#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Haiti Humanitarian Crisis, Fla School Board Racism, Jam Master Jay Conviction Overturned

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

12.22.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Haiti Humanitarian Crisis, Fla School Board Racism, Jam Master Jay Conviction Overturned In Haiti a full-blown humanitarian emergency. A generation of children without schools, without food, and surrounded by gang violence. Miami Herald Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles joins us with a sobering look at what's unfolding right now. A Florida school board member is under fire after being caught on video saying 80% of Black people he's met are "nasty, rude, and problematic." Now the Clay County School Board is scrambling, and calls for his removal are growing louder. In a stunning legal twist, A judge has overturned Karl Jordan Jr.'s conviction in the 2002 murder of hip-hop icon Jam Master Jay, calling the prosecution's motive theory too weak to stand. And in our Fit. Live. Win. segment-- We're talking about the heavy load girls are carrying: A Licensed professional counselor will discuss empowering Black girls through faith, therapy, and community, including her powerful "Our Girls" initiative. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. 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 I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bejohn Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure. I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down.

It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bejohn, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmind playbook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the ad console. The social media trend is slanding some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired

and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media. You can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards

Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Is my mic okay? Mike is good and open. Okay. Thank you. This is your chance to own a piece of the creator economy. And with StartEngin,

investing in fan base couldn't be easier. Just visit startengine.com slash fanbase and click Get Equity. Opportunities like this don't stay open long, but your investment can help build a platform that pushes the future of social media forward. Folks, Black Star Network is I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America rolling. All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, this is between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black on media and be Skate. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Welcome.

It's Monday, December 22nd, 2025. I'm Brittany Noble, filling in for Rowan Martin. Here's what's coming up on Rowland Martin, unfiltered streaming live on a Black Star network. In Haiti, a full-blown humanitarian emergency, a generation of children without schools, without food, and surrounded by gang violence. Miami-Herald Caribbean correspondent, Jacqueline Carl,

joins us with a sobering look at what's unfolding right now. Also, a Florida school board member is under fire. After being caught on video saying 80% of black people he's met are nasty, rude, and problematic. Now the Clay County School Board is scrambling and calls for his removal are growing louder. Also today, in a stunning legal twist, a judge has overturned Carl Jordan's Jr.'s conviction in the 2002 murder of hip hop shammaster J calling the prosecution's move theory two weeks to stand. And in our Fit Live, wind segment, we're talking about the heavy load girls are caring. A licensed professional counselor will discuss empowering black girls to faith, therapy, and community,

including her powerful Our Girls initiative. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Well, tonight, Haiti is in free fall. Gangs controlling 90% of Porto Prince, a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding and an entire generation of kids caught in the crossfire with no schools, no food, no future. Congress just passed tough new sanctions targeting Haitian gangs awaiting Donald Trump's signature to hit back. Joining us to unpack this crisis is Jacqueline Charles, the Miami Herald's Caribbean correspondent. And she joins us now to tell us about the reporting that she's seen. Good evening. Well, listen, some of the questions that we have for Ms. Charles, we were wondering about Katie and how it reached

this level of collapse. And we hope that she'll be on here in just a moment to explain this. We will go to a break since we're having a bit of a problem right here. And we'll be back right here on Roland Unfiltered. Are you ready for the holidays? This week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking about all things, anxiety, and the holidays, whether it's performance anxiety, presence versus presents,

making certain that everybody in your space understands the boundaries and how to respect your home. This week, we're talking about those things that will allow you to have a peaceful holiday season. It really is not about perfection. It's really about, you know, the house feeling warm and cozy and peaceful. You don't have to like everybody, but what you can do is be cordial in those environments. That's all this week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie here on Black Star Network.

They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat. So they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws, polling place shutdowns, purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it, they joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes, and political power. Yeah, that happened. These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app.

Support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issue. and the issues that matter to our community. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities

from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself.

And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. We'll joining us to unpack. I still can't hear. We have our panel with us that will join us, and we also have the Miami.

I still cannot hear. Correspondents that will be logging in. Can you guys hear me now? I still cannot hear. Well, it sounds like we may be able to hear you, Ms. Charles. Well, nevertheless, we will be talking about how Haiti reached this level of collapse with us today. We have Dr. Omeco, Congo, a professional lecturer, School of International Service. We also have Dr. Avis Jones DeWeaver, author of How Exceptional Black Women Lead.

We also have with us A. Scott Bolden, an attorney for News Nation and political contributor. Thank you for working with us and rolling through the punches, everyone, but what we are not going to stop doing is telling stories that matter. Can you tell us about your feelings about what's happening in Haiti right now? An absolute human tragedy. And here is, to me, the really sad part of the situation. I believe this to be a man-made tragedy. If we look at the long history of Haiti that has undergone many interventions from other countries, including this. this country, to destabilize the country.

If you look at the history of the nation and the degree of which it has been forced for centuries to give money to its oppressor in terms of France as a way to continue to pay for its liberation, its own liberation. All of those things have left Haiti for now years in a very disrupted and very unstable space. And unfortunately, what we're seeing right now, now is just the latest version of that instability.

It is a sad, sad situation for Haiti, and it's a sad way of seeing the impacts of what the world has done to Haiti once again unfold violently on the home front for that country. Talk to us in detail. What more have you seen? I cannot hear the host. Oh, no. I heard the comments that were just made,

but I cannot hear the holes for some reason. I don't know. You guys, can you communicate with her to tell us a little bit more about the reporting? What's happening? Well, if you can hear me, I think the reality is that Haiti has always been on the short end of the stick

as an African American country in the Western Hemisphere very close to the United States. I agree with Avis, this is a man-made tragedy, but I've never understood how we won't, fixed Haiti, right, compared to our other Caribbean countries. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to.

I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at Soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z ears in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired.

I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have. The press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media,

but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is,

you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. There's a lot of despair. There's political strife. There's violence and what have you. This new joint force of several countries and the gang suppression unit seems like a great concept.

But just stopping the violence, right, of the gangs isn't enough. You've got to dismantle them. As a former prosecutor, having dismantled several gangs in New York City 20 years ago, we certainly it can be done, but you've got the one dismantle them or empower them to conform to a political situation where they can be active participants. I'm not talking about letting them off the hook for the violence, but this violence has always been connected to politics at Haiti. And so once you dismantled them, right, how do you put a government in place with the bylaws and constitution that work for everyone, a democracy? And then how do you enforce it? in a country that historically has had trouble managing its own democracy.

That's the real challenge for the UN. That's the real challenge for the U.S. If we can be intentional about it, I think we can ultimately solve those issues, but it takes time, money, resources, and intentionality. If you don't have those four things, Haiti, unfortunately, will continue to flounder. Can I just step in here for a minute? The reality is that in Haiti, the population, is not interested in negotiating with the gangs or bringing them into a political process.

You know, the transitional presidential council that is in power was just forced to publish an electoral law that has a built-in amnesty today that if you have not been convicted in a Haitian courtroom in a country where you have people in jail longer than the crime, the sentence on the crime, then you can go and you can run. People forgot how this current crisis, how Haiti ended up in this current crisis. It ended up because people were criminal records who had never been convicted,

but they had criminal record, criminal histories. They were allowed to run for office. And then there was also an election that put the country in here. So today, what you have a situation where you have, you know, as you've seen in this story, where you have women and girls,

this young as, you know, seven years old that are being raped. And when I talk about rape, I mean, gang rape, multiple people raping them at once, destroying their lives. And so the population is just not interest in how do you bring the gangs

into a political process, which I will tell you at this very moment, that is what these armed groups are attempting to do. They are attempting to find a way to have people come into a political process so that you can get some sort of amnesty. But how long does amnesty last?

And what guarantees that you have that you will not continue with this cycle. Today, one in four individuals in Porter Prince lives in a gang control neighborhood. 90% of this capital is under gang control. And yet these women and girls that I've written about, that is just a small fraction of the people who are being victimized by this violence,

they're not even viewed by the population as victims. They're viewed as complicit. Like, why are you living in a gang control community as if they had a choice? Well, my point wasn't to bring the men's of the political process, it was looking at a political reality where the gangs have unified under one name, one, they're seeking political access and political participation. But my first point and my only point is they need to be dismantled. The violence has to stop, but the organization

itself has to be dismantled. Now, individually, if they want to run for office, if they've never been convicted, so be it. But when you're looking for a peace process, everything is subject to negotiation. And because the violence and the gangs have been so rampant, and now they've unified, and they want some type of political assembly, part of the negotiation has got to be what you do with them, how you dismantle them, and what do you negotiate with them? You're not going to negotiate with violence. You're not going to negotiate with gangs who have marine terror on those communities. But you're going to have to find some medium whereby you have political stability. You have gangs that are no longer violent. You've got to dismantle them,

right? And then with intentionality, you've got to maintain democracy, and there's got to be a stick or something that is going to give everyone in Haiti incentive, right? Not only for peace, but building a strong democracy. That's really my only point. So can I get in on some of this? I'm hoping, you know, I had some tech issues, so sorry if I missed some points that were made earlier. But we also have to be mindful of the fact that the United States is not interested in Haiti being a democracy. United States has been intervening in Haiti on many levels. And even as relates to the Western world itself, I mean, Haiti is suffering for being the first black, you know, independent republic in the Western in general, but in the Western Hemisphere, specifically getting its independence in 1804. France, you know, had them owe debt to them because of all the enslaved individuals that they lost, which they paid off in 1947.

