#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Home sales down, Trump wants voter ID, Target ending DEI

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

1.24.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Home sales down, Trump wants voter ID, Target ending DEI Housing sales have hit a 30-year low. Low inventory and higher borrowing costs make it nearly impossible for people, especially minorities, to purchase homes. The National Association of Real Estate Brokers president will join me to discuss this housing crisis. The twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief demands voter ID as a condition for California to receive federal aid for the devastating wildfires. A manifesto posted by the Black high school shooter in Nashville, Tennessee, before the attack, reveals chilling details about his motives and mentions Adolf Hitler and Candace Owens as inspirations. We've been warning for years about how MAGA would dismantle diversity. We'll discuss how sweeping executive orders have eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, effectively gutting racial equity for the foreseeable future. No charges have been filed in the December beating death of a Black man in New York by corrections officers. We'll talk to a community leader who is advocating for the closure of the facility where the fatal beating occurred.   #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 platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Friday, January 24th, 2025. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live right here on the Black Star Network. Housing sales hit a 30 year low. Big problems, low inventory, high borrowing costs have made it nearly impossible for people, especially African-Americans and other minorities to purchase homes. We'll talk with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers president about this problem. The twice-impeded, criminally convicted fellow in chief, Donald Trump,

demands voter ID as a condition for California to receive federal aid for the devastating wildfires. You know, he lost California, but he's giving no conditions for North Carolina to receive federal aid. A manifesto posted by the black high school shooter in Nashville, Tennessee, reveals chilling details about his motives and mentions, including Adolf Hitler and Candace Owens as his inspirations. Folks, we've been warning for years about how MAGA would do all it could to dismantle diversity. We'll discuss how sweeping executive orders have eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and how tech companies have also been doing it. By the way, Target also announced changes to their DEI plans today as well.

No charges have been filed in December beating death of a black man in New York by correction officers. We'll talk to the community leader about that. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. On The Blackstone Network, let's go. I believe he's knowing, putting it down from sports to news to politics, with entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's rolling Martel now. Martel. Folks, home ownership, significant issue in this country. I have been telling y'all this for the last five years, that the problem in America is low housing stock. As a result of low housing stock, the current homes have dramatically increased.

Guess what? We now have nearly a 30-year low in terms of the sale of homes. They fell last year. As I said, a lack of available inventory and rising borrowing costs have prevented many individuals, including African-Americans, who are ready to buy a home from getting one. Dr. Courtney Johnson-Rose, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, joins us right now. Here's what jumps out.

During the campaign, correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't hear no housing plan from the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon in chief Donald Trump. I heard a housing plan from Vice President Kamala Harris. Have you seen one from Trump and MAGA?

Vice President Harris had a plan to build millions of houses, which is what we need in this country, millions of homes to fill this gap. But, no, I did not see a housing plan. And this week, with all of the executive orders going on, I haven't seen any executive orders focused on housing in this crisis in America. So how do we deal with this? Because, again, this is the thing. People were angry and upset during the election, complaining about the cost of housing, rent being too high. And the reality is this is not that hard.

We are millions short in terms of housing stock. We did not build enough homes between 2010 and 2020. We have not built enough homes since 2021. And so we're at a deficit. You take that with also baby boomers choosing to stay in their homes,

first of all, living longer, not moving into nursing homes, not moving in with family. All of these things contribute to the issue. And so it's not necessarily rising interest rates because if interest rates were low, you still don't have enough houses. You don't have a house. You don't have enough houses. One more thing that we have to add to that, particularly in our community, Roland, we see institutionalized investors buying up the available housing stock. I'm in Houston, your home hometown. Last year,

we had almost 20% of the housing stock, particularly in our communities that were being bought up by institutionalized investors. So you add that to the pot as well, and you just don't have enough inventory. So what do we do? I mean, at the end of the day, unless you have an aggressive federal housing plan, even though the federal government doesn't build houses, there has to be incentives on that level. But you also have got to make changes on the local level when it comes to local laws. Yes. So one, incentives. You are 100 percent right. We have to be able to incentivize builders to be able to go out and build housing. In addition to that, we also have an aging housing stock. So we also have a problem in our communities that there's homes that are sitting there that are blighted, that are not able to be habitated by families. We need to have more renovation products. Cities, municipalities can help with this also, too, to bring these homes that are, again, out of the housing stock back in.

We also have in our neighborhoods a lot of infield lots that have never been built on. But there's hard regulations and zoning laws that keep those homes from being able to be built. So, again, it has to be a concerted effort. You're right, it has to be federal with incentives. It has to be local and statewide also to help us overcome this particular crisis. Do you have any hope that this administration, Republicans controlling the House and the Senate, are going to do anything about housing? Because I haven't heard nothing. I mean, I haven't heard anything. I just heard complaints, heard them blame Biden Harris. I've heard nothing else. It's so disappointing because this is not just a

black problem. It is an American problem. And housing is the fundamental thing that everyone needs. It's the equalizer, if you will. And for us in our community, it's particularly troubling because it's our number one way to build wealth. This is the part that's so devastating to Roland, is that our State of Housing in Black America report for NARAP shows that there are 2 million mortgage-ready Black consumers. That means they have the income, they have the credit, but there's no house available for them to buy in inventory. Our data also shows that there's 5.4 million Black Americans

that are almost mortgage ready or near mortgage ready as well. So the marketplace for us to be able to build wealth is tremendous, but now we need the opportunity. NARAP recently began our NARAP Developers Academy, where we have, and this year we'll graduate 250 Black developers out of our Developers Academy. We are very intentional about this, and our developers are being trained to go into their communities, into urban communities across America to build homes. So we're going to have to do it ourselves for our communities. We're going to have to rehab the homes ourselves in our community.

But we need HUD. We need Fannie. We need Freddie. We need incentives. We need cities. We need CDBG dollars. We have to be able to have the incentives to your original point to be able to put these houses on the ground that our community needs.

And of course, the problem you have right now is you do not have an administration that cares about specifically dealing with the problem for African-Americans. And so it's not like you're going to see federal incentives specifically targeting African-Americans when they're trying to get rid of anything that deals with the issue of diversity and equity. Equity inclusion on it. And the other biggest problem, I can't stress on this enough, is we have to advocate, and NARAB is getting very serious about this in 2025, against institutionalized investors. This is a huge problem, and they target our communities. A house goes on the market that could be a perfect home for a first-time homebuyer. But instead of that first-time homebuyer having the opportunity to buy that house, they get outbid by an investor that's buying cash, by an investor that doesn't need any inspections,

by an investor that doesn't need an appraisal, and that can close in two weeks. We cannot compete with that. So even if the inventory is there, we have to stop and advocate against these institutionalized. So how do we do it? So what does that look like? Is there any city? Yes. Is there any city or state that actually has put something in place to do what you're talking about?

Yes. So there are some, there is some legislation, and we believe also, too, that this could be rolling a bipartisan issue. There's been some legislators on both the Republican and Democratic side that have now paid attention to institutionalized investors. Second piece that we're excited about that's plaguing our communities is heirs' property. We have a course that we do with the National Bar Association called What to Do with Big Mama's House, because a lot of these homes that are being taken advantage of by investors are heirs property. It's properties that your

grandmother used to have, but it wasn't passed down properly with the paperwork. So the family gets taken advantage of because they have not done the proper paperwork and probates and things of that nature to keep the property in the family. So we are excited that Representative Nakima Williams has an heirs property bill. Representative Emanuel Cleavers has a Good Deed Act bill also, too. So we are in support of these bills that help families work through their heirs' properties issues so they don't get taken advantage of from institutionalized investors also. Well, again, something actually has to happen in this particular area. It's a state of emergency.

Right. It's a huge state of emergency. And again, you know, numerous stories have been done. We've been talking about this here. Go to my iPad. This story is from two years ago where MetLife Development said by 2030, in five years, Wall Street investors will be owning 40% of all single-family homes, and their desire is not to sell. Their desire is to rent. To keep us renters. There you go.

To keep us renters. That's what the goal is. To keep us renters. And you go. To keep us renters. That's what the goal is. To keep us renters. And this is the thing, too, when you look at housing prices. It's a supply and demand issue. So the less inventory that we have, it will cause the housing prices to keep rising and rising and rising and making homeownership even more unattainable. So the idea, the concept, the emergency is to put more inventory

on the ground. We have to be able to incentivize investors to actually do that. All right, then. We certainly appreciate you joining us, Courtney Johnson-Rose. Thanks a lot. Thank you. We appreciate you, Roland. Thank you. I want to bring my panel, Michael Imhemptep, host of African History Network,

show out of Detroit. Dr. Abus Jones, the Weaver co-founder and editor-in-chief, Max Black's media out of D.C. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi. Michael, I'll start with you. Go to my iPad, Henry. This is the same story that came from 2021. MetLife Investment Management, citing a report from Yardie Matrix, said that at that time that Wall Street, SFRs, owned 700,000 single-family residences. That was 5% of the national housing stock. Now, this is in

2021. They estimated by 2030. Now, Again, this story was dropped. I'm sorry, this was dropped right here, y'all. You see, August 17, 2022. They said August of 2022, the Wall Street institutions own 5% of the nation's housing stock. They said eight years later, Michael, that number jumps to 40%, roughly 7.6 million homes. That is insane. And the point that you just heard Dr. Rose say, which is the problem, and listen,

I deal with this every day. My phone, I get text messages, I get phone calls. How much you want to sell? How much you want to sell? My phone, I get text messages, I get phone calls. How much you want to sell? How much you want to sell? Because my homestead in Texas, which I've owned since 1999, they blow my phone up trying to buy it. And I'm like, no, I'm not selling it.

But again, it's easier for them. And these are people who are not in the area. They're just simply looking at the sheet, they live in other parts of the country, and they're just grabbing homes, and you can't compete against that unless a homeowner says, I'm not going to sell to one of you,

I'm going to sell to a single borrower, or a single buyer. Right. So, Roland, there's a number of things here. Number one, thanks for bringing the sister on, Courtney Johnson, Reese Rose, to deal with this issue. So, you're absolutely correct. Vice President Kamala Harris had a plan to build 3 million new homes in the first term, first four years. Also, one of the things that she talked about in Black Enterprise, had an article dealing with this.

