#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Hope Global Forums, FL Judicial Circuit SA battle, NJ prohibits book bans, Fights to Haiti suspended

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

12.10.2024 ##RolandMartinUnfiltered: Hope Global Forums, FL Judicial Circuit SA battle, NJ prohibits, Fights to Haiti suspended Live from the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta! Monique Worrell, the Duly-Elected State Attorney of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, is here tonight to discuss her re-election and the man who was appointed in her place change of heart to assist in her transition.  New Jersey is the latest state to prohibit bans on books in schools and public libraries. More U.S. flights to Haiti are indefinitely suspended after escalating violence and safety concerns in Haiti's capital.   We'll talk to the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration about what's happening in the gang-infested country.  #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 (link) and Risks (link) 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.

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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. We are back.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pac a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen.

One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform

that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build fan base. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on Start Engine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to start engine.com slash fan base and

invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in fan base right now today, and then use fan base to connect with friends, grow your audience and be you without limits. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now.

Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be black on media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Tuesday, December 10th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We're live here, December 10th, 2024. Coming up on Roller Mark Unpilleted, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We're live here at the 10th annual Hope Global Forum.

We'll hear from John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope, about this year's conference. We'll also hear from the highest-ranking black executive at Truist Bank about the importance of African-Americans having access to capital, but also access to contracts. Folks, we'll also talk with Monique Worrell. Remember, she is the black state's attorney who was removed from her position by Governor Rhonda Sanders. Well, guess what? She won a reelection and the black man she beat, he refuses to cooperate in the transition of her taking over. We'll be chatting with her. New Jersey, the latest state to prohibit bans on books in schools and public libraries. Also, more U.S. flights to Haiti are being indefinitely suspended

after escalating violence and safety concerns in Haiti's capital. We'll talk to the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration about that very issue. Also, Nikki Giovanni, the poet and activist, is now an ancestor. She died at the age of 81. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it Whatever it is he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling, yeah It's on go, go, go, yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling, yeah, yeah, with Uncle Roro, yo, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's rolling, Martin, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Yeah. and Martel. Martel.

Folks, if you want to know a sorry excuse for a black man, that is Andrew Bain. He is the state's attorney in Florida who Monique Worrell beat. Now, remember, it was Governor Ron DeSantis who replaced her with Bain. And then she then ran as an independent, kicked his butt on November 5th. And then he decided to say that he was not going to help her with the transition. Well, now he is changing his mind. Monique Royal, the duly elected state attorney for Florida's initial circuit. She joins us right now. Monique, glad to have you

back on the show. And so, first of all, congratulations on winning with 57 percent of the vote. And you ran as an independent. And so clearly the people in that area, they wanted you back in office. Good evening, Roland. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for having me. No. So I ran as a Democrat. No. Ran as an independent. And yes, the most overwhelming And that was just a really big win for me and the Democratic Party for that and so what he tried so is he now saying he will help the transition because he posted this long statement claiming all kind of crap executive order or whatever when dude you lost you lost that's. That's exactly right.

So what we saw was an email come out early in the morning saying, I don't have any intentions on assisting in transition. My understanding is that she's not allowed to be the state attorney, so I will be here until the governor tells me otherwise. And we saw an extreme backlash from local leaders, from the media, from the voters. And by three o'clock that afternoon, shortly after I released my statement, we saw a reversal with him saying, well, actually, my last day is on January the 6th and her first day is on January the 7th, and I will do everything I can to facilitate the transition.

So a complete contradiction to his earlier email. And, you know, what we saw was an extreme reversal of his own position. What we are seeing here, again, what we're seeing here is Ron DeSantis doing exactly what he does, and that is attacking duly elected state prosecutors. Are you concerned he did it before that after you take office that he will single you out again and remove you from office. So unfortunately, we live in a time right now where democracy everywhere is at stake. And yes, it could absolutely happen. The reality is he didn't have a legitimate reason for removing me the first time.

The first time it was a political stunt. And, you know, the powers that be right now, the question is who's going to stop them? Who's going to stop them? And so, yes, it could absolutely happen again. This was never with the understanding that it couldn't happen again. I ran because democracy matters. I ran because the voters matter and their voices matter. I ran because all of the reasons I ran initially still exist. We still have an unjust criminal legal system that over-incarcerates Black and brown people. We still have mass incarceration with Florida leading the nation in mass incarceration. We still have law enforcement accountability that is an issue

in our country. And all of those things still exist. And that's why Iran. You talk about winning with overwhelming support from the public. And that's what really jumps out here. You were elected before. The Senate removes you. You get reelected. And so what I don't understand is the people have spoken, and these Republicans are showing zero respect for the voters. The voters decided they want you. They want your policies. And so they don't get to determine what the

policies are for your area because the voters say they trust you and your policies. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And unfortunately, you know, prosecutorial discretion is something that has gone, you know, virtually unchecked since its very beginning. And it wasn't until you had people saying, let's take a look at the history of prosecution in this country. Let's see how we can be more effective and more efficient in how we use prosecution. Let's see if we can use data proven methods to make our public safer, that prosecutorial discretion then became under attack with far-right extremists saying, we don't want you to use your discretion. We want you to lock up people and throw away the key.

And if you're not doing that, then you're not utilizing the prosecutorial function in the way that it was originally designed. And that's where the problem came in, where people like myself and prosecutors all over the country found themselves behind a target, essentially, because they weren't using prosecutorial discretion to further mass incarceration. Well, it has been a hell of a rocky road, roller coaster for you. And again, they thought they were going to get rid of you. That's not the case. And the voters said, no, we want that sister back. And so we certainly hope that Governor DeSantis and his minions have learned their lesson and are not going to pull any more ridiculous shenanigans like they did beforehand by removing you from office.

Well, thank you so much for that. And people just need to pay attention to what's happening in Florida. You know, it's a local race, so not a lot of people are paying attention. But this is the small infringements upon our democracy that end up spreading like a cancer throughout the rest of the country. And if they can take out duly elected officials, then they can continue to do that at a larger level at some of these larger seats. And we saw it happen in Tennessee. We saw it happen here in Florida. And I don't think that this. 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. 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 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. real people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne for brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. 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. You say you never give in to a meltdown

and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council will be the end of it.

So people absolutely need to pay attention and we need to speak up and speak out, even if it's not your local area, because it can be. It's my area today. It can be your area tomorrow. Indeed. Monique Worrell, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you for having me. Folks, we're going to go to a break. We'll be right back.

Roland Martin, unfiltered, right here on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels. Or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm

grateful that it happened when it happened, because I wasn't prepared as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. 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. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs ad. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up, or to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for everybody.

You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey. What level up means to them. For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation. But it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Blackstar Network. How you doing? My name is Mark

Carey, and you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered, deep into it, like pasteurized milk. Without the 2%, we getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. All right, folks, time to bring in my pal, Dr. Mustafa Santago Ali,

former senior advisor for the environmental justice at the EPA, joining us out of D.C. Randy Bryant, DEI disruptor, also out of D.C. And, of course, Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney out of Los Angeles. Glad to have all three of you here on the show. Joe, I'll start with you. It is absolutely crazy to sit here and watch this shameful, despicable Governor Ron DeSantis remove state's attorneys because he disagrees with their application of the law. The reality is they have the discretion.

