#RolandMartinUnfiltered - High stakes Louisiana election, Blatant voting rights assault exposed, Illegal activity at WH

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

3.28.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: High stakes Louisiana election, Blatant voting rights assault exposed, Illegal activity at WH On Saturday, Louisiana voters will decide on four proposed amendments to the state Constitution. We'll be joined by Gary Chambers Jr., Advocate and strategist, to discuss the early voting turnout.  Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, the President and Senior Lecturer of the  Repairers of the Breach, will drop by to discuss the blatant assault on our voting rights.  Illegal activities are taking place in the White House, and California Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove is speaking out about the extent of these issues. We'll hear from her directly. Virginia House Speaker Don Scott will be here to discuss his being denied entry to a speaking engagement at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach..  And we'll talk to the hosts of the NAACP Image Award-nominated true crime podcast, After the Uprising Podcast, about how their investigation could solve the murder of Missouri activist Darren Seals. #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 #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com 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. Today is Friday, March 28, 2025. Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Crucial election tomorrow in Louisiana. We need every person who is in Louisiana to vote no on all four constitutional amendments. Activist Gary Chambers Jr. will join us

to tell you how Republicans are using a prominent black rapper to actually get folk to support their agenda. Yeah, you don't want to miss that conversation. Bishop William Barber is focused on

mobilizing and organizing our folks around the issues that matter to our people. He'll be joining us to tell us about a new report. Repairs of the Breach of the Poor People's Campaign have actually launched. Virginia Speaker of the House Don Scott was invited to speak at a high school, yet before he even left the House, he was told he wasn't invited because he wasn't properly vetted. The Speaker of the House for the state of Virginia.

Yeah, he'll be joining us as well. Also on today's show, lots of illegal stuff is happening in the White House. That's what a freshman California Congresswoman says. She'll be joining us to talk about that as well. Plus, we'll talk to the host of the

NAACP Image Award winning podcast about the death of a St. Louis activist that people have always questioned what really went on. And man, I cannot wait to... If y'all want to know how Black

owned media stays broke, I'm going to tell you about an email that I received this morning from a car company that's all about give us free airtime and all you get is a free trip. Yeah, I'm going to tell you all about it. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. network. Let, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roll. Martel.

Martel. We're always telling you, you must exercise your power. You must not sit on the sidelines and that there always are elections happening across the country that are happening in your state, in your county, in your city. Well, in Louisiana, there's an election tomorrow that deals with four constitutional amendments.

These amendments deal with changing the tax law, establishing specialty courts, changing the dates of judicial elections and things along those lines. Now, these, of course, we talk about constitutional amendments. That means that they're actually going to be placed in the Constitution. OK, that means it means that that's the law. It is very, very hard to actually change that.

Well, you got folks there who are in Louisiana, African-Americans who have really been going around the state, really holding town halls and trying to get our folk to understand the impact of these elections. In fact, thepowercoalition.org, they've been working with Gary Chambers Inc. to do so. This is a graphic they put up you can access i put this on all my social media outlets y'all so you can go grab it from

my instagram page my twitter page fan base snapchat tiktok fix facebook i posted on all of them and so they're laying they're saying say no to all of the constitutional amendments. You see at the bottom right here, you got any problem voting, call 866-OUR-VOTE. You also have, of course, how you can find your polling place and district. You go to powercoalition.org forward slash vote. And so, and again, so activist Gary Chambers Jr. has really been focused on this. So Gary hit me up today, and he said that, oh, these Republicans are real scared. And so they have been using,

they've been, of course, using text messages that have been going to black folks. I'm posting on social media. They don't even live in Louisiana, and they got a text message. And so you might say, well, who are they utilizing?

Who are they having push stuff out? Would you believe rapper 50 Cent? Now, 50 Cent just signed a 45-year lease agreement for his studio buildings in Shreveport, Louisiana. This is the video Gary sent me that they have been sending around with 50 cent backing one of these constitutional amendments. I want you to listen. This is Curtis James Jackson. You might know me as 50 cent. I have a special message for the people of Louisiana. As you may have heard, I'm now a proud Louisiana property and business owner working hard to bring film and television industry back to Louisiana. I'm working because I have an opportunity to use my influence and make real

change in the communities. I want to see more jobs and prosperity in the state of Louisiana. This is why I support the Amendment 2 on your ballot this Saturday. You should too. Don't let anyone confuse you about the Amendment 2. It gives teachers permanent pay raise. It doubles senior citizens' tax deduction. This is all good stuff. Voting in favor of the Amendment 2 makes common sense, and this is a bipartisan effort. Every Louisiana State Senate Democrat voted to get the Amendment 2 on the ballot. This one is about the people coming together. This is Curtis James Jackson. You might know me as 50 Cent. Okay. I have a special message. All right. Well, again, 50 Cent just showed up in

Louisiana very recently. Let's talk to somebody who was a lifelong resident of Louisiana, activist Gary Chambers Jr. So, Gary, you sent me that this morning. So you heard 50 Cent there talking about Amendment 2. This is from the Power Coalition. They say this amendment would change some of Louisiana's rules about taxes, government spending, and teachers paid. It is a grab bag of changes, but at its core, it cuts funding for early, special, and K-12 education, as well as roles in infrastructure maintenance. Explain. Thank you again, Roland, for having us be a part of this conversation.

You know, I wish 50 would have tried something else today other than interfering in our politics, but the reality is it's about what's good for him. But the truth of this is, Roland, they are restructuring the entirety of our tax code to help people like 50 Cent. Out-of-state business owners are going to be able to get more money in tax deductions in order to pay for this.

People who are working-class folks, school teachers, bus drivers, people who are auto mechanics, people who are auto mechanics, people who are people that work in restaurants, you're going to end up paying more in taxes because they're taxing more things in sales taxes. Teachers, this is a stipend that they're going to make permanent. It is not a raise. Teachers are not going to get any additional money in their pay. And a matter of fact, because of the changes in the sales taxes, their money is

going to get ate up in more taxes rather than a serious substantive raise for our teachers. Roland, this has gotten so desperate for the governor that he was at the White House the other day, caught on a hot mic talking to Mike Johnson about this issue. And that's why they called 50, because at the end of the day, 50 is a businessman looking to advance himself in his business. And I don't have an issue with 50 coming to Shreveport and doing business. I don't have an issue with him buying up property. I don't have an issue with him attempting to revitalize Shreveport. I do have an issue with you saying that this is something that's good for us because you heard it from some white politicians in our state. I would also tell you that Democrats in the state Senate did vote for this, but ask Black

folks in the state of Louisiana if they showed up overwhelmingly for the Democrats that are in the Senate. The answer is no. We've had abysmal voter turnout in this state over the last couple years. We've never had. In Baton Rouge, I looked this up recently, Roland. In Baton Rouge, in the last 20 years, there's not been a single legislative race where 50 percent of the people showed up to vote. So it's telling me that a senator supported this. It's not telling me that this is what the people of the state of Louisiana support. Also, right now, 37 percent of turnout in the state of Louisiana is black. If 12 to 15 percent of white people agree with what black voters are saying right now in this state, we end up defeating

the governor and sending a message to him and the state legislature that you got to do better than this. The other thing is, we don't need confusion. We're telling people to vote no on all four, to have 50 come in and say vote yes on two. That's entering in confusion to a simple message, no on all four, because they're all bad for the people of Louisiana. Did the Power Coalition, did you or any others, did 50 Cent reach out to black activists to talk to them about

any of this? I've never had a conversation with 50. I reached out to you. I reached out to some other folks on the national level who I felt may have a relationship with the brother because, look, you may not know, OK? I'm trying to give the brother the benefit of the doubt. 50, you may not understand how this will hurt working-class people, how this is going to hurt poor people. You may not have read the legislation because it's such a complicated piece of legislation that people sued in order to have it removed

from the ballot because the language is so long and complicated because it's confusing. The reality is this policy is going to restructure our tax plan, cost poor people more money, help rich people keep more of their money, and it's a bad deal for the working-class people of Louisiana. It is also disappointing when Black folks who have acquired a certain level of wealth

talk to wealthy white people to come then tell black folks what they ought to do. I think that's a disingenuous position. I can appreciate him coming into our state, but oh boy, mind your business when it comes to this one. So, and so here's the deal.

Let's be real clear. Jeff Landry is MAGA to his core. And it's not like this is about black folk. Roland, you know what blows me about this? I wasn't going to go there, but I'm going to go there. 50 wouldn't say nothing about the national politics that impacts the entirety of black people in America. Couldn't get you to open your mouth about what Black folks should do in the presidential election. Now we got the Department of Education being torn down, where Black folks are questioned about so many funding mechanisms that take care of Black children,

special needs children. You use special needs children in your messaging while they're dismantling the Department of Education, and you're trusting the people who are aiding and abetting that process to govern the state of Louisiana with just and equitable policies, if you don't want to say nothing about the national politics where you have national influence, please don't come down here meddling in our local state issues when you have a platform to be able to influence black people all over this country. But it seems you only want to use that when it's beneficial to you, and I call it bullshit on that.

So let's, again, let's go through these amendments for folk who don't understand. First off, Amendment 1 would allow the Louisiana legislature to create trial courts of specialized jurisdiction and provide Supreme Court original jurisdiction

to discipline out-of-state lawyers. Walk us through that. So this basically says that if an out-of-state lawyer does something that the courts oppose, that they give them the ability to create special courts. Roland, you understand the complexities of what it takes to put something into the Constitution. This gives them broad powers to create new courts. We oppose that. While specialty courts can be a benefit,

we don't want new broad sweeping powers for them to go in and create specialty courts that they're going to end up penalizing lawyers with. The Supreme Court of the state of Louisiana can already deal with out-of-state lawyers. We don't need a new court system to do it. More bureaucracy. All right.

We talked about Amendment 2, so let's go to Amendment 3. It would allow the Louisiana legislature to decide which crimes could lead to a juvenile being tried as an adult. Additionally, this would allow lawmakers to change rules over time without needing a constitutional amendment. So right now, 80 percent of the kids in juvenile justice system in Louisiana are Black kids. So we know that these laws are generated to lock up more Black kids. But here's the reality. Dish attorneys in Louisiana are already charging juveniles as adults.

They already last year took kids out of juvenile correctional facilities and placed them in Angola Penitentiary. He just put a proposal forth to spend $36 million on a new juvenile detention center in Rapides Parish while we are looking for funding for tutoring programs. This is not about helping Black children. This is not about making our community safer. If he was serious about making our community safer,

he would have took that $36 million and invested in community programs to tutor these kids and give them after-school programs in some of these communities where these things are happening. District attorneys already have the power to charge these juveniles as adults. What this would do is give the legislature the ability to throw a bunch more charges in there that they can put our kids in jail for. So a kid who stole a $500 cell phone could end up in an adult correctional facility. And the reality is, you end up with kids that are more broken than they are fixed by that. We end up with kids that are tainted by the justice system rather than given the tools

that they need to be successful in this life. And the last thing I'll say on that, Roland, is you don't get a Gary Chambers if rules like that existed in Louisiana, because I was a kid who was arrested for the first time at 12, arrested again at 16, and arrested again at 21. Never was I arrested for something that I was actually guilty of, okay? So let's be clear. Every Black kid that gets in contact with the cops is not necessarily a criminal or wrong, but the system in this state should not become more punitive. It should become more prosperous and give young people the ability

to find avenues for prosperity rather than punishment. Okay, let's go to Amendment 4. Would allow the state to fill the vacancies for new courts using the earliest election date allowed by state law, which are often low turnouts. They want to do just what they're doing right here in this March 29th election,

where most people aren't paying attention. The governor was caught on a hot mic saying they thought the turnout was going to be 12 percent. Now they're predicting that the turnout is going to be around 22 percent. They know that low turnout elections allow them to get judges of their choosing on the bench. And that does not benefit the global population of this was this is a NOLA small business owner Matthew Wollin Weber he posted this this is his graphic on the give me second, it's not coming up. We'll figure out why. Give me a second. He posted a graphic on this election here.