Here's how Vice President Kamala Harris's economic plan will help black Americans. She would also crack down, stop Wall Street investors from buying and marking up in bulk homes. OK, this is we've talked about this here on this show and how this is buying up stock, and it drives up the value of homes. Also, she had a plan for down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, $25,000 down payment support. Now, the Biden-Harris administration, starting on day one with Executive Order 13985 that this Luciferian convicted felon just revoked this week, OK, that was dealing with diversity, equity and

inclusion and focusing on rooting out systemic discrimination in various agencies within the government. One of the things they were focusing on is assisting black landowners in resolving title issues. And this deals with heirs' property. And heirs' property is one of the—the heirs' property loophole is one of the ways we have historically had land stolen from us, especially when we own land like farmland that was handed down from generation to generation, and it had multiple owners. So what happened was, if one speculator bought the land from—a portion of the land from one

of those landowners, like in the family, because of this loophole, it gave them the ability to take over more of that land. And a lot of us didn't understand this. It wasn't handed down properly, just like you said, dealing with the title deeds, things of this nature. We didn't understand it. So, the Biden-Harris administration, this is one of the initiatives they were cracking down on and helping African-Americans hold on to land. Well, a lot of these initiatives are being reversed this week. And a lot of this—a lot of our people didn't even know was taking place. So, this is—I mean, this has been a devastating week. And a lot of this, a lot of our people didn't even know what was taking place. So this is,

I mean, this has been a devastating week. When you look at all these executive forwarders and initiatives that this person, that Donald Trump has put in place, this has set us back decades just what happened this week. So here's what I find to be quite hilarious, Avis. I'm looking at this story here. Go to my iPad, Henry. This guy, John

Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. He says in an article that conversations around institutional ownership need to be more balanced. Our surveys show the majority of home renters today want to become homeowners at some point, but cannot right now for a variety of reasons that have less to do with the price of the home and more to do with their desire to settle down and stay in one place right now. Many people relocate, get divorced, et cetera, and want to rent a home for the time being. They may have kids, a pet, and a lot of stuff that won't live well in an apartment. But this is what I love right here.

Additionally, Burns said large owners provide a better tenant experience than smaller landlords. They eliminate the fear of being forced to move if the owner sells the home and provides far better customer service and maintenance, he told Multifamily Dive. This is a joke. Most people out here ain't trying to sit here to buy homes and rent. They're not. They're actually just trying to buy

a home. The issue we have here are people who want to buy a home cannot. And as a result, what we're seeing is, one, the homes that are being rented are sky high. Apartments are sky high because the owners know they can't go anywhere. And you can't even talk about a homeless problem in America

unless you deal with the problem of low home ownership. Absolutely. And the challenge is right now we have an administration in that just doesn't give a damn in terms of what this would mean for everyday folk who would like to be able to buy a home or would like to be able to at least not have their rents escalate up the wazoo because you have people who have basically overtaken the market so they know that they are basically holding them hostage. And so what we have then is an administration that is going to do everything possible to double down on this problem. And it's especially disturbing because as was just laid out so beautifully, the alternative was clear. The alternative was clear and different night and

day difference between what we have right now. But until we get past at least the first years and maybe even four full years of this foolishness, I don't see how we pull ourselves out of this, to be perfectly honest. Here's the thing that I think people have to understand, Matt. There's an ebb and flow in our system. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So for instance, when you look at customer service jobs, Walmart, graders, when you look at

fast food jobs, waiters, waitresses, things along those lines. Those have always considered to be transient jobs, jobs that, frankly, folks who are younger and less education typically are feeling. And then there's an expectation that as you grow older, you become more mature, you move into other areas. And it used to be we had jobs like grocery cashiers, we had jobs like bank tellers. You had what I call those jobs in the middle. And so they were not white-collar jobs, they were not blue-collar jobs, but they were sort

of right there in the middle, and so you sort of just graduate. Well, those jobs, technology just has wiped those jobs away. So now the people who would normally be in that middle tier, and they don't have the education to be in the upper tier, so what happens is they now fall to the lower tier jobs, which means that the people who normally would occupy the lower tier jobs, there's nothing below them. When we look at the housing, it's the exact same thing. You have a natural transition.

That is, you might, you turn 18, 20, 21, you leave your parents home, then you get your own apartment. You live in that apartment, and then you may decide to say, you know what, I'm going to go live in a apartment that's a much better apartment or I'm going to actually become a renter of a home to become a homeowner. Well, the problem that we have right now is because if you're locked out of home ownership, then you're right there in the middle. You're a home renter. And then the people who are naturally coming forward because your population has increased,

who should be coming into apartments. They can't get into apartments because the people in the middle are now in apartments. And so now, again, that middle is cut out. That's what people have to understand we deal with. You're this natural transition that happens in life. And when you wipe out that middle part, or the top part, you're now forced.

So now you have younger people who have no place to live. Now it's like living with family. Or you have folks, and I've talked to numerous folks who are college graduates, who are living three, four to an apartment. It's like, you know, commune living. And you have policymakers who do not want to deal with this because Republican policymakers, they are completely in bed with Wall Street. They have no problem with Wall Street owning 40 percent of all single-family homes. And unless that is dealt with, then we're going to have, truly have, a national crisis in five years. When you look at the people who attended the inauguration and where they said in proximity to the president, I mean, that asserts your point. When you look at, you know, these titans of industry who are all now capitulating to Mr. Trump, excuse me, because they're worried about their bottom dollar, I think that goes

to your point. And, you know, I'm really glad you talked about policy, because that's part of what I was thinking in, you know, some of the prior conversation on this, is one of the big issues is that this is just unfettered capitalism. We don't have local governments and state governments who are doing anything to tamp this down. I like the idea that, you know, Vice President Harris had a plan to build—it's a record number of houses. But the problem with that is none of that matters if you don't have other controls that keep the prices within people's reach, to your point. And that's

part of the issue, is I think there should be incumbent on our local governments to put things in place for people to keep the houses that they have. My dad has a church in one of the wealthiest parts of Austin. That part of Austin used to be an enclave for newly freed people, right? So a lot of his parishioners own homes that are extremely valuable, and they are among the most valuable property in the city of Austin, but they can't keep them because of taxes. Has the city of Austin implemented anything for those people to keep their houses? No. Right? No. And they know not only are houses, you know, extreme asset, and that's the way that we, most people have built financial stability and financial

wealth in this country, but that's a prime example. How do you not have, just as a matter of course, policy that says, here are people who've had big mama's house, to use Dr. Rose's term, passed down for three or four generations. They're now in a point where their wages don't match their taxes, and therefore they can't keep the house. As a matter of course, we need to do something to allow people to be able to keep these homes. So some of this is policy-driven and the lack of policy, and some of it is just unfettered capitalism. And frankly, housing as a commodity, we need to have a conversation, which we often have on this show. There are just some more ways that we as society have allowed to be overrun.

Housing, healthcare, some of the other things that we need just as a course, through the course of our lives, should not be commodified to the point that Wall Street titans can own 40 percent of the stock of single-family residences. But until, you know, we change as a society in terms of not allowing pass of certain guardrails, if you will, in our society, then we're going to have crises like this that will be exacerbated by politicians who want to kiss Mr. Trump's butt. Well, or as Julianne Melvo calls it, predatory capitalism. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Going to break. We come back. The idiot travels to North Carolina and California to look at the natural disasters there. And then what does he do?

Show how stupid he is with dumb ideas. Yeah, we'll talk about that. And we come back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age.

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There's a lot of talk about the inevitability of another civil war in this country. But on our next show, we'll talk to a noted author and scholar who says we're actually in the middle of one right now. In fact, Steve Phillips says the first one that started back in 1861, well, it never ended. People carrying the Confederate flag, wearing sweatshirts saying MAGA Civil War, January 6th, 2021, stormed the U.S. Capitol, hunted down the country's elected officials, built a gallows for the vice president of the United States, and to block the peaceful transfer of power in this country. On the next Black Tape, here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5 DC. Hey, what's up? It's Sammy Roman, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Well, the criminally convicted felon in chief traveled today to California and North Carolina, both that have been hit with natural disasters. And what did he do? He offered some absolutely, completely dumb ideas. And if you want to see an individual who is shameful, despicable, petty, who believes in retribution,

who does not represent all Americans, it's this idiot Donald Trump. Listen to this. You talk about conditions being placed on aid to California, voter ID and the like. Are there any conditions that you're going to put on aid to North Carolina? We're going to do a lot for North Carolina. They've been very slow. I don't know why it's been so bad. This has been one of the worst I've seen. Katrina, of course, you know, was something that obviously that was a long time ago. That was not good. But this has been very slow. I don't know if that was for political reasons because they lost the state. You know, Biden lost the state. Maybe he felt he doesn't care. Maybe there were other reasons. I don't know. But this has been very slow. By any standard, this has been very slow. And we're going to we're going to make up for lost time conditions. You're going to push for aid. Well, in California, I have a condition in California. We want them to have voter I.D.

So the people have a voice because right now the people don't have a voice because you don't know who's voting and it's very corrupt. And we also want them to release the water. If they release the water, they wouldn't have had a problem. If they released the water when I told them to, because I told them to do it seven years ago, if they would have done it, you wouldn't have had the problem that you had. You might not have even had a fire. But here I don't have that. It's a different thing.

You got hit by a storm. The people are incredible. They worked really well. Franklin was fantastic and other groups. By the way, other groups came in that were also fantastic. And other states came in, Tennessee and a couple of others came in, and they really helped. That's the way it's supposed to be. No, this is a different kind of a thing. Avis, he is a dumbass.

First and foremost, all the experts say it's a lie that California did not release the water. That's just a lie. It's 100 percent lie. It's a lie that President Biden did not help North Carolina. North Carolina has a Democratic governor. Has a Democratic governor right now. And it's a lie. And see, this is the only dumbass who would withhold aid because he didn't vote for him. Biden governed as the president of the United States

representing all constituents. In fact, in North Carolina, they called for a state of emergency before it hit. But the idiots out there who voted for this, this is what now we're dealing with. And it's like, oh, so you want voter ID? Oh, they can't pick who they want

because it's voter fraud. No, he's just pissed off he didn't win the state. Rejects to other people every bit of who he is. So the minute that he says that, oh, Biden must not have wanted to help them because he didn't win the state, they didn't support the Democrats, he's telling you he doesn't want to help California because he didn't win the state. And this is not a projection. We can just look at how he acted when there were natural disasters in his first term. He did the same thing then. He did the same thing. So I have to tell you, when these wildfires started just literally days before he took office, my heart sunk because I knew he would pull a stunt like this. I knew he would do it. This is just who he is. He has zero moral center.

This man is cold and evil. He doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything. All relationships to him are transactional. It's I give to you only if you give to me, only if you show fealty and loyalty to me. If you have your own ideas and you have your own beliefs and you don't just overwhelmingly bend over backwards to do any and everything that I say, I don't really give a damn about you. This is who he is. And unfortunately, there are enough Americans in this country

that see that as not a disqualifying trait of his. In fact, honestly, I believe there are lots of people who, in fact, love that trait because it's reflective of who they are. And this is the crap that we're going to have to deal with. And I'm going to tell you right now, Matt, if a natural disaster hits a blue state, this idiot is going to screw that state. He will screw them over. Yes. And Dr. Avis said something that I was going to get to. I talked to one of my closest friends from college yesterday who lives in D.C. And he said he said something that I think she kind of echoed. He said, evil is the point. The point is evil, right? It's not a consequence

of him attempting to do something that is not inherently evil. Evil is the express point. And, you know, we have a spoil system that's part of politics. I don't think, you know, we should necessarily like that. But a spoil system saying he who won or she who won to the victor goes to spoil shouldn't extend to people are literally in abject pain. Something is happening that's a crisis. And I'm not going to give you aid without these stipulations that are beneficial to me. I mean, that's just per se evil.

