#RolandMartinUnfiltered - GA Deputies Beat Black Man, GA's Early Voting, Blocking Loan Forgiveness, Twitter's Imploding

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

11.15.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: A Georgia sheriff launches an investigation after video shows deputies beating a black man in his cell.  Jarrett Hobbs' attorney will explain how his client in custody for minor charges ended up getting beat by several Georgia deputies.  Georgia's Democratic Party, the Warnock for Georgia campaign, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sued the secretary of state over early voting for December's runoff elections.  With President Biden's student loan forgiveness stuck in courts, what does that mean for those drowning in debt?  I'll talk to Jared Bass, the Senior Director of Higher Education Policy for the Center for American Progress, about what this means as the deadline to repay draws near.  Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, several executives quit as instances of racial slurs soar.  Social Analyst & Diversity Strategist Shireen Mitchell will break down the report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate.  In tonight's Marketplace segment, we're featuring Dope Pieces Puzzle Company.  Puzzles that bring black art to life.  And some sad news, Virginia McLaurin, the centenarian who danced with the Obamas, has died.  Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are 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. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Back up! We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. 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? Thank you. Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! We'll be right back. into how a black man was viciously and brutally attacked by jail guards.

Jared Hobbs' attorney will join us to discuss how his client was in custody on minor charges and ended up in the hospital. In staying in Georgia, Democratic Party, the Warnock for Georgia campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Congressional Committee, they are suing the state over the Senate, the Senate, the Senate, the Congressional Committee, they are suing, suing the state over the issue of early voting. Republicans are claiming that there cannot be early voting

beginning the day after a state holiday, one honoring a violent racist, Robert E. Lee. But this differs from what they previously said will break down exactly this particular lawsuit. With President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness stuck in the courts, what does that mean for those drowning in debt? We'll talk with Jared Bass, Senior Director of Higher Education Policy for the Center for American Progress,

the possibility of them extending the folks not having to pay their student loans. We'll talk about that. Also, since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, it has been an absolutely nut, just crazy show around there. Social analyst and diversity strategist Sheree Mitchell will join us, talking about what is next for this app that African Americans have used for mobilization and organization. Could the end of Twitter be near? Also, tonight's Marketplace segment,

we're featuring Dope Pieces Puzzle Company. Puzzles that bring black art to life. Also, folks, my goodness, how dumb is Hershel Walker? Wait until I play for you what this fool said about gas emissions and the Green New Deal. I still know what the hell he's talking about. And also, you might remember Virginia McLaurin. She was the sister who was 106 years old who was so excited to see President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama that she did a dance when she passed away at the age of 113.

We'll show you, of course, her visit to the White House. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the spook, the fact, the fine. Let's go. He's rolling with Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling Marten, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know. He's rolling Marten now. Folks, it is always painful. We have to show you a video of a black man being beaten by jail officials or even the cops as well. But this is the case out of Georgia. We're warning you right now that if you need to turn away, do so. But this is the case out of Georgia. We're warning you

right now that if you need to turn away, do so. If it's triggering, please do so. And so let me set it up this way. So a black man in Georgia was arrested for traffic violations and drug possession charges. This took place September 3rd. So all it was, he ends up being viciously attacked by jail deputies thrown against a wall in Camden County. Now, the security video I'm about to show you has no audio. And so we're just going to go ahead and play it right now, folks. And so, again, this is what happens when they are there in the jail. You see guards there coming up to the outside of the cell where 41-year-old Jared Hobbs is being held. Then four other guards all of a sudden come in.

One unlocks the door. They enter the cell. Now, as soon as the deputies enter the cell, one deputy immediately goes for Hobbs' neck. I mean, so you see right here, okay, no rationale whatsoever. The other deputies follow, attempting to subdue Hobbs. Now, again, there are four deputies on Hobbs. They are now punching him viciously.

They eventually pull him out of the cell, slamming him against the wall, while continue to beat him. Now, you see a black sheriff's deputy steps in. He's trying to somehow intervene. These are four white deputies who are beating on this black suspect. And so you see the black sheriff's deputy. They won't even allow him. He's trying to get in. You can see him trying to get in, trying to somehow, and we don't know, again, in terms of what his position is, what his capacity is.

Now we see them out of frame. We don't see what is happening as he is being subdued. But clearly, that was a vicious attack. The attorney for Mr. Hobbs is Harry Daniels. He joins us right now. Harry, glad to have you on the show. So, first of all, why were they entering the jail cell? He was already being detained.

What have they said as to why they entered the cell the way they did? First of all, thank you for having me. According to their reports and the statements they gave to Mr. Hobbs, a probation officer, federal probation officer in North Carolina, the reason why they entered the cell in the first place, because they said Mr. Hobbs was being disruptive and was kicking on the cell door. Now, we received video through his attorney who represented him on his federal probation. I'll give you some content and background as to how he, a lawyer in North Carolina,

gave access to the footage. Mr. Hobbs was on federal probation. He had served his time in federal prison for fraud. He was on probation. He was driving through the state of Georgia, Camden County, which is right above Jacksonville, Florida, before he entered to the

state of Florida. He was stopped for speeding. Once he was stopped for speeding, it was determined that he had no license. It was smelled, according to the police report, smelled of odor marijuana. They subsequently did a search, and they found Schedule 1 drugs was ecstasy, and he was arrested. So he was arrested on those possession charges, speeding and driving out license. Upon entering the jail, Mr. Hobbs was having a mental crisis.

He was having a mental crisis at the time, and he requested to be placed in confinement, or he was determined that he needed to be placed in the confinement, kind of like what they call the suicide watch or the mental health unit of the jail. That's why Mr. Hobbs had this gown on, this blue gown, and he was naked up under that gown. Usually when you go in a suicide watch or that particular part of a jail, your clothes are taken from you just in case you have something that can hurt yourself, your clothing.

So he was inside the holding cell. Mr. Hobbs positioned that he did not do these things. He did not beat on the door. He was not cursing. I think he said he used profanity when he was accused of beating on the door. They didn't like what Mr. Hobbs said. And even if Mr. Hobbs was kicking the door,

once they came into the cell, Mr. Hobbs was compliant. And like you said, immediately, Roland, they immediately went to his neck, grabbed him by the neck, placed him against the wall, and began an outright assault on Mr. Hobbs. The way we got the video, well, they charged Mr. Hobbs. All these things that's happening to him, they charged Mr. Hobbs with nine felonies, nine counts.

They said he beat the officers. He was obstructive. He caused injuries to the officers. So based on that, Mr. Hobbs' probation was violated. Well, Mr. Hobbs' attorney in North Carolina said, his client said he didn't do these things. Show us the video. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

They claim that in the video that we just saw, Hobbs assaulted them. That's correct. I'm sorry, wait a minute. Wait a minute, help me out. So this is, come on, pull it up. This is the beginning of the video. Roll it back, roll it back, y'all. Help me out. So this is, come on, pull it up. This is the beginning of the video. Roll it back. Roll it back, y'all.

Roll it back. And first of all, y'all give me the video of my monitor behind me. That would be great. So it's free to right there. Free. Go back. Go back. So here's Hobbs in the video.

I'm not quite sure. I'm not quite sure what's in his hand. His back is to, don't play it yet, please. His back is his back is to don't play it yet. Please. His back is to the door. He's not even looking at the door. He'd leave it right there. His back is to the door. So he's not looking at the door.

Obviously they a lot come in now press play. All of a sudden, stop right there. So, the officer comes in, immediately grabs his neck, pushes him down, head up against the wall, roll it. Okay, he sits down, okay? Now, hand on his mouth, they turn him around. At no point do I see all of a sudden, now they start punching him in the head. At no point do I see him

beating the cops. Yeah, it's all right, Roland. And I can tell you that we get that defense. And that's where they put the police report, right? That's right. So they put a police report that he assaulted him. There we go. Lying reports again. Go ahead. He was

charged with nine counts. So that was one of the bases that his probation officer said, we're going to violate your probation because in Camden County, they said you assaulted and obstructed nine counts of obstruction. Well, his attorney in North Carolina sought that information and said, well, show me the video.

Once the video was received by the probation officer in North Carolina and the United States attorney's office in North Carolina, where his probation case was pending, they immediately dismissed. They said there's no way this man had committed assault. So wait a minute. So wait a minute. Hold up. So the probation officer in the U.S. attorney's office said no way, which now means y'all can call them to testify against these officers who lied.