This is how he broke it down. He calls Amendment 1, shady specialty courts. Amendment 2, tax cuts for the rich. Amendment 3, dismantling juvenile justice. Amendment 4, tinkering with judicial elections. I three, dismantling juvenile justice. Amendment four, tinkering with judicial elections. I love it. I love it. It is short to the point and accurate to what this is. These policies are all bad for the state of Louisiana. I really hope that 50 finds some new relationships in our state so that he doesn't come meddling in and try to tell Black

folks. And let me tell you something. I know he doesn't care, but there's not a single black person that I've talked to today that felt anything positive from getting that text message from 50. And I would hope that somebody like him would not allow people to use him as a tool, because if you are as bad as you say you are, then you should be coming in influencing and changing things rather than getting those people to use you like a piece of equipment.

This was that you mentioned the video, the hot mic. This is it. This is when MAGA Governor Jeff Landry was in Washington, D.C., and he's here with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Folks, listen to this. What's the anticipated turnout? Well, we thought it would be 12, but it looks like it might be 18%. Yeah. Johnson, Speaker of the House from Louisiana, Shreveport. I try to tell folks all the time, you got folks from the 50th ranked state in the nation running the whole damn country.

And I've been screaming to pay attention to the elections in Louisiana because this little raggedy place that people try to ignore is punching above its weight every day. You got a guy from Caddo Parish, Louisiana, standing at the White House with Jeff Landry, caught on a hot mic. These same people are justifying folks who can't even text correctly, can't even operate a simple process of evaluation within their government. And these are the people that you want to trust with the government. The rest of the country should pay attention to these deep South states because people like Jeff Landry are friends with people like Mike Johnson, and Mike Johnson is dismantling the country before our eyes with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And if you ignore these elections, if you're not paying attention to what's happening you talk about how they want to change the law to benefit business owners, you might say, well, OK, but what's the big deal?

Where does Louisiana stand? Go to my iPad. These are the rankings, y'all. When it comes to crime and corrections, Louisiana, the 50th ranked state in America. The economy, the 49th ranked state in America. The economy, the 49th ranked state. Education, 47th. Fiscal stability, 41st. Healthcare, 46th.

Infrastructure, 49th. Natural environment, 49th. Opportunity, 44th. That's not where you want to be. So the highest ranking in Louisiana, Gary, is fiscal stability at 41. You don't want to be in the bottom of the bottom of states in America. So with a 41st-ranked fiscal stability, you're going to go in and now move the money

that we put in stability funds. You're going to move the money that we put in rainy day funds. You're going to move... We're already in the bottom 10 of the whole country. I tell people all the time, there are people in this state who love to be first in the worst. There are people here who are committed to being great and being

the last. And I think that we have to make a collective decision that you won't allow people with small thinking to have a big impact. OK. And the way that you minimize that is by supporting people and the elections and the initiatives that are happening in the places that nobody else is expecting to have an impact on your life. Trump understands that these people are simple-minded like Mike Johnson. Trump understands that they are linear focused on one thing, and that is white supremacy and religious control within this country. And whatever they do in order to make that happen, they don't care what it costs you or how uncomfortable it makes your life as long as they accomplish that goal. They don't care how much Trump

destroys other aspects of the government if it helps them accomplish their end goal, which is putting more mediocre white men in positions of power over you. Again, folks, big election tomorrow in Louisiana.

Call your friends, post on social media, tell your folks to turn out. Black numbers are huge in Louisiana and can be the deciding factor in that state. And you're right. Listen, if black folks turn out in those numbers as you laid out, as you've been laying out in early voting, that could be the difference in this being defeated, Gary, and forcing the governor to have to come back to the table

and, frankly, negotiate with the people on a real economic plan for Louisiana. That is exactly right, Roland. I thank you, as always, brother, for highlighting the issues of our people here in this state. Please text your people, call your people.

If 5% to 10% more black folks show up tomorrow and vote no on all four constitutional amendments, we get to have a different conversation with our state legislature in three weeks when they go into session. Gary Chambers, Jr., we appreciate it, man. Thanks a bunch, and we hope it's a good night for you and others tomorrow night when the polls close.

You know I'll be reaching out, Roland. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Again, I just want to remind people that in Louisiana, polls open at 7 a.m. Central. 7 a.m. Central in Louisiana. They close at 8 p.m. Central. So let folks know, don't, don't, don't sit at home.

Don't sit at home, folks. All right? Don't sit at home. Don't sit at home, folks. All right? Don't sit at home. All right? I'm going to go to a break. We come back and chat with my panel. You're watching Rolling Markdown Filters right here on the Black Star Network. This week on The Other Side of Change.

The economy is not working. Trump's got trade wars, recalls. The price of groceries are through the roof. And there is a better way. There is another way. Join us as we talk more about it and we reimagine something better on the other side of change. Only on the Black Star Network. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim.

You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. So you heard us there talking about, again, the power of voting there in Louisiana.

And this is about what Gary is doing, what the Power Coalition is doing, is educating and informing people. And that's what's necessary. Joining us right now, Bishop William Barber, Repairs of the Breach Poor People's Campaign. And Reverend Barber, you heard Gary there talking about, again, when we talk to our people, we educate our people, they were traveling around the state,

you have to communicate with them. You have to touch them. You have to speak to them. You just can't make the assumption that folks are just going to turn out just because. That's right. You can't make the assumption of that. You can't make the assumption that people know what's really going on. And that's why it's so important what you're doing,

what Gary's doing, what we have to do if we're going to indeed build a movement. And we cannot just believe, Roland, what we have to do if we're going to indeed build a movement. And we cannot just believe, Roland, what we have heard. You know, Trump and his crowd contentionally say they run a mandate. Well, that's just not true. But they do have a strategy, and that strategy is to win counties. That's all they worry about.

They brag about winning, having won 2,500 counties in this past election. But, you know, tonight, what I want to do with you, Roland, and we've been talking about this, is connect some policy to why we need to have massive turnout in 2026 and 2028, but why we can't wait until 2026 to get ready for 2026. Right. That's one of the things that I have been saying repeatedly that you can't just... I did a radio interview today with a progressive show in Las Vegas and I said, now

through the end of the year should be all about education, enlightened, informed. Boom, with 26 hits, now you're getting ready for primaries. Now then you get ready for the general election. But you can't wait to start educating them in January. That's right. And one of the places we need to focus on, you know, the Bible says where your heart is, where your treasure is, where your treasure is, where your heart is. This budget that the House is pushing in the Senate has a negative impact on everybody

and really ought to be a focus of our massive voter education, our protests, and our preparation. Let me just share with folks what you need to know. And I sent you the link to the report that we just put out so that people can understand it. In the House budget that they're talking about, and by the way, Roland, they want to pass this budget for 10 years. If they pass it as it is, you won't be able to change it, in essence, for 10 years, 10 years to 2035. Now, what they want to do is they want to cut $2 trillion in spending. Now, don't get bored.

Listen to me. Actually, we just lost you there. Actually, you broke up there. Hold on one second. You broke up there. You said they want to cut. Go ahead. They want to cut. Go ahead. They want to cut two trillion dollars.

And it's impossible to cut that much money from a five trillion dollar budget without touching Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. You need they do that, 36 million people will lose or could lose their Medicaid. This is why we have to win special elections and take the House at least. Now, you're talking about, if that happens, Roland, over 6 million black people. You're talking about people who are in nursing homes, people who are disabled. And you also are talking about if they cut $36 billion from, I mean, it affects 36 million people. You're talking about closing medical facilities, especially in rural communities and in the South, like in Louisiana and Georgia and North Carolina and places like that.

But it goes worse than that, Roland. They want to cut some billions of dollars from Head Start that could affect 650,000 poor and low-income children, many of which are African-American. And they want to cut rental assistance that helps 5 million poor and low-income households, 69 percent of whom are children and older Americans and people with disabilities. And then lastly, Roland, they literally want to affect Social Security, and that 61.2 million people had Medicare, and over 68 million people received Social Security. This budget will devastate the Black community. It will devastate the poor community. And we need to be as angry as it is about this budget and pushing against it

as we would be if they were cutting Martin Luther King's holiday or going after the museum, which they very well may do. This budget is deadly and it's devastating and we need to understand what they're attempting to do and how racist it is in its impact, particularly on our people. You know, Indivisible is planning a nationwide march on April 5th. And I've had some people, Reverend Barbara, I've had some people

send me social media messages saying, oh, no, no, we're going to rest on April 5th. Let them folk go on out there and do whatever. We gonna rest. And I just keep saying,

I'm sorry. This is not a resting moment. You can't, you just can't let these folks run the table on what they're doing because what they are planning to do is absolutely evil. I keep saying they want to defund Black America.

That's right. And they're doing it in an aggressive way. You can't rest. We need to be out there. And it's not just this one march. I'll be there. We are supporting and endorsing. But we're going to have to have a whole movement.

And the reason that Invisible is doing it is to make sure people are educated. I think the theme of it is take your hands off. Take your hands off our Medicaid. Take your hands off our Social Security. Roland, we're dealing with people in this budget. They want to make sure that there's no way we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The treasurer and the commerce secretary, when they were approved by the Senate, both of them said, Trump's picks, that they believe that $7.25 an hour is high enough for a minimum wage, and if you make $15,000 a year, that's enough. You understand, but our people need to understand, this is a race issue. If you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, 43% of all black people would come out of

poverty. 43% of black people who are currently in poverty and low wages would come out if you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. So when they say we're not going to raise it, we don't even believe it should be raised, again, they're defunding black America. And so we've got to get this education out there in order to get people to understand that why you cannot stand down, sit down, and surely we need to be preparing now for every special election we need to be involved in and new ones coming. And Roland, let me just say this quickly.

I'm going to give you some numbers. I don't like giving them. But what we need to notice if we got serious about building power, Trump had a ground game, one ground game that was sure. And that was white evangelical Christians. And this all over, almost half of the folk that voted for him came out of that movement. Forty-five percent of his total votes were white, so-called evangelical Christians. They're not Christians, but they actually don't believe in Medicaid and Social Security and things like that. In addition to that, though, Roland, yes, 64 percent of all

eligible voters cast their vote in 2025, but that means 36 percent of Americans didn't vote. I want our folk to hear this. With All that was going on, all that we're talking about now, even in the black community, some over 30 percent, in some places as high as 40 percent, did not vote. Trump actually got less votes in 2020. He got 74 million votes. In 2024, he got 72 million votes, which was lower, 2.1 million lower. And this is the count that came out right after the election. Biden got 81 million votes rolling in 2020. Harris in 2025 got 67 million votes. Now, it's adjusted some,

but 14 million fewer votes, and they didn't go to Trump. They just rested, if you will. They just sat out. We have to take into account, not only can we talk about voter suppression and what people have done, we have to talk about the fact

that something is wrong if we've got upwards of 30 and 40 percent of black people who are choosing not to vote, particularly in a time in which we live right now. Questions from our panel. Joining me on today's show, Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show. Joining us out of Detroit, civil rights attorney Matt Banning. Joining us out of Corpus Christi.

