#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Gov't Advertising Act, Tenn. GOP Want Black Rep. to Resign, Flint: 10 Years Later, Grammy Recap

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

2.5.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Gov't Advertising Act, Tenn. GOP Want Black Rep. to Resign, Flint: 10 Years Later, Grammy Recap Black-owned media gets pennies on the dollar, if anything, compared to mainstream media complaints. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will be here to explain the Federal Government Advertising Equity Accountability Act, which would require agencies to justify the amount of money they spend with minority-owned businesses. Tennesee Republicans want Representative Justin Jones to resign from office. For, get this, not wanting to lead the pledge of allegiance.  Target pulls a product about black civil rights icons because of the flat-out inaccuracies. We'll show you the now-viral video a Nevada history teacher shot showing what was wrong with the product.  This year marks the 10th year since the Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis began. This week, we will reflect on the government failures that created the issue and kept those responsible from being held accountable.  The Poor People's Campaign is launching its voter mobilization plan for this year's election.  And journalist Clay Cane will be in the studio to discuss his new book, "The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump."  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. the 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. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from

degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. 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. 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. Thank you. Today is Monday, February 5th, 2024,

coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, she wants the federal government to be more accountable to the advertising dollars they were spending on black owned and minority media. Also, it's time for Senator Chuck Schumer to hold a Senate hearing

on these white ad agencies and how they are refusing to provide more funds to black owned media. We will talk to Congresswoman Holmes Norton right here on Roland Martin unfiltered Tennessee Republicans. They want representative Justin Jones to resign from office.

Forget this, y'all not wanting to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Target pulls a product about black civil rights icons because it was wrong. Will show you the now viral video at Nevada History teacher a shot showing what was wrong. We'll show you the now viral video a Nevada history teacher shot showing what was wrong with the product. This year marks the 10th year

since the Flint, Michigan water crisis began. All this week, we will reflect on what took place there and talk to various folks about holding folks there accountable. Plus, the Poor People's Campaign is launching its voter mobilization plan for this year's election. Journalist Clay Kane will be in studio to discuss his new book, The Grift, the downward spiral of black Republicans from the party of Lincoln to the cult of Trump.

And Jay-Z spoke last night at the Grammys. He accepted an honor, a big honor from them. I'm going to tell you why he should have boycotted. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland, Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling Martin. Yeah. Martin. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have Black-on.

Folks, Black-on media is often overlooked by white-run ad agencies and get the short end of the stick of the $340 billion being spent in the general market. But the same thing happens in the federal government. A government accountability office study that was asked for by Congressman L.L. Holmes Norton found that over a five-year period, the federal government spent more than $5 billion on advertising. Guess what? Black-owned media got $51 million out of that $5 billion. In November, Congressman Holmes Norton sponsored a bill requiring federal agencies to include in their annual budget justifications for the amount they spent on advertising contracts with small disadvantaged businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. She joins me right now. Congresswoman Holmes Norton, glad to have you here. And first of all, thank you for being someone who is being on this.

This is not new. You've been true to this. I serve. I talk about that study that you call for the GAO to do. And the report came out in 2018. And present day, we're still having the same problems. Yes, we are. And that's why I've introduced a bill, Roland, that requires the federal government to include in their annual report justifications for the amount they spend on contracts with small disadvantaged businesses and businesses owned by minorities and women during the prior fiscal year. And I ask also for projections of their spending for the upcoming fiscal year. And I have a number of co-sponsors who helped me lead or co-lead a letter to President Biden. And in that letter, I said I was seeking answers about the inequities in federal advertising contracts awarded to media advertising agencies owned by minority and women as compared to the rest of the country. I think you indicated a figure where black-owned industries received only $51 million, and that amounted to only 1.0 percent of these funds.

Now, remember who we're talking about. The largest advertiser in the United States is the federal government. So it has a very special obligation to ensure fair access for minority and women-owned media companies. And here's what we discovered, Congresswoman. Here's what we discovered.

This was during the Trump administration. We had Congressman Stephen Horsford on the show. And the CBC tasked him to be their liaison, if you will, when it came to the census. He met with the ad agency that was responsible and they told him

we are not going to buy any the ad agency that was responsible, and they told him, we are not going to buy any newspapers circulation 50,000 or under. That's 98% of all black newspapers. And so I could tell you what happened. We filled out the, they said, go to the portal. We filled the whole thing out. We go through this whole deal. We don't hear from them for several months.

It was like September, and when the Trump folks were gonna cut it short, I then began to blast this ad agency on social media, and I began to call them out on the show. All of a sudden, they called Carol H. Williams, who was supposed to be the black ad agency, but they cut her out of the money, and they were like, Carol, what's going on?

Why is this guy upset? She said, because y'all never responded. Well, what should we do? She said, I advise y'all to cut him a check. So, and they did. We got for one month of work. But the bottom line is, if I didn't go off and put them on blast, no money would have come out. I met with Susan Rice

and her team within the first 60 days of Biden being sworn in. I told her team, this is what's going on. This is what the deal is. Y'all got to, I said, these are the traps. These are the games that they play and nothing came about it. And so the administration tells me, well, Roland, you know, give us some time. I said, guys, we don't have time. I said, COVID money is about to be spent. And you know what happened there? Same thing, Congresswoman. They split that money on mainstream media, and we were told by one of the consultants,

yeah, we put all the money out, and we just wanted to see what would stick, and nothing happened. When we gave a detailed plan on how to pair shots doing broadcast locally, and it's the same thing. The same white ad agencies that we fight in the general market, they're the ones who get the federal government contracts. Well, Roland, there is some better news. I have a letter here from the GAO. That's the General Accounting Office. Yep. I want you to know what that letter says.

It says that GAO is confirming its commitment to examine the federal government's advertising contracting with small disadvantaged businesses and businesses owned by minorities and women on the basis of my letter to the controlling, to the Comptroller General. And the letter says, we plan to complete our work, and I want you to know this, and send a draft product to the Small Business Administration for comment by May or June in 2024. So I think we have finally gotten their attention. So here's what, so I'm just going to tell you just one of the games they're going to play, Congresswoman. They're going to try to group everything together. When Congressman Hank Johnson sent the letter to the White House,

they did the exact same thing, and they sent back, oh, here was the percentage. I said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, tell them they got to break it out, and that is, don't group it. They got to break out. When they say women, that, no, no, no, no. I said, tell them they got to break it out. And that is, don't group it. They got to break out. When they say women, that's actually white women. Because if you're a black woman, you go in a black category.

And if they say, and they want to say black, it needs to say, first of all, it needs to be an itemized listing. Here's why. Because what they're going to do is they're going to put black targeted in the same category as black owned. So for instance, when they are trying to reach black people digital, they go to complex. Complex is white. Buzzfeed owns them. They're not going to go to a black digital company. And so that's so, so I've said to the other CBC members, force them to be specific. In fact, I would even, when you said it in your press release, it needs to be an itemized listing.

Name of media company, how much they got. So if I see that, I can then go, Congresswoman, black targeted, black targeted, black targeted, black owned. And then we'll see

if the black owned people got a small amount and black targeted got black owned. And then we'll see if the black owned people got a small amount and black targeted got a larger amount. Well, Roland, look, remember in my letter, I said they indicated that they planned to complete their work and send a draft product to the business administration for comment. Yeah, the SBA.

Mayor June. So that comment will give you and it will give me the chance to see whether they have done the work we've asked them to do. Absolutely. And the reason this ticks me off is because you and others in the CBC, this is what people don't understand when people complain, I don't know what the CBC does. I can say when it came to the census, the CBC fought for an additional $70 million to be added to the marketing budget for the census.

And that money was supposed to actually go to a black agency to make sure that we're reaching black folks and we're counting black folks. Well, what the general market agency did was they kept the money and blocked the black people out. So people don't realize y'all are out there fighting to get us allocated. But when it goes to the bureaucracy, that's what happens. Same thing, USDA. I can go down the line, all of these different federal agencies. And I've said, look, the Pentagon, of the billion dollars spent annually, the Pentagon spends about $600 million. And I'm sitting there going, okay, I can tell you right now, Congressman, I met with the ad agency OMD.

They have the U.S. Army contract. Had a meeting, talked to them. Last year, nothing happened. Nothing. And I'm sitting there going, aren't y'all having a recruiting crisis? Aren't y'all having a problem reaching people? Like, what are you doing? And these are the games all of these agencies play,

and we have to call them out and put pressure on them, and then they're like oh well it's not us it's the client and i'm going no no you're telling the client what to do and you're stopping black agencies black media companies from being able to access the dollars so we can tell our community uh the usda when it comes to they have an advertising contract to tell black farmers how to sign up somebody called me this weekend about a low income affordable housing program in the USDA. I had never heard of it. I'm sitting there going, who are y'all's advertising with to tell this stuff to? It is stunning what happens and the money just goes out and it gets spent.

And then when you come back, oh, sorry, we ran out. We can't help you now. Yeah, Rowan, unless we watch them, it just doesn't happen. That's why I so appreciate your using your platform to call attention to this. And if you will keep in touch with me, I'll be right with you. Absolutely. And I'll tell you this here. Uh, when July, when they had the black media roundtable with the United States Senate, I specifically told Senator Chuck Schumer there should be a Senate hearing regarding this very issue. I followed up in September. They didn't get back to me.

And I told them, I said, I'm going to call you guys out. It needs to happen because we're talking in the general market, Congresswoman, $340 billion. And you know what's crazy? When BET was sold 22 years ago, black-owned media was getting 1%. Twenty-plus years later, we're still getting 1%. Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, there's work to do, Roland.

All right. So keep in touch with us. I will do. Thanks for your work. I appreciate it. You take care. Of course. Folks, going to go to break. We're in touch with us. I will do. Thanks for your work. I appreciate it. You take care. Of course. Folks, going to go to break. We're going to come back. We're going to continue this conversation with our panel. And I want you to understand this right here is why black black media, black media can't cover stories. This is why we can't hire staff. This is why black on media dies.

This is why everybody is not what it used to be. This is why this is why all is why everybody is not what it used to be. This is why all black-owned media is not what it used to be. It's because we're being frozen out of the money. And while you are buying their cars and buying their soft drinks and buying their snacks and buying their clothes and buying their shoes and buying their Apple and Microsoft products. And while you're using their banks, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, I can go on and on and on. While all these things are happening, they will. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. 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. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars.

Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. We'll gladly take black money,

but we'll not spend with black people. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. For the last 15 or maybe 16 years, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to LA, I hadn't had a break. I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. This year, after I got finished

doing Queen's Chicken, we wrapped it up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm going to take a little break. So I've been on break for the first time and I can afford it. You know what I'm saying? So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades.

Wow. That I've actually had time to sit back. Wow. And smell the roses. Thank you. fields. No experience is necessary. Learn at your own pace. Complete the online certificate program on your own terms. Stand out to employers. Get on a path to in-demand jobs and connect with top employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program or all six. Earn a Google career certificate to prepare for a job in a high growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity, and more.

All professional career certificate programs must be completed by December 31, 2024. Scan the QR code to complete the application. There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job-ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. What's good, y'all? This is Doug E. Freshen watching my brother Roland Martin underpiloted as we go a little something like this. Hit it. It's real. You know what? Whenever I talk about this subject, I have some folk who,

they'll be on social media, other places. They'll be sitting here. Oh, man, there you go. Big and a white man for money. I'm sorry. Disney. Comcast. CBS. Viacom, Paramount, Warner Discovery, New York Times, Washington Post, Sinclair, all of these media companies in America, they all are multi-billion dollar

companies because of advertising. in America, they all are multi-billion dollar companies because of advertising. So I need some of these simple Simons to explain to me why is it that these companies can go to the up fronts in April and May and June where 80% of the money is actually handed out and pitched their goods to the ad agencies, but black-owned media can't. We're supposed to starve. No, man, we can do for self.

No, you can't. No, you can't. You cannot. Let me be very clear, you cannot build a thriving media business if you're not getting media advertising. Can't do it. And so when we're making this point, I need people to understand that that's how they got big. That's how CNN is what it is, and Fox News, and MSNBC, and on and on and on. So it would be nonsensical for us to sit here and say,

we shouldn't be demanding the money, when black people are buying the products. I'm just going to give you all an example. I've never drank in my life. I've never drank in my life. I've never smoked in my life. And the National Association of Black Journalists, the board of directors that voted, I think it was 88 or 89, not to accept any money from tobacco and alcohol companies. All right. I totally understood that. But then it was stupid to me because whenever we picked a convention city, we always

picked a hotel with a big lobby. And we picked a hotel with a big lobby because that was always the meeting point where everybody went to drink. And I was like, I'm confused. We literally exceed our food and beverage requirement in the hotel contract exceedingly. I mean, we blow the number out. I mean, we drink some alcohol. So we had a convention in Orlando. And we had a big opening party at Disney World. And, y'all, every 50 feet was a bar or big tubs of beer. And I was sitting there, and I was like, why in the hell are we spending all our money on alcohol, and we ain't getting no money back?