And she's 100 percent right. There are people out there who think that that is strength, because for one thing, as much as I dislike Mr. Trump, he and his team have been very consistent on the messaging. Right. They've messaged to these people this heartlessness for so long that people have accepted that as being tantamount to a sign of strength. So now it becomes, oh, yeah, that Gavin Newsom in California has been doing all these things I don't like in the blue state. Of course, they shouldn't get aid until they do what Mr. Trump said. Like, that should— that's abhorrent. We shouldn't accept that as citizens. People need help. They should get aid. But that's not how it works when evil is the point. And that's what we're seeing on display

here. Another example of that, not just in the context of the aid. I mean, there's now revocations of security clearances for former people like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, people who customarily would continue to get security details, right, because they've worked in these positions where it's extremely dangerous and there are threats made against their lives. What is he doing? He's revoking the security detail for these people, including Dr. Fauci. Why? Because I don't like their politics, and you crossed me, and now I'm going to let everybody know that if you cross me, I will be the embodiment of evil. And that is terrifying, frankly, because we're now in a place where people are trying to rebuild because of these fires, and he's saying, I'm not going to give you the aid unless it's under the stipulations that I mete out to you.

And that is terrifying, and it is a consequence of evil. So that's what we're seeing evil on display. Uh, my, uh, here we go to my iPad. Uh, Michael, um, a few years ago, Adam, sir, writes for the Atlantic. Um, he published this book, the cruel, the cruelty is the point. The past, present, and future of Trump's America. Unfortunately, many thought that he was vanquished and we would never see this idiot return. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

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

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

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So we're dealing now not with the past, but with the present and the future. And it is cruelty. It is. And we were told, and see, all these Republicans tried to deny it.

But during the campaign, we were told by former aides of Trump that he was not going to assist a natural disaster in California until his aides showed him the affected area was Orange County and they voted for him. And this is what this thug does. And this is why I call him a thug. What this thug does, something happens and he goes, did they vote for me?

Oh, they didn't? The hell with it. That is literally how he governs. And you have a Republican Party who doesn't care, who accepts that, who encourages that. There are no guardrails. And so you're screwed. If you are a state that voted, I mean, if you are in Minnesota,

New York State, New Jersey, any of the eastern states, if you are, any of those states that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, Colorado, New Mexico, pray y'all do not have any natural disasters for four years. Because this thug is not going to come to your aid. And then what he will do is, and if he does come there, he's going to insult your leadership like he insulted Senator Adam Schiff. And I'm going to play that soundbite.

That was just, again, he's a callous, petty, pathetic asshole. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, Olivia Troy that worked in the first Trump administration, she has been on MSNBC a number of times talking about how they had to show him voter data from a county in, I think it was a county in California showing, hey, these people voted for you.

Michael, I just said that. That's what I said. I just showed him the data in Orange County. It was Orange County. I'm backing up what you said. You ain't got to back up what I said. I said it. I'm just saying that it was Orange County. I'm agreeing with you, Roland. Right, but disagree.

You ain't got to repeat it. Just go. But I'm like, it was Orange County. Let me go to my next point. Let me go to my next point. Okay. Washington Post today dealing with this Trump putting, trying to put a stipulation on aid to California. They talk about how California contributes $83 billion more in federal tax dollars than they receive in aid from the federal government, OK?

And California contributes a lot more to the federal pot than a lot of these broke southern states that get hit by hurricanes and rely on federal aid. So, once again, this is one of the consequences of elections, okay? And keep in mind, Donald Trump was one of the ones, along with Junior Varsity Vance, spreading these lies about aid from FEMA and saying that there were only people who were hit by hurricanes, and some states were only getting $750 and FEMA was out of money because they were giving the money to undocumented immigrants, things like this. He was spreading all these lies this past summer. And now he tries to float that he may get rid of FEMA. Okay. So this is, this is extremely dangerous. Okay. I can't stress this enough. This is extremely dangerous, what he's doing.

But we have to fight back. We have to fight back and consolidate power. And midterm elections are in 2026, and we have to prepare for this. We have to fight back. So, folks, if you want to understand again how ignorant,

crass, and cruel Donald the Con Trump is. At the news conference, this is this dumbass talking about duly elected California United States Senator Adam Schiff.

I don't know. I was told that Schiff hasn't joined you on this trip. It's reported you invited Senator Schiff to join you on this trip, and he was too busy. Are you disappointed? I don't know. I was told that Schiff was going to travel with us to California. I wasn't thrilled, to be honest with you. And I saw him last night on television. It looks like he got hit with a baseball bat or something. What happened to him? Something happened to him. It looked like he got hit. It looked like he got hit.

It looked like he got beat around, but I'll ask Caroline to find out what happened to him. No, if he wanted to come out, I would have done that, but I don't know. Somebody said that he wanted to come on the plane, but I think he's staying back for the votes. There's some pretty

good votes going on. Let me explain to people what let me explain to people what normally happens. What normally happens is when the President of the United States, and again, I will never call Donald Trump that, but normally when the President of the United States travels to a natural disaster, typically they will travel, they will reach out, regardless of if they're in their party or not,

they'll reach out to the two United States senators, they might reach out to members of the House delegation, depending upon how large that state is, to travel with the president to the affected area as a show of bipartisanship and unity, saying the country stands with the people in the affected area. Well, this idiot. Yeah, I don't want him coming. Because Adam Schiff, when he was in the House, was one of the impeachment managers. That's why.

See, this is the thing about this thug. He cannot set aside losing. He cannot. He holds grudges. I mean, there were people who Obama could not stand, who Joe Biden could not stand, traveled to the state. Oh, well, you know, fine. If he wanted to ride with us. But this is who this thug is.

And this is how he's going to behave. Again, Avis, cruelty is the point. Look like he got beat up by a bat last night. Go to my iPad. Look like we got a phrase in Texas for people who look like Donald Trump. Rolled hard and hung up wet. He can't talk about nobody's looks without crazy his orange-ass look.

Oh, my God. No, no, no. I mean, really? No, he does not. That's the last thing he needs to comment on. But you're right. He still is pissed that he was impeached. Really? No, he does not. That's the last thing he needs to comment on. But you're right. He still is pissed that he was impeached. He still wants to exact some level of revenge against those

folk who participated in that impeachment, which is why it was smart of President Biden to provide protection for those individuals who would be targeted by this man, because everybody knows the character of this person. And what you're saying is true. There are folks that can't stand him, I'm sure, but still have to interact with him. I mean, did we all not see how the Bidens were gracious to him in terms of this transfer of power when this fool couldn't even come, not only had his minions perform that violent insurrection at his direction, but he himself did not even show up at Biden's inauguration. Right. And there's so many examples of this.

But this is who he is. And he is just this petty schoolboy. I don't know that if developmentally he has moved beyond a middle school bully in terms of his brain development, because that seems like who he is, in addition to being this narcissistic individual who has no one or anything in his mind that is important other than his own aggrandizement and things that he himself wants. Oh, so let me say this. As I know some people out there may disagree with what I'm about to say. But I made this point. I made this point before the election.

I made this point after the election. I made this point at the inauguration. There's a reason why I said, the reason why I said that Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as President Joe Biden, shouldn't have gone to the inauguration. And see, this is the problem. This is the problem. This is the problem with Democrats.

Democrats say it's the institution. Democrats say the institution matters. So therefore, we say these things during the campaign. And let me be real clear. Campaigns, all kind of different things are said. In campaigns, people disagree. In campaigns, people say things about this person and that person and, you know, what they do and how they respond and things along those lines. up. What you're doing is you are giving him respect that is not reciprocated.

What you're doing is you are treating him like he is normal when his behavior is abnormal. You are treating him with a sense of morality when he's immoral. And so there were members of Congress, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and others who said, hell no, I'm not going to

the inauguration. Hell no. I cannot treat you and give you respect and the respect of the office with how you behave. When Trump and Melania, that birther, when they go to the White House, Biden's welcome to them is welcome home. Welcome home?

The Bidens ride with the Trumps to the Capitol. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, they ride together with the advances to the Capitol. No.

We ain't riding together. Your ass is another car. If I'm going to call you a threat to democracy, if I'm going to say you behave like Hitler in your actions, I am not... Man, let me tell y'all something.

Y'all need to understand how I roll. There was a certain African-American who, this was about a dozen years ago, group came after me. It was some BS. Well, this person ignored my phone calls, who I had helped before,

and was ripping me on television. Now, the person knows me, got my number, wouldn't return my phone calls. I said, okay. See, I don't play that. So that summer at the Democratic National Convention, that was 12, so we were in Charlotte, someone had, I had left CNN, I left CNN in April, but someone had asked me to go by the CNN grill to come say hello to them. So I walk in, and there's a booth, and there are four or five,

there were five or six people in this booth. And it was five women and this one guy. Tell you what I did. I spoke to her, her, her, her, looked at his ass, paused, and turned this way and went to talking to him. He didn't exist in me. Same person. We went to March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 50th anniversary.

I was talking to somebody and he turned around. This is exactly what I did. Looked him dead in his eye. And turned away. See, I'm a let your ass know. See, I ain't going to avert my eyes to act like I don't see you. No, no, no, no. I want you to know I'm ignoring your ass. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I want you to know I'm ignoring you. Because see, I ain't got a poker face.

See, I'm not going to play these games. I'm not going to be Obama sitting there, hee-hee, laughing, joking. I get it. I get, you know what, being nice, being cordial. I get all that. That ain't in me. I can't front like that. Not when I know you're evil.

Not when I know you are flat out an agent of Satan. Not when I know. See, you've already shown me who you are. As Maya Angelou said. When folks show you who they are, believe them. You already shown me. You already shown me how you were before the election in 2016. Then you showed me for four years, then you showed me how crass and nasty you were after the election.

See, I am not the go-al, get-alone dude. Can't happen. Can't do it. I don't care who y'all are. Listen, you could be a family member. Y'all need to understand, I'm just built a little different. I spoke at my parents. It was men's month the church asked me to be the guest speaker

preacher whatever you want to call it and I stood up there and I talked about how I don't like sorry men I said point blank I don't like sorry men who don't take care of their responsibilities I said like my sister's husband oh yeah well no ex-husband responsibilities, I said, like my sister's husband.

