, our successes, our challenges as the narrative that's going on. We've got to be really careful with the whitewashing

that often happens in these situations. See, this happened last year, Randy. You're the DEI disruptor. So this happened in Arkansas where there was a Juneteenth Soul Food Festival and Market. And it featured the host

Rex Nelson, Heather Baker, and David Bazell. And this was in Little Rock, too. So I'm just saying, you know, Randy, again, as a native Texan, as somebody who has celebrated numerous Juneteenths in my 54 years,

Arkansas, that's not quite how you might want to celebrate Juneteenth. I can't help but to laugh because it's just so ridiculous. And this happens every year. We know we're going to see some product that we roll out for Juneteenth that's going to be just an embarrassment. But the sad part is, or the interesting part, is how we just, the default is to center white people. White people don't want to be left out of anything. And so that you would advertise about Juneteenth using a white couple, like that there's no correlation whatsoever. So it just shows our propensity for white to lean toward white

centeredness. And his earlier statement, I read a statement that he said earlier about they wanted to ensure that they were being inclusive. And people don't understand that DEI or any efforts around diversity and inclusion came from repairing something. It fixes a problem because most things are already majority white. So you look to diversify, right?

You look to include other people and make sure that they feel safe and comfortable and seen. It is not, it was not designed to ensure that white people felt included in every story, in every event. Not saying that they cannot participate in it, but they still have to participate. 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 call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg 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 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. Certainly shouldn't be the center of it. And so, if y'all want to understand again, the folk who don't understand this.

So last year, CNN, last year, CNN did this broadcast on Juneteenth from the Hollywood Bowl. It was a concert. It was a concert. So this year, I want you all to check this out. So this is what CNN announced.

Live Nation Urban, live from the Greek Theater, Juneteenth, a global celebration for freedom. And so they're going to simulcast this on OWNs, being produced by Live Nation Urban and Jesse Collins Entertainment. And you see right here from the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, the concert with acclaimed music icons, including Miguel, DeVito, Jodeci, and more to air worldwide. They got SWV, Coy Lorraine. It's going to be Questlove. Now, so allow me to unpack this okay Allow me to unpack this Okay

So here's what I need People to understand About Juneteenth So this is the education For black people Our celebrations in Juneteenth were not

solely parties. They were not solely concerts. It was a continual quest for freedom. So when we had Juneteenth events in Houston, we had concerts, barbecues, voter registration, political education, economic education. It was a cornucopia of things because it wasn't just a big old party. Second of all, what CNN gets completely wrong, Juneteenth, a global celebration.

Juneteenth ain't global. Let me say it again, CNN. I know y'all having struggles with ratings. But clearly y'all didn't have many black people in the planning of this because Juneteenth is not a global celebration. It's not a worldwide holiday. And so the question I would then have, Joe, for CNN is, what else y'all going to talk about besides the concert? In fact, to the organizers of the concert,

what else are y'all gonna have at the Greek theater other than performances? Are you going to have political conversations? Are you going to have economic conversations? Because that's actually what we've always done when we had Juneteenth events. people are not going to allow non-black people to trivialize and compartmentalize and narrow Juneteenth into another shuck and jive day where black people entertain us with their talents, but we don't want to deal with all the other stuff that black

folks have to contend with in the continual quest for freedom. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm a deal maker in the practice, so hell, let's make a deal. As soon as we truly are free and we're everywhere we need to be,

we will have a celebration. We'll make it global because we want to shout out the rooftops and we'll even let the white folk be on the posters in South Carolina. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, the situation actually is that we aren't there yet. Not long after this and the reconstruction, which was just for a brief moment, we had Jim Crow. We had those things roll back. And in South Carolina and other places, this is in another breath where things are happening, laws are getting passed that restrict freedom and that take away and have the potential to bind and oppress. So we're not there. And so, yes, we do need to make sure that we keep our hands to the plow here, for lack of a better term, and continue to move us along, because there is so much work to do,

and we cannot allow a holiday to be commercialized, whitewashed, made more attractive, made into a money-making opportunity without not only understanding what Juneteenth was actually about, but the fact that we aren't where we need to be yet. So what are we truly celebrating? Add education. Add political action. Do something towards organizations that are working towards voting rights.