They are elected by the people. And so the problem is the state upon the people's right to choose who they want to serve as district attorney or state's attorney in the districts in which they live. So now, yes, the people now. Yes. And so, you know, let's see what DeSantis and the courts do this time around. It's kind of interesting that they got this brother to kind of be their minion so that, you know, he was a, quote, independent, but pretty much funded with Republican money. He comes into the position, gets beat decisively, not where it was close, which is interesting because, you know, there's a lot of Republicans that won around here, but he certainly wasn't

one of them, independent or whatever he is. She won decisively. And so now the question is, does he have, you know, more nerve than a toothache in terms of this actually happening again? There's a lot of things at play here. Does he does DeSantis become a little less likely to do this if there's a chance that he goes to the to the Trump administration? But largely, see, this is the issue with Trumpism. Right. You know, there's one thing, you know, what I call Trump this is the issue with Trumpism, right? You know, there's one thing, you know, what I call Trumpism is the whole idea of just kind of ignoring the law in general, even though, you know, DeSantis seems to have had

his own version of it from the get-go. Whoever's on his wrong side, even if they're Republicans, you know, they receive his ire. But that being said, the question becomes whether or not the people have spoken loud enough to, for whatever reason, prevent this same road being gone down again. And people need to pay attention to it, like was said, because if we don't pay attention to it, you know, you think everything's OK just because you seem to be on the right side of something. He seems to be OK with you right now. But that can change. All of to be okay with you right now. But that can change. All of that is subject to change without notice. What's not supposed to change without notice are constitutional rights and guarantees. And the people should be deciding

who was in that position. They did it once. They did it twice. And hopefully, this time, those that would want to undo it will actually listen to what happened. You know, Randy, what we have to understand is this is what happens when Republicans are in charge. If we want to understand how they will abuse their power, what DeSantis does here, what we see happening in North Carolina, I mean, it happens over and over and over again. And so this is what the Republican Party does. And so Democrats have to understand that this ain't the new normal. This is how they are going to operate forever. Forever. And so, you know, she said, you know, Morrell said in her response that she was not surprised that there were already challenges and that, you know, he was not going to

step down because we know what we're dealing with. So it's he was not going to step down, because we know what we're dealing with. So it's up to us now to ensure that, one, we're prepared, and that we protect our people in office who are trying to serve us and do the right thing. And I like that someone said about keeping our eyes on what's happening not just in the federal government, but in local governments, to ensure that the democratic process is being protected and that there's follow-through and those that we have voted into office get to remain in office and get to do their jobs

as we've assigned them to. You know, Mustafa, it was a shock when the Sanfids removed Andrew Warren, then came after Monique Worrell, and he installed this black man, Andrew Bain, who was a judge, who, frankly, did the bidding of Ron DeSantis. And that's what's even more shameful. Andrew Bain is despicable. That's what he is. And for him to initially say that making all his legal leads while he was not going to help her in the transition, that

to me is just atrocious. And what kind of black man are you to do a sister like this here? And it's just shameful. It most definitely speaks to how you were raised or how you have sort of positioned yourself now to do the work of a master, if I can say it that way. You know, it's really interesting because this is a prime example. they were actually just running sort of these test cases, because now we see that we also have someone who's going to be, you know, the president now who's talking about removing all these different types of federal workers. And of course, we understand all this goes back to after Reconstruction, the Wilmington coup that happened in 1898, and they, you know, began to take people out and murder people, all these different types of things that happened in that particular moment.

This is, of course, a much lesser situation, but as devious. Because what they are really saying is that you are elected to have power, to be able to do the right things, but we're just going to strip you of power. We're going to use our privilege to make sure that democracy only works for us in the ways and fashions that we see fit. So that's why not only do we have to put our eyeballs on it, but we got to also make sure that when that spotlight's there, that we're speaking out, that we're supporting the organizations on the ground who are being supportive of strengthening democracy. And we also got to

make sure that folks inside these state houses understand that, you know, that there is accountability for the actions that you're doing. So we got to make sure from both the local, the county, the state and the federal level that we're not going to be silent and that we are going to hold you accountable. And if you don't do the right things, we're going to make sure that you no longer hold office. Well, that is certainly the case. And again, I'm glad to see that the voters there chose to send her back because it was right and just. And this is their way of saying to Ron DeSantis, you don't get to tell us who we want in power. We will determine who is in power. Hold tight one second, folks. Got to go to break. We come back more right here on Rolling Mark, unfiltered

on the Black Star Network, live here at the Global Hope Forum. Of course, we come back. We'll hear from John Hope Bryan, who's the founder of Operation Hope. And so we'll have that for you. Lots to break down. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Your dollars are critically important, folks, when it comes to supporting our show. If you want to support us via Cash App, use the Stripe QR code. It's right there. And don't forget, you can send your check and money order, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.com rolling at Roland Martin unfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Isaac. The third founder and CEO of fan base. Fan base is a free to download, free to use nextgeneration social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act.

People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early-stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in fan base right now today.

And then use fan base to connect with friends, grow your audience and be you without limits. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels. Or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label.

And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. 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 three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th, ad free at lava for good.

Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs. But sir, we are back in a big way, in a very big way, real people,

real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne from brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. 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. We'll be right back. a car without you there? No, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock.

Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. We're here at the Operation Hope Global Oak Forums. Of course, this is the 10th anniversary here in Atlanta. And earlier today, I was chatting with Adonta Wilson. He is the highest ranking African-American at Truist Bank about black capital. Talking about what's critically important in order to build African-American wealth.

Here is our conversation. All right, Les Brown, I see you again here at the 10th Annual Hope Global Forums. How you doing? Man, I'm doing great. I'm cancer-free, debt-free, and drama-free. See, I like all three of those. You know, I tell folk all the time,

I said, I can't do drama. I don't do stress. If you got all that, you got to go somewhere else. Without any question. Listen, man, I'm 80. Sorry, that's the Les Brown interview, control room. That's not Donta Wilson. That's Les Brown.

So, guys, get the Donta Wilson interview queued up. And so, if y'all have it, let us know when you have it let's go ahead and play it um let's see this here I'm gonna go to a quick break. We're going to come back. And so we'll be right back on Roller Mart on Filth on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Dexter Jenkins is a faith-based financial mentor with more than 20 years in the financial services industry. He's passionate about helping families build generational wealth. Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking about things about reading the word, I'm talking about things like fellowship, I'm talking to members who are

dealing with losing their houses or I'm talking to members who are dealing with losing their houses or I'm talking to members who, because of a lack of the handling of finances, they're working two or three jobs. And so what I'm finding is that they're not coming to church because they don't have a handle on their finances. We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our finances on the next Get Wealthy right here,

only on Blackstar Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up, or to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for everybody. You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level up means to them.

For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation, but it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Blackstar Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not replace us.

White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson

at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. All right, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. In New Jersey, the governor has signed a law prohibiting the banning of books. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy has signed that particular bill. Kind of important, considering what we have been seeing across the country, have been Republicans who just refuse to, again, listen to the will of the people. You've got these crazy, cranked MAGA folks out there. And so now you're not going to see the banning of books in New Jersey.

Here's the whole deal, Mustafa. This is exactly what Democratic governors and legislatures should be doing. I keep saying Democrats don't want to play appropriately. This is where you begin to say, hey, where we are in power, we're going to run things differently and not operate the way a lot of these crazy Republicans are. And you have to be proactive, right? So we've got to stop being reactive about so many things that we know that are impacting our community. And this is an opportunity to get ahead of the curve, even though we know all of the things that have already happened across the South and in other locations to take away people's right to be able to learn and read and be better prepared to engage across our country and across the planet.

So them actually taking action I think is really necessary, because we have a new administration coming in. That administration has shown no interest in supporting black education, supporting our stories, our books, our art, our culture. So by making sure that you are doing what you can to actually build a stronger foundation for the attacks that may come, it's incredibly important. And look, we might as well gear up, OK? We're going to see more of this, Joe, over the next two to four years.

None of these Republicans control the presidency, the House, and the Senate. They're going to be emboldened to put their crazy, demented MAGA agenda all around the rest of this country. And so folks had better be prepared to fight back, which is why I keep saying these state elections are so important. Look, one of the reasons why Monique Worrell, why she couldn't get her job back, because it was the Florida Supreme Court that upheld Ron DeSantis. Republicans control that. They control the particular state.

Folks had to be focused on breaking these super majorities in the legislature and also winning back these state Supreme Courts to stop these crazy, deranged folks. We need to compete in elections at every level, local, legislative, elected judiciaries, as well as elected legislatures and governors who appoint often many pieces or many parts of the judiciary. I think it's good. I like what the governor did here in New Jersey. People that want to do the right thing need the cover of knowing that the law specifically protects them. Otherwise, you're going to have,

you know, outlying localities saying, well, here, we're not going to have these books. In this school district, we're not going to have this. In that school district, we're not going to have that. So we have to compete everywhere on every level so that we give ourselves the best opportunity to be in the game so that people know that they can act and be protected by the law while they do that. And hopefully, you know, it's a luck of the draw a little bit because it's going to depend on who's been appointed, how reasonable they are. But when I'm particularly talking about judiciary in terms of interpreting these rules and these laws in ways that allow things to go forward, particularly to the extent that they have been dictated by the people and the people's elected representatives. Randy? I think it's so fundamental because what I've realized is that for the white supremacist ideology, they really want to keep us dumb. You know, dumbing that were enslaved to read.

