#RolandMartinUnfiltered - GA Senate Runoff, Deion Sanders Leaving JSU, Atatiana Jefferson's Nephew Testifies in Murder Trial

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

12.5.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Warnock/Walker runoff; GA Senate Runoff, Deion Sanders Leaving JSU, Atatiana Jefferson's Nephew Testifies in Murder Trial LIVE from Hinesville, Georgia. We are one day away from the runoff election between Senator Raphael Warnock and Hershel Walker. I've been with folks stomping across the state to get people to head to the polls. I'll show you what happened in Savannah with D-Nice, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, and Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie.  I'll explain why Black Georgia college students attending private schools cannot use their student IDs to vote in tomorrow's runoff.   Coach Deion Sanders is headed to Colorado for a new coaching position. We will look at his impact on Jackson State University and his big win from Saturday's SWAC Championship.   The murder trial for the Texas police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson began last week. We will examine testimony from the trial and discuss how the mostly-white jury selection could sway the outcome.   A Colorado grandmother was in for the surprise of a lifetime when SWAT busted down her door by mistake. Now she is suing the police officers who signed the warrant.   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. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punching! I'm real revolutionary right now. I'm proud. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Stay Black. I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? It's Monday, December 5th, 2022. Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Hinesville, Georgia.

We're streaming live on the Black Star Network. Of course, we are one day away from voting in this state to determine who will be United States Senator for the next six years. Will it be Senator incumbent Raphael Warnock or will it be Hershel Walker? Massive number of people voting all across this state. More than 1.8 million folks have already voted early. Based upon a breakdown of the numbers, Democrats are doing very well. Republicans, of course, turn out very much on Election Day. Rain is in the forecast tomorrow all across the state as well. We'll of course, turn out very much on election day. Rain is in the forecast

tomorrow all across the state as well. We'll talk about what will happen. Also, in about an hour, Senator Warnock will be holding his final rally before the vote tomorrow as well. We'll go live there and show you as well. Yesterday, we were in Savannah. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Dean Ice, as well as Bishop Bastow McKenzie were here traveling all across the state. We'll show you what took place at a restaurant here in Savannah. Also, why are black students at private schools in Georgia not able to vote using student ID? We'll explain that. Also, we'll talk about the Atiana Jefferson story out of Fort Worth, the cop who killed her finally goes on trial. Also, a grandmother is attacked by SWAT in Colorado. We'll tell you that story as well.

And Deion Sanders leaves Jackson State for Colorado. A lot of people very upset by that. I'll share my thoughts on Deion leaving JSU to go to the Power 5 School of Colorado. It's time to breathe the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it.

Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's on go, go, go, y'all. news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling he's funky's fresh he's, the best you know, he's rolling, Martel.

Martel. Folks, we're here in Hinesville, Georgia. Of course, we are one day away from voting the crucial decision, who will be the next United States Senator from Georgia. The last two years, Senator Raphael Warnock has been in that position. He won the runoff in 2020. He faces Republican Hershel Walker, who will fulfill the full six-year term, and that is taking place tomorrow. Already 1.86 million Georgians have voted early. Of course, it was Democrats who sued the state to ensure early voting could start on November 26th.

Folks have been turning out in significant numbers all across the state. So already 26.7 percent turnout when you look at the numbers. So 1.86 million folks have voted out of seven million voters. But the key is going to be, of course, how many people show up tomorrow as well. Rain is forecast here in Georgia. Republicans are already laying blame, laying out exactly who they're going to blame for Hershel Walker losing. But the bottom line is the race is not over. The most recent poll shows Warnock 52-48 over Herschel Walker, but both sides expect this to be an extremely, extremely close election. Remember, it was very close last time.

It'll be the case this time as well. So the key is going to be who turns out tomorrow in record numbers. Again, folks, last week Georgia broke daily voting records three times with 76,000 voters that did not vote in the general election voting in the runoff. When you break down the current numbers right now, Warnock has a huge league among independent voters, obviously among Democrats as well. 63% of white voters are favoring Herschel Walker. The key is going to be, what was black turnout going to be as well? Are you going to see significant numbers there as well?

Remember, we were in several cities last week, and we were talking about turnout. Sandersville, for example, talked about 48% black turnout. And so the Warnock campaign is really hoping that number is going to be a lot higher. They have been seeing softer numbers in Savannah, his hometown. Yesterday, we were there at a black-owned restaurant there, Sloppy Toppy, where Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, Dean Ice, as well as Bishop Bastow McKenzie were there, as well as Senator Lester Jackson. Here's what Jackson, as well as Bastow McKenzie, had to say to the folks who were assembled.

Voting rights act. But as you come to this point, there are people standing in pulpit saying, when I say pulpit, in front of microphones saying, ha ha ha, we want to crush the woke folks. See, we in the United States Congress, Congressional Black Caucus, we learn from you, we start talking about being woke. We'll be in meetings talking about being woke.

And what it meant is to be able to be responsible to everyone, to give everyone a seat at the table, no matter whether you're a black man or a black woman, no matter whether you're young or old, whether you're a child, whether you're in the Generation Z, Generation X. Be woke. And we were proud to say that. But it caught on.

And we were getting too much. And we won in 2020. And you did something in Georgia that no one had ever heard. What? You put a president in and a senator. You did something that reconstruction had taken out and so folks are saying we got to crush the woke folk. Y'all got to wake up. They are directly pointing their aim at the woke folk and all the woke folk want to say is give me a seat at the table. When I'm sitting at the table, I'm helping

everybody. I'm going to get my small business. I'm going to open a private equity firm. I'm going to franchise this restaurant. I'm going to make sure that fourth grade black boys are not not reading, but are reading. I'm going to talk about wealth in our pocket. Housing where people need housing.

I'm not going to say that your public house is not a home, but I'm going to talk about wealth in our pocket, housing where people need housing. I'm not going to say that your public housing is not a home, but I'm going to get you to another home. That is what I see in Senator Warnock taking his rightful seat and making it a place where we as Democrats—and some people may say, make no—never mind. I want you to know it's real. It does make you never mind when you have a situation of people who have had to fall under the oppression of that other person who used to be president.

That same person who's announced in the last 24 hours he wants to suspend the Constitution. Anybody care about your First Amendment rights to speak, to sit in this restaurant, to be able to practice your religion, to have due process, to be tried and to jerk your peers, to be able to practice your religion, to have due process, to be tried and to drink your peers, to be able to have equal protection under the law, suspend the Constitution, all of that.

And so I just want you to know, don't take likely folks' words, don't take likely who the other fella is being supported by, and understand what Senator Warnock has said he wants to be right over wrong not left and right right over wrong and what we have in Tuesday December 6th is that's a famous day for me because I was in the Congress on my belly on January 6th, 2021. Six frames of my name. But I just want you to know that what we want is what they do not want. They believe they can take it on Tuesday, because traditionally, others go out to vote on Tuesday.

We either forget or we thought we voted an early vote, and we don't go. And so in order to shock the nation and have the world think that Georgia has done it again, you've got to push the votes out. A goodwill vote, no matter what background you're from, you've got to push them out to get out and vote. And to vote right over wrong, and to vote for a man who has believed in lowering your health care costs, believes in social justice, believes in climate, believes in all Georgia sitting at the table of empowerment, ensuring that if you are any race, color, or creed, and you're woke because you want change and you want the impressionable people of all

Zs and Xs to be at the table of empowerment, no matter where they come from, then you're going to vote for Senator Raphael Warner. Vote in Congress and the U.S. Senate. It's about religious leaders making a difference. It's about common people making a difference. It's about foot soldiers.

But we have the bishop of the AME Church, Bishop McKenzie, he's coming here to Georgia in this restaurant to tell you that we're going

to make a difference because here in Georgia, we're fired up. In Georgia, what do you want? Fired up. And Bishop McKenzie is going to tell us that it's time to go. Bishop McKenzie.

Thank you so much. We came back to Savannah one more time to let you know that you have an opportunity to make history. On Tuesday, you have an opportunity to send a message to the rest of America that democracy is not dead. No matter what you have done, you changed the laws, changed the ID, changed the polling places, changed the time. Nothing is going to stop us right now. Hello? Hello? We're not stopping.

We're not backing up. So, Tuesday is the day. Today, text somebody. Text a friend. Text a family member. Text your enemies. Text everybody. And say, have you voted?

If not, get yourself in place on Tuesday. No matter what happens. If it rains, we're going to do what? Vote. If it snows, we're going to do what? Vote. If somebody all of a sudden calls you into work, you're going to do what? Vote. You're going to vote no matter what. So make a plan to stand in line as long as necessary. Because they have the long lines that make you frustrated, make you go home, to make you quit. But is Georgia a quitter? No! Georgia a quitter? No! Georgia a quitter?

No! So plan to stay as long as you can, take your own water, take your own snacks, all right, buddy up, get in line, and vote. We're voting for character, we're voting for experience, We're voting for a man that has Georgia at his heart. He's not in it for himself. He's in it for you. He's not in it for a title. He's already got a track record. Yes, it's for you. So what's on the ballot? Your job is on the ballot. How much money you earn is on the ballot. Your health care is on the ballot. How much you pay for gas is on the ballot. Where you live is on the ballot. All of your rights are on the ballot. How much money you earn is on the ballot. Your health care is on the ballot. How much you pay for gas is on the ballot. Where you live is on the ballot. All of your rights are on the ballot.

A woman's right. Yes, sir. It's on the ballot. So don't sleep this election. Don't sleep this election. Tuesday we gonna do what? Vote for who? Vote for who? Vote for who? Vote for who? Who are not! Vote for who? Who are not! Vote for who? Who are not!

You got it, you got it! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! He's at California State University, L.A., at the Amakongo Dabinga Professorial Lecture School of International Service at American University. And Georgia Representative Renita Shannon, glad to have all three of you here with us in Hinesville. Zahal Williams, also a Georgia State Representative. Donald Lovett, Chairman of the Liberty County Georgia Commission. And Stephanie Jones, he's CEO for Diversity Health Center. Representative Shannon, I want to start with you.

You already see Republicans trying to craft a narrative. They're complaining about the amount of money that Warnock has been spending. They've been outspending them on ads, on television and radio. Also, when you look at what's been happening on the ground, he's had far more campaign events than Hershel Walker has had. And so they're already blaming Senator Rick Scott and the NRCC, the whole back and forth between Mitch McConnell. And also Governor Brian Kemp did not appear with Hershel Walker at any campaign events to close this out. And so they're already trying to establish. And I saw one story where they said basically we're hoping and praying there's a victory, but they're predicting it is going to be a loss.