Do something that actually moves us forward so maybe the few people that had this idea that Juneteenth was going to take us to a place and emancipation was going to take us to the place can still continue along that continuum. See, the thing that I want us to see, it's called being real intentional. And I'm not just focusing solely on the CNN thing. And I appreciate this. You're having this Juneteenth concert at the Greek Theater. But here's my question. Is the Greek Theater black-owned?

Now, I'm aware, Mustafa, that Jesse Collins Entertainment, Jesse is African-American, owns it, producers, and they just brought them on to do the Emmys, to do the BET Awards, all of that. But see, again, I know my roots. In fact, I'm just going to use us as an example. So this is the first time I'm revealing this because we just solidified it last week. So on June 17th, the Black Star Network is going to have an event in Houston for Juneteenth, on June 17th. And we're going to also on that day make a much larger announcement about something that is going to be on an annual basis. We'll get into that later. But when I was looking for venues, I specifically said, I want a black-owned venue. So we're going to be at the Power Center,

which is owned by Windsor Village United Methodist Church. That's where it was built. They built it. And we already have signed up Black Caterer. We're looking at others. And so, again, I understand if I'm going to have a Juneteenth

event, I want to make sure Black folks are the ones getting paid. And so what I want our folks to learn to do is to be far more intentional as to how we approach these things. So everybody in Houston, and I'm setting the time, it's probably going to be 12 to 4 on June 17th.

But we're literally putting all these pieces together, and we're going to have an economic empowerment conversation. That's how we're actually starting this, because I do not want in the second year that Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday, I do not want us having party conversations and we ain't having no money conversation. Exactly. It always comes back to the economics and the strategic planning. When you're about to put an event on, the question should be the one that we raised. Who's the venue? Who owns the venue? How will those resources make

it back to the communities that we are highlighting? Are we making sure that our contracting and subcontracting that's happening, that it is going back to those black businesses, that those dollars are so critically needed. So as you said, it is about intentionality, but that intentionality is infused into the strategic planning. If you are serious and you are prioritizing, whether it is Juneteenth or other types of events that come out of our communities, then we have to just make sure that the dollars are actually making it to the spaces and places that need them the most. And that's the thing, Randy, that I want black people,

as we're watching these Juneteenth events, as we're watching corporate sponsors, I want us to be asking much greater questions. Don't just sign on as a sponsor. What are you doing for black folks beyond the event? Absolutely. We need to not accept

performative activism. We need to demand more from these corporations and organizations. They feel as if they can put a kente cloth on a pair, on some soap, and we think that they are down. You know, no, we want to know, we want to look at your supplier diversity. We want to look at what you are doing within Black communities. What does your board look like? How

many advertising dollars are you sending to people like Roland Martin? You how are they really doing things to be equitable, right? If they're talking about it, they need to be about it, and we need not to be bought so easily because they will get away with what we allow them to. Well, and don't forget last year, Walmart learned that lesson real quickly when they had their Juneteenth ice cream. Y'all remember that? Walmart had the Juneteenth ice cream and folk were not happy at all about that Juneteenth ice cream.

And see, again, if Walmart had actually called some black people like me I would have told them see hatch out actually partner with a black-owned ice cream company See some of y'all go some of y'all gonna pick up on that real if you had partnered with a black-owned ice cream Company and then said we're gonna place your Juneteenth ice cream packaging in all of our stores nationwide, then y'all wouldn't have got the blowback. But the reality is you got the blowback because you were making the money off of Juneteenth, and that's why they apologized. And so I just want to let everybody know,

so when y'all start going to these Juneteenth events, be on the lookout for how the events have been put on, and I want you to be asking the critical questions. Are black people getting paid from this? No, not are black people planning. No, not are black people working, but who's making the lion's share of the money of the event? That's what I want y'all to be asking.

We'll be right back on Roller Bartball Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network when you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture you're about covering these things that matter I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time have you ever had to shoot your gun?

sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. 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. Speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting.

You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff.

So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Rates $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.

The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. PayPal is R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick.

We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a bad daughter. Like, you even hear black women, like, aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman, so at their own expense. Next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network.

Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. Black TV does matter, dang it! Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. សូវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា� Mariah Cochran has been missing from Peru, Indiana since April 29th. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Mariah Cochran should call the Taylor University Police Department at 765-998-5555, 765-998-5555. And also some sad news about one of our black and missing out of Florida. The body of 79-year-old Frederick Bacon has been found. Frederick went

missing on Wednesday, May 17th. His body was found Friday. Minnetee County, Florida Sheriff's Office is investigating Bacon's death and said no foul play is suspected. His death appears to be an accident and certainly Alcaldolus' go out to the Bacon family. Louisiana jury finds a man not guilty of murder in a historic acquittal sparking a fight to review Jim Crow verdicts. Evangelista Ramos, a black immigrant from Honduras, was acquitted of murder stemming from an arrest in 2014. Now, Ramos was convicted of a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a woman. After a retrial, defense attorneys found DNA from two people.

Neither Ramos was found, neither was Ramos. The DNA was found under the victim's fingernails in Norm Ramos' apartment, where prosecutors argued the woman was killed. A non-unanimous jury initially convicted Ramos in 2016. This decision was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Ramos v. Louisiana this decision was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Ramos v. Louisiana. The court acknowledged the practice as a relic of racism from the Jim Crow era of laws enforcing racial segregation. Louisiana State Democrats have a proposed bill establishing a commission to decide whether a verdict resulted in a miscarriage of justice and whether parole

is warranted. Critics of the bill argue that mandatory new trials would strain the court system. Again, here you have folks, Joe, don't care about let's have righteousness with the law. Let's just keep folk locked up. This is why Louisiana is one of the most heinous states when it comes to criminal justice. Yeah, and the Louisiana situation for what did get accomplished as it pertains to this particular Supreme Court case,

and let's be clear, it came down because of the Supreme Court, the job is not quite done because it's not retroactive. And that's what needs to happen because the estimate is there may be 1,000 to 1,500 more people that are still in that situation and can't get something undone. There is always this very, very difficult tug as it pertains to exonerating people because it actually, to prosecutors and to those that want to feel safe. It makes them feel less safe to know that they actually got it wrong or for the system to publicly recognize that it got it wrong and that it got it wrong a lot. In any event, this particular one case is a good case because no one should be convicted without a unanimous jury verdict. And in some other states, they're trying to tinker with this some. If Ron DeSantis gets his way and some of these other guys get their way, we'll be dealing with this whole thing again. And so the work is not done. There's more to be done because there are more people that

will potentially be free that should never have been convicted. And because this particular law is not retroactive, it just goes forward. You have a lot of people that are left in that gap and they got nowhere to go. And Randy, in fact, you have folks like Rhonda Sanders. They want to repeal the First Step Act. They want those folks back in jail. They absolutely want them back in jail. That works for them. They don't want them to have any rights,

and they certainly are not trying to even look. First of all, everyone wants to rewrite history and find a way not to even act as if we have this racist past. I mean, we know it's also present, but racist past. If you're saying we created these laws and we've made some mistakes, that would mean that they would have to acknowledge that those mistakes were also based on Jim Crow laws, based on race. And no one is they don't want to do that. They just feel as if we should just go on like, you know, that was a long time ago. Let's go on while there are people today sitting in jails that should not be in jail. But I guess black lives don't matter more than administrative work.

Mustafa? I mean, studies have shown us the injustices that exist. Five to 10 percent of folks who have been incarcerated are actually innocent. Then you overlay it with Jim Crowism, you overwrite it with these racial issues that happen inside of our legal system. You know, it just makes sense to make sure that there is an opportunity to go back and take another look and make sure that people who are innocent are no longer spending 10, 20, 30, sometimes 40 years in prison. But of course, we know that there are individuals like Ron DeSantis and

the former Trump presidency who will pardon folks and who also send out these messages that the people that they see value in, that they'll get them out of prison. But other individuals whom they don't see value in, they're willing to allow them to stay in there for decades. Indeed. All right, folks, some good news. Remember we talked early about the 11-year-old kid in Mississippi, but how about Ralph Yarrow? Remember he was a young brother in Kansas City who was shot when he knocked on the wrong door there to pick up his sister. Well, over the weekend, Ralph with his family, they attended a Memorial Day walk-run to raise money for programs and services that support people

who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. Of course, the bullet left y'all with a traumatic brain injury and scars on his face after Andrew Lester shot him. Lester has been charged with felony first-degree assault and armed criminal action for shooting y'all in the head. Despite his trauma, y'all was

determined to attend the fundraiser and show support for others who have suffered similar injuries. Y'all did not speak at the event. So it is absolutely fantastic to see that young man up and about. And so certainly prayers continue for him and his family. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. Our Marketplace segment, we focus on black-owned businesses.