State Representative Derek Jackson. Joining us out of Georgia. Representative Derek, what's your question for fellow Alpha Bishop William Barber? Go ahead. It's always good to be on with fellow brother Bishop Barber. So Bishop, my question is, how do we get the black church?

Can you hear me? Bishop Barber, can you hear Derek? Bishop Barber, can you hear Derek? All right. So we just lost Bishop Barber. So, guys, do me a favor. Call him back so we can finish the conversation with Bishop Barber. Let's do this here.

I'm going to start with you. What Gary was talking about, we keep saying this. When we use our power, when we of our capacity, Trump could have lost. He would have lost, Roland. is that we get flooded, as you well know, because you've been here a lot during the last several years when Warnock was running and Ossoff was running and Kamala Harris was running through Georgia. All these distractors, Roland, people get their information from so many folks, but they get the wrong

information from the folks like 50 Cent. And so that's what ended up happening. And then they stick and they run with it with those 10 to 15 seconds that they get from TikTok. I mean, take, for example, those constitutional amendments that Gary was talking about. When you have four of them, they're written very vague, and we don't do a very good job educating the electorate on why they should vote either yes or no on these amendments, because it's got all this legal language. It may sound right, but they don't read the bill in its entirety. And when you don't read the bill in its entirety, it has all those poison pills in that bill

that would negatively impact black and brown communities. My last point is this, Roland, when you start talking about constitutional amendments. It's going to be enshrined in that state's constitution. And so Republicans are playing a long game. So even though when those states may flip blue, they may get a governor that is Democratic, they still going to be confined

by those constitutional amendments. We got, Derek, hold on. We got Bishop Barber back. What's your question for him? Okay, so Bishop Barber, my question to you is how do we get the black church more engaged, you know, to do more like the Jamal Bryants? And the reason why I'm specifically talking about the black church, because that's where the black and brown community is on a weekly basis, where they can get this information 52 weeks out of the year and we can mobilize and organize through the black church,

unlike other avenues where they don't meet on a frequent basis or they don't get their information at the frequency that they need to because tomorrow may be too late for Louisiana to get that word out. How do we get the black church more engaged? Well, you know, one of the things is we have to build, even in the black church, we've got to build fusion coalitions. And also what we've got to do is we're working now with 10,000 congregations through Repairers of the Breach and Pastors, and we're doing these reports and putting them in ways that they can preach it, they can teach it, they can hand it out. But let me just say this real honestly.

Every black church needs to do this evaluation. Not just did you preach a sermon and not just did people shout and say amen. Most black churches do not do an evaluation of their people turning out to the polls. And we've got to count. If you can't count, and I'll say this to a pastor, if you're pastoring and you've got 10,000 members, you need to check to see if 80% of them are eligible to vote.

Did 90% of them vote? Because what the data is telling us is that upwards of 40 percent of our people aren't voting. Now, I hate to say that, but it's just a true fact. Nonwhite women, when you look at when you look, break it down in these voters, they voted overwhelmingly for, say, Harris. Black women voted 70 percent. But that means 30 percent still didn't vote, 30 percent. And what we're in a season now is where we can't afford to have anybody that's not engaged because these elections are turning on small percentages. You had Harris and Biden, for instance, were powerful in the union movement, but you had large numbers of union voters that voted for Trump.

That's a fact. That's what we're finding out. And so the reality is we have to address this. And if the black church, there's a scripture in the Bible that says if you're going to build a tower, you first got to consider the cost. And one of the things, it has to be more than Sunday morning, and it's got more to beat than preaching. You have to strategically organize that congregation in a way that folk are getting the information and why they should be voting. They know that black folk, if every black person in America voted, we don't have enough

by ourselves to put somebody in office. But we've got enough votes to determine who goes into office. But you have to start at your church. I don't care who you are. And you've got to have teams inside of that church. Everybody is registered. Everybody's educated. And start saying we want 100 percent of our membership to be engaged in participating in the right to vote. That for us is not just a constitutional right, but the God given right, because God gives us the right to choose. God gives us the right to choose. This is our battle in this moment. And it also means, my brother,

that we can't just get our people, you know, as I said, if tomorrow, and Roland and I talk about this stuff, if tomorrow Trump was to go after, say, the Black Museum, yes, people would be emotional and they'd be mad and should be mad. But you also got to get upset when this budget is going to knock six million black people off of Medicaid. Six million. And we've got to start helping our folk change what we get upset about, because that should be driving us. That should be driving us to the polls. It should be pushing us in a way. As I said to you, if 43 percent of African-Americans would come out of poverty, out of poverty with minimum wage, why isn't that issue of minimum wage being preached every month, at least in the black church, and the issue of poverty and the issue of

workers' rights. We must get our people connected to the substantive matter, because Roland keeps telling us the goal is to... Looks like, again, Reverend Barber, he's on the road. He's on the road. He's on the road. His phone went out. Matt, again, what he lays out there is fundamentally clear. This is not rocket science.

When we check out, we get hurt. And I understand people who say, man, stuff hasn't happened fast enough. But I'm telling you right now, what these people are doing, they are targeting everything in black America. We're looking at literally losing billions of dollars. You're right. And it's funny because every time, literally 100 percent of the time I talk to my father about political issues, the first thing he mentions to me is, son, we need to get out and vote. And obviously we know that to be true, but that's exactly what Dr. Barber was saying there. And, you know, what I was going to ask him when I hope I get to ask him when he comes back on is whether he's seen any economic studies that extrapolate the effect of raising that minimum wage. I mean, I've never heard that data point that 43 percent of Black people would come out of poverty if the minimum wage was raised. I mean, that's an extraordinary data point. And it seems like

something that actually dovetails with what Republicans claim they want to do, which is lessen cost of programs and services provided to citizens. So I'm really interested in seeing whether that economic impact is there, because as a preface, we know that they're making it clear every day they are not concerned about taking care of Black people via their policy. But raising the minimum wage would actually accomplish both things, theoretically, if the economics bear it out. And I'm interested in seeing that, because we know that this country

does not have the respect for workers' rights that it should, and really the respect for providing minimum necessities to people, because what we do is we call people who need those the dredges of society. But if this is your economic platform, which is, you know, contracting the size of the government, contracting the size of services, it seems like raising the minimum wage is consistent with that. And I'm interested in seeing how the economics bear out in that respect.

Well, what they laid out... Give me a second. I'm going to pull this up here because they have laid those things out before. We've had... We've had them on... Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do, let's see here. I'm looking right here.

I'm trying to sit here and look at that very thing. So the answer is yes. They have pulled the data and showed that when you do this, when you raise, when you create a living wage, the number of people it would raise out of poverty.

But what it runs up against, and this is what Republicans do every single time, what they constantly do, Michael. Oh, no. Businesses can't afford it. Can't afford it. Can't afford it. Can't afford it. Other lay people off. So what they do, they use the scare tactics of, oh, we're going to we're going to we're going to lose jobs, lose jobs. If you do this. And because it's all about how do you keep more money in the pockets of business owners, not workers, business owners? Yeah. And what I find interesting is that the same business owners, the same billionaires that claim to be so brilliant,

they don't ever talk about putting together task force that help local businesses streamline their business, become more efficient, understand generally accepted accounting principles, learn to buy in bulk, learn to buy as a group so you can lower your cost, so you can pay your workers more money. They don't ever talk about that. I find that very interesting. You know, so I saw Scott Bessett when he was in front of the confirmation hearing, the Senate confirmation hearing, and Bernie Sanders asked him the question about raising the federal minimum wage. He thought it was fine at $7.25.

So you really—so the whole thing is really laughable when you don't want to pay a living wage, but at the same time, the small businesses, you're not saying, you would think they're so brilliant they would say, hey, let's help these small businesses right-size, become more efficient, so they can increase their profits and pay more money. Yeah, but you've got to remember, when Trump was there last time, and then they raised, when they cut taxes, he was running around saying, oh, these companies are going to use the money from the tax cuts to reinvest in workers, give them raises. And the CEOs were literally on record saying, no, we're not. We're doing stock buybacks.

We're doing stock buybacks. Not only that, a lot of the CEOs were saying we don't need the tax cut. They weren't asking for the tax cut. That's the other thing. OK, so but but this is just a power grab. But you're talking about CEOs of corporations. I'm talking about small businesses. I'm talking about small businesses which employ the majority of Americans.

But first of all, again, we've got to set something proper here, and that is the federal designation for a small business is 500 employees or less. Okay? So, we got to be real careful because see, when you and I are talking small business, we're talking this business. We're talking 10, 15

people. No. The actual federal categorization is 500 or less. So, when they're on the national level talking about small business, that's also folks with 400 employees. Go ahead. So I'm talking about local businesses, you know, 10, 15 employees. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying.

You've got to specify because you ain't talking 450 employees. Yeah, I that's what I'm saying. You gotta specify because it's a, you ain't talking 450 employees. Yeah. I'm talking about... But that's the federal designation. The federal, that's why during COVID, that's why during COVID a lot of the restaurant chains couldn't qualify. So what they started some of the people who own restaurants,

what they started doing was they started filing paperwork for individual restaurants, not the group. Yeah, not the group. Yeah. And let me just add this very quickly. If Reverend William Barber comes back on, it looks like he's not come back on because he's in a dead zone. OK, well, if somebody gets this message to him, the question I wanted to ask him was he mentioned, I think the percentage was 36 percent of registered voters did not vote in the 2024 election. I think it was something like that.

Yeah, but also 90 million Americans didn't vote in November. Yeah, yeah, 89. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, about 89 million. But I wanted to find out from him in his travels, what are some of the reasons why African-Americans gave for not voting and how do we work to overcome that? Well, I can answer the question because he and I talk all the time. It's not just African-Americans. What he lays out most importantly, he says, first, candidates don't speak to them. Two, candidates don't reach out to them. The bottom line is they don't touch them. So what happens is with elections,

it's all about likely voters. And so they keep pouring their money into them as opposed to who potentially is low-hanging fruit. Who can they reach? So what he says is very rarely will you see, I mean, very rarely are you going to hear candidates, Democrat and we know Republican, actually even use the word poor.

Use the word, use the word the working poor. Use that, so they're never going to say that. They always use the language of the middle class, the middle class, the middle class, because that's who they're talking to. So the biggest issue, he lays out, according to their data, that if

politicians would speak to the core issues of those voters, that could move anywhere from 3% to 5% in each state, especially in the South. But the problem is your campaign consultants, largely white campaign consultants, ain't trying to use the word poor. Got to go to a break.

We come back. We're going to talk to a member of Congress who said, it's some illegal as hell thing going on. And guess what? Crooks love crooks. Guess what? The twice impeached, criminally convicted felony chief Donald Donald the con Trump did. What did he just do? He commuted the sentence of Carlos Watson, founder of Ozzie and his company as well. I'll give you all the details. You're watching Rolling Mark on the filter on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do.

Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That comes out to $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. You want to contribute via cash app, here's a Stripe QR code right here. Just point your phone to it. If you're listening, go to theblackstarnetwork.com. Send your check and money order PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered, Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinOnFilter.com.

We'll be right back. Sadly, news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reid's primetime show, The Readout. Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reid's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network, for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you, and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern

at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. This is Tamela Mayne. And this is David Mann. And you're watching Roland Martin. I'm good. Thank you. So, folks, here's some breaking news. Moments ago, Donald Trump issued a pardon for a couple of individuals who had been convicted of various financial crimes. One of those individuals is Carlos Watson.

So what Donald Trump has done, he's commuted the sentence. Watson was hours away from having to report to federal prison. Remember, he was convicted for sitting here lying about the finances and guarding a scheme of Ozy Media. So you look right here. So he was due to begin serving 116-month prison term in this case. Now, remember, in February, a federal judge ordered Watson and Ozy to pay almost $60 million in forfeiture and more than $36 million in restitution.

Now he's commuted the sentence and not sure. So he's not going to prison. Not sure. Does that mean he doesn't have to pay back the penalties? Now, keep in mind, he was convicted in court and a judge, first of all, at the sentencing, the U.S. attorney then said Carlos Watson orchestrated a years-long audacious scheme to defraud investors and lenders to his company, OZ Media, out of tens of millions of dollars. Said that Watson and his co-conspirators between 2018 and 2021 defrauded investors. And, of course, they shut down in 2021. In addition to that, he also pardoned Trevor Milton, the founder and former

CEO of electric truck maker Nikola. He was free on appeal after being sentenced to four years in prison. So crooks hooking up crooks. That's what you got going on. Well, Congresswoman Sidney Kamala Goddard, she wanted to highlight the extent of these issues by asking her Capitol Hill colleagues if they know just how serious the situation is. Here's a social media video she

put together. Hey, I'm Congresswoman Sidney Kamala Goddard on the House Judiciary Committee. We are at our first markup, and I'm asking my colleagues if this is legal. I am here with a colleague and homie, Becca Ballant, Congresswoman for the great state of Vermont. Are you a lawyer? I am not, but I'm married to a lawyer, so I'm lawyer adjacent. I too am married to a lawyer, so I get where you're coming from. So, Voldemort Vought is trying to dismantle

the CFPB. Is this sh** legal? This sh** is not legal. Definitely not legal. The CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was set up by Congress and only Congress can dismantle it. She

said it right here first. Thank you. I am with Congressman Hank Johnson. Are you a lawyer? I am. So you know if it's legal, right? I do. All right. I have a question for you. The Trump administration is not complying with court orders to release foreign aid funding. Is this legal? That ain't legal. And that's all he gots to say. I am here with my good friend, Deborah Ross. Are you a lawyer? Oh yes. So then you will be able to tell us if this is legal, correct? Correct. All right. Here's the question. Attorney Ross, Elon Musk has been awarded almost $200 billion in federal contracts, and now he's exercising unchecked authority over

federal agencies and employees. Is this legal? Well, in fact, I led a letter from the Judiciary Committee asking our new Attorney General to enforce the ethics laws and the conflict of interest laws. And so we need to get to the bottom of it. But I don't think this is legal. Girlfriend said it's a no. Okay. I am here with Congresswoman Scanlon, also on House Judiciary Committee. She's big time. Are you a lawyer? I am a lawyer. So then you know if it's legal, right? Absolutely. So my question for you is Trump tried to end birthright citizenship with an executive order. Is this legal? Hell no.

There you had it. Short and sweet. Well, Congressman Kamala Jadot joins us right now. My panel got a kick out of that. I see Michael, Matt, and Derek, they enjoyed that video there. So, just, I mean, it's the White House, two blocks from here, occupied by a bunch of crooks. Absolutely. It's like Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights up in the White House selling everything and doing everything that's unconstitutional,

unethical, and illegal. I put this series together and I do one every week because there is so much coming out of the White House that I'm sure folks think, well, since it's the president, he can do it right. And we're telling folks, no, most of this, if not all of this stuff is illegal, unethical and unconstitutional. And we should not be complying passively with what is coming out from the White House. We should be fighting and we should be be complying passively with what is coming out from the White House. We should be fighting, and we should be educating people about what is not legal. And, I mean, look, we had reports

that even last time he was there that he was essentially selling pardons. And this man is pimping the White House. It's a total grift. He's pushing his coin. People who buy it, they're getting screwed. He's pushing his coin. People who buy it, they're getting screwed. He's selling perfume. He's selling

guitars. I mean, he's jacked up prices at Mar-a-Lago. He's going home playing golf every weekend. I mean, look, he's turned the White House lawn into an auto mall for Elon Musk and Tesla.

And they're just, and guess what, Republicans and the voters are like, well, we're all good. Keep selling. I mean, I remember when Republicans acted a fool when Bill Clinton had donors sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom. This is taking grifting to a whole new level. Well, I love the fact that I want to say he set the bar super low, Donald Trump, but there's actually no bar anymore. I mean, just what happened with Signalgate, with Pete Hegseth and all of these fire, you know, fist pump emojis. Remember when Obama did the fist pump and you thought that was an international incident?

No, this Donald Trump, you know, after his first term when he was flushing secrets down the toilet and, like you said, getting money from people who wanted to visit him at Mar-a-Lago and the Waldorf Astoria, this go-round, he's actually selling access to the Easter egg roll up to $700,000 if you want to sponsor a space at the Easter egg roll. Hawk and Tesla's on the lawn. He's selling miracles for a thousand dollars. There's all kind of madness that's going on. And similar to the CFPB and trying to shut that down, which is illegal, he's trying to do the same thing with the Department of Education.

He's trying to do the same thing with the Postal Service. Those things are enshrined in the Constitution. The only entity that can start or stop the Department of Education or the Postal Service is Congress. And now here you have, you know, temper-tariff Trump not only cratering our economy with these crazy tariffs, but also doing all the stuff that is illegal and forcing us to take him to court. And you know this, Roland, now that the courts have been ruling in our favor more times than not, now he's trying to impeach judges and dismantle these lower courts.

So we need the Supreme Court to clap back on this buck up coming from Donald Trump and remind everybody that the Constitution is not for sale. Well, yeah, because now they're mad. Now, they love when the judges ruled against Biden. Now they literally want to defund the courts because they dare to uphold the Constitution when this thug-in-chief is in the Oval Office. I am in canon. I have a member of Congress, my neighbor, right down the hall from me, and he has a sign that has pictures of these judges. And he says their activist judges go after them. So they are literally not only trying to impeach judges,

but they're actually trying to invite folks to enact terror against these folks. And Speaker Johnson has threatened to try to get rid of one of the lower district courts, maybe the Ninth Circuit, because they tend to be the most liberal, because he's upset that these judges are ruling against Donald Trump and not allowing him to break the law. That is why is this ish legal is so important for us to share with the American people so they can see, just like you said, this man is a thug. He is up to no good in the neighborhood. He's trying to get rid of Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare while stuffing the pockets of his cronies who actually paid for him to become president. It is obscene. And if anyone else

was doing this, there would be protests in the streets. Why these Republicans have become complicit and silent, I don't know, because last I checked and you notice, Roland, the stuff that this man is doing is impacting not just Democrats, but Republicans, too. They don't care. Questions from each panelist. Matt, you're first. Yeah, Congresswoman, first. This is hilarious. So thank you for doing this. And I think it's important to give it to the American people in a way that's most easily digestible. But here's the question I have for you. What are you hearing behind closed doors from your Republican colleagues about why none of them are standing in the way of any of this craziness that we see at all? I suspect a lot of it is them trying to save their own skins. But since you're there on the ground, what are you hearing from your colleagues about

why they will not stand up for right? Well, a lot of them are scared and a lot of their family members are scared. They don't want to be primaried. They don't want to be threatened by X. And they're trying to figure out nice ways. But you cannot communicate with a bully, but they're trying to find nice ways to communicate with the administration to have them see, you know, where some of this stuff is going sideways. I mean, look what happened to J.D. Vance on the Signal chat. He actually had the nerve to say that he questioned some of the policies coming from Donald Trump, but he was going to let him go with them because he was

the president, even though he had some questions. And what happened to J.D. Vance? They banished himself to Greenland. So now he's knocking on people's doors, trying to sit on their couches in Greenland, looking for some stuff to do because he had to go back to Donald Trump. Donald Trump wasn't worried about the leak. Donald Trump was worried about J.D. Vance not even showing fealty to him in a signal chat. So all these Republicans are running scared, but we only need three of them to find some courage, to rent some balls, and stand up to Donald Trump. The other thing is this, yo. Look at what happened with Elise Stefanik. She was on her way with her glam squad to go to the U.N., and then they said,

oh, no, because they're scared about what's happening in Florida. They're scared about just what happened in Pennsylvania. So they are running scared because they know these policies are not good for the American people. Michael. Representative Kamala Ghaidab, this is Michael Imhotep. So this is my third time watching this video today. I cracked up each time. I wanted to know what has been the response

from people who saw this latest video? What has been their response? And then also, what has been the response from maybe your constituents or people you've talked to who did not vote in the 2024 election, and they're looking at all this chaos taking place? So everyone loves the videos. I did not know that they would go viral and people would respond to them as positively as they have. And they've said, thank you. Thank you for speaking the truth, telling us what's up. Keep doing this. We need to know because we're fighting in the courts. We're fighting in Congress. And now we have to fight with the community and bring everyone together and realize and help people see that this is not D versus R so much as it is the country versus

Donald Trump. There are a lot of folks who are saying they either have buyer's remorse because they voted for Trump or they're really upset because they didn't think he would go this far this fast. And I'm like, boo, we told you, 2025. So, you know, I'm not wiping away your tears, but you better get up in this boxhole with us because we got a lot of work to do. Derek? All right. Yes. You know, I appreciate the video as well. And I especially enjoy the fact that you're highlighting these illegal and unconstitutional activities because we all know they used to say that they were the party of law and order. My question is around, are you planning to also highlight some of the things that they're

legally doing, such as when they remove the former President Biden's cap on $5 on the overture fees? Are you highlighting that? Because I anticipate now that the Senate has removed that $5 cap, people are going to feel that pain when banks start charging them $10, $15, $25 over. Do you plan on highlighting these policies that they're doing legally?

Well, we're definitely going to talk about all of the things that he is doing that are not legal. And the sad part is there are so many things to talk about because this man is moving as quickly as fire in terms of enacting a lot of these things that are illegal. And yes, we are going to be talking about the things that he's doing, things that are legal, but that are unwholesome, unethical, that are compromising to our safety. I have been talking a lot about the economy and what he is doing to crater the economy by trying to privatize all of these agencies. You've got this man called Big Balls squatting in our government agency offices trying to rewrite codes and prevent us from accessing our own money. You are going to allow banks to run roughshod and just let predatory lending

go back up. And you're also sort of, you know, firing workers. Millions of workers are now going to be without collective bargaining rights or other kinds of protections. And they want to make all of these buildings vacant so that Elon and Donald and all of his cronies can buy them up. So it's a wholesale selling of our American economy and our government. So, yes, we are working to kind of share all of these things because we want to reveal the madness and the grifting that is taking place. All right, Collins, glad to have you on the show. Look forward to having you back. You know, feel free. Let us know when you want to come and chop it up.