But what I keep telling folks, the only way to guarantee they lose is to vote. Absolutely. And you're right. What it has felt like here in Georgia is that Senator Warnock, I'm not even sure if he ate Thanksgiving dinner because he did not stop campaigning from the general election. And so he has been on the ground. And it's just really interesting because Herschel, you know, has presented himself as somebody who is so tough and a former athlete and ready, so much energy. We haven't seen him since the November election. So folks are ready. People are ready to let the nation know what our values are here in Georgia. And I'm very excited about it. To your point, Republicans, of course, are blaming anybody that

they can for this loss. But they're doing something that they always do, which is a repeat pattern, and that is doing everything except figuring out ways to get new voters. They have gone from, instead of talking to folks and trying to figure out a way to increase their base, they have moved forward with voter suppression over the last several decades. They have now moved forward to, you know, blaming different folks for, you know, the loss of this race. But the thing that they never seem to take a look at is what they need to do to increase their base. What you're seeing on the Congo, a lot of people who have been coming in over the last four days to assist Senator Warnock tonight at the 7 p.m. event. Israel Houghton is going to be doing a concert. He's been hitting several different places.

D-Nice has been in a bunch of different places as well. Tasha Cobbs-Leonard and so many others. Jeezy will be performing tonight as well. And so just a number of folks, young, old, church folk, of course, folk with different entertainment, are really descending on the state. Because as I keep saying, this election is not just about Georgia. U.S. senators are voting on issues impacting people all across the country and the world.

That's right. And you've been saying that daily. And really, we have to understand all of these people who are descending on Georgia right now, we understand what's at stake as it relates to getting an extra seat in the Senate and also as it relates to having the majority on the committee so that people can really work towards helping to implement Biden's agenda. And also, hopefully, some of the things we're talking about as it relates to the Judiciary Committee and putting some pressure on the Supreme Court because of whatever it is that they're doing, because they have no ethics and they're bound to nothing. There's so much that can be done by having that 51st senator. But I also have to say,

Roland, I'm so proud of the work that we're doing in terms of showing out and showing up and, you know, donating money, as you've been talking about, to the organizations on the ground doing the work, Black Voters Fund and the like. But we also have to remember that we never should have been here in the first place. We never should have been here in the first place. I heard just today that over 70,000 people who didn't vote in November voted now. If those people came out, we wouldn't have to be in this situation. So we can't keep taking these situations for granted. We should have knocked it out on November 8th, but hey, I'm so glad of what we're doing now. But we can't drop the ball after this is done. We have to use this energy that has been brought to the table right now to continue fighting,

because the Republicans, they clearly know that they have no argument. Clearly, this is also a referendum on Trump to let people know at the end of the day that pretty much most of his candidates, except for Vance, basically didn't win. I guess you could talk about Johnson, I guess, a little bit. But really, at the end of the day, this is a referendum on Trump. Mr. End the Constitution, terminate the Constitution. Trump wants to be president again. So really right now, we got to seal the deal tomorrow. As I said, Rain, Sleet, or Snow, we got to get out there. And I know all the news have been talking about, oh, it's heavily favored, the Democrats with the early voting.

But really at the end of the day, that's what they said in 2016 with Hillary Clinton. And we saw what happened then. So let's keep up the fight and let's win tomorrow. One of the points, Julian, that I keep making also is that we do have to completely change how we engage black voters in when elections are taking place. Because if you look at numbers of you looking at 45, 48, 49, 50 percent turnout, the reality is if black voters in various counties, not just in Georgia, but we could talk about Mississippi, Mike Espy lost by 65,000 votes. Cindy High Smith, there were more than 65,000 black folks who never even voted in that election. If black folks vote at 70, 75% of our numbers, we actually can blow folks away all across the country. And so there has to be a different level of voter engagement when the election is not taking place.

So when the election does come around, folks are ready. You know, Rola, what has to happen is it has to be a new conversation with the Democratic Party. The fact is that the Democratic Party ignores us until the last minute. We get our voter engagement organizations like Melanie's Black Pacific Participation, Latasha Brown's, some of the others. They get in there. They're doing the work that the DNC needs to be doing. We raise the money for them. All of us have written checks, sent it via email. But the DNC has not necessarily funded this. The Democratic Party is addicted on ignoring black people. And if the Democratic Party paid enough attention to black people, we would have the Democratic majorities we need to implement not the Biden agenda, but the people's agenda.

But the fact is that we've talked about it time and again. The Democratic Party is not passionate about black people. And so when you see the votes that are left on the table, the 77,000 there, you look at Mississippi. I was talking to some people in Mississippi this morning about the water crisis and the Republican governor who continues to disrespect the Democratic mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, so that DOJ has come in. But had we had black senators in Mississippi, had Espy won as opposed to the hanging lady, we would have had a different situation in Mississippi.

So Democrats need to get up, smell the coffee or whatever they want to smell, the marijuana, smell whatever they want to smell, the marijuana, smell whatever they need to smell and figure out that their base needs to be cultivated just like any other base needs to be cultivated. But see, here's the point that I keep making. We can't put that in the hands of a party. And what I'm saying is it's our interests that are at stake. And so, Renita, that's the fundamental problem that I have. Look, what Black Voters Matter has done is say we're going to be 365 days a year.

That's what we're talking about. We've got to have civic engagement classes. We've got to be able to walk people through a basic understanding of politics. If you leave it up to a party, then you're actually leaving your fate in the hands of somebody else. The party is the outcome of the election. Look, Democrats and Republicans run. What I'm saying is black organizations, political organizations, black social organizations, Divine Nine, Prince Hall Masons, Eastern Star, Lynx. We can go on.

Church organizations should be asking themselves what exactly are they doing to teach and engage black voters. This is not a party conversation. This is a black people conversation. Well, it's actually both, because to Dr. Balvo's point, the Democratic Party, you know, has influence on these elections. And you will hear more about this, I'm sure, in the coming months. But even sometimes when you have black candidates who are stepping up and talking about black issues, you will have the Democratic Party saying, don't make the ticket to black, don't support black candidates. Like, you have issues of the Democratic Party pushing back against Democrats showing true passion for black voters, black people, and black issues. So you do have that on one side. And it does have an effect

because they are having a negative impact on us winning elections, because those are the issues that we need to be talking about, because we know that we can only consistently count on Black voters to win elections for Democrats. But to your point, Roland, of course, the community organizations, we would love for more of them to step up and to assist. But we need both of these things working. It cannot be one without the other. Omokongo. Yeah, I think that really at the end of the day, if we don't understand now that these Republicans are never going to stop, they never stopped with their voter education.

Yeah, if they had the wrong candidates, but if they had the right candidates, who knows what's going to be happening as it relates to the voter turnout. So if we don't understand now that this is a 24-7 activity, we're not going to – I mean, I remember when you were talking about what was the other race where there wasn't even fully engagement with students at these HBCUs really at the end of the day. And so we got a new group of voters that are going to be coming up between now and 2024. How many young people are going to be out there who are going to be of voting age? If we don't spend the time daily using our social media, using all of the platforms that we have for voter education, like I said, my daughter's going to be voting in this next election in 2024. I'm excited about that. These elections, especially with the Republican Party being as divided as it is, 2024 is ours to lose. It is ours to lose.

So if we get into this habit now of just saying if Warnock wins tomorrow that, oh, we're going to be good until, say, like what, the fall of 2023, it's a done deal. Because you can bet that the Republicans are doing their best effort to regroup right now and already learn from their lessons. Like you said, they're already acting like Hershel Walker already lost. They're on to the next thing. We cannot win tomorrow and get complacent because we're going to set ourselves up for 2024 and more losses. And that's going to really hurt all the things that we've been able to accomplish so far. So like you said, our fraternities, our businesses, our churches, all of our religious institutions, our community centers. We have to stay committed to talking about this and doing this work 24-7. It is on us first and

on everybody else secondly as it relates to engaging in what's best for our community by picking our leaders and not letting them pick them for us. The reason I frame it this way because again when you look at numbers uh first of all african americans who are 65 plus uh more identified as democrats they also vote higher than anybody else when you start going down 55 45 35 when you get to 18 to 35 uh those are the lowest first of all those people who less self-identify but but more importantly, they vote at the lowest numbers. And so there has to be a level of engagement between elections because here's the piece. You've got to get this runoff right now. Look, you still have next year in different places, gubernatorial races, state rep, state senate, school board, DA races. There are elections every single year.

And so this has to become a norm, a practice, and not so simply only focusing in presidential years or midterm years. You know, Roland, one of the things that's challenging is the fact that they've taken civics education out of our schools. And so really it is upon, as both Renita and Omokongo have said, upon us to do the work to educate our young people. Once upon a time, I mean, when I was a kid, but that was in the old days, you know, we had civics. And then some of us remember, what, the voter rock?

You know, it was a bill. It was only a bill. Schoolhouse rock. Schoolhouse rock, yeah. But there was a premium attached to voter education. Now there is a premium attached from those people to voter ignorance. They would prefer for our people not to know. So this really is a mandate. As you say, every year in November or sometimes in June, depending on where you are, there is some form of an election. Even it's an election for tax collector, dog catcher, something. What the issue we have to do is to make sure that our

young people understand what's at stake. One of the things that happened very nicely in this midterm is that the full Republicans at the Supreme Court, rather, same thing, full Republicans, basically did dobs, and that energized young people, especially young women. Now, we have to—we can't have a hot-button issue at every election. What we have to have is educators saying, this is why you do it, this is what you need to do. Our NAACPs need to do more of what they used to do. I don't know that they do it so much anymore. Our churches, many of our churches are extremely engaged, especially with Raphael Warnock in there, Freddie Haynes doing his work. So many other ministers, my own pastor, Reverend William Lamar at Metropolitan AME Church, basically dealing with this work. But it has to be a national mandate from black people,

bottom up. It doesn't have to be. I love the fact that Vashti is there, my Sora and my sister. I love Sheila Jackson Lee doing her preaching and her teaching. But you can't just bring out the big guns. You've got to have the school teacher, the pastor, the neighborhood guy, the barbershop, the beauty shop, talking about voting. That's a mandate that we have to have. Again, I cringe at the notion that we could have done this in November if some of those votes that stayed home had come out. And that's a lesson for us, for all of us who say that we believe in freedom. So what are we doing about it? Representative Williams here in Hinesville, what has been happening in this city, in this region? Have you been seeing the level of voter engagement? And what do you expect the turnout, the overall black turnout to be once the all votes are cast from this area?