But France has still been punishing them as well as the World Bank and other organizations. Frankly, if we move up to the present, as relates to the gangs there, has anyone been asking the question where the gangs are getting the arms from? They're getting their guns from the United States, which is also the case in Mexico, which the gun industry in the United States is destabilizing Mexico as well as destabilizing Haiti. So the United States has never had an interest in Haiti being free and being democratic. It's been intervening on the wrong side of history for decades. And the gun lobby and the gun industry right now is fueling the gangs in Haiti. They're not making guns in Haiti. So if the United States was really interested in helping Haiti have peace, let's start with making sure that more guns aren't getting onto those streets.

Now, Jackie is doing some of this reporting. Jackie, can you tell us about what you have seen or what you have found in the recording? Miami Herald? Yes. As I mentioned before, you know, one in four individuals live in a gang control neighborhood. For this particular project, Haiti's Lost Generation, you know, the title, it speaks to the fact that 30 to 50% of the gang membership are youth or children, you know, some as young as eight years old with AK-47s, okay? What are you offering them today to not pick up that gun, to not light a match to some of them? business. Nothing is being offered to them. It speaks to the fact that there were more than 7,400

reported cases of gender-based violence, the majority of which are rapes. And we're talking about young girls and women, and that when these gangs are going into these neighborhoods and these territorial disputes, they've now using rape as a weapon of war. They will say, well, we don't rape our own, but they, but, but they rape, you know, those in the other, in the other territory. You have a situation where, um, the gangs have burned down, um, hospitals. So the majority of people can't even get to, um, a doctor or a hospital within 72 hours. Um, the, the main story, you know, it's a young girl, 14 years old coming home from school in her school uniform. And she is in her house, six bedroom house. Her family is, you know, they're managing,

She and her father were forced to watch her stepmother be gang raped in front of them. Then her father was gunned down in front of her. Then she was taken, sequestered for five days with five other young women in the same age group, tied to a chair, repeatedly raped every single day. Okay? There was a rumor that there was a police raid. That morning, the gangs, it was like eight gunmen. They raped them. They left one guy behind.

and for whatever reason, I mean, God was working that day, and he decided to free them. She had not eaten. She had not drank anything. She took off. She fell face down in the field in the middle of nowhere. A good Samaritan found her. Thank God, he decided not to take advantage of her. He put her in his car.

He drove her to the police protection brigade that on this particular day actually existed in work. They were patient with her for a week. She finally managed to tell them a little bit about what happened to her. They got her into one of the first. few raped shelters that actually had beds. And then this particular day had a bed available because they told me that they are repeatedly having to turn people away because they just have no space. The gang took over the neighborhood where they were at. They had 190 places. They had to move to a

much smaller place. And this girl was able to get some therapy. When she was telling me her story, I literally was in tears and I had to stop. And I said, how come you're not on the ground? And she says, well, you know, they've given me therapy, they've given me counseling, and they've told me that every time I'm thinking that this is the end of the world, that it's not, that there is hope. And the reason why they were able to give her that counseling is they borrowed counselors from doctors without borders. So, you know, this young lady was lucky despite all that happened to her. She didn't end up with a sexually transmitted disease and she didn't end up pregnant.

And if I thought that story was bad, then the next woman, every woman that I met, every girl that I sat with, the stories were just awful. So, you know, the reality is, is that today there is a gang suppression force that is supposedly on his way. We've got a number of African countries that have offered to deploy. They've made their numbers. They were looking for 5,000. They're going to get 7,800. They're still not the money there. But, you know, the idea is we're just going to kill gang members. Well, most of those gang members are kids. You know, so you've got to deal with the root causes and you have to deal with the fallout. And maybe the most tragic thing in this reporting is the lack of outrage.

The outrage is outside of Haiti, but inside there's no outrage. You know, one of the things that I'm really trying to understand better, is there evidence that gangs are being funded or supplied from outside of Haiti? It's not a question about the gangs are being funded outside or inside Haiti. The reality is that today, these gangs are guns for hire. You know, two weeks ago, there was an internal gang fight where they turned on each other, and there were dozens of gang members that were killed, and then they said, oh, you know,

it's because one of our members wanted to do kidnappings and we're not into kidnappings. As I'm speaking to you right now, there are U.S. citizens that are being held for ransom. When these gangs kidnap, and that is a way to funnel money to them, people, especially Haitian Americans in the diaspora, are having to go into their nestsics,

their full one case, take second mortgages, borrow money, they're never going to be able to pay back because they're asking for tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the gangs themselves, you know, they are making millions of U.S. dollars a month off the extortion rackets that they're charging for containers. This is a country where 80% of the food is imported out of the United States.

So imagine when a semi has to go into the port to go and to pick up that stuff, whether it's fuel or food, they have to pay. So even though the gangs have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by this administration and Trump administration, they're still pulling in millions of millions of dollars. And by the way, if you pay that kidnapping ransom, there is no guarantee that you are not going to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. So that is also having people being very worried, even the NGOs that are there that are, you know, trying to help. They're very, reluctant now because you've got to get access. How do I get into roads when the gangs control the

road? They're charging, you know, they're charging tolls. And as, you know, as another speaker said in terms of the arms, yes, the arms are coming from the United States majority. And that's not just Haiti is in the Caribbean. More than 50% of the cases that are under investigation of illegal trafficking or guns that are coming out of the United States. And a lot of it from Florida, where I currently am. But yes, we have not done anything in terms of the gun laws or to step up. The only way that they will do investigation, is if they get a tip and says, oh, we have a tip that there's a container that's going in, and they will do that. So you're leaving it, you know, on the receiving country, but when you have a country where institutions have collapsed, you know, I don't know if your, you know, your audience understands this, but, you know, we are four years,

more than four years out since the assassination of a president. We will be a decade next year since there were general elections in this country. Today, there is not one elected person in charge. That is no mayor, no city council person. no president, no parliament, none of it exists. None of these people there have been, you know, that have been elected. So how do you address this issue when, you know, you don't have a person that has sort of the mandate from the population? And unfortunately, as well, you know, 30 plus years post-dictatorship, a lot of Haitians don't believe in democracy.

You know, my heart goes out to Haiti right now, especially the children. When you talk to us about the impact that this is having on the children, their education, their education. You know, the only thing that Haitians still believe in is an education. And unfortunately, a poor person that lives on less than $2 a day, they're spending 90% of their income on schools, schools that are often really crappy schools. The last entry into this series is a family. The young girl is 16 years old.

She wanted to be a nurse. She's raped one day. They are trapped by the violence for three months, her stomach is growing home. mom can't get her to the hospital, can't get her anywhere. So by the time, the mother's able to escape this gang control neighborhood, only to end up in another gang control neighborhood, everybody's beaten down. The girl is suicidal. She's forced to give birth to this child.

She has what's nothing to do with this kid. When I was interviewing her, the boy is one years old. He's running up and down in her room. He goes to the grandmother. He goes to the aunt, but he knows not to go anywhere near his birth mother because everybody knows that, you know, there's no connection. And she told me that every time she looks at this child, she remembers what they did what they did to her. But her mother has decided to take this child under her wing and she is caring for him like he is her son at the expense of her own marriage.

Her husband has said to her, if I die, this will be the death of me. So all of this pressure that's there. And all I kept thinking about, oh, my God, I hope nothing happens to this woman because if something happens to her, this kid is going to be on his own. And I asked her about in the end, why did she decide to take this child who was a product of a rape and to raise him as her son despite the fact that her own daughter rejects him? And she says, so he doesn't become a bandit tomorrow. And she makes $114 a day, a month from a volunteer job that Jess Kew has given her just so they can have something. It doesn't even cover her bus fare, right? but with that little bit of money she is also paying for him to go to preschool he's two years old

but she's got him in preschool because she still believes in the value of an education and what it means so when you look at the children you know you look at this and you're looking at a lost generation but at the same time there is this desperation this hunger for for hope a reason to hope to build their lives to contrary to what people think or believe every hate that you're just to think is not trying to get on a boat and come to the United States. They want to live in their country. They want to be able to survive. They're not lasting to be rich.

They just want to have peace. But it's difficult, you know. But even in this, 40% of the schools in this country are in Port of Prince in the West region where 90% of it is under gang control. But yet you will see kids in nicely pressed uniforms, you know, walking, stepping over mud, because they're going to school. On the days that they can still go to school, that the gangs haven't taken over their schools are threatening them.

They are going to school. Well, the more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at

Soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it.

And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have The press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet,

criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. They are certainly pushing through what happens next. Sorry, can you repeat? That's okay. What happens next? When does the election take place? I think what needs to happen next is, you know, the European Union has really been pushing for, in the discussions that the U.S. has been leading about this gang suppression force to have, to recognize gender-based violence, you know, the administration. you know there's these certain words they don't want to you don't want to deal with but but we have to start to deal with that we have to acknowledge that that that gangs are using rape as a weapon of war we have to deal with the fact that we have women that are broken but but they are willing to to

to reclaim their their their lives and we and we have to start to figure out you know how do we address it let me just tell you in september you know i was with tom fletcher the u.n humanitarian person and one point we went into a camp with over five thousand people. This is the guy who's gone to Gaza. He's gone to all of these war-torn areas. And I looked up and his eyes were just glassy. And I remember writing the story and I couldn't explain why this man was like a verge of tears. And the reality is that when you go to Gaza, you go to these other places, you know the situation exists because it's a war. It's a real war. But when you're in Haiti, you're seeing unfolding in front of you and realizing that this

is this man-made crisis, you know, it's heartbreaking. And on our last day, we set down with five women who are all survivors of rape. And the last one, at 12 years old, she was orphaned. At 15 years old, she was a victim of multiple gunshot wounds. You could see the scars on her leg. And at 19, which is the age that she currently is, she's a rape survivor. The places she's living in, the people can't survive. They can't afford the rent anymore, so they now have to move to a suburb,

car food. It's completely under gang control, completely. There's not one police officer. the state is completely absent. And she says, you know, they say that sometimes when a child is born, that it's a mistake. And sometimes I wonder if I was a mistake. And today, I worry that I'm either going to be killed by the gangs or I'm going to be killed by the drones that the government is using to flush out the gangs. And yet, somebody looks at this woman.