And they continue to ensure that they ban books that present knowledge about other, mainly the books they ban are about people that are different, people that are othered in their opinion. Because they want to block out any knowledge that we have of these people. They want to ensure that we're not seen as humans. They don't want our history at all to be presented whatsoever, so they can rewrite history and, of course, continue to create this fantasy that they are the heroes and that they're the originators of this country. And so it's important that we fight back and that these laws are enacted, not just to protect who we are as Americans. Books have always armed us. Knowledge arms us.

Keeping us dumb is what's going to keep them alive. But ensuring that we have the knowledge and the diversity of knowledge is incredibly important to keep our country going back in the right way. We don't want to take it back. We want to take it forward. And books do that. Absolutely. And so I'm just glad to see that New Jersey is taking this lead. Let me go to a quick break. We come back. We'll hear from the highest ranking black executive at Truist Bank. We'll also hear from John Hope Bryant, who is the founder of Operation Hope, as we hear at the Hope Global Forums here in Atlanta. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform

that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a regulation, a crowdfund on start engine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve

the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today. And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time.

You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003. I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels, or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend,

knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened,

because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. on the next a balanced life with me dr jackie we're talking about leveling up or to put it another way living your very best life how to take a bold step forward that'll rock your world leveling up is different for everybody you know i think we fall into this trap which act which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level of means to them. For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation. But it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life.

That's next on Black Star Network. When you talk about Blackness and what happens in black culture. Covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is

about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com.

Me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin, unfiltered. Thank you. Folks, Donta Wilson is the chief consumer and small business banking officer at Truist Bank, one of the sponsors here at the Global Hope Forums. And I had the opportunity to sit down with him to talk about what their focus is when it comes to helping black-owned businesses and black consumers.

All right, Don, let's talk about business. First off, I was backstage. You can chill if you want a little capital sign. So, you know, a photographer told me, I was like, I have chill if you don't look capa signs. So, you know, photography told me, I was like, I had a nice little youth group. But you know, we have a higher standard for GPA, but it's okay, you found a club, you found a club to get into, it's okay.

Look, I gotta keep reminding y'all, without Alpha, y'all just capa signs. Y'all need our name in your name. I love it. Just remember that. I hear you, I hear you. Just remember that. And the you. Just remember that. I hear you. And the president always kissed the ring.

So you got the left hand or the right hand. Which one do you want? But, Roland, when you went with it, you went with a little bit of crimson on your throat. No, no. See, let me remind you. These are my high school colors. Jack Yates High School in Houston. Crimson and gold. That's Jack Yates High School. Okay. All right. Jack Yates. That's right. Jack Yates. Far more

distinguished than Kappa Alpha Little Youth Group. Let's talk about business. But I want to talk about small business because 95% of black-owned businesses do $5 million in revenue or less.

And one of the things that I keep talking about is that that doesn't change. People talk about access to capital, but also you have to have access to contracts. And so in your position, how are y'all working to get black-owned business building that capacity and going from small to larger and larger? Yeah, it's a really, really good question. I love how you talked about access to not only capacity, but also access to contract. So you got currency, which I consider capacity, and you got contracts,

which is the business that you're able to do so that you can grow. So a couple of things. One, the reason why I'm in this business, this isn't a job, this isn't a call, and this is a career. So my family, watching my family not have access to capital because they didn't have that, they didn't also have access to contracts. I've watched very successful businesses in my community go out of business because they didn't have those two important ingredients. So what we're doing at Truist is that we're committed to inspiring and building better lives and better communities. That has to be a tangible thing that's demonstrable. And so we're investing in things like Operation Hope, which we've partnered with them to grow

and start 30,000 businesses already on a track to a million with that partnership. We've given over $250 million to CDF Eyes so that they are able to be able to provide capital. We're partnered with Project Black, which is aerial alternative investments. So that's John Rogers. And so we raised a billion dollars because what we saw was that there were some businesses that needed to grow. So that's the small businesses. But then we decided to go ahead and acquire businesses that were already of size, that were not minority,

then put minority leadership and minority ownership. So you have scale to handle the capacity that's out there for some of these large companies. One important ingredient to that is the education and information, and that goes back to why I'm in this particular business. We just didn't have all the answers, and we didn't have the information. I liken it to when you grew up and you were taking math, and in the back of the book you had the answer. Then you go back and you put all the inputs and ingredients to self-solve. Without having a banker, and specifically a truest banker that can share with you a full transparency,

where to get the capital, where can you actually get the contract? So we invite you to our client events and make those introductions. You will always be at a disadvantage. So we pride ourselves on making sure we sit at the center of access. This is an I heart podcast. You say you'd never give into a meltdown, never let kids toys take over the house and never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best.

You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle today. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into through the grocery store. We have one aisle six and aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. But also the networking opportunity to help people be in a position to get contracts to grow. How are you also examining it internally? And so for instance, um, what I often talk about is that inside of companies, professional services, outside law firms, accounting firms, companies, they have events. So I've talked about black caterers, event planners, PR, black-owned media, all those

different things. So how are you also examining the millions and billions being spent by the bank and saying, okay, what black-owned businesses are we also investing in and using? Because that, to me, again, that goes to the access to contracts. So you're doing it. So the question is, like, I was talking to this one company, and the person never even thought about it. I said, you know there are black transportation companies. I said, utilize cost service. They never thought about the idea of having a black-owned transportation vendor on their list.

Yeah, it's super important to do, and we're very focused and intentional about that, making sure that we support all pockets of the community and that we have inclusive vendor solutions and supply chain management. And we also host an annual event where we invite these clients, not clients, we invite these vendors in that are doing business with us to help explain how they can do more business and grow. And then we invite those that want to do business with us. So, again, we can give them the answers to the equation they're trying to solve. And so we host that.

We have a team committed to that. And we're very intentional making sure that we have representation in the vendors that we use. When you look at a community, we add up all the assets and liabilities of a community, that is a bank. So if we invest in every pocket of the community to help them be successful, then the bank is going to be successful. And the way that the economies continue to grow, particularly with diverse businesses continuing to grow, you'll be missing out economically if you don't provide solutions to that business, but also help them do business with you so that you can ultimately bank them in the long term. John Rogers, for the longest, they called it supplier diversity.

John Rogers said, no, we have to start calling this business diversity. John Hope Bryant's always trying to explain to people what real DEI means. I was talking to Mark Cuban about this. He said, the reality is, you can do DEI, but I didn't call it DEI. He said, but you have to be intentional in doing that in terms of how you go out and recruit people. How do you go out and bring more people in? And he says, unfortunately, a lot of folk are really, it's just sort of surface level deal. It's not fully ingrained in their ethos to say, no, we have to have diverse business practices because

the demographics are changing. And we talk about it being ingrained in your ethos. You know, our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities. So companies that are committed to delivering their purpose and stay consistent to that, it doesn't matter what cycle that you're in, your objective is still the same. And so that intentionality, that, you know, environment, that culture you're building, and that representation of teammates that reflect their communities is super important. So at Truist, we have 2,000 branches, 500 plus of our branches are multicultural branches. And that means that they represent the communities that they're in with teammates that reflect that community. And that's all communities, which is fantastic.

And that business, just to give you some economics, so we, you know, the market and deposits have contracted 3% in the industry. With our diverse client base, we actually grew 6% deposits year over year with that pocket of clientele. So this is about economics. If you want to have a successful economic business, no matter what industry you're in, you want to be able to provide those solutions to all pockets of the community. Now, the decline happened because consumers are utilizing things like Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle,

and they're not traditionally opening up bank accounts. Is that what happened there? So in the industry, what happened is quantitative tightening. So that's the Fed using its balance sheet, and they took a lot of the balances out of the market. And so you had that take place. And so that's why you had the contraction of deposits. But what we're finding from a consumer's perspective,

consumer health is really, really good at the moment. So the biggest piece of that is that they have jobs. And so as long as you have jobs, you have the capacity. As long as you've got jobs, you're making the money. That's right. And so when we look at our client base, our clients index and have, you know, 1.20 more savings than they had pre-pandemic. All right?