Enthusiasm is here. I've never seen it this high for a runoff before. We voted strongly here. But I agree with much of what is said. We should. We need to increase our vote by about 25%. We are one of only two blue counties in all of southeast Georgia. That's Chatham and Liberty. But one of our big problems, if I might piggyback, we don't have enough preachers to talk about the issues year-round. We can count the preachers and everybody wants to raise

tithes and nobody talking about saving homes. And until we do that we're not going to see a real significant increase in the vote because I don't care how many organizations you've got, the vast majority of these black folk go to church somewhere. And when it doesn't happen there, it does not happen. And we should not wait. And I agree, Democratic Party got to get off their laurels and start dealing with issues and dealing with them positively.

But here in Liberty County, it's not if we're going to be blue, but how blue are we going to be? We've got to pick our percentage up. Stephanie, your thoughts on this, and also in terms of, look, health care has been one of the biggest issues, not just in this state, but elsewhere, but is that truly resonating with black voters here? I think for a lot of the patients that we see in the clinics, and I know health care is one of the biggest topics for us and what I focus on,

because we did not expand Medicaid here in Georgia. So for a lot of people, they don't understand and make that connection, the importance of voting and who you have in office fighting for those things around health care, like your medication programs right now. A lot of people have high co-pays, high deductibles, and different things like that that they can't afford to pay. So who you have in those seats representing you, how important is health care to them? Because we get too many people that come through the doors. They don't look like us, but they don't have health care either. But they don't care, but they

still show up to get the services. So we have to realize as a community, as a race, as people, that we have to put people in positions that are going to make the decisions that best benefit us. And that might look like something where you have to educate people that come through the door of the health centers and different places where you're at, but you have to educate people on the impact that they're having if they don't show up to vote. Donald? Just being in this room today, I was pleased to hear from a mother who said that she ensured that her young persons, her young family members voted.

Another mother over here somewhere said her college kids that came home, they were trying to ensure that they voted. We need to have more and more and more of that. I've got a grandson too in Augusta State, but if I don't remind him, they're not paying attention. And I'm not sure what the answer is

to get that demographic to pay attention. Tell them, no check, no food, no vote. Tell them, sir, I need proof that you voted. And with my grandson, he's at Augusta, and they have an African-American club. He's involved with all that.

But a lot of work to be done, a lot of work to be done. So it's coming upon us as parents and grandparents to make sure we push it. So thank you, parents, for doing that, for pushing it. We've got to do that. They don't have the experience we have. You all know that. So we have to have them to embrace where we are. Now kind of a little bit different, a little bit different. A great history of being active and engaged. Representative Williams gave me some stats of the 1946.

I think it was more blacks than whites. Residents vote in Liberty County, Georgia, in 1946. I didn't say 20, 46. So we have a history of being engaged, and that's why he said we're going to get bluer. But I think we have a responsibility, whether we want it or not, to really push and work with our younger people. I mean, look, you might start in middle school or wherever.

Somebody went to the city for classes. See, I go all the way down. So you keep saying get bluer and bluer. I'm trying to say get blacker and blacker. Blacker, blacker. If you get blacker and blacker, you will get bl blue and bluer. I'm trying to say get blacker and blacker. Blacker, blacker. If you get blacker and blacker, you will get bluer and bluer. You're in a county that's pretty black, my brother. No, no, no, no, no, no.

See, here's my deal. We may have black numbers, but I want to see black numbers translate to black votes. Gotcha. Because we've been in Swainsboro and Statesboro and all the different places, and I'm sitting here in a city 65% black, never had a black mayor. And then other places are talking to them. And again, I look at numbers.

And that's what it boils down to. To me, it's an absolute waste to have 50 and 55, 60 and 65, 70 percent black cities. But then turnout is 40, 35, 40, 45. We've been dealing with Louisiana, significant black numbers there. And you had 28, 30, 32 percent black turnout. Numbers were abysmal doing early voting. And so what we keep reiterating is that we literally are leaving our power at home, but then we turn right around and say, well, we don't have this,

we don't have this, we don't have this. Well, voting is political power, which deals with economic power. And so what I'm saying is I think what has happened is we are not making the proper connection where everyday folk who don't live and breathe this can understand what that means. Because when they say, well, my vote doesn't matter, no, it does matter. Let me walk you through that. Every cause needs a champion. And I'll say this, I think Stacey Abrams was such a champion for the cause of voter engagement. So we need Stacey to go out into Mississippi, highways and byways, and do that civic engagement piece that is what's missing.

But she was, that's her calling. That is her calling to do that. I'm not sure what her future political plans are. I'm not trying to crash her dream. but her gift to me is civic engagement. I got you. And so I think, so what we're seeing, again, all across the country, that has to be the case. We have to have that level of engagement. I told y'all last week in Texas, 75% of voters under 30 did not vote in the Texas election, 75%. Well, if you're the largest demographic in the country of those under 30,

then that can totally change an election. And so that has to be top of mind. Got to go to break when we come back. We'll talk more about what's happening in Georgia. Also, we'll talk about the issues, but also we'll deal with Deion Sanders leaving Jackson State. We were there at the SWAG Championship on Saturday. We'll hear from the president of Jackson State, also Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. I just want to touch that with him as well. And then I'll share my thoughts on Deion leaving. A lot of people are upset,

a lot of conversation on social media. Folks are calling him a sellout turncoat for leaving on HBCU for a predominantly white institution. And so, yeah, I've got a couple of things to say about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from Highlandsville, Georgia, back in a moment. Is it just me? Or does it feel like we've been here before? The whole country's finished voting and only us left. You'd think Herschel Walker would want to explain what he'd do in the Senate if he actually wants to represent Georgia. Instead, he repeats the same lies,

trying to distract from what we all know is true about him. But I think Georgians will see his ads for what they are. Don't you? I'm Rafael Warnock, and yes, we're doing this again. That's why I approve this message. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Inflation is on the rise. Interest rates are high. Can you still thrive during these uncertain times? On the next Get Wealthy, you're gonna meet a woman who's done just that, living proof of what you need to do to flourish during these uncertain times. These are times where you take advantage of what's going on. This is how people get rich or richer.

That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Mama always said all skinfolk ain't kinfolk. Georgia, we don't need a senator. We'll be right back. We sure don't need this. I want to be a leader like him. Walker wants to be like Trump and will fight harder for him than he will for us. We don't need a Walker. Paid for by Black Voters Matter Action Pack, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We welcome the Black Star Network's very own Roland Martin, who joins us to talk about his new book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. The book explains so much about what we're going through in this country right now and how, as white people head toward becoming

a racial minority, it's going to get, well, let's just say even more interesting. We are going to see more violence. We're going to see more vitriol. Because as each day passes, it is a nail in that coffin. The one and only Roland Martin on the next Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, y'all go ahead.

All right, folks, welcome back to Hinesville, Georgia. We were in Jackson, Mississippi on Saturday where Jackson State University completed an undefeated season, beating Southern University 43-24 in the SWAC championship. It was a packed crowd, but what a lot of folks were talking about and concerned about was whether or not head coach Deion Sanders, who's been there three years, is going to actually stay there or leave. Well, later that night it was confirmed when he met with the players that he was indeed going to be leaving Jackson State

for the University of Colorado. This is what he had to say to his team when he told them personally about his decision. Okay, down for the nitty-gritty. I know y'all been hearing the rumors and everything that's been transparent around about my whereabouts and what I'm going to do. And I'd like for you all to hear it from me and not from anyone else. It is what it is. Either in coaching you get elevated or you get terminated. Ain't no other way.

You either elevate it or terminate it. It ain't no graveyard for coaches where they die at the place. It don't work like that. They're either going to run you off or you're going to walk off upon your own recognizance. I've chosen to accept the job elsewhere next year. I'm going to finish what we started. We're going to dominate. I'm going to be what we started we're going to dominate i'm going to be into that end in that conclusion and then when that conclusion we will move on now what i don't

want you to do is thinking uh something is better on the other side in regards to some of you i would like to have the opportunity to meet with some of you so you don't go and jump in the portal and you die in the portal. I don't want that to happen because some of y'all thinking it's simplistic like that and it's not. That portal will be loaded on, is it Monday, fellow? Monday. Portals opens. Be loaded. And they're going to call and they're going to ask because that's what we've done for some of y'all when we were trying to acquire y'all. We called and we asked your coaches and when we knew what kind of character, what is it. And I don't want you thinking since you have the Jackson State awards on you that people are just going to flock to you and they're going to lace you like that.

This is one of the best universities, I believe, certainly in FCS, that you could have an opportunity to play. It's because of all the bells and whistles and these particular things that we brought here. And I'm trying my best with this wonderful gentleman to help choose this next guy for you. My recommendation goes to TC. They know how I feel about TC. I want TC and several of the staff members are going to be retained here. But that's my, I would love for someone in house because I don't really know how you hold a with somebody outside the house coming in to really not understanding how we function how we get down so that's my recommendation so A lot of unhappy faces there. Obviously, Deion Sanders was a huge advocate of folks coming to Jackson State.

He's faced a lot of criticism out there on television and radio and social media, some praising him, saying he should have left others really upset. He actually addressed the issue at his news conference at Colorado about that very question in terms of his blackness. The thing that alarms me the most is just because I'm leaving Jackson, they think that I'm leaving African-Americans. I don't know if you notice or not, but I'm black. I can never leave who I am and what I am and how I am and how I go about being that. So it is still my task to look in that locker room and see 65 to 70% of African-American men trying to help them get to the next level as well as all the others.

My calling is for young men, young women and people of all walks of life, all social climates and all ethnicities. That's my calling. My calling is not built on a location. It's built on a destination. Now that was good. You're supposed to clap for that darn it that was good you give me some of my good stuff we just we just getting started already went in the bag baby let's go uh we were of course uh like i say in jackson had opportunity to talk with the president of jackson state university about this season, but also about what life would be at Jackson if Deion chose to leave. Here's my conversation with him.

