#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Housing Act 56th Anniv., LA Supreme Court Dist. Maps, SCOTUS & Trump Immunity, Gaza College Protests

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

4.25.2024  #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Housing Act 56th Anniv., LA Supreme Court Dist. Maps, SCOTUS & Trump Immunity, Gaza College Protests A Texas Prosecutor appeals ruling that overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction.  #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase The Louisiana legislature will redraw the boundaries of the seven-member Louisiana Supreme Court for the first time in years.  State Senator Cleo Fields will join us about this measure that could seat a black justice. The Supreme Court may agree that Donald Trump should be granted some level of immunity from being prosecuted for alleged crimes committed while in office.  We'll hear some of today's arguments.  From Harvard to UT Austin to USC to Emory. College protests over Gaza are spreading.  National Labor and Education Organizer Tiffany Loftin will explain why college students across the nation are exercising their right to protest. In Our Own Voice, the National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda released new polling data on Black voters' motivations, voting intentions, and top issue areas, specifically focusing on Reproductive Justice and youth voter trends.   The president and CEO will be here to discuss the results.  Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. 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. 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 the 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.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Thank you. Hey folks, today's Thursday, April 25th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. I am here in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, where Tarrant County prosecutors in a shameful, despicable display of, frankly, domestic terrorism plan to file an appeal in the case of a black woman who for eight years has been battling them for improperly voting. We will tell you the latest in the saga of Crystal Mason.

Also, Louisiana legislature, they will redraw the boundaries of their seven-member Supreme Court to create a second black district. We'll talk with State Representative Cleo Fields about, so I'm sorry, State Senator Cleo Fields about this decision.

Also, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of complete immunity for Donald Trump. Looks like his Supreme Court justices really asked some of the dumbest questions you've ever heard in your life, including that idiot Clarence Thomas. We'll have some of that for you. Massive protests happening on college campuses all across the country tied to what's happening in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians.

We will talk to Tiffany Lofton, who is a longtime student organizer, about these protests. Also, in our own voice, the National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda released new polling data on black voters' motivations. We'll talk about that as well. Folks, a lot to discuss. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered with the Black Star Network. We'll talk about that as well. Folks, a lot to discuss. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered with the Black Studies Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. 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 it's rolling martin yeah rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Now. Martel. On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Fair Housing Act,

also known as the 1968 Civil Rights Act. That law was signed seven days after the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That bill had been filibustered for more than two years, and it was the death of Dr. King when LBJ sent a letter to the House the next day saying, let's honor his life by passing the bill that he gave his life for. That indeed happened. In these 56 years, we have seen significant changes when it comes to housing discrimination, but the reality is redlining, the effects of redlining and systemic racism in the housing industry, in the loan market, continues to show segregated housing in the United States. Joining us right now is Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California. Congresswoman, always glad to have you on the show.

It's interesting when we talk about what this law was supposed to do, what this law was all about. And the reality is you would think that 56 years later we would not have these problems. But housing is tied to income. Income is tied. And it looks like we have some issues with Congresswoman Maxine Waters, so we can get it back on. Income is tied to race. And we talk a lot about housing on this show because that is the quickest way for Americans to be able to build and create wealth. It's the passing down of homes.

I'm broadcasting from Dallas-Fort Worth. I own this home, purchased in 1999. This home here I bought for $122,000. It's now worth three times that. But the reality is black folks have been frozen out of the market. There's not been a single time since the Fair Housing Act was passed and signed into law in 1968 that black home ownership has gotten above 50%. Looks like we have Congresswoman Maxine Waters back. Congresswoman, always glad to have you on

the show. It's supposed to be fair housing. Unfortunately, we still have unfair housing in America because segregation persists. Absolutely. It is historic. It has gone on for as long as we've been here. And I want you to know, even though we have fair housing that was passed a law 56 years ago, we're still facing racism and discrimination, people being denied housing units that have children. Some landlords don't like the way you look. And, of course, the cost of housing has escalated so high until it is very difficult for many people who are working every day to be able to afford a decent and secure unit to live in with their children. And so you're absolutely right about the pay that still we are not able to achieve