Oh, yeah. Well, no, ex-husband. His ass was sitting right there on the front row. I ain't had no problem because he's sorry. God rest my sister's soul, but that dude was sorry and when I saw him at her funeral, say, dog, don't even. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

See, I don't play that. I don't play that. This is what Congressman Ilhan Omar said on CNN about this very issue. For your party overall, now that Trump is in office, we're not seeing the same kind of response that we did in 2017 when he first took office. It seems like Democrats are lost. And tell me if you disagree with that in terms of strategy and what comes next. And,

you know, you said that Democrats who attended the inauguration and called Trump a threat to democracy were essentially being hypocritical because why would they go if that's what they really believed? For the progressive caucus and for progressive Democrats and all Democrats. But also, you have to remember, Trump himself did not attend Biden's inauguration. Yeah. Even though he was the outgoing president that was supposed to, you know, help with that transition, they didn't have the decency to invite the Bidens to the White House. And so just the level of indignity that they'd shown and disrespect to tradition, to me, said no one should show him dignity and respect.

Do you think President Biden handled that wrong? Because, you know, he greeted him, he said welcome home, he left him a letter. I mean, he followed all of the traditions that typically you see an outgoing president follow. President Biden has always been a real American, a patriot. And I think the fact that he did not have a peaceful transition and it was challenging for him, wanted to show the American people how to do it and remind them. And I think there were some exceptions of some of the folks that could have been there for that sort of purpose. But to have the mass number of people that showed up that really didn't have a reason to be there. You think more Democrats should have skipped it?

Yeah. To me, it sent the wrong message. And what is that message? See, this is real simple. We ain't going along to get along. Here's the reality, Matt. You can still have a peaceful transfer of power. I'm just not going, I am not going, and I know people say, no, no, you got to be the bigger person. You got to be the better person. You know, so, you know, it's like

it's for the good of the country. But there is nothing good about this Satan, this agent of Satan. There's nothing. And he is not going to return it. He'll sit there and say, oh, oh, thank you.

Oh, when he sat with Biden, oh, yes, we had a very cordial conversation. But you didn't do that when Biden won. Donald Trump wants everybody to worship and bow down to him and give deference, but he does not want to reciprocate. I just, I cannot do it.

Your thoughts? You know, I need more of that dog in me. I'm a little too nice sometimes, so I can appreciate that perspective. But jokes aside, you know, I'll say, I struggle with this because I agree with you. I agree with you. I don't think we should be fake. I don't think we should spend time around people we don't actually

like. I think we should keep it 100 at all times. I do question, though, what your duty is when you're a public official and when there is a custom that is supposed to happen, when that's attending an inauguration or some other thing. I get it. Interpersonally, you absolutely shouldn't be anywhere around people you don't want to be around. I totally understand, for instance, Michelle Obama not attending. But the president going to the inauguration for the newly inaugurated president coming on, I don't know if we can say that you shouldn't follow any of those customs. And the only reason I say that is because I don't see how you ever end that. I mean, if

that becomes the standard, then it becomes, you know, parties are not going to follow any of these customs, and it's just going to seem to be a worsening, spiraling down. No, no, no. Here's how you end it. Here's how you... No, no, no. No, no. There's a way to end it.

And the way to end it is is the person who operated, who is an agent of Satan, no, no, no. There's a way to end it. And the way to end it is, is the person who operated, who was an agent of Satan, says when they come, first of all, when Trump had the meeting with President Joe Biden, he should

have said, President Biden, let me offer my apologies that I did not do this to you four years ago. Let me say right now with the cameras here that in retrospect, I should have done that. And I should have attended your inauguration. Did he do that? No. Will he do that? No. He will never do it.

And then his actions, and you already know, he don't do that. His actions after that is going to be vengeance, retribution. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

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

in a very big way, real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star studded a little bit, man. We got a Ricky Williams, NFL player, Hasman trophy winner.

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

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. What he's done with pulling Secret Service details. There are literal threats on the lives of his own former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Yeah. He pulls that.

John Bolton pulls that. Yeah. Fauci pulls that. So this guy, well, you know, these people, they are obligated to have, you know, security for life. No, no, no. We know why you did it. Because you're shameful, you're pathetic, and you're petty. And I'm just simply saying

that the other part is that when you show them all the difference, and I get it. People say, oh, no, you're the bigger person. Damn that. This is different. This is a different situation.

And I'm telling you and I'm telling you I'm telling you right. Listen four years from now when J.D. Vance gets beat he ain't going to the inauguration. He ain't going to show up. He going to be sitting in Mar-a-Lago. That's how he is.

He doesn't give a damn about customs or traditions. Yeah and you know interpersonally right maybe we have the autonomy to decide that when we are in offices, especially offices at the highest levels of the public trust, I think there's a different conversation. I mean, look, what Mr. Trump does or doesn't do should not dictate what other people do or don't do. And I get it. I mean, if you're not the president, if you're not a person on whom that custom is thrust, if you will, meaning the sitting president, the outgoing president, you don't appear. You know, Michelle Obama didn't want to come from everything I've seen reported or seen online. And, you know, she doesn't have any duty to come.

Whether Joe Biden has a duty to appear is a different thing. And I get your point, but I don't think that our actions should necessarily be dictated by someone else's actions, even if those are evil in a circumstance like this, when it's a matter of appearing at the inauguration, especially when we know Trump. He's a known quantity. He's evil. You see these actions are the embodiment of evil. But I don't think that means that we need to start responding in kind, because I think

that creates an environment where it just becomes a free-for-all and when you're in power you get to do that and when you're not in power you know you have that leveraged against you and I don't like that idea is it what should happen is you should still meet the custom if it's one that is not you know a problem essentially I think here you should meet the customer here Here's the deal here, Avis. Here's the deal here. You know, and I get it. Like, this right here, this is Governor Gavin Newsom,

you know, meeting Trump today on the tarmac and, you know, having a conversation or whatever, even though Donald Trump, in his press releases, called him news-cum, news-scum. That's what he called him in his press releases called him Newscom. Newscom. That's what he called him in his press releases. So, okay, him and the governor. And see, that's all about resources.

See, so I get that. You're the governor of a state. Listen, federal resources for the tragedy, what you're doing. But when you ain't giving me a damn thing, man, I ain't giving. Listen, Matt just sat there and said, Mr. Trump, I will not call that SOB Mr. Trump. Because see, that that's a title of respect when he does not have it for other people. Absolutely not. And here's the other thing. It's not only that he didn't come to the inauguration of Biden. It's not only that he didn't invite President Biden to the White House for that official and sort of traditional sit down with the incoming president. He literally led an insurrection against the man and for four years kept claiming that he didn't legitimately win.

For four years. He did it today. Undermined. Absolutely. Right. And then during his inauguration speech, he still disrespected Biden. This is who he is. And here's the challenge that I have, even with how the Democrats are acting right now in Congress with these ridiculous ass individuals that he's putting

up for his cabinet. They are acting in a way too normalized way. I know that they don't have the votes to stop it, but they need to be raising more hell. Okay. We cannot have a system where one side gets to run off the rails and do all sorts of ridiculousness, go in all sorts of extra-legal and violent ends and extremes, and then the other side is bound to decorum and traditions. How is that a government? That does not work. Now, I want to—I just—I don't know where it ends, but I know that, for me, the responsibility to end it is not on the people that are continuously getting taken advantage of. At some point, you have to stand up to a bully and give them what they are trying to dish out to you. You do not

defeat a bully by continuing to allow yourself to be subjugated. The way that you stand up to a bully is at some point you need to stand up and punch them in the eye. That's how it ends. And I don't know what exactly it looks like in this context, but I know it does not look like acting like everything is normal because things are hella not normal. And they're not going to be normal for years now because we are once again in this scenario where we're having this narcissist in charge of this nation. And God help us all. Here's the reality, Michael.

Congress passes a law to put up a plaque honoring Capitol Police officers who were viciously attacked in January 6, 2021. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, we ain't putting it up. When asked about it, he ignores the question. Not even doing it. When asked about Trump's pardons, oh, Donald Trump, I don't address those. He has the right to pardon anyone he wants to.

Oh, we're going to investigate the Biden pardons. I'm sorry, you just, you just, and again, this is what they do. To Avis's point, if I'm Chuck Schumer, I am using every parliamentary tactic to slow down the nominations. Because Peter Hegseth is a grossly unqualified white man to be the secretary of defense. Tulsi Gabbard should not be trusted with any intelligence because she doesn't have much. So she should not be confirmed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a charlatan who should never be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And so, hey, the Republicans may have browbeat Joni Ernst

and Tom Tillis and the other Republicans to vote for Pete Heseth, but I damn sure wouldn't make it easy. Absolutely. So with this here, you know, Biden is an institutionalist, but here, you know, I can see the argument saying he should not have attended because it gave a sense of normality if you were just sitting back watching this and you don't follow the everyday minutia of politics. And, you know, then he goes on—then we see what Trump does on day one, and what he's done this week, revoking 78 executive orders from President Biden. We see the hell that he's caused.

We see the immigration raids taking place, all of this. And it's like you have to—you—when you say somebody is an existential threat, OK, if after the election is over, you act like everything's OK, for some people, it gives them the impression that maybe you weren't serious when you said that. Maybe that was just for the politics of the election. No, he is an existential threat. And you look at what he's doing this week. You look at the—you're right, totally unqualified.

These are white DEI hires. These didn't earn it. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to call them DEI hires. Because, see, they want to use DEI against folks. No, these are,

this is what we call, I didn't bring the book, when affirmative, or when, no. No, no, no, not even affirmative action. This is what we call, I didn't bring the book, when affirmative or when, no, not even affirmative action. This is called when white supremacy is in charge of the hiring process. That's what it is. Because nobody, nobody black, nobody Latino would get what they're giving off here. Nobody. Real quick, about 30 seconds to finish your comment.

Yeah, so, you know, this is the week for the history books. And we need to really pay attention. And what I was warning people, because I was talking about Project 2025 and 2023. All this is laid out in Project 2025 was taking place. Yeah, somebody sent me a text today. Oh, my God, can't believe this is happening. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? We told you it was going to happen.

I was like, don't, I'm like, we actually told you that, I'm like, it's in the document. Not only that, mandate for leadership, the conservative promise, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation has been putting this in writing for over 40 years. We're back to 1981.

Yep. This isn't just starting with Taraji P. Henson talking about it, the BET words. They've been doing this shit over 40 years. We're back to 1981. Yep. This isn't just starting with Taraji P. Henson talking about it the BET words. They've been doing this shit over 40 years. But again, folks have not been paying attention. All right, y'all got to go to break. We'll come back. Democrats are going to be choosing a new leader soon. We'll talk to a guest soon about that. Folks,

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slash fanbase and own the future of social media. And soon to the Blackstar Network. Well, y'all, when you're on that stage and you're seeing two and three, four generations in the audience, that's got to speak

to you about the power of what y'all have become. Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break and remember I was watching this kid. I could not take my eyes off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front

row with his parents. Over on the right hand side. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything. And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing.

