#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Hegseth Grilled Over $134M Guard Deployment, FL Sheriff-AG Clash, TX Voting Law & Cologne Butter

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

6.10.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Hegseth Grilled Over $134M Calif. Guard Deployment, FL Sheriff-AG Clash, TX Voting Law & Cologne Butter The military deployment to manage California's anti-ICE protests is expected to cost $134 million. We'll show you how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got grilled during today's hearing on Capitol Hill.   There's a showdown between a Black Florida sheriff and the state attorney general over the issue of prioritizing the arrest of immigrants. A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice reveals that Texas' 2021 voting law is making it significantly harder for Black and Brown communities to vote by mail. We'll speak with an expert about the implications as we head into the next election cycle. In North Carolina, a judge granted a $20 million default judgment against Saint Augustine's University, and we are hearing that layoffs are imminent as a result. In tonight's Marketplace segment, we'll spotlight Cologne Butter, a skincare line that offers body butters infused with cologne and perfume. #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 iHeart Podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today's Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. It's going to cost $134 million to send the military to Los Angeles to deal with the unrest there. It shows you how literally stupid this idea is. In Florida, a black sheriff says it ain't my job to deal with illegal immigrants. We'll show you what he had to say about that. Plus a new study by the Brennan Center for Justice says that Texas is 2021 voting law is making it significantly harder for black and brown folks to vote by mail. We'll talk to an expert about that in North Carolina. Uh, South St Augusta's University has been

slapped with a $20 million default judgment, and now they're having to lay off staff more drama for that particular HBCU. Plus in tonight's marketplace, we'll spotlight Cologne Butter, a skincare company that offers butters infused with cologne and perfume. Also, David O'Yellow has a new series on Apple TV. Plus, we'll show you my conversation with him. But we also talk about his streaming service, Manson. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin on Filchard on the Black Sun Network. Let's go. Best believe he's knowin' Puttin' it down from Swords to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' It's Uncle Ro Ro, y'all It's rollin' Martin, yeah It's rollin' Martin, yeah It's rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Rollin' with Rollin' now

Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know he's rollin' Martez now. Martez. Folks, Donald Trump's decision to send the military to California is going to cost American taxpayers $134 million. It is grossly unnecessary. It's a waste of money, but he's also spending about $100 million on his stupid parade, military parade.

That's really about celebrating his birthday. It is not about celebrating the 250 years of the United States Army. Now, there's a battle that continues to heat up between Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and that fool sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. First and foremost, Trump lied. He claims that he called the governor of California, couldn't get him on the phone. No. Newsom literally posted a screenshot of his caller ID on social media that shows that he is absolute lying. This is unconstitutional move that he is making.

Now Governor Newsom has filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration arguing that the Trump attacks on California is a problem when it comes to states' rights. Yeah, that's real. So here is some discussion. Well, first of all, here is what this full Pete Hessek, of course the defense secretary, told Congress today about this $134 million in troops now going to California. Mr. Secretary, I want to express my severe concern with the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without consultation of the state of California.

There have been photographs that have shown these troops sleeping on the floor and have not been provided fuel, food, or water by DOD. How long will this deployment last and why were we unprepared to provide them basic necessities such as food and water? The commanders and troops on and the military are you prepared to provide them basic necessities such as food and water? The commanders and troops on the field are very well prepared

sir they responded incredibly rapidly to a deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities. We have made sure from the top down as a secretary of defense who' s been in a unit holding riot shields outside the White House during the chaos of the summer of 2020. I know what it's like to be immediately deployed into a situation like that. There are moments where you make do as best you can temporarily, but we are

ensuring they're housed, fed, water capabilities in real time from my office because I care that much about the California Guard and the Marines and the men and women who are supporting our ice agents on the ground. It's true every day and that's a disingenuous attack that misrepresents how much we care about our troops and what they're doing to defend ice agents. I'm not going to take the fact that we don't care about the troops. Nobody cares more about the troops at the top than this secretary and the chairman in our department. We stated very publicly that it's 60 days Because we want to ensure that those rioters looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers

What is no that we're not going anywhere? What are here to maintain the peace on behalf of law enforcement officers in Los Angeles appreciate which Gavin Newsom won't do What is estimated cost of the deployment for the Guard and the Marines to LA and where's this funding coming from? Will it be coming from quality of life programs that affect our service members or our families if you want to wait until I finish? Before I hand it to Brian. Such as updates, housing and barracks. Before I hand it to Bryn, the insinuation that we're pulling money from housing and barracks

in order to fund this is disingenuous and incorrect. I'm just asking. Bryn can give you the numbers. Absolutely. the cost of the current sma costs is $134 million which is largely just tdy cost travel housing food etc. Where is it coming from? That' s the cost where is it coming from?

Other o and m accounts. With the most recent deployment of the marines Mr. Secretary what' s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement Marines, Mr. Secretary, what's the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA? Why are you sending war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?

Every American citizen deserves to live in a community that's safe, and ICE agents need to be able to do their job. They're being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. That should happen in any city, Minneapolis or Los Angeles. And if they're attacked, that's lawless and President Trump believes in law and order. So he has every authority and he has done mobilizing

National Guard or active duty troops under US code to protect federal agents in their job, which is exactly what we're doing and we're proud to do it. We're proud to do it. Ten USC of the U.S. code 12406 as a legal basis that the President used cites three examples and circumstances for the Guard. Invasion by a foreign nation, rebellion or dangerous rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States or the president is unable for

With regular forces to execute the laws of the United States which authority Is is triggered here to justify the use? I don't know you just read it yourself and people can listen themselves But it sounds like all three to me if you've got millions of illegals and you don't know where they're coming from They're flaving they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers and law enforcement officers. That's the problem. The president is unable to execute the laws of the United States? The governor of California is unable to execute the laws of the United States.

The governor of the California has failed to protect his people along with the mayor of Los Angeles. And so President Trump has said he will protect our agents and our Guard and Marines are proud to do it. The law also says, Mr. Secretary, that the orders for these purposes shall be issued through governors of the states. You and I both know that President Trump has all the authorities necessary and thankfully

he's willing to do it on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, on behalf of our ICE agents and behalf of our country. We've also pulled a billion dollars for the border as well so this just goes into the same you know fund 134. I was asking Miss McDonald. Okay. 134 million goes on top of the billion that's been pulled for the border. So the funding that was pulled for this year was largely in FSRM and in this budget we're actually looking to plus that funding back up to back fill that for our troops and for their families. Thank you.

Thank you. Well you see the sheer arrogance of this idiot Pete Hicks have now to understand where we are. Folks in Los Angeles say that the presence of the military plus these ICE agents is making it very difficult to quell the protests that are taking there. They also say, warning that the presence of, visible presence of federal troops is inflaming the tensions there in Los Angeles.

Now, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will decide whether to halt the deployment of the troops in the coming days due to this particular lawsuit. So lots of drama going on. Let's go to our panel. Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, Jones Miss out of DC. Dr. Larry Walker, associate professor at the University of Central Florida out of Orlando. Tyler McMillan, social justice leader, movement strategist out of DC.

What you have here, obviously, is an administration that wants to provoke this Mustafa. You see Trump lying about Governor Gavin Newsom, lying about him not returning his phone calls. And so that's what we got going on here. And then you saw Pete Hicks. He also was lying there. The law is the law. It is very clear when in terms of the authority, when you are to send troops to states, it's a request from the governor. We all know that.

In fact, we played it yesterday, control room, get the clip ready. Donald Trump even said it himself before, but see, they don't care. They will just change stuff at a heartbeat and go, oh, we can do it, it doesn't matter. Yeah, I mean, we're very clear. You know, the beauty of this show,

the beauty of this network is, you know, even a year before the election, we began to lay out for folks that things. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeart Radio

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself, as well as for everybody else.

But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. You should be thinking about that you should be concerned with because, you know, we had a blueprint from the first Trump administration. We knew that they were going to, in a Trump 2.0, that they were going to turn it up.

So now you see an individual who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is

not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying to do something that is not fair to the people who are trying this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work,

the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the people who are doing this work, the we could be doing with that 134 million and the 100-plus million for the parade that would actually benefit both our most vulnerable and people across their country. But they don't care because what this is about is a television show. Larry, that's all this is. Donald Trump wants to present all of this like it's a big TV show.

Yes, sir, I have a brute, a show of force. And again, his actions are wrong. He knows it's illegal because he actually said it. Roll it. Four years. I promised four years ago at the Republican convention I'm going to restore law and order in this country. And I have, except in Democrat-run cities.

Look, we have laws. We have to go by the laws. We can't move in the National Guard. I can call insurrection, but there's no reason to ever do that, even in a Portland case. We can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested by a governor. Sounds pretty clear to me. Larry? Make its way into the lawsuit

that's being filed by the governor. It's firsthand, you know, hearing the president say to himself that he can't do what he's doing right now. And I think one of the things rolling in, people watching this understand, we've talked about this for the last several months, about Project 2025, and undoubtedly some of the things that were going to happen as relates to ICE and views and other agencies to identify individuals they want to remove from the United States.

This is not about democracy rolling in. This is about power. And people have to understand that. And so the only way you can obviously deal with this is protest. And so the president once again has said to himself that he shouldn't be able to simply send troops, use the National Guard in California, without asking, you know, make sure the governor is signed off on it. I think the other thing that's interesting is, from a historical perspective, Roland,

is that we haven't really seen anything like this in terms of what the governor of a state is asking for and what the president provides since the 1960s as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement. And we know that, at that time, Black folks were fighting for to be treated like, you know, like citizens. So, you know, decades later, we're back in the same problem and issue again, but this time it's obviously doing those who are, you know, individuals who have just come to this country, many of who are law-abiding and seeking for a better life. But once again, understand this is about power.