because of racism and discrimination and because the amount of money that we earn is not keeping up with the market rates of all of this expensive housing. We have too many people who are on the street sleeping on the ground every night. Here in L.A. County, we're talking about 70,000 people sleeping outdoors every night. In this country, we're talking about 656,000 who are on the streets every night, not only in our major cities, but all over in our small towns, in rural areas. Housing is a problem. Racism is still a problem. The inability for people working every day again to have decent housing for their families

is a real problem in this country. We're going to keep working hard. We're going to tell people that they cannot allow it to happen without complaining about filing complaints, without talking about it, without making an issue. And that's what I and my committee are attempting to do as we have people recognize that this is Fair Housing Month. And the thing, and again, so much attention obviously is placed on the 1968 Fair Housing Act. But that is actually not the real culprit. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Federal Housing Administration.

And it was the Federal Housing Administration, under the guise of a federal government, that frankly mandated racism. But people don't realize that particular creation of the FHA. They refuse to insure mortgages to African-American neighborhoods. Redlining. Also, the FHA subsidize the building of homes in white neighborhoods. And so what you have here is the in the book, The Color of Law. It talks about that, But it was the federal government. Black people were paying taxes and our own government said we're going to build affordable housing for white people in America and we're going to completely ignore black people.

And 90 years later, we are still impacted by that racist decision. Oh, absolutely. And now as we look at what is going on with homelessness, we have city councils who are afraid of the homeowner associations. We have zoning laws that exclude the billing of affordable housing, and we don't have yet the courage that is needed to fight against those communities that are absolutely organized through these homeowner associations to keep people of color out of those neighborhoods. And so when we talk about the need to get people off the street, to have affordable housing, secure housing, we've got to start to look at our local

levels who have land use authority. They're the ones who can make decisions about how that land is used and developed. And what we find is that, again, not enough courage at the local level to deal with that issue, nor do we have one-stop shops that deals with permitting and licensing for even those developers who want to build affordable housing. And we have some cities who charge the would-be developers so much money

to change the wiring poles, to change the fire hydrants, to do all of this work that the city should be paying for. What we do is we drive up the cost in ways that we cannot build affordable housing. And we have a crisis. We have a crisis. We don't have enough affordable housing. And even so, we don't have access to it because our city councils, for the most part, who have all this land use authority, are not using their power and their influence. And so we're fighting. We're struggling. You

mentioned redlining. We've been fighting redlining for years, for many years, ever since I first started in office in California. And now we have gone through a period of time when we had these poor products, these bad products that were fostered upon us, where we got involved in mortgages that we didn't know were going to increase over the years. We were solicited and helped and assisted in getting into the home with maybe low down payments, no down payments. But what we didn't know was we had a mortgage where the interest rates was going to increase to the point where we wouldn't be able to afford it.

And then the foreclosures took place. Last question for you, and that is this here. Again, when they created the Federal Housing Administration... I know a lot of cops, and that is this here. Again, when they created the federal housing administration. 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 three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th.

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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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. It was to confront the lack of housing stock in this country. What we know right now, and that is still the case, we know right now, that is still the case. We know right now that we have under, frankly, first of all, we are under the number of homes created in the last decade and this decade. So what can the federal government do to actually increase housing stock in this country that will significantly help, you know, the demand and what can be done to stop private equity from buying up all these homes. I get I get I have gotten calls, text messages, emails, notes in the mail for now five or

six years trying to buy this house because private equity is going to own 40 percent of all homes by 2030. Well, a lot can be done. First of all, I have legislation and our legislation says everyone who's eligible should get Section 8, should get vouchers. And right now we have people standing in line who have been waiting for years. And we have some who have gotten the vouchers, and landlords who will not accept them and who will not take them. We're working on all of this. We're also working on trying to help some of our younger people get into housing by

assisting with the down payments. We're doing everything that we can to watch the government so that we don't get into the kind of bad products that they fostered upon us that caused us to have so many foreclosures. We have bills that we are putting in, but we need a Congress that will support these bills. I want to tell you, Donald Trump, the MAGA Republicans, these crazies will not support affordable housing. They don't give a darn about the people who are working every day, who can't afford a decent place to live.