Yeah. And not only did they beat him, they lied to a to the Department of Justice. They lied to the courts. They lied to the federal government about what happened to Mr. Hobbs. They never thought this video would come out. The way this video came out, because they had to produce this video to the federal government, the prosecution for Mr. Hobbs' probation violation. They had to. Had no choice. His lawyer requested it, and once he requested it and saw what happened to his client, he knew that you need to get a lawyer, you need to get a civil rights attorney, and they called

our office. See, this is the thing that, I say this all the time, all the time, that these cops, they lie repeatedly in their police reports. And this is why, and I'm not suggesting

that body cam footage is the be-all to end-all, but this is why, and I'm not suggesting that body cam footage is the be all to end all, but this is precisely why you have to record everything with these cops. Dash cam videos, body cam videos, cameras in jail cells, because they will lie in order to protect themselves to try to sit here and throw somebody in prison. Yeah, Merlin, when I was a defense attorney, a lot of times we would see reports from law enforcement. Those reports are slanted towards prosecution, not until we actually saw the video, the evidence, or talk to witnesses, and witnesses say, hey, I didn't even make those statements.

Those statements were made by the police. I'm not saying it always happened, but in this case, they never thought this video would see the light of day. This video as a black man and watching this video, this man getting beaten. And, and another thing that stood out to me about these, these police officers, it doesn't matter the race,

but it races plays a part. They beat him. He was not fighting back. Then you see the other detention officer, a black man stand by and do nothing. Then you see the other detention officer, a black man, stand by and do nothing. Well, actually, I get your point. As I was watching it, it looked like he was trying to somehow get in, but the four of them blocked him out. There was a video that we played a couple of weeks ago where there was a family that was

angry with a sentencing that came down, and He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene.

He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene.

He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. He was in the scene. So, again, them four white cops had him blocked out. They were sitting here saying, we're going to beat this man out. But I still need to understand. I still would love to hear what he has to say. And did he stand by them in a line about their police report?

Well, he was one of the officers that was considered to be an obstruction upon him. So he's one of the counts that was brought against Mr. Hobbs. So doing nothing or We're not on FLI. He knew that he was considered one of the victims in his case. So different strokes, different he didn't do enough and he stood by the lie.

Currently, let me just be very clear. The way they went in that sale and what they did, Mr. Hobbs, Roland, this is not their first time. Oh, absolutely. They knew the video was in there. They didn't care.

In fact, once this video became public, other people started calling. We got calls from other lawyers who have clients they represent and currently in litigation against this sheriff's office. We have an affidavit, and we will release this affidavit probably tomorrow to you all, to the media and the public, where the person

who's in charge, who is in charge of doing the investigations inside of the jail, use of force investigations, that they tried to cover up. She testified that they tried to cover up use of forces because they didn't want to appear that they was liable or admitted to liability in there.

She gave an affidavit in another case where a person's hands were split open when he was strip searched by just coming into jail for a DUI. Wow. So it's more to this story. This is a systematic environment, culture, atmosphere that allow these officers to believe that they can beat people without any regards or not even a recourse of anything happening to them.

So, I mean, you can look at this video. They are stomping this guy. It's like a gang initiation. They're trying to initiate him into a gang. They're beating him. So, I mean, you can look at this video. They are stomping this guy. It's like a gang initiation. They're trying to initiate him into a gang. They're beating him. You know, and there's nothing that can be said. This is a video where it shouldn't be polarizing. You know, if this was a dog they were beating,

they'd be charged with pruning animals. We just learned recently, as an hour ago, that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will be conducting an investigation in this matter. The district attorney has called on for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent investigation. And not just that, Roland, we will be searching, reaching out to the Department of Justice for the federal bureau of investigation. Well, I'll tell you what. Well, with the kind of action Kristen Clark's Civil Rights Division has taken against other jail guards and wardens, I fully expect these folks to be facing some federal prison time for their behaviors.

Attorney Harry Daniels, we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it, Roland. Hey, man, it's always good to have a Q on your show. Well, you know, somebody got to feel sorry for y'all. Right, Rue. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

All right, y'all. Speaking of a Q, Michael Brown, former DNC chair, finance committee, he's so happy he finally got a Q doing something of value on the show because he's tired of these alphas running this thing. Also joining us, Dr. Larry J. Walker, speaking of an alpha, assistant professor, University of Central Florida, Rebecca Carruthers. She's the vice president for Fair Elections Center. And I am. Oh, she's throwing up her pinky.

So, you know, we see you. We see you. And, of course, this was one of the souvenirs I got in 2020 from the Warnock team. You know, it's a little chilly here. I decided to wear it. And, yeah, Michael, I'm repping that alpha. It's black and gold. The colors ain't no incident. Ain't no accident.

All right. Let's get right to it. Larry, I want to start with you. Look, I keep saying over and over and over again, cops, if they lie on reports, automatic firing. Automatic firing because that's an official document. They're under the color of law. And this is the stuff that Kaepernick was protesting when all these white folks lost their minds.

And we see what happened. And they straight lied. The video does not lie. They didn't get attacked, didn't get hit. They straight lied. I just believe if you lie on a police report, it should be automatic firing and you should not be allowed to work in law enforcement ever again. I agree 100 percent, Roland. It's an interesting watching, you know, sadly watching the video. It reminds me of the many of the other videos we've talked

about on your show in terms of how law enforcement are treating folks, whether it's police on the street, treating black people on the street, or they're awaiting trial for whatever, for various reasons. But we have to put an end to this. I agree with you that these individual sheriffs should be fired immediately. They lied and also submitted a document in which they lied. The other thing about it is, and you had the gentleman, civil rights attorney, he talked about the eight or nine counts they charged him with. I mean, you can essentially end someone's life. The ability to find a job, find somewhere to live. And so we have to keep all this in mind in terms of filing a false report. And the other thing is, Roland, in terms of the video you highlighted is that his back was turned. They walked in and assaulted him right away, grabbed him by his neck, and this

began to, this began punching him severely. The other thing is, when he's pulled out and thrown against the wall, I mean, we've seen cases, Roland, in the past where this has ended up with individuals ending up with, you know, spinal problems, challenges, not being able to walk again for the rest of their lives. So I'm hoping that Georgia and the federal government hold these individuals accountable. And I certainly, you know, and I'll feel for this brother who was certainly just, like I said, just kind of, you know, sitting in the cell. But we just can't continue to allow individuals in law enforcement to behave like this, like cowboys, and, you know, beat people and then think they will get away with it. We have to charge these individuals and they should lose their jobs.

And Rebecca, that's absolutely it. And these folks who talk about, well, reform and let's give more money to training. They are highly critical of defund the police. But it's amazing for all the folk who love

talking about Back to Blue. It's amazing how quiet they get when videos like this pop up. Well, we keep hearing it's only a few bad apples, but it's apparent that it's a bad orchard. The other thing that I do want to talk about, when it comes to national standards, there are no national standards for law enforcement. For example, in the state of Alabama, you can have a GED and no additional training to now have a gun and a badge, to have the ability to do the lawful taking of someone's life if, quote unquote, the situation calls for it. So we do need national standards. There has

to be training, but even taking a further step back. When it comes to mental health crises, folks should not be in our criminal legal system when it comes to mental health crises. Law enforcement should not be a part of that. Yes, we should figure out for safety, how do we make sure that there's adequate counselors, adequate people to protect the counselors going into sometimes volatile situations, but it's apparent our criminal legal system just isn't working out for us. And I would say on a personal note, I have family members who have mental illness. And one of the things that my family talks about is what do we do in a crisis? What is our plan for dealing with crisis?

Do we call the police or who do we call when we're in the middle of a mental health crisis with some of those family members? And this just, Michael, we just keep seeing it over and over and over again. And again, they demonize activists and others who say it's time to end this stuff. But how about the people who are running around supporting these cops stand up? In fact, in Pennsylvania, the Republicans in the Pennsylvania House are trying to impeach Larry Krasner, the district attorney. And who is leading that effort? It's the Philadelphia Police Union because they are pissed off that Krasner has been holding cops accountable for official misconduct. That's why they want to get rid of him. And Republicans are crying, oh, it's crime, it's crime,

when they have no proof, no evidence whatsoever. But it is the police union in Philadelphia that's upset that this DA dares to hold cops accountable, just like the union in Baltimore targeted Marilyn Mosby, okay? That's what, because she decided to hold the cops accountable for the case there. I mean, this is what we're dealing with. These cops cannot stand. They're unions, fraternal order police. They cannot stand accountability.

No, and as we've talked about on numerous occasions, Roland, is the politic dynamic, the politic dynamic in a lot of jurisdictions, whether it's a more traditional kind of law enforcement or whether it's correctional officers, whoever it is, whether you carry a badge or not. Now that we have video of these outrageous acts, frankly, the police union shouldn't want these kind of folks in their unions. So there should be some discussion now legislatively. But until, and again, you and I have talked about this on numerous occasions, until you put pensions on the line and deal with that qualified immunity, this will continue to happen. Because we thought now that there are body cams and now that there's video of these kind of activities, the world would change. Well, the world's not changing until the legislation changes and people are held accountable legislatively. And that's where elected officials have to now...