This is not about democracy. The other challenge with this, Roman, is this will escalate, whether it's California or L.A. or another, you know, state or city, this will escalate until eventually one person or individuals will be harmed. This is going to be on TV. And then the question is, how do people in those communities and throughout the nation respond when they see violence? Like we saw, we've seen numerous times in escalation in terms of interactions with law enforcement throughout the last several years. What will be the response when someone gets hurt and is filmed on live television? They don't care, Tylek.

And so you see what they're doing. And yes, they want this to be the case. They want to see this battle. They want to have it. And again, it's a just show of force. And we're going to sit here and take control of this. You know, I saw this clip. Stephen A. Smith was saying, oh, that Donald Trump is winning on this. No, he's not. And so what you're seeing is you're

seeing the feelings, you're seeing these things, bro. And I'm telling you, this is the moment where I believe fundamentally you've got to have people who recognize that they have to stand up. They must fight. They must do battle. They must recognize that these thugs are going to continue doing this. And if the American people do not fight back, then they are going to continue. Absolutely, Roland.

And I think, you know, history tells us this, that silence in the face of tyranny is complacency. But protests, especially protests that is rooted in love, is the heartbeat of our democracy and it's the heartbeat of who we are as people standing up to bigots and tyrants. And so, and I think, you know, it's a simple fact, it's a powerful demand that protestors are echoing across the world to stop criminalizing families, to stop caging our children, to stop using tax dollars to terrorize immigrant communities, because what we see here is not a mirror of strength,

but it's a mirror of tyranny. And it's not law and order, but it's really lawlessness, cloaked in a badge. And I want to be very clear on this, that, you know, this is just not about immigration policy. It's more about the right to dissent. It's about the right to gather the right to raise our voices, the right to speak up. And without being brutalized or terrorized or labeled a domestic terrorist, the first, I believe the first amendment was not written for us to be comfortable,

but it was written for us to protect the very uncomfortable truths to the ones that are in power. And I think, as you said before, now was the time not to be dismayed or to be comfortable or complacent, but now is the time to speak up and stand ten toes down on what we believe in standing up to a bigger tyranny. And I hope people really understand what is going on here. I'm going to read for you, Mustafa. This is a comment. This was a very interesting comment here.

So Christopher Rufo, who is the leader against CRT and woke and DI, all those different things, This is literally what he wrote on his substack. And if you want to understand how demented these people are and really what their goal is, they still are mad. And I keep telling people, they still are angry and mad with what took place during the Black Lives Matter protest. This is what he wrote, at the same time as we saw demonstrated in Portland, Oregon, during the George Floyd, he calls them riots. The agencies should dispatch unmarked vans

to follow key agitators and snatch them from the streets while the media are not looking. The most effective riot control is to, I need everybody listening to me right now. This is Christopher Ruffo. Conservatives love him. Ron DeSantis loves him. The most effective riot control is to take movement leaders off the field, infiltrate their networks, disrupt the flow of funding, and roll them up in federal investigations. Denying the left

trained protest leaders now will create a strong precedent for the rest of the president's term. Christopher Rufo is calling for COINTELPRO 2.0. Well, you know, they took their lessons from J. Edgar Hoover and the things that they did in relationship to the Civil Rights Movement and the AIM Movement, the Chicano Movement, all these movements. So, you know, now we're, you know, 70 years past that, and they continue to understand

that there is power in unity, that there is power. Also in us realizing that we don't have to have these types of egregious behaviors going on. Dr. King once said that a riot is the language of the unheard, and that's exactly what we see playing out. So they want to silence your voice. They want to make sure also that, you know, they have the power to control voting, housing, transportation, all the things that are connected to resources.

They want to make sure that they can strip those away so that if individuals can't speak out and talk about the disparate impacts that are happening, then they win. Now that's why, and you know, I've had these conversations with brothers and sisters over the last couple of days, that we have to be very conscious, right? I hear people saying, well, we don't need to get involved.

And I remembered of that poem that says, first they came for the Jews, right? And that I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. And then they came for the communists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. And then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew, and then they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist, and then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. You can go all the way down all these types of things

that we currently have going on in our country and place those in. I wasn't black, so I didn't say anything. I wasn't an LGBTQ member, so I didn't say anything. I wasn't. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st,

and episodes four, five, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.

X, Y, or Z. So we have to understand this game that is being played, right? And the game has been well thought out. They have learned lessons from the past and they understand how to strip your rights away. And that's what they are trying to play out right here on your screen.

They said that the revolution will not be televised. Well, we're seeing right before our eyes how mothers are being taken from their children, you know, how grandmothers are being caught up in this. that we are not going to be told that the police will not be arrested, that the police will not be televised, what we are seeing right before our eyes, how mothers are being taken from their children, how grandmothers are being caught up in this, and so many other folks. So yes, I understand that we have to take care of our

community. I completely understand that. But we also have some responsibility to make sure that we are also living up to what Malcolm said. Malcolm once said wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it. So if we remember those words, we can also make sure that we are taking care of our community and strengthening and also understanding why strategic partnerships and alliances are so important when you're dealing with fascists who are trying to pit one against the other to be able to control. Those comments right there, Larry, by Christopher Rufo, this is what the right wants to do. They despise protesters. Now, they don't mind January 6th protesters.

Donald Trump complains about all these folks are attacking cops, but he had no problem pardoning those white domestic terrorists who did what they did on January 6th. And so what they're all saying is, hey, if you beat up cops for me, I will free you from prison. The rest of you, the rest of you who choose to protest, I'm throwing you in jail. Yeah, Roland, it's a huge contradiction. We all, on January 6th, watched not just here in the United States, but people throughout

the world watched what happened in terms of individuals brutalized law enforcement, break into U.S. capital, trash it, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars in terms of property. And we don't even want to talk about all the things that happened in Congressman Pelosi's office, et cetera. So we watched that, that international embarrassment. And here we are a few years later. You're right.

Many of these, those insurrectionists have been pardoned. And we're now saying that people who are mostly peaceful protesting is inconsistent with democratic values. And I go back to the point I made earlier about power and not democracy. This is about power. Listen, if you're going to uphold white nationalist ideas and views, then you're fine. If you are fighting for a multiracial democracy, they have a problem with you. And Roland, you highlighted some very important—and we continue to go back to Project 2025.

That first administration was a dry run. They have now fine-tuned every step they need to take to make sure they undermine democracy. That's why we see more and more conversations about individuals being grabbed in jurisdictions throughout the United States, never hear from them again. People don't know what their family members are. This will continue to escalate until they continue to, and they'll continue to grab

people off the streets, drop black bots to them. You won't ever hear from individuals again. And, once again, you'll find out that in El Salvador, they try to send some people to South Sudan and various other parts of the world. That is not democracy. We don't have due process. We also have to remember we have to abide by the U.S. Constitution, and individuals have the right to protest.

So if we don't continue to keep our eyes on the prize, once again, we will find more and more of our individuals that we care about, those who are protesting the fight to make sure we maintain our democracy. Those individuals, once again, will be grabbed up and dropped into a black box. Well, we see exactly what's going on here. And I'm gonna tell you point blank, Attila, people need to understand they want to do this all across the country. Folks should gird themselves for more of this. Yeah, absolutely. This is a moment that I think we must decide whether we stand on the sidelines and let freedom be redefined by fear.

I think, you know, from the Garvey movement to the Haitian revolution, to Angela Davis, and as you mentioned, Black Lives Matter and Dream Defenders, our freedoms have always understood that liberation is the goal. And even as I'm seeing these ICE raids, I'm thinking, you know, they mirror slave-catching patrols storming homes and separating families, and detention centers are looking like modern day plantations and

receiving, you know, mass deportations that's happening. And I think it's just a reflective that history repeats itself and we must really decide which side of history we stand on. I always say, you know, all the time, people always say, well, in the sixties, or I would have did this, but now history is at our, is at our doorstep. And we must decide which side of history we will stand on and what would the history books say about us in this moment in time? Folks hold tight one second. We come back a black sheriff in Florida. That's being declared where he stands and we'll tell you exactly what he had to say next right here on Roland Martin on the Filtered on the Blackstone Network.

On the next Get Wealthy with me Deborah Owens, have you ever had a million dollar idea and wondered how to bring it to life, well, it's all about turning problems into opportunities. On our next Get Wealthy, you'll learn of a woman who identified the overload bag syndrome, and now she's taking that money to the bank through global sales in major department stores. And I was just struggling with two or three bags on the train, and I looked around on the train train and I said, you know what, there are a

lot of women that are carrying two, two or three bags. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. This is Essence Atkins. What's the love, King of R.B., Rani Devon. Me, Sherri Sheppard. and you know what you're watching. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. A black Florida sheriff and the state attorney general are at odds on the issue of arresting immigrants.