Would love it. And from my alpha husband, I'm just sending continued greetings. All right. Certainly appreciate it. Derek is also a frat as well. So thanks a bunch.

Appreciate it. All right, y'all. Going to a break. We come back more right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Y'all, you know

there's always something. And guess what? You know what this racist in the Oval Office is doing? Now he's going after the Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Didn't I tell y'all what these white folks were going to do in my book, White Fear?

Did I not tell y'all this stuff was going on? I told y'all. I told y'all. Y'all see the photo on the cover? It's a white man with his arms outstretched on January 6, 2021. Do you know what he's saying in his photo? All of this is ours. That's why

I picked this photo. If y'all ain't red-white fear how the brownie of America is making white folks lose y'all mind, y'all need to. You will understand Product 2025 and what all these people are doing. This is how you can actually access the book right here, folks. Get it at bookstores nationwide.

Get the audio version on Audible. I'm telling you. And spread the word because it's important. So I'm just trying to let y'all know this thing is real. Support the work that we do. Join the Bring the Fuck fan club. Listen, there's no other black-owned media that's letting y'all know what is going on every single day with these people. Nobody else

is doing this. And so we want y'all to support the work that we do. And of course, give me a cash app. This is the Stripe QR code. You could also use a credit card right here as well. Send your checking money order PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash, excuse me, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Brown versus the Board of Education.

The history books call it the court decision that ended racial segregation in American schools. But a brand new book, Jim Crow's Pink Slip, uncovers a devastating unintended consequence of that 1954 Supreme Court decision. We may, if we were lucky, have been the very last generation of Black students to have experienced these generations of Black teachers who have never been replaced. Dr. Leslie Fenwick joins us to talk about her book and the actions following that landmark decision that dealt a virtual death blow to Black educators. That's next on The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network.

Question for you. Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn what you need to do to become unstuck and unstoppable.

The fabulous author, Janine K. Brown, will be with us sharing with you exactly what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career. Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career. Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, I'm talking about that inner boldness that you have to take a risk, to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint.

Hey, Saraz. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sherlock Holmes show. Well, it shouldn't be the Sherlock Holmes show and the Roland Martin show, but whatever show it's going of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sheryl Underwood Show. Well, should it be the Sheryl Underwood Show and the Roland Martin Show?

Well, whatever show thing can always count on is for the twice-impeached, racist, criminally convicted felon-in-chief to do all he can to attack black people. So last night, Chief Dumbass issued two executive orders. This is the first executive order making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful. Now, remember, they've already screwed us when it came to Black Lives Matter Plaza. OK, they've already they've already screwed us when it came to Black Lives Matter Plaza. Okay? They've already screwed us.

In fact, just so you understand, you know, in terms of what these folks have done, it's just an abomination what they've done. Actually, come back to me. I'm going to scroll in a second. What they've done is abomination.

You know, I was outside. I'm going to do this here. Give me one second. I'm going to... Just so y'all know, this is what the latest is and how they've just completely chopped up and just messed up 16th Street, which actually leads to the White House.

You know, Republicans forced the District of Columbia to spend, you know, almost a million dollars tearing up the streets because they did not like Black Lives Matter being on the street. It was actually, it was a monument that was created. And so as a result, this is is I shot these photos yesterday. Give me a second. I'm connecting my iPad so you can see what it looks like.

And again, these so-called fiscal conservatives. Let me say it again. So-called fiscal conservatives demanded that Washington, D.C. do this. This is what it looks like right now. That right there, it's going to take... So it wasn't just painted. They literally built it into the ground. So they sat there, and that's it right there. And just so you understand,

this is the road leads to the White House. If I zoom in, you will see that is the White House right there. And so, you know, these folks, these Republicans, they force the district threatened to withhold transportation money from the district. If they did not follow their orders, they made them do this. They did not care. They don't care. They didn't ask the people of Washington, D.C. They don't. It does not matter for them. Hey, we control Congress. So therefore, we control your purse strings. So you know what? We're going to make y'all do whatever we want y'all to do.

I also shot some video. Give me one second. I want to show that to y'all as well. Because, I mean, and it's just a damn shame how these people are operating. And so, they want to totally control Washington, D.C.

They want to force the mayor of D.C., force the city council to be on bended knee to whatever they want. This is the video that I shot of them also working on the street, again, tearing it up. So that's what's going on here in the nation's capital. And so here's what Trump did, y'all. So you see right here,

he says, let's see here, blah, blah, blah. He wants to talk about how it needs to be clean and well-kept. So you see right here, fighting crime, what's going to happen right here. My administration shall work closely with local officials to share information, develop joint priorities, maximize resources to make the District of Columbia safe.

And so he's listing all these departments, creating these task force as well. You see right here, task force shall coordinate to ensure effective federal participation in the following tasks, directing maximum enforcement of federal immigration law, redirecting available federal, state, and local law enforcement resources to apprehend and deport illegal aliens, monitor the District of Columbia's sanctuary city status, and compliance, provide assistance to facilitate the prompt and complete accreditation of the D.C. Forensic Crime Laboratory. Also, in collaboration with his leadership and union, providing MPD with assistance to

facilitate the recruitment, retention, and capabilities of his police officers. And it goes on and on and on. And so you see deploying a more robust federal law enforcement presence and coordinating with local law enforcement to facilitate the deployment of a more robust law enforcement. They just repeat shit. I mean, they don't even read executive orders. They just repeat stuff. OK, so you look at all the different parks or whatever you see here. Make the ticket of the interior is going to make the District of Columbia beautiful. And so, blah, blah, remove graffiti from commonly visited areas. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. General provisions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so that's when it relates to D.C. Then, of course, it also was about the Smithsonian. So here's what they did. They then called this restoring truth and sanity to American history. That's what this is called, okay? Restoring truth and sanity to American history. So they sit here and they write that over the past decade,

Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. Oh, the revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.

Under the historical revision, our nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. All Donald Trump. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire Americans around millions around the globe. So what does he do? So watch this here. So he talks about one widely respected,

once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has in recent years come under the influence of a divisive race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values, white, as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum

today features the Shape of Power, stories of race and American sculpture, an exhibit representing that, quote, societies, including the United States, have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement. Not a lot told. Not one. The exhibit further claims that sculpture has become

a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct stating race is a human invention. But it is! And then here we go. The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed

that, quote, hard work, individualism and the nuclear family are aspects of white culture. So here we go with this nonsense. So what do they do? Taylor Smithsonian, so he's going to put Vice President J.D. Vance over this whole deal. They want to change the structure

of the Board of Regents. You see right here, it goes on and on and on, on and on and on, restoring Independence Hall, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and here we go. Section four, restoring truth in American history. The Secretary of the Interior shall, quote, "'determine whether since January 1st, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers,

or similar properties within the Department of Interior's jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology. Ah, and here's where it comes. Let's bring back the white power symbols. He wants him to take action to reinstate the pre-existing monuments, memorials, statues, markers,

or similar properties as appropriate and consistent with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Y'all, all this is about, all this is about is how do we bring back whiteness? How do we bring back white culture, white dominance? That's all this is, Michael. It's abundantly clear. Absolutely. And this is something we were warning people about before the election. But this goes back. So first of all, I read the fact sheet on this executive order that Donald Trump did on Thursday. This goes back to his first term in office when Donald Trump attacked the 1619 Project

and said basically he was anti-American, said he didn't know anything about the year 1619. He said he knew about 1776. He created the 1776 Project, which created a historical version of history. He also attacked critical race theory. And he was attacking critical race theory. He did an executive order in September 2020 that banned the use of critical race theory in training for federal employees. This was six months before Christopher Ruffo started publicly his tweets, you know, really attacking critical race theory. So—and then you see him talking about, in the past five years, renaming monuments, things

of that nature. He's talking about the racial reckoning that took place after the killing of George Floyd in this country, that spread all across the country. And we've been talking about how there's going to be a white backlash to that whole Black Lives Matter movement. And this is what we're seeing right now. And he's talking about going after the funding, because part of this talks about prohibiting funding for exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans by race, or promote ideologies inconsistent with federal law. And he's talking about the Smithsonian Institute, their exhibits, et cetera, the African-American

museum. So, this is a direct attack, a continued attack on African-American history, but also going after the funding that funds these exhibits also. So, this is on top of removing Executive Order 11246, which was affirmative action. This is on top of revoking Executive Order 13985 from the Biden administration, which dealt with equity

when it came to the different federal agencies, things of this nature. So this is devastating, but we're going to have to fight this as well. Derek, let's go back to June 11, 2020. And if you go to my iPad,

this is from NPR. Congress heads towards clash with Trump over removal of Confederate symbols. And so, here we go right here. Okay. The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee,

let me get rid of this, adopted an amendment that will create a commission charged with renaming Army installations that bear Confederate names and removing their Confederate symbols. Okay? Now, remember, the House had already voted to purge the capital of Confederate statues.

And so here we go. We got more. And so the reality is they did. The Republicans did not want to do it. OK, you see right here, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that the statues in the Capitol come from the 50 states. He argued they should decide which ones they send to Washington. Every state is allowed two statutes. They can trade them out at any time. I think that's the appropriate way to deal with the statute issue. The states make that decision. Well, we already know racist states like Mississippi love their Confederate symbols.

Okay, so look at this here. House Penalty Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday he isn't opposed to renaming military installations. Other Republicans said they too were open to moving ahead with the process at the federal level to remove the old Confederate names. Ah, guess what? Trump was not happy. You see right here, the White House dug in this week on standing by the current names of a number of Army bases

named for Confederate commanders, including Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate Army, Braxton Bragg, and others. Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that he considered the door closed to rename military installations after Defense Secretary Mark Esper had appeared to open it and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated that the administration believes the name should stay. Now, just in case I need to remind y'all of what this was like, listen to the racist language that was used. Because I just want y'all to understand. And oh, by the way, she's now an anchor at Fox News.

Listen. I'm trying to get it to play here, so give me one second. See, y'all, these folks here, it's real clear who they are. It's real clear what they stand for. It's real clear who they actually represent. All right, here we go. Listen to this. Fort Bragg is known for the heroes within it, that train there, that deployed from there.

And it's an insult to say to the men and women who left there the last thing they saw on American soil before going overseas and, in some cases, losing their lives, to tell them that what they left was inherently a racist institution because of a name. That's unacceptable to the president, and rightfully so. And I would also note, where do you draw the line here? I'm told that no longer can you find on HBO Gone with the Wind because somehow that is now offensive. Where do you draw the line? Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison be erased from history? What about FDR because of internment camps?

Should he be erased from history? Or Lyndon Johnson, who has a history of documented racist statements? And finally, what about people that are alleged by the media to be segregationists? NBC tells us Joe Biden didn't just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their causes in schools, experts say. CNN tells us letters from Joe Biden reveal how he sought support of segregationists. In the fight against busing, Washington Post tells us that Biden's tough talk on 1970 schools desegregation plans could get him new scrutiny. And see, Matt, this is real simple.