And while all of us in that room were on a verge of tea, we were crying. We were not even on a verge. We were crying. We were heartbroken. her neighbors, the people in her society, they look at her and they don't see a victim. They see it's like somebody that's complicit. So for me, what's next is we have to talk about this. Like Haitians have to put this on the table.

And yeah, you have to eventually find a way to peace, but you have to confront the reality and say, how did we get here? And now how do we start to get out of here? And for those viewers who are watching tonight, they feel overwhelmed and they want to help, but they don't know how to help. What should they know? What can they do that can make a difference? The people watching right now?

So, first of all, I would say that people definitely should inform themselves. I'm always amazed even in terms of Haitian Americans and Haitians in a diaspora who think they know what's going on in the country and that doesn't necessarily do. I think we need to be much more open-minded. with this particular series, Haiti's Lost Generation, which is www.mimmyherald.com backslash lost generation or backslash Haiti. We have a Haiti channel.

We list in every one of those stories, some of the organizations, but they are by no means, the universe, but it is still a very small universe of human rights group, women's-led organizations that are trying to reach and do what they can. So if you are compelled to want to fund and provide some assistance, whether whatever it is, there's a list there. Or if you find an organization, it's on your own and you check them out and you see that they are doing, you know, work that you want to support. And at the same time, I will say to people that you need to lobby, you know, whether you're Republican, Democrat, independent, you need to lobby your lawmakers that, you know, Haiti is less than two hours from the shores of the United States.

The gangs, you know, this crisis threatens the whole region. And if it starts to spill over, what do you do? And when people are desperate, when they are desperate, they do desperate things. You know, I've been covering Haiti for over 20 years. And every time I have to do a story about a tragedy at sea, and then I go back to the town where the people have left and I talk to survivors. And I said, but why did you take this chance? Why did you risk your life?

And I say, you know what? I'm already walking dead. So what? I got on a boat and if I drowned, I'm dead already. So I might as well die trying. Jesus. Any final words? You know, for us to the Miami Herald Heddy's just, it's not a, it's not a foreign story. It's a local story.

I think people forget that, that these are real people. These are real lives. And if you're black, it's just a question of where the boat dropped off. you know, any one of us could be in a situation. But this is a country that was rich, you know. I mean, it was France's richest colony. And it continues to be, you know, rich in culture and rich in what it gives. And, you know, one day you're under dictatorship, but the next day they told you

have a democracy, but nobody sort of told you what that means and what the power of your vote is. but you know despite all the negatives and the dark and there is still hope people are still hopeful because what do you do in the Haitian culture you know it's like if you can't hope anymore you might as well die and people are struggling to live and they do live they just want a chance to breathe so I would just say to your listeners educate yourself if you've got somebody that you know in the situation in the power of influence you know educate them and just plead on behalf of your brothers and sisters that you've never met that you don't know, but this is a country that opened its doors to African American years ago.

And, you know, it led this, you know, revolution. And this revolution, you know, had an impact for all of us. Well, Jacqueline, Charles, we want to thank you for educating us. Thank you for the reporting that you're doing. Thank you for bringing it to us and telling us more about it. This is Roland Martin unfiltered. on the Black Star Network. And we'll be right back after the break.

Stay with us. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning. And the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt. And they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse,

what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise. raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion and we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights

crisis and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the fight. final say and they don't ultimately win. This is your chance to own a piece of the creator economy. And with StartEngin, investing in fanbase couldn't be easier. Just visit startengine.com slash fanbase and click get equity. Opportunities like this don't stay open long, but your investment can help build a platform that pushes the future of social media forward.

What's up everybody? It's got to be the funniest dude on the planet. And you're watching. Roland Unfilter. Welcome back. The federal judge has ordered Mississippi to hold special elections. It's Supreme Court, after ruling that the state's current man for electing justices legally weakens black voting power under the Voting Rights Act. The judge found that the map been placed since 1987 slices up the heavily black delta region in ways that dilute black voters influence,

helping ensure that in a state that's nearly 40% black, there has never been more than one black justice on the 9th. member court at any time. Only four black justices have ever served, all from the same central district seat first gained by appointment. Lawmakers now have until the end of the 2026 legislative session to draw a new map, after which the judge says she will move quickly to set up special Supreme Court elections for November of 2026 if needed. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State is appealing the ruling and higher courts are considering broader challenges to section two, the Voting Rights Act. Let's bring our panel back in on this one so that they can weigh in about the judge ordering special elections in Mississippi. Well, I guess we could say that,

you know, it's good that they got this ruling to go in their favor. Clearly, I mean, this is Mississippi. Honestly, there's nobody on this planet who should be surprised about that. probably the surprising thing is they did get this affirmative ruling. But what's concerning and what will most likely happen, obviously, you said that there is an appeal in tow, and we know what the ultimate decision maker would be if this were to make its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. We have a stacked Supreme Court that is already on the verge of completely gutting the Voting Rights Act in the first place.

And so, though this is a victory for this. today I'm concerned about the ultimate decisions that we will ultimately face in Mississippi, but also what the ultimate fate of the Voting Rights Act will be once the Supreme Court gets finished with it. Mr. Bolton. Yeah, you know, the real story here isn't necessarily Mississippi and this ruling. It's great, and they're going to do it at the federal level in Mississippi, but there's There's a separate Supreme Court case pending that whereby the state has challenged even

the need for Section 2, which is the primary vehicle under the voting rights act that allows individuals and groups to sue for discrimination in drawing up these maps by the state legislatures. That's going to have, we're probably going to get a ruling on that in the spring or summer. And knowing how these cases take time to wind through the system, the Supreme Court is probably going to weigh in. And that conservative majority, there are at least three or four justices who don't believe that Article 2, or rather Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, is even necessary, that we have this colorblind society and that we are a meritocracy, and therefore how states cut up

these jurisdictions or cut up these maps are not subject to almost presumably rebuttable, presuming that they will never be cut up just based on race alone. And so the Supreme Court case is the one to really watch here because it will dictate what happens in Mississippi. And how does the lack of black representation on Mississippi Supreme Court affect the decisions involving the voting rights? Well, the voting right, it may be that, you know, what happened in Mississippi was they cut up a large black district

into two districts believing that that that would empower African American voters in two jurisdictions under the state map versus one. What it wound up doing and what the federal court found was it actually diluted black votes, whereby neither jurisdiction, quite frankly, had a shot of whether they were a majority or not, had a shot of getting greater representation. And while it's presumed that black jurisdictions will vote for black candidates, it's a rebuttable presumption one, but secondly, by diluting the black vote in both of those jurisdictions versus one, it worked in the opposite, at least the federal court found that it worked in the opposite.

There's a fair and impartial way to do this, but both parties cut up these states, these voting districts in a way that would support Democrats, if they're a blue state or if they're a red state to support of red state candidates, if you will. So both sides do. it, but you still, under the law, you've got to do it in a fair and impartial manner. It cannot be based on race or class or sexual orientation or any of the protected classes here. And so these are really tough cases to argue, but they're even tougher to defer and let alone get a proper decision. But again, the Supreme Court is going to weigh on this.

They've gutted Section 5 already, and I promise you, based on everything I've read, they're looking to gut section 2 now. Dr. DeBingham. I find it so interesting. I agree of everything that's been said by the fellow panelists. But I just keep asking myself, like, even with all the redistricting and so on and so forth, with everything that Trump's doing to this economy, to this country, and what these Republicans and MAGA folks are doing, following behind him,

these Republicans shouldn't have a chance in like any election. Like Mississippi, as far as long as I've been alive, I think Mississippi has always been the poorest state in the country. And so every single day, the folks in these states are working against their own interests. And, you know, we saw with a special election in Tennessee where people thought, you know, Afton Bain came in with a few points and got a lot of, you know, Republicans shook. And the same types of things need to be happening in Mississippi, regardless of what the Supreme Court is going to do. We know what they're going to do.

But, you know, these Republicans, these MAGA, these folks in these poor states, these Louisiana's and, like, They continue to live out Lyndon B. Johnson's quotation that Dr. Joe Madison used to always remind us up. You can convince the poorest white man that he's better than the best colored man. He won't realize you're picking his pocket. Give him someone to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you. And they continue to do that. And it's just, it's not surprising anymore. It's kind of just depressing. It is depressing, especially when you look at the Mississippi Delta. This is a very poor area. What does it say about Mississippi's democracy that America, map that's been in place since 1987 is just now being considered illegal.