That is next on Roland Martin and the filter on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, how big a role does fear play in your life? Your relationship to it and how to deal with it can be the difference between living a healthy life, a balanced life, or a miserable one. Whenever the power of fear comes along, you need to put yourself in that holding pattern and breathe,

examine, find out if there's something that your survival instinct requires you to either fight or take flight. Facing your fears and making them work for you instead of against you. That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Next on The Black Tape with me, Greg Carr. We welcome a towering intellect, activist, master theorist, prolific author, and unstoppable firebrand for change. The one and only Dr. Errol Henderson joins us to talk about his new book, The Revolution Will Not Be Theorized, Cultural Revolution in the Black Power Era.

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It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, I'm Deion Cole from Blackist. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks, Ghana is one of the countries that dominates cocoa. Unfortunately, though, they're not they'll actually get to make a lot of the money off the president there stated was that they wanted to actually produce more of, manufacture more of the cocoa. And so it was Ivory Coast in Ghana that they got together and they said, hey, we want folks to pay a premium for our cocoa, generate more money. Well, it's not just so, is that always about the Swiss

when it comes to making some great chocolate? There's a company called Coco Asante that Bill Livingston founded in 2018 after experiencing some chocolate while traveling abroad and of course, I'm sorry, Ella Livingston, my apologies. Ella Livingston founded Coco Asante. She said, you know what, hey, let's bring this to the United States. Ella joins us from Chattanooga, Tennessee,

and is the CEO of Coco Asante. Glad to have you on the show, Ella. So this is interesting here. And again, we talk about chocolate. We think in terms of Hershey's, think in terms of Swiss chocolates. But without two African nations, you don't have cocoa. Exactly. And a lot of people don't realize that.

But literally 70 percent of the world's entire cocoa supply comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. And look, you've had those two countries where the leaders have said, wait a minute, why are we people taking our cocoa, taking it abroad, manufacturing it, and then selling it back to us? We should be able to make money from it. And so this is an example of you creating a company

saying, let's have, you know, the people of color, people of African descent, making money from cocoa that's coming from Africa. Exactly. And so that's been my goal since the very beginning. And so essentially what we're doing is right now we're making the final product. My goal is to become being to bar, which means we're going to manufacture cells. We're going to do that here. And then we're going to, as we go, we're going to move manufacturing back to Ghana. That's going to allow us to have an even bigger impact.

Because right now the farmers receive literally less than 6% of all the revenue generated in the industry. And it's completely unfair. And in my family, my cousin who manages our farm, he has to have a full-time job just to make sure his family is okay. And so we want to make sure we're taking that process back home, making sure the money flows back home, making sure our farmers are paid more and those who are manufacturing back home are also paid adequately. So, uh, so let's walk. So this thing really blew up when, uh, Tik TOK food reviewer, uh, Keith Lee, uh, tasted your chocolate and sent out to his 11.2 million followers. And boy, that really put y'all on the map, huh?

It really did. It was so phenomenal. Sometimes I still pinch myself because I can't believe it. But he gave us such great reviews. And he's known for not loving sweets. And literally, once he posted that review, 33 minutes later, we sold out of all of our inventory online. We put everything on pre-order and people just came and supported. We were able to do numbers. We were able to do more than what

we did last year within the span of maybe a week and a half. Wow. awesome there so all right so first of all uh so when you say where y'all are producing it uh you're farming it where is that actually taking place so right now we don't have just to be like completely transparent we don't have the direct connection with Ghana so becoming bean to bar means I'm going to have the equipment to be able to process it myself source it from my family's farm. Once we do so, we're going to be one of the few companies in the world, chocolate companies, that is, that is fully vertically integrated like that, where we're sourcing from our very own farm.