They are appealing to the white racists in the Republican Party. That's all this is. And one of the ways that they do that is framing everything as black as somehow being ideological. I mean, we talked about that the last week on the show, but that's what's so insidious and just malicious about it. You know, it's a lot of this stuff is just purely historical fact that is being cast as somehow being ideological because it's black people. And to your point, a lot of the way you see their rhetoric surrounding this being sold is this idea of like, you know, why are we allowing people to co-opt

America? We need to take it back by virtue of sanitizing history. Basically, people are lying about what the history is. But we know, number one, the truth of the history is indispensable contributions by Black people just across the board, number one. But number two, if you take ideology out of it, and it's purely historical, I don't know how you make that a political issue or make it an issue of one group of people versus another, whereas it's just a demonstrable fact. So I say that to say this, that's exactly what they're appealing to. That's exactly who they're appealing to. And it's terrifying that in this country, there is a contingent, a large contingent of people who will see something as black and see it as immediately

being ideologically slanted or somehow being, you know, it's carrying out some Marxist ideology or some far liberal ideology or whatever, when it's fact, historical fact. And the interesting thing about this is, as it relates specifically to the Confederacy, a lot of their objection, or at least purported objection, is this idea that people are not promoting American values. They're not adopting American values. They're not standing strong for America and what she stands for. But that's literally what the Confederacy did not do. It literally seceded from the United States of America and fought a war to have its own supremacy. I mean, that is like per se treason. And it's crazy to me that in the same breath,

people who are in support of renaming these military bases and putting back up these monuments to Confederate people can not understand the intellectual cognitive dissonance that lies in that kind of statement. And the idea that you've got to be more American by standing up for American values and promoting American values, but I should have the right to promote the best example of a contingent of people who did not promote American values. And they'll never answer that hypocrisy because it isn't about being logically consistent. It's about Blackness, and it's about anti-Blackness, and it's about making anything that is tangentially related

to Black be the enemy. And we're seeing that. And it's terrifying that people are allowing that. I mean, to this end, I'm a part of a committee here in the local town that puts on an annual parade. And I didn't know this, but as of, I don't know, five or 10 years ago, there was a group of Confederates who would march in this parade. And I told the people I was involved with, there's absolutely no way I'll be involved if they're involved. They're no longer involved. But just as soon, as recently as five years ago,

people were still coming out with Confederate flags and demanding their opportunity to march down the street with heritage. You only do that if your heritage is about hate and if you want to thumb your nose in the face of people who recognize that it's about hate and who call you on that. I mean, that's what we're seeing with this administration. And when you hear it from your neighbors, when you hear it from people down the street, it's abhorrent. When you hear it from the White House, it's terrifying because they've got the means to enact policies that put that hate into practice and into ways we've seen it happen over the course of American history. So here's what they're doing, Derek. Go to my iPad. So he's a perfect example. So when the grossly unqualified

Fox News anchor Peter Hegseth became Secretary of Defense, he began to do the reversal of the Army bases. And so they changed Fort Benning. They changed that. What they also did was change Fort Liberty.

But here's the deal. This is how shameful they are. So Fort Bragg was named after a Confederate general. OK, that's what used to be named after Braxton Bragg. But then he got cute by renaming it after Private First Class Roland Bragg, a World War Two veteran awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. Then he did the same thing for another particular base as well. So what they're doing is using the same name.

These people are a joke, but what they're appealing to is whiteness. They're tapping into the buttons of white people who go, how dare you change our history. They want these Confederate monuments to remain. This is about appeasing whiteness. We got to call this thing what it is. It's playing up to them. It's embracing them.

This is about white culture, white dominance over history, white dominance over everything. Yeah, Roland, you're exactly right. And I definitely agree what has been mentioned, but I just want to add a couple points, right?

They're not just doing this at the federal level. They're also doing this at the state level, right? Their whole goal in whitewashing at the federal and at the state level, this here, this foundation, is to make sure they sanitize everything of the past, uplift their culture, and then so 50 years from now, Roland, you won't even think that we contribute anything

to the United States. You wouldn't think that Frederick Douglass lived or Dr. King lived. And so we're fighting at the state level here in Georgia some several egregious bills. So

we're getting this from the federal level and at the state level. But the bottom line here is that it's up to us, Rowling, and everything that you have mentioned tonight that makes sure that we preserve our culture, that we get this information out. We mobilize and organize in a manner to realize that it may be Smithsonian today, but tomorrow it may be Dr. King statue. They may want to remove all the Dr. King street names

across the United States. I think there's like 113 Dr. King streets. And so this fight, we have to have the endurance, we have to have the stamina to fight them at the federal level and at the state level. Folks, we want to talk about how they play the game, so check

this out. My next guest, y'all, is the Speaker of the House of Virginia. His name is Don Scott. And so, a few weeks ago, Don Scott was invited to speak at a school in Virginia. So, here they are in Virginia. So, school invites him to speak. And so, you know, all good. He agrees to do it. And all of a sudden, Don is on his way to speak at the school, and before he leaves the building, guess what happens?

He gets a phone call, and when he gets that phone call, all of a sudden, they say, oh, I'm sorry, forgive us, you can't come speak at our high school. But here's Don Scott, the first black speaker of the house in Virginia history. He's now confused. He's now trying to understand

why is it that I can't speak at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach. So they then go, well, you weren't properly vetted. They also said,

now this is the one that I really, really love. Really, really love. They said that the parents at the school were unaware of his planned appearance. Okay, this is where I'm confused. This is just me. And before I go to Don, I'm going to ask Derek Matt and Michael have the three of you

ever been invited to speak at an elementary school a middle school or a high school yes yes I have all the time

do you recall do you recall do you recall ever where somebody said, hey, before you can come, we have to we got to let the parents know first that you're coming. No, no, no. Yeah, I don't I don't I don't recall that either. I don't recall that either. So I don't quite understand. I don't quite understand what this whole deal here is. Why it's such a big deal. So, again, this is where I'm confused. Y'all all know, I know,

you don't have to sit here and get permission. Oh, let us let the know the parent, the black guys coming to speak. I've spoken at numerous elementary schools, junior highs and high school, and it wasn't a while. Let me notify somebody. But that's literally what happened to Don Scott. They literally said to Don, yeah, they ain't been vetted. So we're going to have Don in a second.

We're going to have him on the show to talk about this nonsense. Y'all, this is the Speaker of the House of Virginia. And they literally said this here. Go ahead, Derek, go ahead. Yeah, no, it's appalling and it's incredulous. And they literally said this here. Go ahead, Derek. Go ahead. Yeah, no, it's appalling and it's incredulous at the same time. I mean, the nine years I have been elected thus far and the number of schools from elementary to middle to high school, speaking not just at certain, you know, events like Memorial Day or Veterans Day, but even at pep rallies. And no educator, no principal, no administrator told me that they had to get the clearance from parents before I had the opportunity to speak before their children.

Never. I mean, that's just what's crazy to me, Derek. It's just insane. And so really, what were we just talking about, Matt? We were just saying this is about whiteness. This is about a... Oh, no. We have to notify the white parents

that the black man is on his way. You know the shadiest part of this, too? His partner was going to speak. You look at my law firm, Webb, Case, and Demanding, right? So if one of my partners, Webb, was going somewhere to speak and I was coming to join them and they knew the law firm was Webb, Case, and Demanding, presumably they wouldn't need to vet the Manning because they

know I'm the Manning in the name of that law firm. Now, obviously, he's the Speaker of the House of Virginia. But if it's his partner and his partner is allowed to be there and his partner has been vetted, you cannot tell me that they had an issue with vetting. First off, I mean, how do you have an issue vetting one of the most public figures, you know, political figures in the state? But how do you have a problem vetting a partner to the person who's there, his law partner? I mean, that to me sounds like complete hogwash. And I read that letter from the superintendent which is complete bs because it's insane you can't tell me that they didn't know exactly who he was

and somebody there just didn't want him to come speak and they came up with a bs reason that he couldn't speak um to me it's insane it it shows you it shows you how crazy these people are Michael and it's just unbelievable and so go ahead and make your comment I can't wait to hear Don tell his story well the question I was going to ask is exactly what is the vetting

process and how many people do you put through the vetting process and how many of them are black and how many of them do you have to get the permission from the parents for this person to speak at the school? This is not something I've heard of before. So I just want to know how many other people have you done this to and how many of them were white when you got the permission from the parents for this white person to speak to the children? Absolutely. All right, folks. Can y'all hear Don? His shout is fine. Can y'all hear Don?

Can y'all hear Don? We're good. God, we got it. Let's go, Don. There we go. Virginia, speak of the house. Don Scott, what's up, frat? Right there. Yep, you're fine, Don. That shout is fine. Don, up, Frat? Right there? Yep, you're fine, Don. That shot is fine. Don, can you hear me? I can. All right, so we were just talking about this here. So, I'm confused. You get invited to speak.

So, who got invited? Was it just you or somebody else? It was my law partner, Jeffrey Bright, Bright and Beniozzin. So, you and your law partner, Jeffrey Bright. I take Jeffrey's brighter than you. Jeffrey is a lot brighter than I am.

Exactly. So you got a call saying you were improperly vetted. Was Jeffrey vetted? That's a good question. I would be surprised. He has indicated to me if he was vetted, he has no idea what the vetting was. Was Jeffrey allowed to speak? Jeffrey did speak that day.

Whoa, hold on, hold on. Wait, hold on. I'm real confused. So you and your law partner got invited. You're black. No, my law. Nope, nope, nope. My law partner got invited about two weeks ago.

He asked me could I make it because he wanted to bring me along, and I said my calendar's jacked up, not sure when I can make it. Then a few days before the event, my calendar freed up. I can make it at noon that day. And then he allowed me to, then I told him I would be coming in. He called the, I guess the student, I think, who originally invited him. That person contacted the teacher. Jeffrey spoke to the teacher. They got excited. It was originally supposed to be a small room or a class. I guess because I was coming, they decided to move it to the auditorium or to a larger space. And then the word got out, I guess, within 24 hours. And so as I'm on my way driving to the school at around 11 a.m., my partner calls me

and says, I got good news and bad news. The good news is you don't have to drive over here to Virginia Beach. The bad news is that they are barring you from the school property because you haven't been properly vetted and parents hadn't been given 24 hours notification. That's what happened. Okay. And that's what they allowed to happen. So what did the district tell you? So does the district have a policy that any speaker or anybody who's invited, that they have to tell parents who's coming on the campus? No, that's not the case. They actually did send me a policy,

and the policy basically says that the principal, whoever is invited as a speaker to principal has to have notification. That was it. Nothing about parent notification or any of that other stuff. And so at the end of the day, it just, you know, I know what it is.

You know what it is. I'm the highest-rank ranking Democrat in the state, in the state elected official other than the federal officials. I'm the Speaker of the House here, first black speaker in the 405-year history of Virginia. And I think they would never have done this to the governor, Lieutenant Governor Agee. In fact, I spoke to some of my colleagues from the area who have never been, they didn't even know there was a vetting or anything. They've come on the campus without being, without any notice at the last minute, being called in for an hour or two ahead of time to come by and speak to some kids.