So unemployment is still good. They're saving now. The saving rate is about 4%. So it's 100 bps better than it was last year nationally. And so they're doing good. When you look at their FICO, their FICO is higher. Their debt to income is about the same as it's been the last couple of years. Their utilization is low. So they're in really, really good shape because they have jobs. So here's what's interesting. I mean, I sat here and traveled this country in the last year dealing with the election.

And I'm sitting here and I'm watching these other networks and people talking, oh, my God, the economy is horrible. Things are horrible. Things are horrible. And I'm sitting here and I'm looking at the data, though. I'm looking at just what you described, savings. I look at black wealth. I look at what, again, look at pre-pandemicemic looked at pre-pandemic and post-pandemic

uh and it's like like they're two different worlds that what people what some people were saying was happening was totally different from reality how do you how do you explain that you know from your perspective in terms of uh that because the data was showing that we were rebuilding and having a healthier economy as each month went by. Yeah, you know, we're data driven. So we're a financial services company and we have the data of our clients. And so we just stick to that data because we have to manage a through the cycle type of credit appetite to make sure we fully understand if risk is increasing or decreasing with consumers. And so we just look at the data. We stay fact-based no matter what, you know, different talking points are shared.

And the facts are just what we just talked about. You know, even take a look at the last Black Friday we just had. Healthy, like 7% increase over the last year. So Cyber Monday, healthy improvements. So consumer spend is still happening. That may be spinning in different places, but it's still happening. A big part of that, too, is that you have clients that had already locked in to their debt and low interest rate environments.

So 90% of debt for people are typically their mortgage and their auto. Only 10% is in variable debt. So variable debt is still high on an interest rate perspective, but they were locked into low fixed debt, those that had debt. So their economic situation was good because inflation came down. That gave them more capital spend, and wages had continued to go up, so they had more disposable income. I was talking to a group of folks, and we were talking about housing.

And they were like, oh, you know, it's hard to get a loan. And I said, no, actually, and I kept trying to walk people through. I said, that's actually not our problem right now. I said, our problem is, I said, between 2010, 2020, we didn't build housing stock. I said, we were $8 million less than the previous decade. I said, and for 2021 to resonate, we're still down. So the problem is, and I've talked to other bankers, they say, I have people who are eligible and ready to buy a home, but the stock is simply not there for them to be able to do it. Yeah, you're seeing that

stock issue uphold prices and that price issues was affecting affordability, not even rates. We look at rates over a long duration of time. The rate environment is a decent environment. And when rates come down, you'll still have the issue if you don't have the stock because of the affordability of the house. So if you go back, you know, 10 years ago, that house increase in an average payment that you need now to be able to afford that brand new home is much more meaningful, much more significant as it relates to their disposable income. There's lots of great programs. We offer a really good first-time homeowners program. We offer grants to get people the ability to get into a home.

But with the housing stock being so short, that's keeping prices high, and it's challenging people to get that first-time home. Let's talk about,. I mentioned earlier the other instruments people are using that are non-traditional for banking. How are you educating people to understand that a relationship with a bank, it goes beyond just simply your debit card and a deposit. During COVID, a lot of Black-owned businesses that talked about their inability to be able to pay the PPP, because a lot of them, and I was dealing with the National Bank Association, I was dealing with others, and they were saying that, oh, there were individuals who had banking relationships, meaning loans,

things along those lines, where a lot of the black-owned businesses, they just had accounts. And so that was like a huge thing there. And people didn't understand, were not aware. And there were a number of other banks that were only dealing with people who, on the loan side or whatever, and helping them get PPP loans versus those who only had accounts. So the education piece, how is that going to get people to understand how you have to have a much expanded banking relationship beyond just, oh, I got a banking, I have a bank account.

Yeah, relationship capital is the most, I think, important capital of all capital. And when you think about like a truest, we believe that touch plus technology builds a higher level of trust. That's how we win clients. On the other side of that is the same. So how clients engage with banks

are either through technology, and most of them do technology for their primarily transactional activities. But when it comes to touch, which is the human touch, when you get to the more complicated or sophisticated or the high need categories, you have to have a human that can help you navigate. And you have to build that relationship before you need to leverage it. But also be willing to leave.

Like I had a bank. I'm not going to name them. I, you know, I had a quarter of a million in the bank. I'm sitting here, you know, high net worth owner. Wouldn't I give me a business card? And I was like, I'm sorry. Oh, hell no. So I literally pulled all my money out, went to another bank. The bank was like, oh, hell yeah. Oh, yeah, we're going to give you a business card because I had business expense. But it was crazy. They were only looking at me from this vantage point as opposed to what

I was depositing, what I was generating, and I put my business. I wasn't willing to stay in that relationship. I said, no, there has to be a benefit for me. So that's what I mean by, again, from a consumer standpoint, if you're going to have a relationship, it's a two-way relationship. That's right. That's right.

Yeah. Absolutely a two-way any relationship. So we understand that and we value that relationship. So we talked about Triple P when we had that environment. We were one of the first banks to make sure the technology was available to be able to help clients and be able to take a digital loan. So there's two banks in the country that did it on that Friday. We're one of the two. But then we also took hundreds of our teammates

and made them accessible to clients to be able to talk via phone because they couldn't come to the physical location and to proactively make calls to clients to say, do you need help? That's relationship.

You don't have to come to us. We called you to do a financial check-in, have a caring conversation to see what help you need. When we became Truist, which is a merger of equals between BB&T and SunTrust, we did our research and said, all right, what's missing? What's the white space in financial services? And what our clients told us is that they wanted

an institution that showed up with care and expertise. And care is like an emote. So we went and understood that a little bit more. And basically what it was, was relationship. We want to make sure that you care about us as human beings, even if I'm running a business, and then you have the actual information to be able to help me. So if you look at our values, we actually made it one of our values is care, to be able to lead with care, which ultimately is relationship. Last question. I'm gonna go back to the small businesses. Are you tracking their growth? And what I mean by that is, I sort of, like, every organization, I don't care what it is, I'm always saying, what's your annual address? What's your annual report?

Like, I hate gatherings, and then you don't come back the next year and say, this is what we did, this is how many people, this is how we've grown, this is what has happened. So do you track your small businesses to say, hey, are they growing or are they stagnant? And then if they're not growing to that point, hey, what type of assistance can we step in? Because for black-owned businesses, that's the biggest issue I have. Are we growing year over year, or are they simply being lifestyle businesses that are just paying our mortgage, paying our car, as opposed to actually building and creating something? Are you tracking that? Absolutely. We tell our team all the time, if it's not tracking, it's not happening, right?

So we want to make sure that we know how many businesses we have. We have a million small businesses. We track how they're doing on credit performance. We track their revenue growth. We have a scoring model that tracks their individual health. And then we make sure that we just try to get them on a trajectory that's going to help them improve their lives. And so that's why our purpose is to help them build better lives. And we want to make sure that that's an objective qualification

that we look at on an annual basis. When you think about a lot of people that have a vision, like a small business owner, say, I want to do this and I have this vision. Vision without execution is hallucination. And we think about the execution and activation of that. That's where bankers come in to say, here's your financial plan. What are we executing on a daily basis? So you're not waiting for one day when this happens, one day when this is an environment that will put me in a more successful place to be successful. We create those one day W-I-Ns every day with the financial plan and say, when is today? Change this ratio. Improve your FICO. Let's work with Operation Hope to get your credit score up. You know what?

Pay this off. And so those plans that we work with businesses to have is a way for us to help them ultimately deliver the outcomes that we track with them. Gotcha. So the last question. So how are you tracking your golf handicap? Is your handicap trending up or is it trending down since we last played well you know what i track uh my handicap relative to how much i beat you now we only played

one time graystone golf course at birmingham so you're doing another beating so i look forward first of all let's be real clear that wasn't a beating let's be real clear and we only played it once so i now know how the course is laid out. Because, you know, some hosts don't actually tell you what certain stuff is. I'm just saying, you know, you hit driver when you should be hitting three wood. I'm just saying, you know, that's how good hosts are supposed to be. No, no. You know, you want to lay up here. But I see how the cap was.