It says what we've always known about a Mississippi. And actually, I'm not surprised that they vote the way they do. I mean, they may not get, you know, economic payoffs for their votes, but they understand that there is a value to whiteness and to this lie of supremacy that they like to dilute themselves with. And so, you know, Mississippi has a very long and ugly and bloody history. So none of us should be surprised that this map was the way it was for so long. The only thing that would surprise me is if this current ruling stands, that would surprise me.

But other than that, it's not surprising. This is what Mississippi has always been. This is, unfortunately, the culture of that state, which is to grasp whole. Toll to racism as strong and hard as possible, no matter how bereft economically and educationally. And I mean, just about any measure that you can imagine, Mississippi actually is on the bottom list. I'm not being hyperbolic here. I'm talking statistically speaking. They really are at the bottom of the list when you...

The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal.

The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z is in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate.

You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity

and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Now through February 22nd.

See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Ranked states on a variety of different measures. And so they would rather be last and still hold on to the illusion of white supremacy

rather than doing what needs to be done in order to lift the entire state up, which it will not do until it lets go of that lie. We have so much more in store for you coming up on the Black Star Network. Many stories that we're going to get to right after this break on the Black Star Network. Coming up on the next Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. Fridge on his new book, Born in Blackness, covering 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today

is a gift from black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa. That's on the next black table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning.

For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization. a human rights crisis and a crisis of democracy itself.

And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. I'm Risa Colbert and you're watching the Black Star Network. Welcome back. Calls for resignations for Clay County Florida School Board member. After calling 80% of his experience,

of his experiences with black people negative during a Facebook live friend. I have had 80% more negative experience with the African-American community in this country than with white people. That being said, doesn't mean I haven't had good experiences with African-American people. I have made a lot of great African-American people, and I still friends with them because, they're good, decent people, but that's the 20% of the people I have met, the African Americans. The other 80% they're being nasty, they're being rude, they're being problematic,

you know, always trying to fight, always disrespecting. So why would I want to be around people like that? No. So I understand where Nick Swente is coming from. Also about when Nick Fuentes says that everybody has a little bit of racism on them. I agree. I am Cuban. And sometimes I feel I am racist against my own people. Because we have our own personality, our own culture that a lot of other people don't like. I learn how to be an American.

So right now, I'm not even similar to my own race. So that's why sometimes I don't like to be around them. Robert Overeaux elected in 2024 to represent a district that's about 25% black, has since deleted the video and issue the written apologies saying his comments were wrong and offensive and do not reflect his values. A fellow board member, Aaron Skipper, has urged him to consider resigning. The board says that they will formally address the controversy at its January 8th meeting, but we're going to address it a little bit right here.

What are y'all thoughts? If he's here on January 8th, some of his neighbors might make some phone calls. That's all I'm saying. I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, let me say this. Whenever, whenever racist apologize, they come back and say, well, that doesn't reflect the values of really who I am. Well, I just listen to your values. I just listen to you in very pragmatic, practical,

terms, explain away why you hate 80% of black people, but 20% of good people. I thought he was going to also say, some of my best friends are black, but it's in that 20%, you know. And racism, you know, he demonstrates his ignorance, too, because to be a racist, you have to be in power and to control and to define and to discriminate. And black people have never been empowered in this country to discriminate or to be racist against any other group, if you will. Now, I don't like, I'm not saying black people are victims of racism,

but we've certainly been subject to years of racism, starting with slavery and all the other periods of time where we have been oppressed and have fought and survived and not only survived but succeeded. So how do you explain away your racist comments? Because you say we all got a little bit of racism in them. I don't have any racism in me. I don't hate people because of the color of the skin.

I may hate them for how they treat me in my community. That's not racism, quite frankly. That's not a personality. That's just I don't like being oppressed. I don't like racial violence. I don't like being called the N-word. I don't like driving while black or selling lemonade by black. I got real good reasons not to like a person who's been racially offensive to me.

but I don't hate white people because they're white. And I'll be honest with you, black people in this country have always wanted to succeed and survive and be left alone and to work within the system. If there are any group of people in this country who need to be mad and white Americans for what they've done to us as a group, is black people. And be honest with you, we're angry.

Don't get me wrong, but that anger and that that, that angst, if you will, is all rooted in just wanting to matriculate in this democracy free and have every benefit of this democracy, every benefit of the Constitution, like anyone else in this country. That's it. I think that makes black people unique, because if anyone was going to be angry and want to fight and be violent against a group of people who have oppressed them, it would be the African American community. and that's just not where we are emotionally or personality-wise. Dr. Dabinga, one in four students in this school district are black.

What message did the comments send to the students and their families? Well, I mean, unfortunately, as somebody who does a lot of work in schools across the country, it sends a message that many of them of our black students we see daily. You are not wanted. As much as we may smile in your face or may give you high-fives and the like. Like, the students can feel when they're not appreciated. And so I'm sure that black people who've come in contact with him are probably not surprised by what he said at all. And it's just really disrespectful.

And our students deserve better. And, you know, when it comes to this racism thing, I mean, many black people have demonstrated their ability, you know, to be racist towards us. I mean, you got people like Scott Turner over at HUD and look at Clarence Thomas and what he's doing as it relates to, you know, racist policies towards black people from the bench. I feel like at the end of the day, it's very sad when we see, you know, a lot of these non-white. folks who are pointing fingers at everybody else but the white people who are in charge, but not pointing their fingers at the ICE agents and Customs Border Patrol. He's more likely to experience violence at the hands of them than he will any black people. You see people who are, spitting on Amazon drivers who happen to be Latino, but they have no problem with what Amazon

is doing in terms of taking over their entire data system. They're mad at the Latino folks who are working in the Home Depot parking lot, but not mad at at Home Depot and their ownership for allowing ICE to use their parking lots to arrest folks. So one of the reasons Donald Trump is able to be successful is because he's successful at pitting groups against each other. And you got this Cuban brother here who's not even knowledgeable at the fact that he's mad against people. He should be in the same struggle and the same fight with.

But that's how racism works. That's how proximity and adjacency to white supremacy works as well. And I don't know if he's angling for a gig at Fox or some other place, things they'll embrace him. but he's about to find out real soon like Vivek Ramos Swami and J.D. Vance's wife that they don't want him either. Yeah, but he definitely is someone. You mentioned proximity to whiteness, though. I mean, he himself said he doesn't even like other Cuban people who want to celebrate their own Cuban culture. So he's one of these people that wants to meld and just kind of transform into whiteness. And he thinks and he aspires. honestly, I would argue, he aspires to be white and be perceived as white. But you're exactly right. I mean, this, this administration has given a lot of people like him a wake-up call, including Cubans,

who were thinking that they would get a pass because of this nation's history of coddling Cubans, ironically, in comparison to what we have done historically and continue to do to Haitians. Okay? So a completely different treatment by this country. Yeah, but he thought that he would come here and have that reality play out forever. This particular administration is showing Cubans, is showing Venezuelans, is showing all of these. Let's just be clear, white-skinned Hispanic people who have come here thinking that they could just easily meld into whiteness. It has shown even those folk that, wait a minute, know you not, okay? in this country, you are not considered white.

And in fact, even beyond that, we're going to round you up, like we're going to round up everybody else, that we don't want here in order to create this white apartheid-like system that we're trying to create in order to keep this country majority white in the sense that we define it in this nation. That is what he will soon find out. or people in his family will soon find out. And definitely, in terms of what he's doing on this,

in terms of this board, we know what's happened, for example, with Department of Education's Civil Rights Division. It is basically defunct. You know, they have done absolutely nothing to address any of the things that have been brought to their attention under this administration of discriminatory actions in educational institutions.

So you have toxic people like that that are getting away with being discriminatory and vow towards students of color and specifically black children all across this country, he needs to be gone yesterday. Yeah, but Avis, let me say this. We haven't talked about ignorance, right? You know, the highest levels of ignorance

is in this video that you're elected official, you sit on the board. Why are you even making a video like this? What point are you making? We don't need to know how you feel about black people, or Cubans or white people or the 80% of what makes him think that people care what he thinks. And not only are you doing not care, but everybody ain't got to know what you think and how you feel. Now, I'm glad he showed his ignorance and his racism.

Don't get me wrong, but you know, the most dangerous people, I don't want to feel that way and say nothing. I mean, you're just ignorant to think that that's a video is okay. And when you apologize, then you say, well, that doesn't reflect my values. Yes, it does. Because you were just as comfortable sharing it because you think people care about what you think. You're giving us a lesson. Are you educating us on why you're not a racist while making it clear that you are racist? It's unbelievable.

And that video is so unnecessary. But he wanted to do it. That's part of ignorance at the highest levels. Indeed it is. Dr. Dabinga, do you believe that a resignation, I guess, should be the expectation now? Oh, absolutely. It should be the expectation. But a lot of these guys, they're just so arrogant and cocky. And there's going to be people who are going to come out. And we all know this as well. He's going to be like, he's right. Yeah, I had this experience. And they don't tip. And all of this other type of stuff, right? And he's going to feel a little bit emboldened by those people are going to come out. And they're saying he's telling it like it is and all of that because we've seen that happen. But absolutely, when you lose. the confidence of the community that you serve, you're supposed to resign. You're supposed to

make room for leadership that claims that they actually care about the community. Like Scott, said, he could have just been quiet and sailed quietly into what he was doing. But now that he's put it out there, now it's the national news story, there's no confidence there. And so he absolutely should be resigning and making room for somebody who actually cares about all of his constituents. Although I will say really quickly, maybe this is three-dimensional chess, because being openly racist in this country is very profitable. The next thing you can do is just set up a go fund me and then all these races will make

him the richest guy in the neighborhood. So who knows, maybe that's the ultimate goal. That's what I was saying. Maybe he's angling. You know, Fox and Matt, you know, all of these. You never know. It's a lucrative industry now. Absolutely. Well, this is a case that I... I make my money some other way then.

