#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ginni Thomas Faces Jan. 6 Committee, Coolio Dies, Miss. Water Crisis, Black Girls & Suspension Rates

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

9.29.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ginni Thomas Faces Jan. 6 Committee, Coolio Dies, Miss. Water Crisis, Black Girls & Suspension Rates Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was questioned by the House January 6 Committee today.  She told the Jan. 6 investigators she still believes the 2020 election was stolen.  We'll break it all down.  We lost another great one.  Grammy-winning rapper Coolio died after being found unresponsive on a bathroom floor inside a friend's house.    The life expectancy for black men has decreased, and it's four years shorter than our white counterparts.   We'll have the newly elected President of the National Medical Association break down the new study.   The state of Tennesee still owes the state's only publicly funded HBCU, Tennessee State University, over $500M.  Dr. Jeff Carr will join us to explain why the state hasn't signed that check yet.  Jackson, Mississippi, has been begging for funds to update its water system for years.  The current governor has admitted to blocking funds the city needed when he was the state's treasurer. Mayor Chokwe Lumumba will join us for an update on the city's water crisis.  And a new study finds that black girls are more than four times more likely to get suspended from school.  We'll talk to the study's author and the executive director of an organization with programs to help those girls get back on track.  We'll tell you why several republican-led states are suing President Joe Biden over his student load forgiveness plan.   Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Black power! Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told.

Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Hey, Blake, 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? សូវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា� Să ne urmăm. Thank you. Today is Thursday, September 29th, 2022. Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network, Jenny Thomas, the White white Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, was questioned today by the House January 6th Committee. Of course, she told them that she still believes

the 2020 election was stolen. And Justice Samuel Lito had the audacity to say, y'all should not question the Supreme Court. Really? Folks, we lost another great one. Grammy-winning rapper Coolio died the Supreme Court. Really? Folks, we lost another great one. Grammy-winning rapper Coolio died after being found unresponsive on a bathroom floor inside a friend's home.

We'll share those details with you. The life expectancy for black men has decreased in America and it is four years shorter than our white counterparts. We'll have the newly elected president of the National Medical Association break down this new study. The state of Tennessee still owes the state's only publicly funded HBCU,

Tennessee State, more than $500 million. Dr. Jeff Carr will join us to explain why the state hasn't signed that check yet. Also, Jackson, Mississippi has been begging for funds to update its water system for years. A current governor has admitted to blocking funds the city needs when he was the state treasurer. Mayor Chokwe Lumumba will join us for an update

on the city's water crisis. And a new study finds that black girls are more than four times more likely to get suspended from school. We'll talk to the study's author and executive director of an organization with programs to more likely to get suspended from school. We'll talk to the study's author and executive director of an organization with programs to help those girls get back on track.

Plus, we'll tell you why several Republican-led states are suing President Joe Biden over his student loan forgiveness plan. I guess those states don't have folks who actually owe student loans. Or could it be the students who do owe, they're black? It's time to bring the funk and roll the Martin Unfiltered. The Black Star Network, let's go.

Martin! He's got it. Whatever the biz, 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 believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now It's Rollin' Martin, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now.

Martin. Martin! Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the one who led the ruling that got rid of Roe v. Wade, he has said it is wrong for people to question the integrity of Supreme Court. He said that it's crossing a line. He said that today, y'all. The same

day, the wife of Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, testified before the January 6th committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The same rabid Republican, Jenny Thomas, who was active in trying to get the 2020 election overturned.

The same Jenny Thomas. The same one who didn't just call Arizona. She called multiple states. The same Jenny Thomas that helped raise money and pay for buses to come on January 6th.

And you actually want me to believe that Clarence did not know what his wife was doing? You've got to be outside your damn mind. And check this out.

Congressman Benny Thompson, the chair of the committee, was there for about an hour today. He said her trifling ass sat before the committee and said she still believes the election was stolen. And Alito wants to tell us it's crossing a line to question the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomas was interviewed for more than four hours,

interspersed with brief breaks, and again, Thompson says she answers some questions and said that if Thomas provided community investigators with something of merit, it will be included in the panel's next public hearing. Hmm. Really?

Here's a statement her attorney, Mark Paoletta, made after she appeared before the committee. Earlier today, Jenny Thompson participated in a voluntary interview with the J6 committee. She was happy to cooperate with the committee to clear up the misconceptions about her activities surrounding the 2020 elections. She answered all the committee's questions. As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas has significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election. And as she told the committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on

ensuring the reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated. Beyond that, she played no role in any events after the 2020 election results. As she wrote in a text to Mark Meadows at the time, she also condemned the violence on January 6th as she abhors violence on any side of the aisle. There we go with the any side. Yep. Thomas became of interest after the publication of text messages she exchanged with Trump's former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and state lawmakers about overturning the election. Thomas and Meadows exchanged 29 text messages.

In those messages, she urged him to fight for Trump and those seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Thomas also contacted Arizona and Wisconsin state lawmakers to overturn Biden's victory. These insurrectionists are exactly who we thought they were. And I keep telling y'all, they're not done. They want to put people in office who are going to continue the BS that they are involved in.

I just keep trying to explain that to people. I understand why people don't believe that. But I can guarantee you these thugs are not going away. They're going to continue to create as much mayhem as possible against the American people. Join me right now, Dr. Greg Hart, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Dr. Neambé Carter, Associate Professor at Howard, also Jason Carter. I'm sorry, Jason Nichols, Senior Lecturer, African-American Studies, Department of the University of Maryland, Jason Carter. Jason, I'm sorry, Jason Nichols, senior lecturer, African American Studies Department, University of Maryland, College Park. Sorry.

Doc, so you left Howard. Where are you now? I did. I'm at University of Maryland. Got it. All right. Well, I see. They didn't tell me that.

So when I saw Maryland, I was like, hold up, Jason there. They realized both of y'all were at Maryland. So glad to have you both. This is, I want to run this here. This is an ad that Don Winslow, he put up today, of course, very quickly, dealing with this crank, Jenny Thomas. I want to go ahead and play that. I'm going to go to the panel.

Watch this. When your husband is a Supreme Court judge, you get a lot of special privileges. I can do whatever I want, and no one can stop me. People are saying I broke federal and state laws, but when you're Clarence Thomas's wife, it just doesn't matter. They can't touch me. I tried to overthrow the government and all I got is this silly little interview. No one is above the law. You will never see me testify under oath and on television. It's nice to have family friends like Liz Cheney. Thanks, Liz.

Now, Naomi, the reason Don took a shot at Liz Cheney there because she was very much involved in not wanting Jenny Thomas to come before this committee. For all of her anti-Trump stuff, she was quite protective of this MAGA Republican. Absolutely. So thank you for having me, Roland. It's good to see my colleagues. Look, Jenny Thomas is in a rare position. She has supporters and protectors on all sides, not limited to her husband, also the very powerful Liz Cheney. And that's why we need to be careful about giving these Republicans slaps on the back for doing the bare minimum, which is their job.

I mean, at the end of the day, Liz Cheney is a conservative Republican. And while she might have thought January 6 went too far, she's not above covering and caping for someone like Jenny Thomas, which many have done for quite some time. I mean, she has been quite clear about her beliefs and has even put her money in the same place. Yet she has really escaped scrutiny for many months. And it's certain, I mean, it's pretty much been the case that she was given a red carpet to show up. And I'm sure there's nothing that's going to really come of this where Jenny Thomas is concerned. I mean, she's just going to sit there and pretend that she was just, you know, a concerned citizen and not an actual provocateur. And that's exactly what she is.

It really does crack me up when I listen to these people, Jason, and they act as, no, I was just, you know, no, I was just doing my American duty. I just sent a few text messages, a few emails. I don't really see what the big deal is. You know, the interesting thing about Ginny Thomas, first of all, I don't buy any of that, that she believes the election was stolen. I'm not saying she's a genius, but she's clear that this election was free and fair. The problem is, I think she recognizes, as we all do, that the January 6th committee and their objective is to show that Trump and others

knew this was a fair election and were trying to overturn it anyway. This is why they keep showing Bill Barr. They keep showing Cassidy Hutchinson and others who were in Trump's ear telling him, no, this is free, this is fair, all those guys from DOJ and from the White House legal team who were saying, no, you need to give this up. This is over. It was done. It was a free and fair election. I think that she is at the very least smart enough to recognize that this was a free and fair election that Joe Biden won. But she's trying to escape legal culpability by saying, look, I really believe this. There's no intent to do any harm because I really believe that this was an unfair election. I just don't believe that. I think she

clearly knows, as we all do, especially now, but I think at the time she knew it was a fair election. And, you know, you have her, she's insulated by all of these people within the power structure, and she gets to walk down the halls and smile the way we saw in that video. Indeed. And, you know, look, folks have been really going after them.

Here's another video. Greg, I want to play for you. Ginny Thomas, the spouse of a sitting Supreme Court justice, tried to overturn the 2020 election where armed white supremacists under the direction of Trump invaded the Capitol and tried to hang the vice president, has agreed to testify. Who do you understand is his arrest? The January 6th committee has been slow to call her out, I guess in deference to the Supreme Court, the same court that gives her husband Clarence and his hairy Coke can dominion over women's bodies.

Ginny Thomas texted Meadows in January of 2021, urging him to undermine Biden's win and keep Trump in power. In Arizona and Wisconsin, she pushed the legislature to throw out votes and declare Trump president. Trump won! She then attended the January 6th insurrection.

She's on the record declaring America to be in danger due to a deep state run by a transsexual fascist. What the fuck is wrong with you? Did I mention she's married to a Supreme Court justice? The only dissenting vote to investigate Trump's role in the insurrection? How the fuck is this okay? Ginny Thomas is like a drunk driver and Clarence Thomas is like a car. And the American people? We're standing in the crosswalk.