Attorney General James Oabheimer sent a letter to Broward County Sheriff Gregory Otoni following the sheriff's comments about not prioritizing the arrest of immigrants during a commission meeting last week. Check this out. Some of the things that other sheriffs in this state has participated in, in increasing availability of manpower to execute some of these responsibilities that fall under immigration, we are not. There has been a submittal of requests. The governor wanted to see all sheriffs participate in this one program, 287G, which was related to the inmate processing

components and we've always been in compliance with that. Then there was a pivot point to have deputies participate in 287G task force, whereas now it's the law enforcement apparatus that is out in the field and increasing the operational tempo for customs, meaning 20 deputies are assigned, let's say, in Sarasota to this particular task force, and those deputies are now basically operating under the will or so the partnership of immigration. I've dedicated the two people that's always been there.

I've not increased that. We have other priorities in this community that I'm focused on and immigration is not one of them. Not to dismiss the importance of that, but we have had case after case, just a few months ago, to speak about why it's important for us as law enforcement practitioners to focus on the criminal components. Not administrative components when it comes to immigration. I don't care what country you're from. If you commit a crime in this country or commit a crime in this county, I'm coming for you. But what I refuse to do is take this notion that we need to be knocking on doors or arresting children or going into daycare centers or restaurants and taking and snatching people off these streets.

Who have been paying taxes and contributing to this society in some positive form, regardless if they're a U.S. citizen or not. It's not within our purview, it's not within our responsibility, and I won't participate in it. This is something that has alarmed this community repeatedly, and I've been crystal clear and I have not wavered my stance in the last six years, and I won't. Youth Mild's letter orders Tony to comply with the efforts of the immigration and customs enforcement. Larry, your thoughts. Yeah, Roland, you know, it's a lot going on down here in the state of Florida. And so, you know, a lot of the sheriffs down here gleefully signed to him

when they get involved in a lot of these ice raids. And if you see what the sheriff said, what he had to say is completely reasonable. We also have to highlight that he, as sheriff, he also serves a very diverse immigrant population. So those, and we're talking about individuals who voted for him. So this back and forth between, you know, the AG, the state AG, and the sheriff is really based on the fact that he— I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahue, you gotta pray for yourself, as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. It's not as been as gung-ho as some of the other sheriffs down here in the state. But once again, his point is practical. He's saying if you're a criminal, then we'll come after you. But what he's also saying is they're not going to be kicking doors into homes of individuals who haven't committed a crime.

Once again, he talked to him to pay taxes. And Roland, this also relates to—he points to education. We're increasingly seeing individual ICE agents go to public schools, elementary schools, in some cases, seeking to talk to young people. So, his point is saying—his point is that we're not going to look for law by individuals, and we're certainly not going to be kicking in the door to elementary, middle, high schools to snatch kids out of school. And then, like I said, I'd use the term black box in terms of the last segment. But he's the same, what he's saying is practical.

If you break the law, I'm coming after you. Otherwise, if you live in a community, you're being productive, I'm not gonna bother you. But down here, that is not enough. Once again, I made the point about power. They want a far more, you know, stronger commitment from sheriffs throughout the state to make sure that, if you're a child or a woman who has, you know, is taking care of small children or a father, that they don't care. If they grab you, that's it. They'll send you off, you know, send you to Louisiana or some far country. But the bottom line is what the sheriff said is not

radical. But in the state of Florida, it is. What we're seeing, Tydek, again, we know in this state, we saw when Ron DeSantis removed three state, you know, three DAs, if you will, because they said what they were not going to prosecute. This is what these folks do. And I wouldn't be shocked if they try to move on this duly elected black sheriff. Absolutely. And I think even as you just pointed out, sheriffs are elected by the people. They're not appointed by the government. And when communities, especially communities of color, organize and demand that their local law enforcement, you know, protect them rather than tear them apart, as an elected official, I think the sheriff has the duty to listen. I don't think it's about politics, but it's really about

prioritizing their community safety. And as mentioned before, they're not doing anything that causes harm to the community, then they should be left alone. And I think even understanding the track record of ICE in itself, having the long track record of abuse, of racial profiling, of violating people's civil rights, especially in a community of, you know, Black and brown folks where distress is already a major issue. And I think the sheriff saying no to ICE is honestly saying yes to the due process and dignity of public safety. And I think, you know, I think it's commendable and I wish more local officials would heed to the concerns and the voices of the folks in their community.

officials would heed to the concerns and the voices of the folks in their community. But here's the deal, Mustafa, they don't give a damn about people who are duly elected, and they don't care if they have their own opinions. They want to tell them what to do. That's what they, that's what Ronda Santis does. That's what his attorney general is doing. So they don't care that this sheriff has made his own decision as to how he is going to run his office Which is what he was elected to do Exactly and he's doing and doing the right thing. We all know that many law enforcement have limited income So that means that you have to prioritize So then you should take a look and ask the question. Where is the crime?

Happening so that we can deploy the needed individuals to be able to address that? So there are numerous studies that are out there that show that folks who are undocumented do significantly less crime than those who are documented or those who are citizens here in this country. So based upon that premise, which is rooted in fact, then Ron DeSantis should be great. You should be very, very thankful that you have a sheriff who's willing to stand up and say, wherever crime is, I'm going to deal with it,

but I'm not going to take resources away from the areas that I'm trying to serve and protect. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, let's talk about the craziness out of DC. Anti vaccine advocate, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of the federal advisory committee that guides the sentence for disease control and prevention on immunization practices. Kennedy justified the move by accusing the committee of being, quote, played with persistent conflicts of interest, unquote, and claimed it had become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine. The panel on the CDC's advisory committee

on immunization practices is responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and making public recommendations on vaccination protocols. ACIP was scheduled to meet later this month to evaluate this year's COVID-19 vaccines, but we don't know what happens next because he's fired them. This is absolutely par for the course.

They don't care about experts. Kennedy thinks he is one. He absolutely is not one. He is not a doctor. He is not a scientist. He's a conspiracy theorist, Tylek. Tylek? Yeah, absolutely.

I think, you know, it's just, you know, the fact that he fired these independent vaccine advisors, I don't think that's public health. It's dangerous and it's a form of authoritarianism. And I think, you know, it's calculated and especially amongst, you know, a community where distrust has been in the health community. Our people really carry the scars of medical abuse from the Tuskegee to Henrietta Lacks, to just the lack of care in hospitals and hospital racism today. And I think we have every right to ask those hard questions,

but what RFK is doing, it isn't accountability, it's really sabotage, and it's on the backs of black and brown folks that, you know, while our system is flawed, you know, it's meant to still center science, data and public health and what he has done is really throwing away the science and it really puts people in a space to not trust already for a system that, you know that we already don't trust.

And so it's very dangerous. And our health will be at the collateral of these decisions, most drastically. Lusapa? Yeah, everything that he just said is exactly correct. You know, this is dangerous and egregious, right? You are literally playing with the health of folks across our country. And, of course, we know our most vulnerable

communities are the ones that often carry the burden. So this is just another continuation of that. Now, I have helped to put together these high-level federal advisory panels before. Many of the things that were shared are just not true. You know, when you have these advisory panels, you are going out and trying to find the very best. And you're not necessarily trying to also just bring individuals on who see the world through the prism that you look through. You want to have a very diverse group of individuals. I know the word diverse probably scares them, you know, in the way that they actually get down. But when you have these advisory panels,

they provide that advice and recommendation, whether it is to an administrator or to a secretary about the things that they should be considering. They write in-depth reports and they walk through some of the most critical issues that our country is facing. So for them to just fire everybody and then try and go out and get individuals who are gonna be a part of that same group think,

because these are the individuals that actually are not interested in diversity of thought. These are the individuals who are not interested in actually taking a hard look at subjects. They just want folks to join who will say what they need to say. And the answer to that is yes. So we need to be very mindful of what is currently going on and both the short-term and long-term impacts of not

having the right individuals with medical background as you said, with public health background, and what are the other categories that they may have who are helping to keep our country safer. Larry. You know, Roland, you know, when they confirmed, you know, Kennedy to HHS, it, for me, it reminded me of letting the fox in the head house. The United States, it leaves the world in terms of, you know, when we talk about institutes or college universities in terms of research as it relates to public health. He's dismaying all that. And so, you know, getting rid of this advisory committee is going to disproportionately hurt

Black and brown people. And particularly, like I said, we already, you can see this coming a mile away. We already know he's an anti-vaxxer. And on top of that, let's remind folks, we're just a few years out from a pandemic. This is not the time to have someone like this in charge of our public health apparatus, particularly, like I said, the challenges that the world has faced just a few years ago. But he's been confirmed. And now we're seeing the repercussions of that. Once again, someone who doesn't believe in science, who tries to drink, you know, unpasteurized

milk, you know, take nosedives into polluted waters, should not be in charge of what happens in everyday lives and individuals as it relates to dealing with diseases and vaccines. And what I worry about, Roland, is, and like I said, in terms of the world we live in today, it is very easily — we've saw these measles outbreaks we have had in Texas and other places over the last couple months. It is very easily for situations like that, once again, what about the flu and possibly COVID, once the winter comes around? All these things can happen and have a tremendous impact on the lives of individuals, a lot of Americans. And, once again, there is no guarantee that another pandemic or something similar cannot happen during this administration's time.

So having Kennedy in charge, and once again, he's trying to dismantle all the scientific knowledge that's been built over decades is gonna be challenging for this country. And it's gonna contribute to problems, not just for this generation, but generations ahead in the future. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

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

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Inc. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser, Inc. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers.

But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapa way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. of ourselves. A wrap away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. All right, folks, hold tight one second. They got to go to break. We come back more on the show.