All right. First of all, Mr. President, just one hell of a year for your team. Right. Great year. Undefeated. Looks like we're headed towards another SWAG championship on to Atlanta. It's been a wonderful year. Talk about the level of excitement that has been around this program

with Coach Sanders being here for the last, this has been his third season. It's been great. You know, he's really elevated the excitement level. This has always been a wonderful program. We've always had amazing fan support. But what we've seen is what happens when you bring in a coach committed to excellence, ignite our fan base, combine with the great JSU fan base, and you see everything you see here. Have you also seen an overflow in other areas as well?

I've been interviewing the alumni president, others talking about the impact, again, with the level of attention that's now been on Jackson State. Well, good publicity is always good for an institution. So we have seen the impact in terms of our enrollment, just the positivity surrounding Jackson State University, our football program, academic programs, despite some of the challenges that we face with the city, water crisis and all. What you've seen is just an overall elevation of Jackson State University.

One of the things that we were, of course, broadcasting with General Motors from their activation there. What have you seen from corporations? I've been saying since the death of George Floyd, there's renewed emphasis. Have you been experiencing that different level of conversations and commitment from corporate America? Yes. Look, there hasn't been a week that's gone by that we haven't had some engagement with corporate America, wanting to invest in our university, wanting to invest in our students, internships, job placements, fellowships,

all of those things, scholarships, all of those things matter. So it's been great. We want to see that continue. This is not just the moment. We talk about the HBCU renaissance, the moment. We've always been here. We want to see that continue.

You also have this criticism of some places like North Carolina A&T and Tennessee State where they're doing well. It's like, what are you doing? They're judging students. Look, I haven't had that problem yet. Look, we're doing well. We want to keep doing well.

Our alumni, our supporters, our state all want to see JSU do well. And we're going to continue to elevate at Jackson State University. Obviously, there's a whole bunch of tension surrounding whether Coach stays here or not. So are you prepared for that next level if he decides to leave? We're always prepared. There's always a plan in place at Jackson State University. The same focus, the same drive that brought him here, it will help elevate us to the next.

So we're looking forward to great seasons ahead at Jackson State University. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I appreciate it. Mayor Chuckway Lumumba was also at the game. We had a chance to chat with him about that very issue and a couple of other things happening in Jackson.

Here's that conversation. All right, Mayor, talk about just what this undefeated team has meant for this city. Yeah, well, it's not only a sense of pride. It creates a sense of place in our city, an atmosphere, an experience that people want to come near and far to see. We're very proud of not only Coach Sanders, but the young men who have given their all in order to achieve the success that they've achieved thus far. And I think it's a moment that speaks beyond Jackson State. It's an opportunity. It speaks to the real opportunity that exists for HBCUs across this

country. And obviously when you have folks who are coming to this stadium, filling it up, they're in hotels, they're eating in restaurants. And so that's an economic boon to the city. Absolutely. I tell everyone I didn't go to Jackson state, but I'm the biggest fan because it's good for business, right? So we're very proud of them. You know, as you said, heads and beds, it's an economic boost for our city. And so that's why we have to keep this tradition going, make certain that, you know, the experiences that I had as a young child and many people speak of over the years are the ones that we can promise our children going forward. Now, obviously, you talk about what Deion Sanders has brought, the level of attention. I mean, I'm sure your media trackers are showing the mentions and a constant conversation of Jackson, Mississippi being talked about nationally.

Absolutely. It's really put Jackson in the spotlight, an opportunity to discuss the good and bad that the city faces. You know, no city is without challenges. And so we appreciate having a platform to not only build on our good, but to correct our bad. And so we're grateful for what he's brought. And so this is a spirit and a moment of gratitude for us. We're really grateful for what we've been able to accomplish and experience here. So a lot of folks have been, we were on a plane flying, a lot of people kept stopping me. Is he going to stay? Is he going to go? They were going back and forth. It's a whole bunch of folks praying that he stays.

Many folks think he's already gone. Just your thoughts on that. Well, fortunately I'm grateful that he and I have had an opportunity to interact and sit down to dinner a few times. And so, prayerfully, he knows how much value he has from the city,

how much value we hold in him and his family and what they've meant. I don't know any more than the next person as to what his decision is, and I respect the fact that it's a personal one, but he does know that we loved him first, right? We continue to love him. And so, hopefully, they walk away with that understanding. And as I said, it's the spirit of gratitude, no matter what choice or what direction he goes in. We were talking about, obviously, economic impact, but also just talk about a lot of people. I try

to explain to folks, when you talk about an HBCU in a city, it's not just the university. Just like for me at Texas A&M, it's also, for me, that's in conversation, the impact it has on the entire city, on the entire region. You know, as I said, Jackson State University, Jackson State Athletics creates a sense of place. It's not only a game, it's an experience. Anyone who's been to an HBCU game is well aware of that. Just as many people stay to watch the halftime show

as does for the actual four quarters of play. And so, you know, we're happy to have this institution. It's an institutional asset for the city of Jackson, not only in what it provides in this experience, but in so many ways in terms of helping us resolve the issues we have across our city. I will ask a political question. You got a pretty good decision, my federal judge, when it comes to your water issue. Absolutely. You know, I'm grateful that we've been able to work hand in hand with the EPA. It speaks to the leadership. Another young brother who's an HBCU

grad himself, we've had an opportunity to have honest dialogue and discussion to talk about that the solutions for Jackson require a deviation from the EPA norms that we know. And so I believe that they've really set a tone, a tone of support, a tone of not just looking at the issues and the regulatory functions of the EPA, but a tone of how do a tone of not just looking at the issues and the regulatory functions of the EPA, but a tone of how do we help communities who suffer from environmental racism, issues of environmental justice. And I think that there's more in the very near future to be shared on that end in terms of what that partnership will reveal.

Mayor, I appreciate it. Always good to see you. Likewise, my brother. Always good. Always good. Thanks a bunch. Be well. All right. Joining us now is Scotty from Offscript TV. Scotty, glad to have you. Man, if you look at the reaction, it has been fast and furious, hot and heavy since Saturday night.

First off, I saw a lot of people, they were blasting Deion saying how dare you skip out on black media first of all we were standing literally right there coach Dooley was actually still doing the news conference Deion came up to the door opened the door they said Dooley was still going and they said hey come back later he then said well

I'll try to make it back and then he sent word that he was going to be addressing his team and of course he flew off up to Colorado. And so for the people who are out there commenting who were not even there, I was, and I saw it with my own eyes. My team heard it with our own ears. So just understand, y'all know what y'all talking about. But, Scotty, talk about just the vitriol that folks have right now for Deion Sanders' estate.

Oh, it's bad. I'm talking about you would think that he stole something from your grandmama's purse. It's so bad. But what happens is the flipping of the situation, what bothers me, is how just two or three days ago he was everything. On my channel I call him Jesus Christ Jrr because that's how people look at him but now you would think he was a used car salesman that sold you a lemon and now you're looking to take it back and he won't accept it dion has done so much for jackson and they're they're still wanting more and they're

and he was doing jobs that he wasn't even entitled to do. Like he wasn't even put in place to do. He was the commissioner. He was a mentor or preacher. And now all of a sudden when he does something for him to elevate his profile, do something for his coaching staff so they can have, you know, life-changing money going from $60K to maybe $150,000 or $300,000, now he's considered the bad guy.

I just don't understand it. I've had people say, look, he has enough money. Why does he need more money? Well, first of all, I ain't never heard nobody ask that question. But, I mean, trust me, I've heard all of that. The other thing that jumps out, again, is when I listen to it, I mean, he's been called a sellout. Others have said, well, he sold a bill of goods

because he was talking about building up HBCUs and why can't people come to HBCUs. Others have said he had no shot. Jackson State gave him a shot when nobody else gave him a shot. Well, he delivered. The team went 27-5, won a SWAC last year, lost in the Celebration Bowl, came back this year 12-0, and the favorite to win the Celebration Bowl, he plans on coaching the game on December 17th.

So it's not like Jackson State did not benefit from Deion being there. The funny thing is, though, the eyes are all on Deion because Deion is the public figure. But what really needs to be dove deep into the subject is the president that you had the interview with. What were your what was your part to play in Deion leaving? I've talked to Deion's camp, and they said they had numerous of times where they were trying to make progress, innovation, that the president stopped them, that the president had a beef with Deion, that they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues. So he might get on a public platform. He might talk to you and say that Jack State is going forward. But he was the one hindering his progress even more,

and that made it even more difficult for Deion to want to stay. Because if you're the person bringing all the attention, all the resources, and you're constantly battling in-house with your student, with your university president over how you're doing it, at some point somebody's gonna to get tired of it, and then they're going to go where they feel they're going to be wanted.

I've talked to folks at Jackson State. They said that wasn't the case, that Deion got all the support that he needed as well. But here's the deal, Scotty, and this is the thing. Coaches leave. Coaches leave all the time. And I think that a lot of people in their minds, they thought he was going to be there 5, 10, 20 years. But he actually said when he first got there, he would entertain other offers.

I'm trying to understand why anybody would be shocked that he left. Listen, you, with, let's just keep it a buck. With black people, we hold on to what we want to hold on to, and we hear what we want to hear. When Deion first came down to Jackson, he specifically said that God called him down to Jackson. He accepted the call and the charges and everything that was supposed to be in place for Jackson, leveling the playing field, you know, bringing our kids back home.

So when you hear all this and you get linked and sunk into the message, and then the person leading the message then goes off and goes to the PWI that you were just talking about that you were trying to take kids from and now you're going to be taking the kids that you brought to Jackson with you yes you're going to have a pushback on what they feel is right now do I feel like it's 100% his fault absolutely not but do I think he still should get some backlash for pushing that message and then doing what he's done? Absolutely. But it's a catch-22 because he's done so much that I do feel like he's allowed to leave. Well, again, it is, you know, Jackson State has not made an announcement who's going to be replacing him. He offered up who he thinks should replace him.

And it's very interesting. Very interesting. I hear a lot of people out there that they're talking about. They say, well, this is one of his critics. Well, he only helped Jackson State. He didn't help the other HBCUs. I've had conversations with various execs, corporate America, and in media. The reality is you're going to see new TV deals that are going to be coming out for CIAA, as well as, of course, with your SWAC as well.