God damn right. I have a cocaine addiction. Ginny Thomas, the spy. Figured you'd get a kick out of that one, Greg. That was hilarious. And it is good to see my colleagues. And Dr. C, you know, once you do years at HBCU and dog years, you earned retirement. So I'm glad you're still in PG. So at any rate, I'm glad to see you still in that wall. But yeah, I mean, you know, they're not fighting for democracy. They're fighting for a theocracy. He's a white Christian nationalist, or at least in Clarence Thomas's case, I suppose

you'd call him kind of a checkerboard Christian nationalist. But clearly, they don't give a damn about voting. I mean, and I love that video because, yeah, eight to one, the Supreme Court ordered the release of Mark Meadows, what was it, 2,320 text messages. The one dissenter, Clarence Thomas, because 29 of them were with his best friend. And I use that word best friend because one of those 29 texts that Jenny Thomas sent to the White House to Mark Meadows said, after Meadows characterized this as a battle between good and evil. There's the language. She replies, yeah, I'm glad to hear that. Between that and the conversation with my

best friend, I'm encouraged. Best friend, her husband. Clarence Thomas asked me to be off the Supreme Court if there were a rule of law in this country, but there isn't. John Roberts killed the rule of law with Citizens United in 2010. And he's been looking ever since like, we need to respect the court. Dude, you destroyed the court when you decided that corporations have unlimited speech, and they began to really pump to put this theocracy in place. So Sam Alito, you mentioned Alito earlier. I would encourage folk to look at The New Yorker. Margaret Talbert wrote an excellent article on his plans for theocracy at the end of August

in The New Yorker. Remember, Alito was the one that tried on the 28th of October to slow down allowing absentee ballots in Pennsylvania, and then on November the 6th ordered any ballot that came into Pennsylvania after Election Day to be sequestered in case they could be thrown out. He did everything he could to stop the election of Joe Biden. But, you know, I only have so much sympathy for Joe Biden because Joe Biden threw a leader hill under the bus. I'm old enough to remember 1991.

But at any rate, I'm saying these people are fighting for a theocracy. They are fighting, and they don't give a damn. And so it'll be interesting to see as these Proud Boy insurrectionists, or is it the Oath Keepers? I guess the Oath Keepers are on trial using Reconstruction Era legislation. That's the same statute that Benny Thompson filed that federal lawsuit, Civil Rights Act of 1866, to say you all tried to overthrow the government. That's still good law in the books if there's a rule of law in this country,

but that's really what's on trial, isn't it? The rule of law in this country. Indeed, this is an ad that the Lincoln Project put together with regards to Jenny Thomas. Justice Clarence Thomas is compromised. On January 19th, 2022, Thomas was the only Supreme Court justice willing to help Trump and his allies hide from justice over the January 6th insurrection. Thomas did not hide that he was willing to grant Trump's request for secrecy. But it wasn't just to protect Trump and his conspirators. It was to protect his wife, Ginny Thomas. A radical right-wing activist, Ginny Thomas has openly applauded rebellion in the past. I think people are rebelling and there's a big tidal wave coming. I think the Democrats are pretty worried about what's coming.

And the lead up to January 6th was no different. Ginni Thomas used her direct line to Trump's White House to push for the overturning of a free and fair election, even attending the rally that would ultimately end in an attack on the U.S. Capitol. None of this would be known if Justice Thomas had gotten his way. The January 6th Commission can't do their job

if one of the most powerful men in the country is using his seat to protect his best friend. Clarence Thomas must recuse himself because he took an oath to protect the Constitution, not his wife. And, Neombe, that right there is all we need to know. And the fact that the Supreme Court to this day has not created

a code of ethics. This man is literally ruling on cases involving things his wife was involved in. The conflict of interest is extremely clear. It is a neon

sign, LED light, damn near a sun ray coming down. That's what we're seeing. Well, absolutely. And I think the thing about the Supreme Court is when we look to the Constitution, I mean, it's really designed with very little structure, right? You don't even have to be an attorney to be on the Supreme Court. I mean, and these are lifetime appointments, and that's why they're all so dangerous, because we're stuck with these people for quite some time. And certainly they have no incentive to police themselves. And even if someone thought, this doesn't look right, Clarence, you might want to step off. No one has really pushed him on it.

John Roberts certainly hasn't. I mean, for the reasons that Dr. Carr here talked about, but also because where's the pressure going to come from? Right. They're supposed to be the court of last resort. And nobody's really questioning them about anything that they do. And no one's ever or not moved it with this court in particular to push them off. I mean, we knew that Clarence Thomas was compromised even before this moment. Remember, Jenny Thomas was the same woman calling Anita Hill at her work phone 20 years past, his hearings, telling her that she needed to apologize to her husband. So this woman has a history of harassment under her belt even before January 6th. And I'm just wondering, how far is this going to go?

I mean, clearly the Supreme Court doesn't care about its own credibility. But certainly, I think we have to think about, as a nation, what it is we want to do. Now, it's going to take a while, because Congress doesn't also want to touch this branch. But there is nothing that doesn't or that prevents, excuse me, Congress from modifying the Constitution and modifying their duties as the court of last resort. Now, of course, that's pretty extreme and it's likely not to happen, but it's not as if we have nothing that we can do to make this branch be more accountable. We just haven't done it. And now, you know, looking at them and looking at them to do it for themselves,

I really doubt that's going to happen. And certainly, we know the Republicans aren't going to ask for the court to be more accountable. I mean, it started, I guess, as an idea that the court should be above the fray politically. But certainly, they have put themselves into politics, and we should probably treat them more like politicians rather than lifetime officials. Well, absolutely. And I fundamentally am against a Supreme Court justice having a lifetime appointment. I'm just against that. I mean, hey, fine, if you want to say 20 year terms, but Jesus, lifetime? Nobody can be good at everything for all their life. Like, are you serious? Again, Jason, and, you know, and Biden doesn't want to go hard.

He is not like, I mean, whatever that BS commission he had, whatever the recommendations, whatever. Yeah, no, it's disappointing because Republicans are always willing to play hardball to the point where they're willing to literally storm the Capitol. Now, I don't think we should go to that extreme, but one of the things, there are many things on the table, of course, pushing Puerto Rico to become a state, potentially, if they don't want to be independent, which I'm probably more leaning towards

independence. But if they want to be a state, bring Puerto Rico in and the District of Columbia, maybe even, and you know, these are some radical ideas, but breaking up California so that you get more senators in the Senate. Of course, court expansion in terms of the Supreme Court. You can expand the court. The court has had fewer members than nine and more members than nine several times throughout our history. And these were things that ideas that were being discussed with Joe Biden and Joe Biden would kind of flirt with them. But once he got into his office, he didn't want to touch them. And my thing is, Joe, you're already unpopular. Like, go for it. Go balls to the wall. Like, go out and start taking some bold action to secure

the future of the nation. And it doesn't seem like he's willing to consider any of that. This is what we know. And I said this on ABC to Chris Christie's face. And I keep telling people this, Greg, the Republicans do not care about norms. We're not work. They're not worried about, oh, what will people think? They are about power, cementing power,

cementing control. And I just keep saying to all these people out here who are talking about just sitting here behind on the sidelines, understand they are coming after you. You can sit here and, oh, I don't like this they are coming after you.

You can sit here, oh, I don't like this den or this person. I'm telling you. What these folk have in store, if y'all thought the last Supreme Court term was crazy, Roe v. Wade, wait until June 2023. Oh, y'all want to have a conversation?

Watch what they do this term. These people, they have been planning this since Brown v. Board of Education. Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 65 Voting Rights Act, 68 Fair Housing Act, they have been playing, and so I don't, I can't say any progressive or liberal, oh my God, I can't believe this happened.

They've been telling you what they were going to do. That's right. They simply did it. And these folk didn't believe them, Greg. No, I mean, they've been telling us what they're going to do since they drug us over here into this criminal enterprise. That's why I never use the word our or we when I talk about the United States of America. This system was set up with the original constitutional framework

and federalism to do exactly what it is doing now. Now, sure, Washington and Madison and the rest of them, well, in addition to not ever being able to imagine that Lizzo was going to play his flute, James Madison never would have imagined, and that a black woman would give her permission to do it. Shout out to this librarian of Congress. I just love that. But at any rate, James Madison never imagined that this criminal enterprise would take up from the Pacific to the Atlantic, but he set up a system so that even as it did, white minority rule is literally poured

into the structure. So I think, Dr. Nichols, I think that that is a fascinating possibility. And I think that it is an increasingly possible possibility as the demographics shift and as this thing fractures, because these white nationalists are going to overburden this federal structure. They have tried to break it several times. They tried to break it in the 1840s and 50s. I mean, y'all go read Dr. Carter's book, American While Black. She'll walk you through that whole thing. You walk them through it, doc. I mean, Martin Delaney, I'm like, let's just get the hell out of here, even as they come back and fight in the Civil War. But they

tried to break it in the 1850s and 60s. They tried to break it again in the 1960s and 70s. They are not going to be satisfied until they break it, because what they don't seem to understand is that many people in this country and more and more people in this country are not going to concede to white nationalism in the name of, quote-unquote, the soul of America. There is no we. There is no soul.

And I really, I for one encourage them to keep it up. To keep it up. Because Sam Alito don't carry no weight in North Philly. He don't carry none in Southeast D.C. And he better have an armed guard out there at Supreme Court because I'm not saying anything violent will happen to him. But there is no respect for the rule of law when there

is not a basic humanity at the center of that concept. And all of world history teaches us that. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered, including Coolio passing away at the age of 59. Hurricane hitting Florida, now on his way to Georgia. Loss of death.

But you know what's also interesting? Don't y'all find it interesting? All these Republicans. Now all of a sudden, thank you President Biden for that federal aid. The same federal aid they complain about when other people get it. See, it's amazing what happens when stuff happens to you. Now all of a sudden, you want that money.

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And of course, don't forget to get your copy of White Fear, how the brown of America is making white folks lose their minds and their hearts. And we'll see you next time on White Fear. like button and the share button, okay? We should easily be at 1,000 on all the platforms. And, of course, don't forget to get your copy of White Fear, how the Brown of America is making white folks lose their minds every time something happens. All I keep saying is hashtag, we tried to tell you. Get it at Ben Mellon Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Indie Brand, Indie Bound, Bookshop Chapters, Books a Million, Target. Also, if you want to go order from a black bookstore, do that to support black bookstores you can also download it from audible i'll be right back when we invest in ourselves our glow our vision We all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not be black. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the US Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color

have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be

more of this. There's all the Proud Boys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the U S department of health and human services and the ad council. Our resources. They're taking our women. This is why. ad council our resources they're taking our women this is white people when we invest in ourselves we all shine together we are black beyond measure hi i'm gavin houston hey what's up y'all it's your boy jacattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! Grammy-winning musician Coolio, born artist Leon Ivey Jr., suddenly passed away yesterday at the age of 59.