Y'all not going to see. Hey, Scott went to the other side. He was on the other side. Did you hear about it? Did you read about Scott left? No, no, no, no, no. It's not the last time we'll talk about this story here on Roland Unfilter. This is a case that we will continue to keep our eyes on.

And we have many other stories for you tonight on Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back after the break. Welcome to the other side of change only on the Black Star Network. and hosted by myself, Brea Baker, and my good sister, Jamira Burley. We are just two millennial women tackling everything at the intersection of politics, gender, and pop culture. And we don't just settle for commentary. This is about solution-driven dialogue to get us to the world as it could be and not just

as it is. Watch us on the Black Star Network, so tune in to the other side of change. Supremacy is, quote, the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland. The greatest terrorist threat to the homeland is the homegrown violence. including hate crime committed on behalf of some kind of white supremacist ideology. They are coming after everything in Black America. MAGA and Donald Trump are specifically targeting Black America. They are going after the money.

Attack Black Lives Man, attack critical racism, attack critical races, attack war, DEI. MAGA wants to defund Black America. This is a perfect example of their desire to completely degrade and be emphasized Black. What's up? It's your girl Tamika D. Mallory and you are watching

the Black Star Network. Well, at Turning Point USA's annual conference, J.D. Vance boldly declared to a crowd of white Christian nationalists. In the United States of America,

you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. Take a listen for you. We don't treat anybody different because of their race or their sex. So we have relegated DEI to the dust

been of history, which is exactly where it belongs. In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. And if you're an Asian, you don't have to talk around your skin color when you're applying for college, because we judge people based on who they are, not on ethnicity and things they can't control. We don't persecute you for being male, for being straight, for being gay, for being anything. The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American patriot, and if you're that, you're very much on our team. Well, rapper Nikki Minaj made a surprise appearance and a gathering of conservatives in Arizona. The rap star was interviewed at Turning Point USA's America Fest conventioned by Erica Kirk,

the widow of Charlie Kirk about her newfound support for Trump, despite having slammed him in the past. The utmost respect and admiration for our president. He has, I don't know if he even knows this, but he's given so many people hope that there's a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey bear said to.

First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said, If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service,

your state forester and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue. getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment.

So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective.

Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at iHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app.

Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. With your head held high and your integrity intact. He's from Queens, New York like me. So. But what it's shown me personally is sometimes, you know, even in the worst feeling times in your life, you think that you're never going to come back from it. But you do.

And our president shows that. He's been through every single thing a person could be through publicly. having to constantly be lied on. It's not really that funny. Until you are in that person's shoes that's being lied on, you'll never understand what it feels like. That person is a human being. They have a family who has to read those lies.

And it's just not fair. We want to bring in our panel tonight so that they can weigh in about these speeches that we just heard. Mr. Bolden, how does rhetoric like this move from conference stage to parts of everyday life? Well, we need to go back to the height of ignorance again. Guys, why should I care what Nikki Minaj thinks? I mean, she's wealthy and entertainer, but she's a rap artist. He doesn't understand politics.

But again, the height of ignorance. Because when she talks about Donald Trump, he's been through everything. Yeah. He was charged with 40 felonies, right? He's been found liable for sexual assault. The criminal cases were dismissed because he won, but those were some pretty strong criminal cases.

And he drives that narrative. But the comparative analysis she did It was about, this is really great, Avis, this is great, that he's, that he'd been lied on and how hurtful that is to him and his family. Hmm. You know how you know when Donald Trump is lying when he opened his mouth? Almost 90% every time he opens his mouth, he's lying. And has a history of lying, not paying vendors, bankruptcies,

lying to to stay in office after his first term pardoning those who attack the capital. He called them real patriots. The height of irony or hypocrisy

just flows out of that piece and you saw the interviewer and the audience they were enthralled with it because that's their reality. Something wrong with them. That's their reality. They really believe what she said.

And that's their reality. And if you show them a videotape or you show them a document that talks about his lies and his bad conduct, they won't hear it. It's a wall. Nope, nope, nope, this is it. What's tragic is 50% of the country, maybe up to 50% of the country, really, believe that false rhetoric. And that's really the sad part and the real, you know, the risk of our democracy that is bending right now, but not broken.

Dr. Dabinga, I could hear you laughing. What are you thinking right now? Well, you know, I've been actually talking and posting about this since I saw the clips yesterday and, you know, posted on this today. There are several things. I mean, as relates to Nikki Minaj, her rhetoric is dangerous. And, you know, yeah, she has a rapper, but she's also, you know, an influencer in many ways. and people do find themselves listening to her and being educated by her.

Shout out to Risi Colbert, you know, posted on her page that, you know, she's up there giving Trump all of this praise and didn't say a damn thing about what Trump has been doing to black women in this country, just looking at the unemployment numbers alone. And so she sit there and betrayed, you know, black women. I also find it interesting that as somebody from Trinidad that who condemned Trump for the immigration, the what do you call it, the kids in cages and things, friendly separation from years ago, condemn them for that. Now she's praising them at the same time that her government is working with Trump against Venezuela, which is a lot of people aren't talking about. So is there something else

going on there when you have the highest profile Trinidad in the United States and the country of Trinidad itself, you know, working with the Trump administration? I think there's a there that people don't fully understand. She's also not knowledgeable what's actually happening in Nigeria of Christians and Muslims. And the last thing I will say is as it relates to the first part of what you played. Maga, turning point, they are openly Nazi, they are openly racist, and people just need to accept that. When J.D. Van Cisans says that we're just this, this movement is not throwing anybody out. He's specifically talking about the debate that's happening with Nick Fuentes, who was an avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite, who was on Pierce Morgan just last week,

you know, throwing out the N-word like it was nothing. They embraced everybody now. And And if people fully accept that, turning point as well, that's just where we are today. Ben Shapiro got up there as a Jewish person talking about y'all shouldn't be anti-Semitic, but Ben Shapiro don't care about being racist, anti-trans, and anti-everything else. And so if we accept that at the end of the day, that J.D. Vance, who Turning Point endorsed for 2028? Some people are saying that he wants to leave Usha and marry Erica Kirk so she could be the first lady in 2028. All that is not going on. I don't know about that. But I do know that turning point. and MAGA has made it clear that we do not want black and brown people in this party in any way, shape, or form,

and we are going to openly embrace white supremacy and anti-Semites. That's who they are. We've got to call them out for what they are, and this conference showed it clearly. I mean, J.D. Vance made it very clear. You do not have to apologize for being white anymore. Dr. Weaver, in reality, who's been asking white Americans to apologize? Well, of course, this nation has never. Come on.

When has, I mean, this, I don't even know where to start with that one. No, this nation has never done, they haven't even, this nation has not even apologized for slavery. Let's just start there. Okay? Not even done that. So, of course, that's a ridiculous, once again, racist dog whistle. But I have to get on this Nikki Minaj thing. I'm sorry.

I have to be petty for a second. Okay, so we, we know, we know. Let me just be real. She has a thing for child molesters. She's buried to one. And now she is sitting up here, taking up for another one that's in the White House. And her brother too. And her brother too. You're right.

She has a thing. She apparently thinks that's okay. Also, I also wonder, like you, I'm thinking out what could be her motivations? Like I am, I'm looking at, you know, the fact that she does not have her citizenship locked down. As far as I know, she is not a U.S. citizen. she also has, I'm understanding, some very, very aggressive tax debt. Like, is she engaged in some sort of quid pro quo? Because here's the thing.

We do know that Trump has a history of finding black rappers, okay, to go out there and make arguments to muddy the waters a bit in order to try to get just enough. black support to be able to do something in election time. We're not in midterms yet. But I think with everything that's going on right now, she makes a very good cover for him, given the preponderance of overtly racist things

that this administration is doing, in addition to his specific vice president in terms of his racist rhetoric right there at that very conference. So, you know, what I find that races oftentimes do is they will do very racist things. But at the same time, they will try to claim that it's not racist because they can find someone like a Clarence Thomas, or in this case, like a Nikki Minaj,

to put out there and say, well, look, see, we're not racist. And she's falling into that trap where she's playing that role, either for her own benefit, which very much could be the case, or because being someone who is a felon, being someone who has said that they've gone into dressing rooms where young girls were getting undressed, even before we knew all about the whole Epstein fallout that we still haven't gotten to the bottom of. She has someone who has said that all of that now is okay.

And in addition of that, she is throwing black women under the bus specifically with her statements at that. I mean, she's specific. And presence. Why are you so mean to white women? What the hell is she talking about? What is she talking about? So I have a big problem with Nikki Minaj. And if anybody has been wondering for several years like me,

why she seems to be so venomous. Like if you've looked at a lot of her, you know, Twitter rants and beefs and things that she never had to the artist over the years, she just seems to be an empty, hateful person. And this is just one other example of them, why she probably feel so comfortable in that environment that is full of ugly, hateful people, just like her.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, we have much more coming up on Roland Martin unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Are you ready for the holidays? This week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking about all things anxiety and the holidays, whether it's performance,

anxiety, presence versus presents, making certain that everybody in your space understands the boundaries and how to respect your home. This week, we're talking about those things that will allow you to have a peaceful holiday season. It really is not about perfection. It's really about, you know, the house feeling warm and cozy and peaceful. You don't have to like everybody, but what you can do is be cordial in those environments. That's all this week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie here on Blackstar Network. They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat.