Other HBCUs have been helped. So this notion that it only helped Jackson State is actually erroneous. Look, you focus on this a lot. You cover this. Your assessment when you hear people say, well, he didn't elevate all HBCUs. He just only elevated himself in Jackson State. It's like if you're in a family, right, and you have cousins, but your mama makes a lot of money and the other mamas don't,

like your other cousins' mamas don't make money, it's like we're not getting what you got. We're getting what we need, but we're not getting what you have. And that's the problem that a lot of swag schools have is that they're comparing what they have to what Jackson had. Well, they have Dion. So Dion's always going to bring more to where he's at than where you're at. But there was

a huge trickle-down effect to everybody that was touched by Jackson or in the SWAC realm of coverage. I'm talking about sellout crowds, ESPN2 games, better recruits coming to your school. Deion can't get everybody. You see what I'm saying? So now you have kids wanting to go to HBCUs because Deion's put a spotlight on them. And now you have that. You have a lot more scouts coming down to your games and going to your practices. Like, it wasn't to the extent of what Jackson has because not everybody got a new practice field, not everybody got

a new players lounge, but there was residue effect from the exposure that Deion did bring to HBCUs. And to say that there wasn't is a flat-out lie. Then, of course, the question now is if you are a coach in the SWAC or an elected director or the other conferences, the question is, what do you now do? So, for instance, Dwayne Johnson, the Rock, he held an HBCU tryout on Jackson State campus for the XFL. I think 20-plus HBCU players were drafted. Well, here's the question.

If you're the new Jackson State head coach, do you go after that now? If you're Eddie Robinson, Jr., you keep saying that you're SWAC and Deion wasn't. Okay, are you now going to step up and be the face of SWAC, the other conferences? Are you going to have better social media presence? Are they going to be more engaged? I mean, look, the reality is if you're any one of these other HBCUs, if I'm Florida A&M and you only lost to Jackson State in the last couple of years, if you're Florida A&M, you should right now be campaigning for game day to be at your campus next year like they were at Jackson State. I just think the problem I have are all these folks who are operating in mourning as opposed to understanding that tomorrow is a new morning.

It's hard because when you feel like your leader has deserted you, that's all you're going to be focused on is what you don't have and not what he's given you nor what he's taught you to go fish on your own and make your own meal. And that's for Jackson as well as for other SWAC institutions as well, especially the commissioner. If anybody should have been sitting at the foot of Dion, should have been the commissioner of how he's been so well to market, how he brought in American Airlines, how he brought

in, you know, the multiple, the Walmart deals and Geico and all the, I mean, the Aflac deals that he had. That's what you try to learn and try to instill so you can get those same amount of deals coming into it. Because to act like the SWAC does not have its own brand, that it doesn't have its own network of people watching it, and that the black dollar is powerful is a disservice to everybody in the swag. And if you think just because you lost Dion, you lost the rest of that, that's foolishness.

Scotty, we appreciate it, folks. Subscribe to AllScripTV, his YouTube channel. You definitely want to check it out. Scotty, thanks a lot. I appreciate it, bro. Before I lay down my commentary on this, I want to give Omicongo, Renita, and Julian an opportunity to respond. Julian, you're president

of the Emerita Bennett College. Just your thoughts on all of this discussion around Deion leaving Jackson State for Colorado. Well, he certainly has a right to make personal decisions, and his salary is going to bump up exponentially. So at some level, I don't blame him.

On the other hand, he came in. From 300, from, Julianne, one second, Julianne, it's going, yeah, so folks understand, it's going from 300,000 a year at Jackson State to 5 million a year at Colorado. Go ahead. I'll say it exponentially. Now, so he has a right to make those personal decisions. And of course, we have to support those

and say, you go, brother. At the same time, I'm disappointed in a number of things, especially him leaving. He brought Jackson State such visibility so much, not only as your interview with Mayor Lou Womble said, also the city of Jackson, which is not in the best shape these days. So, you know, there's a pride for him. No African-American has led a place like Colorado, and he has opportunities. But there's also the sadness. And then there's the implicit message that being the coach of a trifling PWI is better than being the coach of a winning HBCU. So we're sending our students, our young people, mixed messages. Now, as your previous guest said, there are a whole lot of questions we don't know

the answers to. What did the president do to keep the brother there? Could he have sweetened the pot? He couldn't give him the five million, but maybe he could have given him one. There are just a bunch of questions asked, but it's always an issue in HBCU land to talk about what we do, where we are, how we fit in with a greater higher education space. And, you know, at the end of the day, I'm sad, but I have to say go, Dion. Now, if the brother can't do it in Colorado, we all go say, mm-hmm. But, you know, I think that he has opportunities, and I hope that the president at Jackson State will follow his recommendation on who follows him and makes it more tenable for the next person to excel as well. First, let me say this here. He's replacing a black coach.

So and in fact, Colorado, I think Dion is going to actually be the third black head coach in Colorado football history. So he's not going to be the first. Omokongo, your thoughts? I think that too many times in our community we find ourselves looking for a savior, and even outside of the sports arena when you look at what happens in the larger issues with the civil rights movement, for example, and sometimes movements end up dying when our leaders are taken away. When we take it down to something like to the sports level, I see the same thing happening. I think that rather than put all of the emphasis on one person, we should be looking at mimicking the culture that was created, the culture of winning. And that can continue

regardless of who the figurehead is. Throughout history, we've had too many instances of people realizing that when it came to Black people, whatever we're talking about just removed the figurehead and everything else dies. As Scotty was saying, there was a lot that Deion did for HBCUs coming out of his own pocket for things. And quite honestly, given the fact that he did so much of that out of pocket, who's to say? I believe that he's going to continue that support now that he's making more money. And so really, at the end of the day, we have to understand that, first of all, when it comes down to this HBCU versus PWI type mentality, we have to understand that we're all in this together. There are many people who don't have degrees from HBCUs who support HBCUs to no end. So really, at the end

of the day, when I look at what Deion Sanders is doing, we spend too much time trying to tear people down, and we need to spend more time building people up. I am definitely not the person who subscribes to the idea that PWIs are better and all of that other type of stuff. But this is a brother who's making a move that's best for himself and for his family. And I believe he can still be a great representative of the culture. He's also going to a space where he's going to be working and mentoring and still coaching young Black men as well. I believe that he did a lot to put HBCUs and sports on the national spotlight in ways that haven't been done. And he lit a torch that many people who are coming after him

should take and run with and elevate it to the next level. And I'm hoping that other former players of his type of caliber don't just see HBCUs as a stepping stone to these PWIs. I definitely don't want that to happen. But really, at the end of the day, if two seasons from now he started losing and he got fired, like you said, you're just going to die there. Nobody would care about it. So I feel like when it comes to something like that, you've got to do what's best for you. We've got to stop looking for saviors and build on the culture that he created, because HBCUs are on the map in ways

that they haven't been before. Look at what Michael Jordan is doing, what Howard, what LeBron James is doing, what FAMU, I believe. So there's a great opportunity for HBCUs right now. And we just got to take it to the next level. Renita? Yeah, I hope that there is actually more to this story than just that he left for money. He spent a significant amount of time in his press conference talking about the difference between being run off and walking away. So I'm hoping that there's more to the story. And the reason why I say that is because what he is doing is supremely disappointing. And it's disappointing because he spent so much time

waving the flag hard that you do you can have a great football career choosing an HBCU. You don't have to go to a PWI. So he spent a lot of time bringing attention to himself, attention to Jackson State, and he spent a lot of time bringing attention to that message. And what he was doing there was so magnetic that it was reaching people who don't even watch college football. Everybody was, you know, enjoying what he was bringing to HBCUs, universities. They had folks who didn't even watch college football considering maybe starting to watch because of what he was doing. And so the reality is when you are a public person, and I'm sure Dion knows this, when you have gone really hard with one message and then your actions show something different,

people are going to have criticisms for you. It doesn't work in politics and it doesn't work being a public person. And Roland, I'll put it to you very, very, you know, very directly. If people were to find out tomorrow that you don't vote, your viewers would have your head because you spend so much time talking about voting. And that is what is happening here is that Dion ran that message so hard about not having to go to a PWI in order to have a great football career. And this is what he does now. And I think had he not run that message so hard,

people would not care that this wouldn't be happening. This wouldn't be a conversation or had, if he were leaving Jackson state to go to another HBCU, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. We're having this conversation because he is, his actions look like they are exactly what he has spent the last months or so preaching against. But it's his life. He can do whatever he wants. Let me share this. I've said this before. There are 107 HBCUs in the United States. There are 230,000 students that go to those HBCUs. 20% of those students are non-black.

So that means about 195 or so thousand of the students at HBCUs are black students. There are 1.6 million black students, the 10 PWIs in the United States. Okay. 1.6 million versus 230,000 total students out of 107. Now, when I listen to folk who are angry and upset with Deion Sanders, I thought about one of my staffers who came to me and she was scared to tell me that she was taking a new job. And she told me she was leaving. And I said, well, why were you scared? She said, I thought you would be upset. I said, I've never been upset with somebody left. I said, the reason I've never been upset with somebody left, because I always know no matter who you are, you can be replaced. I said, the only person that cannot be replaced is me because I own it.

Now, let me, let me explain that. I don't get upset when somebody leaves. I've never gotten upset when the pastor left a church. I've never gotten upset when the editor of a paper or a place left. I've never done that. Because the reality is, what I understand is, no institution dies or survives based upon one person now the issue is not an institution dies when a person leaves an institution dies when the new person comes in and does not handle their business now so for folk again who need to understand this okay what we need to understand this, okay? What we need to understand is this here. It's a whole bunch of black people right now

commenting about Deion Sanders leaving the HBCU and not now one of them work for a black-owned company. It's a lot of people who are commenting about Deion Sanders leaving who don't live in black neighborhoods. It's a lot of people right now who are commenting about Deion Sanders being a sellout when it comes to leaving Jackson State and they made no affirmative decision to actually buy black. Now see,

see it's real easy to focus on Dion, but not look at yourself and what you were doing. And so that's what gets me, the people are upset. Now what folks also have to understand is everybody ain't built the same. I understand. When I was at CNN, they asked me to leave the Tom Jordan morning show, to leave TV One and all my books and my speeches. And I said, no, I said, I'm not leaving my black stuff. Y'all haven't given me a daily show. You haven't given me the higher salary. So I'm not going to leave my stuff on a daily show. You haven't given me the higher salary. So I'm not going to leave

my stuff on a possible promise. I had a lunch with John Klein. John's a great guy. It was in 2009. He was the president of CNN US. He asked me, when are you going to get done with all this other stuff, TV One and Tom Jordan? And I said, well, you'll give me a five day a week show. There was no response. I said, well, I ain't leaving well the next year John Klein gets fired at CNN I don't leave CNN until 2013 when I left CNN I still had TV One, Tom Joyner and all my other stuff

and so everybody out here is not committed specifically to working in black institutions and that's fine there are black people right now who are in media Specifically to working in black institutions. And that's fine. There are black people right now who are in media.