No official word on his cause of death, but it's believed he died of a heart attack. Reports say emergency responders answered a call at 4 p.m. for a medical emergency. They found Coolio unresponsive and performed resuscitation efforts for approximately 45 minutes, but he could not be revived. Coolio released eight solo studio albums. He is best known for his Grammy-winning song,

Gangster's Paradise, which was on the soundtrack for Dangerous Minds. His talents reached far beyond the music as he wrote and performed the theme song for the Kenan and Kel show. He starred in several films like Batman and Robin, Get Over It, and Daredevil. In 2008, he starred in his family's reality TV show, Coolio's Rules. His long-time manager, Jerez Posey,

released this statement yesterday. We are saddened by the loss of our dear friend and client, Coolio, who passed away this afternoon. He touched the world with the gift of his talent and will be missed profoundly. Thank you to everyone who has listened to his music and everyone who has been reaching out regarding his passing. Please have Coolio's loved ones in your thoughts and prayers. He was 59 years old.

Folks, that is something that is, you got to think about it when you look at his death and DMX and so many others. A number of black artists who have passed away in their 50s even before they were born. You got to think about it when you look at His Death and DMX and so many others, a number of black artists who have passed away in their 50s, even before they reached the age of 60. In fact, in the past couple of years, we've seen a dramatic increase. Here's a graphic of some of those folks, okay? Right there, Malik B, 47, DMX, 50, Black Rob, 52, Prince Marky D, 52, Kangokia, 55, Biz Markie, 57, Shock G, 57, Coolio, as I said, 59, and Hub, 62 years old.

Now, a nationwide National Institutes of Health study has found that black populations have far shorter life expectancy than white folks. For black men in the U.S., our life expectancy is four years shorter at 74 years old than white men. Joining me now to talk about this is Dr. Garfield A. Curtis, the newly elected 123rd president of the National Medical Association, a professional and scientific organization representing the interests of more than 50,000 African-American physicians. Doc, glad to have you here. So, I mean, when you see that list, when you see, I mean, individuals passing 20 years before the average life expectancy, what does that tell you? What does that say about what's happening with the health of black men in this country? Well, good morning. Excuse me. Good afternoon, Roland. Thank you for having me on.

You know, when you think about the stress and the life that Black people have to go through in general, it's not, it is not unfathomable to think that the lifespan would be shorter than whites. I mean, Blacks and people of color tend to live in communities that are underserved in terms of health care, in terms of quality of air, in terms of, you know, places to exercise, places to walk around safely. And so it's not surprising that lifespan may be lower because your body needs exercise. Your body needs clean air. Your body needs clean water. And I think these things all affect life expectancy significantly.

And when we talk about that, I mean, obviously, when you think about drinking, we think about smoking. We think about just so many other things. And so what are your fellow doctors saying that we should be doing to counter this? Well, I think that what we have to realize is that prevention is better than treatment. And so we have to continue to advocate and educate our patients on exercise and good habits in terms of eating. You know, the National Medical Association, every year we do something called Walk a Mile with a Child, which is a community event we do depending on where our convention is. This past summer our convention was in Atlanta, and we did it in Independence Park. And what it's essentially designed to is to educate the population on healthy eating, healthy exercise, very simple things that you can do, jumping in place, walking, jogging, and also the benefits of, you know, just simple water over having drinks with a lot of

sugar in them. And so what we as physicians do and continue to do and need to enhance is that kind of education to our patients. Because, again, sometimes in the areas where we live, it's very difficult. There are no safe playgrounds. There may not be safe sidewalks. There may not be safe communities. And so we just have to continue to educate patients on what they can do in their environment to stay healthy. One of the other issues, obviously, how we are impacted by stress. Absolutely. I didn't get there yet, but that's absolutely right. So you talked about this study

showing that the life expectancy is four years, four plus years lower, but then added stress decreases it even much more. Stress decreases your life expectancy at least two to three years. So you can add another, you know, you can add, put seven years on that instead of four. And so, you know, it's not surprising, like I said, because of some of the environments that we have to function in and live within. Questions from our panel. Jason, I'll start with a statement, and that is that, you know, if you go to certain particular areas, like I was looking at Philadelphia, for example, where the life expectancy for a black male in Philadelphia is 69. So you barely get to actually to, you know, get your Social Security before you're already on your way to passing. My question is, how exactly do you expect policy to affect this, or what policies do you advocate in order to change this trend, particularly after COVID? Right. So, the National Medical Association, we have what's called a House of Delegates, and we discuss these issues throughout the year, and we bring policy positions to the House of Delegates for the organization to pass, sort of vote on and pass. And so one of the things we've

done recently was we have a gun violence task. It used to be a task force. Now it's a council. And their council is focused on common sense gun laws, advocating for not children, excuse me, adults younger than 18, not having, being able to have a gun. Because I think violence has a lot to do with the decreased life expectancy that we see, especially with Black males. And so that's one of the ways we do it. We also work with our partners with the Congressional Black Caucus to talk about, you know, again, healthy lifestyles, talk about our moms who are dying in childbirth, how to educate themselves on what to do. But I think a lot of gun violence is one of the problems. And then, you know, again, healthy eating, cardiovascular disease is one of the most common things

in the African-American community, and that is killing us. And cardiovascular disease comes from poor eating, it comes from stress, it comes from smoking. So we also advocate to decrease those sort of things in your lifestyle. That's why I'm a huge advocate, just cussing folk out,

just to keep your blood pressure down. But the food is so good. No, thank you. That's funny, Roland. No question. I guess the spirit of Reese is strong here tonight. But Dr. Clooney, thank you, of course, and of course the NMA, one of our foundational kind of bedrock organizations. I'm thinking about, as Roland raised the issue of stress, some of the small things we might be able to relieve stress. I'm thinking about a colleague of ours at Howard, Jules Harrell. Okay.

He spent his career studying this. Okay. Sounds good. Like an encounter with the police, something as simple as just that little shock to the system can affect taking a few seconds, maybe out the end of your life, the way I hear Jules talk about it. I'm wondering if you think that there are techniques that we might be able to practice in terms of mindfulness, meditation, calming, breathing exercises. I mean, this is something that doesn't cost anything. You can be in a food desert and still do that. Any, any suggestions on micro techniques we might be able to, uh, to, to take up? Yeah. I mean, I think you said it right there. Um, you know,

I'm not, it's not my, my area's expertise. I'm a high risk obstetrician, but I do believe in, um, the, um, the benefits of, uh, meditation and sort of, um of planning your life and thinking it through and just being still for some times. But again, you know, in our community, it's not so simple. There are a lot of, you know, alternate issues to deal with in terms of, you know, community issues. But definitely, you know, meditation, everyone can benefit from that. And I think that is creeping into the medical curriculum more and more. And so I hope that does continue. Nyambi? Hi, Dr. Clooney. I'm curious about how these individual choices coupled with these systemic

things are being addressed, in particular around medical education and how we perhaps, you know, steer people away from or into medical offices, right? Sometimes people have a bad experience and they don't want to go to the doctor anymore, or they don't feel like they're listened to, right? There's some evidence that when Black people complain about pain or other things, they're dismissed. So how do we take a more proactive step so that we can get people into primary care doctors on a regular basis to get physical so that we can maybe catch things earlier as opposed to responding to them when we're in a crisis, if we have an opportunity to respond at all? Right. Well, you know, I think there's a lot of data that shows that black patients do better with black physicians. So we have to advocate for physicians, black and female, excuse me, male and female students messengers, and we have been partnering with churches, community leaders, community service agencies to get the information out to patients about things like screening, how to eat right, because we know that a lot of times there are not good supermarkets in the area that have good foods available. But we have to partner with

those kinds of people because the clergy and community workers are probably as trusted as physicians. And we have to let them know that we're partners with them and we hear them. I was talking to a physician today. I'm at the Congressional Black Caucus meeting, and she said she had gone to a church and she just talked a little bit about cardiovascular disease. And the way she broke it down for the congregation, she said her office was flooded the next few weeks because people thought that she was someone who understood them, understood the food they ate and why, the food they eat rather, and how to adjust, you know, for that. Sometimes we go to physicians who mean well, but sometimes, you know, not culturally competent or culturally

sensitive, and they just don't understand that it's not so easy to, you know, to get yogurt and, you know, and get French mess all the time. And so we as the NMA, again, you know, we have to, we do partner with community service workers and churches. And we're also starting to expand a little bit to partner with industry as well to sort of put out better foods, foods that are lower in sugar, and have those foods available to these communities at an affordable price because we also know that's a big problem. You may have what we talk about food um food deserts but you know they also talk about a food mirage you know because what's the sense of having a whole foods in your

neighborhood if you can't afford anything in there you know and so nothing against whole foods of course but you know an expensive supermarket supermarket that can you know um that takes a lot when you have so many other bills to pay for it's very difficult it becomes very difficult so we as the anime try to get the word out that way through the community that, you know, preventative care is good and getting into physicians or getting them to physicians who they can trust is good as well. All right, then, Dr. Clooney, we shall appreciate it. Thanks a bunch and good luck in your new term. All right. Thank you so much. All right, then. Look forward to having you back on the show. All right, folks,

let's go to a break. We come back, our black and missing for the day. And we'll also talk about more news of the day, including the need for Texas, Tennessee State University to get the $500 million they are actually owed. I wouldn't be surprised if they actually owe a hell of a lot more money than that. This is a continuing thing we're seeing where HBCUs, publicly funded HBCUs are fighting their states to get that money. And we'll talk about that next. Download the Black Star Network app, folks. All platforms, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

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Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Creating. Making moves that move us all forward. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, African Americans have an average student loan balance of more than $30,000. Student loan forgiveness has been a long time coming. The Biden administration has introduced a new program that's going to allow you to have almost or up to $20,000 forgiven. I think that the Biden administration, by implementing this plan, is admitting that there have been several serious faults within the higher education financing system and that this plan is a step in the right direction.

That's on the next Get Wealthy only on Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting.

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The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Rolandunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Hey, everybody, it's your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And...