In all fairness, he gave me a couple of strokes. This guy got mad golf games. So, in all fairness, it was not a net win. I played a little bit. I played a little bit. How's your handicap going? 4.5. Wow.

Yeah, you're still going to be giving me strokes. I'm working trying to help these small businesses grow, trying to help consumers get to financial success. I'm not playing that much golf. I'm working, too, but golf is my de-stressor. So, I got to play, you know, bump my 18 holes and keep it calm. Absolutely. All right, we'll do it again.

Great. Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Keep up the great work you're doing. I appreciate it. Yes, thank you. Thank you. All right, folks, going to a break.

We come back. We'll talk about what's happening in Haiti. More U.S. flights are being canceled as a result of the unrest in Port-au-Prince. That is next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from Atlanta, Georgia. We're attending the 10th annual Operation Hope, Hope Global Forums. Back in a moment. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time

you know when i finally got signed to the motown record label in in 2003 i was 34 35 years old and up until that time i had been trying to get record deals the traditional way you know you record your demo you record your music and you send it, you know, to the record labels or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And, uh, and really chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teen, since I was a teenager.

Wow. And, uh, and, and, and, you know, and I'm grateful that it Wow. And I'm grateful that it didn't. I'm grateful that it happened when it happened, because I wasn't prepared as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act.

People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today. And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show. You're watching Rolling Mark.

Until tomorrow. folks let's talk about let's talk about haiti where um the breakout in violence there continues to have an impact uh as 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 one, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and 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 thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

American Airlines are pulling out of direct flights to Port-au-Prince as a result. The nation has been having tons of turmoil, terms of turmoil as a result of leadership there after the assassination of the president and all the back and forth that's been going on there. And so we want to talk about that with Nana Giam, the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. She joins us right now. Of course, we're going to have with this new administration the return to where there's going to be a significant number of Haitian Americans return to to Haiti. And again, we're going to continue to have the United States treat Haitians totally different from Cubans. Totally different from Cubans, totally different from Ukrainians, totally different from people who are clearly not being seen or are not Black people, right? And so thank you so much for having me on, Roland.

This is a really critical situation that I'm appreciative that you keep this on the radar for folks, understanding that, as our Mama Fannie Lou taught us, none of us are free until all of us are free. So whatever is happening in Haiti, we understand that it's just reflective of what is meant for all Black people around the world under white supremacy and racial capitalism. So this decision by American Airlines to stop their daily flights from Miami to Port-au-Prince again impacts the ability to be able to get to the country and so the political unrest there is impacting in so many different ways and so it's

very difficult for Haiti to move forward as long as this unrest continues. Let me be clear that it's not just American Airlines, right? So it started with Spirit Airlines and it was some of the other airlines. We've got FedEx, like anyone that or a company that is using planes right now is deciding and making the decision not to have planes go to Haiti, except for the United States when it's deporting Haitians. Suddenly, it's clear political unrest is not impacting the capacity of the U.S. to deport Haitians, even as it has granted temporary protective status based on the dangers and conditions in Haiti, even as it allows its

commercial airlines, whether it's for passengers or for packages, to stop landing in Haiti based upon the harm, the danger, the violence there. And so it keeps people who are Haitian from being able to connect with their folks, keeps people who are in Haiti from being able to come here, those who are able, fortunate enough to have passport and ticket and capacity based upon U.S. policy to be able to come in. And all of this, when we talk about the political unrest, we have to remember, Roland, that that political unrest is partially caused by the United States. There is this effort always, just as you see with what happens here in the United States, with places that are majority African-American, when there is an issue, whether it be violence,

whether it be drugs, whatever the issue is, there's this tendency to make it seem like black people are just wild and that they can't govern themselves and that they don't know what they're doing, and we're always the violent ones and the corrupt ones, et cetera. And they're not the tendency to express how this is happening and why this is happening. Right now, Haiti is actually not in Haitian hands. And we can talk about that more. But that is a big cause of the condition that we have right now in Haiti, be it the violence, the political instability, the economic instability.

The United States has a big hand in it. Haitians actually do not. Questions from my panel. I'll start with you, Mustafa. Yeah, well, thank you for the information that you've been sharing. I've had the opportunity to be at Haiti a few times. I'm curious. You know, we often have philanthropic organizations, nonprofit organizations and others who play a small role, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. I'm curious if they are still on the ground being able to provide some forms of support. And I assume that they're coming either across land bridges or through the oceans. But I'm curious what's happening in that space. I will say this, that what we understand and the partners that we have at Baji,

like Grassroots International, they are on the ground themselves and dealing with local entities that are on the ground. And that is where the best work is being done. It is community by community. It is local group by local group. It is neighbor by neighbor who are taking care of folks, trying to keep people safe, trying to make sure that people have food, trying to take care of children, you know, to do some kind of education here on the side, even as the country infrastructure is falling down. There are some outside groups that are assisting. Those who are doing—and when I say outside, some of them are Haitian-led, but they're in the United States or in Canada, right, or other countries. And those, of course, have connections, again, directly to the people in Haiti.

And those are the ones that are being the most successful, because they understand that they need to connect with folks that are on the ground. And I'm thinking of groups like Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees. I'm thinking of groups like Haiti Action Committee and, of course, Grassroots International that I mentioned, and so many others. And then there's those big groups that come in. And think Hurricane Katrina, right? The big groups come in, maybe they help a little bit. But a lot of what they do is collect a lot of money and collect a lot of resources and don't give out as much. And as we saw with Hurricane Katrina, and again, any of these catastrophes that happen in our communities, it is the people that are on the ground. And if you connect with the people on the ground, that's how you're able to be effective.

And so some of this is not requiring planes because you're actually looking at the resources that are already there and figuring out how to best use those resources. But it's going to be harder with these planes not coming in. Randy. The airline outside of Haiti is that Sunrise Airline. It's called the local airline in Haiti. I'm wondering, I know they're still flying to increase the number of flights they're doing just to try to make a difference in the other airlines, all the other airlines stopping air travel to Haiti? I don't know the answer to that question.

I will say, just sort of looking at history, you still have to have the resources to make that happen. And some of the places where Haiti, you know, our neighbors would naturally get those resources. You know, we were talking earlier about the economy and what's happening in some places. It's booming a little better than others. But a lot of those places that would normally be of support are not necessarily there to be in that critical space. case. We remember that when Venezuela was up and running, when you had these type of situations that, you know, before the sanctions of the United States, Europe, et cetera, they would give oil, right? They'd give gas, so that you could put that into these planes,

you know, put airplane fuel in here and make it happen. That is not the case, because Venezuela don't have that. That's not the case with Cuba, because of the sanctions being listed as a country of state terror by the United States has made it so that Cuba can't do what it once did. CARICOM is providing some support, but not the support in the commercial type of ways. And so not sure how that's going to move now with Sunrise, it feels to me based upon what the normal places you would have to lean on, that that's going to be harder for them to be able to do to scale, though I'm sure they'd love to do so. Thank you. Joe. Thank you. So thank you so much for the information and for the work that you're doing. a couple short questions with a little expansion. The two questions are, what can people do and how can people help?