It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying, seeing his young kid. Then you see, hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that seen our, hear on music and animation. 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. Ha ha ha!

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These are five of the eight candidates. We've already had Ken Martin on the show, Martin O'Malley on the show. I don't think for a second Rahm Emanuel should even remotely considered for this job. And Ben Wickler is gonna be on the show on Monday. So look forward to that conversation. A lot of people are talking about what needs to be had.

Dr. Zachary Kirk, educator and content creator, joins us right now. He's, of course, he's with the group that I'm working with, a collection group called Chorus, and Chorus had, they actually streamed a discussion with the various candidates. And Zachary, this really is critically important. Obviously, they need someone who can raise money. Obviously, you need somebody who can articulate a resistance plan of action. But you also need somebody who has to completely up in the white boys and girls club of the DNC

when it comes to who controls it. Because what you just said, you have a consultant class who is just simply getting richer and richer in running these presidential, U.S. Senate, congressional, gubernatorial campaigns. And in many ways, they do awful jobs. Roland, I agree 110%. I just got an email today from James Carville. When you talk about the consulting class that has been here for a very long time, we're

talking about people that really are no longer having their hand on the pulse of what's happening in the Democratic Party and maybe, unfortunately, I hate to say it, even with mainstream America. So I couldn't agree with you more. And I think it's essential that the DNC delegates who are going to cast their votes, cast their votes for someone who has a robust vision for the future and that plans to move beyond that consultant class to get down to the everyday working class people that we need in this country to be mobilized to restore democracy. What I've said to O'Malley and what I've said to Ken Martin,

but I'm going to say to Ben Wickler is going to be very simple. And that is you need to understand you can't make assumptions about who is going to vote for you. You actually have to talk to people, communicate with them, lay out a real vision and deliver for them. Otherwise, people

are going to choose the couch. Every time. And that's, you know, there's so many people having conversations about this last election and so many people talking about what can we do

to win over the voters we lost to Trump. The reality is it really isn't about winning over voters that voted for Trump. It's really about getting people off the couch.

There are so many people who look like you and I who just chose to sit this one out. They're the ones that we need to be talking to. They're the ones we need to find out what was it that disenfranchised you. And we know there are so many things moving in the background. Huge campaigns to target the Black community, huge campaigns to target Black men, to disenfranchise us, to keep us no longer active, to have us not support the first black woman to run

for this office in the 21st century. All of that needs to be looked at, studied. And we need a chair who is going to ask those hard questions and do the big work of getting out there in the community and finding out why. When you look at the eight candidates, like I said, it ain't like you got serious, you got eight. I mean, I've talked to many people who said it really is down to three people. Have you settled on who you think is the best choice? You know, I will say this. Having been a part of the Chorus Newsroom Forum and other forums, really looking at the Rise United Forum that was hosted by our friends Ashley Allison and Brian Baez,

I'm going to say, hey, like I've been very impressed. If any of your watchers out there have not watched those forums, check them out. They were really, really good. And it gave me a lot of insight into these candidates. Now, these people are all coming with different, robust, strong visions. And I agree with you, it's going to be hard to whip up any votes beyond the big three. But I think they're all pretty strong candidates. And I hope that all of them, including the ones who have dropped out, like Skoufis from New York, I hope they're all pretty strong candidates. And I hope that all of them, including the ones who have dropped out like Skoufis from New York, I hope they all kind of come back together and really contribute to moving the party forward because there are some great ideas out there.

So from the big three, I can't tell you that one emerges more so than the other. They're all very equal in my eyes. I've been following it very closely. I've been looking at who's claiming that they have certain votes. It seems as though right now, according to what I am seeing from the candidates, you know, Wickler and Martin are both saying they have about 151 pledged votes of the 400 plus, I think, 423 that are out there. So it seems as though they are trying to set themselves apart from O'Malley and be that front runner. But I think all three of those guys are strong, and they each have a different and distinct vision for how they want to go. But one thing I've heard

that's been consistent from all of those three, each of those candidates, each of those men has been that they all want to move in a different direction than just simply relying on that consultancy class. When it comes to when it comes to this race this year, this is some of the video from that chorus forum. Folks, you can check it out on YouTube. You know, I know some folks who are not happy at all that you have no black candidates who are running. Obviously, Jamie Harrison, African-American, who is stepping down as being a DNC chair.

So your thoughts on that. Have folks been talking about that? We have. And I do want to, you know, shout out and recognize Dr. Quintessa Hathaway. She's an educator. She was, she ran for Arkansas Second Conventional District in 2022. Now, she is running.

She has qualified to run and will be on the ballot. And I think, you know, she has not shared the vote that she's gotten thus far. Wishing her, of course, the best. But for the most part, I think that you're very right. She's running? Angry. I literally...

Quintessa Hathaway. I haven't had anybody even reach out to us about her running. I wish she would have. I wish her people would have reached out. Hold on. Let me just double check. Quintessa? Yes, Dr. Quintessa Hathaway from Arkansas.

She ran for Arkansas' second congressional district in 2022. Let me see. Let me check here. Let me double check here. Okay. I'm going to see if I can find an email. Make sure it didn't go to the spam. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it looks like it went to. Okay. It went to spam. But Quintessa, you sent an email that you sent an email the day after Christmas. So we definitely hope, you know. Baby, I was in Jamaica. All right.

I'm a Ford. This is right. This went to the spam folder. But it came in the day after Christmas. That is not what you send an email trying to get on the show. But I'm going to forward this to my producer. But go ahead. I'm going to send an email after email after email.

Yeah, only one email was sent. Only one email was sent. I mean, like, yeah, the voice of black America, hands down, without a question. I want to take a moment and recognize, you know, Chair Jamie Harrison for the great work that he's done and the successful tenure he has had continuously throughout with the House flipping the Senate, like doing some great work in that time frame as America faced a lot of challenges and a lot of uphill battles, continuously being on the forefront and having the innovation to bring people like Elizabeth, who was on the show the other night and on Wednesday with you, and then bring people like me into the party and letting our voices be amplified to

amplify the voice of the DNC. So huge shout out to him for that and huge thanks. And I think that, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't recognize all that he was up against from that consultancy class, from the older, the old head, the old guard that don't look like us, that want to maintain and keep the party a certain kind of way, and that they only want to gatekeep and let certain black people have a say and have a voice. And Jamie, Chair Harrison did a great job of kind of breaking that down some. And I'm hopeful that new leadership will come in and continue to erode that further because everyone should have a right to have a say and be heard in our party.

Questions go to our panel. Matt, you first. My question is, who do you think has the best plan to retake the White House and to steer us in a different direction? Because for all the conversation that we have about, you know, Democrats and them being weak and that kind of thing, I think that is a sentiment that's out there. And I think people, unfortunately, especially in places like where I live in Texas, just feel like, what's the point? The Democrats are just not going to be effective. So I'd like your thought on who you think will be most effective in countering a lot of the phenomena we're seeing right now. You know, I'm a very honest—I'm a Scorpio, just like Roland, right? And I can take the filter off real quick and real fast.

I don't know if you're as petty as me, but go ahead. Not in public, Roland. I'm not as petty in public, but behind closed doors. So I'm going to keep it 100% real and just tell it flat like it is. Now, I'm going to give you two answers to your question. In regards to who I think may be the biggest fighter may be the biggest fighter, who can really hit hard, I'm not going to lie to you, I'm a fan of Kim Martin for that particular part.

In terms of a battle strategy, you know, absolutely, you know, Wickler is a very nice guy. He's building a strong coalition, but I don't, we need a fighter and you said fighter, I'm going to say Kim Martin. But in regards to who's going to appeal to the people that you're talking about in Texas, I'm really going to have to tell you that I think that O'Malley would be the person who would probably best relate to the Texas voter

because he is very knowledgeable and he moves very well in established spaces. And I think that many of our Texas Democrats, that's what they respect and that's what they do not think will respond to. So two names of the big three emerge as the top two for that question. Avis. Hey there. So immediately following the election, I was probably one of many people that was pretty pissed with the messaging that was coming out of the traditional democratic ilk.

Seemingly, you know, blaming the loss on too much wokeness, which was absolutely ridiculous. On black people in general. They were blaming it on black people, period. That's what they were doing, hands down. Very, very insulting to the primary base, the core base of the party. You can say everything bad that you want to about Donald Trump, and we should, and I do on a daily basis. But one thing he understands is how to play to his base, which the Democrats apparently have not gotten yet.

So my question to you is, with the individuals who are running for DNC chair, who do you think would be the best person with regards to respecting, number one, the black vote, and number two, also bringing in black consultants that understand how to maximize voting power that they have yet to maximize because they fail to respect it and invest in it in a long-term way? That's a hard question that I haven't thought about. And I have the answer to it. I'm going to go with what immediately came to my mind and being honest, like, I'm not going to lie to my girl. Like, I love you guys. I watch all the time. I'm a huge fan. So I'm going to keep it a buck with you and

say that in terms of who I think right now would do the best job of mobilizing and ensuring that black consultants are at the table and are being a part of the work and doing great things and even having their careers elevated through the experience and the way that we had someone like Quinton Folks, one of the brightest, sharpest, most strategic Democratic thinkers out there, being elevated under, you know, Vice President, first Biden's campaign and then Vice President Harris. I'm going to have to say Kian Martin because he's an extremely progressive thinker and he's extremely fiery right now in how he's approaching it. Now the question then becomes, you know, would he be able to work the network to shake out the coffers to get the coins in the bag that we would need? And that's kind of where my question or kind of concern may come in, in that Wickler is more connected. And, of course, O'Malley, having been a longtime established Democrat in the space, having all the work he's done in Maryland, all across the country, is definitely going to be also able to do that. But again, Martin is the current vice

chair. So I got to be honest. I got to give that also to Martin. Thank you. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Michael. All right. Dr. Kirk, earlier in the conversation, you were talking about so many African-Americans stayed on the couch and you've been in conversations with them. What were some of the reasons that they gave you with all that was at stake? OK, with all that was at stake, all the rhetoric Donald Trump was talking during the campaign. What what were some of the reasons that they gave you for not voting? My brother, I'm going to have to bear it all out, bear witness to tell the truth and shame the devil. There were there was the misinformation campaign was strong and there were warriors out there like we saw OSA and Onyx Impact and Ashley Allison with Watering Hole Media. There were warriors out there who had assembled teams of people to combat the misinformation and the disinformation.