Well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. Yeah. Yeah. Folks, Honesty Jones was last seen in Dallas, Oregon on August 24th. Yes, Dallas, Oregon. The 15-year-old, folks, is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 126 pounds, has brown hair, dyed orange, and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Honesty Jones

should call the Portland, Oregon Police Department at 503-823-3333. 503-823-3333. Folks, it is always about the money. Always about the money. Always about the money. We're seeing that, of course, when it comes to our publicly funded HBCUs. Look, there are 107 HBCUs in the United States. Not all of them are private. Places like Tennessee State, Jackson State, Texas Southern University, Florida A&M,

a number of them are publicly funded HBCUs. Now, remember we were talking about the COVID funds, the American Rescue Act, all of those different bills that were being passed and how much money was going to HBCUs. You might recall when I walk you through those numbers and we showed how these HBCUs have been receiving sometimes three and four times more money from the federal government than what was being allocated by their own states. Tennessee State is one of those universities. We told you about a state committee that went through and they determined that Tennessee State, in their estimation, had been cheated out of some $500 million over the years by the Tennessee legislature.

This is not a new concept. You also might recall that Alvin Chambliss led the lawsuit against the HBCUs in Mississippi that was a groundbreaking legal decision. The decision in Maryland when that lawsuit was filed lasted some 13 years before they finally were able to achieve the settlement and have the money that was approved by the legislature. You also have had now, of course, we talked about earlier this week, we had the lawyers on where a group of students are suing the state of Florida for money they say is owed to Florida A&M,

estimates of anywhere from $1.3 billion to $2 billion. So what's happening there in Tennessee state? Now, Tennessee lawmakers approved a quarter a quarter million dollars of funding in March, but have not made any effort to give that money to Tennessee State. Tennessee State also has more than $300 million in deferred maintenance because of previous underfunding issues with the state. The HBCU also is experiencing historic first-year student enrollment, but lacks the funding to provide adequate on-campus housing for students.

Some students are staying in hotels up to 12 miles from campus. Joining us now is Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship Church in Nashville, Tennessee, cum laude graduate of Tennessee State University. Of course, a brother of Dr. Greg Carr, also a Tennessee State graduate as well. You know, one of the things that we have talked about on this show, and we went over this last week, you've got about 228, 230,000 students

who are enrolled in HBCUs. About 20% of those students are non-black. Some 1.5 to 1.6 million who are enrolled in PWIs. And, you know, Scott Bolden, when we were talking about this last week, he said, hey, if the black students at PWIs decide to go to HBCUs, they literally would not know where to place them. When I was a scholar in the Revis Mitchell Scholar in Residence at Fisk University, I was talking to then President Van Newkirk, and he was talking about that. You got alumni saying, man, you know, we should be building more dorms as opposed to building new learning centers.

He said, wait a minute. He said other schools are going to online learning. He said we got to minute. He said other schools are going to online learning. He said we've got to rethink what's happening here. And so to that point, Jeff, what we're seeing is all of the attention, all of the focus, and it's renewed focus of folks who say let's send our kids to HBCUs. That's a flip side to that when folks show up, and I talked to some folks who showed up at Morehouse, and they were like, where's our housing? I mean, I've heard other people at various HBCUs literally say when

it's time, when they are flying in or driving in, and they get there, and they're dealing with, there's no place for the students to stay. Yeah, and Roland, you absolutely nailed it. That's the situation here. Right down the street from where I am right now, about a mile down the street and also half a mile, there are three brand-new hotels that can't even bring tourists in because they are booked up holding some of the 3,900 students in the entering freshman class at Tennessee State University, the largest class in the school's history. We also have the largest class in the school's history at nearly 1,400 down the street

at Fisk University. And it is about capacity. When we talk about this issue, though, we got to see the long history of what's been going on here. And it started with the 1862 Murrill Act, which created the land-grant institutions and the predominantly white institutions in that case, moving up to the 1890 land-grant institutions that included 19 state schools that became the predominantly African-American or HBCU schools there. The rules were different, though. When we had the 1862 issue that land grant come up, the match was provided by the state. So if the federal dollars came in, they came in at 100% match with the state. When the 1890 land grant institutions came along, they were allowed to

claim a waiver that gave only 50% of a match to the institutions that came. So you've got the inability to make this match that goes on for 100 years. 1957 to 2007, in the case of Tennessee State University, our alma mater here, you have an exception that came out of a 1913 rule that allowed the state of Tennessee to only provide one-third of the match and to ask for a waiver there. So you see institutions like UT and Knoxville, when you hear people talk about the Vols and Go Big Orange, they have been operating for years, for a century nearly, with three times the amount of allocation from a federal institution because the state decided to squeeze out this HBCU. We see this replicated all across the country. What the Joint Legislative Committee discovered

about three years ago when they met here in Tennessee was that Tennessee State was owed $540 million, half a billion dollars, that had been held back. This is not money that was just coming in surplus. This is money that was being deliberately held back by the state of Tennessee. So when this was announced for the last year since the Chronicle of Higher Education had a really good article that explored the history of how these schools are underfunded, this money has been allocated in part. So in the 2022, 2023 fiscal year budget that started July 1st, the state of Tennessee allocated a little over $300 million

to Tennessee State. That has been celebrated by some people, but it's almost too little too late when you bring about the issues of deferred maintenance, when you bring about the visioning process and how do you look for growth in the future. If you're out of funds, you can't build the capacity to embrace the people who are coming. Absolutely. And we're talking about, just like we're talking about on the athletic side, universities are in an arms race. They are in an arms race where they are having to build new buildings, expand real estate.

And so it's one thing for people to tout, hey, let's see more of our kids. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that

Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

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

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of saying, yo, where's the Wi-Fi? Where's the 5G? They are not, I mean, they are demanding, they're demanding things and they're coming from homes where they got stuff. And so the reality is I was last week at HBCU week here in DC. I was not there. It was an event Robert Smith, our alpha brother was doing where they talked about HBCUs being tech deserts. And I saw one story where it says 82% of HBCUs are not unparted, where they should be technology-wise. And so what happens? Students are showing up. They don't want to hear nothing about, hey, well, our system is not this here. You see some attacks on

systems. Howard experienced that last year, and that thing went on for a very, very long time, still trying to recover from that. When you have these cyber attacks, you've got to have the resources for people to recover from that. And so, it is a dire situation, and

the thing that, for me, I keep trying to get folks to focus on, and I haven't checked this, but when I look at a lot of these sessions here, doing Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC, the thing for me, I keep saying this, and I know folks like Roland White keep doing, I keep saying, where's the money? Meaning, it's great to have these sessions talking about this.

If every session ain't dealing with money in some capacity, we're not having the American conversation. Oh, no, we're not. You know, everything has to produce something. And when we talk about money and equity, and we've had this conversation here for a long time, we've got to see production. See, what happens is we get into these circles and we feel really, really, really good, and we make each other feel as if we're doing big things by affirming each other. I think that's important, affirming the work we're doing in policy, affirming having a record number of elected officials in any given city. But the reality is, and I hope you don't mind, I know you don't mind if I'm frank,

that if you're just feeling good but producing nothing, there's a word for that, masturbation, right? That's just making yourself feel good without producing anything. The money is what is needed. Let's take, for instance, 2019 on the campus of Tennessee State University. There was a lightning strike. And because there was no improvement in the infrastructure, because of this 50 years of disinvestment from the state of Tennessee, students went without lights. They went without hot water for a time.

They signed a petition. They had to protest. These are the things that I was doing over 30 years ago when we shut the campus down as student government president. These are the same issues that my brother was dealing with three years earlier when he was student government president and leading marches to the Board of Reasons on Murfreesboro Road. All of this comes down to, are you going to prioritize this money? The political will has to be in place. Understand the context that we're speaking in. The state of Tennessee, land-grant institution,

University of Tennessee, about three and a half hours down the road in Knoxville, Tennessee, they decided that they wanted to create a dome stadium. They wanted to enclose it and add another 10, 20,000 seats so that they could do what they do at UT, which is play football and scream and holler. State of Tennessee said, how much would it cost? About $240 million. Okay, no problem. During that same stretch, people, including this, the voices on this show, people in the Chronicle of Higher Education, people in national media have been saying, what about the land grant money that's owed to Tennessee State? Oh, we'll get around to that. I will say, though, that the combined voices that we've seen on programs like these put

the public pressure in place that was necessary to force the state of Tennessee to begin doling out this money. And while we are in affirmation, it is an affirmation of a confirmation of what is owed as opposed to a celebration. So we shouldn't we're not ready to get all up in our feelings and celebrate because it's as if somebody you borrowed somebody. Somebody borrowed ten thousand dollars from you 10 years ago and didn't pay it back. And then they show up with the money. Oh, you're not going to turn a backflip You're going to say, man, you, okay, great. You owed me this. Good. Now what's next? So for us who, for those of us who've been following HBCUs, the key now is to make sure that we are ever mindful. It's time for us to stay vigilant because once money begins to be released, as it started to be released back in July in this year's fiscal budget, we have to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

Because if we don't stay on the wall, if we don't stay focused on the money, if we don't stay focused on the resources and keep amplifying those voices, what is going to happen? Another 50-year gap holding back money occurs. So, Greg, today the Alphas, our fraternity had their luncheon at the Renaissance Hotel and I was the keynote speaker. Folks, if you missed it, go to the Black Star Network app, go to our YouTube channel, you can actually see the program, you can see my speech. And I started my speech this way. I said, turn to the person to your left or to your right and ask them, you ran the yard,

but who's running your city? And what I was getting at and what was the thesis of my speech was that we have all of this black institutional organizational infrastructure that I believe is not being properly deployed. So when I see what's happening there at Tennessee State, the first thing that comes to my mind is where, and if these things have happened, y'all let me know. Please show me where there has been, well, first of leaders, D9 leaders, Divine 9, Prince Hall, and see, this is another mistake that black people make. We love talking about the frats and sororities they're not doing, but let me go ahead and extend it.

Where's Prince Hall Masons? Where's Eastern Star? Where are the links? I need to understand when was the 50,000 people rally at the state capitol saying, where the money? See, I keep coming back to that, Greg, because we cannot continue to say, well, you know, it's a shame these things happen. We know we got the yell, holler, scream, cuss folk out. But what I don't understand is where's the Tennessee State Conference and LACP?