So what can people do to sound the alarm on something that still doesn't get the attention that it should be getting, right? This inequity that we see with how black countries and people that are potentially politically persecuted, et cetera, are treated as it pertains to getting from here to America or getting resources and help that truly should be there? And the second, how can people help? And I think you alluded to this a little bit in terms of the specific organizations that

are on the ground, smaller organizations that are specialized and really know how to stretch a buck, as it were, or use the resources, know where the problems are, those types of things. Can you give us some information on that? Absolutely. So I would say that in terms of internally, the kinds of things that we can do, firstly, is if you are in a place like Florida, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, places where we have large Haitian populations, but even places like Los Angeles, where I live, where the populations are not as large, let's get in touch with Haitian organizations locally and see what people are doing for their folks at home, how people are connecting to their people at home,

and, you know, how folks are getting there. Because as we all know, we're going to make it happen. People are going to figure out how they can support their families. That is the history of Black folks. Wherever we are, we're going to make it do what it do. And so let's connect to those folks to make sure that that's happening. That's community support, right? The other, so if there's funds to be raised, et cetera, let us do that. Let's pour our hearts out as we always do. When it comes to governmental support, you know, there's something called the Congressional Black Caucus. And I remember, particularly in the days of Trans Africa, Randall Robinson, et cetera, when Haiti was really put in the center of a lot of conversations because of folks from CBC, right, and other traditional

civil rights organizations, Black organizations that understood the connection to Haiti, the First Republic and the Western Hemisphere, and what it meant to Black people everywhere, you know, during that time period, which is part of why, you know, the success of that Haitian revolution we know is part of why, you know, the success of that Haitian revolution, we know is part of why Haiti's being punished. Think about how Cuba's being punished for its successful revolution and all that they've done. So imagine what Haiti must have meant at that time and what it means still. And we've got to remind the Congressional Black Caucus that Haiti is still important, not just in rhetoric, but actually moving to get some things done.

I know that's harder to do as this new administration comes on. This is an administration that indicated that Haitians were eating cats and dogs. So clearly they're not a friend of Haiti, right, or of Haitians. And at the same time, in the words of Sojourner Truth to Frederick Douglass, talking about the end of chattel slavery, when he was a little concerned, she turned to him and said, is God dead? Right? Like, we have to still push forward. We've got to prepare.

We've got to protect. We've got to press forward as we're looking at what's happening in Haiti, what's happening in Sudan, what's happening in the Congo and Cameroon and so many of our countries in the continent, in the Caribbean, what's happening with Black folks in our communities here, we can't just lay back and decide that all is lost, you know, game over. We have to continue to push and demand from elected officials who have the power to do something

that they do something and that they do a lot. 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 Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. All right. Well, look, we certainly appreciate you joining us on the show,

and we'll continue to keep our eyes on what's happening in Haiti. Thanks a lot. Thank you so very much. Appreciate it. Folks, when we come back on Rollerback Unfiltered, we'll hear from the founder of Operation Hope, John Hope Bryant, about this year's 10th annual Hope Global Forum. So we'll have that coming up next. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join Bring the Funk fan club. You can give to us via Cash App by using this QR code from Stripe right there on the screen. So you can do that.

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through the jobs ad. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels, or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for,

you know, the record label. And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened. Because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General, United States Army, retired, and you're watching Roland Martin on Filth.

Let's go, Roland. Folks, the man behind the collaboration, Hope, John Hope Bryant, of course, I had a chance to catch up with him. He, of course, leads this annual conference, the Hope Global Forums, and so here is our conversation. All right, John, 10th annual Hope Global Forum. Big difference between the first year and this year? The big difference? We're no longer selling. I'm no longer trying to convince our people

that capitalism can be a force for good for them. They're trying to figure out how much success they can achieve, how much capital they can access. Trying to convince people that financial literacy is a serious issue or that free enterprise

is an issue for them. That was a real debate for a long time. And I think it's kept black people back. I think that arguing about is the rock round or is a stone solid or is the water wet is wasting a lot of time. We live in a free enterprise democracy. We live in a, you want to be harsh, a capitalist democracy. The country is center slightly right because of business.

To not understand that, not to appreciate that, to understand that if you want to distribute money like a socialist, you first have to collect it like a capitalist, that you have a payroll, and then without business, you can't do any of this. That's a memo that I'm shocked that most people just miss completely. And I don't longer have to have that conversation.

Well, the reason I'm not shocked is because if your energy is spent on trying to attain civil rights, voting rights, trying to combat police brutality. Racism. It all— Bias. It's all social. It's all social. It's all social. So for the longest, our black members of Congress, when they went to D.C., they were on the HUD committee. They were on the social services committee.

Whereas now what you have is you have a generation, now a second generation, who is saying, no, no, no. I don't want to go watch. I don't want a pension. I want to own. Yeah. They're on the banking committee now, Congress, by the way. That's what I'm saying. House and Senate. That's what I'm saying. That now shifts in terms of also House Appropriations Committee. It's a money conversation. Right. So you're 100 percent right. My second great grandfather was a freedom fighter. He was in the Civil War. He was a slave. George Young and Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves behind enemy lines. So he went to go fight for freedom, even though he didn't have any. So that was that was social justice. My grandfather was a sharecropper, R.B. Smith. My daddy was a businessman, but was

a financial illiterate. So he lost everything, even though he worked his entire life. I'm an entrepreneur, obsessed with financial literacy. My grandmother, second great-grandmother was a slave, had a washboard business in Mississippi. Even though she was a slave, had a border. I'm told now she had owned a home with no mortgage on it. That's where I think my free enterprise bones comes from. My grandmother owned a shotgun shack. My mother owned seven homes. You met Juanita Smith, God rest her soul. I own 700. So it's a progression. So to go from civil rights to civil rights, I think, is also a progression.

So look, Ambassador Young is here and all these heroes and she-heroes, I would not be who I am without what they went through. So I don't begrudge the fact that people rolled their eyes at me, as you well know, 20 years ago. You took me seriously. But most people, I remember I saw you at the White, and I said, I'm John O'Brien. You said, I know who you are. But you took me seriously. Most people were like, oh, financial literacy. Oh, here he comes to give a capitalism.

They aren't doing that anymore. They're calling me for jobs. They're calling me for contracts. We're the largest black-founded, black male-run and founded non-profit community-based organization in America. Annual budget of $75 million, $4.5 billion invested, 400 employees, payroll of $1.5 billion every two weeks in every state in America, 1,500 offices. And now it's a movement. You hear all this noise back here? That's 2,000 people coming out of a main state session.

I don't even need to be there. Before, I had to be in, as you said, I had to be in every session. Now I can come here and calmly talk to you. It's a progression. We still need civil rights, as you well know. But I think we need to add on to that civil rights. We need to be bilingual. Two things can be true at the same time.

So I think that's the biggest aha. The scale of it now is pretty intense. I think we have a real shot at a real movement now. How do you also hold the companies accountable that want to be in business with you, that want to come here and speak, that also spend billions of dollars on professional services, outside legal firms, accounting firms, catering companies, transportation, spend money on advertising. Will you also say, hey, supporting me is great, but also how you make it that you are providing contracts, opportunities. I had a conversation with Dante from Truist,

and I said, listen, we talk about access to capital. Dante is the highest-ranking black man at a big bank on the executive committee running a balance sheet. So I said, we talk about access to capital, but for me, having no debt, being profitable, I want access to contracts. Right, right. And I'm like, and so how do you also ensure that? It's the next iteration. I'm sorry, it's the next advancement.

First thing up was, I got to get our credit score right. I got to get the banks to allow me to go, if it's a bank, let me inside of your bank. We're the only nonprofit in the history of America

to allow to operate inside of a bank branch. It's not like, oh, there's 20 of them. We're in. And so just to be able to get that, get the government to approve that, we've been doing it for a decade now,

and now to have results from that. So I had to produce results. Otherwise, it's just charity. Oh, let's give Johnny some money so he goes away. Now, Wells Fargo's talking about 150 locations. B of A's talking about 100-plus locations. We're at 800 locations at Truist. So I think that was it.

Then getting in the corporations into their HR department, like Delta Airlines and UPS with financial coaching. Credibility results. Now, I think the question becomes, can you guys look at who you're giving your catering contracts to? Can we look at how you're allocating funds for a range of sub-servicers and sub-contractors? Advertising should be on that list. But it shouldn't be emotional. I think it shouldn't be like throwing rocks at these companies. They mean well.

Change takes time. But there should be like an objective annual audit of who's doing what where. Right. And there should be a progressive change, you know, that makes sense on people stepping up their commitments over time. I just think it just takes time. But, yes, I think that and you've made other observations of not only our conference but others that PhDs are good, PhDs are better. Like, how do we make sure that results of these commitments that they're making on stage materialize in people's lives?