They care about tax cuts to the richest people and corporations in America. And you're right about private equity. And I am organizing a meeting with those in private equity, particularly the minorities who are now in private equity, that say don't act the way some of them have acted, in the way that they have not only bought up homes, but they have taken over fire departments and hospitals and all of that, reduced the personnel, squeezed more money out of the business, et cetera, et cetera. We need to get a handle on private equity. And that's what we're trying to do in the work of the Financial Services Committee. But we need a Congress that we can get past the House of

Representatives, where you got Marjorie Taylor Greene and all of those MAGA Republicans who would do anything to stop the advancement and success of black people. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, we appreciate it. And look, this is something that I've covered my entire career, and I don't think people realize how dire the situation is now. And it is a major problem in this country. Absolutely. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for being our talk.

We're going to go to break. We come back. Thank you. I appreciate it. We're going to keep the fight. We appreciate it, Congresswoman. Thank you for helping to expose what is wrong with government and with those who are not acting on behalf of the people. Thank you.

All right. Thanks a lot. Got to go to break. We come back. We'll talk to State Senator Cleo Fields again, folks. What's happening in Louisiana? The power of black folks, the creation of a second Supreme Court seat. But black people, you still got to vote your power. I know he got something to say about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? I've told you numerous times on this show how important the Supreme Court is, not just on the federal level, but also among the state level. Well, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the lines are being redrawn in Louisiana. There are seven members of state Supreme Court. They're going to be creating a second majority black district. It was approved. The maps were approved on Wednesday by the House. The Senate passed it in March. And again, it is going, what they're doing is

they're eliminating the Shreveport-based held by a white justice, Scott Crichton, who due to term limits will retire this fall. The new black seat will be centered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana State. Senator Cleo Fields joins us from Baton Rouge. Senator Fields, glad to have you here. Look, look, you've been in this political game for quite some time. You were in the legislature before. You went to Congress. Now back there in the legislature. And what we are seeing now, now with the Supreme Court position, we saw what took place with the lawsuits created in the 2nd Congressional District. Finally, we are seeing black people get political justice in Louisiana. No question about it, Rowan. And first of all, good to be with

you, good to be on your show. This has been a fight that started a long time ago, actually back in 97 when the Chisholm case came before the court. That's how we got our first Supreme Court justice. And then we fought and fought and fought, and they just failed to redistrict the lines. The lines have not been redistricted in 30-some years. And so now at the end of the day, we passed the bill. The bill got its final approval on yesterday in the House of Representatives. And hopefully the courts will not interfere with that. And we have our second Supreme Court justice in the state of Louisiana. So I mean, and so explain to people who don't understand how critical this is when you talk about the highest court in the state of Louisiana.

Oh, it's very important. I mean, this to have a Supreme Court justice in the state of Louisiana? Oh, it's very important. I mean, to have a Supreme Court justice in the state is big, but to have two is real big. Louisiana has a sizable African-American population. It has deserved a second minority seat on the Supreme Court for years. It is so important when you adjudicate, and I'm a lawyer, so when you adjudicate, the final decision could very well be the Supreme Court. There is no appeal from the Supreme Court. So it's so important that every person is represented in this state when it comes to the judiciary. And Louisiana is now stepping in line with other states in the country. The reason why this is so important is because there used to be a time

before we could pass any plan in our state, you had to pass it by the Justice Department. It was something called Subsection 5 of the Voting Rights Act. That's been now gutted. So Louisiana, you know, is really dependent upon state legislatures, the state legislature, to look out for its interests. So yesterday was a monumental move in the state of Louisiana. And listen, we've got to keep this ball rolling. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, I heard and saw Maxine Waters, congresswoman, on your show.