But the reality is they were small in number and they didn't have the funding to do it at the level that needed to be done. And that misinformation campaign wreaked havoc. It wreaked havoc on the black community. So many people, when I'm talking to people and hearing things that just were absolutely untrue, like what you just said previously in the show, it was brought up about Project 2025. How could you not know? I made a video about Project 2025 right before Taraji P. Henson got on national television and said, Google this. I made my video at the very beginning of June. That video amassed 4.7 million views. It was watched from beginning to end by millions of people.

And they still turned around saying that this isn't true. It's not going to happen. It's false. It was watched from beginning to end by millions of people. And they still turned around saying that this isn't true. It's not going to happen. It's false. It's made up. And now they're living with the FAFO and the consequences of those decisions. It wreaked havoc. Here's a prime example. Janet Jackson is an extremely talented and extremely wealthy black woman. And she got on a national stage. And when given a chance to refute the lie that Vice President Kamala Harris is not black, she actually doubled down on it,

fired her PR assistant, and never retracted the misinformation that she is not black. Although all you have to do is a small amount of Google research to verify that this woman is indeed a black woman. And so that's what we're up against. She would know better than what people said about her brother.

I was about to say that. I'm just saying. You would think she would know better. And if someone like that could be so misled by the inundation of bad media actors. I think that tells a tale of why so many black people sat it out and why the gold— Yeah, but I've also been told by some people—that's what happens. I've been told by some people that her brother Randy is MAGA. Her brother Randy is MAGA.

She very well now, too, baby, MAGA. And again, we have to think about why are we losing black people to this movement when we had one of the leaders of the movement give a right arm gesture. I don't want to say it on YouTube what it was. We all know what it was. That signaled back to the end of all of us, to the end of all of us. But yet still we have black people on social media doubling down, defending that. Black people defending that. And when you look

at 1930s Germany, we were the first to go. When you look at the atrocities from 1900 to 1920 before Nazi Germany, we were being exterminated in Rhodesia. Like, this is what they were doing. It's baffling. But it's the work ahead. It's's what they were doing. It's baffling,

but it's the work ahead. It's what we have to fight. It's why I do what I do as a content creator every single day. All right, folks. This is the YouTube channel of Zachary, folks.

It's called The Zachtivist. Z-A-C-T-I-V-I-S-T. Right now, he has 1.69. So, almost 1,700 subscribers. Let's get this, double that if we can. So, subscribe to his channel. Again, The Zach-tivist on YouTube.

You can see his social media right there on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, his website as well. Zachary, thanks a lot. Thank you so much, Roland. It's been my pleasure and thanks to all of you for the great work that you do. I'm a subscriber and a donator. I'm gonna keep on doing it.

I appreciate it, thanks a bunch. We I'm going to keep on doing it. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. We come back. We'll talk about a black man beating to death in New York. Family not getting justice. You're watching Roland Martin on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

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The family of a black man from New York who was beaten to death by several correctional officers is waiting for charges to be filed. In the meantime, they are suing the prison system. 43-year-old Robert Brooks was violently attacked by correctional officers while in handcuffs at the Marcy Correctional Facility. He was repeatedly punched and kicked in the groin, abdomen, face, and back. Protests have erupted since the incident took place with demonstrators calling for arrests

and the closure of the facility. One of the facility. One of the prominent figures leading the charge is Reverend Kevin McCall, founder of the Crisis Action Center, who joins us now from New York. Glad to have you on the show, Kevin. So give us a sense, where does this stand? So these folks involved,

where does this case stand legally? You're on mute. Legally, the case stands right now is no charges have been filed. The family has went forward to file a civil suit for the death of their loved one. But in terms of an arrest, nothing has transpired. It's been 45 days. And everyone saw the video. These officers and staff members stood. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

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

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

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

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

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. ...by stood idle. They didn't know they was being recorded in standby mode. And the evidence is there. The pictures of the truth is there. And nothing has transpired. If I or you would have done a crime, we would have been under the jail by now. And it's ridiculous how this incident has not striked into where these officers and these staff members, nurses, are not arrested. Which district attorney has jurisdiction

over this area? So the district attorney was given jurisdiction was, it's currently right now, it's Agenada County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick. It was given to him because Attorney General Tess James had a conflict of interest, so she filed paperwork to let the neighboring district attorney, which is a moderate Republican, to take over and now charge these individuals that did this murder on tape. Okay, I'm confused. She's the New York State Attorney General. Correct. So who did she hand it over to?

She handed it over to a prosecutor because she had to recuse herself because she represents them in civil cases. She represents the prison. She represents the prison. She represents the prison. Right. But the district attorney, is that a local DA, a county DA? Yes, it's a local DA. Got it. Aguilera County. It's a neighboring county right next to Utica. So it's in Rochester that that district attorney currently has the case. And it, and it's been 45 days, and he has done anything to

at least arrest these officers that actually transpired. Forty-five days? Forty-five days, Roland, as nothing has transpired. We've been protesting. We gave, we told the governor. The governor of the state of New York, Governor Hochul, even said that this was a murder that happened. And nothing still transpired. You know, there's been—groups have been calling for it. They've been fighting for it. There's prisoners that have been organizing.

And we've been on the front line trying to be able to wrangle around this. Derek Helmington and Renny Smith and Donna Hilton. These groups, these people have experience in justices in the prison system. This is their George Floyd that happened on tape. And these officers need to be held accountable for their actions. So we're going to continue to keep the pressure on as much as possible to get these officers and these staff members arrested. Questions for the panel. Let me go to Matt first. Yeah. So my question is, Reverend Hill, is that correct? I want to make sure I said the correct name. Reverend Kevin McCall. McCall. Pardon me, brother. Pardon me. First, thank you for your

leadership and for y'all, you know, demonstrating and shutting down the subway that way. I like that approach. I think we need more action like that. Here's my question to you, though. What are you asking for immediately outside of just the arrest? Are you asking for the district attorney to open an investigation to kind of inform the public? Because what I find a lot of times in these cases is the lack of transparency is one of the things that adds insult to injury, because people don't know what's happening. They don't know what's transpiring. So in the short term, in addition to arrest, what else are you asking for? Well, we need true trains reform, not just with the district attorney, because there's other cases

that we were told that he has done nothing on. So, we need true transparency, and that looks like some legislation that needs to happen. There's an oversight committee called the CANI, which is the Correction Officer Association of New York, been around for 100 years, but they don't have any teeth. So we're working with the legislators to really get some teeth behind and have some formerly incarcerated individuals be a part of that conversation and really give them some oversight power. Because right now, only thing they can do is make recommendations, and it does nothing. So we need more of reform and change that can give the teeth behind that. And the only way you can do that is through legislation.

So we're going to Albany on Monday to talk to the state legislators to have a Robert Brooks Advocacy Day to make sure that these things that we want. We want the facilities to be closed and not just Marcy, because this is just bigger than Marcy. It's just shedding a light on Marcy. Make sure that everybody is on notice that this is not an isolated incident, but every correctional facility is held responsible to the fullest end of the law when you're dealing with those who are incarcerated. Michael. seen the video here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, and I understand your lawsuit, but I was just wondering if you all had gotten any insight into any justification for the beating. Now, there was nothing that we saw that justified it, but any reasoning from the people who did this, any explanation, anything like that? The only information that we have received is from those individuals that are incarcerated

that let us know that this brother was facing some challenges in the Mohawk facility, and he's being transferred. But we don't know what happened between the transferred and 20 minutes for him going inside the room in Marcy. We just don't know what transpired. But these people need to be held accountable. I mean, they didn't even know

that they were being recorded. Let me just let you paint the picture here. They were being... They put... After they They were being they put after they beat him, they put him in another uniform and took him to the hospital

and they documented they say that this person died but they didn't say that he died of a beating. This happened December the 9th. He died December the 9th just before midnight. They didn't notify the public until December the 28th. So something speaks here overall.

And we have to be able to make sure that wherever the case goes, that we get the arrests that we want and they be fired because they're protected by the union. And as you know, we're under a Trump administration now. So if you call on for the DOJ to investigate these cases, you may not get anything. So we have to be able to deal with the local prosecutor and continue to keep the pressure on him. And God's willing that justice will happen. Thank you.

Avis. So you are going directly in the direction that I was going to ask. We know right now that specifically the civil rights division of the Justice Department is, in fact, for all intents and purposes, defunct at this moment. So there is no hope of bringing in the feds. There is no hope of doing some sort of federal investigation to take it out of the hands of the locality or the states. With that said, what do you believe are—do you see any other next steps? I mean, you know, it's really disturbing when you are in a situation where you feel like everybody's, like, covering up for the other folks.

And so you don't have any adults in charge in this sense right now. Are there any other areas that you are looking to go to besides—which, this is a good one. I'm glad you're here because raising the public consciousness about this to me is the next logical step. But any other thing that you can think to do to move beyond the locality, even the state, if they don't move in the direction that you need them to move in order to seek justice in this case? Well, as you say, sister, we've been down this road before, fighting and getting little results.

You know, the direction that we want is an arrest. We do want them to be tried and convicted and hopefully most likely to face jail time. That's what we want. But if we see that the arrest happened and it's not going in the direction of more cover-up, then we're going to call for the case to be moved out of that county, because we want to make sure that the people look like us and the people that can be able to give the justice. Because upstate New York, it doesn't look like us. And their people are all connected.

You've got some people that are related to the correction officers. So you want to be able to make sure that if we go down the direction of really fighting for the Robert Brooks and for others, we want to make sure that if we remove it from that county, what real justice looks like. And what that looks like is them having, being inside the prison, inside the prison and making sure that everyone has the ability to have them being found guilty and charged with the proper crime. You know, that's the main thing is make sure that they're charged with a proper crime and making sure that they are charged with the fullest end of the law. Reverend Kevin McCall will surely keep us abreast of what developments in this case. Thank you, Roland, for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, we come back.

Target has announced they are ending their DEI efforts. Meta and a lot of tech companies have done the same. We'll talk with the guest up next who says these tech folks, especially Mark Zuckerberg, never believed in it anyway. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. The goal is simple, getting 20,000 of our fans contributing on average,

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Use the Stripe app to give via Cash App. You can see it right there. You can also go to BlackstarNetwork.com if you're listening to get the QR code. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Vimeo is rm unfiltered. Zale, Roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Send your check and money. Order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Back in a moment. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now, we're accepting investors in our $17 million round

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invest for yourself and your future. Go to start engine.com slash fan base and own the future of social media. Now streaming on the black star network. I was challenged by my uncle early on, before I even had a career. Like, I was maybe eight years old, and my uncle said, what do you want to do? And I told him I wanted to be a rapper. And he said, okay, well, I don't know anything about the music business, so what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business,

and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through. And so I went and bought books, all you need to know about the music business. Hit me in, I just went and bought a bunch of books to start reading as a 10 year old, just reading, reading. And so I learned all things, licensing, mechanical rights, I learned about publishing, learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces,

the writer's portion and the producer's portion. But by the time I actually learned I can't bend, I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He would go into prison. So I had all this information. All this knowledge. All this knowledge. You like, well, what am I gonna do with it now? Hello, we're the Critter Fixers.