That also has to be—we call this an annual meeting because I was getting these investment dollars. But if you're a for-profit company and publicly traded, you must have an annual meeting because I was getting these investment dollars. But if you're a for profit company and publicly traded, you must have an annual meeting. A nonprofit, they don't do them. I'm the only nonprofit I'm aware of that does an annual meeting where we report out to the public on how we spent the money, where we spend it, where we're spending it on in full transparency. And then the audience, the shareholders, the public decide whether we made good on that. So I think it's a progression. We are obviously operating in a change of political climate. You think?

And there are a lot of people who are scared. A lot of people are scared. What has happened in the last four years, the advancement on the federal level, $10 billion in contracts going to black-owned businesses, highest amount ever, investment in HBCUs, things along those lines. And so what do you say to the people who are frustrated, who are angry, who are tired, who want to give up? Rainbows only follow storms.

That's not philosophy. That's a scientific fact. You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first. You cannot grow biblical without legitimate suffering. God made us strong. We are resilient. We take no vitamins. We've been here before.

After Dr. King talked to John F. Kennedy and Johnson, softened them up on affirmative action, that he's assassinated, Nixon codifies it and then gives the benefits to white women. People don't know that, but the reason you see so many white women in positions of power, that started because black people teed up affirmative action, then didn't get benefits from it. In 1972, a woman couldn't get a bank account or a loan. So we actually helped them to get to the executive office. First of all, Title IX, everybody thinks about sports. Title IX doesn't exist without 1964 Civil Rights Act. So we've had pushbacks after the first Reconstruction. People said too much progress. Lincoln promised the right to vote. Booth said that's a bridge too far.

You won't live together in your next speech. Freedmen's Bank, which you know about, set up, failed. Frederick Douglass was trying to run that. Then you have a pushback on Reconstruction, destroy that for 100 years. Here comes Dr. King. They assassinate him. Same month as Lincoln gets assassinated. Then you have Obama, which I think created a response to that.

Now you have Biden as a response to that. You had, let's give credit, George Floyd. That was a huge movement of social justice. I think some people didn't like that too much progress. A whole lot. So I'm being kind. You're being real kind. You identify it in your book.

You do a great job. It's a great book. Everybody should get it. I'm just not surprised. I think that I have a book called Love Leadership. People should get my Financial Leadership for All book, but number one, the country. But four or five books ago, no, five books ago, six books,

no, five books ago, Love Leadership, there's two things in the world. There's love and there's fear. And what you don't love, you fear. And then most of our so-called leadership is defined by fear. I think we're in that era again. But we are going to get through this, first of all. We're a democracy.

This is not Russia. This is not China. One person just can't say this is the way it's going to be. You have midterm elections. So don't get, yes, there's going to be some pain, real pain. But he said, the president-elect, I'm going to fix it. Hold him to it. He said you're going to be doing better under him.

Hold him to it. Look, this was a transactional economic election. First time I've seen this since the Civil War. People voted. They put their morals, their values aside. They voted their economic interests. Black men thought their pocketbooks were going to be enhanced. Let's see what happens.

Latino men, white women, it goes on and on and on. Hold them to it. Economically, the election's over. One group lost, one group won. The president-elect has said that he's going to make you better off financially. I'm not going to deal with the moral issues, the ethical issues, the stuff I can't get with that he said and he's done. But economically, if he wins, we win. If he fails, we fail. Let's wish him well, economically. Go on about your business.

The dog has caught the ice cream truck. They got everything. They got every level of government. Let them go about their business. Economically, wish them well. And if you can benefit by getting contracts and opportunities as they show us what they're going to do, fantastic. And, of course, there'll be an audit a year or two in of how well they've done. Right. I don't take this emotionally.

This is either you're going to do it or you're not going to do it. You're going to succeed or you're going to fail. Earlier you mentioned affirmative action. You have been very aggressive on the issue of DEI. And by the way, before you go to that, I have gotten a note already. This does give me some hope from the secretary of the treasury elect, who I do like and who I do trust. I keep getting lucky with these secretaries of the treasury. I've gotten a note from others. I won't mention the names, but three or four other people who I respect who've got pending appointments. And I know they're decent people. And they've told me they want to lean in on issues that are important to me.

So that gives me some encouragement that there is some opportunity at the Cabinet level. Now to your question. You've been very aggressive on the DEI issue. You debated. You spoke been very aggressive on the DEI issue. You debated, you spoke at 100 Black Men, you debated Bill Ackman at a private event, sufficiently educated him. You said it, I didn't.

Well, you said in the speech that you did, but I ain't going to play the video back. Well, yeah, it was a private, so the reason we're not going back, this is a private meeting at the Milken Conference. I can't say what happened in the meeting, but I will say that one group had receipts and another group sort of didn't have them.

And one group was emotional and one group wasn't. It'll shock you which group was which. And at a certain point, I think there was a pivot of, you know, the games were sort of over, the political games, and it became obvious that I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. And there was a, you know, it became so obvious to me that God has a sense of humor, that demographics are destiny, and you don't have to get emotional about this stuff and get all worked up. Like, it's hard to argue we're all facts. I think that's why

I'm also addressing the Bill Ackman meeting as best I can, but also pivoting to what you're now saying is now Fortune magazine just recently published a piece. Time magazine's published several pieces. I've written this last piece in Fortune. The tagline they pulled out four weeks ago was, I think, not enough white men. Some of my friends were like... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store so when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there no it can happen one in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out never happens before you leave the car always stop look lock brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. What does John say? You like numbers or numbers? That part. Like, okay, so the president's cabinet is almost entirely white men.

Yes. By the way, the only brother that was in charge of HUD. Right. Sort of typical. Yeah. Who played football. But anyway. God bless him. We need her. And white men seem to be some uncomfortable with DE&I.

A lot. So what I've said is I want every successful white man to be as successful. I'm going to go further. I want every white man to be as successful as he can. But there literally, mathematically are not enough white men to drive GDP, gross domestic product, for 20 or 30 years. It's mathematically impossible. We'll be speaking Mandarin in 20 years. We'll be speaking Russian. The only way this economy continues to be the leader in the free world, and we continue to be the superpower in the free world—God has a sense of humor—is if black and brown people and women participate in the growth of the economy.

That's essentially my point. And you can read my business plan for America. Roland knows it. He's already read it four times. You can download it. You can read what I've written on this topic. Look, DE&I is dead. Yes, I said it. It's been

politicized, it's been marginalized, it's been weaponized, and it's not worth fighting for. It's an initial, right? What you want is inclusive economics. The contracts. Internship. Jobs. John Rogers said not supply diversity,

business diversity. That part, access to capital. Tony Rester was here. He said civil rights today is access to capital, access to contracts, opportunities, low interest rates at scale. The color is green, not black or white or red or blue. It's green. So let's, when you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make like a parade. I dare anybody to argue with the data.

Diverse companies are most profitable. That's not a civil rights group saying it. It's McKinsey and Company. Right. Whether it's property equity or not. Yeah. The most profitable, the wealthiest geographies, like the one we're in, are the most diverse. The most diverse places in the U.S. are California and New York.

The biggest economies in the U.S., California and New York. The biggest economy in the judicial south is Atlanta, Georgia. The most diverse place in the judicial south is Atlanta, Georgia. The most diverse place in Judicial South is Atlanta, Georgia. It's bigger than the six states around it economically together. You can't make this up. Right. It's the 10th largest economy in the U.S., Atlanta, Georgia, $40, $50 billion. I think we're having the wrong argument.

No, I think we're arguing. That's the problem. Don't get emotional. Don't be depressed. Understand that God has a sense of humor. Demographics are destiny. They cannot succeed without a racist needs black people to succeed. A racist.

Let's call American history. Hello. Because GDP grows. If GDP, if black people succeed, GDP, and he benefits or she benefits also. Right. So to argue with a fool proves there are two. Not one ounce of my self-esteem depends on somebody else's acceptance of you. You've got that.

You're reasonably comfortable in your own skin. And money is freedom. You can sit here and have whatever show you want and produce whatever topic you want because you're independent. You have independent wealth and opportunity. We need more of that. And there we go. You got to go. I got to go. They begin me to hook.