Who work at ABC and NBC and CBS. And they want to work in mainstream media. They are not committed to working in black-owned media. I made a conscious decision to do so. Now, you look at Robin Roberts. She's making $20 million at Good Morning America. When you look at Al Roker. When you look at so many other different people, they're making multiple millions, and that's fine. I made a different decision

in terms of what I wanted to be able to do with my life. And so, understand that's the case. So, Renita, you're absolutely right in terms of what Dion said and what he was saying. But also, it's also incumbent upon us in black institutions to also make decisions as to how we lead them. So let me give y'all an example. I didn't leave the Chicago Defender because CNN called me. I left Chicago Defender because the folks who own the Defender

wanted the paper to be a small community paper. That wasn't my vision. I was trying to make the Chicago Defender into the nation's leading black media organization. They didn't want that. I said, I got to go. Now, understand, for 20 years, the Chicago Defender lost money. It was a bad paper. It was called the Chicago Offender. I get there,

we lose money my first year, make a profit my second year, make a profit my third year. Now when I leave, the paper goes down after I leave. That ain't my fault. That's the folk who still own it and run it. And so the challenge right now for Jackson State or for every SWAC school and for every HBCU is not to decry Deion. What you should be now saying is who's going to be our new leader? What's the plan of action? And so I never thought Deion was going to stay at Jackson State three or four or five years. The fact that he stayed three years is also surprising. And so the fact of the matter is what we've got to learn to do in black institutions is, to Omikongo's point, stop sitting here looking for the savior, but also have this great multiple people who understand what we're doing and also what we're trying to build. Now, let me make this point as well.

Let me make this point as well. Remember the point as well. So I made a point about giving. And so a lot of people came at me, well, how are you trying to equate, you know, black giving and the national average for universities with giving is about 7%. And so these schools are doing this and Jackson State's giving, according to the president of the Alumni Association, I interviewed Saturday, is at 13%. Then I had a brother who hit me up and he said, well, you know, black students have a higher student debt ratio to white students, so therefore we can't afford to give. Okay.

So let me walk through that. So I'm confused right now. So we say on one hand that HBCUs have been historically underfunded. Then we say we don't get the corporate support. So we don't get the corporate support, we don't get the state support, because again, for state

HBCUs, but you're proud of HBCUs. So when I said that we should be, if you're going to be upset, be upset with 87% of Jackson State alumni that don't give. Be upset with 95% of Florida A&M alumni that don't give. And go down the line.

Claflin has the highest giving of any HBCU, and it's around 50-plus percent. Then it's Spelman and the others. Morehouse's number, very low. Howard University's number is under 15. Now, when I criticize the giving rates, again, folk came back at me, Nicole, Hannah Jones, and others, well, here's the average. I don't want to hear a damn thing about the average.

Because when I say giving, I'm talking about a penny or higher. So when I got hit with, well, you should not equate the two, actually, I should. How can we, as black folks, be angry at Dion by saying he turned his back on an HBCU by leaving going to a PWI, when we as black folks on a daily basis literally drive right past black businesses and give our money to white businesses. See, I'm trying to get y'all to think much bigger and broader.

You cannot convince me that there's no, I don't care if you are an HBCU graduate, you cannot send a dollar to your school. Now, I understand student debt ratio. I understand all of that. What I am saying is when I talk to presidents and I talk to alumni presidents and understand we discussed this with a sister who works in the Jackson State administration. When they go to foundations, the first question they ask is, what's the giving of your alumni? That's the first question.

Because they then say, if your alumni can't give, then how are you asking us to support you as well? And see, some of y'all watching right now going, see, here you go. You're trying to deflect. No, I'm not. I'm trying to broaden this conversation. And that is this. And this, of course, somebody else said, well, even if every alumni gave this, it still would not make up.

I ain't saying make up. What I'm talking about is commitment. You cannot ask Dion to make a commitment that you don't make. You can't. Julianne Malveaux is sitting on here right now. She can tell you how often she will call me. When I was at WVON radio, Roland, we got a group of girls, four or five, they not coming back to school.

I got to raise $30,000 to keep these girls in school. Can you mention it on the radio? Can you give out the website? Julian, ain't no problem. We can do that. And so what I'm trying to say, black people,

is we can't sit here and say, well, we haven't got funding from the state. We're not getting the money from corporate America, but then we don't give, we can't make the excuses go. Well, you know, I ain't got it. When every single one of us spends money on what we want to spend money on. And all I'm saying, all I'm saying is if you are an HBCU graduate, send something back. You can't send a thousand. You can't send 500. You can't send 1,000. You can't send 500. You can't send 100.

You can't send 50. Okay, fine. Commit, I'm going to send my school a dollar a month. That's $12 a year. Y'all, numbers don't lie. If 1,000 graduates send $12 a year, that's more money than they gave last year. So what I'm trying to get us to understand is we've got to stop being so emotional because of what Dion did. And what we should be saying again, and let me just keep going here, we should be saying, liquor, and hotel than I do to the school? See, again, you can be mad at Dion all day.

I'm asking for a collective commitment. And if y'all think, oh, I'm just sitting here talking, I can tell y'all go listen to Dr. King's speech, April 3rd, 1968 at Mason Temple, when he said black people individually are poor, yet collectively we represent one of the wealthiest economies in the world. And so if we're going to be about that, then what I desire for us is to have a fervor for black institutions and not just talk about it. Now, if you wanted to folks and you step it up and doing what's right, good. But what I'm telling you is it's a lot of us selling wolf tickets. It's a lot of us talking and not doing. It's a lot of us not giving. It's a lot of us not supporting.

And I know I can see some of y'all right now. And I can see some. And see, and here's what's interesting. What's interesting. Because I've already seen some of y'all right now and I could see some and see and his was interesting was interesting because uh I've already some of y'all comments yeah see uh you talking but you didn't go to HBCU my high school was right across the street from one and they never recruited me even though I was the number one communication student at my high school but I can bet you if I was the number one football player or the number one basketball player, they would have come across the street. Prairie View was down the street, 50 minutes.

They would often visit Jack Yates. Never recruited me. So I made a decision because my brother was there at A&M. My parents, I thought about it. I don't think my parents in my brother's four years, my four years, my sister's four years, I don't think my parents collectively sent the three of us combined $1,000. I had two sisters at home. So I went to A&M for the academic scholarship. I followed the money.

So don't come at me saying, well, why didn't I go? Easy. I followed the money. But what's interesting is there are people who go to HBCUs who want to be, say, well, you can't say nothing, but then you don't mind my check. When Robert Smith paid off the graduation debt at Morehouse, Robert didn't go to no HBCU. He went to Cornell.

See, so don't come at me with that because you don't mind that PWI graduate money when it comes in. What is required right now are for black folks to walk the walk about supporting black institutions. So when you're watching love and hip hop and giving them your eyeballs, that ain't black owned media. When you are supporting, when you're looking at Complex, that's owned by BuzzFeed. That's not black owned media. BET is owned by ViacomCBS. And so when I hear people

get righteous and indignant about Dion, I gotta ask you, what are you doing every day of your life to support what is black owned? And a fact of the matter is, if you ain't got no black lawyer or black dentist or black doctor or black accountant or black cleaners, if you're not frequently supporting black restaurants, if you're not going to, is it a black-owned gas station, then all you doing is sitting on social media demanding something

of him that you ain't doing yourself. And if you want to talk about black institutions and voting, if you ain't sending no check to Black Voters Matter or New Georgia Project or Georgia Stand Up or on and on, then what you're doing, again, is complaining and hoping somebody else do something that you can't do. So Deion goes to Colorado. Deion, good luck. Whoever's the next head coach at Jackson State, good luck. I'll be at Jackson State's campus giving the commencement speech on Friday. And I'm telling y'all right now, I'm going to say the same thing to the graduates there.

If you love Jackson State, if you love Mississippi Valley State and Alabama A&M and Alabama State and Texas Southern and Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M and Morgan and Howard and Morehouse and Spelman and Paul Quinn and Wiley and on and on and on, if you actually love it, show it with your money. I'll be right back. Is it just me? Or does it feel like we've been here before? The whole country's finished voting and only us left.

You'd think Herschel Walker would want to explain what he'd do in the Senate if he actually wants to represent Georgia. Instead, he repeats the same lies, trying to distract from what we all know is true about him. But I think Georgians will see his abs for what they are. Don't you? I'm Rafael Warnock, and yes, we're doing

this again. That's why I approve this message. Don't wait till November 8th. We can vote today, y'all. Early vote started this week. We're on Savannah State University's campus. We'll be dorm storming today, giving out treats for everyone. We hope to see everyone at the polls when it comes to November.

If you believe we got power, let them know. Make some noise. Put a fist up. I need to see a fist in the air, because we got power. Come on, you put it up. Come get your shirt. We're out here in the streets of Savannah, Georgia. James, do not forget to go vote.

I got you. If we vote, the right people in. We can make a change. We can get these resources in our community. I am a woman, and it is important that we have the say-so of what we want to do with our bodies. We're concentrating on entrepreneurism, providing young people with resources and training that they need in order to change their trajectories.

We want black down. Democracy is on the ballot. Voting rights is on the ballot. Voting suppression is on the ballot. Voting rights is on the ballot. Voting suppression is on the ballot. I am most passionate about those three combined because they all impact each other. Savannah is my home. I care about my community and I care about representation in my community. Our voices are still going to be heard no matter what kind of obstacles had to come

up against us to stop us from voting. We're still going to be standing our ground. I see the effort that's being made to keep our communities from voting. So that makes me realize it's even more important because if it wasn't important, they wouldn't be fighting to make sure we couldn't vote this doesn't stop this year this is a forever movement we're going to exert our power as a people walking our rightful place we're going to change our communities fight for our communities and build our communities, fight for our communities, and build our communities.

I'm Deon Cole and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. We'll be right back. First told you about 17-year-old. We first told you about 17-year-old Norell Bryant in April. She has gone missing once again. This time she disappeared from Arlington, Texas on June 29th. She is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Norell has a piercing on the left side of her nose. Anyone with information on Norell Bryant should call the Arlington Police Department at 817-274-4444, 817-274-4444.