So we had our business meeting that Friday and that was a contentious issue and after issue a bunch of people left. Well I know the rules. The rules are when the organization meets in the business meeting you can pass measures and that becomes essentially the law of the organization. So I stood up and I made a motion to rescind the ban on alcohol money. It passed. And I laid out my case and it passed. All people came to me mad as hell. And I'll never forget, Arthur Sulzberger, the owner of the New York Times, he came to

me at the gala just blasting me, wagging his finger. I said, who the hell you think you talking to? I said, if you don't want us to take alcohol money, then you should increase the amount of money you give to NABJ. He got real quiet. He got real quiet. He got real quiet.

Folks, here's the reality. We are amazing consumers. We are consumers. We buy cars. We buy General Motors, Ford, Hyundai, Chrysler, Mercedes, BMW. We buy cars. Man, we buy Nike. We buy Reebok.

We buy Converse. We buy New Balance. We go to Foot Locker and buy them. We buy Target. We buy Walmart. We buy at Kohl's. We buy Target. We buy Walmart. We buy at Kohl's. We buy everything. We buy Clorox.

We buy Febreze. We buy washing detergent. We buy dishwashing detergent. We buy JBL speakers. Apple phones, Apple iPads, Apple computers, Microsoft software, Microsoft services, Samsung TVs, Vizio TVs, LG TVs. We buy everything. But have you ever asked the question, how much do these companies spend on advertising to black-owned media?

Do they have any black board members? Do they have any black board members? Do they have any black senior executives? Is it possible that any of these companies may very well have a black CEO one day? And if they do have black board members and black executives, are those black board members and black executives actually standing up and fighting on behalf of black people?

Are they providing professional services? Are they including black law firms? Are they including black accounting firms? Do they use catering companies? Do they use any black caterers? They have PR companies. Do they use any black PR companies? They use transportation companies.

Do they use any black limousine companies? They do events. Do they have any black event planners? I hope y'all watching now understand that I'm not talking about just black on media. The fundamental problem in black America is that the black economic ecosystem is not being expanded. So you know what we do? We allow these companies to freely come to the NAACP convention, come to the Image Awards, come to the National Urban League Convention, come to the NAN Convention, come to the Rainbow Push Convention,

come to fraternities and sororities, local events, state, regional, national. We allow them to come to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. I'll give you an example. Amazon was the primary sponsor of this year's Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. I'll give you an example. Amazon was the primary sponsor of this year's Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. Amazon gave $1.5 million. Do y'all know what the Amazon annual marketing budget is? It is $20 billion. That means if Amazon spent 5% of its marketing budget with black owned businesses, black owned media would be generating $1 billion. Black owned media will be generating from Amazon alone,

Amazon alone, $1 billion. Now go Microsoft. Now go Apple. I told you all about PepsiCo. PepsiCo has a five-year, $10 million initiative with the National Urban League. PepsiCo wants to drop running commercials. They want to drive $100 million in receipts every year to black owned, I mean, over five years to black owned businesses.

That's great. The problem is they can't track it because there's no code. One of the black-owned restaurants told me. But understand this here. PepsiCo spends $3 billion a year on marketing. If PepsiCo spent 5% of its marketing budget with black-owned media, that's $150 million a year. That's $750 million over five years.

Huh, five year, $10 million partnership with the National Urban League, $100 million in receipts, or $750 million. Y'all, that's just marketing. That's not other contracts. Wells Fargo, sign of the initiative to a 10 year commitment to the NAACP of $50 million. Really, how much did black people lose

in the home foreclosure crisis through Wells Fargo's actions? I can guarantee you it's more than 50 million. So here's my question. What is Wells Fargo marketing budget? How much money does JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and Citigroup financial service, spend with black-owned media? I hope y'all who are watching are now understanding

what I'm talking about. If you want to understand why black people are broke, I can show you how we are broke. We're broke because we are investing in a system that has no return on investment in us. And what we're not doing is what Dr. King actually said to us on April 3rd, 1968, when he literally said, we need to redistribute the pain. He said the garbage workers are the ones that are feeling the pain.

We must redistribute the pain. In that very speech, Dr. King named companies to boycott. He told black people to put the money in black banks. He said buy insurance from black insurance companies. Now, some of y'all might be saying, well, man, that's going too far. Okay. Well, you please tell me then how then are we going to be able to build capacity and grow. That is why Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate leader, should have Senate hearings and calling every major ad agency head. And by the way, 90% of the executives of ad agencies are white. He should call every single one of them to a Senate hearing.

Because guess what? Last week, last week, how many of us saw the social media companies testifying before Congress? How many of us witnessed Senator Lindsey Graham making Mark Zuckerberg apologize to the families? How many of us witnessed that take place last week? Well, guess what? If they can call for the social media companies to do that, well, then they can have this type of hearing and call every major ad agency and say, explain to me, how is it that BET was sold 20 plus years ago? And in the New York Times story on the sale of BET, a media analyst said that black owned media was getting 1% of all advertising dollars. And here we sit more than 20 years later, and black-owned media

is still getting 1%. This, folks, this is about equity. This is about inclusion inclusion this is about diversity Oh, and I know cuz I love when they do this here. I love they do this here. We are rolling Maybe you don't have the ratings But we do oh This weekend at agencies, okay. Can y'all do tags? Yes But we do. Oh, this is from Ad Adacism. Can y'all do tags?

Yes. Can y'all do programmatic? Yes. Oh, y'all, they love coming up with all these excuses about what we can't do. And oh, I don't know if y'all could, I mean, one of my guys with the Urban Edge Network, they had a meeting with one agency and they literally were like, hey, do you guys, do y'all know how to, do y'all use this form?

Yep, we do. And see, I love when they try to, matter of fact, go to my iPad, Henry. This is my guys from Urban Edge Network prepared a report for a deal that we did with Procter and Gamble, and they did with Procter and Gamble, and we did something with Procter and Gamble last year, where they laid out technology use, boom, semantic targeting, device targeting, custom targeting, detailed delivery insights, compliant metrics activation. Boom!

Laid out the report, the delivery. Boom! 2.9 million impressions, 2.4 million completed views, 4,000 clicks. Laid out delivery by month, frequency, by device, okay? Summer report, overall campaign. Laid the whole deal out. This was the report that they actually sent to them showing exactly how the campaign was effective. Y'all know what happened to ad agencies?

Oh, dang. Now we got to figure out some other way to tell them no. Y'all, I've been in the meetings. It's four agencies I've been meeting with for three years. You know how much we've gotten? I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed

everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 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 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 a Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman trophy winner. It's just the compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers

at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I say to them, everybody in this meeting get paid except me. Y'all being paid to be in this meeting. I'm not. See, let me also tell y'all what y'all don't understand. All of these streaming services and all of these cable networks, the PR people hit me. Can you come to our red carpet event? Can you cover our event?

Can we get so-and-so celebrity, so-and-so director on your show? Oh, so y'all find value in my show because y'all find value in my show. Because y'all find value in my black eyeballs. But why does your advertising people never call me? See, I want y'all to get what I'm saying. So y'all want me to spend money to pay a photographer to go shoot an event, but I got no money coming back. Oh, so that's no return on investment. It's costing me money. Oh, we'll invite you to the junket. Oh, so you think I'm going to be

excited because I get free food and a hotel room, but I got to fly across the country to LA to do it. My time is not valuable. Last night at the Grammys, Travis Scott performed. Do you know what ran when he went to commercial break? A commercial featuring Travis Scott. Do you not think the company that do business with him didn't know he was performing?

Y'all, I keep telling y'all, if you're not having a money conversation, you ain't having an American conversation. We need to understand this is a money game. And they are excellent at freezing us out of the money. The federal government, because one of the things I'm also going to ask Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton to do, and I asked it to the, I told the Biden administration last year to do this year. They should put together a list of every single, they should put together a list of every single federal agency and who is the ad agency responsible for that agency. Who handles the Pentagon?

Who handles HHS? Who handles transportation? Go down the line and say, here's the chief investment officer. Here's the contact. Because what they do is, y'all they run us through hoops. See what y'all don't know what happened with the census? One agency got the contract. They then split the contract up into multiple agencies. One agency got it and they gave, I'm peeping y'all the game, they gave the broadcast contract to one of their subsidiaries. They gave the digital contract to one of their subsidiaries and the print piece to another subsidiary.

Same company split the money up three, four different ways. And all of them got their percentages. That's the game they play against us. And they use our size against us. Oh, you're too small. Well, I can't grow. I'll never get any money. And the same thing happens with political folks, the campaigns.

Do y'all know in 2022, $9 billion was spent on political campaigns? Mm-hmm, $9 billion. How much money does DSCC, Chuck Schumer controls that? DCCC, Jeffries controls that. I'm just speaking on the Democratic side. You got the Democratic Governors Association. You got EMILY's List. You got all those

PACs. Y'all see what I'm doing. I'm breaking down where all the money is. Each one of them should be asked, what's your black-owned media spend? Oh! Oh! So you want your surrogates

to come on my show? You want us to cover your rallies? You want us to cover your rallies. You want us to cover your speeches. You want us to cover your policies, but you don't want to spend money. That ain't no different than Hollywood. Before I go to my panel, I'm going to tell you what happened. It's been one bank. I ain't going to name them right now, but I'm going to name them later.

It's been one bank I've been talking to for three years. Major bank. Major. Major bank. I get a call last week from an African American on the PR side. Hey, this thing is going on. We want to get one of our experts on. Really? Y'all ain't spent no money. Y'all ain't responded to any of my proposals for three years. But now I'm valuable enough to get one of your experts on? I said, no, that's not going to happen. So I broke

it down. Broke it down to them what the real deal is. Black people, we have got to learn to stop being played small. We've got to stop accepting crumbs

and think it's a meal. This is how we stay broke. Guess what? The word no is a complete sentence. And I have turned money down because they played me small. At a political campaign hit me up in 2022 saying wanted me to do this whole campaign,

wanted a whole advertising campaign for $25,000. I said, y'all, watch your mind. I said, hell no. I said, I will keep my black ass at home. Good luck on your campaign. They had to come back tripling the amount. The 75 wasn't even actually what it should be. It was more than 25.

And that was a black candidate. Y'all need to understand, everything I'm describing for you is why the condition of black-owned media is what it is in. It is because we are completely frozen out of the money. Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist, president, emeritus, been in college, author, joins us out of Washington, D.C. Dr. Makongo Dabinga, senior, professorial lecturer, author, joins us out of Washington, D.C. Dr. Makongo

Dabinga, senior, professorial lecturer, School of International Service, American University, and Derek Jackson, Georgia State representative out of Atlanta. Julianne, I want to start with you. Again, Julianne, this is a money conversation, and it boils down to the money. Absolutely,

Roland, and I think you've laid it out quite skillfully in terms of what's going on. They see us as consumers. They want to consume our eyeballs, but they don't want to invest in our media. And so what we end up seeing is our people being sidelined in so many ways. As you laid it out, you can't grow if you don't have the reach. And you don't have the reach if you don't have the dollars. You have created a very unique and very important platform.

But imagine what it could be if you had double or triple the dollars that you deserve. Not that you are begging for, as you said, but that you deserve. And you deserve, we deserve to have Black-owned media out there. I've seen too many Black newspapers cut from weekly to biweekly because they don't have the advertising. I've heard the conversations. I've been with Black media. I started with the San Francisco Sun- actually as a writer back way back in the day when I was a baby girl. And I remember going to meetings where Macy's in particular, I remember Macy's because they said, well, why would we advertise with you? We could go to the San Francisco Chronicle. It was the big white newspaper.

And you're like. You know, I know, I won't say what I said. I'm trying to grow up and be a little bit more erudite in my old age. But there was profanity used. I'm like, what the block? Because actually, yes, we read the mainstream newspapers too. But we have special affinity for those newspapers who speak to us. And so when we don't see a paper there or the, you know, we've gone through this, I went through Jackson 84, 88, you know, I'm dating myself, but where they had ads for everybody,

lotty dotty, everybody except Reverend Jackson. And so what we need to know is that we should ask questions when we purchase. We should ask questions about, are you buying from Black-owned media? Now, you know, we can't always center ourselves around all of that, but we should center ourselves around some of it.