I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Folks, Cowards in Corporate America continue to show exactly who they are. They want our money, but they don't actually want to support us. Target is the latest company. Joining Walmart, Jack Daniels, John Deere, and others. Today they announced they're rolling back their DEI initiatives.

Again, joining Walmart, Meta, McDonald's. Memo was sent out that they're going to be ending their three-year DEI officer, listened to this comment here. Many years of data, insights, listening, and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy. And as a retailer that serves millions of consumers every day, we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape now and in the future, all in service of driving Target's growth and winning together. OK, let me translate that. White conservatives are talking about protesting us and doing a boycott. So we have buckled to them and we're ending DEI.

That's pretty much it. It was three years ago when they announced that they would be spending at least $2 billion a year with black-owned businesses. They will be adding different products to shelves as well. And so this is the story right here. It says Target expanded its diversity goals at the time, saying it would increase representation of black employees across its workforce by 20% over the next year. They started a new program to help black entrepreneurs develop, test, and scale products to sell

at mass retailers. Again, they promised to spend more than $2 billion with black-owned businesses by 2025. Hmm, isn't that quite interesting? They're ending it in 2025. And they also, and this is the key, they gave $10 million to support social justice groups like including the National Urban League

and African American Leadership Forum. So here's the real deal here, okay? The donations are to buy off civil rights groups. They want the black step of approval, but what they don't want to do, though, is invest in black people. Meta made the exact same announcement as well in terms of their actions. And again, we see these things happening all over and over. And so what these companies are doing, all of a sudden, they're doing all they can to

suck up and kiss the ass of Donald Trump and right-wing MAGA. That's all this is about. Well, my next guest, she wrote this column on MSNBC.com. This is the headline. Mark Zuckerberg, now with Trump, is no longer pretending to care about diversity. What might strike outsiders as a change, one second, as a change in ethos for the company is

Zuckerberg showing us who he really is. She also is the author of Seen Yet Unseen, A Black Woman Crashes the Tech Fraternity. Boy, glad to have you here. So, you see what Target has done. We see what Meta's done. We see all of the different companies.

I mean, this is nothing but a conservative-ass kissing job. Yeah, I mean, full stop. That's exactly what it is. It's essentially a bunch of people coming over, kissing the ring, doing the performance. You saw them all sitting behind the Trump family at the inauguration. So, that tells you exactly what time it is. Look, you've been in the tech space for quite some time. And what's up with these tech bros? Is it all about getting those tax cuts and making sure that the federal government doesn't come down on them to break up their, you know, multiple, multiple, multiple

billion-dollar companies? I think it's twofold. One, what we're seeing is this is who a lot of them always were. I think a lot of what we saw initially prior to the murder of George Floyd, they were doing a little bit of tech work here and there, but they really ramped it up after 2020. And now that the pendulum has shifted and swung in the complete opposite other direction and very quickly, now you see they're emboldened to say the quiet part out loud, that a lot of this was performative, a lot of it was so that they wouldn't get dragged, and now that they know that they won't be, they can finally let their real flag fly. So the other piece to that is, yes, that's who most of them actually are. But the other piece is, yes, you don't want to see those antitrust litigation go through the DOJ.

You don't want to see any more FTC or FCC investigations come through, particularly for Meta. They don't want they don't want their company broken up. And there are lots of different ways in which it could be broken up. And this is Mark trying to protect his dollar, protect his newfound image change, and to protect his companies. I really ripped into him when he went on Joe Rogan. I mean, he looked like an idiot. First of all, talking about, you know, you know, toxic masculinity and what masculinity means. Ain't nothing masculine about Mark Zuckerberg.

I mean, it was I mean, it was literally like, yeah, I'm with the guys now. Go sit your ass down and go get on your computer. I mean, so that was just ridiculous pandering. Look, I mean, to me, can say it it's giving midlife crisis that's kind of what it's giving to me it's you know but barry here's what i don't understand i'm sorry you got to help me out and for everybody out there for everybody out there y'all have been asking me not to cuss okay i'm trying not trying not to cuss. I know I had a grandmother sitting in the note, said she played last night's segment.

Her grandson's in the car. So just letting y'all know, turn the volume down right now. You'll come right back. These cats have fuck you money. Yeah. They literally have billions. I mean, multiple billions.

They don't have to kiss this much ass what's the deal so i my my opinion on that i i agree and what i think is actually ironic about it is to go on to this masculine manly man podcast and talk about masculine energy to me it's actually a sign of weakness and not masculine or feminine in that case because i i'm not this type of woman to go and kowtow and kiss a ring of somebody who first of all hasn't even asked you to yet you willingly preemptively kiss this person's ass before they even asked you to. So to me, it's just, this is really who this person is. This is who he wants you to see him as. And this falls in line with that. That goes along with the Joe Rogan. That goes along with growing his hair out. That goes along with the gold chain. It goes along with the new baggy clothes.

It goes along with even remaking get low with T-Pain, which I personally don't understand because get low wasn't even T-Pain's song. But that's something you're not. Ah! Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It was that. So the thing here, and, you know...

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

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

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. When you look at these various black groups out there, people are just, they're trying to figure out what's going on. They're all over the place. No one knows how to react. Other people like, yo, chill. You know, this is just the first week. And I'm sitting there going, listen, we all predicted that all this was going to happen. So nobody, nobody is like, let's just be clear what's going on here. But the thing that I keep focused on and that you definitely know about, because

in your piece here, you write when asked in recent interviews what has been your greatest career achievement to date, I haven't hesitated to say I created and launched Facebook's Supplier Diversity Program. And this is what I keep trying to emphasize to folks about what's going on. That, that is the target. What they want to do, they want to shut down the money. I keep, Harry Belafonte, in his book, he said, my fear was them doing to me what they did to Paul Robeson. So Paul Robeson, one of our greatest freedom fighters, died broke because they took his passport. So he couldn't work in the United States, and he was making lots of money overseas by taking his passport.

He couldn't do it. He did some performances over the phone, but he could not do it in person. And so Harry Belafonte said he wanted to diversify his money so with his activism, they can never cut him off. Well, what this is, this is cutting off the money. I keep saying to people in the next year, two years, four years, you're going to see an economic calamity in black America. Because if they're shutting off the contracts to Meta, to Facebook, to Twitter, to all these other different companies, to McDonald's, to Target, to Walmart, all these companies,

now people keep hollering black- business, black owned businesses. Guess what? Only only five or only five percent of black owned businesses do more than five million dollars in revenue a year. Just five percent. You cut off the contracts. You cut off black owned businesses. You cut off black owned businesses who then give money to black institutions. This is the real strategy of the right wing. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You're essentially starving. You're starving us. And the other thing that they're not paying attention to is,

so particularly with the message is... Oh, I think your signal froze your signal froze we got Barry back I see you you can't be no text expert with your signal freezing I'm just saying

I can't help that. There's so much I can do. You're back. Finish your point. The issue is that when you get rid of these roles, you're also getting rid of a large piece of the workforce. You're taking up the unemployment line

and a lot of these black businesses that would have employed these people. All right. Hold on. You said you froze right there when you said these black people not pick up that point. The black owned businesses that are getting these meta contracts are now going to be essentially starved out of their own businesses. Yep. So now you're ticking up the unemployment rate once again, not just with the employees that you've discarded from your DEI programs, but now with those people that have essentially given up a large chunk of their businesses in order to service these larger corporations. Now that's all gone by the wayside.

Yeah. So that's essentially the long game is to just kind of funnel out the money, get the money out of the community and now we're dependent on these platforms and these people. Yeah.

So this is very simple. If they shut down programs on a federal level, they want that to trickle down to state, county, city, school district

and where many black businesses have been able to frankly survive has been with those contracts, with governmental contracts. I want to go to my panel here. Avis, I'll start with you. Yeah. I mean, honestly, this is a coordinated attack. OK. Even before Trump came into office, you had 41 out of 50 states that have either passed legislation that is meant to eliminate DEI in those states or have at least considered legislation, had it introduced. So this was a coordinated attack. Prior to that, you've had the lawsuits, for example, that got rid of the fearless fund. And those are the same people that are also in

the ear of the corporation saying that if you don't get rid of your DEI programs, we are going to attack you as well. And then you have right now this new administration, which within one day has rooted DEI or DEIA in the federal system completely out of the federal system, while at the same time also putting language in his executive order that threatens corporations, nonprofits and foundations on this issue. And, as you were saying, Roland, it is exactly an attack right at the heart of economic power, because of the trickle-down effects not only of shutting down the businesses but taking out the black middle class in terms of these

professional jobs that they have held. When you think about what's going on right now in this space, there are a couple of spaces that are holding tight. There are a couple of organizations. For example, JPMorgan & Chase came out today and said we are standing strong in this arena. We know that Costco has come out to say we are standing strong in this arena. When you think about what we what we are facing right now with those the diametrically opposed few who are saying we are staying in this game. What would you suggest to those organizations as someone who has been

in this sort of very sort of bro tech culture? What would you say to those organizations that are standing strong around what they need to do to make sure that they continue to protect and look out for not only their employees, but quite frankly, look out for the best interests of those institutions, given the diversity of the people that they are looking to serve. I think a large part of that is going to also going to come down to, and I'm an attorney by trade, so that's what I know, is that they're going to have to be very careful with how they word certain things. The reason why Fearless Fund was attacked the way that it was, was due to the language of how their fellowships and their grants were given. And so a lot of it is going to be making sure that your legal staff is prepared.

They're ready for how they communicate these particular points, that your comms are prepared to communicate these particular points in a way thats are prepared to communicate these particular points in a way that is not going to alarm and set off the little alarm bells for people that are listening for anything that sounds like DEI, anything that sounds like women, anything that sounds like Black people, anything that even could sound like economic opportunity. That also sounds off alarm bells for them. So it's going to be making sure that we word things very, very carefully. Michael. All right, Bari. I've been posting some articles this week dealing with the attack on DEI that's taking place at the federal level with Trump in office.

And one of the pushbacks I hear from some African-Americans is that, oh, well, it just benefits the LGBT community or really doesn't help African-Americans. Can you provide us some evidence, some examples of how diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have been helping the African-American community and maybe one or two sources that we can direct people towards for evidence. Sure. Well, I will say if it hasn't already been deleted from the federal pages, because that's also been happening this week as well. But the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has all of those statistics that can demonstrate to you, a lot of how we rise to the Black middle

class is through our Black-owned businesses. And oftentimes, that is through government contracts as diverse suppliers. So that is a way that by owning your own business, and you have those government contracts, and those government contracts tend to extend for decades. And so without having that safety net, where are you going to find business that is, one, is going to be the same revenue stack in terms of generation, and two, is going to have the same longevity? And the answer is it would have been those large corporations. But now you don't even have those to rely upon. You don't have the Facebooks. You don't have the Target.