So they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws. Polling place shutdowns. Purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it. They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system.

a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes, and political power. Yeah, that happened. These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app. Support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning and the only thing they can can think about is how many people they can hurt and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity.

We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. Well, CBS News is catching heat tonight after pulling a fully

vetted 60 Minutes investigation about Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Inside the network, the decision has raised serious concerns about corporate censorship. The piece was reported by a correspondent, Sharon Alfonsi, who told colleagues the move wasn't an editorial decision. It was a political one. She emphasized that the story had already been fact-checked and approved by standards and practices and screened five times. At the last minute, the top editor stepped in and objected saying the segment did not include a response

from the Trump administration that effectively killed the story, even though producers had documented, repeated, unanswered questions and requests. They had been reaching out to the White House, DHS, and the State Department. Now, the veteran correspondent says that this wasn't an editorial decision, it was a political one. So the panel is with us tonight and, Mr. Bolden, they're saying the political decision.

What do you think? Well, this has a long sort of history between Trump and CBS. Their merger was just approved with the ability to purchase one of their competitors, one. They settled the lawsuit that he brought against 60 minutes, which was one of the most frivolous lawsuits I've ever seen. And I've been doing litigation on the white collar side and regulatory side for the last 38 years. Most of us looked at that lawsuit and saw was frivolous. And they settled

for multiple millions of dollars, which made absolutely no sense. But it's easy to connect that settlement with the approval of the FCC for that merger. And so what's really dangerous and interesting about how this White House attacks the First Amendment is they've threatened these media companies, including the Washington Post and others, with either lawsuits or they've settled lawsuits and to bring compliance or to compel them to understand that the government's thumb is on the scale here. And so now that this merger, our acquisition has been completed, now you see we're 60 minutes under new ownership, right, under new leadership. Now they are editorializing or putting their thumb on the scale of editorials

in regard to what they're going to print or what they're going to publish against Donald Trump or not. And here, having cleared the lawyers and cleared ethics internally five different times is because 60 Minutes doesn't want to get sued by anybody. But so those stories that are published every Sunday night are vigorously or rigorously detailed. Now, there's some stories out here where you really do need both sides, whereby the White House, in this case.

But those stories, all you do is say, we reached out to the White House to comment on this story and they failed to respond to us. You've done your part, fair and impartial journalism, And that's usually enough. Here, the executive producer seems to be wanting more than that, that you can't publish something without the White House pushback, which makes absolutely no sense.

You can almost, in fact, think about this. You don't really need the White House commentary. The White House has enough documents and lawsuits and public statements that you could run to make it a fair and balanced story. But sending individuals to this, Venezuelans to this hellhole jail, and El Salvador is not defensible. But there's enough where you could make it a balanced story and say what the White House position has been.

And so this borders on the nonsensical that somehow this story cannot run. So this makes sense to me that what you're hearing internally from the writer and the producer seems to make more sense than you just kill a story because you can't get the other side's input. Dr. Weaver, at what point does we didn't get a response,

just become a convenient excuse not to report the story. Yeah, I mean, clearly that's a lie. It's not in terms of it be an excuse for not showing the story. Obviously, just as was just described, they could have still ran the story. It's it's commonplace that you make the general statement that a person was given the chance to respond and they didn't. Okay. What happened here was that this White House has been putting its thumb on the scale of a wide variety of media output.

Then it's now just another one. And specifically, if you look at the scale of what's going on with CBS in terms of its ownership now, it's been really sort of since the very beginning of this new takeover, where they basically gutted out a number of their black talent and employees at CBS. If you look at what they did in terms of that bad awful town hall with your court, you know, this is a, they are absolutely sort of, engling themselves to be the next fox, if you ask me. And so they got the directive from someone high rough.

And who knows how high went if it wasn't someone next to in or adjacent to the White House to say, we don't want you to run it. And they were just like, we're not going to do it then. And, you know, we could be, journalism is under threat in this nation, this administration. True journalism is under threat in this. nation. We are moving over quickly, if not well on the way to being an almost exclusively propaganda state. And this is just one example of that inaction. Dr. Dabinga, let's look at the larger picture here. What is this going to mean for reports in the future? Well, Hitler is known

to have said, or people have reported him as saying, you know, whoever controls the media controls the race. And what we're seeing with CBS is, you know, Barry Weiss, who has no skills or experience in the position that she was given by Ellison, who was a Trump supporter, you know, to run CBS, you know, and who's angling for their next deal to get Warner Brothers and the like, this is part of Trump's attempt to create state control media. Barry Weiss, all she cares about is protecting Trump's brand and Israel. That's all she cares about. Avis mentioned the Erica Kirk Special. The Erica Kirk Special was not only a terrible special, it also bombed. They had to put it on Saturday night and eight because they couldn't get,

you know, any other prime time, you know, audience for it. The sponsors that they expected pulled out, so they got really, you know, low-key sponsors for it as well. But this is what happens when a trusted network starts to change its stripes. And we're seeing right now that it's not only happening with CBS, it's not only happening with news outlets. It's also, you know, Trump is, you know, I mean, CNN is becoming, you know, Maga light. Some would say, full MAGA, depending on who the host are. But it's also going out into the social media spaces. The Ellison's and these groups are also part of the groups that's buying the U.S. part of TikTok. We also saw it happen demonstrated with Elon Musk and what he did with Twitter. And they're doing it across. We already have Facebook and Instagram with

Zuckerberg. So they're doing this across the board because they want to control information. They want to control what's being put out there. But look, we got a lot of independent media sources now. We got the Black Star Network. We don't have just, you know, three TV stations anymore. and we have to continue to support the various networks that are out there and various people who are out there in this independent space going forward because they can control all of the platforms in terms of these mainstream medias, but they can't control our eyeballs. And they can't control our ability to turn the channel, turn off the channel.

And we have to start looking at where we're putting our dollars. You know, Disney has been going, you know, Maga Esk. I mean, they're making a movie on Gaston, the misogynist from Beauty and the Beast. Like, what the hell's going on as it relates to that? So all of these guys are trying to cater to Trump, but it doesn't mean we have to cater to these media outlets. That's right. We want you to keep it locked right here on Roland Unfiltered.

Here on the Black Star Network, we want you to know that your support is absolutely critical to what we do here. You can support us via cash app using the Stripe Code. It's on the bottom left hand of the screen right there. You can also help us with credit cards. Use the same thing. PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered, Vimmo's, R.M unfiltered. Zell at rolandmartin.com. Also rolling at rolandmartin unfiltered.com.

If you are old school, you can send checks and money orders payable to Roland Martin unfiltered. P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20,00037-196. Our goal is to raise a million dollars by December 31st, And we truly need your support, everyone. Roland Martin unfiltered. We'll be right back here on the Black Star Network. Stay with us. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear?

I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired.

I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast,

hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February

22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. If in this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt,

and they've got the power, that's the time for morning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system. that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party.

We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy. self and guess what you've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy those that would hate don't have the final say and they don't ultimately win this is your chance to own a piece of the creator economy and with start engine investing in fan base couldn't be easier just visit start engine dot com slash fan base and click get equity opportunities like this don't stay open long but your investment can help build a platform that pushes the future of social media What's up everybody? It's got to be the funniest dude on the planet.

And you're watching. Roland Martin unfiltered. Well, a federal judge just overturned the murder conviction of Carl Jordan Jr. In the 2002 killing of Run DMC, DJ Jam Master Jay. Jason Mazzell was gunned down in Queens at a recording studio. He was just 37, shocking hip hop and stalling justice for more than two decades. After a high-profile trial earlier this year, convicted Jordan and Ronald Washington, the judge, Judge Lashon Hall, world prosecutor's drug-related motive was impermissibly speculative,

despite eyewitnesses placing Jordan at the scene, pulling the trigger on his godfather. Washington's conviction holds while a third suspect awaits trial. Jordan stays in jail on junk charges. Now, Mr. Bolden and our panel, tell us what your thoughts are about how this case turned out. Well, very complicated facts, but I'm not sure I understand the decision. I've been doing this a long time on the criminal defense side. And if you've got a witness and with Jordan pulling the trigger, then motive, whatever the motive is,

doesn't seem to be relevant probative of material. You've got an eyewitness. Now, if that eyewitness was incredible, you got some issues there. This was not just a drug deal gone bad. This was a revenge killing that the two co-defendants hatched because the victim,

who was involved in selling drugs, cut Washington, I think his name, cut Washington out of the deal. And so it wasn't about a drug deal gone bad. This was revenge for being cut out of a drug deal by the victim. And so you have to read the opinion if there is an opinion from the federal court because there is a point in time at the end of the trial, whether you, two times.