Derek Johnson, where are you? Mark Morial, Sharpton. I can go down the line. See, to me, it should be, we go to Tennessee and get that money. We go to North Carolina and get that money. We go to Texas and get that money. It shouldn't be the lawyers have to take 13 years

to get the money in Maryland. Yes, yes. Well, Roland, I mean, you know, it's difficult because this is a symptom of a much deeper problem. Higher education costs have skyrocketed. The public HBCUs are definitely a lot cheaper than the private ones. But the simple fact of the matter is that in Tennessee, as in so many places in the United States, the shift now has been toward two-year colleges, toward dual enrollment programs and advanced credit programs at the high school level. And then part of that is to try to work around the skyrocketing costs of higher education. Now, when you talk earlier about the students who just won't be satisfied when they come to an HBCU and they don't have

the same amenities that they might have, say, right up the road at Middle Tennessee State University, which was created in part so that Middle Tennessee could have a university that wasn't run by black people. Of course, Tennessee State comes a few years later. What you see is that a lot of black folk now, like those students, aren't really thinking like they are part of a community, which would trigger a kind of activism. All those lawsuits you talked about, our friend Alvin Chambliss and Ayers v. Fordyce, which goes back to 1975. The Guyer case in Tennessee with Tennessee State, it goes back to the late 60s. The Knight v. Alabama case from 1981 with Alabama State and Alabama A&M. You know, that was a generation, maybe even the last generation, of black professionals who saw themselves as going into their professions literally to represent and fight for our communities. So what are we faced with now? The state of Tennessee is so incredibly gerrymandered that there will be no legislature movement unless there are mass movements, as you say, in the streets.

And there should be pressure put on by all the so-called black professionals, whether they be in fraternities and sororities, masons, eastern stars, church folk, however you name it. They would have to actually look backward to when generations of folk in those positions did exercise their strength. We have more elected officials now than we've had at any time in American history, and they seem to be less effectual. That, in part, is because having lifted the veil of apartheid and Jim Crow in this country, it seems that this community, this black community we have, is continuing to dissolve. And I think what Derek Johnson, if they're going to file a Title VI claim in Mississippi to deal with this water issue,

they can certainly follow Alvin Chambliss and file a Title VI the way they did in Ayers versus Fordyce to address the effects of past discrimination. That's the kind of lawsuit that lawyers in Tennessee need to reinvigorate themselves and pursue, even as folk get out in the street. See, the thing that, and it was interesting, because when I started, there was people, they were in the room, they were like, ooh, I said, well, let me be real clear, if y'all thought I was coming here

and was not going to make y'all live uncomfortable, then y'all should have invited somebody else, because I'm not interested being here at CBC and folk patting ourselves on our backs and somehow just being all happy. I talk about MLK's book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos of Community, all the time because he lays out what is necessary.

And in that particular book, he says this, and I think it ties directly into how do we get the money. And yes, this is my actual copy, which is why you see the highlighted portions. He said, there are already structured forces in the

Negro community that can serve as the basis for building a powerful united front. The Negro church, the Negro press, the Negro fraternities and sororities, and Negro professional associations. But this is the line which I think is most important. King wrote, we must admit that these forces have never given their full resources to the cause of Negro liberation. There are still too many Negro churches that are so absorbed in a future good over yonder that they condition their members to adjust to the present evils over here. Too many Negro newspapers have veered away from their traditional role as protest organs, agitating for social change, and have turned to the sensationalobbishness and a preoccupation with frivolities and trivial activity.

But the failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future. These groups must be mobilized and motivated. That right there is what I'm talking about here. These groups must be mobilized and motivated. That right there is what I'm talking about here. And so if we see that there's an HBCU that is, oh, $500 million, I don't understand for the life of me how these organizations are not saying we need to put on something major and go into Tennessee and serve notice. We want that check. And let me go ahead and say this right now. All of y'all ADOS, FBA, B1 folk who holla cut the check, y'all ain't saying a goddamn thing about Tennessee State and the 500 million.

It's amazing. I don't see none of y'all talking about the students at Florida A&M filing the lawsuit. So when y'all say cut the check, which check? And yeah, I'm calling you out by name, and I don't give a damn if you little fake-ass YouTubers make your own videos, but I keep telling y'allall y'all be running y'all damn miles yelling out reparations when

is this not a form of it how do you not fight for this it's that they owe him 500 million dollars but some of y'all spending more damn time fighting with white supremacists pissed off that Lizzo used the damn flute

of a slave holder, than talking about the 500 million. That, Neom, is what pisses me off. We ain't focused on the money. Well, I mean, I think you're talking about the fact that there are lots of side conversations that are just distractions. And I think possibly what's happening here

is when we even think about this in the form of reparations, right? We only talk about reparations in one way. And I've always said there can be multiple claims. And this is a claim, right? One of very many that we could all be making. And not just about slavery either, right? There are all kinds of ways that inequity-

Yeah, the aftermath of slavery, Jim Crow. Absolutely. And now, right, this is even, you know, post-Jim Crow with these Tennessee State faculty, students, staff, and that university is experiencing. So there are so many different kinds

of rights claims could be made. But I also think, Roland, the problem that this is encountering or this issue is encountering is we don't think about this as a civil rights issue in the same way that we think about, say, voting rights or other kinds of things, right? When we saw the George Floyd protest, right, ultimately, that's a civil rights issue, and we can frame it a bunch of different ways. This is no different, but we don't talk about it with the same level of urgency and the same level of preoccupation and concern.

Even this discussion about Jackson and the lack of water there, Flint, Newark. I mean, we can go on and on and on about all of the issues that are facing Black communities everywhere that are not just, you know, sort of, you know, behind us or to come, but are very real, very present. And yet we don't see the full weight of Black communities coming out against them. And I don't think that this because we don't think enough about these things. I just don't know that we are always compartmentalizing these things in the same bucket. Right. So water just doesn't seem to to carry the same weight as something where we have this spectacular image. Right. Of a death or some other such thing. And so I think when you talk about this $500

million, which is not, you know, a made-up amount of money, it's an actual very real thing that we know that we can calculate that's tangible. People don't seem to see that as sexy or as interesting because it feels small. But when we think about something as magnificent as the civil rights movement and all the images in our head about that thing, that grand narrative, right, that all these people just happened to come to the march on Washington one day, right, we forget that it was a bunch of small events, this series of local and state-level events that got us there. And so when we have to think about the Tennessees and the Jacksons and all of these places where Black needs are going unmet. And that requires a lot of our attention and all of our focus.

Now, it doesn't mean that we can't laugh and we can't joke and we can't have fun, but we also have to recognize that many of the things that we're facing are not just about elections, are not just about police death, but we should also be thinking about the environment, right? We're seeing this flooding happening right now in Naples, Florida. But when we think about disaster and who's most open to disaster, it's Black folks, right? When we think about life expectancy and who's going to die, it's us. When we're thinking about who is going into debt to get an education to still make less than most of our counterparts who are white, even the ones without college educations. It's us. So there are lots of issues that we just don't see in this

pantheon of being about our rights and rights claims that I think are, that's why it's sort of short-circuiting that activism and that effort that we talk about. And then just the fact that people sometimes don't want to do anything in part because they feel overwhelmed, but then some parts people feel like, well, I got mine. I don't have to be thinking about these things. I don't have to participate in this

kind of stuff anymore. Jason, Greg and Neomic probably remember this very vividly when the heat pumps at Howard University, they couldn't have class for quite some time. very vividly when the heat pumps at Howard University went out. They couldn't have class for quite some time. Had to go to Congress to get an emergency allocation because it was so cold. Again, those pumps under the ground went out.

That's the kind of infrastructure stuff we're talking about. And this is the reality because students at Jackson State are experiencing it. You can't go to school without no damn water. In fact, I was getting text messages that there was some Jackson State students who literally were going home because they could not survive being there because of the water issue. And I just think that it just bugs the hell out of me

when I look at mass gatherings and I look at the conversations we have and I just ask myself, okay, all right, so how are we not mobilizing? That's a great point you made. right, so how are we not

mobilizing? That's a great point you made. Okay, so the NAACP filed that whatever the complaint they filed with the feds about the money that the governor not giving the money to the city of Jackson.

Okay. Jeff or Greg, maybe y'all can tell me, have y'all actually seen a statement from the National NAACP about the $500 million old Tennessee state?

No, I haven't seen one. No, Roland, but I'll tell you this, though, and Jeff mentioned when I was student body president, there was a Democratic candidate for governor, Ned Ray McWhirter. He won that election. He asked us for an endorsement. These are college undergraduate students. It's a very different time.

And part of the reason was that Jesse Jackson was running for president. Jesse Jackson came to the campus of Tennessee State University, held a press conference with us in the student center during his presidential campaign. What you had was a national level politician making a demand that forced a candidate for governor to listen to us. And after he won, after McWhorter won that election, he invited me down and he and I sat in the governor's office in the capital of the state of Tennessee to talk about resources for Tennessee State and what could happen. What you're saying, Roland, is not only the NICP, where in the hell is the vice president of the United States? Where in the hell are the elected politicians? Jesse Jackson, people can say what they want to about him. But let's be very clear about this.

And Niabi, you know, as recently as last year when he came to the student center. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Drugs Podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. That is what we have to expect of these people rather than just have us celebrate when they win a damn election. Absolutely. Jason, Jason, what this requires is what Greg just talked about, is how you marshal your forces to bring attention. So when Reverend Barber,

the Poor People's Campaign and others went to Jackson, you brought attention on Jackson. Okay, that was Monday. Okay, what's next? For me, it's the what's next. For me, when it comes to this show, same thing. We're going to keep putting attention on this thing. It was amazing all the black people. It was amazing all the black people.

I'm talking a bunch of y'all watching the show right now. Y'all had a whole lot to say when a white comptroller of Tennessee took over the finances of that small black town. In fact, if I take my numbers, that town may be smaller than the student population at Tennessee State. But a whole bunch of folk had a whole lot to say. I mean, they would tweet me like crazy. Roland, you got had this on your show.

I ain't seen none of those tweets saying, we're at 500 million. See, Jason, that's what bothers me when our energy is so high on that Tennessee story, but we ain't saying nothing about the $500 million for Tennessee State.