We'll talk about the drama, the troubles at St. Augustine's University. They continue to face significant financial headwinds. Also our marketplace segment, we talk about the new product that is available on shopblackstartnetwork.com. That is next. But first, if you want to support the work that we do, join our Breed & Funk fan club. Your dollars are critically important for our success. Of course, you're watching one of the top 100 podcasts

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we'll be right back this week on the other side of change we are here talking about the unfortunate case of 30 year old Adriana, who was diagnosed and pronounced as brain dead at nine weeks pregnant and is being kept alive by the state to carry his pregnancy out to full term without any input from her family. It's a really harrowing example of the lack of bodily autonomy we have in a post-war world, and we're going to dream bigger. Join us on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. And we're going to dream bigger. Join us on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network.

["Alone"] Next on the Black Table, with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future.

I'm a genius saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on the Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the newest Sherri Schreffer Talk Show. This is your boy, Irv Quake.

And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin on The Future. I'm going to go to the bathroom. A new study shows Texas's 2021 voting law making it harder for black and brown folks to vote, especially by mail. The law requiring an ID number to match precisely with your voter registration, caused nearly 30,000 ballots to get tossed in the 2022 primaries, meaning almost 90% of those folks never got to vote at all. Many still have not returned to the ballot box. Kevin Morris is senior research fellow at the Brennan Center's Democracy Program. Glad you are joining us.

First and foremost, let's understand this here, Kevin. The Trump folk pulled out of the lawsuit in Texas over redistricting, saying that they basically said we didn't care that it was negatively impacting black and brown people. This is no shock here. This is the kind of stuff that Texas Republicans have been doing because Texas is a state that is 61% minority, and 61% of the people that vote in Texas are white.

Yeah, no, you're exactly right. We've seen, especially over the last 10, 12 years since the Supreme Court struck down a major part of the Voting Rights Act that used to keep some of the behavior in Texas in check. We've seen them pass a number of bills that have made it more difficult for voters of color to cast their ballots and make their voices heard from voter ID to what we're talking

about this afternoon, this evening, the Texas SB1 that they passed in 2021 after, of course, all of the shenanigans around the 2020 election and the big lie. And remember, when those things were passed, they were angry that Donald Trump lost. He won Texas. He won Georgia. He won Florida. But they still changed their laws because they didn't want it to be close. I mean, we don't know exactly what was going on inside the minds of the legislators, but

we can look at the data and the data makes it very clear. What's that? Actually, no. Actually, I but we can look at the data and the data makes it very clear. What's that? Actually, no, actually, I think we can. Again, we saw they kept talking about voter fraud, voter fraud, voter fraud. The Brennan Center has studied this, numerous others. Voting fraud is virtually non-existent. And so it made no sense at all that these red states were changing their laws, but they actually fell for the okie doke, advancing Donald Trump's lies the election was rigged. And so therefore, they went about changing these laws to actually make it harder for votes because they, Republicans have even said, if they actually can contract the vote,

they stand a better chance at winning. They don't want everybody voting. Republicans have literally said that. No, I think, you know, there is definitely an anti-democratic movement happening in the United States. After the 2020 election, we saw the biggest wave of restrictive voting legislation since we've seen probably since the end of Jim Crow.

I'm sorry, since the end of Reconstruction in the 1800s. So there is something going on and we absolutely know, we know the effects of these laws is that they make it more difficult for voters of color to make their voices heard. You were talking about the maps in Texas. Some of these maps have made it more difficult for the votes that are cast

to be translated into political power because they've been racially gerrymandered and kind of locked out of political power in some places. A number of these have been struck down by the court and you're exactly right, watching the Department of Justice walk away from some of these cases that were being brought over the last few years, it's extraordinarily troubling.

Yeah, and so when you look at this vote in Texas, and again, we know how these other states, when these large states move, they follow. And so the problem is when they pass these laws, they're now enshrined into law, and it really is creating problems. And so what have people go, oh, I don't understand what the big problem is with the voter ID. The issue is not even a voter ID. It's all the things that they put in place that go along with the voter ID. The issue is not even a voter ID. It's all the things that they put in place

that go along with the voter ID to actually drive people away because they want to frustrate folks to make it hard to vote. They don't want to make it easier. That's exactly right. We always say it's kind of like a death by 1,000 cuts, right? Because you can show up and you can have your ballot thrown out with the case in Texas, it's SB1 in one election. And what we find is that people don't come right back to the

ballot box. They don't even necessarily try to vote. Some of them are going to walk away from the democratic process because they're going to say, I tried before, it didn't work very well. Why am I going to waste my time doing it again? So it's kind of understanding the life cycle of these restrictive voting policies and how they can shape behavior for years and years, even after maybe some voters have figured out how to make sure that their application to vote by mail or their mail ballot isn't gonna get rejected. You're exactly right about that.

Questions from the panel. Mostafa, you first. Yeah, well, thank you for being here. So we know that these types of things are currently going on, right? We have the erosion of our voting rights. As somebody who works in this space, what would you share with us to get people to be able to better protect their voting rights? Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important to be supporting community organizations that are doing a lot of this work that are teaching Americans and particularly voters of color what they need when they show up at the polling place.

We know all around the country, local groups, churches and local get out the vote organizations are doing this, but they need the resources to be able to do it well. But we also need the federal government to act. We need to make sure that the Department of Justice is not walking away and we need to make sure that everyone knows that we're watching them and that we're aware of what they're trying to do. Over the longer time horizon, we need to get the Voting Rights

Act back to its full power. I mentioned this before, but in 2013, in a Supreme Court case called Shelby County versus Holder, we got rid of, the Supreme Court got rid of one of the most powerful parts of the Voting Rights Act, and we've been without it for the last 12 years. And we know that this part of the Voting Rights Act, it might have actually stopped the Texas bill that we're talking about tonight from going into effect because the Department of Justice itself thinks that, or thought under the old administration, we should say, that this was discriminatory and violated Section 2, the part of the Voting Rights Act that still remains.

So I think it has to be both local, right? We have to... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution.

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

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahue, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We're supporting local groups, but we have to recognize that we need federal power here as well to make sure that states are not going to discriminate. Larry.

Yeah, thank you for your work. I was going to ask you about Shelby County versus Holder. It's kind of where things are kind of, you know, took a right turn, literally. But I guess my other question is in terms of historically, you know, black churches have played a very important role in terms of getting people racially to vote. Where I'm at in Florida, there's been certainly been a lot of steps to make it more difficult for nonprofit organizations to, you know, G-O-T-V. And I'm wondering, how do you see things playing out over the next couple of years as we continue to see this as well on voting rights?

Yeah, you know, we're watching, there are a couple of Supreme Court cases that are going to come out later this summer about redistricting and racial gerrymandering. I will admit it is a little bit difficult to be optimistic about things right now, but I do, you know, we're seeing some states pass State Voting Rights Act, Virginia, North Carolina, not North Carolina, excuse me, New York, Connecticut. We've seen some states say the federal government's not going to introduce preclearance and make sure that laws are not going to be discriminatory before they go into effect, that we're going to take it into our own hands. So we are seeing some action on that front, which is encouraging some of the states that are maybe the worst actors are not necessarily going to be policing their own behavior. But I do, I think what comes

out of the court's decisions this summer around redistricting are gonna be important. Alabama passed a law, excuse me, a congressional map last year that the federal court called discriminatory against black voters and they just appeal it to the Supreme Court last week. So we'll see if that moves forward. But there's a lot of question marks right now, definitely. Tali. Yes, thank you again for your work as well. right now, definitely. Tylee.

Yes, thank you again for your work as well. I think we want to call it what it is. Texas is not restricting votes to protect democracy. They're doing it to protect power. And I think the latest findings prove what we already know to be true, that this is a modern day literacy test. And, you know, and coming from someone that's, like, for young people, especially first-time voters and students,

for those without driver's license, this is targeted and strategic. What does your research show the drastic impact that this will have on first-time and young voters? Yeah, so the paper that we published last week, Texas has never been easy to vote by mail. So for the most part in Texas, you've got to be 65 or older to cast a mail ballot.

They didn't change that during COVID. They haven't changed that in a long time. So this study was actually more focused on older voters. And these are voters that have voted time after time after time. 85% of them voted in the 2016 and 18 and 2020 election. focused on older voters. And these are voters that have voted time after time after time. Eighty-five percent of them voted in the 2016 and 18 and 2020 election. And these people had these big turnout effects, and they had their ballots rejected. Right? So we know

that if these people with their super strong habit of voting, if these people that have been doing this for a long time, if they're having their ballots rejected, their ballots thrown out, then that's a big problem problem because then these effects are likely to be other parts of the law that we didn't study in this particular study. If they're having these effects on habituated voters, they're going to be having big effects on other voters as well. So this is kind of, we think maybe the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, in terms of how this whole regime of restrictive voting laws, both in Texas and elsewhere, are shaping political behavior for years.

And we know, I should add, we know that the younger voters for whom there isn't that habit of voting, it's more likely that they're gonna drop out and not come back, so yeah. All right, Kevin, we surely appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, keep up the good work. Great, thanks so much for having me on. Thank you, folks.

Let's now talk about the drama taking place at St. Augustine's University. The financial troubles continue, folks. A Wake County judge has ordered the HBCU to pay more than $20 million to SBA Connect after the school failed to defend itself in court. How stupid is that? If you are St. Augustine's,

you should be firing your law firm. You should be firing the people who oversee the law firm. Everybody in the world knows you don't get sued and not respond. Now this is on top of lawsuits from other vendors, such as Averia and UnitedHealthcare, seeking millions of dollars in unpaid bills. Alumni are furious blaming years of mismanagement and poor board oversight. Enrollment has dropped significantly.