It's difficult. I know it's difficult. I'm a former elected official. It's difficult to stand up to, whether it's a teachers union, a police union, because people are fearful that they won't get their endorsement and won't get those votes. But if you're serving the people, it seems to me that you need to approach the unions on the front end and say, hey, how can we work together? Because I know you don't want these knuckleheads within your ranks. That's the only way that this is going to be fixed, even with video. And look, it's just it's just crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Well, this is the sort of stuff that we see all the time. All right, folks, hold tight one second.

Got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk what's happening in Georgia, where you have lawsuits taking place over the beginning of early voting. How Republicans, again, are trying to rig the game to keep Democrats from winning. We'll tell you about that also. Hershel Walker is just dumb, y'all. Georgia, y'all have got to, my Lord, y'all have got to make sure this fool, that the only way he goes to the U.S. Senate

is if he's going and visiting somebody. That man has no business being an United States Senator. Wait until I play for you what this fool had to say about emissions from cars and the Green Deal. Literally, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. I have absolutely no idea. Folks, if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the like button, y'all. There's more than 2,000 of y'all watching right now. Stop talking for free.

Click the like button. It ain't going to hurt you. Don't cost you nothing. When I come back, we should easily have 1,000 likes. We should be waiting a whole hour to hit 1,000 likes. If you are watching on the Black Star Network app, if you're watching on Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, do the same thing. Hit the share button, hit the like button.

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The election is coming up. It's super important that folks know who they are voting for, but more importantly, what they are voting for. Y'all, we got the free shirts and free lunch right over here. Freedom is our birthright. No matter what we're up against, we're sending a message in Dallas and Texas and in the country. We won't black down. That's what this bus tour is all about.

The housing cost is one of the most capitalized areas that we have found. People who are marginalized, that are brown and black, we are suffering the most. And I think that we have the biggest vote and the biggest impact in this election. I'm voting for affordable housing, for sure. We should not be paying the cost of a utility failure

because our elected officials are too proud to say, we need help. I know that we can bring out our people to vote. It's a part of our birthright. It's a part of our heritage. And surely, it's a part of our present and part of our future. That's right. That's what's up. And we won't black down.

Forward that message to five friends, because in that message, it's got links to how to get registered, how to check your registration status. Like I said, 2.30, we'll start rendezvousing right here on this street. I am voting to let our voice be heard in the rural communities that, hey, we are people, too.

There are things that we need. Free shirts, free food, and lots of power. We are in Longview, Texas, where black voters matter. 365. Whatever type of oppression a white supremacist throws our way, we will not black down. We are in relentless pursuit of liberation of our people. Freedom is liberation for black bodies and black communities

to make economic change through political power. Freedom is choice. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down.

We won't black down. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we meet Ricky Fairley. She was given a death sentence by her doctor 11 years ago. But for Ricky, giving up was not an option. She declared war on her disease, turned her entire life upside down and won the battle. I know that God left me here to do this work. And when you talk about faith, faith is what got me through. I mean, I had to relinquish my faith and give my life to God and say, okay, God, what have you got for me? And he gave me my purpose, and that's why I'm here.

Her amazing story of strength, balance, and survival here on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. Hey, everybody, it's your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. A Missouri federal judge has blocked President Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness plan.

President, again, that plan, of course, was blocked Monday by the St. Louis 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court continued a block on debt forgiveness stemming from a court case in October where the court put the program on hold while it considered efforts by several states that questioned whether the Biden administration can waive or modify the terms of federal loans. Jared Bass, the senior director of higher education policy at the Center for American Progress. Jared, glad to have you here. should have anticipated these court moves and should have moved faster to be able to get folks to apply and then to begin the process of student loan debt forgiveness. Now we're hearing the White House is considering extending this moratorium on paying back student loans. What are y'all hearing? And just what do you think, again, of these these federal courts stopping this action? You know, first, I just have to say, so, you know, the Biden administration set out the beginning of this this whole program,

you know, assessing their legal authority and their opinion. And they've even doubled down on that most recently. You know, do you believe that they have the legal standing, legal authority to be able to issue broad-based debt cancellation. And so they are in the process of appealing the court's decision, Northern District Court of Texas, a Trump appointee who actually issued that opinion late last week, two days after the election. So that's one. This is something that we will see the White House continue to fight. As they've said, they believe that the law is on their side. You know, it's important to hear to note that some 40 million or plus 40 million, you know,

individuals in our country are going to be eligible or are eligible for debt cancellation. The White House had already received over 20 plus million applications when the program was active and also had taken steps to process around 16 million. So that's 16 million borrowers who were just on the cusp of relief before this opinion had come down. And that program is going to be open through December 2023. So we were likely to see and we saw steps and the administration taking steps to provide relief, as it said it was going to. I think the part here not to get lost is, you know, while debt cancellation is one piece, this was part of a larger comprehensive plan from the White House to address the issue of student debt in our country. So we saw that with, you know, changes to the public service loan forgiveness that came out, extension of the payment pause, which I'll talk about here in a minute again, and then also income driven repayment plan as as well that the White House and Department of Education are still working on rolling out to make repayment and life easier for borrowers once student loan payments turn back on.

So one thing of consideration that we're hearing is whether or not, as part of this comprehensive plan, since debt cancellation is temporarily on hold, whether or not it would make sense to extend the payment pause beyond January 1st. And that's something that reporting from Washington Post and other outlets has reported the White House is considering. So I think all options are on the table. But this is still part of a comprehensive strategy from the White House and from those in Congress who support it to pursue debt relief for borrowers. Is there anything that people can do, or is this simply now going to have to just wind itself through the court system? So while this is winding its way through the court system, one easy task for those who have student loans is just to sign up for updates on studentaid.gov.

So that same website that people were using to fill out the application for debt relief, they can go on studentaid.gov and sign up for updates for information around the status of the program, what the administration is doing, and also for updates around some other key initiatives that the department's working on to provide relief to borrowers. All right, then. Well, look, this is one of those issues that played a huge role in the election. It has major financial ramifications, and we certainly hope to see some action, some positive action from these courts when it comes to this issue. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Back to my panel here. Michael, look, here's the deal. This is why we talk about why courts matter. You have Republicans who seek out these Trump judges for the purpose of, again, getting them to rule a certain way. Democrats now control the Senate. They now will have another two years to continue to fill as many of these federal vacancies as possible.

This is why this is important. And, you know, I love these yahoos who try to come at me talking about, oh, you've been a shield for the Democratic Party. I can show you case after case how Trump-appointed judges are ruling against issues that many of us care about. This is why how you vote matters. Who controls the White House? Who controls the Senate?

It has an impact on who these federal judges are who serve for life. Absolutely correct. Elections have consequences, and this is part of the consequence of when you hold the United States Senate, where you get to control these judges. And frankly, history has shown how you're supposed to treat these seats that are vacant. For example, and we'll just use the last couple of presidents, President Obama did not do a very good job of filling these seats. Yes, he appointed a couple to the Supreme Court, clearly, and I'm not saying he didn't appoint any federal judges, but it's almost

like his team was always looking for kind of the perfect judge. Like, you could never have gotten a B on your report card ever in life to serve. Number 45, whoever, however people refer to him, did, frankly, a great job. He didn't care. He just wanted a conservative judge that was young. If you fit those two criteria and that you were on the federalist list, if you're on that list, you were young. Obviously, if you're on that list, you're already very conservative.

That's good enough for him. And he was just filling these seats that Obama didn't fill. To President Biden. Well, actually, remember, Obama was also blocked from filling. Mitch McConnell and the Republicans blocked. Yeah, but you're right. The Obama folks were not aggressive in those first four to five years when they controlled the Senate to be able to appoint judges. As I mentioned, having the Senate, elections have consequences. President Biden, to his credit,

is filling those seats, those vacant seats that 45 didn't get a chance to fill because he was not reelected. Now Biden is going to fill those seats. And so hopefully you'll start to see a change in those district court judges, then the appellate judge, and then obviously you have folks that can serve on the Supreme Court. So elections have consequences. I'm glad we still hold the Senate so President Biden will continue to get these judges through. And I'll tell you this,

Rebecca, it really pisses me off when I hear these idiots who talk about oh, you know, the Supreme Court Justice Katonzi Brown Jackson, you know, that's not substantive. And we see story after story of how federal judges rule.

I mean, look, the black judge in D.C., Judge Emmett, he just ruled against Title 42 that has been used to deport illegal immigrants. Federal people, I say this repeatedly because, again, this is the craziest thing. I am a native of Texas. It is stuck in my head, Justice William Wayne Justice. Why? I don't know. There's no other federal justice besides the black one, that federal judge, that it just stuck in my head. Why? Because for more than 20 years in watching the news, his name was always in the news because he oversaw the Texas

jail system, the Texas prison system. It was always in the paper. It was always on television. So for more than half my life, I kept hearing about this judge, federal judge, William Wayne Justice,

perfect name for a judge, who oversaw the heinous, corrupt Texas prison system. That is the power of these federal judges. And so when people are walking in that ballot box, that's one of the issues you should be voting on. Who will be the kind of judges this person appoints? Well, one thing that we see on the conservative side is that they have a list of folks who they want to make sure that they become judges once they're in power.