And again, the work you do is invaluable. The work that Congresswoman Norton has done is invaluable. What's even morewoman Norton has done is invaluable. What's even more valuable, though, is us lifting our voices and saying to people, are you investing in us? Because we're spending money with you. Yep. I spoke to Rainbow Push at the installation of Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III on the Congo on Thursday.

And he specifically asked me to speak about the issue of black owned media. And I laid this whole thing out. And I'm trying to get our people to understand. I saw all these black people. Why we don't have black owned media covering the Tory Lanez trial? Because we can't afford a court reporter. I've told congressional black caucus members guess what y'all I said

Hey, I said we can't afford to pay a congressional correspondent 75 to 100 thousand dollars a year just to cover Congress. Sorry, we can't you can't do it And so I've walked them through and I said But if the money comes I sent an an email over on Macongo over the weekend to a variety of people, Hollywood folks, business leaders, civil rights leaders. And I laid it out. I said, if I got an additional $2 million this eight top writers and have arguably the best black news staff in the country. Because you know why? LA Times just closed their bureau. Sister was the bureau chief. Wall Street Journal just closed their stuff down. It was a black sister who was in there.

The Messenger shut down 300 people. You got massive talent out here, jobs not there. I said, yeah. I said, I can hire them in 90 days, 60 days, if the money's there. And now all of a sudden, now we're covering a variety of stuff and we ain't talking gossip. We ain't talking mess. We're talking substantive issues. But you cannot hire those people if you do not have the money. Absolutely. And it's very interesting because, you know, a few weeks ago you talked about the whole thing with Tubi and Stars and how, you know,

just like we did with Fox back in the day, we build up all of these platforms for other people who just see the beauty of our talent, but don't want to give us real money to help us build our communities. But as we continue to shine a light on it now, with what Congresswoman Norton is doing, what you talked about consistently, we have to, we talk about, you know, Reverend Carr talks about bring your eyeballs home, we have to make sure that we're continually pushing these organizations, government entities, and the like to bring the dollars to us. And we also have to be mindful of the fact that we have to be willing to tell them this is an if-then clause. If you don't do this, then we won't support you. You see, that example you gave with the bank, Roland, when you said somebody wants to come on the show, but they haven't been supporting you after talking to them in three years. You told them, I'm not going to let you just pimp out my audience.

Yep. So I can get some type of click. So maybe get that loan. That's the piece that so many of us are missing. We'll say we want the dollars. We want our, we want the ad dollars, but then they know if they don't give it to us, we're still going to watch. We're still going to go to the show. We're still going to go to the concert. And what you're doing, what Eleanor Holmes, Congresswoman Holmes Norton is doing, you're putting words to this, and there's

going to be actions relating to this. And I'm hoping that people are watching this because that's what's going to really wake up these advertising agencies because that that you gave that hasn't changed over like decades. It's ridiculous. And Derek, here's the point here. And after your comment, we'll go to break is very simple. We can't be I go back to MLK speech, April 3rd, 1968.

We cannot be afraid. Let me be perfectly clear, Derek. I've got meetings set up over the next two weeks with a multitude of ad agencies and companies. If I keep hearing no, I'm telling you I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to name them. I'm going to show the faces of their white and black executives. And I'm going to say how long we've been talking to them.

Please. Because, see, part of the problem that's happening here, Derek, there are black people, just like in politics, there are black board members who are doing nothing, who are saying nothing, but they're getting paid. There are black senior executives who are doing nothing. You got black chief marketing executives who are doing nothing. You got black chief marketing officers who are doing nothing. But we celebrate them and fed them and

oh my god and we hand them awards but we never say but did you change the condition of our community while you were there or do you only get a check? See and my philosophy is real simple. If I didn't get no money last year or last quarter or last month or last week or yesterday or today, it's a good bet I'm not going to get any money tomorrow. So what the hell do I have to

lose by calling people out? That's right. There you go. You know, Roland, you know, Roland, we have to be bold and we're not begging and if i may channel my inner jay-z when you talk about men lie women lie numbers don't lie in six days roland we're going to see corporation spend $7 million for a 30-second commercial. Let me say that again for the audience. $7 million per 30-second commercial.

So Coca-Cola right here, home quarter right here in Atlanta, if they have 10 commercials during that three-and-a-half-hour Super Bowl rolling, they done spent $70 million. And the reason why they are spending $70 million, because they want to show the 100 million people just in the United States that are going to be watching the Super Bowl about their ass.

We do consume. And we are consumers. Because the fans already told us that black economic power is $8 trillion. Let me say that again. One point, that's our economic spending power in this country. We are major consumers, but we just don't see the dollars returning to our community. Absolutely. And so this is not a moment for us to be scared.

We must challenge power. And I told y'all what MLK said in his book, Where Do We Go From Here? KSR Community, when he challenged black, the Negro press, to be militant and focus on the substantive and not the superficial and the conservative. All I'm doing is what the brother said. And now is the time for black folks to stop

walking around on eggshells, scared to name people and call people out because again, while I was just sitting here, Verizon took $168 out of my account for this phone. I don't think Verizon has advertised with us in two years. So I'm actually spending more with Verizon than Verizon has spent with us. And I can go to T-Mobile and AT&T and down the line. Folk, it's about the money.

And like Frank Lucas said in the American Gangster, I'm going to get that money. Coming up next, she's running for North Carolina, next Attorney General of North Carolina. We'll talk to the DA in a rally next on Rolling Button. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts binge episodes one two and three

on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad 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. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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.

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PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Hi, everybody. I'm Kim Colson. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Blackish and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. North Carolina's primary, folks, is on March 5th, and one of the closely watched races is for Attorney General. So, Tyler DeBerry, folks, Tim Dunn and Jeff Jackson will be battling to secure a place on the November ballot.

Now, DeBerry is the state's 16th district prosecuting attorney. She's responsible for Durham County. She was a defense attorney, a general counsel to the state's Department of Health and Human Services and North Carolina Housing Coalition executive director. She joins us now from Durham. Glad to have you on the show. I'm always trying to explain to our folk,

again, understanding politics. And what I say to them is, if you want to understand, and people finally have gotten it, you want to change the criminal justice system, get rid of mass incarceration, people kept focusing on Congress when the most critical person, when it comes to the criminal justice system and reform, is the DA. Absolutely. And so we talk about DAs, judges, attorney generals.

And so too often we overlook the importance of those positions. But the fact of the matter is attorney general of a state wields significant power. That's correct. And your local district attorney wields so much power over the criminal justice system, they have 100 percent discretion in everything that is happening. So they decide what goes to court. And then your attorney general is representing your rights. You know, we see here what's happening in Texas around reproductive rights, what's happening

here in North Carolina around voting rights, all of those things your attorney general can affect. And, you know, as black people, we really have never gotten anywhere unless we have litigated, unless we have litigated our rights in court. Well, it is really important for us to be in these spots. In fact, you mentioned Texas when it came to the voting law, when it came to, again, interpreting the law and prosecuting the state law when it came to abortion. That pathetic, you know, Ken Paxton, who's been indicted, was at the lead of it. In fact, after the affirmative action decision, you had Republican attorneys general who wrote letters to law firms telling them you're also in violation. When it came to Biden's school debt relief plan,

it was Republican attorneys generals who challenged that and went to the Supreme Court. So the position you're running for, those were Republicans who were sitting in those positions. Yeah, in your previous segment, you were talking about the money. It's been Republicans, attorney generals who have joined in a brief against the fearless fund, right? Which was providing private equity startup money to black and women owned companies, to black women owned companies.

So they are saying we can't even give our money to each other now. Right. So for you, explain to folks who are watching, because I've been involved in this a whole lot. In 2008, then Senator Barack Obama wins North Carolina by 14,100 votes. And, man, did the Republicans get pissed off. And then they start changing the law in 2010. And then Shelby v. Holder, they're changing the law. And it has been a literal battle for the last 14 years of Republicans using the power of the attorney general and the governor's mansion, controlling the legislature, or controlling the state Supreme Court

when it comes to voting, when it comes to so many different issues. So walk people through how critically important the attorney general is in North Carolina, where it's not a red state, it's not a blue state, it's a purple state, if we actually vote. We, North Carolina's Democratic voters are about 45 percent African-American. That is a huge chunk of voters. That means you get to decide who the nominee is. And what the issue for us, you talk about Obama in 2008, is that after Obama in 2008, only the regular voters came out. 2008 infrequent voters, people who may or may not get up off the couch to vote, but they, those are black voters who want to vote for somebody who believes in what they believe in. Unfortunately, Democratic Party in those last 14 years, as our voting rights have been suppressed, keep giving us the same people to vote for. Right. And one of the things that I'm saying this year is that if the top of our ticket in North Carolina is three white guys in

blue shirts, black people aren't coming out for that. Yep. And look. We want to see people. We don't need allies anymore. We actually have the education, the leadership, the background to do these jobs. And we want to see us on the ballot. And if we're not on the ballot, black people, they're not going to vote for Trump. And we'll stay home. And look, 2018, Sherry Beasley, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, she runs, loses about 400 votes. 400 votes. And we know several thousands upon thousands of black people did not vote in 2018. Democrats could have had a 6-1 majority on the state Supreme Court.

They lose it, it goes 4- three. 2000, what happens 2020? They lose, they lose the majority. Now it's what, five to Republican on the state Supreme Court. And so again, and that's voting. So the bottom line is when I hear people talk about, well, my vote don't matter, trust me, the other side, they know it matters.

That's why they wanna stop you from voting. And this is about power. This is about controlling dollars when you elect people who you want to elect. That's correct. They are the ones who are making the decision about what happens. North Carolina is what's called a Dillon Rule state. That means that localities only have the power that is given to them by the General Assembly. Well, our General Assembly now is busy giving money to themselves and their friends and power and control. They're not thinking about the needs of everyday North Carolinians, about environmental justice, about voting rights,

about protecting reproductive rights, about even having a hospital. North Carolina has the second largest rural population in the country. Some people have to drive an hour just to get primary care. Forget needing a specialist, right? Forget having cancer. Forget having a traumatic injury or a complicated birth, right? And they don't have any interest in changing any of that. In fact, they want to make it worse. Questions from my panel.

Derek, I'll start with you. Appreciate the overview on your candidacy, but a lot of individuals in North Carolina, just like it is in Georgia, do not know what the attorney general, what their role is, what their responsibilities are. Can you share with the Roland Martin audience exactly the role and how important your role will be as attorney general. Sure, absolutely. So the attorney general represents the people of North Carolina in litigation, whether that means if the General Assembly passes a six-week abortion ban, who represents the people of North Carolina against that?

If they are attacking your voting rights, the attorney general represents the people of North Carolina on that issue, not the General Assembly, the people of North Carolina, right? The Attorney General represents the people of North Carolina on environmental issues. If your grandma is getting calls, getting scam calls about her Medicare all day and night, or there's AI calling her, telling her that you're in jail and needs money and you got to wire money, that is the AG that prosecutes those things, that holds those scammers to task, right? We've been talking about stolen cars. Everybody's been

talking about Hyundai and Kia. There may not be criminal sanctions that can be brought against Hyundai and Kia about how they built their cars for them to be stolen, but the attorney general can bring civil litigation that forces Hyundai and Kia to fix their cars. And Hyundai and Kia are low-end cars. Who's driving those? We're driving those. We're the ones at most at risk of getting our cars stolen. So there are lots of ways in which the attorney general impacts literally your everyday life. If there's a company that is dumping chemicals in a black community, that's the AG's responsibility to hold them accountable. Julianne. Sister, I appreciate you.

I tell people all the time I served time in North Carolina when I was president of Bennett College. And I know you're familiar with the amazing legacy of Andrea Harris, who was a vital basically advocate for minority business. A mentor of mine. Yeah, mine too. What's your platform on minority business and what will you do to advance the cause of minority business?

Well, my platform, one, is that we will let minority businesses play. One of the things that the General Assembly has done in North Carolina is try to shrink the Attorney General's office. And so that means that the Attorney General has to outsource work. And that outsourcing generally goes to the same firms. An Attorney General, a more diverse Attorney General will have more diverse outside firms. Right? And it's like Roland was saying in the previous segment. If he just had a fraction of the advertising money that some of these big broadcasters had, he could have enormous reach. That is the same with law firms.