So your family's farm is located where? In Ghana, Ghana, West Africa. Got it, got it. So what area of Ghana? So we are in the Bompata, Kumasa area. So Kumasa is like the second capital of Ghana? So we are in the Bompata Kumasa area. So Kumasa is like the second capital of Ghana. And so we're like about 40-something minutes from there. And we have numerous plots of land kind of all over that region.

Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. So y'all have land there. How large is your family farm there? Oh, my goodness. Some of the farms are about 25 acres, 40 acres. Some of it is 10 acres.

We're actually still surveying some of our land to make sure we're putting boundaries and we're able to account for all the land that we do have. But we have numerous acres all over the area. Wow, that is pretty cool there. And so your plan is to grow your cocoa there in Ghana and then what, ship it to the United States to manufacture it there in Tennessee? Yes, and manufacture it right here in Tennessee. This is a goal that we want to accomplish this year. Actually, we're looking to raise funds to be able to do that. Now, my family actually currently already has a cocoa. So some of our farmland has been growing the plant for over

100 years now. But of course, I would love to expand that. Gotcha. All right. And so in terms of where are your products being sold now? Are they in stores or only online? Majority is online. If you are local to the area in Chattanooga, Tennessee, you can find us at some independent-owned grocery stores. We are working on kind of making it into some of the more nationally known grocery store chains, such as Whole Foods. So hopefully people will be able to find us, you know, everywhere they are within the U.S. But right now, I'll go directly to my website. Oh, let's see here. Let's go to my panel with questions.

I will start with Randy. I just love that you are finding a way for us to grow our economy and keep the money within, you know, the African diaspora. That is just powerful. What is the feedback you're getting as you're talking to,

I'm sure, I don't know if you're talking to other farmers out there, but what is the feedback? 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

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And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Bet you've got me. Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It's been positive, honestly, when I spoke to my cousin. He's the one who manages all of our family farms. And I told him, you know, when you give me, you know, when we make that transition to be bean to bar and you give me the price, don't try to give me a discount because he has tried to give me discounts before. And I was just like, just charge double chart, whatever, whatever you feel that number is, that'll make it okay for you and your family. That's the price I want you to give me. And so to hear just how happy he was, um, to receive that, it brought me a lot

of joy because that's how it should be. You shouldn't be struggling when you're working, working full time on a farm like that. I love that. I love that, you know, because sometimes we can ask each other, like, man, can I get a hookup? You know? So that's, I love that you're going to pay him fairly. And that's how we build our best community. Congratulations to you. Joe? Thank you so much. Kind of a related question. Are you finding that through your family and or through your business, you're getting a window on other industries where the same needs to be done? In other words,

there needs to be more that actually ends up in Africa that actually originates there. And are you finding that you're having, you know, partners on this journey that are doing parallel things as it pertains to other foods or other products or things like that that would come from Africa? Absolutely. So what I want to do with Coco Asante, eventually I want to move manufacturing back home. As I said earlier, and we want to be able to kind of create a model of processing cacao back home that can be run not just by you know us but by other people other whether it's gunnyans or people of the diaspora um who or farmers who want to kind of process cacao themselves and we wanted to spread not just to cacao but other products so we are finding that conversations are opening up with other people who are saying hey you know my family back home

you know we grow this product or or we have this on our firms. You know, how can we apply that to what we're doing? And so I'm hoping to create some somewhat sort of a model that can be replicated. Right. Fantastic. And so I'm going to go to Mustafa. We were talking about, you know, Kamasi. Of course, we were there in 2019. And this was, of course, one of the shopping areas there.

It is a huge, hustling, bustling place where there are lots of goods and services, a lot of things happening there as well. And it really is a fantastic place. And people really don't understand, again, as I said, you know, the president of Ghana has made the point, really, what you're talking about, where he said, hey, enough of us having all of these resources in the motherland, yet we're still, he said, we're still the poorest country. When I was in Liberia in February of last year, same thing. All the rubber has been stripped out

of Liberia all of these years. It's done a senior manufacturing facility. So part of the problem, Ella, you're talking about, people don't realize is that they don't have any ability to create jobs for people who are living in those countries. And so sure, you know, harvesting cocoa and then shipping out is one thing. They want it to be manufactured there in ghana to create those jobs and so basically you're talking about from end to end produce the cocoa manufacturing the cocoa sell the cocoa exactly exactly and honestly with you know i guess with the chocolate industry being like 140 billion um and gh Ghana producing about 33% of that,

the Ivory Coast doing the other about, what, 37. If we're able to even produce and manufacture 75% of what we're sending out right now, plus they're adding in 30% to our economy, and that'll change the GDP of Ghana. So what I want to do has large and huge implications for Ghana's economy. Mustafa, do you have a question? Yeah, I was just going to say thank you for honoring this natural resource that exists in Ghana that many people never realized that it came from. I'm curious, talking about your particular product, which ones are the ones that folks are really asking for so you have an opportunity to actually highlight those?