When the prosecution is done, you move for dismissal because they haven't proven all the elements of the criminal charges. and then at the end of the case, right, you make the same motion. 99% of the time these motions are not granted by the court because the government has put in enough evidence to support the elements. And then even when the jury comes back with a verdict of guilty, which I believe took place in this case, the defense attorneys will make further arguments to take it out of the jury's hand

and ask the judge to look at the evidence, independent of the jury decision. And it was at this juncture that the judge believed that there wasn't enough proof of motive as to why Jordan had been there. Or even what I don't understand, the disconnect is there's an eyewitness, presumably credible, that had Jordan shooting his godfather as opposed to this whole motive issue. If that witness is incredible, then the court can move to motive. And if there's no connection, no factual connection to motive, I can see the court render

its decision. She denied it in regard to the second defendant. And so it's a really confusing decision, disappointing as well. But there's more to come because it is creating an appellate issue. And I don't think the government can appeal that dismissal, but it can appeal certain rulings. And so you have to get into the case to figure out whether the government can appeal that decision ultimately or not. Normally you can't because the jury renders his verdict here. The judge may have overstepped her bounds and that her decision overstep her bounds may certainly be appealable by the prosecution. Dr. Weaver, do you believe the law is doing what's supposed to do in this case? You know, I am if you know, A. Scott Bolden, an attorney is

confused. Lord knows I'm confused. I mean, I don't, I do not understand this at all in terms of what happened here, because as far as I read, as was mentioned, there is an eyewitness that claims that they saw. This person shoot Jamester J.M.S.J. So I'm confused as to how a judge could just kind of unilaterally, it seems, after a jury has already found this person guilty of that murder, somehow say that

that is an incorrect ruling. So I'm not, I don't really understand. So because I don't really understand, it's hard for me to say that justice was served. I understand that, you know, his attorneys have said that now this makes a wonderful thing for him and Christmas, but I, my, my, my concern is with the family of the murder victim here. I know it's just someone that I loved. And I've been, I sat there and and saw all of the testimony come in during the trial, and then to go through all of that, you know, heart-wrenching detail to then get a guilty verdict now to find for some strange, obscure reason that it's being pulled back,

I would personally wondering, where is the justice in that? I don't really understand how this got to be the case, and I'm hoping that some clarity can be brought to this because my thoughts and prayers are really with the family of the person, that was killed. And Dr. Dabinka, do you agree? I mean, about the families. What do you have to say about how they're impacted by this?

Well, definitely. I mean, if Jordan is going to be, you know, released and going home, obviously that's going to be, you know, great for that family. I am wondering what its safety is going to be like as relates to being up in those streets. But as relates to the family of Jammaster J as well, it's got to be traumatic, especially at this time of year.

I mean, whenever you have holiday season and gatherings, that's one of the main times that you're going to be remembering your loved ones who are no longer with you. I mean, it's going to be, you know, our first holiday season without, you know, my mother went home in June. And so that's definitely going to be problematic and traumatic for the family, you know, to Up Jam Master Jay to get this news. But I got to also say, Brittany, that, you know, I watched a whole Diddy documentary, Diddy the Reckoning and all of that. And people can have their ideas on whatever they feel about the documentary. But the thing that was really problematic for me was that I realized that if you're like over, I don't know, maybe over 40 or something, you know, came up in hip hop during this time period, we have had so much death, so much violence, so much murder.

You know, two of the episodes looked at the killings of Biggie and Tupac. And, you know, you have Tupac, and then you have Biggie, then you have Jam Master Jay, Big L. You can run down the list. And in our communities, in our community, in our community, there's a lot of unresolved trauma, a lot of suppressed trauma from the way that people can take it back before hip-hop and go to Marvin Gay and Sam Cook.

The way that so many of our legends die violently, I think some of us have psychologically just suppressed it in ways that are really problematic for our community. And that's what revisiting this case has me feeling right now, that we have a lot of work to do in our own community as it relates to healing the trauma that comes from so much violence, not just with the stars, but in our community in general, but these stories with the stars has me feeling that as well, especially during the holiday season.

Yeah, if I can make one clarification, Dr. Dabenga, Jordan's not going anywhere. He's under a separate federal indictment for drug sale or for selling drugs, and I believe it's a large amount of drugs. And so, you know, the other tragedy is even our entertainers, once, you know, the limelight is gone, you know, are, I can get into, our bad actors, if you will, or be involved in either crime or drugs and what have you.

It's very sad, actually, because as I understand from the family, that the deceased really was around that, but never involved in that. And in his later years, became involved in that. But Jordan's not going anywhere. They didn't say that in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the,

put media publications, but he's on a separate. federal indictment for substantial drug sales. Thank you. So what we'll do is we'll keep our eye on this case and we will pay attention to see what happens next. We'll be right back. We are going to talk about mother-daughter relationships on the other side of this break. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

Coming up on the next black table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French on his new book, born in blackness, covering six. 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today is a gift from black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa. That's on the next black table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. In this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt,

and they've got the power, that's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes a matter, It's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party.

We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis. rights crisis and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. I'm Risa Colbert, and you're watching the Black Star Network. Well, do you really know just how much young teenage girls are truly carrying? They face challenges such as stress, anxiety, and social pressure, often without knowing how to heal or cope, licensed professional counselor Robin Hill,

has dedicated her work to empowering black girls and women through faith, therapy, and community support. One of her initiatives, our girls, provides young women with the tools that they need to thrive. She joins us to talk about the mother-daughter workbook that you put together. Good evening, and thanks for joining us. I am so excited to be here.

We're excited to have you. Tell us a little bit more about that workbook. Listen, I am a mother of three daughters. And so when people go to motherdaughterworkbook.com, the first thing you're going to see is I created this for your girls and mine. Let me tell you how this even came about. As a licensed therapist, I sit in the trenches with women, particularly. I work with a lot of women and a lot of couples.

And so I was thinking about, as we wrap up the year, what are the things that are just the undercurrent in the work I do with women? And so I started thinking about these three principles that just run beneath the surface of all the work I do. Here is what happened. Because I went online on Instagram, which is my favorite social media site, as I went online and I was sharing these three principles, it dawned on me. Have you shared this with your 18-year-old who's a freshman at Howard University? Have you shared this with your 16-year-old who is a junior in high school? And then what about that 11-year-old who is in middle school as we speak? And I realize that while I have shared things with them, I have not walked them through.

These particular principles, which I believe are key to their emotional resilience and how they interact with others. Tell us a little bit more about what they've learned. Okay, so here are the three principles now. I want everyone listening to me. First of all, these principles are not just for women. They're not just for girls. However, my heart beats for women and for girls. And so I'm going to share with you the three principles from the framework for young girls to understand.

Now, as I share these principles, I want everybody to take a deep breath because these are not easy to hear. They're not easy to accept because the truth is we often want people to validate, sometimes placate what we're feeling. And so these principles are really important for us to see ourselves. So principle number one, in the way that I presented to adults is this, that just because it happened to you, listen to me, just because it happened to you, doesn't mean it's about you. That's how I say it to adults. The way I try to soften it.

I say it like this in the workbook for the mothers and daughters, but the way I try to soften it is by saying, I want to help young girls separate their value and their value. their worth from other people's fractions. So the young girl gets left out of the group chat. Listen, I know it hurts your feelings. I know it happened to you, but it's not a reflection of your value of your worth because when we believe other people's behavior is a reflection of who I am, I'm going to stay on a roller coaster for the rest of my life. So that's principle number one. Principle number two, I'll give it to you very quickly. Principle number two is helping young girls understand that while there are things that you want somebody to give you an answer to,

so you know something happens in your life. And most women understand how we get caught up in this idea of closure. I just need closure. I just need him to tell me why. I just need them to give me an explanation. I just want somebody to give me an answer. But when you get caught up in that tricky need for closure, your healing is going to stay captive to somebody else's decision. And so with young girls, I want them to understand, even if you never get the explanation from that young boy you were talking to and that he just didn't return your call anymore, or from that best friend who decided she didn't want to be friends with you anymore.

Even if they never give you closure, you can still find healing. And then the last principle, this is the hardest one. This is the one I get so much pushback from. The last principle, I give it to adults like this. Listen, I know you think you're the only one that this is happening to, but you're not the only one. And when you convince yourself that you are, it brings about shame and isolation. So to my adults, I say, I know you think you're the only one, but you're not the only one. To my young people, I tell them, I want you to understand, but when you isolate, when you make yourself or you convince yourself that you're the only one dealing with this situation, it causes your shame to increase.

So those are the three principles. I hope that makes sense. Absolutely. We'll get to the panel in a second. But tell me about some of the success stories. from mothers and daughters who have completed the program. Okay, so let me tell you, I'm so excited because I literally released this workbook just probably seven, ten days ago.

And this is how you know when something is really resonating, or this is how I know in particular, because I do so much of this work. But my friends have no problem, keeping it real with me when it's something that they agree with or something they don't. And I have so many personal friends who have downloaded the workbook. I have an example of the workbook right here. You just download the workbook. I know you can't see it very well,

and you just make a copy of it. You see I already have it bookmarked here because I am literally taking my own daughters through this. And so the feedback that I have gotten is exactly what I was hoping it would be. This workbook gives mothers the verbiage that they need to have real dialogue with their daughters. This is one of the pieces of feedback.

I wish I could show you my text. One of my girlfriends texts me and said, Rob, and I love you. And that first principle was great. But we talked about that first principle and then we went on to a totally different conversation. That was exactly what I want. I want to create space for mothers and daughters to be able to have real conversations so that we can begin to heal patterns that have occurred in generations.