Well, I'm going to do a quick plug for Roland Martin Unfiltered and say that this is probably a story that I would have missed. I wouldn't have heard about this. I heard about what was going on in Maryland because I'm in Maryland. But I think a lot of us are actually missing the stories. When I look at the link that I read this from, it wasn't a big national news outlet. This is what makes Roland Martin unfiltered and Black-owned media so important is that it brings it to the fore, and maybe, and hopefully, some people who have big followings will start to push it out there. They'll actually get some mobilization and some action. It's funny because, to me, when I think about a couple of

years ago, when I was debating, you know, the Trump people, they would always say Trump funded HBCUs. He gave me two hundred and fifty five. Damn lie. That's a lie. But here you are. You have one HBCU out of one hundred and seven. Right.

And they are owed double the amount that he's talking about funding them with. They are owed five500 million just themselves. And, again, I know I've seen what's happened at Howard University all the time when their students aren't getting their financial aid. I had cousins that went to Howard University, and the circumstances within their dorms were atrocious. You know, and this is Howard University. This is probably the most well-known HBCU. And of course, this was before the vice president was in office. But it is, you know, home to some of the more powerful

members of our government, our Howard University graduates, and if they don't have the resources, then until we mobilize, we're going to see universities like Tennessee State are going to fall under the cracks. So it's

important that we get this news out there. It's important that you're talking about it, that you're giving speeches about it, and that you put pressure on the Al Sharptons of the world or the people who have audiences and want to say that they are black leaders. It's good that we call them out because mainstream media isn't picking this story up. And they don't feel pressured. But, of course, something,

I think something that Niyambi was saying actually made a lot of sense. We are putting out a lot of fires at once. I find water to be one of the biggest ones because everybody needs water to drink, to bathe, to do all the necessities that we need in life. So I think, I look at a water crisis just like I look at somebody being killed by the police and maybe even more because it's actually, you can't actually play it off as affecting one person or a few people. It's something that affects an entire community. And I think that it's important that we don't let these things slip through the cracks. These are our youth. This is the next generation. We have to actually push our elected officials. And again, it needs to be part of a larger Black agenda that goes before the president of the United States,

the governor of each state, as Dr. Carr was just talking about. We need to actually leverage this. And I understand that a lot of Democrats go around and they say, well, you don't have a choice. You either vote for me or you vote for a Republican. We need to be like, look, we'll primary you. We'll put up another candidate. You know, we're willing to actually primary you, even if you're an incumbent. And, you know, I think that we need to start playing hardball to get exactly what it is we want. As we just said in the last segment, Republicans stay playing hardball. They play hardball with their own. We saw the Tea Party movement. They primary their own. You know, we see what the Trump movement does when somebody

disagrees with Trump. No, no, no, no, no. But here's the whole deal, though, Jason. I get that in terms of targeting politicians. I totally understand that. But what I'm talking about here is... And the reason I want to separate the two, I want to separate them for a reason. I want to separate them for a reason because what I am...

What I am... What I'm talking about is what is the purpose of having vertical and horizontal infrastructure and is untapped and is So imagine, so again, this is just sort of how I look at it. And maybe, Jeff, I'm the crazy one. Maybe I've spent way too much time studying black organizations, studying mobilization,

studying how movements were created to understand that when all of a sudden if, and I'm not even saying all these groups do this every single day. What I'm, like, I literally just, just for everybody to understand,

I just sent a text message to 18 civil rights leaders and pastors saying where in the hell y'all at on this Tennessee money? Where y'all at? Because if all of a sudden it's, yo, next month we going to Tennessee for the 500 million. January, we going here.

February, we going here. That doesn't take away from what you're doing every single day. What I'm saying is, now all of a sudden, you've got to have that level or that sense of urgency because guess what? Then the cameras follow. Then all of a sudden it becomes a story.

Every black person who keep texting me, why the media ain't talking about Brett Favre. How y'all want to talk about, and I ain't got no, we discussed it. Brett Favre took $8 million from poor people in Mississippi.

This is $500 million, y'all. But we got more energy on this white quarterback in Mississippi for $8 million than $500 million for black kids. That, to me, Greg, is like, hey, smack yourself upside the head and say, how much time are you spending on the $8 million versus the $500 million?

You know, there's a reason why, Roland, and it reveals priorities. It reveals our priorities. We've heard this a lot on the show. And, you know, Greg and I's parents always said that line, when you open your mouth, you put your brains on display. You absolutely show where you're coming from. You show your mentality and you show your background and your history when your actions are present. I've been sitting here thinking, and it's been going back and forth in my mind in a powerful way because this piggybacks on what Brother Jason and Nyambi and Dr. Gregg were saying, what you've been saying this entire time.

I ask the question that came to me in my mind is, what is sexy for protest? It's sexy to jump on Brett Favre. It's sexy to talk about Jackson, Mississippi, in terms of getting a lot of people to talk. It's sexy to show up at a protest and make a lot of noise if you can get on television and you can find a way to find a self-interest in that. What do I mean by that? When I was training leadership organizers and leadership developers and community organizers, I was telling them one thing. People operate out of one urge. It's self-interest. And that can be alt bill paid. It can be somebody broke in my car. Whatever it is, you've got to find that point of self-interest. We're living in a world right now where self-interest is about likes that you can generate on the Internet. It's about followers that you can get.

There you go. And it's about, honestly, especially with the younger generation, we have to build this bridge more. Everyone wants to be an activist. I removed the word activist from every bio I had because I got tired of seeing everybody who had thumbs saying I'm an activist. I changed that into actionist because for 30 years I've built institutions. When you are in a space where you build institutions, you've done this with Black Star Network. You have built an institution that is independent. When you run independent institutions, you think differently. When you have not been in a space where you have run a free, independent institution, you're thinking about, in the case of Tennessee State, how do I keep my job? How do I keep favor with the governor? How do I make sure I don't ruffle any feathers? And from an actionist perspective or even an activist perspective, you're thinking, what can I get out of it?

I can get some fame out of proclaiming something is wrong in Mason, Tennessee. Then I can go to corporate America and I can get some money for my organization. If I get this $500 million for Tennessee State, that's not going to go to me. It's going to go to students. So I can't monetize that. We have to find a way to find the sweet spot where people begin to see themselves in the students at Tennessee State, in the students at Jackson State, in the students at Morgan State as the future that we are focused on building. It's when we find that point that we can find people will come out in thousands of rows as they should logically do. So here's the deal.

Okay, so I know the Texas legislature meets every two years. Okay, so is there an upcoming meeting? Is there a session? Is there a date? So in terms of what is the next step? It's like what's next? Is there a date? Is there anything? And so in terms of what is the next step? It's like what's next? Is there a date? Is there something happening that we can sort of target?

Anything like that happening, Jeff, next month, November, what? Right. I talked to two state legislators today, and they gave some great information and updates. Again, the money is starting to flow. We just have to make sure that we're not in the space of grace and thanksgiving and thinking that this is money that is being poured on us as opposed to money that is owed to us. They are actually

right now in D.C. with the Black Caucus. No, no, no. Here's what I mean. I see what you mean. Is there a day in October or is there a day in November that can serve as a mobilization day for us to come to Nashville to make this a major issue, to hold a major rally, invite folks to demand that state legislature allocate, don't spend $500 million on no damn stadium for the Titans, but spend $500 million on Tennessee State.

Is there anything like that? There's no organized event that is happening. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not asking about an organized event. What I'm asking, is there something we can organize around? So do this here. You let me know. So if it's a day, if it's because it's crazy in October with the elections and everything like that.

But so here's what we'll do. Damn the rest of these people. We'll find a day and we'll come do the show down from there and we'll create the event. And then we'll see who the hell show up and then who don't. That's how it's done. You got it, brother. So let's do that because again they have to see several thousand black people

demanding the money to have a sense of urgency to allocate the money. Yes. Alright, let me know. Well, we will let you know, man and I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity to come back and hang with everybody from the logical to the ideological to even the biological. I appreciate you guys.

Let's get some movement and keep it rolling. All right. Dr. Jeff Cross, thanks so much. We appreciate it. Folks, got to go to a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the high suspension rate of black kids, especially black girls, what we can also do to change that around. You're watching Roller Mark, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine.

Together, we are Black beyond measure. I've always said this. Together, we are black beyond measure. that got me involved in going into politics in the first instance. I'm tired of people making decisions for me. Right. And mine. I wanna be a part of that decision-making process. And luckily, it has paid off in terms of seeing the progress that many people in America have made, particularly people of color. One thing bothers me now that we seem to be losing that.

Right. Saying that we've gotta be more concerned with other people than those people who were here. We built America. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Creating. Making moves. That move us all forward.

Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, folks, is not over. Things are getting better. But remember, as we said before, they still have long-term issues happening there.

Now we are seeing stories where the current governor was proud of the fact that he was state treasurer. He bragged about not sending money to Jackson, Mississippi for the purpose of infrastructure. Joining us right now is the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Lumumba. Glad to have you back on the show, Mayor Lumumba. I mean, first of all, you had this man touting how he was happy not to be in Jackson, giving a speech somewhere. Now we have him on record as bragging how he kept money from coming to your city. Yeah. Well, I think that it's all part and parcel of a larger narrative that we've been trying to speak to. Not only have we been talking about plans that have been issued by every administration, my predecessors included, but them suggesting that

there is no plan only for us to produce what has been present and what has been communicated. And so what is evident is that there has, it hasn't been a lack of planning, as it has been a lack of political will to support the city of Jackson. And often what you find from state leadership is that the way that they grow their profile, the way that they gain acclaim in the state of Mississippi, is to suggest their disfavor or their distaste for the city of Jackson. And so that is why we've been going at the better part of more than six years in my administration and more many decades from prior administrations trying to account for our various needs, account

for the environmental justice issues that have been tragically bestowed upon our residents. And so this is what it is to live in a majority black city in the state of Mississippi. This is what it is to live in a democratic stronghold within the state of Mississippi. And that particular point there, it is by design. We are gonna starve it. You see it right now where you have these Republican governors who would say, oh, we're gonna to starve it. You see it right now where you have these Republican governors

who will say, oh, we're going to screw over you Democratic cities. We're not going to sit here and provide anything for you. And really what they're saying is we're going to screw with you majority black cities. And that is why it's important that our communication is sound, that we are speaking directly to our residents and they understand, you know, not allowing someone to come in after decades of neglect and portray an image of a savior, that they're saving the city of Jackson when they've always had a responsibility to Jackson.