Absolutely. So based off of the review, a lot of people are asking for flavors that Keith Lee had tried. Two flavors every season. The ones that he tried are not available right now, but for what we do have, our most popular flavors are the ones with whiskey in them. So what you see in front of you, that Chattanooga whiskey, Bon Bon, we try to highlight and support local Black women and veteran-owned businesses with items that we create. So Chattanooga whiskey is local to our city. We've done one with Boozy Caramel with Uncle Nearest. That's a Tennessee brand. We've done Majesty Bourbon, another black-owned Georgia brand. Black Girl Magic, we did one with their red wine, black and woman-owned. So we're really trying to highlight and support other businesses with the creation we make. And they're super popular, super decadent,

super delicious. So this is a video on your Kickstarter page. So you're trying to raise about $10,000. What is that for? Is that for equity stake in the company? What are you trying to raise with the Kickstarter program? So now we put $10,000 because we had to play the algorithm game to try to reach our goal and then get placed on the front page. But essentially, the funds that we're looking to raise is about, it's going to sound crazy, but it's about $150,000 in order to purchase the equipment that we need to process the cow scale that we're at. The equipment, unfortunately, is not a piece of equipment can run you $30,000. And so we're looking to buy the entire set so that we

can produce that capacity. Okay. So you're trying to want to be clear. So, so you're obviously your goal is to raise $150,000, but on, but so on the page right here, it says, uh, 10,000. So what are you, so what are you, so you reached 10,000 then what's, what's the next step? So once you reach 10,000 then what's what's next step so once you reach your goal um kickstarter is great about highlighting businesses that like um have seemed to have a lot of support and so then they place you on their front page you get more and more supporters the great thing is they don't tap you so there have been uh companies that have raised um three thousand percent above what they initially went for. So that is somewhat my goal is to go above and beyond,

but with what we raise, we'll be able to, it might not be at the scale that we're at, but on a small, small, small capacity, be able to fulfill those awards, start processing on a small scale, cacao from our family's farm. Like I said, it won't be enough to keep up with the capacity of what we're doing on the daily, but on a small scale, we'll be able to fulfill those rewards.

So your eventual goal is to raise $150,000, and as a part of the Kickstarter, is this, and again, people asking questions, so is this offering equity in the company? Gotcha. So Kickstarter is not offering equity in the company? Gotcha. So Kickstarter is not for equity. You get rewards. So it's a rewards-based program. So some of our rewards, all of our rewards are actually exclusive. Some of them you'll get a bean to bar, chocolate bar from our first harvest that we take from my family's farm.

That's something that will never come back again. For one of the top rewards, we'll send you a small kit for you to make your own chocolate. And we'll provide the cacao beans. We'll provide a mini melanger for you as well as some of the other ingredients that you'll need. And then you'll provide things like, you know, sugar that you can access yourself. So we'll provide a kit for you to make your own bean and bar chocolate. So really exciting gifts. And we hope that people find value in what we're trying to provide with our rewards. Okay. And again, here, as right here on the page, it says your long-term goals, your phase one, phase two, phase three. And that is, and so right now you're in what, phase one?

Yeah, we're in phase one, trying hard to make it to phase two. Okay. All right then. All right. Well, look, we certainly appreciate it. Good luck. And of course, Walk People Through, you have a discount code for orders for our audience, right? Yes, we do. So use the code RMU10. That's all caps all together for 10% off, and that's just for your audience. All right, then. So folks can do that.