Right? enormous reach. That is the same with law firms. If they had a fraction of the business that some of these white shoe firms had, their ability to move forward, economic opportunity, economic development, would be massive. Yep. And the professional services,

we're talking billions of dollars for legal fees, for, again, accounting and stuff. John Rogers, he says, stop calling it supplier diversity. He said, call it business diversity. And that's what it is. And we're frozen out of those dollars. And it happens constantly.

And people don't even understand how significant that is. Pension funds, you name it, private equity, all of that. That's right. Yep. Thank you so much for your continued work. I want to know what are some of the challenges you're facing in North Carolina going into November 2024 as it relates to voter suppression? Because it seems like across the country, Republicans are stepping up their efforts to make it harder for us to vote. What's going on in North Carolina? Well, you know, the number one thing that efforts to make it harder for us to vote. What's going on in North Carolina?

Well, you know, the number one thing that's going on in North Carolina is voter ID, right? And so they are trying to suppress voter—they're trying to make certain IDs inaccessible to people. They are—you know, you've seen the dirty tricks where it's like if you did not sign this in the right place, then we're going to throw your ballot out. North Carolina for a very long time has had same-day voter registration for early voting. They have been challenging that. They say that you can't do that anymore.

Just recently, court said that's unconstitutional, and you continue to do that. I have been on a regional task force that is looking at the possibility of actual political violence at the polls, that there may be people who show up and take it on themselves to quote-unquote police the polls. Well, one second. When you said the court said that was unconstitutional, what was unconstitutional? The restricting same-day voter registration. Gotcha. So the court said it was unconstitutional, restricting, but this is the thing I need people to understand.

Because Republicans now have a 5-2 advantage on the state Supreme Court, that state Supreme Court is actually ruling in favor of many of these Republican efforts. When it was a Democratic court, that's how they overruled racial gerrymandering. That's right. And let me tell you this, Roland, those cases had already been decided. Yep.

For everybody watching. The first things you learn in law school is starting to sizes. Well, for everybody. They decided they can't go back and bring it back. For everybody who's watching, let me tell you how bold they were. There were cases that were decided in late 2022

when the court switched. They brought them back up and flipped three of them. That's right. That's how they use their power. Go ahead. That's right. That's exactly how they use their power. Go ahead. That's right. That's exactly how they use their power.

And they're attacking the black sister, Anita Earles. They want her off the Supreme Court because they want it to be six to one. And they want her off the Supreme Court because she said the court should pay

attention to racial equity. The woman gave a speech about diversity and they actually investigating her. That's right. She did nothing wrong. Right. She, she just said the court should be concerned with racial equity. She didn't take money from anybody. She didn't. Her daddy is not the Speaker Pro Tem of the Senate. Right? She is a well-respected civil rights lawyer of many years,

and all of a sudden she has a judicial standards campaign? That is ridiculous. Mm-hmm. Yep. All right. So again, the primary is March 5th, and so, look, folks got to get to the polls and whoever wins the primary March 5th. Now, how does it work? Is it whoever gets the most votes on March 5th or is it it's got to be a majority? It's got to be a 50 plus one. So how does it work?

Yeah, it's got to be more than 30 percent. And then everything over that is it's got to be a majority. So got it. Somebody has to has to get 30% or more. All right then. Well, look, D.A. DeBerry, we appreciate you being on the show. Good luck in the March 5th primary there in North Carolina for the next Attorney General.

Thank you so much and thank you for having me tonight. This has been great. All right. Thank you so very much. All right, folks. When we come back, we're going to talk about the 10th anniversary of the Flint water crisis,

what has been going on and is stuff actually getting done to improve the lives of the folks there in Flint. We're going to be covering this, focusing on this for the whole next week, but we'll discuss, kick it off next right here on Rolling Mark Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Don't forget, support us in what we

do. Join our Bring the Fuck fan club. Send your check and money over to the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003790196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R Martin Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zale, rolling at rollingsmartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

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. Remember, our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each. That's $4.19 a19 cents a month 13 cents a day uh and of course uh that'll raise a million dollars for our efforts here on the show so please support us what we do back in a moment next on the black table with me greg Carr. Immigrants lured off Texas streets and shipped to places like Martha's Vineyard and Washington, D.C.

Believe it or not, we've seen it all before. You people in the North, you're so sympathetic to Black people, you take them. Sixty years ago, they called it the reverse freedom ride. Back then, Southern governors shipped Black people north with the false promise of jobs and a better life. It's a part of a well-known playbook being brought back to life. So what's next? That's next on The Black Table, a conversation with Dr. Gerald Horn about this issue of the Reverse Freedom Rides, right here on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach.

The wealth gap has literally not changed in over 50 years, according to the Federal Reserve. On the next Get Wealthy, I'm excited to chat with Jim Castleberry, CEO of Known Holdings. They have created a platform, an ecosystem to bring resources to Blacks and people of color being able to be successful, we still aren't seeing the mass level of us being lifted up. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. This is Essentia. We'll be right back. Thank you. Let's go. All right, folks, 10 years ago in April, the nation was stunned with the Flint water crisis. Now it was a shocking story when it came to how the water in Flint was being contaminated after the takeover of their water system. It was then Governor Rick Schneider, Republican, who switched Flint water source to the Flint River to save money. The water contained high levels of lead and bacteria, which, of course,

flowed for 18 months, affecting Flint's predominant black population and killing at least 12 people. To date, no one has been held responsible for the crisis. Joining me now is Jordan Charlton, a reporter and CEO of the Status Coup. They've been covering this story from the beginning. Jordan, glad to have you here. And you've had the back and forth legal battles. You've had the folks who say indict the governor being thrown out. It is crazy to me that no one has truly been held accountable for what took place. It's really unconscionable. You would think in America, whether intentionally or accidentally, if government makes decisions that kill a lot of people—and based on my reporting, I believe it was significantly

more than 12—someone would be held accountable. But essentially, last year, the state of Michigan Supreme Court threw out the criminal charges from Attorney General Dana Nessel of Michigan, Dana Nessel, basically saying that she brought the charges, her team brought the charges in violation of the state constitution. It's a long, drawn-out story. Like you said, there was multiple investigations. The original investigation seemed to be making momentum before this current attorney general came in and fired the prosecutors and investigators and restarted from scratch. But that decision has now led to the charges being thrown out. And it does seem very unlikely that anyone will be held, be convicted,

much less face a jury for poisoning Flint. And, you know, this was, didn't you have the former, the manager was put over it? I remember having him on my show. He was he was caught up in this as well. What about the federal investigation? I mean, we can go on and on and on. I mean, we mean, we thought that that was going to actually be some justice done. Yeah, obviously, Governor Snyder, like many Republicans, felt let's run Flint like a business, so they appointed four different unelected emergency managers who basically were just kind of puppets for the governor to do what he wanted. And they, according to my sources, concocted a completely fraudulent financial scheme to allow Flint, which was broke— it did not have any ability to borrow

money, it was nearly bankrupt, allowed Flint to borrow $100 million to join an unnecessary new water system that was going to make a lot of people money. Those emergency managers were originally charged by the original investigators and prosecutors. Those original investigators were actually near filing a racketeering case, RICO, which, you know, was created in the 70s to go after mafia figures. But when Attorney General Nessel came in, for reasons that are still a head-scratcher, she cleaned house, she fired the original team that was about to charge that racketeering case. She put in her own prosecutors.

And it was a disaster after that. All their cases got thrown out. And now the statute of limitations, which in Michigan for felonies is six years. The only felony that is not six years is involuntary manslaughter. That's 10 years. The statute of limitations for most of the criminal charges has run out. So it's, you know, I've asked the federal government, the DOJ, if there's some, you know, extraordinary measures that could be taken for the DOJ

to step in here. But I've never got a solid answer. And meanwhile, you know, the media doesn't cover it anymore. I'm glad you are. But people in Flint still have contaminated water. The lead levels are rising again. They were at 10 parts per billion just in December. The EPA says 15 parts per billion of lead is, according to them, their allowable limit. But experts will tell you that there is zero. Zero should be the level, particularly for children, of lead in your water. And residents, the effects of heavy metal poisoning happen, they get worse as the years go on.

Flint right now has one of the worst cancer clusters in America, and they're doing a cancer study, a study to try and connect the dots and see if it's from the water. I don't think it's from the weather. So obviously, heavy metals like lead, bacteria can cause cancer. So these residents are still struggling. They do not have universal health care. A lot of them I speak to have had to basically go bankrupt to pay for specialists, because

Medicaid won't cover all their medical costs. It's really a lot of they've been had a lot of insults after injury over the last 10 years. Questions from my panel. Omokongo, you're first. Well, first of all, thank you for this work. It's really important. And like you said, nobody's talking about Flint anymore. So we're talking about this tonight. Now, people talk so much about Michigan being all Democrat run, top to bottom now, and all of these cases are running out. But what about the concept of restorative justice? Is the government at the local or state level, are they doing anything because it's the right thing to do as it relates to helping these communities heal? Because I'm going to assume that the idea of feeling abandoned by the government is another mental toll that they have to deal with on top of the physical health tolls that they're dealing with. It was described to me by the former mayor of

Flint, Karen Weaver. she told me her last year in office, you know, she was obviously excited to have Governor Whitmer come in, because Governor Snyder presided over this whole disaster. And she approached Governor Whitmer, according to her, to ask for, you know, help in getting more funds, because residents still have damaged pipes in their home that have not been replaced that were damaged by the Flint River. And according to Mayor Weaver, Gretchen Whitmer told her that the state legislature has Flint fatigue and she can't get any more money from the state legislature, which at the time was,

you know, majority Republican. But Michigan's now majority Democrat, and there's still issues. And it's not—you know, Governor Whitmer ran on reopening the free water stations for Flint. She did not follow through on that. And it's not just Flint. You know, I've been covering—in Kalamazoo, Michigan, there is a paper mill, graphic packaging, a multibillion-dollar paper mill that is emitting toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide in a predominantly black community on the north side of Kalamazoo. People are getting sick. I got sick just next to the plant for a few days. High levels of asthma,

COPD. And Governor Whitmer helped them expand a few years ago, despite. So obviously, we know Republicans don't care, but it's not just get Democrats in there and it'll be fixed. There's a lot of issues. And the people in Flint do not trust government, whether it's the Republicans. I think they trust the Democrats more, but have been disappointed that the promises that were made to them have not been followed through. There wasn't even a health registry for many years to track Flint residents' health problems from this. So in terms of restorative justice, you know, I'm not an expert, but the people I talk to do not have much nice things to say about the local, state or federal government, Democrat or Republican.

Derek? My question is around—and I'm a legislator, just so you know, here in Georgia. My question is around legislation. What legislation has been passed to mitigate this? Because it's Flint today or Flint 10 years ago, but you got other municipalities that's dealing with infrastructure and other issues, and those families still dealing with chronic issues, as you already mentioned. What legislation has been passed to mitigate this going forward? Well, first of all, I want to make the point, the original sin of this was the emergency manager law in Michigan that was actually started before Rick Snyder. And there

are still provisions of that emergency management law on the books in Michigan. And that's the law that allowed the governor to declare a financial emergency, not just in Flint, but in Cadillac, predominantly black cities, I should point out. They declared financial emergencies and appointed unelected emergency managers that, in many cases, were just basically the proxy for the governor. So there's provisions of that still on the books. And that is direct—that's not the only reason, but that is predominantly why the Flint water crisis happened, because the elected representatives, the mayor, the city council, their power was overruled by the governor and the emergency manager. You know, there's been some federal laws,

obviously the infrastructure law in D.C. that Biden signed put money towards replacing lead service lines. But still, not all the lead service lines have been replaced in Flint. And this is 10 years later. And they have not replaced the main pipes. I don't want to get too in the weeds, but it's not just the service lines. It's the main pipes underneath the ground that are bursting all the time in Flint and many other cities.

So in terms of legislation, not a lot. I mean, and it's not just lead. That was the main headline. But bacteria, there's something called PFAS, which are forever chemicals that they're finding in Flint, other parts of Michigan, North Carolina, the industrial Midwest. They're called forever chemicals. They're made as a byproduct of Teflon. And they cause cancer and miscarriages and all sorts of problems.