That's why she fights so hard to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We have to pass it. And it's so important because, you know, things like what has been happening in Louisiana and Alabama and other states across the southern part of our country would at least have a watchdog in place where we won't have to be fighting these court battles time and time again. I'm going to go in a second hour panel with some questions, but I got to ask you this here. What in the hell has to needs to get done to energize black voters in this state? I'm seeing what's happening right now with MAGA Governor Jeff Landry running roughshod over the laws. Republicans now have a super

majority in this last election. I mean, the numbers were horrible. So here you get a second majority black Supreme Court seat. You get a congressional seat. But black turnout has got to be a hell of a lot higher to maximize the black voting power in the state. The numbers are there. We're just not using it. Numbers have always been there in Louisiana and in Mississippi and other states across the southern part. I still say we undercount it. But it's incumbent upon us to get out and actually vote. I mean, we can have the numbers, but if we don't use them, that's a whole other story.

This past gubernatorial election, when we had Sean Wilson, I supported Sean. But the voters were just not energized. It's time for us to get voters energized. And they have to know that their vote can and will make a difference. If you recall in Shreveport, there was a race that was won, a sheriff's race that was won by one vote, and they challenged it. And then he had to have three elections. And people showed up, and then we got to vote out for real, and he won by over 3,000 votes. But we had to get—it had to get to that point for people to realize the importance of voting. You know, voting is not something you should do. Voting is something that you must do. You know, people have to get out and they have to exercise that right to, you know, to vote. They have to do it often. I mean, look, I mean, I am I'm still registered here in Texas.

This is my homestead. And I came home to celebrate my dad's 77th birthday today. And my mom and dad, after we left, we got to vote because they had they had a school. They had a school. They had a school board elections, city council elections. And that's what I'm sitting here wearing is I voted in Dallas County sticker. And that's also what our folks got to understand is not just voting in the presidential race, a U.S. Senate, a U.S. Congress, but it's all of those city council, county commissioners, school, you know, trustees, all of those, because all of those entities are making decisions that impact our lives. No question about it. And we got to start at the city council level, school board level, I mean, local level. And every election is important, you know. And in Louisiana, we have it such now, and we fought very hard for it, that you can vote early.

There used to be a time you had to go down to the registered voters office to even register to vote. Now you can, you know, you can register to vote by mail, you can actually vote by mail, and you can vote early. So people, you know, there's really no reasons why people should not vote. We have a seven-day early voting period. People can get out and vote early. And look, even when you vote, people will question it. I mean, that's what happened in Shreveport. And that's why we spent some time down there to get people, you know, out of the houses and say, listen, this is an important election. You have to get out and vote because your vote count. But in that instance, they realized just how much their vote counted because they said, man, you know, Khalil, if I had known this, I would have voted.

I didn't vote in the primary, the general election. I would have voted. I just wasn't thinking about it, didn't think it was that important. It's always important. But they showed up, and I'm so proud of the people of Caddo, of Shreveport. They showed up, and they showed up in record numbers, and eventually the sheriff won the race, but it took that

kind of tragic incident for people to get up and get out and vote and realize the importance of their vote. Lauren Victoria Burke, she's one of our panelists with Black Press USA out of Arlington. Lauren you got a question for Senator Cleo Fields

Senator it's great talking to you it's great seeing you and Maxine Waters two people voted against the 1994 Clinton crime bill and I have old footage of you standing in the White House driveway talking against the Clinton crime bill. Every time I see you, I think about that. Can you talk a little bit more about 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 multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary

mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is Season 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 man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA

fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree.

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at TaylorPaperSealing.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. The voter apathy in Louisiana and why you think that is. Do you think people have just gotten to a point where they are fed up? Or was that the case when you were in Congress? Or, you know, what do you think? Obviously, the history is very tough in Louisiana for black folks. But what is your theory on that? Well, I remember when I was traveling the country with Reverend Jackson and and I think it was 88 when he was running for president. And we were, you know, at this housing project and and folk was like, you know, I'm not voting.