Staff has been cut and the university is still reeling from the loss of its accreditation in March. They are 32 million dollars in debt. They have tax liens, failed rescue plans, pressures mounting ahead of a key arbitration hearing scheduled for June 26th. And we're getting reports that SAU has laid off the remaining staff. As usual, we reached out to the university to get a comment, but our email went unanswered. We've been trying to get the interim president, Marcus Burgess, and the Board of Trustees Chair Brian Boll, on this show since March. They have consistently declined every single invitation. Maybe they're

not responding to our requests because they fired the communications people. I don't know, but this shows you the sheer catastrophe that is taking place at that North Carolina University and again leadership should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this. You don't even respond to a lawsuit and now you got a pony up $20 million. I swear, I get the sense there's some people who just want this university to absolutely die. who just want this university to absolutely die.

Huh, I wonder if that's the plan. Board chair and others. I mean, it's just nonsensical what is happening. It's just really ridiculous. And it's a shame. It's a shame that we're having to watch this thing unfold and endure. Also another story that came out today, Fisk University announced that they are ending

their gymnastics program. Remember, they got lots of attention. It was being hailed as a major, major thing when Fisk announced the launch of their gymnastics team, becoming the first HBCU to have a gymnastics program. Well, the problem is that, first of all, Fisk University say at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 academic year, that's when they will end the program.

They cite recruitment challenges, scheduling disadvantages. This is what the athletic director, Valencia Jordan, explained while the school was dropping the sport. Quote, the athletic director, Valencia Jordan explained while the school was dropping the sport. Quote, the decision to halt the program comes after a comprehensive review of the gymnastics program and its alignment with the HBCU Athletic Conference. Now, the HBCU Athletic Conference is an NAIA school.

Y'all, NAIA hasn't had gymnastics as a sport in, I don't know, 30 plus years. Fizz Athletics competes in the HBCUAC. Currently, gymnastics is not an HBCUAC sanctioned sport, resulting in considerable challenges for the university to schedule competitions and build a robust recruiting pipeline. While we are tremendously proud of the history our gymnastics team has made in just three years, we look forward to focusing on our conference-affiliated teams to strengthen our impact in the HBCU Athletic Conference.

Fisk is grateful for the hard work, dedication, and tenacity of its gymnasts, staff members, and coaches who made this program possible. The university is dedicated to supporting both staff and student athletes to ensure a seamless transition. Fisk's gymnastics team has forged an indelible legacy through their monumental achievements. The FISC community is committed to celebrating the Gymnastics team through the 2025-2026 academic year and encourages alumni, student, staff, and community members to support the team

at one of their meets prior to May, 2026. Here's the thing, Larry, this just makes no sense to me. Listen, when Walter Kimball and our frat brother went down to Teledega, and when he was looking at all the financial mess there, one of the first things that he did was drop a gymnastics program. He was like, this doesn't make any sense.

Now, we know that gymnastics is not a revenue-generating sport like most sports, especially at HBCUs, but you don't just announce these things just for the hell of it. You gotta have the resources to do it. And it just made no sense to me to do this if you don't have the money to do it. Yeah, I remember when Fisk announced a few years ago

that it wanted to start a gymnastics program, and then as you highlight other HBCUs, I remember, you know, when FISC announced a few years ago that it wanted to start the gymnastics program and then as you highlight other HBCs, probably will soon. I'm really sad, you know, to hear that they're ending the program. You're right, Roland, it takes a lot of money and resources, you know, travel to make sure they have a place to practice, et cetera. And you know, I know a lot of very proud FISC alum who are, you know, upset about this decision. But once again, this is a resource gap that HBCU, there's the HBCUs and PWIs.

That's been going on for decades. We know that Fisk is a renowned academic institution, Jubilee Singers, among other renowned alum and historical figures. So I think this is very, it's very difficult to have a gymnastics program, once again, for a small institution. Hopefully down the line once they've grown a little bit more that they can maybe bring the gymnastics program back. But

this is certainly a blow and as you say you talk about Pelladata and some other institutions who try to start a gymnastics program. Once again it takes considerable resources. I know that if it isn't important like Title IX to make sure you have gender equity in terms of sports, but once again, it's difficult for certain sports that don't generate a great deal of revenue, particularly for small institutions to make sure that they continue to run for years.

Well, I'm sorry, Mustafa. I mean, at the end of the day, listen, there are things that you can't afford you can't afford. This is one of them. Don't launch programs that you're going to have to shut down. I'm sorry. Listen, just like when I was talking to people at St. Augustine, you know what they told me?

They said their financial issues were exacerbated when they brought the football team back. If you're St. Augustine's, you can't afford a football team. So stop it. Stop it. I mean, I hear what you're saying. First of all, thank you and congratulations to the sisters who are there with the gymnastics team.

I'm a former athlete, college athlete. I had to make some decisions about what college I was going to go to, both on the academic side and the athletic side. And I looked at the sustainability of programs to find out how long they've been there, what the resources look like, all those types of things. But it's really about, you know, the folks who are making the decisions, whether from the president to the athletic director, to all these individuals about are you serious about whatever program that you are starting,

or the ones that you are thinking about phasing out, and what does that look like? So for me, Roland, I think the most important part is if you are going to create a program, you should have a strategic plan over the next five to 10 years about how you're going to fund it, how are you going to attract the right athletes, how is it going to grow. And if you can't do that, then you probably

shouldn't be entering into that space, because you, as an administrator, have not done the work. And you're bringing in athletes and then their lives become disrupted because of decisions that other people have made. Yep, that's just my whole deal. If you ain't got it, don't do it. And there's nothing wrong with that

because it's worse, I think, when you start something and now you gotta shut it down and't do it. And there's nothing wrong with that. Because what you do is worse, I think when you start something, now you got to shut it down and all these hopes. I mean, you didn't even complete, frankly, one class. And I just I just think it's just, it's so unfortunate. And again, when I was talking to Walter Kimbrough, there was a young woman who was a gymnast at Teledega, they simply cannot afford it. She transferred to a major school. He said how great she was doing. And it is what it is.

You can't do everything. That's true, Roland. But I will also say, you know, HBCUs have a long history of doing less, you know, with just a little, for generations. And I think, you know, when we think about that- Yeah, but you can't, no, but you can't, I mean, I, hold on, I know why we say that,

but we've got to actually stop that. It's some shit you can't afford. I'm sorry, there's a difference between doing less with more and having nothing. I get that, but when you have a gymnastic program that nobody else in your conference has a program, so that means that you are traveling much further places. You're having to go to meets.

Now your travel budget is high. Listen, we had the guy on the show who's trying to start an ice hockey team at Tennessee State. The first program. Dude said, these are facts. He said, if they're going to have to raise $5 million, bro, do you know what the total Tennessee State athletic budget is? Again, he said they got to raise $5 million in order to have an ice hockey team. It's $15 million for all of Tennessee State's sports programs. Oh. Oh, so I'm like, you're going to have an ice hockey team.

You got to race five. But the total budget for all of the Tennessee state sports is 15 million. I don't see that how that's happened unless you have a major benefactor who is going to personally fund that program. If you can pull that off, go right ahead. To me, if you can't, you don't start these programs. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. And I would definitely agree with that.

And to the point where I was talking about doing less, we shouldn't accept that, but now we have seen a predicament where, you know, they didn't work out. The school was already starving and now struggling to eat and having to cut off, you know, different programs. And I think it's almost the same thing that we're seeing that, you know, St. Paul, you know, you know, it was already in a predicament and now we're stuck in a struggle. This is a movie that we have seen before, but I think it goes back to the overall, you know, arching as a proud graduate of North Carolina A&T myself.

It's a broader conversation about how our HBCUs are continuing to fall in certain situations. And it's for us to build that political infrastructure that funds our schools, that doesn't abandon our schools politically and how we must create an incubator where our endowments are matching at levels to be able to support programs for our students,

to be able to do gymnastics and ice hockey and all these other stuff that a lot of these other schools are getting. But we just have to put ourselves in position politically, financially to do it. that a lot of these other schools are getting. But we just have to put ourselves in position politically, financially to do it. No, but actually they're not. Because a lot of the programs,

they know what they also can to get out of Ford. I'm just being straight up. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers,

but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A rapper way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services and the Ad Council. It's just, tomorrow is just sometimes you gotta say, you know what, we can't afford that program. So we're not even gonna launch it. Folks, hold tight one second, we come back. Come back, time for our Shop Black Star Network Marketplace segment. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered

on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. We are here talking about the unfortunate case of 30 year old Adriana Smith, who was diagnosed and pronounced as brain dead at nine weeks pregnant and is being kept alive by the state to carry this pregnancy out to the term without any input from her family.

It's a really harrowing example of the lack of bodily autonomy we have in a post-war world, and we're gonna dream bigger. Join us on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Join us on the other side of change, unplugged and undamned. Believe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, folks, with Father's Day approaching, we have the perfect gift for the man who wants to take care of his skin and smell good at the same time. Cologne butter is a homemade infused body butter rich in nourishment using only wholesome

organic ingredients sourced from around the world. Mike Snow is the founder. He joins us now from Cali. Mike, glad to have you here. So where does I be originated from? Thank you. Thank you for having me. So I just love body butters. I get really ashy.

So a lot of body butters on the market, they're good too. Yeah. You know, they smell like strawberries or mango. And I, you know, I just don't want to smell like that. So I started mixing in my colognes into just no-scented body butters. And I like really peculiar, interesting, unique scents.