And so what you need. You froze on this. You said what you need. One second, you froze on us, Bar. You said what you need. So what we need is the access to the government jobs, not just as contractors, which raises our own businesses to the professional middle class, but also the government jobs that provided the benefits to us and the pensions and all the other things that we use to actually start our own businesses, because we're very good at having side businesses. We're very good at working a job and also having a business that we have on the side. And a lot of those government jobs we worked allowed us to fund and support our side businesses. Now that all of that is gone, that resource,

where are we supposed to go with that resource? Another thing that you mentioned, Roland, which is disappointing for me, is Target had a very, very good program in terms of ensuring that they put Black-owned products into their stores. That's where we got Honeypot. That's where we got Miel Organics hair products. And now that they're not going to essentially fund or put any resources into those programs anymore, where will we find our next great black product if we can't find it in Target or Walmart? Matt? Yeah, my question is very quickly, what are your thoughts on, I guess, maybe unconventional ways to attack this, and I ask, or to combat this, rather? And I ask because, you know, a lot of these programs seem like they were put in place because they saw the topic du

jour with George Floyd, and they wanted to make a dollar off of it, right? But we're, not only the consumers, we are what makes the money in terms of our data, in terms of our usage. So with your industry experience, how do we as average citizens push back on this? What means do we have at our disposal to show these corporations that we can't be manipulated the way they attempted to do with the promulgation of these programs? The best course of action is vote with your feet and vote with your pocketbook. And what I mean by vote with your feet is take your posts to other platforms. Spill is a great platform. That's Black-owned. Spoutable, also Black-owned.

Take your platform usage to another platform. If they don't have the eyeballs, they don't have the ad revenue. If they don't have the ad revenue, their stock goes down. Now you're affecting their money. And I know it's very hard for people to get rid of Twitter, to get rid of Instagram, Instagram especially. But if we take our talents to these other platforms, particularly black-owned platforms, they will also get the ad revenue. And that's cyclical. So if advertisers want to work for them or work with them, they also will work in order to publicize our products. So it's about actually exercising your preference or whether you're just pleasure with these people by taking your eyeballs and your data elsewhere. Let those accounts sit

dormant. Give up Facebook. Give up Instagram. Let your account sit and be dormant. That's why I've been telling people, go to Fanbase. I mean, at the end of the day, we make these apps jump off. We do. We make everything hot. We make everything hot.

If if black folks don't say something is popping, it's not. And so if we're not on your platform, what are you how are you going to learn that something is new and improved and better and cool? You won't. And so if we're not there, then there's there's no there there. Absolutely. All right, Bari, we appreciate it. Y'all, her book is, again, Seen Yet Unseen, A Black Woman Crashes the Tech Fraternity. I'm going to later do a longer interview with her specifically about the book, so we look forward to that.

Bari, thanks a lot. And before Bari goes, y'all want everybody to know, Bari is, I want all y'all, Bari is a huge fan of Return of the Mack by, boy. I should have known this was coming. What, what? I'm just saying, I don't, why do you hate the song I mean, I don't...

Why do you hate the song so much? I don't get it. Um... That's why. What? What? I mean, what's the problem? I mean, you're talking about...

Listen, brother not from here, you know, but that song has been around for so long. It's in commercials. It's everywhere. So I don't understand, like, why? I don't understand. I'm really

happy he's getting his money. And I just want y'all to know, every time I'm somewhere and I hear the song, they play it, Bari gets a video. Roland is a troll, y'all to know, every time I'm somewhere and I hear the song, they play it, Bari gets a video. Roland is a troll, y'all. I'm not a troll. Y'all don't understand. Bari hates this song.

The two people who hate this song the most, Bari Williams and Jemele Hill. It's a classic. Michael, let her know. It's a classic. That's on my workout playlist. That's a classic. No.

Return to the mat? Oh, come on. No. Come on. Avis, you like return to the mat? I don't know. I think I got to side with the sister. I'm a little upset. Oh, come on. Come on. Avis, you like returning the mat? Right there. Uh, I don't know. I think I got a side with the sister.

I'm a little under. That's bullshit. Y'all, you just, that's that AKA nonsense. That's that AKA nonsense. All right, Matt, Matt, what you think? I like it. I like it like I don't. I like it. I like it.

Come on, Barney. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right. I know you two probably going to block that. You too. We're going to have to delete that.

So, you know, because we're probably going to try to give us a strike. But I had to play it. I had to play it. Y'all, last thing I got to say is this here. CNN yesterday announced their new lineup of shows and they took, they left one person's name off, Jim Acosta. Jim was a 10 o'clock anchor. Actually, some of the best ratings on the whole network.

But Trump hates Jim Acosta because Jim Acosta held Trump accountable when he was last time the orange one was in the Oval Office. And so Mark Thompson, the new CEO of CNN, called Jim Acosta to say, hey, got an idea, we want to move you to midnight. And let me tell you something, any time your boss called you to say

we want to move you to the graveyard shift, that is not a promotion. This is all about kissing Trump's ass because CNN knows Donald Trump doesn't work. Earlier I played a video of Donald Trump complaining about how Senator Adam Schiff looked on television. That's all Donald Trump does is watch television. So they do not want somebody who's hard on Trump. But let me be real clear. Jim Acosta calls balls and strikes. He's hard on everybody. But they're trying to kiss the butt of Trump.

But here's the other thing that nobody wants to talk about. David Zaslav, who is the CEO of the company that owns CNN, said before the election, hey, you hey, we're not into the politics, but we would like to see somebody win who supports mergers and acquisitions. He was saying Trump. CBS. Donald Trump has sued.

He's filed a joke of a lawsuit against CBS because they interviewed Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes. CBS is thinking about settling the lawsuit in order to expedite their merger, their acquisition, Paramount Plus being sold to Larry Ellison and his son. So I need you all to understand, these companies are making corporate merger moves. And if CNN keeps Jim Acosta off the air, y'all, you shouldn't even tune in anymore. The ratings are already in the toilet. It needs to be buried six feet underground if they do that.

Because what it shows is absolute capitulation. What it shows is absolute capitulation. What it shows is no courage. And what it shows is they don't have respect for the people who work at their network. And you know what's also interesting? All of these CNN anchors who love talking about everything else, none of them have publicly come out

to stand up for Jim Acosta. That to me is a shame. Final comment from my panel. I'm going to go to you, Avis. It's just it's utterly ridiculous. I mean, you can't say the man's ratings are bad. His ratings at 10 a.m. were better than most of the folks in their prime time. Well, you you you called it. You called it. What's happening here is they're bending the knee. They're bending the knee for Donald Trump. And they will continue to do that because they're scared of them. They are frightened.

And it's unfortunate because we like to say that we have a free press in this country. But when you have organizations that do things like that, that undermines the entire notion of freedom when it comes to the power of the press. And so really, I look at the CNN now with even less respect than I have for them before. Michael. Yeah, well, I don't watch a lot of CNN. I do watch clips. I see Abby Phillips, things like that. But when you make moves like this, it looks cowardly. And you have somebody like Jim Acosta. I do see clips of Jim Acosta. You have somebody like him, like you said, calls balls and strikes. And it will cause more and more people to stop watching CNN. Similarly, the way a lot of people have stopped watching MSNBC

because Joe and Mika went down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of Donald Trump. So, yeah. Yeah. Watch Roland Martin unfiltered. Yeah. I mean, bottom line, Matt, look, I don't watch CNN at all. Like I say, in April, it'll be 12 years since I left. I don't watch them.

Frankly, I think most of the be 12 years since I left. I don't watch him. Frankly, I think most of the people there are boring as hell. And it's just like the same stuff over and over and over again. But Jim Acosta is one of the few people who is there holding people accountable, doing his job the way it's supposed to. And for

Mark Thompson to leave him off the new lineup, there's no nothing else you can say about this that it has nothing to do with performance. It has to all do with how can we kiss Donald Trump's ass. This interview here, when he kicked Tim Burchette butts this week, listen, again, the numbers jumped, and that was a perfect case of holding somebody

feet to the fire. Yeah, I love Jim Acosta. I haven't really watched CNN as much as I used to. I think, you know, my fellow panelists have said everything, but I want to be exceedingly clear about one thing. I watch Abby Phillip as much as possible when I have to watch CNN. So I watch Abby Phillip very often. I'm a big fan of hers. With the exception of that, I mean, you know, nothing surprises me. It's all about the bottom line. And, you know, I think it was Dr. Avis who might've said it earlier, or maybe the attorney, you know, what's crazy about a lot of this is a lot of these companies are capitulating before

they're even called out for not capitulating. That is the true essence of fear, right? That you're concerned, oh, we think this guy's a bully, so we're afraid we're going to draw his ire soon, so we're going to just kind of bend the knee prophylactically. And that is pure cowardice, especially, as you said earlier, something I've really thought about a lot when it comes to this is y'all have so much money that if they all galvanized together and said, no, you're not going to, you know, push us around. I wonder how effective Trump and some of his cronies would actually be, because you'd be coming up against the people who have the greatest ability to withstand some of that pressure. So, you know, it doesn't surprise me. It's all about the bottom line. And this is in conformity with that. Yeah. And also, Jim is one of the very few Latino anchors on the air.

But it's not like these people give a shit about that these days. All right, Matt, Avis, Michael, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank all of y'all for watching us today, this week as well. Great week, lots more to cover. Listen, we're gonna be here every single day

holding these people accountable. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Thank you. They understand the issues that we're covering. They understand that we are speaking to the issues that absolutely matter. And so keep supporting the work that we do. We want you to join our Bring the Funk fan club every Friday. We always run the names of the people who give to us. So to get your name on this list, here's how you give via Cash App. You can go to Stripe.

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I voted for the black woman. And if y'all get your shirts, mugs, whatever, take a picture, post it on social, tag me. I'll show it on the air. Don't forget, also get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. All this stuff happening this week. I've been saying this up since 2009. I wrote my book in 2022, and it's all come true. So you can go to bookstores nationwide and get the audio version I read on Audible. Folks,

and don't forget, download Fanbase, invest in Fanbase. He's hit $7.5, $7.6 million. Let's keep it going. Go to startengine.com forward slash Fanbase, startengine.com forward slash fan base. Startengine.com forward slash fan base. Folks, I will see y'all

on Monday. Y'all have an absolute great weekend. And let's see. Who am I picking this weekend? I'm going to go with the hot hand. Washington Commandos upset the Philadelphia Eagles. And I'm going to pick

I think it's going to be Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes is too good. Plus, the refs are going to give it to him. All right. I'll see y'all. Holla! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. More time Thank you. Thank you. Bye. This is an iHeart Podcast.