I don't I don't have. And I got in the we got in the van and I said, golly, brother, these folk are just so apathetic. And he said, no, they're not apathetic. They're uninspired. People are not apathetic about voting. They're uninspired about voting. And so I see a lot of that not only in this state but in many parts of the country. People don't feel that voting actually helped them. You know, they say, how will my life change? How is my circumstance going to change? You want me

to go? You want me to register? You want me to get out and vote? So we have to make that connection. We have to show them voting makes a difference, and it will make a difference in their life and their children's lives. And, you know, just yesterday, we voted on a minimum wage bill in the Louisiana Senate in the committee, and it failed, you know, two to four. I mean, if I had some more colleagues up there that perhaps think like me, we could have passed the minimum wage bill. I think it's a shame that people work hard every day, and at the end of the day, they still pour. $7.25 is not enough. But we've got to make that connection, and that's what it's going to take all public officials and ministers and every person. Roland, you're doing a good job at it.

It's going to take all the radio stations. It's going to take all of us to say, look, it's time to get serious about voting again. Dr. Greg Carr, Department of African American Studies, Howard University out of D.C. Greg? Hey, thank you, Roland. Good to see you, Brother Felix. Good to see you. Great to see you, sir.

Yeah, I remember when you were student body president at Southern, around the same time I was student body president at Tennessee State. We've been following your fight for the people for a very long time, Brother. So, Tennessee State. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I remember back in the day battles, man. But, you know, I'm wondering, I was reading the letter that five of the seven current Supreme Court justices sent late last year, urging the governor and the legislature to act to create this second district. is the play behind this clearly right-wing legislature and this MAGA governor in going ahead and advancing this legislation you propose? Are they trying to get away from and out from

under, as the judges say in the letter, these two federal lawsuits? No question about it. Listen, this is not, you know, they didn't wake up this morning, one morning, and say, hey, this is bad. We need to clean it up. We need to give African Americans an opportunity to be heard in the Supreme Court. This was through litigation by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights. They have been fighting this case for years in court. And I think the judge has made it very clear. Y'all need to probably settle this because you're going to lose it.

They brought this subsection two claim years ago. The legal defense fund, you know, they have, you know, spent some $10 million litigating in court. And the attorney general for the state, you know, basically came to the committee and said, listen, it's time to end it. We want to save. It's going to cost us money. We're going to lose the case. You know, all indications we're going to lose it. And we're going to be faced with a $10 million legal fee. The plaintiffs have agreed to, you know, not take their legal fee, not fight for their legal fee if we settle this case. So this case was not done without a long fight of lawyers from the Legal Defense Fund and the Lawyers Committee. We wouldn't be here today but for them. You know, they didn't just wake up this morning and say, hey, you know what, you know, we think we're wrong and we need to settle this case. It was because of that lawsuit.

And that lawsuit was coming to a head. And that's why the legislature passed it in the Senate and in the House. And that's why the governor is going to sign it. You know, I wish I could say, you know, I had that kind of appeal in the Louisiana legislature. But no, this was not a let's do it for Cleo. This was let's do it because the courts are going to make us do it, and we may be able to save about $10 million. The same thing with congressional redistricting. You know, we were winning on every level. The legal defense fund was winning on every level.

That case was settled, not settled, but the reason why they passed that bill was because they were losing. And the courts made it very clear they needed to do it. Thank you, Sid. That thing with the Supreme Court, they needed to do. Thank you, Sid. That thing went to the Supreme Court, and they were still losing. And so, as I always say, you can't show me nothing black folk have ever gotten in America we didn't have to fight for. Let's now go to Cleo. She calls herself the Gumbo Queen.

Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. What, Nola? This is Louisiana. You know, you think you're the gumbo queen. You know right here. Because you know you can't cook it. That's why. Girl, don't get embarrassed on my YouTube now.