Yes, I love that. Let's get to the panel. Dr. Weaver, do you have any questions? Hi. Well, wonderful work on that. It's so important. Although I'm the mother of sons throughout my professional career, I've done a lot of research that's looked at black girls

and the challenges that they face navigating a society that is not only anti-black, but in many ways anti-woman. And if anything, it's getting more so with each passing day. I'm wondering with your workbook, are you at all delving into the issue of social media and how that may be impacting the self-esteem of black girls, what they can do to combat that and how mothers can help them navigate that process so that they don't let what's happening in their ear, so to speak,

on all these various different social media platforms, begin the process of them diminishing their own worth before they're even fully blossom into our society. Yes, I love that question. When you think about it, what I think all of us already know is that we have learned the human brain doesn't even fully get developed until well after 25. So when you think about even us,

I remember it was a situation where I was telling my husband, I said you to send me some flowers because I saw somebody on social media get some flowers. And my husband said, remember you told me you don't like flowers? Even I as a grown woman

have been impacted by social media. So yes, so the beautiful part about the workbook, it is such an easy lift. This is not trying to solve all the problems that mothers or daughter's face. But to your very point, There are scenarios that I present. Remember those three principles I just gave. Those principles come with a quick scenario. And one of the scenarios is something that happens in social media. I try to use... The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear?

I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast, hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Real life situations, and I use an example from social media to help them understand. You're seeing this over here, and you're thinking that these people have a perfect picture, but you don't know what's going on on the other side of the camera.

And so absolutely, because again, the goal with this is to do just what you heard me do. Y'all saw how I just normalized it even as a very grown woman who is well over 50, as a grown woman, I too can get impacted by social media. There is so much power when a mother shows vulnerability to let her daughter know, I have my areas of growth as well. So hopefully when the mothers go to motherdaughterwork.com, they doubt, y'all, it is such an easy lift. minuscule investment, it brings about those conversations so mothers can keep it real with their own

daughters. Dr. Da Bingo. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. Your passion really shines through, which we all appreciate. I wanted to get your thoughts on one of the things I've learned in watching father-son drama, father-mother-daughter drama, is that I learned that it could be generation. and that the drama that, you know, I've experienced with my father could play into drama I might be having with my son.

And I feel like a lot of us who are in it, in the throes of it, may not really realize that. Like, what are your thoughts as it relates to that? On the work that adults need to do to put themselves in the position to be able to fully engage their children. I mean, it almost is like you are reading my mind. That question is so powerful. Let me tell you all what happened. Okay.

So actually, it's so hilarious. If anybody goes to my Instagram as Robin May Online, you'll see a video. My husband reading an excerpt from one of my journals from when I was nine years old, right? So hilarious because my husband's name is Lee. And I actually mentioned Lee in this journal how Lee is gross. He was some little boy that I don't even remember. So it's so hilarious. The reason why I bring that up is because I found these journals.

And these journals are from age seven to age 15. And I was reading through these journals a couple of years ago. I keep them now by my nightstand. And I was reading through the journal. I know I'm getting passionate about this, but your question was so perfect. Because I was reading through the journal. And during that time, one of my daughters was dealing with a particularly sensitive situation. And I was so anxious.

I was so nervous about the situation. then I read my journal just randomly. I found these journals and I randomly started reading it. And I was dealing with the exact same thing at the exact same age that that particular daughter was dealing with it. And the relief that came over me, why relief? Because I got through it. So now I can give her hope that she can get through it.

So the other aspect to your point, when I'm working with women, and I talked about this a lot during a live recently. When I'm working with women, women show up on my couch and most often they're not coming because they're having challenges with parenting, but that ends up coming up. And what blows women's minds is that often what I experience is exactly what happens. When we don't slow our lives down, I want you out of here. This is a little free clinical one-on-one. When we don't slow our lives down and pay attention to what we do and while we do it, we will repeat the pattern. We're repeating the pattern, not intentionally. We're repeating the pattern because it's flowing underneath the fabric of who we are.

And so, yes, that is why we look up and we find ourselves doing the same things, experiencing the same things that happen with our parents. That's how we repeat things by myself saying, that ain't your room. That's my room until you start paying them more. That ain't nothing but what Mom and Them used to say. And so absolutely, that's what happens when you don't slow down. You will repeat the good stuff, but you'll also repeat the stuff that's not so great.

Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Doc, love what you're doing. I'm a product of strong, proud, intelligent, beautiful black women, whether it's my mother. I have three daughters and a granddaughter. One set of twins make up of the three daughters and granddaughter and very active in their lives. I find myself very oftentimes managing their mothers and managing their mother's relationship with my three daughters and granddaughter. But more importantly, with the twins being so close to me in Washington, they're often at my home.

they're 30 years old. I managed that twin relationship and I'm managing their relationships with significant others. Often I've had to learn how to talk to them because I'm a lawyer and was raised by a judge and I've learned that communicating I can't litigate them. I shouldn't litigate anybody, but I certainly can't litigate them when I'm trying to show strength and resolve it because I'm tired of dealing with it, quite frankly. I look through your workbook. There were some concepts and precepts and those three concepts that you talked about. I thought as a father, I could be helpful in working with my daughters, even at their age of 30 and 40 years old, including my 40-year-old,

who came into my life when she was 19. I did not know I had a daughter. And so just a lot of moving parts. But as a father, I could use some of those concepts and precepts even now. And so I think your book is wonderful. But can you talk about the father-daughter dynamic and how I use your workbook or can I use your workbook to manage those relationships or to make them more loving and powerful? You know, I just want to give you a high-five or even asking the question because absolutely I, of course, have a passion about mothers and daughters, but I have a husband who does not play about these three girls we're raising. And what I love about my husband, while he isn't a lawyer, he was a politician.

He was a politician for a long, long time, and now we pastor a church together. And so he too can have a tendency to want to get right to the point. But what I love about him is that he's coachable, but he is open to my feedback as a woman as he is navigating with our daughters. And so what I want to say to husbands, what I want to say to fathers, what I want to say to uncles, number one, yes, you go ahead and you just sneak peek, you get a sneak peek. You go ahead and invest in the workbook so that you can understand the principles, but even more powerful than that, gifted to a woman in your life that you trust to pour into your young girls or your teenage girls. I have one of my really good friends.

She is not a biological mother, but she is a godmother. She has purchased the workbook because she wants to help pour into them. So if you are a father, number one, you can learn so much from this. One of the things I love doing is when I work with men, because I talk a lot about my work with women or my work with couples, but I think a few courageous men who show up on my virtual couch. I love creating a space for them to be heard so that I can understand what's going on with them. Well, that's what I want to offer to husbands and to fathers. Go ahead and invest so that you too can get a sneak peek in what's happening in the heart of a young girl. Listen, when we first opened this conversation, we talked about the fact that,

As the longer we go on and the crazy of the world gets, young girls are getting marginalized more and more. But young girls are some of the most powerful game shifting, culture shifting people that we have. And this is an opportunity to mold them, not in the way we want them to be, but mold them in the way they were created. Now, you guys have a first lady on here. So just let me say this scripture very quickly. The Bible says, train up a child in the way they should go. But what I love about that, when you really study that scripture, it means train up a child in the way they are naturally bent, the way they were naturally created. And so this workbook does just that.

It helps girls understand these mental health or these emotionally sensitive topics. I'll say this because y'all know I can talk about this all day. I'll say this very quickly. As a mother, I care deeply about my daughter's academics, right? Like I said, I have a freshman at Howard who happens to be Miss freshman. I was going to throw that out there. All right now. Howard University, the daughter who very quickly starts talking about college with her.

And so I care about academics. And I care about the athletics. My daughter who is a junior, she's bad on the volleyball court. My baby is the regional champion for gymnastics. So I care about athletics. What I care about the most, what I see the most, most with the people I work with, I work with people who are the top of their field. If you have not built your emotional intelligence, if your emotional intelligence hasn't been strengthened,

if you don't know how to interact with other people, if you don't know how to have healthy relationships, if you don't know your self-worth and you get connected to somebody who jacks up your life because you didn't have boundaries, those things will count much deeper than what we realize and then what is taught in school. That is the heartbeat behind the mind. mother-daughter work. Yeah. That's awesome. Thank you very much.

Robin, tell us exactly where we can find this mother-daughter workbook. Y'all, don't walk, don't walk, don't crawl. You need to run to motherdaughterwork.com. Motherdaughterworkbook.com. There are two aspects of it. You can just get the workbook by itself. That alone is a game changer. You just get it printed out.

Go through it yourself. Or you can invest in the companion guide. when you get the mother daughter workbook plus a companion guide where I walk you through the arrows you might get, the pushback you might get, the disconnect where she may not understand the principle. I walk you through that. So just go to motherdaughter workbook.com. I think it's a game changer for families. It is a game changer. And we appreciate you for sharing the work that you've been doing to help mother and daughters and families throughout our country. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having you. Yes. I also want to thank our panelists for joining us tonight. We had Dr. Da Binga, Dr. DeWeaver, and Mr. Bolden. It's been a great show. And we want to thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin & Filter tonight. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thanks for having. Hey, I'm a doctor too, by the way. I have a jurist doctorate. You know, these academics, they think they're better than lawyers. But I just want to add that. I just want to add that, you know.

Glad you added it. I plead a fit. I respect you too, Mr. And we look forward to having you again on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you so much for watching the show tonight. That's all for today. But hopefully you'll join us tomorrow on Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. Have a wonderful evening.

The utmost. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says, Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry.

Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... Smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey, bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend is slanding some Jen's ears in jail.

The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online, in media, and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And the winner of the IHart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at iHeartpodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.