So on the progressive side, we need to see that list too. The reason why we need to see it so those conversations can happen within communities so folks know, hey, if I vote for this particular person, then these are the types of judges that they will appoint. I will say out of the four of us here, I'm still paying on my student loans. And I'm not happy that August. The student loans that I have is under the FELP program, the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Those particular loans don't even qualify under Biden's plan. But then initially Biden was trying to make those qualify,

but then there was a threat of lawsuits. So then Biden said, well, hey, if you are able to consolidate your loans into direct loan service by the education department by September 29th, and it's one of those felt loans, then yeah, we could go in and pull you in too. However, many people who I know like me didn't consolidate in time. And also some of those people now are in points of their career where they're making just a little bit above what the threshold is for that forgiveness. So we're all still paying loans and we're in our 40s. Larry.

Yes, I want to say to my colleague, I'm in the same boat with you in terms of continuing to pay back student loans. And Roland, one of the points I want to make about this issue regarding student loan debt is this is a civil rights issue. And I don't think the Biden administration purposely or not didn't frame it that way. We know it is based on the data that African-Americans incur more student debt than white, former white students. And we know this because this is connected to racial inequities in our country, particularly when it comes to housing in terms of how much wealth you have to send your kids off to college. So once again, black folks incur a lot of debt. So we have to shape this

as a civil rights issue. And I certainly hope that the Biden administration does extend the moratorium because, you know, it's just not realistic, particularly during holiday season, to think that people are going to be able to restart and start making these payments over again. And it's going to be really interesting in terms of what happened with the courts. Already five administrations had two lawsuits back to back. But I also want to, like I said, highlight, as I said, this is a racial civil rights issue, is that many of these Trump-appointed judges understand that. In fact, we saw a couple weeks ago, Roland, when one of the lawsuits was filed, they specifically talked about, I think it was somewhere in the Midwest,

specifically talked about that the student loan debt disproportionately benefits Black students. So let's be clear about what this is in terms of, once again, it's centered within economics and race. Folks, this is real simple. As you're sitting out here and you're sort of deciding what it is that matters to you, understand we're going to see more of this. Understand the courts matter. The right understands that. They've been pissed off with the federal courts after Brown v. Board of Education.

They've been angry about the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act. They were angry at how the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, how they really used the power of the law to make desegregation real. And they made it clear that after Roe v. Wade and other decisions, that they were going to go after the court in a significant way. That's why they have the long game. And so I think Democrats have finally woken the hell up to that and now realize that and that when you have the power, you use it and you don't apologize and you use it in a very aggressive manner. That to me, folks, what has to happen. And so we'll see what happens when it comes to the student loan debt forgiveness. But trust me, they are going to try to go after this

administration in every possible way on any decision, executive order or not, because they do not want them to actually help the American people. It's as simple as that. Got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about Herschel Walker, the Georgia race. Republicans, again, trying to rig the election to keep folks from voting. We'll talk about those two issues. Folks, again, if you are watching us right now on YouTube, hit the like button. I've said to you numerous times how these things matter when it comes to their algorithm. It has a direct impact on views, on recommendations. It

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And so again, when you look at this studio, when you saw what happened on election night, when you look at over here, when it comes to our green screen, when you look at the set over here, when you look at all of these monitors and televisions in here, something breaks down, got to pay for it. One of our cameras got damaged. I just sent that camera off to Canon to fix that camera. That Canon camera is $1,700. That's just straight up.

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Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. I'm Martin. Thank you. All right, folks, since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, it has been imploding before our very eyes. Folks have been laid off. It's all kind of drama.

He spends $44 billion. He fires the CEO, the top executives. He's cut 75% of the workforce. Now they've seen a mass exodus of employees as he announces that bankruptcy is not off the table. Racial slurs have dramatically increased. They've cut back again on the monitoring as well. The Center for Countering Digital Hate found 26,200 tweets and retweets containing the N-word were published between October 31st and November 6th. High-profile users like Whoopi Goldberg, Shonda Rhimes, and others are leaving advertisers and putting their money on hold.

It is an absolute shitshow at Twitter. Joining us now is Shereen Mitchell, social analyst and diversity strategist. Shereen, glad to have you here. I mean, I don't think we've ever seen this, a company just completely just erode goodwill in this quick period of time. In fact, he was tweeting today how happy he was to welcome back some folks who he fired. Because they fired people and went,

oh, damn, we might need to bring them back. Exactly. I always find it fascinating. At the end of the day, I think some of the challenges that we have is that there are people like this who think that they can just do whatever they want on these platforms. And he's just one of those examples. He unfortunately is going to have to deal with FTC consent decrees. He also has several other items that he's going to have to deal with. And ultimately, at the end of the day,

I think that people don't realize that this is not just about money. This is about all the other things that I swear that like they think that he can just do whatever he want because he's now made the company private. But that's not true. He cannot do whatever he wants. And all those issues that you just mentioned are really important for us to have a conversation about because the harms that are impacting other individuals, as well as companies, by the way, also has a huge impact at this present moment. And again, I mean, you're seeing people who are leaving, you're seeing conservatives rejoice, saying, oh, he's going to make this all about free speech. But the bottom line is, it's, again, causing significant problems.

And if you ain't making money off advertising, you're a DOA. Absolutely. And it's really fascinating because I think that one of the things he told some of the advertisers that he knows that, that like hate speech should not be alongside advertisers, but he just greenlit Richard Spencer. How does that work? And again, you know, one of the things that when you listen to, again, these conservatives who are just sort of elated because they've been angry that Donald Trump was banned by Twitter as well. And this was a place for people to be able to communicate, to be able to share. We hear about black Twitter as well. And it's literally been destroyed before our very eyes.

Some 240 million users across the world. So this is not a play thing. No. And actually, it's a global thing as well. I think that people miss the part that a lot of some of the organizing, some of the things that's happening in Iran and other countries, they've used Twitter to organize. They've also used Twitter to let other people know what's going on, to get the supports that they need. So it wasn't just a random thing that he's doing. I think that in some ways he knows that this platform has been used to help with, you know, Arab Spring in 2009, other aspects that we now know are happening other places. I think there was like a big pivotal moment during Ferguson where people from, you know, Palestine was telling Black people, Black Lives Matter, how to deal with, you know, the tear gas and things like that.

And that was being shared on Twitter. I think the broader context of what Twitter was being used for is something that he's actually been participating in trying to dismantle in addition to, quote-unquote, saying free speech, by allowing people who are harmful, who are trying to spread misinformation, who are basically being violent in their rhetoric against other groups of people, giving them blue checks and the

ability to say whatever they want on his platform. One of the things that, on, this one put out, and how they're being mocked for decisions that they make. Harris Faulkner and Mercedes Schlapp was one of those folks who were just mocking people. And everything they want to throw out is like, woke, woke, woke, woke, woke. I'm going to find the clip. But all of these

conservatives are rejoicing in it. But the reality is they've tried to create their own platforms, and all of them have massively failed to be able to match the success of Twitter. Yeah, because I think that people don't realize is that when you get into what we call, what I've been calling, you know, social media segregation, you're basically talking to yourselves, right? It's the ecosystem. And you're basically having the same conversations with the same people who believe what you believe. With something like Twitter,

because it was more of an open network versus a closed network, you know, Facebook is kind of a closed network because you have to be friends unless your post is public and people can shut their posts down or the like. But on Twitter, like people can search Twitter and still see conversations happening across

the globe. People can have all their different versions of identities. If you're a disabled person, you can have a conversation with people in disabled Twitter. You can have people with conversations in Black Twitter. And there's intersections in between. And usually when these people try to go off and do their own segregated platforms, they fail because they're only talking to themselves. They're only repeating each other's rhetoric. And usually in that moment, if you don't realize, they don't have people that they can attack unless they're attacking each other.

And they don't want to be attacking each other. They want to attack other groups of people. But I do think that that's one of the reasons why it fails. Are we seeing, I mean, are we literally seeing the demise? Because I just can't imagine advertisers continuing to spend money on this platform knowing full well that this dude is just nuts. He just, you know, he will go here, go there in a heartbeat. So I think the advertisers would not, I mean, just to be honest, right, you want to be able to trust where you're spending your money.