So you got lead, bacteria, PFAS. There's a major water problem in this country that I don't believe being fully addressed. Julianne? First of all, I want to thank you for your continuing coverage of the Flint water crisis. Mayor Karen Weaver is a personal friend, and I think the world of her. She lost her election because of reverberations around the water crisis. And Governor Whitmer, while many of us are fans of her as Democratic women, has been a disappointment around Flint. Can you speak first to Mayor Weaver's loss and secondly to the ways that Governor Whitmer has been disingenuous in her lack of support of Flint? Yeah, I mean, I've interviewed Mayor Weaver several times. You know, I'm a journalist. I'm

not standing for any one politician, but she got a lot of heat for not towing the line. You know, Governor Snyder tried to push her to say the water was better to, you know, get businesses back into Flint, and she wouldn't do it, because how could you in good conscience say the water's fine if you don't definitely know that? I think that's part of why she lost. There's a lot of powerful interests who stopped supporting her because she would not just declare crisis over and, you know, problem solved. I was surprised in her election when she lost. But, you know, she obviously ran again. I think part of why she lost, honestly, was the media is a problem in this too. I mean, the media and Flint,

you know, obviously, they don't have a ton of resources, but they haven't continued investigating this. Residents complain to me all the time that the media stopped covering it. I've pitched stories when I have, like, investigative details to the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News. They don't want to touch it anymore. It does seem like there was a bit of Flint fatigue. In terms of Governor Whitmer, listen, I know, obviously, there was COVID to deal with and the kidnapping plot, so it's not all bad. But it does seem to me that this is a case of, you know, you make promises, and then you get in, and you simply just choose not to follow through. They have democratic control now, so they could deliver. Again, the pipes didn't magically fix themselves. Residents have damaged pipes that that water's going. It's been told to me Jesus can bless the water and bring brand

new water through brand new pipes into your curb. But if the inside of your home pipes had acid water going through it for a year and a half, they're still going to be leaching things off. I don't know if it's an issue of just penny-pinching or wanting to allocate the money elsewhere, but she has not fought the fight the way she said she was going to for Flint. There's still residents 10 years later that are on bottled water, but it's very expensive to keep buying bottled water. So Flint has 45 percent poverty. There's a lot of residents who have no choice but to drink from the tap now because there is no free water stations. And I think that there has been an effort.

You know, I don't know what's in Governor Whitmer's head, but there's been an effort by other legislatures to sweep this under the rug and declare it over. The current mayor, who I think, you know, has some analogy to the truth, Sheldon Neely, he just says it's about trust. The water's fine now. Well, I'm talking to residents who still, 10 years later, say they have rashes on their body. I'm not talking about one person. I've talked to dozens of residents over the years, like the last year or two. They still get reactions from the water. Residents tell me the water smells in their community. You got to remember also, not just in Flint, but other parts of America, the water system in Flint was built for the city when it had 200,000 residents. It's got 80,000 residents now.

So you have a lot of sections of abandoned homes where water is stagnant. It's not moving through the system fast. And that creates bacteria problems, too, when water is stagnant through the system. So there's a lot of problems. I've reached out to Governor Whitmer many times. I've never gotten a response. But, you know, she's still got time to do the right thing. And the right thing, you know, listen, Libby, Montana, which is 96 percent white, they had a asbestos disaster in the 2000s.

Their senator, I believe, is Max Baucus. He snuck into Obamacare, call it what you want, universal health care. They didn't call it Medicare for all. They snuck in universal health care for the citizens of Libby, Montana, rightfully so. Where is the fight for universal healthcare and healthcare for life for these residents? You got children who have permanent learning disabilities, have regressed in learning because of the heavy metal damage. You have people getting cancers now. I think that is one of the top things that the governor should be fighting for, the Democratic Party should be fighting for.

And the settlement, the civil settlement, I got to tell you, I mean, I don't live there. I wasn't poisoned. But when it's all said and done, residents, when they get paid, might, if they're lucky, per family, get about $7,000, $8,000. I'm not saying that's nothing, but that doesn't even pay for a really good home filtration system in most cases, not to mention the medical bills and extra bills if you have a child with learning difficulties. Meanwhile, again, no one is in prison. No one has even faced jury. I'd like to see the Biden administration, the DOJ, maybe there's something that could be done as far as the statute of limitations. Governor Snyder perjured himself in front of Congress. I believe perjury is still

a crime in America. He's never been charged with that. So this is, I think it's been framed that this has happened long ago and it's 10 years and it's in the past. It's still going on. There's still a problem with the water. Just in December, there was news articles about the lead levels are rising in Flint. There's been bacterial issues as recently as a year ago. During the summer months, there's still bacterial issues. So I hope as this 10 year anniversary approaches, people that have, you know, not intentionally, but maybe just forgot about this, realize it's still a problem. Well, and for the folks watching, again, to understand my first segment, this is what

happens when you don't have media investment going to black-owned media outlets, when you don't have money going to independent outlets, then you are relying upon mainstream media, and that's not going to cut it when we talk about some of these critical issues. And so, Jordan, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Tell folks where they can watch more of y'all coverage. Yeah, we're at Status Coup on YouTube. That's C-O-U-P. And we cover Flint. We were just in East Palestine for the one-year anniversary of that disaster. And you can watch us every day at 5 o'clock Eastern time. All right. Jordan, thanks a lot.

Thanks. All right, folks, we come back. You got a lot of these black Republicans running around just stealing money. I keep telling y'all, the easiest person to get money from is a white conservative. And if you black, oh, they will hook you up. Well, Clay Kane of Sears XM has a new book out. Talk about that very thing. And we'll chat with him next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Next on The Frequency, we have an incredible conversation with my guest nadira simmons

talking about 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 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 one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

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

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. 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 podcast. I always had to be so good. No one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling,

the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Her new book, First Things First. Hip-hop ladies that change the game. The founder of GumboNet tells us the stories

behind the women in hip hop, starting with the first woman that promoted the hip hop party to Megan Thee Stallion. There's even a chapter on me. Thank you so much for including me in there. It's just so like, you had to be in there. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not be free. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys.

This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white people. I'm Faraiq Mohammed, live from L.A. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good,

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I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. All right, folks, y'all know I ain't got no problem calling out any of these crazy, demented MAGA Republicans, especially the grifting black Republicans. And let me be real clear. It's a lot of black Republicans I know who are legitimate, who are real. But what Donald Trump brought in was a whole crew of people, and their whole aim, their whole aim is to sit here and get paid,

gaslight black folks, go out here, say crazy, stupid stuff, and get people all upset. And then because you got the new people like Jason Whitlock of the world, who all of a sudden now, he's entertaining racists like Charlie Kirk. You've got, of course, a whole bunch of these folks out here. Clay Kane breaks you down in this new book. It's called The Grift, the downward spiral of black Republicans from the party of Lincoln to the cult of Trump. He joins us right now. Of course, you can hear his radio show on Sirius XM.

Clay, glad to have you. What's happening? Oh, my God. It's such an honor to be here. It really, really is. Thank you so much for having me. Well, glad to have you here. I deal with these crazy folks all the time. You do?

I've had some of these fools on the show, and when they come on here, I had that fool Mark Fisher. Oh, yes. And he tweeted today, I said, boy, you should never tweet me after I expose your lying ass. Then that fool Phillip from Indianapolis. We can go on and on and on. And what people don't understand is this is a money game. Then that fool Phillip from Indianapolis. We can go on and on and on. And what people don't understand is this is a money game. That's what's really at play here. They are making a lot of money from these crazy white conservatives. No, no, it's true.

And one of the things I love that you've done, when they're held accountable, they fall apart. That's how you know they're a grifter. You've interviewed Colin Powell. You've interviewed an early version of Tim Scott. A much different conversation, right? But when they're held accountable, they are combative. They are confused. They have a script that they stick to.

Well, even when Alan West came on. Oh, Alan West. When he came on, he was real sensible when he talked to me. Right, right, right. But crazy out there. Exactly. But he knew. He's like, no, I can't pull that bullshit with him. Yeah, yeah, right. But crazy out there. Exactly. But he knew. He's like, no, I can't pull that bullshit with him.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, you know, I wanted to write this book because the GOP has mangled our political history. Black political history, it begins with black Republicans. Right. So the original black Republicans are rolling in their grave. Because they were called radical Republicans. Exactly. So when you talk about after the Civil War, first of all, when you talk about the people who were

opposing Civil War, and then, of course, after the Civil War, those Reconstruction Amendments, that was being driven by the radical Republicans. Exactly, exactly. And people don't know

that history, so when I hear the GOP say, oh, black folks were Republicans, go back to the party of Lincoln, I'm like, y'all don't even know your history. Y'all don't even know

recent history. You hear this affirmative action conversation. Arthur Fletcher is the godfather of affirmative action, a black Republican. President Johnson gave a speech at Howard University where he talked about affirmative action. But it's not until Richard Nixon is elected in 68, is inaugurated in 69, and then Arthur Fletcher comes in when it's actually put into place. And one of the people who no one ever talks about who was one of the critical folks for Dr. King and Lieutenant was Bob Brown,

who was one of the most powerful folks in the Nixon administration who got a lot of stuff done. But those are real black Republicans. Yeah, exactly. So it's interesting. I think of someone like Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. He said the Negro has been evicted

from the GOP. We were kicked out of the party. We were told you are not welcome. Then you're in shock that we don't support you. So now what it's turned into, it's a downward spiral of these really insidious, obvious, and the GOP knows the grifters and they don't mind paying them. Well, speaking to Edward Brooke, again, if people don't understand, you had the 64 Civil Rights Act, the 65 Voting Rights Act, but Republicans and Democrats filibustered the Fair Housing Act. That he wrote.

It was Senator Brooke who was able to break that filibuster in early 1968. And, of course, it wasn't until King was assassinated in 68 in April when LBJ sent a letter the next day saying, let's honor his life and legacy by passing this particular bill. And so, Brooke understood. And so, before he died, he spoke out against these crazy Republicans and how they're treating black people. Yeah, and it's funny. It's like, you know, they erased someone like Senator Edward Brooke.

Another name, Dr. T.R.M. Howard. He was an abortion doctor in Chicago, a black Republican. They erase his history. Part of the reason why Brooke was kicked out of the United States Senate, he's pro-life. He's anti the death penalty. Like, I feel like if you want to try and call on, well, why are black folks no longer voting Republican,

know your history. Know your history. And this book calls them out. Well, and also understand the switch changing policy. So you can't say you're the party of Lincoln if you don't want to identify what those policies were when it came to the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendment. You don't want to deal with that. They talk about, oh, how many Republicans voted for the various civil rights laws again, but they don't want to talk about it was after Barry Goldwater's book dropped that that served,

because people like William Buckley, who was white, they were very much in support of civil rights, but it wasn't until Goldwater's book dropped that changed the entire Republican Party, and they flipped from being pro-black to anti-black. Southern strategy, southern strategy. They wanted to get that white conservative vote back in the South. And, you know, I tell people that I feel like we as black folks, we aren't wedded to the

R or to the D. It depends on who is going to protect the most vulnerable, who has our best interests at heart. And when the GOP made that decision that we are going to marry ourselves to former Dixiecrats, we're going to push the Richard Nixon narrative as well. War on black people. Ronald Reagan, the welfare queen narrative. Willie Horton, the 1988 ad that goes under Bush. Like you're obviously, you shouldn't be in shock that we're not going to support a party that doesn't support us. I don't care about the R or the D.

What's your policy for fair housing, fair wages, health care, and so on, voting rights? Well, it's so funny. So I was earlier today, Kim Klachek, who out of Baltimore. Again, speaking of grifting, I mean, she raised a ton of money to run for Congress. Now, we all know she was going to get murdered by Kwasi Mfume. Exactly. And I'm talking about they gave her a campaign, a ton of money. Didn't even live in the district.

Didn't even live in the district. And then you had the dudes who ran against Maxine Waters and others. Oh, yes. I mean, they gave them millions of dollars, and we're sitting there going, uh, you know, the only people getting paid are political consultants, and they know the game as well. Well, Kim dropped this video today.

I cracked up laughing. Of course, I had to respond to this. But again, this is the silly stuff that folk like her will put out. So if you continue to vote for the Democrat Party, knowing they're giving millions of dollars in prepaid debit cards to legal migrants, there's nothing I can't help you. You're an idiot. You know what I mean? There's nothing else I could do. Like, I could see if you thought that crime and violence wasn't maybe the fault of Democrats and their failed policies. I could see if maybe, you know, looking at Baltimore City or any inner

city in this country, the poor education system, you know, I could see if you were confused about whether or not that falls onto Democrats. But as you see Democrats handing out billions in prepaid debit cards of your tax dollars to illegal aliens illegally crossing our borders, if you can't figure out by now the Democrat Party is a sham and that they could care less about how you feel about it, I can't help you.