And people always ask me, what am I wearing? So I said, let me come up with my own formulas, mix it in some body butters, and put it on the market to see if it sells. And I take it it's been selling. Yeah, so it's been about a year and a half and I went to Essence last year. That was like my first event for the brand also my first time at Essence and I sold out pretty much the first day. I said I think I'm on to something. So after that I hired a marketing firm and everything's been going good so far.

Well, I think one of the things that jumps out at me, I mean, first of all, you're right. I mean, when you're shopping, mango, kiwi, you know, it's like, y'all got anything else different? So do you use existing colognes? No, no. So I work with a chemist. So I tell him exactly what I want. I want cedar wood, I want ouds, I want Bulgarian rose.

And then he sends me all of these samples and then we tweak it. And then that's how I come up with my own particular sets. Gotcha. So when you roll these things out, did you run it by some frat brothers, homeboys, brothers you know, church members, and you were like,

yo, can y'all check out my body butter products? And what was their response? Would they say, sure, Mike, we good or? Bro, what's wrong with you? For sure. So my first customers, my first testers, were my friends, immediate friends here in LA. And every kind of launch I do, I send it to my family.

I send it to my mom and my dad. And I'm like, can you guys throw a little party? Ask the cousins, ask the uncles, and get everyone's opinion. And then I might send about 20 different samples. And then from that 20, we might roll out with like five or six. I never have a real specific number of how many I want to send out, like, oh, I have to send out 10. It's basically just like, OK, if it's three, then we do the three.

If it's seven, we do seven. And we just got to go from there. Gotcha. All right, let's go to questions from my panel. Let's see. Let's see, between Mustafa, Larry, and Tylek, who probably is a body butter dude. Let's see here.

I think Mustafa, you may win out on this one. OK, well, we'll unpack that at another time. But well, first of all, congratulations for the success of the business so far. I love to see black businesses thrive. I'm curious, what's your projections look like as you're moving forward over the next three years? Where do you hope to be

and how do you plan to get there? Sure, so I've gone back and forth, just e-commerce and going into stores. So the first, I would say five years, I do want to kind of stay just on e-commerce, really get a good foundation with the brand before I start looking at retailers. I just want to have a really strong foundation.

And then from there, I will like to have the conversations with some big box stores because I want to grow organically. If you grow too fast sometimes it's not a good thing. Thank you. Tyler, you know you use these too. I definitely will be supporting. Look the the body buzz will keep looking good. But my question will be for you. What advice would you give for other young black entrepreneurs also trying to break into the industry, into different spaces with their ideas? For sure.

My motto is, you never know until you try. And this was just a thought I had. And just friends and family just encouraged me to like, okay, give it a shot. And you really never know until you try. And my model also is that launch imperfected later. And when I first launched the brand, I didn't really like the label too much. The lid wasn't right. I said I'm going to launch it. The public will tell you their opinions. I don't like this or I don't like that.

You don't change every single thing about it just because people have opinions. But if you hear from a consensus of people, perhaps it's something that you should change. No product is perfect. every product can use improvements. So I say just launch it. Go out there and launch it, you never know until you try. Larry. First, congratulations on the success. I guess the other question is,

here you are, you're on the show, you have this product, obviously you're doing well. Can you talk with people who are watching who maybe want to be entrepreneurs? Can you just talk about maybe some of your background that kind of led you to where you are today? A lot of times we see people when you've established a business and you're doing well, but talk a little bit more about your journey to where you are today. How you got to where you are today. Sure, so I graduated from Howard University, majored in finance. And my beginning of my career,

I did investment banking at JP Morgan. And then when I came out to the West Coast, I wanted to get more like entertainment finance. So I worked at the talent agency, CAA. From there, I went to Paramount Global for BET and VH1 networks. And so I have a finance background. I don't have, you know, I'm not a chemist

or you know, anything like that. I basically just had an idea and I'm really good at, you know, taking an idea and putting in, come up with like a game plan and just kind of like, just putting it together and launching it. So from there, I just decided to come up with the brand. All right, then Mike Snow, we appreciate it folks.

Go to shopblackstarnetwork.com, shopblackstarnetwork.com to check out Mike's products. And so check out his cologne butter. It's all there again, shopblackstartnetwork.com. Mike, thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right then.

Let me thank my panel, Mustafa, Larry and Tyler. I certainly appreciate gentlemen, all of you joining the show today. Appreciate it folks. We go to a break, we come back. David O'Yellow has a new series on Apple TV Plus. And so you can check out, he also of course is a co-founder of Mansa, a streaming service.

And so we'll talk about government cheese. We'll talk about Mansa, all those things when we come back right here. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. This week on A Balanced Life, we're talking about single father parenting. You got it, faith, family and fatherhood. What does it mean to be a single parent father

spending time with your kid, whether it's a son or daughter, whether you ask for it, plan for it, or by tragedy or accident, you step into the role. I didn't take it as a woe is me moment or I was like, what am I going to do? It's like, matter of fact, I looked at it, I rolled up my sleeves and I said, hey, whatever it takes. That's all this week on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jacky here on Black Star Network. What's good y'all? This is Doug E. Fresh and you're watching my brother, It's real. David, glad to see you. Hope all is well in your world.

It is great to see you again, Rola. So I'll say from the outset, I rarely do these interviews. Here's why. Here's why I'm talking to you, because it's you. What happens is, you know, all of these streaming services and movie companies, they are very good at reaching out to us to do interviews, but they rarely ever spend any money with black-owned media. And so I always make the case, well, if my audience is good enough to market,

then you should advertise. But when your folks hit me, I said, I will make an exception for David. And so that's why we are doing this here, cause it's you. So I make that clear because we talk about opportunities for actors in front of the camera, behind the camera. We talk about people who do these deals, diversity deals, whatever way, talk about equity. But I also make it clear that it's also equity

when it comes to Black-owned media. and we're all in this fight together. That is correct. And as you know, that is a fight that we are trying to fight in a very tangible, meaningful way with our streaming platform, Mansa. Myself and Nick Parker obviously co-founded that platform. So everything you're saying resonates with me acutely. The other side of the story though is that so often if we will use the frame of the phrase

mainstream media, when it comes to our shows that feature us prominently, also there is a tendency not to focus on outlets that speak to our communities directly because there's just an oversight. There is, it's, you know, I guess if it's not for them, then they don't think of it as something that is for others as well. So it's two sides of the coin.

We need you, Roland, to get to our people. Yeah, and the reality is, but they don't mind those black eyeballs watching these shows. Before I talk about government cheese, you mentioned Mansa and know it very well, talk to Nate all the time. How is that going?

How has it been building that? What is it looking like? It's going well. Well, you know, at the moment, as a black owned streaming platform, as a black owned media company, as a black owned anything, to be perfectly frank, at the moment, to still be here is a victory in and of itself, considering all the performative promises that were made to support what we're trying to build that have all not surprisingly evaporated. And as we can see that with what's happening culturally, politically, educationally,

us being able to disseminate information to our communities is something that other political factions deem intimidating, dangerous, fear-inducing, and so there's real energy around cutting those cords and disenfranchising us further, in my opinion. So the fact that we are here, the fact that we are building, the fact that we are evolving, the fact that we are growing is a testament to our tenacity. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

Arapahue, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dad-ication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. And the engagement of our audience. Oh, absolutely.

And when you talk about creating a space of opportunity, and we also understand black consumers are hugely important. To Be has blown up because they targeted black content creators because they wanted that black audience. You can go all the way back when Fox was created. They built that on in living color, rock, black shows like that. We could talk about the CW. Because African Americans watch TV more than anybody else. But what then happens when these networks blow up and all of a sudden black people disappear. And so the importance of what Mansa is doing,

no different than what I'm doing with my Black Star Network is creating the space to say, no, when we are the deciders of what gets green lit, that's the whole key there. I don't have to go ask somebody permission, can I please do this show? I own it, so I can just have to do it myself. And that's where the power lies.

I think there's energy and intention around it being very difficult for us to own the pipes through which we communicate, not just with our own communities, but globally speaking. And so yes, what you have, what we're building is key. And we need an ecosystem of this, not only in terms of media communication, but in terms of the building of generational wealth, the building of circumstances whereby our children have a mindset whereby they do not even have to think about the notion of creating something and then constantly having that thing go through a filter of a

demographic that doesn't represent them, their values, or their priorities. And you know, it's not to say anything against white media, mainstream media. They are doing what we would do if we had the resources and the power. What we are doing, we are exercising our own bias towards our own communities, espousing the things that are meaningful to us. Where the disparity comes in is where there is a complete imbalance when it comes to who is getting to do that, how and when and with what level of resources. So, you know, to create a genuine ecosystem of equality whereby several different voices and strata within society are getting to espouse their biases, their values, what is priorities to them,

I think is what a healthy country and community looks like. You know, I, it was very interesting. When Selma came out, there were people critical of you playing Dr. King. And I watched the documentary that your wife did in the making of that. And I was already familiar with the backstory. I was there in Santa Barbara when Oprah had the big screening.

I was there in New York with her and Ava and all of you. And the thing that it really ticked me off when people were saying all of that, the reality is this here, numerous people had tried to make that movie. There were some other directors who were black who said, I can't make this movie for the budget you're putting out there.

And the reality is Selma does not get made without you. And you've made that clear as well. And I think people need to understand that. People need to understand that when an individual puts it all on the line, it's easy to sit here and Monday morning quarterback and say, oh, there should have been an American actor who did this.