If this person decides today, like, oh, you spent your money on this, but, you know, that was a promise in a contract that we agreed on, but today I don't want to do that. I'm going to do something different with your money. I think that that's the part that people don't understand. Advertisers don't want that kind of instability. And that's what he's been proven to be doing. The other thing that's really clear is the systems themselves are being dismantled. The infrastructure is being dismantled. At some point, some of these things are not going to work properly because the people who could make it work properly are the people

that were fired. I think his name is Simon. I think it's Luke Simon, who was like the senior director of engineering, basically fired people and then went into Slack and said, hey, we're going to ask these people back, but we're only asking them back for their knowledge and the things that they worked on. But these were lazy people and they're not going to be here for a long period of time. Imagine being asked to come back to dump your knowledge into a company and then be fired again. That is literally the problem that we're having because they don't realize is that that knowledge transfer should have happened before you fired anybody. But when you make a blanket firing like they did with the 3700 and then later did it to like 4000 and something for the contractors who were also dealing with content moderation and making sure that there were certain things in place,

like why would why would advertisers want to be in a system that they know is eventually going to break and not work properly? This is what took place. Just the sheer silliness of Harris Faulkner on Fox News. And I don't know why in the hell they're platforming that nutcase Mercedes Schlapp, who her and her husband, they run CPAC. But just watch this, folks. And again, they're mocking all the people who are there at Twitter and some of the cuts he's making. But these are the same people who use the very same platform. So let me go see if I can just play this here.

Boy, it's not even Friday yet, baby. Welcome back. Elon Musk, first band banned working from home, and now he's getting away with free lunches for employees. Hold on one second. We'll have it for you in a second. Once Patron lets me know. But again, what you're seeing are people who think this is a joke, but we're talking about employees. We're talking about people who can't afford publicists and marketers and people who literally utilize this platform for messaging. I mean, it serves a crucial purpose. It does. And it's not just the marketing purpose, which is like from a corporate perspective.

A lot of marketers have used this platform for that. In many instances, you've seen the way that they've done outreach, the way they've used influencers to get their message out, the way that they've reached their target markets based on using platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But it's also campaigns and politics. They've used it for those political frameworks. Like many of the aspects that we just saw during the election was being used. And the fact that he decided to quote unquote break Twitter just before the election is also a key part of this. So like even doing any digital organizing or getting any politician to participate and doing outreach with their videos.

Those are ads that they are also paying on Twitter as well. So it's not just the activists, but it's all these key pieces of how we operate in society with ads. And he's basically saying, I don't care about those ads unless it caters to what I want this platform to be. And he's saying for free speech, while basically, you know, dismantling free speech for certain people. Questions from the panel. Let's see. Rebecca, you first. Sure. So my question for you is, what's the path forward? Right now we see that Twitter isn't capable of protecting those of us who are on Twitter and protecting us against targeted hate.

So what's the path forward? How do we as users who are still on the platform navigate this until either we migrate to a different platform or Twitter or Elon Musk figures this out? I don't expect Elon Musk to figure this out, by the way. He happens to be one of those people who believe that he's the one that can fix it and the people who could fix it, he let go. So I think the reality that I think that for all of us that we need to face is that we need to be able to still operate in this platform. So the one of the first things I tell people to do, download your data now, get everything you can off the platform that you've put up here, because that's your content. Make sure you have it and make sure that they're paying attention. as, you know, mis- or disinformation, that's going to be a problem

because official sites like the National Wildfire, one of the National Wildfire Associations, their official status was removed. Their blue check might be there, but there will be mimics of that. So now we have to have people paying closer attention to seeing whether or not these are really official organizations or entities or not, because now anyone can buy a blue checkmark. It does not mean that they're official. It does

not mean they're a real person. It also does not mean that this is not someone who's there to commit some harmful acts. I would say still report them, document it. But ultimately, where people are going at this point is places like Counter Social, Mastodon. I'm seeing other aspects of people trying to do, you know, community building and other aspects. But up until that moment that we find where everyone else is going right now, some people are still staying to try to make sure that they can have that community. Before I go to Larry, here again is the mocking of Harris, Faulkner, Mercedes. I mean, this is just how silly these people are. What? It's not even Friday yet, baby.

Welcome back. Elon Musk, first banned working from home, and now he's getting away with free lunches for employees who survived the chopping block at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco. He says Twitter spends $13 million a year on food service. And that, quote, badge and record show peak occupancy was 25 percent, average occupancy below 10 percent. There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast.

They don't even bother serving dinner because there is no one in the building. But the move drew rapid criticism from former Twitter employees. Who would have guessed? All right. A Democrat activist who tweeted, quote, the fire, he fired three quarters of the employees, and now he's planning to starve the rest of them. Oh, Mercedes.

This is worse than Biden's student loan forgiveness program. Look, Harris, I think that it is a former woke company that is going broke and Elon is trying to save it. And that's really the result of this. When you're talking about the fact that in San Francisco alone, nobody, hardly anyone was going to work. They're spending a ton of money on the property itself. Why not make these fundamental changes? So he did come in with the sink. He's making a statement. He's trying to make sure they don't have to go bankrupt.

But it's going to be painful. And these Twitter employees, which are snowflakes, can't handle it. And, you know, and so we welcome the change. We want to see Twitter really become this platform for free speech and this platform to make sure that it actually can survive when it's being mismanaged by a bunch of liberal woke, you know, management types that are now gone. So, Mark, I this may be a. Boy, I love it how we just work in woke there several times, Larry. And that's

really what is at play here. They can't stand the fact that people actually have a point of view and get to express it. And we can blast people like her. In fact, let me see the tweet showing how stupid she is right now. Go ahead. Yeah, she got in all the adjectives she could describe some of the people that, you know, Fox likes to make fun of. So, you know, one of the things I want to highlight is, and a question I want to ask is,

in terms of, we talked about Black Twitter. And obviously Black Twitter, I even saw something the last couple of days about folks talking about, you know, boycotting Twitter, I think even tomorrow. I'm just curious what people think about my question is what can happen if Black Twitter en masse leaves? What does that mean, A, for the future of Twitter

and then secondly, does that mean there will be some other platform that members of the Black community will create? I would love, Shereen, if Black people actually did that and went to fan base because the bottom line is, you know, we make folks stuff sexy. And again, that's supporting something that's black owned. That'd be great. Shereen, go ahead. No, absolutely. I mean, but we have to also remember, like, I think that's the best. This is part of the key piece of that is that, remember, we had that before, right? We had

Black Planet. Like, don't forget, y'all. Like, it's not like we didn't do this before. Well, actually, Black Planet still exists. It's owned by Urban One, their Interactive One division. But not as many people are using it, right? Right, precisely. Exactly.

That's my point. Like, at the time when it was still a website, there was plenty of people who were using it. It's now moved to mostly a mobile app, and we're not seeing the same kind of movement there. So that's the example that I'm sharing, that we have the capacity to build our own, but we don't necessarily do that. Fanbase is another example. I think that if Black people leave Twitter en masse, I think that that is something that is going to definitely have an impact on the platform, for sure, because I think most of the culture of Twitter has come from Black Twitter. I also think that that also speaks to a level of where do we go next? Where does the collective go? And where do we go that we can have full impact? And I think there's a difference there. Like, again, it becomes a little

bit of a social media segregation. It's just us talking to each other and not crossing our intersections or other communities, which is what Twitter gave us the opportunity to do as a very public platform. I think the other key thing, though, I think about the food thing, I just want to make sure that we're clear about this. Y'all seen the photos, right, of people sleeping on the floor trying to complete the jobs of things that people were fired from. And here he's cutting food, right? So they're supposed to sleep at the place that they are, but they're not supposed to wake up and be able to get something to eat. I don't think people are connecting the full dots. I think this is some kind of like, oh, I'm just taking one, you know,

this really simple thing away from these people, but these are the same people he's asking them to come in now and stay and work late. And then basically what they're supposed to stay in the building and starve to death. It's just really fascinating to me about the way people interpret that. So I think there's a combination of things about that clip,

is this conversation of woke, woke, woke. It's still a conversation about, like, what are Black people able to do on these platforms and how much are we protected and where can we go to still have our voices heard? And not just amongst ourselves, but across other communities as well. Michael.

On the regulation side, Senator Markey, if it was today or yesterday, said that if platforms like a Twitter, I mean, I think he was using social media totally, but Twitter in particular, if they don't fix it, we will, we being Congress. Do you think that's the appropriate message? And what legislative fixes do you think need to come in besides the obvious ones of hate speech and those kind of things?

I think the marquee thing, I think people are misunderstanding the marquee piece. Right now, all of the compliance officers have left. All of them. The major privacy compliance and internet compliance and a couple of others, security compliance, they're all gone. They left because, like, right now, Twitter's supposed to be answering to a dissent decree

with the FTC. Markey's not making a threat for something down the road. This is literally right now in front of Twitter. And he's pretending like he doesn't have to do anything about it. I think there was an email that went out from one of his personal lawyers that said he put ships on space so Congress means nothing to him. And he's literally saying things out loud that says that Congress means nothing. I think that there's a problem when people don't realize that there's actual laws that need to be fulfilled. And he's basically saying that him being a genius and a billionaire, he doesn't have to comply to any laws or anything like that.