So there were several members. I had some Republican colleagues from the area who reached out. One of them was a former delegate. Her name is Karen Greenhouse. She emailed me and said, this is crazy. I can't believe they did that to you. She's brighter than me as well. She's a Caucasian lady and a Republican and thought that that was ridiculous

and disrespectful. And she reached out to me and emailed me. So I think, you know, someone there in their administration or someone on that campus decided that they were going to teach me a lesson and show me that they could put me back in my place. And they expected that it would go away quietly. And I think they've been surprised by the surprise that I'm not built like that. We don't lay down, and we're going to keep fighting, and we always, there are people who are voiceless who will never be in a position to speak up

when someone does something to them that we know that it's not only offensive to me personally and my family, but more important, it's offensive not only to the black community, but to all Virginians, because you're disrespecting the office and you're disrespecting the work that we've all done to get here. And then you disrespect the kids by not letting them hear. I was coming in to talk about my legal practice, to talk about what it takes to become an attorney, to be an attorney, and practice in both criminal and civil court. And my law partner, he does mainly civil work.

And so we were coming in just to talk about that. He's an adjunct professor at William & Mary as well. And so we were coming in to have fun. In fact, he dragged me kicking and screaming. I didn't even want to come. So this is how God works. He puts you in these positions where I was really trying not to go, and he dragged me kicking and screaming. And then now all of a sudden I get into this mess. So that's where we are now. Absolutely crazy. So yeah, I'm quite sure they, um, uh, are not a fan

of all this attention they've now gotten. No, they are not. And I've heard from the superintendent of schools and he's apologized, sent me an email, apologized and called me and invited me to come and speak at some point in the future. I told him I definitely would come because I don't believe in, you know, last night I watched Selma and watched him go back and cross that bridge. So I think, you know, we don't run from these opportunities to be in front of those people who may not like us. And so I definitely, but not only about the, it's not about the adults. It's also about making sure that these children know that people can't bully them and want them off. And they'll get to see somebody who they may not see often and that the adults probably don't want that. I think you got to be like D-Nice in Club Quarantine.

You got to bring some special guests. Uh-oh, sounds like Roland Martin might be coming to Virginia Beach, baby. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I think you ought to roll in with some special guests. Well, you know, one of the things that's amazing to me is what's happening. So many folks in my community have reached out. So many people across Hampton Roads have reached out, across the state, across the country, in fact.

And there have been people who are grateful that I did not allow this just to go by unanswered. And there have been teachers from Virginia Beach Public Schools that have reached out to me, both black and white, that have said that this was wrong and that they hope Virginia Beach will get its act together. Because someone over there at the school, I think it's at the school level because the superintendent had no idea. I think it's somebody in the school, the principal on down, someone like that. They probably need some corrective action to be taken and some folks need to get some counseling and training. This is not DEI. I'm the Speaker of the House of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I think I've been vetted appropriately. All right.

Well, Fred, let us know what happens. And, yeah, I'll see if my schedule is busy that day. All right. Take care, my brother. I know I love the shirt. I got that one at home in the collection. Appreciate it. Oh, you know, I had to go.

Hold up. I should have did the interview like this here. Oh, heck. You done went all the way back home, baby. All right. All right. Giggle. See, I should have went H-Town. We just finished the Livestock and Rodeo show.

Of course. The largest rodeo in the world in Houston. All right. I appreciate it, Fred. Thanks a lot. All right. Take care, my brother. All right, y'all.

I got to tell y'all this here before we go to our final story. First of all, I need y'all to roll Where's Our Money. Go ahead and roll Where's Our Money. I'm about to give y'all some game to understand how black media gets screwed. Roll it. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have Black Army.

All right, y'all. So yesterday I told y'all about how Fox News, these blue chip advertisers are just showing up on Fox News left and right. And so I've explained to y'all what happens to Black-owned media and how we get played.

So I got an email today. Now, I'm not going to name the car company, okay? It's not General Motors. I'm not going to name the car company because it's from the PR side. So let me tell y'all. So they invited to fly me down south to an event. That's a three-day event, okay?

The first thing would be an interview with this entertainer. They're sponsoring this event with this entertainer, who I personally know, who I can call on my cell phone, so I don't need them to schedule me an interview. So check this out, y'all. So they invite me to this thing. And so what they want me to do is test drive a vehicle and cover this event. Okay. Now here's, here's, this is the third time this car company has invited me to something.

So the first time was in Atlanta, and I went down, and I made clear that, look, y'all need to be talking to my salespeople about doing some stuff, and eight tests drove cars. I didn't post anything. I'm like, what a check. So then they had another event they were sponsoring. It was a golf tournament. So prominent sports person.

So I go down there. I actually play in the tournament. That's really why I went. I went to play. Play in the tournament and also did some interviews and stuff like that. So I had to send the brother an email the day saying, bro, I'm not coming. I'm not coming. In fact, I'm going to send the brother an email today saying, bro, I'm not coming. I'm not coming. In fact, I'm going to read the email

because I just want you to understand that I don't run, I don't hide. I let folk know exactly how I feel because they need to be aware that I don't play games in terms of playing black media small. And so I sent the email back, and I said to the individual, I said, I appreciate the invite, but I have to decline.

This would be the third such invite from said car company. And there had been zero advertising dollars that said car company has spent with my show or network. The problem is I'm the one providing value and access to my audience. 1.77 million YouTube subscribers and 30 million views a month, plus five million total social media followers. And all I'm getting is a trip to said city. Me spending three days there is a very long commitment. My time is just as valuable. Now, I understand that your job is to drive earned media and PR.

But mine is to also stay in business. The position that I have taken with other brands, especially the streaming services, is that if my audience is valuable enough to present a product, then it's also valuable enough to advertise to if your media buyers want to do an ad by associated with this I am more than happy to discuss that but I simply cannot provide free media exposure to my audience in exchange for a three-day trip now let me explain to y'all what these companies do. Explain something to y'all. And it's been a long time. See, what they do is they offer a free trip.

Yo, we got a junket. You can cover this event in New York. You can cover this junket in L.A. And so the black media people, oh, this is great. Yo, we can interview celebrities. I got a trip to L.A. and the Junkers are the Four Seasons. So they got me a per diem. I can stay at the Four Seasons for one night.

Oh, man. And so what do they want us to do? Do four or five interviews, come back with photos and videos and all this sort of stuff and do all this coverage. We've done it. I've worked at three black newspapers. We've been done that. Okay.

And so they sit here. Oh, man. So it's all this sort of stuff. I know some magazines, major magazines, same thing. They'll sit here and say, yo, so they'll offer a trip, Aruba, Jamaica. So what happens is the editors of the black

magazines will sit here and they'll sit here and take it and they'll go somewhere. They might spend three, four, five days there taking care of them. They come back. They do a four-page spread. Okay, first of all, you just handed them more than $100,000 worth of value. And all you got was a trip.

And I literally know some black people who that's their lifestyle. They take all these free trips and all these little free things and they run the stuff and they ain't paying for no ads. Y'all, this is what they do to us. I keep saying that a lot of black-owned media people

accept a crumb, and they treat it like it's a meal. Here's the deal. I can pay, if you do the math, if I pulled up the cost of a ticket to fly to this city for three days, and I already know the entertainer, so I can call him to get tickets. And then if I pull up the price of the hotel and the car rental, I guarantee you that ain't even coming up to $2,000. And if I was going to charge them to run ads here, I'm going to charge them at least $25,000. So why would I take a free trip?

This is what they do. They, all y'all watching and listening, they want, and this is not just car companies. This is all the movie companies. This is the streaming companies. All of them, Hulu, Prime Video, all the movies. I told y'all why I don't let these people come on my show. Because if you value my audience enough to promote your product, value us enough to cut an advertising check. Because you're damn sure run ads on other places.

If we don't operate this way, Matt, Matt, you're an attorney. Cats can't come to you thinking they're going to get free-ass legal work. Want your expertise, but want to give it for free. I need people, this is where we, as black folks, have to say, I'm good. I don't need the trip. Because if you can't cut a check for advertising,

you can't get me. Not for three days. Matt, your thoughts? I think you're exactly right. I routinely tell people, don't go to H-E-B and think Charles Butfin to give you them groceries for free, so this legal work is not free.

And I think they do need to cut a check to you because, look, you're an established brand. You're the voice of black America. I mean, the idea that you get some benefit out of helping them by going on a three day trip is an absurd idea. And I think, look, you know, people of all colors are going to try to get some freaks out of corner. But in order for us to really have the best channels for dissemination of information, we have to invest into those channels. So, you know, anybody trying to get your hard work without investing in you doesn't deserve it. The thing here, Michael, this is very simple. I'm not saying you're paying for the content.

What I'm saying is when they go on the Today Show about a new movie coming out, Comcast is running ads on the movie. So it's not a quid pro quo. Oh, you got to do this because they don't buy the ads on NBC anyway. So Today Show can just book them. But what they want to do to us is never buy ads, never buy magazine or newspaper ads or digital ads or radio ads, but then want a free, want us to cover all the stuff for free. Oh, come to the red carpet, come to the, come cover the junket, do all this sort of stuff. I'm sorry, you got bills to pay. Absolutely. And, you know, I worked for three media stations, three radio stations in my 15 year media career, one in sales, two as a radio show host. And it's always a challenge in trying to get corporations to buy radio ads on black owned media or or black-targeted media, either one. And I can tell you specifically when it came to political ads. In the 2016 campaign, when I was on 910 AM WFDF here in

Detroit, the radio station owner had to tell all the political candidates, you cannot come on this radio station and speak to our listeners unless you buy an ad campaign, unless you buy radio ads. Because just like you're saying, what they want to do is they want to get to your viewers, use your platform, but don't want to spend money because they don't value us like this. And this is how African-American-owned media especially gets locked out and cannot grow. You call hell because of the money that the Kamala Harris campaign

spent buying ads on your network. Well, what the fuck do you think a network does? See, now there was $340 million, I think it was the correct number, $340 million spent on campaign ads for the presidential campaign? No, no, no. How much was the correct number, $340 million spent on campaign ads? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Her campaign spent $600 million. The total expenditure in political campaign money last year was almost $10 billion. Okay, right. Okay, so people get mad because you got, I think it was $350,000. $350 million. $350 million for advertising. No, I got it.

I said no. I said $350,000. $350,000 we got, they spent $600 million. Exactly. Now, they spend with white-owned media. Nobody has a goddamn problem. Nobody has a problem with that. But they spend money with white-owned media. Nobody has a goddamn problem. Nobody has a problem with that. But they spend money with black-owned media.

Now, all of a sudden, there's a problem, and somebody's stealing money. Somebody doesn't deserve it. That's a self-hatred right there. Yeah, but that's also called, you don't own shit, and you broke. Derek, I'm going to go Derek real quick. It's real simple.