Well, the reality is a black American actor didn't actually make it happen. And I think people need to understand that reality. That's how Selma got made because of, frankly, what you did in terms of just pushing and prodding and, frankly, hitting folks over the side of the head. Well, I appreciate that, Roland. Yes, that's the reality of the situation. to hear it. Well, I appreciate that, Roland.

Yes, that's the reality of the situation. But I do also understand the frustration that there are so many people who came before me who couldn't get Selma made, who couldn't get Bas Reeves made, who couldn't get a show like Government Cheese made. You know, there are a plethora of reasons why. I think there is divinity around my ability to help get Selma made.

I felt called to do it. It's the thing that gave me energy every day through those seven years of trying to get it made. I'm not saying I'm special, but I did feel called to it. And thankfully it came to fruition. There are many others who are doing things that feel divine and that they are divinely called to do. I look at Ryan Coogler and what he's achieving

in his collaborations with Michael B. Jordan. There are many who have come before, who were not able to ascend to the level these brothers are unable to do. And Denzel Washington has talked endlessly about standing on the shoulders of Sidney Poitier. There are many of us who stand on the shoulders of those who have dug ground, planted seed

that we are the beneficiaries of in terms of being part of the germination of that seed. So I'm very, very clear that it wasn't just me. I am standing on shoulders. I am the beneficiary of other people's hard work as well. But I think the conversation tends to end up with this fairly simplistic view as to who is being afforded the opportunities. I really urge people to look at the history of the marginalization of us as black people. It is rooted in a divide and conquer

mentality. It is rooted in plantation politics. It serves only those who are against us to have us in fighting over not only the things that we are challenged by, but also our achievements. If we are scratching in the ground for scraps, scraps that are at times imagined as opposed to real, it doesn't give us the opportunity to see what is ours for the taking and how us coming together enables us to achieve those things that we feel like can be unattainable.

This film doesn't get made without Ava, who I met because of the work she was already putting in. She had done a film that she had put $50,000 into, which led to her being able to do the film that I did with her, Middle of Nowhere, which is what gave me the juice to go to the production company, the finances, to say she should be the one to direct Selma.

Of course, we know what Oprah Winfrey had been doing over the last 30 years. She was the one who brought myself and Ava the credibility to get Selma made. So it was that triumvirate of the three of us that helped get it made. It was not just me, it was not just a Black Brit, so to speak.

There was a lot of African-American energy that went into that happening. And I think there is a beautiful example of how, despite the fact that divisions have been placed between us as Africans and African-Americans, when we come together, beautiful things can manifest, because that was always the design. This thing, this division between us was imposed upon us.

If we now start taking ownership of it, we only play into their politics, their industrial complex of the destruction of us. If we don't recognize that to circumvent that, we need to come together to create the things that we want to see. Talk of, you mentioned Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, obviously Chadwick Boseman was a part of that before he became an ancestor. You Nate Parker, what you just laid out.

This is the value of partnership. We always talking about man, if we could just get our folk together on the same page. I always say, we're looking, listen, there's no such thing as a consensus meeting. The real consensus is if I can find one or two or three other people who say, hey, I'm down with it, let's go together. And what you and Nate are doing as well. And so as you move in front of the camera,

behind the camera, on the business side as well, how valuable is that for you to understand connecting with like-minded people and saying, hey, we can do a lot more together than trying to do this thing in silos. It is the only way we are going to survive. Systems of oppression were designed to keep us apart. I go back to plantation politics.

I go back to, well, I go to colonization. The only way colonization can take root is if you're going into communities and societies, deconstructing them in order to make them weak, and then pretending like you are the one that has made them whole again. You know, for us, you look at other communities where their dollar stays within the community long enough for them to build generational wealth. The only way that happens is they've made an intentional decision to come together and build something together. These systems of oppression have deliberately come in and created a historical, societal, communal acceptance of the fact that we are going to be crabs in a barrel. And that is just not going to work. So a lot of my energy is around bringing brothers specifically together, because I do think there's been an intentional effort

to keep black men apart. You only have to look at a time where it was literally illegal for three or more of us to be in a group on a sidewalk. There's a reason why that was deemed illegal because they know there's power in it. So when we recognize that coming together should be the thing that we are focused on because as I say, that's how we built. A lot of people ask me this question,

they say, man, where do you get your boldness from? And I sort of laugh at that. You have not been afraid to call Hollywood out to talk about... I mean, here we are five years after the murder of George Floyd. And we're seeing from the federal government with the twice impeached, criminally convicted, felon in chief, trashing DEI corporations, Hollywood, I mean, you name it. And, and you have not shied away from that.

I'm sure others have said, David, listen, things are going well for you. You don't have to bring, bring those things up. But you are willing to say it. You talked about colonization of the niceties in the UK compared to the United States. I'll just ask why be that bold as opposed to just take the roles, make your money and keep it moving. I think I dropped out for a moment there. Can you ask that question again? Yeah, you've been quite bold and forthright in your criticism of Hollywood, performative actions.

Five years after the death of George Floyd, we are seeing the massive attacks on DEI, woke. We've seen companies pull back, Hollywood pull back. We see the success of African Americans as leads, but you still have folks who say, ah, we don't know it's going to work. I mean, look what happened when Ryan Coogler's first weekend at Variety in New York Times were questioning whether the movie was gonna make its budget back.

And you talked about colonization, how in the UK, all the niceties there compared to the United States. Others will say, David, shh, man, just make your money, sign these deals, and don't say nothing. Why is it so important for you to voice that and not shy away from it? Can you hear me by the way Roland? Yes I can hear you we got you. Yeah, well, the reason why being quiet about these things is for me a non-issue. I don't even think about it is that knowledge is power.

And at the end of the day, I personally try to move through the world from a place of faith rather than fear. I think faith is creative. It is regenerative. Fear is erosive and crippling. And I have found that has personally stood me in good stead. It's also one of the drivers for systems of oppression. The very thing they try to engender in us is fear. Fear of the loss of life,

fear of the loss of being able to feed your family, fear in every form. And I truly believe if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I don't think any of what we're talking about gets solved if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I don't think any of what we're talking about gets solved if you're not sharing the knowledge, especially as you gain notoriety, as you go to these rooms and see what's actually going,

and you don't share that knowledge. You don't not only leave the door open for those coming behind you, you blow the hinges off that door. And you know what? Importantly, build your own house. And none of that happens if you're operating from fear. I love the fact that you and your wife formed your own production company

to call your own shots, to put together your own projects. How did government cheese come about? Government cheese came about in the same way a lot of our projects happen, which is that, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. And in many ways that's what government cheese is about. I became a producer, not because that was an aspiration of mine. I did everything I could to get something made, came to the end of that coming to fruition

and realized, oh my gosh, that was producing. Basically, you have a project, you're... I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. You've got to pray for yourself, as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Passionate about, and you do anything and everything you can to bring it to fruition. And there are so many stories that I want to tell, that my wife wants to tell.

She, as a white woman in a very different way, had her own challenges early on in her career when it came to the perception of what a woman is capable of doing, especially a beautiful woman, what she's relegated to doing, always being on the arm of someone, or always being objectified,

always being on the periphery of a narrative. And I found a lot of the same things being a black man. And so, not only with our union as husband and wife, but as business partners, we basically wanted to create an environment whereby we could build the kind of projects we would want to be in and that we wanted to see in the world, but also create opportunities for others who were dealing with the same challenges we were to be able to get their stories told, because we recognize it is one of the most powerful

mediums in the world. We think of the stories we tell as engines of empathy that break down prejudice. And so, Government Cheese came about because the wonderful Paul Hunter approached me with a short film script. I felt it was something the likes of which I'd never seen before. We spent four days shooting that short film. It came out really well. It ended up being a great proof of concept,

and it's the thing that Apple saw and went the journey with us to create the show. We don't really get to, I'm gonna ask you this because I asked the same thing to Courtney B. Vance before he did, before he did, I think it was a Christmas office party. I forgot the name of the movie. We rarely get to see you in a comedic way. It's always very serious, very stern. So was it important for you to be able to say, yo, I can actually have fun and be funny

and laugh on screen too? You know, one of the things about being an actor is you can't really control the things that you're gonna do that are gonna pop. You know, I've done things that are on the lighter side. Before I did a show called Number One Ladies Detective Agency which has a fairly rambunctious character. I did a film called Gringo.

I did a film called Role Play recently which was also a kind of an action comedy. But like I say, you can never really control what is going to get to a Selma level notoriety for the public or Bas Reeves or you know, the films I've done that have, as you say, had a more stoic character, been more dramatic in feel. So comedy has always been something I've loved to do. I've done it a fair bit on stage as well. But as an actor, I'm just looking to find lots of different ways to challenge myself. In many ways, doing a comedy is as challenging

as playing a historical figure just in different ways, because if you come out the gate saying you're doing comedy, you better be funny, otherwise people are going to really question why you call it that genre. So, but for me, the contextualisation of us as black people is something I'm very energised by, and I think that means showing us in all of our facets. So one of the things that was really interesting to me about GovMate Cheese was being in the 60s where we have seen so many

shows and films that depict civil rights, black struggle. I've been in a lot of those films, but it's not through that lens. That's not the focus of what we're looking at. It's a black family in a place that we rarely see black people, the San Fernando Valley and a lot here in Los Angeles. And they're a quirky family. They're a bit out there, which is something you're used

to seeing in a Wes Anderson movie or a Coen Brothers movie, but not necessarily films that showcase us. And that was one of the things that was really, really attractive to me was, yes, getting to play comedy, but also just getting to see us in a unique way. Is that, again, as an actor, I mean, whether you act or other areas, people like to do different things, don't wanna be typecast. They wanna be able to stretch, to have range. How important is that to you?