I can't help you. People say you can fix a lot of things. Stupid ain't what? Well, what's stupid is you also want to support a party that yells about the border, gets offered an actual deal, negotiated by Republicans and Democrats, but they say don't touch it because we want Trump to campaign on it. Trump, that's their dear leader.

And you know what's so sad? I don't think Barry Goldwater or Richard Nixon would have predicted that people who would uphold a new version of the Southern strategy would be black Republicans. They wouldn't even saw that coming. Oh, we can get black people to uphold otherism. We can get black folks to uphold, look over there, look over there, but first of all, what's happening here?

And she's doing that. And then- Because she ain't no Jackie Robinson. No, she ain't no Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson chastised Richard Nixon because he wasn't more pro-civil rights and he campaigned against Barry Goldwater and he was a black Republican.

Exactly. And they called him a communist and they attacked him. Yeah, so it's... Listen, I think you have to call out before it takes over extremism. There are folks who want to be the next Clarence Thomas. They want to be the next Daniel Cameron. They want to be the next Daniel Cameron.

They want to be the next Tim Scott. They're hoping they can go, look at Mark Robinson in North Carolina, running for governor, had no political experience, and became elected Lieutenant Governor just for going viral because he attacked Michelle Obama and Black Panther. Made it to Lieutenant Governor.

And now he's the front runner for governor. That's scary, That's scary. You also have some of these other people. And I've been jousting with them. Maj Touré. You've got, what, go by Officer Tatum. Oh, yeah. See, I love it.

He put out some video. This was a couple years ago. You know, anybody who accepts my offer to debate about Black Lives Matter, let's go. I went, that fool ain't answer that at all. Candace Owens been running her ass as well. Because again, the way they're able, and then I forgot this other dude, some dude, Harris or whatever. Again, the two brothers out of Texas. The Hodge twins. Okay, them fools all up.

But again, what they do is, they get in that ecosystem and then they hype them up. Yeah. And then they go, oh yeah, look at you. You posted that. You got no retweets. I'm like, because y'all a cult, that's what y'all do. Plus, y'all live for the retweets. Y'all live for the likes.

And so what their whole aim is, what the white Republicans do, they go, see, see, we got us one. We got us four. We got us five. And then, like, I've even tried to get Sonny. I believe Sonny Johnson is one of the more, is somebody who is a Republican, who is conservative, who is sensible.

I'll try to invite her on the show. She won't accept the invitation. But I said, look, when Chris Metzler comes on here, when Elroy Saylor comes on here, Eugene Craig, there are numerous black Republicans I have on. But I tell them, if you come on and you start lying, then it's going to be a problem. You don't lie, we ain't going to have a problem. We might disagree. But if you start lying, I'm going to jack your ass.

Well, that's the blueprint. They have to lie because they provide racial cover. They provide racial cover for the GOP. So they got to lie because they provide racial cover. They provide racial cover for the GOP, so they got to lie. They got to say black-on-black crime, get-off-welfare, Democratic plantation. I mean, you literally— Or Chicago. Or Chicago, Chicago.

Or Chicago. Mind you, one of the most violent states in the country is Alaska, according to the FBI. No one ever talks about that. But it's important to—listen, I'm okay with having a policy argument. If you want to talk school choice Regulations that do it, but they don't talk policy. They can't even go into Paula. Let me ask you a question You interviewed Tim Scott when he wasn't as crazy What do you think happened? Oh easy the closer he got to wanting to run for president

It changed and also it was it was power. Listen, and I saw it happening. At the end of the day, he made a decision, Lindsey Graham made a decision. All of them. They said, we can't fight this MAGA thing. So instead of standing on principles, I'm gonna sit here and start kissing Trump's ass. And that's exactly what Tim Scott did.

And so then it just continued and continued when I believe a Tim Scott and even a Lindsey Graham could have been somebody who says, no I ain't gotta go that far, I'm gonna stand on my principles, I'm not gonna sit and kiss your behind. Oh but they abs, I mean Lindsey on TV. You got an elect Hersch abs. I mean Lindsay on TV

Herschel I mean To a whole different level and that's when you go bruh, I can't respect that exactly Okay, I can't listen to you when you Tim Scott sat here and went on Fox and live Yeah about Donald Trump. He came more funding to HBUs than any other president in history. It was a flat-out lie. Then Tim Scott touts Opportunity Zones. I had, the day Trump announced Opportunity Zones, a pastor from Baltimore was at the White House, came on a show. Had him on a show.

I said, I'm going to check back with you in six months. Six months later, that brother called us. He said, this is going to check back with you in six months. Six months later, that brother called us. He said, this is trash. Gentrification. Now, I then I called the Trump White House. I got the emails saying I need somebody to provide for me some data

showing me how Opportunity Zones have actually impacted. No response. Tim Scott goes on Fox News and says, the greatest anti-poverty program ever were Opportunity Zones. Now, Fox News

ain't going to fact check nothing. And he said, it's a lie. It's a lie. I've asked for it. They cannot provide any data that shows who got tax breaks and show how many people got jobs, that pastor said all this was was a tax break for rich developers.

It was not. And in fact, in Maryland, it was even crazier. They gave tax breaks to people who were outside the opportunity zones, supposedly in the same zone. You know, one of the things that I've said is that this is the mess the GOP created. Decades and decades of terrible policies. And now you've gotten to a point where if there were any credible black Republicans,

they were flushed out during the Trump era. They were kicked out. There's no space for them. If you aren't willing to uphold white supremacy, if you aren't willing to lie, if you aren't willing to spit out the talking points and say you've left the plantation, win some seats with her AR-15, you aren't even welcomed anymore. If you aren't going to lie, if you aren't willing to spit out the talking points and say, you've left the plantation, win some seats with her AR-15, you aren't even welcomed anymore. If you aren't going

to perform, if you aren't going to audition in that way, you aren't welcome. And it really, you know, Dr. King said in 1964 that he's afraid of the GOP becoming the white man's party, that it would hurt the GOP and it would also hurt Democrats. It's unfortunate. It's an unfortunate grift. It's a downward spiral. And the check's going to keep coming? Look, you've got folks like Kay Cole James, who, of course, was the first African-American to hit the Heritage Foundation. Okay, Kay is conservative. She's Republican. I got it.

And there were some emails that went out. Now, I remember I was like, Kay, stop. And so I knew why she did it. I knew sending it out. But the bottom line is I've talked to some others who I know very well, and they're not going on television, they're not doing these things.

They met privately with Trump people or whatever. But they will tell you, no, these people are trash. And they hate, they hate these black Republican grifters. They can't stand them. That was a meeting that Pence had at the White House with several black Republicans. Yeah. And Trump made him invite Candace Owens.

And so what's crazy is when they posted the tweet, Pence thanked everybody but her. Oh, yeah. And I was told in that meeting, she said something crazy about black folks, and K. Cole James dressed her ass down and literally told her, little

girl, you don't know what you're talking about. In front of Vice President Pence. She was grossly embarrassed. I asked some other black Republicans who told me point blank. They said, Roland, we have told her, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. You need to go read up on policy.

I mean, one black Republican told me, Roland, she admitted she doesn't know this stuff. But for them, you get out there, you got you a nice look, you can sit here, and you sound great, and you speak fast, and repeat the talking points. Boom. Fox News,

conservative radio, they will love you immensely. And that's the scary thing is that conservative media, they have a massive infrastructure. And when they find their black darling, they will lift. I mean, Michael Steele, I interviewed him in the book, told me that it is embarrassing. They have the likes of

Hershel Walker, Diamond and Silk, Candace Owens, that it shows the party is irredeemable. It is irredeemable. And they couldn't tell you one thing about Ida B. Wells, who once ran for office as a Republican. They couldn't tell you one thing about the origins of where this really began. It's a shame to our history.

Before I go to questions with my panel, what was also interesting to me was I was on CNN and I got to find the clip. And it was some black pastor. He was conservative. He was going off on Reverend Jackson. And so we went at it. So we go into the green room. He goes, man,

we should take this thing on the road. He goes, man, it's a lot of money out there for this. Look at his ass. And I was like, ain't no way in the hell I'm going to roll with your ass. Yeah. See? I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

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

mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute

Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I knew when we were on, it had nothing to do with principles. Exactly. Morals, values,

integrity, ethics. It was the money. Yeah. And his whole deal was, roll with me on this and we can make a lot of money because these white conservatives will fund this stuff. Yeah. And I told him to go to hell. That's right. Roland, if you came out tomorrow and said you were a

Trump supporter, you'd be a trillionaire within a year. I've said that for years. You'd be a trillionaire. I've literally said with my skill set if I made the decision to condemn black people with my skill set, absolutely

I would be a billionaire. Trillionaire. I absolutely believe that. But you have morals, you have values, you know policies. I'm not going to do that. You're not going to play this little game here. And that's the game that they actually play. Hold tight one second, folks. We're going to go to a break. We're going to come back.

We're going to take some questions from our panel. We're talking with Clay Kane about his book, The Grift, The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump. We'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. For the last 15 or maybe 16, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to L.A., I hadn't had a break. I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there.

Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's Chicken, we wrapped it up because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm taking a break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. I got it. You know what I'm saying?

Right. So I can afford it. I can what I'm saying? So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Folks, welcome back.

We're talking to Clay Kane. His new book is called The Griff, The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump. Let's start with our questions. Julianne, I'm going to have you first. Absolutely. Clay, thank you for your book.

I'm looking forward to reading it. What I'd like to know, I mean, I remember reasonable Republicans. Ed Brook, certainly. But there's so many others. They call them Rockefeller Republicans, fiscal, conservatives, social, quasi-liberals. I mean, it has to be something other than Trump that's turned these people into fools. I mean, there's something, there's a secret sauce somewhere. Maybe it's buried in the bowels of your book.

But what else is it? Because I mean, I'm even thinking of, what's the guy named Gary somebody from Connecticut. Gary Franks. I mean, I'm even thinking of, what's the guy named? Gary somebody from Connecticut. Yeah, Gary Franks. Republican. He wasn't crazy. You know, he wasn't Tim Scott crazy. But so what happened?

I mean, I don't want you to give away all the secrets because we want people to buy your book. But give me something more than the cult of Trump. So the watershed moment that I lay out in the book is Clarence Thomas. He changes the game. He starts to rise in the late 70s, early 1980s. He speaks at this Black Alternatives Conference, and he basically characterizes, more or less, his sister as a welfare queen.

He says horrible things about affirmative action. Mind you, he admitted previously if it wasn't for affirmative action, he wouldn't be where he was. Clarence Thomas perfected the grift, perfected the performance, the audition. That I think that is the moment where folks said, okay, forget about, you know, the Nixon era is about black capitalism. Forget about Senator Edward Brooke and George W. Lee and all these other folks. How can I really just be about rugged individualism? And I think when Clarence Thomas did that, people followed his lead and said, yo, I want to make this much money. And I have quotes in the book of folks slamming Clarence Thomas, that he's literally just profiting from this.

I mean, this is, he was a mastermind at this blueprint of grifting and hustling. So at that point, the era before and after Clarence Thomas, he really, the beginning of the erasure of credible Republicans. I mean, Senator Edward Brooke disappears. Arthur Fletcher, who does support Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, says that after he is on the court, he is now leaning white. I think that he found a way almost, I know some folks might be offended by this, almost Booker T. Washington-esque.

Atlanta compromised 1890, but doing it in 1980. And he is rewarded. He is rewarded. So I think that is the watershed moment. And I lay the blueprint out in the book. I mean, the language, the independent thinker, that all starts from him. All these scenarios that folks follow, it began with Mr. Clarence Thomas.

But I think what then began to also happen, when you talk about that conservative ecosystem, so what then became, it then became the speeches and the radio talk shows. And so when you take a Larry Elder, when you take about Elmer Fudd, Jesse Lee Peterson, who can barely even talk. Again, so what they do is, Sean Hannity was a member of his board. And so what they decided was, wait a minute, hold up, we need black puppets.

And their deal is, we need black people who we can send out. And so they began to latch on to, I forgot the sister, she used to be on welfare, you see her now, Star, something like that. And so then, this next wave was kind of like, oh, we ain't got no real Republican credentials, but we can get paid.

I mean, I remember there was a fight between some black Republicans, and I was watching the live stream, and a couple of them admitted that they grifted. Because they know the game. It's like, yo, I can become a millionaire. I can earn me $400,000, $500,000, $600,000, $700,000. They're going to buy your books.

They're going to book you to speak. They're going to have you on the shows. And someone, again, off air, they'll be honest with you what the real deal is. But the funny part is when it churns on them. Some folks got a wake-up call. I mean, some folks that, you know, J.C. Watts, I cover in the book, in the beginning of his congressional career, he was saying some wild stuff. Then towards the end, when he saw the GOP is giving him no power, he realized.