Black business, it's the same thing and I'm real clear. I tell black people, stop walking to a black business saying, how much this costs? You don't say that shit at Walmart. You don't say that at Target. If the shit say $12.99, it's $12.99. That's what it costs. We cannot, we cannot always be operating with the hookup and But we also and this is a deal when we stop having a hookup mentality

Oh, they gonna hook me up with a free trip. You don't even realize They getting you cheap. You are cheap. They You a cheap date. They can just give you a trip, two nights in a hotel, and you good. Now, roll a lot more expensive. Y'all got to buy some ads. Derek, go ahead. I appreciate the fact,

Roland, that you did not let them marginalize your value. Because I guarantee you, and without even knowing this automobile company that they did not

blink if the Super Bowl said you have to spend $8 million for a 30-second ad. I bet you they didn't blink to say $8 million for a 30-second ad. I bet you they didn't blink to say $8 million for a 30-second ad was too much. And so I appreciate the fact that you did not let them marginalize your value

because Black media plays a crucial and critical role in our community. That's the only way our voice can be heard. That's the only way we can control the narrative. And we know this to be true because we watch it during Black BET. And so we need to make sure that we keep Black media around. Yeah, simple as that. So can't play us small. And so bottom line, I'd rather not waste my time with you. Again, if you say my audience is good enough to come discuss your project,

it's good enough to sell your project. Going to a quick break. We come back. We're going to talk about this award-winning podcast that studied the murder of, yes, the death, some say the murder, of prominent

St. Louis activist. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. This week on the other side of change. The economy is not working. Trump's got trade wars, recalls, the price of groceries are through the roof. And there is a better way, there is another way. Join us as we talk more about it and we reimagine something better on the other side of change.

Only on the Black Star Network. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army, retired. And you're watching Roland Martin on Filth. Seven years ago, 24-year-old activist Donye Jones was found dead hanging from a tree. This took place. Authorities initially ruled it a suicide. However, his mother, Melissa McKinney, is an activist in Ferguson, Missouri, maintained her son was actually the victim of a lynching. Tragically, she was correct. Her son was indeed murdered. The first season of the investigative podcast series, After the Uprising,

documents the ever-shocking twist and turn in the Jones case. Check out this trailer. See, everybody else wants to make it seem like it's one thing. My main thing is who the hell killed my son? The Ferguson, Missouri activist found her son hanging from a tree and police are ruling it a suicide. But the mother believes it was a lynching. Now she is calling for an investigation after she says police failed to do their job. He was not suicidal. Donye wasn't that type of person.

I didn't expect to never see him again. When we have suicide, there is a certain amount of investigation, but it is not much more than this. It looks as though the possibility that Donye was murdered was never taken seriously by St. Louis County officials. I don't care if it was the police. I don't care if it was President Obama. I don't care if it was President Obama. I don't care.

I need to find out who killed my son. All right, folks. In season two, Ray Nowosiewski and Maria Chappelle Nadal from the NAACP Image Award-nominated True Crime Podcast may have solved the 2016 murder of rapper and Ferguson activist Darren Seals. They both joined us. So explain to us exactly what have y'all discovered? Walk us through it. Boy, that's a big one. With season one, first of all, thank you for all the coverage you gave both to Darren Seals' murder in 2016 and then the Donye Jones case in 2018.

You did more than anybody else in video journalism. But we picked up that ball and we ran with it. We worked with the family of Donye Jones, Melissa McKinnon as an activist for over two years to look at the death of Donye. And one thing we discovered was that she had always felt there was a rush to judgment, that there was a possibly racist or corrupt police detective who had decided right off the bat that it was suicide and not anything else. And as we looked at that, we discovered that before he was a detective, Timothy Ander, the lead on that case, had in fact been involved in an incident of kicking and macing and then bragging about it on body cam of a Black protester

who was later elected to the House of Representatives in Missouri. And we also found out that he had learned that there were two additional male's DNA on the bed sheet used in Donye's hanging that weren't Donye's. And rather than test that sheet, he chose not to. And when we were following the mother as she was trying to get that sheet back after it had been made clear that she wanted that for her own testing, that sheet was destroyed, which of course re-traumatized the mother. Then in looking at Darren Seal's case, we got a hold of, we're the only ones at this point to have gotten a hold of the police report. And we found that they, the local police, St. Louis

County police had found someone that they believe should be prosecuted for the shooting and a number of other people involved, and the prosecutor of St. Louis County chose not to prosecute, and therefore we can't legally say that we solved the murder, but we believe anyone who listens to After the Uprising Season 2 will feel as we do that they know who did do the murder of Darren Seals in 2016. Maria, you were a former state senator there, elected official. And look, this was a, when he was killed, this shot a lot of different people. This also came out later, the St. Louis Riverfront Times posted this here.

Go to my iPad, Anthony. That the FBI had been surveilling Darren Seals. And wasn't there like multiple people who were found in burning cars? Yes, there were, Roland. There were several people who died who were activists, who were prominent activists. And we are looking at many of these cases. And Darren's case was really special to us. It was a way of public service that we can give back to the activist community because they deserved an answer. But there are others who were killed, and we look to investigate those murders as well.

But I'm glad that we did solve the case. And what's important is the investigation was very thorough. And usually we have a huge suspicion of police officers not doing their job, covering up things. But in the 200-page police report, and after two and a half years of investigating Darren Seale's murder, we believe that we found the culprits who were involved in his murder. There was a lot of back and forth between St. Louis law enforcement and activists in the

wake of the death of Michael Brown and folk not trusting one another. So many people, Ray, in that area just did not, they were just not down with law enforcement because they just could not believe the answers that kept coming back when these folks ended up dead. Yeah. Well, it's interesting, too.

As I said, when we investigated the Donye Jones case, we found there was a there there regarding the lead detective, just as the mother had suspected, Melissa McInnes. But with season two, looking at Darren Seals, we found the issue was actually in the prosecutor's office and possibly with the FBI, because the local police, as we can see from the report, did make a prosecutorial recommendation in 2018 regarding the person they believe shot Darren Seals, who went by the name Kilo, Anthony Irvin Jr. And a team of police and FBI went to his home and arrested him. They held him in jail for three days,

and the prosecutor's office let him out and chose not to prosecute him or any of the other people involved in the destruction of the body, the other person, allegedly LP, who was in the car at the time of his shooting, and the person that many led us to believe may have ordered it, which was the co-manager of the hip-hop group Bottom Boys who managed it with Darren Seals, someone named Jay Bird. And what I think is most interesting here is the FBI was surveilling Darren Seals, someone named Jay Bird. And what I think is most interesting here is the FBI was surveilling Darren Seals for the six months before he was murdered, through the time

of his murder. And we talked with multiple people in his life, including his mother, who recount that there appeared to have been an effort to fairly openly either recruit Darren Seals as a federal asset or give the appearance that he had been recruited as a federal asset. And that's what we were told was the reason why his murder was ordered, because it was believed that he was cooperating. And there's an open question. How did this person, Jay Bird, if he was the one who did it, come to the belief that Darren was cooperating with the feds? Questions from the panel. Derek, you're first. Yeah, I appreciate the work that you all are doing. It's gut-wrenching because we hear these scenarios over and over again, you know, rush to judgment,

tampering with evidence, and how that erodes public trust. And so my question, given that we have an administration with a Department of Justice that just do not follow up on these civil rights cases anymore. In fact— Derek just froze. We'll try to get him back. Go right ahead, Mike, with your question. Okay. So you answered one question I had, what was the motive, I believe, motive behind the killing. And then, secondly, I may have missed it, but how do you bring the alleged killer to justice? What's the process for that? Here's the irony of it all. We actually looked into the murderer and found out that a year and a half after being arrested,

he too was murdered. And the murderers in his case were let go. But there was another person who was suspected of being in the car when Darren was killed. And so all of this is in the office of the prosecutor in St. Louis County. And I just want to say that one of the people who was arrested was in jail for about five or six days. And he had several different phone calls out to different people, including his lawyer. The interesting note to this is that St. Louis County refused to give this public information out, including telephone calls and the paperwork. What people must know is that there was no paperwork available to anyone or documented between the arrest of Kilo, who is charged in

this case, and when Kilo was let out of jail. There's absolutely no paperwork that we were able to get. And that is one of the reasons why we went to the state to file a complaint with the Attorney General. And it's one of the reasons why we are still keeping St. Louis County accountable because we want to make sure that there's justice. There was not just one person in the car when Darren was killed. There were two people in the car and the second person is still walking free on the streets right now. Wow. That's a whole lot going on there. How can folks listen to the podcast? Where do they go? Wherever you get your podcast, go to After the Uprising Season 2. We are on

iHeart. We are on Spotify and YouTube. And just please listen. We are really honored to get the second NAACP Image Award nomination. We didn't win, but we are proud of our accomplishments. All right, then. Ray and Maria, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks.

That is it for us. Let me thank Matt. Let me thank Derek. Let me thank Michael. Been on today's panel. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, tomorrow, Friendship Public Charter School Teacher of the Year Gala.

I will be emceeing again this year. We'll be live streaming it right here on the Black Star Network. So I'm looking forward to that. I think, again, this is like the eighth, ninth, maybe even the tenth year in a row I've done this. You removed the COVID year. So, but looking forward to that. And so always out here doing the work, folks. If y'all want to support the work that we do, I'm telling y'all ain't about doing what we're doing.

Something we do every single day, the stories that we covered, the guests that we have on. This is so important because, look, Ray, Maria, you talk about Don Scott, Bishop Barber. My God, who else we have on today? I mean, a congresswoman, Kamala Ghaddafi. I mean, understand these voices are not being booked on MSNBC. They're not being booked on CNN. They're not being booked on Fox. We damn sure they're not being booked on Fox News or ABC, NBC, CBS. It's not happening. This is a way for us to have this conversation every night. I appreciate, look, we got weekly shows, but here's the deal. There's so much news and information that impacts us.

It's happening on a daily basis that we can't wait for a weekly show. Think about it. We do two hours. We're long today, but weekly show. Think about it. We do two hours. We're long today. But we do two hours a night. That's 10 hours in a week. So what are we going to have, a 10-hour weekly show? Nah, it's way too much going on.

And so when you support the work that we're doing, you are supporting the informing, the education, and enlightening of not just our community, but everybody else as well. Because I see the comments. I see the chat conversations. I get the emails. I see the notes that come in from people. The reality is people are supporting the work that we do. There's a reason we're hitting 30 million views a month. There's a reason we're moving closer to 2 million YouTube followers. It's all organic. We're not spending money taking out ads and trying to boost and all that sort of stuff like that because frankly this costs too much.

And so we're just building this thing brick by brick by brick. So your support is absolutely crucial. If our fan base is able to get, I'm telling y'all, I was literally following up today with a company, the Black-owned company out of Los Angeles, Quantasy, that's going to be rebuilding our website. I'm talking about hiring one or two writers in the next 30 to 60 days.

We're going to be kicking out content there as well. We're sitting here examining AI tools, how to take the content that we do on this show and then populate that into written form for our site, sending that stuff out as well. So all that stuff costs money. And so when you support us, this is what we are absolutely building. So y'all now understanding why I don't play myself cheap. Now y'all understand why I'm sorry, politicians, you're not going to sit here and want to come on this show or want me to travel to cover something, but y'all don't want to advertise. But y'all will run ass

like crazy on CNN and Fox and iHeartRadio and Cumulus Radio and Sinclair Television. Nah, it's not going to happen. And so we are trying to build a 21st century media company that's independent, that's black-owned. And listen, y'all, I already

told y'all, I'm not doing that gossip bullshit. I'm not. I don't give a shit about LeBron and Stephen A going back and forth. I ain't talking about it. I don't give a damn who the latest housewife is, who left, who joined. I don't give a damn about none of that stuff because we already have too much of that mess in the black community. We have got to have real news and information that's informing, educating, and enlightening our people. And that's what we're going to do every single night. And if that means that I could pick up another 5, 10, 15, 20 million views covering mess and gossip, guess what? I'll sacrifice that because I just don't give a damn and it's of no interest to me. So you want to support us via Cash App?

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