I think it's essential for a long career. If you are doing the same thing over and over again, I think people are gonna get tired and they're gonna move on, and quite rightly so, you could argue. But also, I am really engaged with and inspired by how complicated we are as human beings. So as many at-bats as I can have of showing different sides

of different kinds of people, that's what keeps me energized. That's what keeps me excited. That's why I keep going back to the theater. That's why I want to do limited series and series and film and audiobooks. And everywhere I can go to tell stories, to be afforded opportunities, to play characters the likes of which are nothing like me. Like I say, I think that's the path to a long career, but that's also how you stay energized

and passionate about being an artist. Is there a particular role or a thing that you really want it to do that you haven't done yet? Oh gosh, you know I still feel very in my in my body. So you know to do more more action things that you know allow for that side of me which I think people David as a superhero. Well, you know, I actually thought Bass Reeves is a bit of a superhero, you know, in terms of what he does.

Right. And you know, that was amazing for me being on a horse all day, you know, in an epic Western of that nature. That was great. You know, and like I say, that was very physical as well as historical, as well as adventure and all those kinds of things. So, you know, I've been trying to get a reboot of the Rocketeer going for a while, and that was gonna be my attempt at playing a superhero.

You know, maybe that still comes to fruition. But yeah, there's so much I still want to do, and there's so much opportunity I still want to afford. You know, the great thing about being a producer, having a production company, having a streaming platform is that you can create opportunities for other people. There are roles that, you know, I'm on the wrong side age-wise to play, but there are others who I really want to see, know in those roles it was one of the beautiful things about doing Basri's was getting to see Lauren E. Banks and Grantham

Coleman and Tosin Maranfulla and Joaquina Calacango and Demi Singleton and Lonnie Chavis these younger actors get the opportunity to do the kind of thing that just wasn't there when I was their age. You know, I don't know that there was a show like Bass Reels that was really focused on the black characters, not the white characters. So that's amazing. You know, if I get to direct the Waterman and again have Lonnie Chavis in that film

or I get to produce Don't Let Go and give Storm Reid that great opportunity she had in that film, I get to produce Don't Let Go and give Storm Reid that great opportunity she had in that film, those are also the opportunities I'm really looking for. I know, I mean as you were talking about that, what immediately came to my mind, and I know Danny Glover for a long time was trying to get this made, and I think Mr. B, Harry Belafonte and I may have had the conversation as well. I was sitting here going,

hmm, David O. Yello as Tucson, Louisville, Louisville, Louisville, the Haitian revolution. I mean, and again, it's been talked about a lot. And I remember, I forgot other people have said, man, they would love to make that. Obviously, you're talking about epic. So that that that immediately

jumped into my mind as you were just talking. It's so funny, I met with Danny Glover I don't know, 15 years ago now when he was trying to get that off the ground. I don't know what's happening with it, but yes, I mean, what an incredible role, what an incredible story. That for me would be a run, don't walk situation to play a character like that. But this is what I mean.

It's so frustrating that someone like Danny Glover has spent decades trying to get that made. has been spent decades trying to get that made. You know, Morgan Freeman spent decades trying to get Bas Reeves made. It's really debilitating when our heroes, our icons, those who have really pummeled the ground from a groundbreaking perspective have not been able to get these really worthy passion projects off the ground. Maybe our generation or the generation to come are going to have an easier time of it.

I will tell you, it's incredibly debilitating. I spent 10 years trying to get Basri's made. Summer was a seven-year journey, a United Kingdom where I wanted to play Soretse Karma, the heir to the throne of Botswana. That was another seven years. You know, it's the knockbacks, the rejection, the racism, the self-doubt, the insecurity that trying to get these things

made and genders, it's erosive. to get these things made and genders, it's erosive. But like I say, we're in it and it's worth a fight. That was a great Van de Verre number of years ago did an article about Francis Ford Coppola. And the article was about his winery and how from the money that he made with his winery that he was doing his own films like in the 30 to 40 million dollar range. He didn't have to ask anybody's opinion. He funded them himself because of what he was making. And even when he, I think his opus was Metropolis that came out it did not do well and he sold a

portion is wired to get in May, but it was just a fascinating story how he had gone through so much in the in the industry with with other people telling him no no no no no having the financial freedom to make whatever movie he wanted that appeased his interest that he funded and he was like, yo, life is great. I thought it was just a great article as he just talked about having this other business

that funded his film efforts. Yeah, and that's what I mean about the need for us having generational wealth is to have that ability. You know, I've been a beneficiary of that very thing. George Lucas funded the film Red Tails, where I met Luke Parker with his own money. That was $50 million of George's own money. All seven studios told him, no, there are no white heroes. And he said, the heroes are the black guys. Right, right, exactly. And that conversation could have remained

in an echo chamber that just continues to reverberate and we don't get a film like Red Tails, but his wealth enabled us to make that film, which has gone on to be a much beloved film. And it was a film that had not only myself and Nate, but Leslie Odom Jr., Michael B. Jordan, Elijah Kelly, let alone Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr., you know, all in one place. And so when we talk about us coming together, it's so rare that that happens.

It's why when you see the Harder They Fall, James Samuel's movie, that becomes a cultural moment. It's why when you see Black Panther, it becomes a cultural moment because there's so much power in the aggregation of us being together. It's why these iconic teams where, you know, you have a lot of Black people, whether it's in basketball or football,

these moments where we are allowed to come together and we build together, what comes out of it is magnificent. It is the culture. It literally drives culture because there is such power in our unification, which is why there is such energy in keeping us apart. And so to have the ability that Francis Ford Coppola has or George had that we became beneficiaries of is absolutely crucial. And that's the thing we don't yet have. And I remember George saying, for a moment, for that moment, he understood

what it felt like to be a black director and to have white studio execs literally say no because the heroes in the movie were black and the evil folks in the movie were white and they didn't wanna touch it. It was that, I mean, I'll never forget talking to him or covering an event at the Congressional Black Caucus where he spoke about that. Not only was it studios rejecting it,

the studio that he essentially helped build with... Stunning. ...with Star Wars, that studio doesn't exist without the billions of dollars that his idea, which was also doubted, by the way, when it was first coming to fruition, that same studio was the one that wouldn't support the guy who had essentially fed them for a long time. So it just goes to show how insidious, how intentional and how challenging that circumstance is. If George Lucas is having that issue, you can only imagine what it's like when you don't have those resources and that notoriety. A couple of more questions. One, the streaming services, has that, now granted we've seen a significant cutback from

about two or three years ago when it was just billions being spent on content, but has the streaming services, but also the internet you take with Manza, you take with YouTube, you take all of this. Do you believe that's really, really, really blown the hinges off the doors for content creators to be able to get their vision to the public because you don't have the same gatekeepers as you used to? I can see a very clear uptake in my own career

tied to the rise of streaming. And I think that's to do with the fact that streaming came along and gave us raw data, whereas beforehand it was anecdotal. It was a handful of people who had green light power. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy was a handful of people who had green light power. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of the decisions they made because they would support the decision they made

with marketing dollars and they would create stars that were younger, better looking versions of themselves in order to perpetuate this sort of supremacist mindset that I truly think is at the center of what was driving the business back then. This raw data component is something that cannot be denied. It's the only way a show like Squid Game becomes a huge hit on Netflix. There's no way that they are greenlighting a foreign language film

of that nature with the notion that it's going to be a worldwide hit. I don't think we get Bas Reeves made as a movie back in the day, but streaming comes along and you have Taylor Sheridan, who has all this success with Yellowstone and then 1883. So you have a path to success. You have, it's indicative that people are watching a genre that Hollywood had decided was dead, the Western. But you can see in a very real way that people are engaging. And so that I truly think has come along and democratized things.

It also is global. You know, one of the excuses was, black doesn't travel, so you make a film, they'll give it only a national distribution. They won't think of it as international. Well, now, at the flip of a switch, government cheese is in hundreds of countries, and you can tell whether people

are engaging or not and they are. And so that has come along and really changed things. Last question for you. When someone sits down, grabs a remote and they watch 10 episodes of government cheese, what do you want them to come away with? What do you want them to feel? cheese. What do you want them to come away with? What do you want them to feel? Well, I really hope they'll see themselves in it because it's a quirky family. It's, it's a show the likes of which I would argue you've never seen before. But I would say you if you're part of a family, if you have either had children,

had parents, had growing pains, had marital issues, had aspirations to give your family a better life, you will see yourself in this fantastical, absurdist, hitherto unseen family and place and a way of telling a story, you will see yourself in it. And, you know, when I talked earlier about storytelling being an engine for empathy, I truly believe we are more alike than we are different.

And that, I think, is the way you break down prejudice. And we do it, I believe, in this show in an entertaining and fun way. We show you a family in which you are going to see your own family and hopefully you'll have a few laughs along the way. All right. Dave, it's always great to chat with you. Good luck with Government Cheese on Apple TV Plus. And just keep handling your business and just wave at the haters.

That's what we do. We smile and wave and keep it moving. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Take care. Bye, brother... Sometimes it's just a matter of time before you can get to the point where you're

really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. And that's when you're really starting to get the hang of it. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we

also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.