Folks, next door in Fort Worth has been three years since Atiana Jefferson was shot and killed in her own home. The former cop, Aaron Dean, is on trial. Her nephew, Zion Carr, was with her that night, took the stand today before a mostly white jury in his murder trial. He was eight years old at the time of the shooting and told jurors what happened before his arm fell to the floor after getting shot and while the door was open in the first place. Before you were in the bedroom with her, what were you doing? What were y'all doing together? Playing video games.

Before then even, did y'all cook hamburgers that night? Yes, sir. Who cooked the hamburgers? Me. All right. Did you cook them just like you told us earlier? Yes, sir. But I burned them.

You burned them? How'd you know you burned them? Because we were just playing games, and we just heard the alarm going off and we opened it and a whole bunch of smoke came out of the oven. And were you cooking these in the kitchen? Yes, sir. So what did you do after all the smoke came from burning the hamburger? We opened up the screen door and let the smoke go out and we were just having paper and gum like that so the alarms could stop and when it was done we went back playing our video games. Did your aunt

hear noise outside the bedroom? Yes sir. What were you doing when your aunt heard that noise? I was still playing on my Nintendo Switch. How did you know your aunt heard a noise? Because she told me she didn't hear it and I said no. Was the lights on in that bedroom? Yes sir. And what did, after she told you she heard a noise, what did she do? She went to get her weapon and her purse. Where was her purse? Next to her table where she worked at.

Before she heard that noise outside where was your auntie sitting? Was she at that desk? No, she was in the middle of the room. She had her chair in the middle of the room playing on the game. And so you said she went to her purse and grabbed out a weapon. What do you mean by weapons, Isla? A gun. Was it a big long gun or a gun that you can hold in your hand? A gun you can hold in your hand. And did you see her go to her purse and get that gun? Yes, sir.

And what did she do after she grabbed, she took the gun out of her purse? She just held it to her side. She just like, she didn't point it up. She just kept it next to her, like to her side. She just, like, she didn't point it up. She just kept it next to her, like, on her side. And where did she go with that, with the, uh, after she picked up the gun? She was about to start walking to the window. Okay. And when she walked to the window, what did she do? Uh, I didn't hear nothing after that.

I just seen her fill in the floor. The defense is claiming Atiana pointed the gun at Dean, yet body camera footage shows that neither Dean nor the other responding officer identified themselves as police at the house. The trial continues in Fort Worth. Folks, we're back here in Hinesville, Georgia. We've been, of course, the election is tomorrow here in Georgia. A lot is at stake when it comes to this Senate race.

If y'all, Herschel Walker actually, y'all, this boy is so dumb. This boy is, dumb, he actually said that the race tomorrow will determine who controls the House. Y'all, the fool is running for the Senate. Republicans have the majority in the House come January 1. And then his race won't even determine who controls the Senate. It's 50-50. Vice President Kamala Harris is a tie. And so if Warnock wins, they simply are 51-49.

That's how dumb Hershel Walker is. And I just got to go to our panel. And I think what was insulting to me, Stephanie, and I'm going to bring in Julianne, Renita, and Omicongo as well. What's insulting to me is when I see Senator Tim Scott running around with Hershel this weekend, when I see that fool Lindsey Graham of South Carolina actually saying, oh, they don't want Hershel to win because if Hershelel wins a young black people become republican i mean what what they really think if we put up a fool and he's black that black people just gonna fall for it that we have not evolved, I guess. I guess they think we're still on the boat.

I'm not sure, but I think we're intelligent enough to make our own decisions based on what's going on in our lives and not what's going on in someone else's life. So I find a lot of this insult when you listen to people speak to us as though we're one one thought process one mind one singular um vision but we have a mind and we're individuals and we make our own decisions not based on what herschel walker anybody else is doing the thing for me the the thing for me donald is when you look at the critical issues that we're talking about, when you look at health care, when you look at contracts, and we could go down the line,

it ain't even close between Walker and Warnock as to who is the better choice for black Georgians. Amen. You know, Herschel is a fish out of water, man. And he knows that, and the people who are pushing him, they know that. But just a matter of this party loyalty thing, as well as just trying to maintain power, they know very well when you sit Herschel next to Reverend

Walnut, there's no competition. No competition whatsoever. That's just plain old common sense. My moms and my grandmas, anybody can see through that. Anybody can see through that. So it's just a matter of this party, loyalty, having a yes man

in the office. Nothing to do with the best man for the job. And there's no doubt in our minds, in America's mind, I think, when it comes to just the quality of the candidate, Warnock is just miles and miles above where Walker will ever be when it comes to being a U.S. senator. Let's go ahead. Roland, right before I address that, I want you to know that I enjoy representing the 116th. But if I'm offered half a million tonight, bye, y'all. I want you to know that.

All right. I'm gone. I'll find somebody. Hey, listen, as to the comparison, of course, there's none. But I have to think back. When I started in the civil rights movement right out of high school in Liberty County, as well as all counties around here, white folk were used to picking our leaders. Didn't make any difference about qualifications. If you were nice and humble and stroke them, you come on, you're going to be on this board. You're going to be on that boat. Now they wouldn't let us win at the polls, but they'd appoint us to some token polls. This is nothing new. He is the new token Negro.

And folk get to say some folk get to relieve that guilt by saying, I can't be a racist. I voted for Hershel Walker. Poppycock. Walker. Papika. The thing that jumps out at me, Renita, as we are, Representative Shannon, as we are going down to the wire again, so polls open tomorrow at 6 or 7 a.m. So polls open at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

And I keep seeing all these people, they're in the chat room and on my social media, and they're saying, you know, we shouldn't even be here and i keep saying well tell it to the folk who didn't vote i mean at the end of the day uh we could sit here and say who should be the best person uh who makes the most sense but it all comes down to who get the most votes well i think that all of this with why they put up Herschel Walker goes back to what we

saw in 2008, which is where Republicans, if you heard plenty of them say pretty consistently that the only reason President Obama got elected was because he was black and that black people didn't really know anything about his policies, didn't know what he thought about any issue. They just went in and blindly voted for him because he's black. By the way, there's no problem with voting for someone because they are black, especially if you are black, because you assume that they know and understand your lived life experience, whether or not they make policy decisions based on that life experience is a different story, but they will at least know it and not think that you, you will not have to explain it to them.

But the thing here that they really missed, which is what they missed even with the 2008 election where you elected the first African-American president of the United States, was that Black people do listen. Black people do pay attention. And Black people are listening and paying attention in this election. And Black people are communicating that they understand that Herschel Walker

is talking about nothing but a bunch of nonsense. And that is not what we want to represent us. So I am looking forward to tomorrow. I hope that we will have excellent results that actually make sense. And that means reelecting Senator Warnock. And I hope that by the end of the week, we never have to hear the name Herschel Walker ever again. The name Herschel Walker ever again. Omokongo. Kirsten Walker ever again. I'm a Congo. I'm a Congo. We live in a situation right now where, particularly for Republicans, the team matters more than the players.

And all they care about is voting red. And so we have to understand that we have to educate ourselves as it relates to being more sophisticated and stuff. But we have to understand that we're also fighting against people who have no problem playing dirty and have no sense in any redeeming moral value for their candidates. Character doesn't matter. Education doesn't matter. Class doesn't matter. We're talking about a man who brought his wife or girlfriend to an abortion clinic and didn't even have the dignity to go in with her, a man who put a gun to his wife's head, a man whose son said that he threatened to

kill them, no character, a man who lied about being a cop, a man who lied about being number one in his class, about being no integrity. So really, at the end of the day, he is a representative of where the party is right now, no character, no morals, and only concerned about power, which is why most Republicans who have spoken up at all over the last few days said they would still vote for Trump even though he called for the termination of the Constitution. So this is where we are. So as we talk about voter education,

we talk about sophistication, also know that we have an enemy that is playing dirty. Hershel Walker has no business being up there with Raphael Warnock, but like Malcolm X said, whenever a Black man says something that white people don't like, the first thing that they'll do is find somebody to offset what that black person said. And Hershel Walker is the latest representative of that.

When you look at somebody like Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, a man of the highest intellect and the highest integrity, and you put up with somebody like this who really, and I'm not even saying this in a disrespectful manner, who really should be somebody who was studied as it relates to CTE and potential other issues, but has probably gotten away with a lot of things because of his fame. And I'm not even saying that disrespectfully. The fact of the matter is they don't care enough about Hershel Walker to let him know that he shouldn't be up there. They're just trying to do the same thing that happened with Alan Keyes and Obama, bringing somebody who's not even from the state because they don't respect Black people enough. And really, at the end of the day, tomorrow, we got to shut

this down. And like Representative Shannon said, making sure we're never hearing from Hershel Walker again. But we have to be mindful of the fact that since they don't respect us enough when they see us, they're just going to put somebody else in place. But like you said from the beginning of this show, Roland, when we set up the infrastructure to make sure that we come out and overwhelm them with numbers, they can put up whoever they want and it's not going to matter. Julianne, the thing that

in terms of how I'm looking at this right now, let me be real clear. There are a lot of black Republicans I know. There are a lot of black Republicans I know who actually care about black people. Some of y'all may say, man, you're out of your mind. That's not true. I know this.

They are black Republican for their reasons. Not a problem. But I have talked with them, and I've seen what they have done. The issue for me when I think about a Hershel Walker, I cannot help but think about Isaiah T. Montgomery. Hershel Walker is an Isaiah T. Montgomery black man. Now, all y'all who have no understanding of history, who ain't read a single book, then what you understand is that Isaiah T. Montgomery was the only black delegate at the Mississippi Constitutional Convention in 1890. The white folks in Mississippi were so angry that black people were being elected statewide that they literally gathered and they said,

we have got to stop these niggas from voting. And they changed the Constitution in 1890. And Isaiah T. Montgomery, who owned a few businesses, actually voted with these white races to deny black people the right to vote at the Constitutional Convention in 1890. Ever since 1890, there's not been a single black person

elected statewide in the state of Mississippi, even though Mississippi has the highest concentration at 38% of black people in America. There's no doubt based upon what I have seen and what I've heard that a Hershel Walker, is an Isaiah T. Montgomery black man. Well, you know, not only is he an Isaiah T. Montgomery black man, but there are a whole lot of them out there. Now, like you, I have many Republican friends and colleagues who say they care about black people. And I believe many of them do. We could call the role of people like, you know, Michael Steele, who I think is a very good guy, and some others. At the same time, what we know is that party is poison. Repeat that, poison to black people.