And I think that that's part of the problem. I think that people don't understand. He took it over at a point where they have to report out and someone has to sign that compliance agreement. And the people who were willing to do that, who had the capacity to do that, to make sure Twitter was doing what it was supposed to do, those people walked out.

They weren't fired. They walked out. Well, we'll see what happens next, but it's drama every single day with Twitter. Shereen, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. Folks,

going to break. We'll come back. We're going to talk Georgia politics. Hersha Walker, every time this fool opens his mouth, I literally say, boy, can you speak English? Y'all, wait till I show y'all what this man talked about.

I just, it's making my head hurt even having to think about it. Also, the Warnock campaign, Democrats are going after Georgia over early voting. Republicans now are playing games when early voting can start. And what does this Confederate holiday have to do with it? Yeah, we'll explain it to you.

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It's super important that folks know who they are voting for, but more importantly, what they are voting for. Everybody. Y'all, we got the free shirts and free lunch right over here. that folks know who they are voting for, but more importantly, what they are voting for. Y'all, we got the free shirts and free lunch right over here. Freedom is our birthright. No matter what we're up against, we're sending a message in Dallas and Texas and in this country. We won't black down.

That's what this bus tour is all about. The housing cost is one of the most capitalized areas that we have found. People who are marginalized, that are brown and black, we are suffering the most. And I think that we have the biggest vote and the biggest impact in this election. I'm voting for affordable housing, for sure. We should not be paying the cost of a utility failure because our elected officials are too proud to say, we need help. I know that we can bring out our people to vote.

It's a part of our birthright. It's a part of our heritage. And surely, it's a part of our present and part of our future. That's right. That's what's up. And we won't black down. Forward that message to five friends because in that message, it's got links

to how to get registered, how to check your registration status. Like I said, 2.30, we'll start rendezvousing right here on this street. I am voting to let our voice be heard in the rural communities that, hey, we are people too. There are things that we need. Free shirts, free food, and lots of power!

We are in Longview, Texas, where black voters matter, 365. Whatever type of oppression a white supremacist throws our way, we will not black down. We are in relentless pursuit of liberation of our people. Freedom is liberation for Black bodies and Black communities to make economic change through political power. Freedom is choice. We won't Black down.

We won't Black down. We won't Black down. We won't Black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. We won't black down. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not be black. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storming the U.S. Capitol. We've seen shots. We people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history.

Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, 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. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, we talk about the principles of mindset, strategy, and execution. This week, we're adding a fourth, faith. You're going to hear from a mother and daughter duo who are helping thousands of Black women build wealth all through their faith.

You are more than you can ever imagine. Not just obtaining things to show that, but seeing yourself. Making your faith work for you, that's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. I am on screen and I am representing what a black man is to the entire world that's going to see this. And this might be the only black man, a representation of a black man that they see. Right. So I am responsible. Right. For how they see black men.

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This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, y'all. I have tried my best to just, just, I'm still just shocked that we even having a runoff in Georgia between U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and this nutcase

Hershel Walker. Folks, he was at a rally. And he was at a rally. And he did a rally yesterday. And the topic dealt with gas emissions and green new energy and all of this. And I just got to play this video. And I can't wait to hear what Larry, Rebecca, and Michael has to say. Because what I heard, this is just stupid. Okay, y'all ready? Watch this.

I can promise you Iran, Russia, they're not talking about trying to charge a tank out in the desert. They're talking about war. And let me tell you this here. If we was ready for the green agenda, I'd raise my hand right now, but we're not ready right now. So don't let them fool you like this is a new agenda. This is not a new agenda. We're not prepared. We're not ready right now. What we need to do is keep having those gas guzzling cars

because we got good emission on those cars. We're doing the best thing that we can, but we need help. We need help. And those other people not helping us, China not helping us, India not helping us, but yeah, we're going to do it all because they're spending your money. I can promise you Iran, Russia, and they're not talking to us. we've got the good... I'm going to play that again because I think some of y'all thought I was joking. Y'all, this is not an SNL skit. This is not an actor portraying

Hershel Walker as if he's a Fat Albert character. This is literally Herschel Walker speaking at a rally. No lie, y'all. Can we play it one more time? I can promise you Iran, Russia, and they're not talking about trying to charge a tank out in the desert. They're talking about war. And let me tell you this here. If we was ready for the green agenda, I raise my hand right now, but we're not ready right now. So don't

let them fool you like this is a new agenda. This is not a new agenda. We're not prepared. We're not ready right now. What we need to do is keep having those gas guzzling cars because we got good emission on those cars. We're doing the best thing that we can, but we need help. We need help. And those other people not helping us. China not helping us. India not helping us. But yeah, we're going to do it all because they're spending your money. I can promise you, Iran, Russia, they're not. Okay. Rebecca, we've got the good emissions onto our cars. So what? I'm still trying to understand what I just watched. I heard him say, we're not ready for the Green New Deal because we're just not ready yet.

We have the good gas guzzling cars and we got emissions. So, so far, okay, yeah, we do have these gas guzzling cars and we have emissions. But I don't understand the point here. Like, really, does he have family? Does he have friends? I would be so embarrassed. His son told us, why this fool running?

Who does he show up next week at the Thanksgiving meal? If I said something like that and then I showed up for Thanksgiving next week with my family, I wouldn't hear the end of it. I just don't understand anymore. I get the whole he was running for power, great. But I just don't understand right now. This just doesn't make sense to me. Like, I just, like, my brain is still, like, you saw, like, my face. Like, I, now I sound like him.

Thank you. Thank you, Herschel. I sound like you now. Michael, his was so nuts. Well, we not ready for it. I'll be the first one ready in my hand. We not ready for it. we're not ready for it. I'll be the first one to raise my hand. We're not ready for it. We're not ready for the Green Deal because Republicans are blocking it.

Because they're beholden to fossil fuel industry. If they actually get the hell out of the way and make the commitment and put the resources, then we're not having this issue. Then we're not behind. Look, I saw a tweet the other day from a daily caller who was trying to criticize America, criticize Democrats, because China is now the leader in solar panels. I'm sorry. I can remember when a Democratic president put some solar panels on top of the White House and was ridiculed by Republicans left and right. And then when Ronald Reagan became president,

he took the solar panels down that Jimmy Carter put up. And guess what? Solar panels, they are an American invention. And so here you got Republicans and conservatives, well, here's a doggone shame that China is now the leading manufacturer of solar panels in the world because Republicans ridiculed solar panels. That's why.

I have a headache from listening to him trying to figure out what he was saying. The first thing I was thinking about was the... Remember that old commercial, I'm getting an Excedrin headache? I mean, as my other colleague just mentioned, he's an embarrassment. The fact that more than 1.9 million people voted for this clown,

and I hate calling another brother a clown, but if the shoe fits, you got to put the shoe on. He's a clown. And 1.9 million people walked into that ballot and said, I want him to represent me in the United States Senate. Wow. I sit here. Okay. Okay, okay. I got to do one more, Larry.

And again, I don't know what the hell Harris Faulkner is doing on Fox News. I got no idea. So y'all going to love this one. Okay. This is like the, you know, politics for dum dummies greatest hits I don't know what it is all right so watch this here was anyone that was running they endorsed me because they knew I was going to have their backs they knew that I would always stand up for them the Georgia people know I would stand up for them and I thank Governor Kemp for winning again because he's done some

great things for the state but Governor Kemp is uh he's helping me to run as well. There's a lot of people that believes in this country. They believe in the people. And that's who I believe in. I believe in the people. And from what I've read in the Constitution, it says we the people, not we the government. And Senator, why not want the government to control your life? And that's one of the things I do not want. I think right now the government has shown they're going to spend your money. They're going to raise your taxes, they're going to give you more crime, they're going to open the border. They're doing things that that's not America. They're doing things that's not Georgia. And right now, as I told people, I'm Georgia born, Georgia bred. When I die,

I'll be Georgia dead. I love this state. I love this country. And I will always fight for the people and always fight for this country. Well, you know what? I had election night live audience voters voters' voices. There was anyone that was running. First of all, your ass live in Texas. And you've been living in Texas. They recruited you from Texas and so you ain't need to be living in Georgia

the last number of years. But I read the Constitution. It said we the people, not we the government. Larry. So, Roman, a couple things. The Constitution, Larry, literally spells out the government. I mean, it literally spells out the governance of the country. It literally spells out the number of the country. It literally spells out

the number of people in the Senate, in the House, what age you can run, the Supreme Court. I mean, it literally, it said we the people, not we the government. All right. Go ahead, man.