That's one. And then it's two, that we communicate early and often with our residents. So in the midst of crisis, we're not reaching for a solution, which is also ultimately more devastating than the place that we already find our people. This is in the way of different paths forward that are being suggested, in the way of the state attempting to take over the system, attempting to regionalize the system,

which is just another way of saying the same. It is a distinction without a difference. Putting in the hands of people who have failed to fund us, failed to support us, who have choked us out, as you have said, putting in their hands our system that allows them to exploit us even further. So right now, I are people, I've seen people sending trucks down, still sending water down. As of today, what is the state? Has clean water been returned

to all the citizens in Jackson? Where do you stand today? Yes, so pressure has been restored. The boil water notice has been lifted. Outside of specific instances around, you know, a property or two that may have a challenge of a broken pipe that has now been fixed and they are under a boil water notice because of that break, the city of Jackson has been given the okay from the state health department, and we do believe that

we are producing clean water. I do want to address, you know, there has been a package on many multiple national networks of brown water coming out of a tap. I do want to make certain that we know that while Jackson has significant challenges with our water distribution system, while these challenges need to be invested in, that that is not indicative of the Jackson experience. That particular property has been researched, and there was an issue specific to that property. And so that is not customary of the city of Jackson.

And while we want people to know the severity of our circumstance, we don't want to mislead them that that is the type of thing that our residents are seeing each and every day. And in terms of the latest from the federal government when it comes to trying to force your governor to provide resources to Mississippi, have you also seen any movement from other state legislators? Have they shown that they give a damn about what's happening in Jackson or are they following the lead of what people in your state call tater tot? I did crack up laughing just seeing that tweet somebody sent out.

Yeah, well, I think that it's imperative that we make sure that everybody who has responsibility here is working in tune with the desires of our residents. And so that is an ongoing process. I'll just say that. Well, I bet you if Jackson residents started withholding their sales tax money, the rest of these broke folks around the state would start paying attention.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But, you know, I believe in a school of thought that was similar to how my mother treated me as a young child growing up. My mother not only used various forms of discipline, she also used the power of persuasion through embarrassment to make certain that I performed as she knew that I could. And so I'm not above embarrassing those that are not in line with the objectives of my residence. And that's why I speak to those things. With respect to the federal government, I do believe that there is a sincere

and sole desire to make sure that they help provide the residents of Jackson dependable water. To that extent, I have been talking extensively with the administrator of the EPA, Regan, and a number of other federal officials. And I do believe that

they are the best path forward for the city of Jackson to work with. And that is underway as we speak. All right. Mayor Lumumba, we appreciate you joining us. Give us this update. Anything else happen in the future, let us know. We'll have you back on. Always appreciate you, my brother. Thank you. Thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. Jason, happening in the future, let us know. We'll have you back on. I always appreciate you, my brother.

Thank you. Thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. Jason, here's the thing. It was my man Adam Surer who wrote, cruelty is the point. He's talking about Trump and these MAGA folks. That's where we stand. These people, and they

all have sex. I call them evil on MSNBC. Kayleigh McEnany and Harris Falken had the nerve to actually say, oh, try to call us lapdogs. And Harris was like, oh, those cops were irresponsible. No, irresponsible is you not. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

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

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

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well

as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Saying a damn thing when these folks are purposely trying to starve and kill black people by withholding funds because they don't like the fact that they won't vote for them. Yeah, I mean, there comes a point where we have to start calling things as they are. And I think, you know, Mayor Lumumba speaks so eloquently. He's one of those people that I actually enjoy listening to just talk

because I think he's so eloquent with his words. But I think there are people like you and me and Dr. Nyambi and Dr. Carr that have to actually call it what it is in the plainest language possible, and it is cruelty and it is evil that you would sit there while people don't have drinking water, while young college students can't take a shower to go to class, and some of them had to leave and go to hotels, that you would make jokes about the citizens of your own state, because you realize that many of them are working class, and the majority of them, 80 percent, are Black.

So I think we need to call it what it is. We need to make this a good versus evil battle, because in many cases, it is good versus evil. There are people out there that would see people without clean drinking water, one of the basic necessities of life, within their own state, something that they took an oath to be responsible for, and sit there and go to another town and make fun of it. And it's not irresponsible for you to call that out. It's irresponsible for Tate Reeves to do that and to not help the city of Jackson even before they had a crisis,

when they asked for $47 million and he gave them three. So I think it's, you know, we need to call them out, not in flowery language. That's for elected officials like Mayor Lumumba. But for us who are in the media, we need to call it what it is. Well, and look, we're seeing more of this, Niambi. We're seeing it more and more and more when it comes to these elected officials. And they are declaring war on these areas. And with us seeing an increasing number of black folks moving back south, we need to be prepared to understand what is going on. They love that. They love the money we spend, but they want to starve these cities because they cannot stand black leadership.

And more importantly, they don't like black people. Right. So, I mean, this is a practice that we've seen over and over and over again in many cities around the country where these cities are starved of resources systematically. So they fail. And so they're not conducive to life. I mean, I think it's rich that this is the party that calls itself pro-life and yet wants to do nothing to sustain life unless it's white life, quite frankly. And so what we see here in Jackson is this callous disregard for the people of that city. And that's been ongoing. It didn't start this year. It's been that way for a very long time. And people knew this. I mean, as early as the turn of the century, people were saying Jackson will not be able to sustain its water system.

And yet the time marched on, and as that city became blacker, what did they do? They moved resources out of the city. They put them into the suburbs around it. And, of course, we can talk about the waning tax base of the city itself, but the state has a responsibility to the citizens of Jackson, not just the mayor. And when we look at the fact that Mississippi takes more money from the federal government than 47 other states, or I'm sorry, they're the third highest. So that's what, 47 other states after them. I think it's especially troubling that they find it so easy to treat the citizens of Jackson in this way. But this particular administration, but administrations before,

this is how Black people get treated. When we say we are sick, we don't feel well, everybody just says, oh, you know, take an aspirin, you'll be better tomorrow. And that's essentially what they're telling Jackson. It's like, you know, continue to boil this water. Maybe we'll give you a stopgap. But there are deeper systemic issues going on here

that even money can't fix, because we can fix the water today, and it's going to be something else tomorrow in that state for Black people, not just in Jackson, but throughout the state of Mississippi and many others. And as you know, as we move south, we have to really understand that our demographics aren't destiny, that we really have to be thinking about the moving pieces of the power in those states, because simply moving south does not mean that we are going to be thinking about the moving pieces of the power in those states, because simply moving south does not mean that we are going to be able to change the character of these places overnight, and that we have to be thinking about sustained resistance to this kind of bigotry,

hatred, and all-out failure and reckless disregard for Black life. Greg? Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And it's interesting you say that, Dr. Carter, because, you know, we can preview what might happen. I mean, we look at South Africa, for example, where extreme inequality is there.

And the old saying in South Africa, when the white folks gave over political control, they said, you can wear the crown, but we're going to keep the jewels. So the extreme poverty there in South Africa, or you can go the Zimbabwe route, where let's just take this land. But then there's political corruption and everything in Robert Mugabe's administration, and the thing ends up in a disaster.

Jackson, perhaps we see a preview, possibly in some ways, with Atlanta. It's a different age, of course, women. When man of Jackson built the airport the white boys is mad as hell and he said 30% of people who build what became Hartsfield Jackson Airport going to be black. Nineteen 1973 black people were getting point 0, 0, 1, 2% of all city contracts. 0.0012% of all city contracts.

Break it down. 0.0012%. That's right. I ain't no math person, but damn, that ain't a lot. But that's the point. I think what we saw there, of course it creates

a kind of black bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie that isn't, as you say, Neon, demography isn't necessarily destiny because we know if anybody just came back from Atlanta, anybody been to Atlanta know it's a tale of north of Atlanta and south of Atlanta. You know, the Cobb County Crackers, I mean, the Atlanta Braves moved out of downtown Atlanta in north, and then you go south and it's black. And, of course, if Kasim Reed had won the mayor's election, he was talking about perhaps even entertaining letting buckheads succeed. In other words, so just because you black doesn't mean that you don't play in, and anybody who's seen that damn spaceship Mercedes-Benz dome that tried to eat the Atlanta University Center understands

that just because you black doesn't mean that you won't cave. Now, I saw that to say this. You know, one thing, you know, I've known Chokwe Antar from the moon before a long time, he and his sister. I knew his father and his mother, but his father particularly very well. I agree with you, Doc. I mean,

you know, when you hear Chokwe, as, you know, as Brother Jason said, he has to speak a certain way. But it's right behind his teeth. See, because he come from a family where they say freedom. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And so it's killed.

But one of the things I love about Chokwe Lumumba is that you can see the growth. I mean, it wasn't like he was behind the curve anyway when he lost the election the first time to a handpicked black candidate of white power structure. But he has continued to develop his language. And certainly when he said, yeah, I'm talking to the EPA administrator, yeah, Michael Reagan, they probably going to try to lose holy hell on that punk governor and that punk legislature. But I'll end with this. While Brett Favre is stealing, and you talked about it earlier, of course, you know, sports is religion in the South. And so, you know, Brittany Griner is sitting in jail in Russia, and her ex-coach

at Baylor won't open her mouth at LSU. And I'm watching young people on social media say, hey, young girls, do y'all see this right here? She won't K4. Maybe you shouldn't go to LSU. Well, guess what? Deion Sanders today said that this is a case of discrimination. This is a case of equality. You know, Prime don't like talking like that, but if that football coach keeps talking like that in

Jackson, and you keep this up, Roland, I think what you said earlier with Tennessee State applies here. This is a morality play, just like we heard. And you cannot get through to a white nationalist who is determined to run this thing into the ground. You got to break his back. Tate Reeves' back, his political back must be broken. Chokeway can't say that.

But the more of us, I agree with you, Doc, the more of us who say that, you can empower him to do that. And by the way, I should say one other thing. Go back and look at y'all. If y'all haven't seen it, look at that interview that the mayor of Jackson did with Roland Martin a couple of weeks ago. Because Roland, when you all walk piece by piece of how they've starved Jackson, I didn't know, for example, that Jackson State doesn't have its own independent water system. And that in Jackson, Mississippi, the state has built independent water systems for state control. That is indefensible because Jackson State is a state institution. I didn't know any of that.