And they're always able to find an Isaiah T. Montgomery somewhere in a woodpile to come out and say something. The story of Herschel Walker is a story of evil, manipulating, stupid. And I say that with respect to everyone, Omicongo. I like the fact that you say you respect. I respect every human being. But these are human beings who are cray-cray to the cray-cray. How did they get Walker, with his limited intelligence, to move from Texas to Georgia simply to run for Senate? How is he still taking tax deductions on his Dallas home when he claims he lives in Georgia and wants to represent that state? Why is nobody, I mean, I've heard it, heard it, heard it, somebody needs to sue his behind that. How can

he represent Georgia when he is a full-time resident with all tax benefits thereupon of Texas? But they brought him in because they figure that black folks were stupid enough, which we're not, to vote for Bubba the Fool as opposed to a highly qualified, amazing black man. But white folks think that black people are stupid. And unfortunately, some black people are. When we look at the Isaiah T. Montgomery story, we see it replicated over and over again. People dangle something in the face of some random black person and say to them, will you roll with us? And then, you know, I don't, Willie Lynch is a fiction, it's not real, but there's realness in it. Why are so many of us so down on ourselves? Roland, the piece you

just did about HBCUs, if I could have stood up and hollered, you probably would have cut me off. But it was brilliant because it's so true. We don't believe in ourselves. Between Genetical and I, we raised the alumni giving rate at Bennett up to about 35 percent. But that's not good enough. You know, that's just not good enough. How come we don't support ourselves? And how come we don't call those out who don't support us? The brothers and sisters on your panel in there are saying the right things, but they

need to be saying it more and louder and more clear. Somehow we don't want to put the stake in the heart of a vampire since he doesn't know whether he wants to be a vampire or werewolf. Let's go a vampire. You stake in the heart of a vampire, they die. I think it has to be a silver stake. I'm not sure. I don't do all that. But the point here is that Herschel Walker is being manipulated and he's too stupid to know it. And if he gets into the Senate, he will be manipulated again. But I'm excited about black Georgia. I'm excited about Melanie and Latasha and the folks that keep getting people to come out. And it's just it's 24 hours. It's 24 hours. Folks, we need your votes. I don't care

what you think about what. Just go and vote for Raphael Warnock, not only because he provides Democrats with a cushion, but also because he brings the right thing to the table in terms of issues. That's what it's about. It's not about the werewolves and the vampires. It's about poverty. It's about health care. It's about women's rights. And like I said, put a stake in the heart of the vampire. We're going to have final comments here. But some of y'all, listen, if y'all want to get in the chat room and y'all want to run your miles, first of all, if you're going to try to correct me, you might want to have your little facts straight.

So whoever I came, if I find you, I'm going to call your name out. Y'all know how I do. I don't know who have the audacity to come on the chat room and try to tell me that black people are 43%. JV on Riley, I found you said, actually, Mississippi black population is 43% undercount and growing. Yo, man, stop, dog. It's 38%.

Okay. Okay. The population estimate right here for the U.S. Census. I know you get a whole deal about your undercount. I get it. But that ain't flying players. It's 38%. It's 38%.

Okay. And I was on a plane with Congressman Benny Thompson from Mississippi, the only black congressman from Mississippi on Saturday. So you don't want to go there. So, I mean, that's cute, but it's 38%, all right? So I guess you just got to be a little popular today. Now we know, JVON. All right, let's do this here.

There's somebody right now, they're watching, they might be listening, or there's somebody who folks in this audience, they know, and they are saying, man, I ain't wasting my time tomorrow. It's going to rain tomorrow. I don't have time. And so what would you say to them? You got 30 seconds to tell them why they should vote in this runoff. I'll start with you, Donald. What would you tell them? Why they should vote in this runoff. I'll start with you, Donald. What would you tell them? Why they should get off their butts beginning at 7 a.m., closing at 7 p.m.

to vote tomorrow? Somebody in this room? No, somebody who's watching, listening, or there might be somebody in the folks in this room know, and they need to go back and tell, they know somebody who said, I ain't really sure. If you have not heard, a high price has been paid for African Americans to express their

voice, to have their voice heard through the ballot. I mean, Dr. King said so much about it, and others too, others too. And those folk who are in this room from Liberty County, we have a long history too of being involved in voters' rights. You have the opportunity tomorrow, if you have not already early voted, to go out and vote to make a difference in the progress, the future, the vision of America. So many things rely on it. I mean, our young people, programs for them, infrastructure, which is needed almost everywhere. A plethora of items are needed, so you can make the difference.

You can make the difference. And so if you have it, I hope you're motivated now. Hope you motivate others to go out and take advantage of it. Don't let it pass you by. Don't say, I wish I would have after it's over. Now is your time. now is your time now is your time all right I heard a lot about Mississippi I'm from Mississippi so hey Mississippi but um but being from Mississippi you saw things a lot different than people I've been all around the

world and just knowing the way we grew up the the way we were treated, the way we saw things and did things, you don't realize that your vote does count. You don't realize that what your mother, your grandmother, your grandfather, those people sacrificed in order for us to be there. And we forget about that because we're younger. We don't remember. We didn't see. We didn't do. We didn't go without. But just go back to Mississippi. It'll show you because there's a lot of places in Mississippi that are still doing without. Your vote matters. That job that you're on, that you feel like you can't leave to go vote. That job is still going to be there. But your vote matters and you matter. So show up, show out and make your vote count.

If you don't love yourself, you just can't think enough of yourself to go vote. Think about your great grandmother who never got the chance to vote. And then think about your grandchildren that you need to do something for. And if that's not enough, then think about those who have never been able to experience the American dream. Let's make home ownership possible.

If you don't think about yourself, then think about the possibilities for those. Think about Medicaid and us expanding it. about yourself then think about the possibilities for those think about Medicaid and us expanding it think about health care for everybody think about a decent education think about the elimination of student loans do it because you know somebody that needs it since you obviously don't need it if you ain't voted yet I will um I will close this out. We were here during the general election, here during the runoff.

We've been to multiple places, Athens, Swainsboro, Statesboro, Sandersville, Savannah. We were in Atlanta here in Heinz, closing this out in Heininesville. And what I need folk to understand is I, and I'll give you an example. We, I was at a school choice meeting and you probably had about $20 billion. I was in the room and there were three, there were two black people. I was one of the two,

the Latino guy was in the room and I was talking about my initial school choice is the black choice. And a Latino guy says, you know, he's I believe I believe in diversity and inclusion. What about Latinos? I said, listen, you are more than happy. You're more than welcome to start school choice is a Latino choice. I'm here for black people. And I was real clear in the room. I said, I'm here for black people. And so I look white voters. Republican Party goes after white voters. We already see the numbers. Sixty three, sixty five, 70 percent, white voters, Republican Party goes after white voters.

We already see the numbers, 63, 65, 70% of white voters may very well vote for Hershel Walker. But numbers do not lie. If black people, if we maximize our numbers, tomorrow is a cakewalk for Warnock. Let me say it again. If we go from literally 50% of eligible black voters in East County to 70%, Warnock wins by upwards of in 2020 by 11 000 votes but you still had hundreds of thousand black people who didn't even vote and so when you talk about if you're sitting here saying, man, I ain't sure, do remember, Warnock voted with Democrats to cap insulin at $35 a month. My daddy, my brother, both of my grandmothers all had diabetes. You're now talking about not paying $400 a month. And y'all just do the math. Okay.

If you're paying $400 a month insulin, if you're watching right now and you're paying $400 a month for insulin, and all of a sudden you now paying $35 a month, that means that your grandmother, your grandfather, your daddy, your mama, your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your cousin, niece, whatever, is saving $365 a month. That means they are saving $4,380 a year. Herschel said eat better. Now, should we eat better? Yes.

Should we exercise more? Yes. But should we also have access to health care? Yes. Who doesn't support the Affordable Care Act? Hershel Walker. Who doesn't support expanding Medicaid, which will actually keep rural hospitals open

where you're not traveling 50, 60 miles to be able to be treated? So this ain't that hard. It ain't hard at all. Now you're sitting at home and you're saying, well, I ain't seen my neighborhood change. And so therefore, uh, I'm not going to vote. I dare say your neighborhood likely could look worse. And I, and I, and I will say this, I will say this. I fundamentally believe that one of the reasons why our neighborhoods are not better is not solely because, well, Democrats haven't done this, this, this. It's because we have not properly maximized our numbers.

So the election is tomorrow. You got time to vote seven to seven. If you're in line by seven, you stay in line to vote seven to seven. If you're in line by seven, uh, you stay in line to vote, but I'm gonna say this and y'all heard me say this every, every time on this show constantly tomorrow is the end of one process and the beginning of another. If that fool Herschel wins, every person in this room is still a constituent. And our job is to give him hell to do what he is supposed to do because folk are still constituents. But if Warnock wins, our job on Wednesday is to give him hell about what we want because we are constituents.

And so we just can't yell, holler, and scream, we need this, this, this. We must be applying maximum pressure to every elected official, black or not, to do what they said they wanted to do during the campaign. Because too many of us, we go home when the election is over. And so call every friend you know, text them, family member, get on social media, tell black Georgia to show up and show out. And so when we are live tomorrow night for the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta it should be a victory celebration at the Warnock campaign

and if you do we do right he'll come go back to DC for a full six-year term and then our job is again to demand what we want. The folks in the highest view, thank you so very much. Representative Williams, thanks a lot. Folks, don't forget to support the Black Star Network. Download the Black Star Network app on all platforms. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

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PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered. VMO is RMUnfiltered. Zill is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And, of course, get my book, White Fear, How the Brownie of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at all bookstores. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Books A Million. You can also download the audio book from Audible. And also, if you want, I told y'all, don't talk to talk.

Support black institutions. You can also order the book through a black bookstore as well. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow from Atlanta. We'll be live at the Warnock Hit Victory Party tomorrow for the show. We'll be live 6 to 8, and we'll come back on the show as more of the election results come in. So hopefully by tomorrow night, we'll actually have a winner in this U.S. Senate runoff race. Again, Hinesville, thanks a bunch. Thanks, everybody.

All the citizens we've been to. Folks, y'all know how I end the show. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holler! folks y'all know how I end the show I'll see y'all tomorrow this is an iHeart podcast