And so two things, they can do that, but they can also go to your Kickstarter. They can just put in Coco Asante in Kickstarter. And again, right now you are at $6,451 pledge of your $10,000 goal. And so go ahead and my iPad, please. And so hopefully in the next 24 hours, you will hit that $10,000 goal. Ella, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right. Thanks for having me. It was an honor. All right. Thank you so very much. All right, folks. Before I go, I'll tell you how we had three just really just stupid videos of people. And so I saw this video and if you let folk talk long enough, then they're going to show you exactly who they are.

And so check out this white nationalist who was not happy and was blocking this brother in a driveway. How many of Colin have you told? He's not on my property. He's leaving. He doesn't live here. He can't leave until I move, and I'm not ready to move. I wasn't here but for 30 seconds. I walked in to car with my daughter. You're not supposed to stand or park in somebody's driveway. You were trespassing.

It's in front of a building. I did not know. My car was running. My car was running the entire time. No, but I leased that. Okay, that's fine. We didn't know that. What apartment do you live in?

Don't worry about it. I did not know. I did not know. I didn't park in a handicap. You don't know how to park in a you live in? Don't worry about it. I did not know. I did not know. I didn't park in a handicap. You don't know how to park in a driveway? My car was running the whole time. I was here for less than two minutes. So I can go to your house and park in your driveway?

Ma'am, I already apologized. I already apologized. And when you're saying don't ma'am you, I'm trying to be respectful. I'm not doing anything else. I'm trying to be respectful. I'm not doing anything else. I'm trying to back out. I picked up my daughter. I was here for two minutes. Okay, I've been parked for five.

Ma'am, you have not been parked for five. You have not. He just got here to pick up his daughter from my house. How long have you been here? A couple minutes, right? A couple minutes is two, which is what I said I was parked for. You were already here. That's not five. Ma'am, I'm trying to leave. Well, I'm trying to get home. So get home then. Well, I can parked with. That's not fine. I'm trying to leave.

Well, I'm trying to get home. So get home then. Well, I can't because you're in my way. You're in my way. I want to back up. You're being a kid. This is my property. This whole complex is not your property.

I'm not trespassing. I leased this garage. Okay. And that's fine. And I'm trying to move. You shouldn't have been there in the first place. Do you not understand? All right.

For two minutes? He can't pick up his daughter? No, that's not a parking spot. Okay. Can you move please? You're not in a parking spot. You're actually partially out in the fire lane. So let's be on that.

How about we do that? No, you're entitled. That's right, because I'm white and we rule. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's you. That's you. That's right, because I'm white and we rule. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

That's you. That's you. That's you, right? Yeah, come on. I'm white. We rule. All you have to do is wait for it, Joe. May not come when you want it, but it'll be right on time.

It's crazy. I mean, at the end of the day, this reminds you is what a lot of this is about. It's about power control or feeling like you're losing it, right? Feeling insecure. And so therefore, I will park in front of someone, stop everything to let them know that they shouldn't be here. Now, what if somebody flipped it on her and decided to trap her? Then she would have had a separate problem, right? And so, see, this is why people go postal. This is why people do things that you wouldn't necessarily think that they do, that they ought to do. And so, you know, once again, you've got a Karen pressing buttons because she feels like she's losing power and losing her way. And by the way, she's leasing

the property. She doesn't even own the property. She doesn't even own the garage. It's not hers either. Okay? It's crazy. They will always show themselves, Mustafa. It's just ridiculous. I mean, these folks believe that they can weaponize their supposed privilege to be able to do and say anything that comes into their minds. And it's no longer 1930, 1954, 1968. This is 2023. Get it together. Randy? She shows why they cling so hard to white supremacy, because the only thing that she has is that whiteness. We can look at her and see there's no other reason she should feel superior, but that's all she's got is the system of white supremacy

to make her feel that she can talk that way because, I mean, why do they always got to look like that? Come on. All right, folks. That is it. Joe, Randy, Mustafa, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us on our panel. Folks, tomorrow I'll be broadcasting from Atlanta where more than 100 groups are gathering

to talk about the focus over the next year when it comes to the 2024 election. So we will be there tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. So look forward to that. The National Coalition of Black Civic Participation is putting that together. And so we will be there. So looking forward to that. And so we'll see you then.

Don't forget, folks, support us in what we do. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You can also support us with your contributions by joining our Brena Funk fan club. Send check-in money orders to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,

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I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN.

You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive

into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you,

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