Everybody should go back and look at that interview. That really tells you a great deal. All right, folks. Got to go to a break. We'll come back. We'll talk about the suspension of black students in the schools and what one organization is doing to try to stop it from happening. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Download the app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

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We'll be right back. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie.

We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke. Man, that's woke. All right, folks, the news center reveals that black girls are 4.19 times more likely

to get suspended than white girls. Yeah, this has been an ongoing issue for quite some time. Even during the Obama administration, they tried to address this in the Department of Education. But people are still having to deal with this problem. Joining me right now is Dr. Andrea Joseph-McCady, an assistant professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee.

She examined the disproportionate school suspensions and the ways inequity impacts the experiences of students of color. Also joining me is Kara James, executive director of the FIND Design, F-I-N-D, Design and Nonprofit Organization that offers initiatives used to support black girls in schools.

Okay, so talk about the increase in the number, but why? What is the basis upon which this is the case? Hi, yeah, so absolutely. So the numbers have been there. It's been decades that we know disproportional suspensions have been happening, particularly for students of color. In fact, the overall suspension numbers have been going down, but disproportionality is still persisting.

And so, as investigators have been looking at this, we know there's an array of issues. It's not just bad behavior, which some people may think. It includes bias. That's one of the things we're thinking about what we believe, how we believe children should behave. It's punitive practices and policies, right? Those zero tolerance policies where children are getting suspended for a year or being expelled for subjective behaviors or for behaviors that we could probably rehabilitate. So there's an array of issues and intervention that schools are trying to put in place to support that. Does the data break down who is suspending them?

Are they black teachers? Are they white teachers? Does it break that down? I can say I haven't come across that specific type of data. But what we know is over 85 percent of all educators are white women in the United States. So I think that should give us a sense that of who's making those decisions. But I also want to say that most it's mostly administrators that are making decisions, who get to make the final decisions about who's being suspended. And we were talking about these suspensions. This is not fourth, fifth, sixth grade.

This stuff is happening preschool, kindergarten. Absolutely. That's crazy. To me, that's crazy too, right? Like just a few years out of the womb and you're already facing discipline at this extent and we see that disproportionality that early as well and so black boys and black girls have the highest suspension rates among their counterparts and so

what you're seeing here is data that anyone can get access to charts anyone can get access to, charts anyone can get access to from the Office of Civil Rights. This is federal data made available to us. And what we know and what's really stark and stands out to me is that while, for example, black boys do have higher suspension outcomes than black girls, what we do know is black girls are the only group of girls disproportionately suspended in the country starting at preschool.

I want to bring in Kara James here. So, Kara, how do we reverse this? Because if you... I mean, my goodness, if they're suspending them in preschool, damn! Yeah. And first of all, a deep bow of honor and gratitude

for being in this space and bringing light to this challenge. At The Fine Design, first of all, we want to be intentional about servicing our girls. Like you talked about, we have to provide a space to grieve the loss of humanity for just showing emotions as they're being adultified and criminalized in this system. They're being seen as older. So because of this adultification, they are seen as less needing nurturing and caring and love. So first of all, we need to address,

because they're ignored enough. Their voice is not heard enough. So we need to provide safety for them to grieve that loss, for them to be able to feel these feelings, because they're real, that you can't just show up and just be without being labeled disrespectful or be doing something in violation of a school code. We have Black girls, and let's be clear, I want to be clear on this, Roland, that we also have to see Black girls. Oftentimes we're talking about

their behavior and their trauma. Despite all of that, Black girls have joy. They have resilience. I think about the eighth graders in my programs that's leaving school, going home, being mothers of six kids. And so cooking meals, giving baths at 13 years old, you have to have strategy for that, compassion for that, organizational skills for that. We're not seeing that. We're seeing I don't know how I can cuss on this show, but what we're seeing is them showing up Oh, no, cussing aloud.

Normally Reese's on here on Thursday, so we would have heard at least 45 MFs by now. Okay, so I can drop it, but I'm like, you know, but I mean, let's be real. I'm hearing suspensions and discipline because they're showing up after this type of evening being questioned about a pencil, being questioned about going to sleep at their desk, being questioned about being tired. And so, number one, before we can tap into anything in our organization, we're making sure that they are presented with safety, that we're building

their trust for us to be allowing them, their voices to be centered. Because as we address some of these disparities, we need to make sure that we are speaking in truth of their experiences. Oftentimes we want to jump in and they're not on the forefront of these conversations. We need to be bringing them to the conversations, allowing people to see the experiences, and also addressing the implicit biases and perceptions that is causing these challenges to happen in the first place. Let's see here. Jason Niambi. Niambi, I'll start with you. Questions for our guests. Yeah, so thank you, Dr. Cady, for that research. Are you finding that how these young girls are responding to these behaviors?

Are they becoming less interested in school? Are they moving toward other institutions that affirm them? Like, what does this kind of discipline do to these young girls? Yeah, absolutely. There are outcomes that we certainly want to pay attention to. So there's academic outcomes, right? And so they're missing school days. They're missing instruction.

So that's certainly having an impact on their grades, their social connectedness, their relationship that they can be building with their educators and their classmates, behavioral, right, students being labeled as a troublemaker and then maybe playing into those labels sometimes. And as well as we know that there's a school-to-prison pipeline, the more a student is suspended, the more they're suspended, right, and they're at greater risk for being involved with juvenile justice, et cetera. So, you know, what I often say is I haven't seen any research there thus far that tells me that school suspensions work. We're not seeing this reformed behavior. What I think is schools need alternatives. And so that's why we have interventions such as restorative justice practices and positive behavior intervention systems.

And while those are doing great work thus far, they're mostly reducing overall suspensions. And these schools need help making these interventions intersectional, meaning we're accounting for race and racism in society, gender in society, and thinking about the way that girls are living within those identities, particularly in their communities and in schools. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

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

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.

Jason. So, first of all, thank you so much for the work you do. I teach about adultification of black girls every semester. So, I'm so glad that you guys are actually tackling this issue. I did want to just say one thing, and that is, I think it was Roland that asked about same-race teachers. And what they found in research is that there will be 1,800 fewer suspensions, at least this is in New York City, 1,800 fewer suspensions of Black students when they share the same race as their teacher over a 10-year period. And just to your point just a second ago, Professor, 9,000 more days of school for Black students over 10 years if we cut out school suspensions.

I never understood it. As a kid who got suspended a couple of times, I never understood the logic of I'm in trouble, so I don't have to go to school. You know what I mean? Like, you know, in school suspensions were a little different. But, you know, having me out of school so then I have to catch up and then I'm going to be frustrated in the classroom, you know, it really was counterintuitive and didn't make sense. I wanted to ask you guys about, you know, a few years ago, we know the Obama administration had a guidance to reduce school suspensions. And then the Trump administration rolled it back. I wanted to ask you guys, do you think that that made a difference in making things worse and exacerbating things? Or were there things about the Obama administration guidance that needed to be fixed as well?

Well, I think the Obama administration took the first step in at least highlighting the problem, right? And making sure that we had the national data available so that researchers such as myself could explore what was happening as early as preschool, because that preschool data only became, hasn't even been around for, I think, 10 years. And so that was the first good step.

And then making funding available so that schools can have access to it, districts can have access to implement positive behavior interventions, as well as restorative justice practices. However, where we are now is we actually have to talk about race. And I think in the post-Trump era, that's where we get tripped up a bit, right? In this era where schools are afraid of the big, bad critical race theory, and everything gets misconstrued under that concept, I meet so many practitioners, educators who want to do the work, being more forefront, at the forefront of their own biases and understanding students culture but depending on the states you live in that work may be misconstrued so what i would say is schools are

still trying to do the work they need the support and i think some of the most beautiful models i have seen for example are gwen's girls in pittsburgh um, Pennsylvania, that are working in partnership with school districts to provide programs with stakeholders in the mayor's office, in the state, with the juvenile justice department. And so there's coalition building. That's what schools need. They can't do it by themselves. We need researchers on board. We need policymakers on board to do this work collectively, particularly in the era where educators are putting, there's a muffle over their mouths to talk the truth about race and racism in our country.

All right. First of all, if people are looking for information, they're looking for some resources, where should they go? Right. So, well, Kara can tell you more about the fine design. Yeah, well, hey, they can definitely come to the fine design, www.thefinedesign.org. We are on every major platform that is out there.

We really, again, as Dr. Joseph alluded to, this is a collective issue. This is not a black girl problem. This is a collective problem. And until we can make sure that Black girls matter, we are going to struggle. We know the role, the central role that Black women and girls play in the family and in the community. When you look at a several majority of marches and advocacy, you saw Black women on the forefront. So when we good, hey, the community is good. So check us out. We offer programming specifically for Black and brown girls to make sure they are getting the healing that they're needed. You know, Malcolm X said in 1962,

we are the most disrespected, unprotected, and neglected women in America. And regardless of how you feel about the messenger, just the data speaks for itself. It's definitely time for us to acknowledge, make sure that we are aware of our own biases. This is not a white person's issue. This is a systemic issue. Got it.

So making sure that we're doing our own work first and that we're seeing, hearing, and protecting black women. Cara, Andrea, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, women. Cara, Andrea, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Neombe, Jason, Dr. Carr. I appreciate y'all being on the panel today as well. Thank you so very much. Always good to see you. Folks, that is it for us. We're going to see you tomorrow right here on Roller Martin

Unfiltered. Today, of course, if you missed the Alpha Luncheon where we talked about voting, what the D9 is doing, go to the Black Study Network app, go to our YouTube channel. You can actually see that panel. We also of course live stream yesterday's event, the Black Women's Roundtable. That's also available on our app and the YouTube channel as well. Tomorrow

I have three sessions I'll be moderating at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ALC. The first one begins at 9.30 in the morning. We'll be live streaming those three all day. Sessions by Congresswoman Terri Sewell, Congressman Hank Johnson, Congressman Andre Carson. So a lot of things happening.

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Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. That is it, folks. Thank you so very much. I will see y'all tomorrow. You know how we end the show. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know,

we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.