I'm like, he talking. He's blaming it on me. I just asked three questions. Roland's show is very important and we get millions and millions of views on the Hope Global Forum every year in part because Roland Martin and the Black Star Network is here.

We have CNBC. We've got Bloomberg. We've got all the major networks are here. We're thankful for that. The newspapers are here. We are thankful for that. The newspapers are here. We're thankful for that. Bloggers are here.

But consistently, the biggest numbers post-forum, we have 5,000 delegates here, biggest in the country. I'm actually told in the world. The Davos for the underserved at this point. But the number one number that I'm told from Kevin Boucher, my head of strategy. Post form with legs on it are your continuing streaming of our work. So I thank you for that. Appreciate it. You guys need to become members of Roland Martin Unfiltered

and the Black Star Network. Help those that help you. That's it. Couldn't have said it better myself. Appreciate it. Always glad to be here all right folks we'll take a quick break and we'll come back to remember nikki giovanni you're watching roller martin unfiltered on the black star network

now streaming on the black star network i had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And, uh, and really chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was,

since I was a teenager. Wow. And, uh, and, and. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened. Because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. 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. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it.

Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs ad. This is Tamela Mann. And this is David Mann.

And you're watching Roland Martin. I'm filter. ¶¶ Folks, renowned poet and black arts movement icon Nikki Giovanni has died. Last night, we got the news that she passed away, surrounded by her family and her wife at the age of 81 years old, following a third cancer diagnosis, this time lung cancer. Nikki Giovanni was known for her powerful writing and speaking on the intersections of love, politics, and race. Her first poetry collection, Black Feeling, Black Talk, was published in 1968. It marked her emergence as a significant voice in the black arts movement.

She graduated from Fisk University, revitalizing the student nonviolent court and committee during her time there. She also continued to create until her final days with her last poetry book, the last book set to be released next year. Nikki Giovanni, of course, just a critical figure, and not just when it came to poetry, also television. If you actually go to YouTube and look at some of those videos of a television show, a PBS local public broadcasting station show she did in the 1970s, featured some fascinating interviews with many black luminaries, including James Baldwin, the Dells, Stokely Carmichael, and so many others.

Many of us knew her for her huge smile, her laugh, but also her fierce, fierce view on issues of race and class and gender and politics. Four years ago, I had an opportunity to interview Nikki Giovanni in our first Black Star Network studios. And we're going to be paying a bigger tribute to her on our show on Thursday. Tomorrow, I'm actually out speaking in Detroit. And so we wanted to really give her a proper home going. And so we'll do that on Thursday and we'll re-air that interview I did with her. But I do want to go to our panel here and get their thoughts and reflections on Nikki Giovanni. I'll start with you, Randy.

Nikki was, as she wanted to be called, Nikki was and will continue to be an inspiration to me. Of course, you know, I was an English major undergrad and so she was just a part of my life. But also what I admire about her so much is that she was a truth teller. You had so few people who would speak the truth about being a woman and about being black in the way that she did. words to your life, whether it be the happy times or the painful times, it provides you with a level of validation. It lightens your load in some ways. So, you know, I took her passing personally because she is one of my heroes. She will greatly be missed, but we know that her words will live on. If the control room of y'all had that, that was, of course, she was also a member of Delta

Sigma Theta. And there was a video that was posted yesterday of her sorority sisters surrounding her singing the sorority song. If y'all don't have that, let's go ahead and play it. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion- dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have

this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their

face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like, uh, less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Oh, my God. But if she wears the Delta symbol, then her first love is BST. She's a Delta.

She's a Delta. She's a delta. She's a delta. Mustafa, your thoughts, Nikki Giovanni. I mean, Nikki inspired me. She saved me so many times. And, you know, I'll always be grateful to her. When I heard I got the message that she had passed, I sat down and I began to write. That's what we do. And I wrote an ode to Nikki Giovanni.

And I'll just go over a couple quick lines with you. It begins with, breathe. That's the first lesson you laced into us. A map of lungs lines with you. It begins with, breathe. That's the first lesson you laced into us. A map of lungs expanding into galaxies. A language of air and survival. The subtle art of holding it when the world clenches its fists or blows its words in harshly. You taught me to inhale rebellion, exhale poetry, every line of hymn, every word of blade. To believe, you whispered it like gospel, a chorus riding on black tongues breaking chains syllable by syllable.

You showed us how to cup dreams in our palms, even when they burned or bled. Belief is heavier than despair, you said, but it's the only thing worth carrying. And I'll just stop there because, you know, she was not just a transformational figure. You know, whether we talk about Baldwin or Sonia Sanchez or all these great folks, Langston Hughes, she was someone who was actually accessible. She was someone who you could touch. And the poetry that she created not only uplifted us, but told us that we had responsibility and that we did not have to bow down. So she will always be a part of my spirit. And I'll always do everything that I can to uplift her legacy. Joe. Joe? JOE BIDEN, President, The Princess of Black Poetry, those of us that are slash were writers,

I thought I'd be a writer before I was actually a lawyer. I was a published poet by 11th grade. And our sixth-grade teacher, Ms. Byrd, would tell us about the great black figures in all areas and, of course, the writers. You're talking about the James Baldwins, the Langston Hughes's and the, and the Nikki Giovanni's. Uh, she did it with both words and action. She spoke truth to power through her words, but it was with eloquence. It was with, uh, grace and it was sharp, uh, but it was what it needed to be always, and it never changed. And, you know, her accessibility was—you know, the point just made was incredible.

I mean, she was another person that was involved in the civil rights movement that we could still touch and see and hear from and talk to, the work that she did with SNCC at Fisk University. And so, you know, you're grateful that when they become ancestors, because there is so much to celebrate, but at the same time, this is another person from that movement and from that era who's now gone. But all of the work that she left behind, more than two dozen books and, you know, all of the things that she did that we can still see and hear and touch,

give us the opportunity to follow her roadmap. So we thank her for all of her contributions, welcome her to the ancestors, and we'll make sure that generations to come continue to know who Nikki Giovanni is. So, folks, as I said on Thursday's show, we will pay tribute to Nikki Giovanni in a much more in-depth way. So, look forward to that taking place on Thursday. Joe, Randy uh randy mustafa so appreciate it thank you so very much hey folks uh thank you for all of you for watching uh tomorrow tomorrow uh you guys may have the great you should have the graphic there uh i will be uh in detroit uh speaking tomorrow night uh look forward to that uh It is the Community Empowerment Speaker Series, Telling Our Story

with Bishop Horace Sheffield. If you're in Detroit, doors open at 530. We'll be at the Bridge Center Library, 9928 Grand River Avenue in Detroit. Again, the Bridge Center Library. It's going to be 9928 Grand River Avenue. And RSVP is not required, but it is appreciated. So you can go to www.dabodetroitinc.com forward slash speaker dash series forward slash. And so doors open at 530. We'll be speaking at 615. So looking forward to be in Detroit tomorrow, folks. Don't forget, first of all then

we thank all the folks here uh uh hope we'll perform now we'll be live streaming tomorrow's events as well of course we streamed yesterday we streamed today tomorrow is the final day but i'll be on the road uh tomorrow morning and so just simply go to our black shark network app or go to our youtube channel as well don't forget you want to support the work that we do join our bring the fuck fan club. The goal is to get, of course, 20,000 fans contributing on average, $50 each a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. If you want to contribute via Cash App, simply use the Stripe QR code.

And so you can see it right there on the screen. You can also see in Checking Money Orders, the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zale, rolling at rollingsmartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. Download the Blackstone Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, Why Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

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and so you can get the merchandise there as well. And don't forget, support a fan base. Download the app. Also, if you want to get an equity state in a company, you can go to You Can Invest. Isaac Hayes is continuing his 17 million dollar raise so far 3.7 million has been raised thursday will be live streaming uh his investathon right here uh on the show and so uh pull the graphic back up if you want to invest

go to start engine.com forward slash fan base start engine.com forward slash fan base to get more information. Folks, that's it. I'll see y'all, of course, I'll be back in studio on Thursday, but we'll still be live tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Y'all take care. Holla! Black Star Network is here.

Oh, no punch! A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. recording studios. 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.

This is an iHeart Podcast.