I don't have the words, so I'm going to gonna try so let's unpack this a little bit first of all herschel walker is is why we have to deconstruct issues about white supremacy that's first of all second of all he is an embarrassment because all the stereotypes and misconceptions you have a black about black men about all the things we have talked about in terms of relationship with men how he abuses them etc all this is reinforced this is reinforced, like I said, all the stereotypes about black men. The other thing is, Roland, it reminds me, when I see him at the podium and he was speaking to the crowd and I'm watching the people in the crowd look at him, it reminds me of that song, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, the way they're looking at him, because he doesn't know what he's talking about.

To give an example, he said, instead of the Green New Deal, he said the Green Agenda. So I thought he was going to start talking about green eggs and ham or something like that from Dr. Seuss, because it's not the Green Agenda, right? So he can't even name policy positions properly. But it's overall an embarrassment, and I hope the folks of Georgia will elect Brother Senator Warnock in a couple

weeks. Just so all the people who are watching, I just want y'all to understand what the Constitution actually says when they invoke we the people. I got my iPad, Henry. It says, we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The actual Constitution, y'all, lays out the government. It literally lays out, this is what the government is. The House, the Senate, those laws the federal government does not control, the states control those. It lays out the Supreme Court. It lays out when we elect people. It lays out how we elect people. It lays out constitutional amendments. It literally spells out the government. That's why, dumbass Hershel Walker, when someone is sworn in as a House member or as a Senate member or as the president, they literally recite an oath.

They do. Georgia, y'all have got to turn. I'm telling y'all, listen to me very clearly. Do not play games when early voting starts or when you have election day on December 6th. These Republicans don't care that he's an idiot. They don't care that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Georgia, don't do like the Yahoo's idiots in Alabama who elected one of the dumbest people ever in Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach. He's now one of their two United States senators. You cannot, I repeat, you cannot let this man anywhere near the United States Senate.

You have got to ensure that you are turning out and you are giving money to the Warnock campaign. Because I'm telling y'all, what we're dealing with here, and Republicans do not care, we're dealing with this man potentially being one of the two Georgia senators. It would then be a tie if Democrats maintain control and they win, it'd be 51-49. You lessen the power of, you lessen the power of Sinema and mansion, and things can get done. But I'm telling y'all, if you play around with the vote, let me be clear. Herschel Walker can win.

Rebecca, I keep telling these people, he can win. Don't think for a second. When you get to the runoff, it's 50-50. It's 50-50. If folk don't vote, that fool can be the one as a U.S. Senator and he'll be there for the next

six years, Rebecca. The next six years. Go ahead. So, a couple things. I don't know much about Hershel Walker's football career. I'm assuming he was a dynamic football player because that apparently is all that he has. But the other thing, let's talk about the Georgia runoff and the reason why you have runoffs in the South. Runoffs in the South were designed because they thought that Black voters were less likely to

show up a few weeks after the general election. That is the sole reason why we have runoffs in the South. So I want to make sure that every Black viewer, every Black voter in the state of Georgia hears me, hears me clear. This is a scheme to make sure that you don't show up to vote, that you don't show up to make sure that your voice is counted, to make sure that you don't have a say in our democracy. So I don't care what you have to do, if you have voter fatigue, if you're sick and tired, if you're still upset that Stacey Abrams didn't win. But I am urging you to show up to vote December 6th.

Folks, as a part of that, Democrats have filed a lawsuit in Fulton County to stop a ban on voting on Saturday on November 26th. So the runoff election, again, it's going to be on December 6th, but the early voting begins on November 28th. Except there's a provision that says some counties could start on November 26th. Well, now the Republicans have come out and said, oh, no, no, no. Because of Georgia law, they say it prohibits early voting on Saturday if a holiday falls within two days of it. Under state election law, early voting may begin as early as possible. Early voting, again, could be possible on Tuesday, November 22nd, Wednesday, November 23rd, and Sunday, November 27th.

Yet the Republicans are now saying, oh, Raffensperger and the election chair said, oh, we made a mistake when we said it could be on November 26th because Robert E. Lee, that trade or domestic terrorist holiday, is the day before the 26th, and so the law is that way. This, Michael, was by design by Republicans. See, this is what I keep trying to explain to people. What other reason would you pass a law that says you can't have voting within two days of a holiday? Why? Because they saw the calendar.

They don't want early voting on a weekend because they know folk are going to show up and more Democrats will show up. I didn't even know they had Confederate holidays anymore. Oh, hell yeah, they do. Tennessee does. Alabama. Mississippi.

Look, the Republicans, they celebrate the Confederacy. Those white domestic terrorists more than anybody else. That's crazy. And South Carolina, too. Crazy. That's crazy. You know, it'll be interesting. I think part of the problem is self-inflicted,

because whether there's voter suppression, clearly we know there is. But, you know, the issue is, and I heard, you know, when I was talking to some folks in Georgia a couple days ago, I already voted. I voted for Abrams. She didn't win. I voted for Warnock. He had more votes, but he didn't win. And now they want me to go vote again? And I'm not suggesting all black Georgians think that way. Clearly, they do not. But there are a group that do feel that way. And we have to fix, no matter when there's an election,

I don't care if it's for dog catcher, people of color need to be in line voting for everything, because that is the one way any of your voice is heard, and elections have consequences. So I hope that folks are taking this seriously. I'm glad that Senator Nevada, Senator Massa won. I mean, I think that's fabulous. But the win also... I hope folks don't now feel a letdown in Georgia. Oh, we don't really need it.

Doesn't matter. We still... We kept the Senate. No, this is why... What you mentioned, Roland, is exactly right. To balance out Machen and Sinema, we gotta have that other seat. So it would be wonderful if folks, uh, got out and voted in Georgia. And Larry, I keep trying to tell people,

don't play around with stupid. This was Tommy Tuberville running against Senator Doug Jones in Alabama. And this is Tommy Tuberville discussing the Voting Rights Act. Let me say it again, y'all. This is not an SNL skit. This is real. And this idiot is sitting in the United States

Senate right now representing Alabama, home of the Black Belt, the cradle, if you will, the cradle of voting rights. So I'm setting it up for y'all. So y'all, this is real.

Listen. The thing about the Voting Rights Act is, you know, there's a lot of different things you can look at it as. Who's going to help? What direction do we need to go with it? I think it's important that with everything we do, we keep secure. We keep an eye on it.

It's run by our government, and it's run to the we, it's got structure to it. It's like education. I mean, it's got to have structure. Now, for some reason, we look at things to change to think we're going to make it better, but we'd better do a lot of work on it before we make that Larry, he actually said education. Go ahead. Listen, please do not ask me to interpret what he was trying to say, because I have no idea what he was talking about. He talked about the fact that, you know, the Voting Rights Act essentially is kind of the end of Jim Crow in America, or he could have talked about the impact the 2013 Supreme Court case had on the Voting Rights Act. But listen, we won't get into that. And listen, Roe, in terms of Tuberville, he was a much better coach than he is U.S. Senator.

And that is not the only clip that I've seen from him saying something that makes absolutely no sense. But once again, this is our U.S. Senator. And also see a theme here for not only Tuberville being a former coach, but also Herschel Walker being a former player. So, listen, let the folks who want to coach and be pro athletes, let them retire and go play golf. But we should not allow them to be U.S. senator. And listen, we cannot have Hershel Walker for the next six years be one of two U.S. senators from the state of Georgia. And Roland, the other point is about we're looking at 50-50 in terms of Senate. It's better to be 59, 51, 49, because then we take out some of the

nonsense from some of the other U.S. senators we've already mentioned and also allows Democrats to continue to work for the future to padding that number over the next couple of years. So I mean, we need black folks and folks in general in Georgia to vote for Senator Warnock so that we can be 50, 51, 49. I literally, Rebecca, I mean, that was an actual audio of Tommy Tuberville. It was very disjointed, but he told off on himself with the first line. He said that with the Voting Rights Act, we need to understand who is targeted to help. Who is it supposed to be helping? And I think in that, he told off on himself, even though the rest of what

he said was discombobulated and very disjointed and a bunch of non-seculars. But that's what this is about. I know sometimes some of your viewers and just people in general might be tired of hearing the whole black thing or the whole white and black thing. But let's talk about when it comes down to voting rights in this country. This is about making sure at its root, it was always about making sure that Black folks weren't full actualized citizens in this country, that we didn't have a full right, even though we were here at the beginning as well. But it's to discount us in the history, in the making, in the foundation of America. And so a lot of these folks who are against making sure that we have a strong Voting Rights Act, a lot of folks who are on the side of Shelby, a lot of those folks, sorry, those folks who supported gutting the Voting Rights Act, Sections 3 and 5, is because they don't want

Black people voting. So let's be clear. I know some of the people in this scheme now don't want young people voting. They don't want the elderly voting. They don't want the poor voting. They don't want other communities of color within communities of color. But when we look at Black folks in this country, that's what this thing was about, was making sure that black folks in this country didn't have the right and the full agency under this constitution in this very country. I'm just telling y'all. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. Our Marketplace segment, Puzzle Company emphasizes the importance of black art. We'll break that thing down next

in our segment, of course, where we focus on black-owned businesses. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives.