Because what happened was J.C. Watts was supposed to be over communication. Yes. And when they screwed him, that's when he said. Wait a minute. Oh, hell no. And then he was like, be over communication. Yes. And when they screwed him, that's when he said, Wait a minute. Oh, hell no. And then he was like, man, look, I'm out.

That was this sister, man, what was her name? Her name was Crystal something. Oh, oh. Crystal Wright? Was it Crystal Wright? Yeah. Yep, yep, yep.

So Crystal Wright, I don't even know what the hell happened to her. She's done. So Crystal Wright came on my show. Oh, man. She was sitting here just So Crystal Wright came on my show. Oh, man. She was sitting here just slinging, I do the game.

And I was kind of like, child, whatever. And so she was taking shots at me. She's taking shots at everybody. And I remember, man, when the Republican National Committee had a Black History Month deal, David Stewart was a keynote speaker. It's 8 o'clock. And they invited me to speak, invited me to attend. And I sat between Reince and Stewart.

Bruh, she was livid. Now here's why she was mad. She was mad because I walked in and all these black Republicans were like, hey, Roland. Right. But they all knew me. Right.

A lot of people I already knew. And so she's hot, she has ass in the back. I said, girl, they don't respect your ass. And then what happened? Came to find out she had worked on Kendrick Meeks' campaign in Florida. And she had registered this black, I forgot, GOP black chick, I think, a month before the election. She was trying to get a Fox deal. Man, by the time when Trump got there,

she disavowed all that. She took all that stuff off. I think she got rid of the Twitter feed. You ain't heard from her because the grip didn't work. It was over. It was a wrap. It didn't work. Even they saw her.

Yeah. Her ass a fraud. And some folks are craftier. You know, some folks are gonna fall apart like Stacey Dash, like Crystal Wright. Now, some folks, they want to take it as far as they can go. Absolutely. They want to ride to the wheels, fall off.

Exactly. I'm a Congo. Go ahead. What's up, Clay? Long time no see. I just saw him today at American University, brother. Clay just crushed it at American University. So thank you.

And you inspired a lot of students. And you just gave us a new term, BC, before Clarence, as it relates to the grip. Anyway, you said that when Whoopi Goldberg was reading your book, she was really upset, like just pissed off at all of the stuff she was reading. But towards the end, she felt hopeful in terms of how you ended the book. What are some of the things you are giving people to give them hope in this after they finish this book? So the last chapter is called the what's next chapter. You know, I lay out the grift, I expose the grift as Ida B. Wells says, the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.

I turn that light and the answer is what's next. And for me, I spoke once upon a time I was a non voter. I wasn't engaged. I grew up in Philadelphia. I didn't know civics and understand government. So I really wanted to activate and trigger the non-voter out there. If you don't do politics, politics will do you. I want people to understand, listen, I get feeling like disenchanted. I get understand, I get the perspective that you feel like government isn't on your side. But the

answer isn't to disengage, It's to engage even more. And you talk about this, Roland Martin, that in 1868, we had 80% black voter turnout. So I show that the answer really is in the original black Republicans. And it's not even going back that far. When Andrew Young ran for Congress in the early 70s, it was 72. When Harold Washington was elected Mayor of Chicago, it was 85%.

That's how he won. Can you imagine if we could do that? Then we could vote in more people who care about reparations. We can vote in more folks who care about health care. But if you disengage, you're not winning. Because the other side, they don't disengage. The other side, they get activated. In fact, I remember

the Tallahassee Democrat, I should go back and try to find it, they did a graphic after the DeSantis-Gillum race. And it was the top 15 or 20 counties in Florida. And it showed the turnout, the participation. I think you had to get to number 11 before Blue County showed up. The top 10 were Republican counties. I think Broward came in at 57.

And if I remember correctly, Miami-Dade came in at 52. So the reality is, had Gillum hit 65 in Broward and 60 in Miami-Dade, he would have been elected governor. And so I'm always trying to show black folks the numbers. That if white voters state right here, if we go from 48-52 to 68-70, we flip whole statewide elections. Think about Gary Chambers, Louisiana. Mike Espy, Mississippi. Those are races that we could win if we have a little higher voting turnout.

Espy lost by 65,000 votes to Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2018, and there were at least 100,000 black people who didn't even vote in the election. Yeah, I want us to, I feel like we had less power then and used our power more. Absolutely. I want us to use our power more. And if you don't like what you see, vote them out.

Right. Vote them out. Show up and vote them out. That's why you have a primary system. Exactly. You have a general election system as well. Derek, go ahead. Clay, I appreciate your book.

And most of your book highlights political figures. My question is around, it looks like the Republicans are also trying to recruit entertainers, rappers, athletes. So what's your thoughts around their strategy trying to recruit? And I don't want to mention the well-known rappers in the last 48 hours that came out talking about voting for Trump. But what's your thoughts around them trying to recruit entertainers, athletes, and others beyond just political figures? Yeah, I do touch on that in the book. And it's kind of funny.

It even goes back to the Nixon era. I touch on Sammy Davis Jr. and James Brown and how they supported Nixon and the backlash that they had. You know, listen, it's another part of the grift that if you are, if you spit out propaganda, propaganda is profitable and it can get you a headline on Fox News. Now, I don't know if they're saying this because they enjoy the tax breaks or because they're misinformed, they're ill-informed, but also you see that they infantilize black

communities with celebrities. You know, why is sexy red even talking about Trump? Why does she have an opinion about politics? You know, but these are the ways that it makes it seem like, oh, look at the black community because a rapper said it. Right, when, but again though, but this is also, this is also a fault even of mainstream media. Agreed.

So what they do is they, you don't see white celebrities speaking for white people. Nope. Okay. So I remember during COVID, CNN had a segment that featured Magic Johnson and Doug E. Fresh. Now,

great respect for both. Doug is a friend, but I was sitting there going, why y'all talking to Magic Johnson and Dougie Fresh when on my show, we actually had black doctors, black infectious disease experts, professors from Meharry. What are y'all doing? And so what happens is, what they do is they go, oh, that's who speaks for black America. Well, unfortunately, many of them are uninformed. Just the other day, when Killer Mike was on Real Time with Bill Maher, he brought up, when is Biden going to apologize for the crime bill? Well, when I saw the deal, when I saw the clip on Twitter, because I don't watch Bill Maher's show, because, look, I did a show one time and he had a little attitude.

And that was 10 years ago. Here's what happened. I sent Mike a text. I said, Mike, Biden spoke on this in 2020. He said, bro, thanks for pulling my coat on this. I said, anytime. I got other celebrities who will call me and say, hey, Ro, I might get asked this.

Give me the 411. Give me the break. And so I will walk them through. This is what's going on. This is the whole policy. Now I'm comfortable speaking on it. And so when a sexy red throws that bullshit out about, oh, oh, the STEM is, and it's kind of like, well, first of all, sexy red, you're not aware there was a Democratic-controlled House that passed a bill. All funding bills start in the House. And so if Democrats don't vote for it, Trump ain't got nothing to sign.

Oh, did you also realize there was a $1,500 check that went out under Biden as well? And so, and then they seized that. And so when Sexy Red says something, when Charlamagne says something, when, oh, Snoop like, yo, I'm cool, I'm cool with Trump. Oh, Snoop now endorsing Trump. No, Trump pardoned, and Trump part of this whole deal. Trump was all about celebrities anyway.

Absolutely. You look at Presidential Medal of Freedom, damn near every one he gave was to some entertainer or athlete. Rush Limbaugh. Okay. And so he gave one to Tiger. He gave one to Bob Cousy, some other athletes. And so he was all about the celebrity. So they will then amplify the black celebrity and what they say and the criticism.

And what I keep saying to black celebrities, before you open your mouth, call somebody in the know before you do, because then your then your comment gets weaponized. And then sometimes our media amplifies those comments as well. And it becomes a big. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real

people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman 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- drug man, Benny the butcher, Brent Smith from shine down. Got be 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 it. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the war on drugs podcast 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-away, you've 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.

Viral sensation, and you see it on certain media outlets. Oh, absolutely. And you're like, wow, now we have it in the conservative media, now it's in our media. Right. But that actually is the conservative media strategy. I mean, Christopher Ruffo said it about CRT. We're going to sit here and create the momentum here. And then we're going to embarrass them to run it.

Not just CNN. They were always scared of getting criticized out of the right. And I was like, tell them to go to hell. Well, but they said we don't cover it. I don't care. And what people don't understand is in these so-called mainstream newsrooms When I said CNN they looked at drugs report every single day. I didn't read that bullshit But again, they so when they concoct these things in conservative media They're driving the agenda of the mainstream media and force you to cover it then they go

Boom, we good. I remember when Rufo did joy and read show people like joy you got it I will know it's a bad move because Rufo that's all he wanted. He didn't care that you disagree with him He now said set your lineup and I'm like you gotta understand But that's what I try to tell people. You have to study media. You have to understand how media works. And I'll just give you real quick. When I was at CNN, Drudge put out this story that says, ooh, some of the staffers at Oprah's show, it was a big furb because she wouldn't have Sarah Palin on.

And when I saw it, I went, this is a bullshit story. And so the producers came to me. I'll never forget Anderson Cooper's producers. If I want to have you on the show, I was like, for what? Did you see the Drugs Report? I was like, this is a bullshit article. They're like, what do you mean? I said, Oprah Winfrey said after she endorsed Obama, she was not going to have any candidates on her show. I can tell you this story is a lie. And New York Post picked it up. And so the whole aim was to create this firestorm to force Oprah to put Palin on.

I said, y'all, well, how do you know? I said, I'm telling y'all this story is a lie. I said, I'll be right back. Sent an email to Gayle, came back, this story ain't true. I said, no, there's a well, how do you know I said I'm telling y'all the stories a lie I said I'll be right back send an email to Gail came back this story ain't true I said no, it's not true, but that's how they play the game exactly and that was social media. It's worse. Yeah, absolutely absolutely Last thing have any of these black grifters Hit you up and challenge you to say you're wrong. Absolutely not.

You know what's funny? When I was on The View, we were talking about Tim Scott. So Tim Scott goes on Fox News a couple days later and reacts to The View clip. Mind you, it's me, Sonny, and Whoopi talking. But the only person Tim Scott addresses is Joy Behar. And I said, I see what you're doing. There you go. That's slick, Timothy.

That's slick. You ain't going to talk about the three black folks who called you out. You just focused on the white liberal Joy Behar. I said, oh, Timothy, you still going for that check, brother. You want that VP slot? But no. But they're welcome to reach out.

I loved it. I had nearly 1,000 sources in that book. That book is over-sourced because I want to live in a world that's not alternative facts. Well, look, they won't do it. And the problem that we have is thankfully the view had you on some of these other platforms. But what you also have is you got many of these white

producers who are scared to death. I literally had a network host call me and say, I would love to have you on my show, but my white producers don't like your title of your book, White Fear. I said, you do know I wrote about those very people in the book. I said, the reason we don't have these conversations because white executives and white producers are afraid to talk about white fear. They keep calling it economic anxiety. I said, they won't even say white voters. They just say voters. Yeah, and and and this person and I then I sent this person

articles from the New York Times NPR Time and Newsweek Which wrote articles on the basis of my thesis? I said So they all literally did stories and what my book is about But my book my book title is bad And this just shows you again how media, if you're in charge, you are determining and you're shaping the narrative and refusing to have the question go forward. And so hopefully these producers and bookers

will see this book and now think differently about how they book because inside these networks, I will tell you, I was seeing it for six years. I saw it. If you say something wild, crazy, oh, book them, they go viral. And I'm like, but they don't know anything. And what you're doing is you're now making the grifter more popular. That's right.

And all they want is the clip. Exactly. Can I say one thing before we go? It's an honor to talk with you. I've admired you for a very long time. You are a truth teller. You're a hardcore journalist. And I've been just following your career. So it Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump, written by Clay Kane. Clay, I appreciate it, man. Appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, you got to sign this before you go. Yes, yes. All right, y'all, we've come back. I got to tell y'all, Jay-Z spoke last night at the Grammys. He should have boycotted the Grammys. I will explain. Ain't nobody else speaking from this angle.

Wait till I show you how even he contradicted himself. That's next on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We 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. A lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

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to bring resources to Blacks and people of color so they can scale their business. Even though we've had several examples of African Americans and other people of color being able to be successful, we still aren't seeing the mass level of us being lifted up. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, how big a role does fear play in your life? Your relationship to it and how to deal with it can be the difference between living a healthy life, a balanced life, or a miserable one.

Whenever the power of fear comes along, you need to put yourself in that holding pattern and breathe, examine. Find out if there's something that your survival instinct requires you to either fight or take flight. Facing your fears and making them work for you instead of against you. That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

On that soil, you will not regret that. White people are losing their damn lives. It's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is White Field. For the last 15 or maybe 16 years, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to L.A., I hadn't had a break.

I hadn't had a vacation. I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen Sugar and we wrapped it up, because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time, I said, I'm going to take a little break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. Praise God.

You know what I'm saying? Right. So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Immigrants lured off Texas streets and shipped to places like Martha's Vineyard and Washington, D.C. Believe it or not, we've seen it all before.

You people in the North, you're so sympathetic to Black people, you take them. 60 years ago, they called it the reverse freedom rides. Back then, Southern governors shipped Black people North with the false promise of jobs and a better life. It's a part of a well-known playbook being brought back to life. So what's next? That's next on The Black Table, a conversation with Dr. Gerald Horne about this issue of the reverse freedom rights right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5 DC.

Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. The Grammys took place last night, and there were a number of black folks who won awards. You got, you name it, things happen. And what was a big award, the Dr. Dre Global Image Award. Okay, so they named this award after Dr. Dre, and it was awarded to Jay-Z. And so a lot of people have talked about how Jay-Z, man, he called the Grammys out. He challenged them when it came to Beyonce never winning album of the year, even though

she's won more Grammys than anybody else at 32, and he's absolutely right. But Jay-Z should not have been at the Grammys last night. I'ma play y'all some of what he said, and I want y'all to listen closely to what he said. So watch this. It's great to have an award for such an icon. How far we've come with Will Smith and them, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince winning their first Grammy in 89, and boycotting because it wasn't televised, and then they went

to like a hotel and watched the Grammys. I didn't even understand what the- Wasn't a great boycott. We're here. But then, 98, I took a page out of their book. I was nominated for Best Rap Album, and DMX had dropped two albums that year. They both were number one, shout out to DMX. And he wasn't nominated at all.

So I boycotted. And I watched the Grammys. I'm just saying, we just, we want y'all to get it right. We love y'all. We love y'all. We love y'all. We want y'all to get it right. At least get it close to right.

And obviously it's subjective. Y'all don't got to clap at everything. All right. Okay. All right. So Jay-Z says, will Jay-Z Jeff boycott it? And then he boycotted because DMX did not get nominated. He got nominated in the album of the year.

Okay. Rap album of the year last night wasn't televised. In fact, Killer Mike swept the category, and Killer Mike actually won for rap album of the year. This was in the non-televised portion. Here it is. For best rap album, the nominees are Drake and 21 savage killer Mike Metro boomin Nas Travis Scott and the Grammy goes to killer mike sweet

sweet You can't tell me. God ain't good. You can't tell me. You can't tell me. You can't tell me. You cannot tell me. You cannot tell me that you get too old. You can't tell me it's too late. You can't tell me dreams come true. It is a sweet.

It is a sweet. It is a sweet. I'm the... You can, tell me. Let me tell you something. So Jay-Z, if you want to force the Grammys to change, you should have said, I will not accept this award, nor will I attend, until y'all put one of the rap categories on the televised broadcast.

Dr. Dre should have said, I will not allow you to put my name on any award until you put at least the rap album of the year as a part of a telecast. See, this is how stuff doesn't change. Stuff doesn't change when we lend our presence to it and allow it to continue. You heard Jay-Z say when he boycotted. You heard him say Will Smith and the boycott it. So sure Travis Scott performed. Sure they'll have a rap act performed.

But rap is never going to get the respect until major rappers say, until you do right by us, we are not going to show up. I know other rappers. Luther Campbell wrote about it in his book. When the Grammys honored Madonna for her First Amendment battle, when she was battling folks, I think it was the video she did where she portrayed herself as Jesus. And Luther Campbell said, wait a damn minute. I took my case to the damn Supreme Court of the United States and won. And you're not honoring me. Jay-Z has enough juice to say me and Beyonce will not come

back until y'all make rap a part of the broadcast. Y'all, we got to learn how to use our power. We got to learn how to use our leverage and influence. And when we keep showing up at places that continue to minimize us, that continue to disrespect us, you know what they gonna do? They gonna say, keep doing it. Because they gonna show up anyway. They to come and pick up the special award

anyway. And you say, no, don't even put my name on it unless you do right by us. See, Julian, this is the thing that MLK was talking about on April 3, 1968. When he was talking about how do we properly use our power in order to effect change. And this is what Jay-Z should have done. And then he could have stood there and said, I told them I would not accept this award unless a rap category was a part of a televised broadcast. And that's why the best rap album of the year was a part of this year's telecast.

And it will be a part of the telecast from every year now on. That's how you force some change. Except for the fact that integrationists want to be integrated. People want to be part of the club. They want to be part of the party. If they didn't want to be part of the party, they would do what Jay-Z had the opportunity to do, which is say, I'm going to sit this sucker out.

No. Everybody, all these people, they talk a black game, they talk a strong game, but at the end of the day, they want to be a part of the club. And it doesn't matter whether their ticket is marked half ass or marked sit at the back of the room, marked you ain't valued. They still got in the room. I agree with you fully. There's so many instances of this where black people just do that. We don't stand up for ourselves. And if you don't stand up for yourself, ain't nobody else going to stand up for you.

Let me tell you something, Derek. Man, listen, I have been a part of stuff. And I've gone to places and they didn't have room on the red carpet, thus in black media. And I literally would say it. No, we ain't covering nothing until you create a spot. I've literally been somewhere. Look, I'm going to tell you. There's a, hold on.

Stay right there. Hillary Clinton was first lady of the United States. See this photo right here? I'll go to the other shot. All right. This photo was shot at the MLK Center. I shot it at the MLK Center. I shot it at the MLK Center in Dallas. Okay? This was, she was first lady.

Alright? Let me tell you what happened. The MLK Center is literally about a hundred yards across from the Dallas Weekly. The black newspaper where I was the managing editor. So, I knew she was coming and so what happened was I then said, I went over to the MLK Center

about three hours before she was supposed to get there. And so they had two rooms, then a room to the right, then a room to the left. Well, the room to the left, they had these lights set up. And I said, what's going on in this room and they said oh well the first lady is going to be in this room and she's gonna talk to some of the kids and the photographers are gonna get a photo of the first lady with the kids. I said, well, who's in the press pool? They said, oh, the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram,

the Associated Press, and UPI. They may have said Reuters. I said, well, wait a minute. Ain't no black media? no black on media in the press pool, in the press press pool. They said, no, I said, ain't no way in hell. The first lady going to come to black South Dallas to the MLK center with a black paper less than 100 yards across the street, and ain't nobody black in the damn press pool. Well, sir, and I was, mind you, I was managing editor of the Dallas Weekly at the time. And it was like, well, sorry, the press pool is already set. I said, you need to go find the advanced person because the first lady

is not going to come to black South Dallas and a black paper is across the damn street and ain't nobody from the black owned media a part of this press pool. So person walked out, came back. Mr. Martin, you've been added to the press pool. I said, yeah, I thought so. That's how that photo was shot. That's how it ran in the paper. And for all y'all who are listening, find the photo.

The photo that we all know of Bernice King sitting on the lap, laying on the lap of Coretta Scott King in his funeral, Monita Sleep with Ebony Magazine was the first African American to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for photography for that photo. Do you know how that happened? It's because Leron Bennett and Simeon Booker went to Coretta Scott King and told her the white media has locked Ebony and Jet

out of the press pool. There was a segregated press pool covering the funeral of Dr. King. And they said, Mrs. King, they are not going to allow Ebony and Jet to be in the press pool. And Coretta Scott King said, you make it perfectly clear

that if Ebony and Jet are not in the press pool, there will be no press pool. The white racists allowed Ebony and Jet in the press pool and that's how Sleep got that photo and it won the Pulitzer Prize. This is what happens when somebody black saying, no, we ain't doing this. And so Jay-Z, it's great that they wanted to give you the Dr. Dre award. That's great.

But Jay-Z and Dr. Dre should have said, ain't going to be no award until y'all make rap a part of a televised broadcast. Derek, that's how you take a stand. You know, Roland, through the examples that you've provided, it's one thing to have power, but it's something else to communicate that you're willing to sacrifice your position. See, you didn't say, hey, let me not say anything in fear of losing my job. No, you were bold and you were upfront on your principles and your values. Here's the thing that we got to really understand about the use of our collective power and individual power. If you're not willing to sacrifice—see, the Montgomery bus boycott, Roland, was successful

because they realized their power, but they also demonstrated that for 300-plus days, they're willing to sacrifice. They're willing to walk. They're willing to not wage on their principles and their values. Muhammad Ali was powerful because he demonstrated, hey, I will sacrifice these heavyweight belts to make sure that you understand my platform and my voice. reason why we got to move from having moments and turn them into movements but we're not going to be successful with movements if we're not willing to sacrifice and so last night you didn't see someone that exercised the use of their power because they're not willing to sacrifice and saying i'm not showing up until you make the change it takes a level of sacrifice to do exactly what you're asking us to do. Yeah, and all I'm saying is this here.

If Jay-Z says to all the rappers, we ain't going to the Grammys. We are not going to the Grammys next year until the rap album of the year is a part of the live telecast and let's see Them say no and then we turn it and say and if you are our allies Other artists you stand with us and you know what you do

You throw an event somewhere else and you don't turn the damn TVs on. You have something else going on, but this is the only way. Otherwise, the Grammys, they're going to keep doing it. They're going to sit here and say, yeah, we ain't going to put y'all on. Y'all going to show up anyway. Y'all going to show up and be happy in the pre-show and we're going to do all the other awards. They could have easily, listen, the in memoriam was long as all get out. They could have cut one of the, all I'm saying is we, there's a certain point when you allow

people to disrespect you because you don't use your power to say, not anymore. It ain't going to happen again. So Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, y'all make it clear. Whoever they want to give the award to next year, you make it clear. We ain't showing up unless y'all make the rap album of the year a part of the broadcast. I guarantee you it's going to cause some folk to say, we better do it or we're going to lose the star power. And their ratings were up this year. You pull a star power, ratings go down.

When ratings go down, they lose money. And we know in America, when they lose money stuff changes there Julian I'm a Congo had to go I appreciate y'all being on a part of today's show folks listen we gonna speak this truth regardless we ain't asking for permission the reason we were able to speak as freely as because, frankly, I own it. I keep telling y'all, the only person who can counsel me is God. We don't seek permission. We don't run our subjects by anybody. Nobody.

Nobody. The power of black-owned media, as Dr. King said, is to maintain its militancy in standing up for black people. What we have to do is use our power and not be afraid and not back down and speak an uncompromising and unfiltered word every single day. That's what she did. I ought to be Wells Barnett. That's what Mr. B did. That's what James Baldwin did.

We got to have the same courage that they did in order to change this system. Support us in what we do, y'all. I can't tell you enough. I got meetings tomorrow with ad agencies. I got meetings on Wednesday. I got meetings on Thursday. They ain't giving us a dime so far. And we still fighting this battle.

And we still standing. And we still here because your contributions have made it possible. My goal is simple. If 20,000 of our fans give $50 over the course of any, y'all, that's $4. If the average person gives $50, now, if you can afford to give more, that would be absolutely great. I appreciate two people who sent me a cash app over the weekend for $1,000.

I was in Indianapolis. I got to find the video. I think I shot it. A weekend for $1,000. I was in Indianapolis. I got to find the video. I think I shot it. A brother put $1,000 cash in my hand. He said, I ain't trusting anything else. So I appreciate that. And I appreciate the person who sent $1 and $5 and $10. But I'm telling y'all, if 20,000 of our fans give $50 each, it's a million dollars.

It absolutely makes it possible for us to keep doing what we're doing. And we gonna keep swinging for this show and Faraji Muhammad's show and Wealthy You and Balanced Living and The Pivot and The Frequency and The Black Table. We wanna add more shows, but that cannot happen if we don't have the resources.

Senior Check and checking money order the p.o box 57196 washington dc 20037-0196 cash app dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal r martin unfiltered vimos rm unfiltered zale roland at roland s martin.com roland at roland martin unfiltered.com uh and of course, you can get my book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. Available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version on Audible. Folks, that's it.

I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! A real revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. 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? I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the 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 iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. 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

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