And we're going to talk about it every day, right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I am on screen, and I am representing what a Black man is to the entire world that's going gonna see this. And this might be the only black man, a representation of a black man that they see.

Right. So I am responsible. Right. For how they see black men. And it's my responsibility to, if I am not playing an upstanding, honorable, someone with a strong principle of moral core,

to make sure that this character is so specific that it is him, not black men. And I wish that more actors would realize how important their position is as an actor, as an actor of color playing people of color on screen. Because there are people that see us all over the world in these different images that we portray. And not everyone knows black people to know.

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PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. You know what's on the ballot. It's not just legislation and policies we believe in. It's democracy. Our democracy. There's a choice on the ballot between freedom and fear, between cruelty and compassion, between chaos and community, between voting or violence. And the end of rights generations have

fought for. The extremists have a plan. A road map for a nation where your voice is silenced and your vote is a memory. Where they count their votes and cast ours aside. That's why this year, this fight, this vote is so important. Register. Engage. Volunteer. Fight back against the disinformation and despair, and most of all, vote. Because your vote is all that stands between our future and theirs. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Of course, in our Marketplace segment,

we always are talking about black-owned businesses in terms of their products. Well, guess what? Today's guest deals with puzzles. That's right. Now, we've talked about puzzles before, but what they're doing is emphasizing black art as a part of that.

Pretty cool, huh? When you think about that, it's a unique way to get people interested in the art. And guess what? Some $2 billion is spent every single year on puzzles. The company is called Dope Pieces Puzzle Company and the firm's the narrative of black lives. Chris Hale is the founder and CEO of Dope Pieces Puzzle.

He joins us now from Atlanta. So where did the idea start from? Hey, well, I was a puzzler since I was five years old. And as I got older, I had a hard time finding puzzles that represented me, people that looked like me, or the culture. I had a really good friend who was an artist, and he was getting ready for a show. He showed me an image of this beautiful black woman and it automatically resonated with me. And I was like, this is what we're going to do next.

Dope Pieces was born from that. And, you know, when you when when we think about it. So you're playing you're obviously you're trying to solve the puzzle, but it's also teaching and educating and giving people an appreciation of Black art. How many different puzzles do you have? Currently, I have 11 that are available, and we're going to release another

two to three in early January. So always looking for new artists, but absolutely, it is connecting people with art, it's introducing people to art in a new way, it's a conversation piece and a way to bring people together over something beautiful. Absolutely, questions go to my panel. Rebecca, I'll start with you.

Rebecca? Rebecca, you first up with a question. Sure, so can you tell us how we can access your art Rebecca, you first up with a question. Sure. So can you tell us how we can access your art and get it? Absolutely. You can go to the website, which is dopepieces.art. We are also located in a few stores. If you go to the website, they're listed on there.

We're in the Denver Art Museum. I just did a drop-off at the King Center. We're also in Village Retail in Atlanta and a few stores in Maryland. But you can go to the website first. Thank you. And then I have a follow up question. I noticed like some of my friends, like even like for mental health during the pandemic, they really got into puzzles. And so has that really impacted some of the work that you're doing and with the interest in using this art for puzzles? So I'll tell you honestly, so the pandemic did not affect Dope Pieces as much as George Floyd. When he passed away, a number of people were looking to support Black-owned companies, and they were also looking for themselves within their hobbies.

And so that's actually what turned around Dope Pieces. And it really is an opportunity for people to see themselves reflected positively. And it was something that we really, really were looking for at that time. And even with the pieces that are coming up, the image that's showing right now, the journey, it's a family that, you know, is moving forward, the history lesson, and these beautiful pieces by Patrick Doerr, it's an opportunity for people to see themselves and have a positive interaction with art and with the people that they're working the puzzles out with.

It's, yeah, it's been a really good experience. Larry? Yeah, you talked about, you know, in terms of, you know, going to George Floyd, right after post-George Floyd, in terms of some of the growth you've seen, people who want to support Black-owned businesses. We've seen a lot also the last two, three years in terms of like these large corporations like Target, et cetera, supporting Black-owned businesses. And I was curious to see if you've had any of these, you know, entities, large corporations reach out to you, any current or future partnerships? Well, absolutely. So I just finished the Target Accelerator Program,

which they focus on black and brown businesses that usually don't have the opportunity to get the information that's needed. But absolutely, I've had conversations with the Hawks. I've spoken to people with Target. Actually, I'm at Disney World right now where they are doing segments in an intensive with black-owned businesses.

So absolutely moving into those avenues and taking advantage of every opportunity. Michael. Ms. Hale, congratulations. Keep up the good work. Thank you. What did you say the website was again? It is dopepieces.art. Dopepieces dot art. Dope pieces dot art.

Yes. And then follow me on social media under dope pieces puzzle company or dope pieces. And I live, I live in DC. Where in Maryland are you located? I know it'll be on the website. Couples tea. They have another location. They just opened.

And then Sips. So it's listed on the website. So they're now in four locations in Maryland. Got it. Well, keep up the good work. The art looks wonderful. Thank you. And I'm so proud.

So keep up the good work. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I appreciate the opportunity to speak with everybody today. All right, folks. Again, Dope Pieces Puzzle Company. Check it out. If you like to put together

puzzles, here's an interesting way to do so. And also educating yourself and appreciating black art. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, folks. That is it for us. I am traveling to Las Vegas tomorrow for a conference. Monique Preston is going to be sitting in for me.

I'll be back. I'll be here Thursday from Las Vegas. So look forward to that. Folks, don't forget if you want to support us in what we do, download the Black Star Network app available on all platforms. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Also, you can support us by joining our

Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do. With that segment, you see we feature every Tuesday, Black-owned businesses. Every Monday, our Fit Live Win segment is of course dealing with the issues of health and wellness. And then of course, Tech Talk is on Wednesdays. Education Matters is on Fridays.

Plus, we have our floating segments, our Where's Our Money, of course, Tech Talk is on Wednesdays. Education Matters is on Fridays. Plus, we have our floating segments, our Where's Our Money segment. Remember, you're also supporting this show and five other shows on the Black Star Network. And so, it's a lot that you're getting for your donation. And so, we certainly appreciate if you do. Send a check or money order to PO Box 57196,

Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Send a check or money order to.. And be sure to get your copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapman's Books, A Million Target. You can also download the book on the app Audible, or you can order through your favorite

black bookstore. Again, to my panel, thank you so very much, very much. Always glad to have y'all on the show. Thanks a bunch. Folks, that's it. I will see y'all tomorrow, right here, Roller Mark Unfiltered, Black Star Network. Y'all know how y'all was in the show. Thanks a bunch. Folks, that's it. I will see y'all tomorrow right here. Roller Martin Unfiltered, Blackstar Network. Y'all know how y'all was in the show. Also, first of all, let me thank all of y'all for the birthday

comments, text messages, videos. I appreciate all of that. And so, let me say this here, folks. I know a lot of people get caught up and they think, oh my goodness. People keep asking me, what you doing your birthday? Let me actually show you this. Last night, of course, I went to the dinner that took place. It was held at the Four Seasons in Houston.

It was honoring my man, Chris Tucker. And so we had a great time with him, Dr. Ruth Simmons, the president of Prairie View A&M University. She gave Chris the President's Award. They also.. So, he spoke to the students that day. And so, they were there also celebrating. And so, always good to see my man Chris. Great dinner last night.

So, congratulations on all that he has done for Prairie View A&M University and Dr. Ruth Simmons who is doing an amazing job. She steps down, retires in June as the done for Prairie View A&M University. And Dr. Ruth Simmons, who is doing an amazing job. She steps down, retires in June as the president of Prairie View A&M University. So I appreciate her inviting me to that dinner. So that's how I celebrated my birthday. And I tell folk, you don't have to sit, you can party later.

You don't have to do stuff on the day of your birthday. But you know, we still get to work in. And so it was great to be in my hometown Houston seeing him. But also seeing my frat brother as well. The mayor of Houston, Texas, Sylvester Turner. We saw him as well there last night. So, let me go ahead and get my man, Sylvester. Michael, my alpha brother, just in case you are confused, Michael, how we do it.

So we were all there. And let me see. I'll pull it up in a second. I'll find the photo and show it. Do I have it on this phone here? See, y'all, this is what happens when you got all these phones. You got all these phones, and you're always getting them mixed up. So let me see here.

If I can show y'all real quick. Let me go right here, all right, real cool. You got it, got it. And so here is a photo of a man, Mayor Turner, with Chris Tucker, and here's a photo of him with Dr. Ruth Simmons as well. So glad to see everybody there. All right, y'all, that's it.

I'll see y'all. Y'all take care. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.