Go on, go on, go on. Ask your question, Nola. Thank you, Roland, and happy birthday to your father. It's so nice to be here with you, Senator. I have 10 million questions running through my head, as you can imagine, but I will keep this short and succinct. And I also wish Justice Guidry a lot of luck. I have very similar conversations with my family members and friends about what they see that's contributing to what seems like apathy around voting. And I completely agree with you. I think it is a lack of motivation and because there's no inspiration. And there's a tranche of issues that you can kind of trace through the legacy of Katrina that's still plaguing, you know, the state and, you know,

particular to my context in New Orleans. And those four issues are education, how a lot of the cities were testing grounds for charter schools that many were failed experiments, crime, which is a huge problem, especially in New Orleans when so much of the economy is wrapped around tourism. Gentrification, I can tell you, driving through the 6th and 7th Ward, it does not look the same. And also kind of lack of economic opportunities. So when you have these really large issues for people, you know, who are committed to staying in Louisiana, you know, who don't want to leave because that's where we're from. And I struggle with it every single day.

But around those four buckets, when people are feeling a lack of motivation to vote because they don't see any changes, if anything, they see not only themselves being pushed out of, you know, traditional communities, but the legacies of our families that are also, that were already wrecked from the hurricanes. But we see a continuation from this legacy of Hurricane Katrina. And so I'm just curious, what are your thoughts when you talk to voters around these four issues? Because they are serious and people just feel like they're going to stay

home because it doesn't matter if they vote or not because nothing's going to change. Look, you make a very good point. Education being the key equalizer in my view. I mean, it is. I mean, for the past four years, I chaired Senate education up until this year. Look, education, the budget day before yesterday was cut in the House of Representatives. Early childhood education was cut. It is absolutely almost like malpractice for us to cut education in this state. You talk about getting people off of public assistance, but yet you cut education. Let me tell you why education is just so important in my mind.

When I came back to the legislature, you know, kindergarten was not even mandatory. We made it mandatory. That early education means so much from the womb to early. I wouldn't be here without it. No question about it. And we keep cutting education, cutting education. And these kids, when they get to the third grade, when they can't read and they can't, you know, do math, then we want to put them, we want to say they have disrupted. It's because they don't, because they can't compete with the

kids who've been in early childhood education forever. So we've got to do a better job in finding more seats in Louisiana for early childhood education. We don't call it daycare. We call it early childhood education because it's needed. And then kindergarten and then first grade. So these kids can compete when they get to the third grade with other kids. And then they won't be, as they say, a minister society. Yeah, you're so right about that. I lived those days, you know, doing Katrina. You know, I was one of those legislators who took three buses. And Maxine Waters went with me, actually. And we went and we got people out of the water and brought them to dry land. And the government was saying, we can't get there. If you

would watch CNN and other news outlets, you would think that you couldn't get into New Orleans. People were just trapped in. We drove right up there and picked them up and got them out there. We picked up the Xavier students. You know, Xavier students were on the bridge. My dad was there. He worked there. And I don't know if he was one of the individuals who got on the bus or not, but we got to care. You know, we got to care about them. We got to care about them. Crime, I do think lack of education is a byproduct of crime because our kids, they weren't born thugs. They weren't born criminals. We got to invest in them early and they'll do better. Economic development, you know, we got to do better in creating better jobs for our citizens.

We lose our kids. They graduate and they leave. You left. I mean, you know, I mean, people are not staying in our state because of a lack of opportunity, not a lack of commitment. So we got a lot of things to do in our state. And it's good talking to you, and I hope we can get you back to the queen. You can get her back, and you can definitely

remind her how to fix some gumbo. All right, Senator Cleo Ne. Always a pleasure to see you. She's been selling wolf tickets. She keeps saying that stuff. She ain't never brought a pot by, but, you know, that's how that is. It's all good. Senator Phil, it's always a pleasure, my brother. Keep up the good fight.

We appreciate you being on the show. Thank you. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about the protests happening on college campuses all across the country. Please support the work that we do. You can join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each.

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autograph all of those copies. And so, yeah, yes, I was sitting here autographing 100 books before I left home this morning to come to Texas. All right, we'll be back in a moment. 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 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 ban. 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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Next on The Black Tape with me, Greg Carr. We welcome a towering intellect, activist, master theorist, prolific author, and unstoppable firebrand for change. The one and only Dr. Errol Henderson joins us to talk about his new book, The Revolution Will Not Be Theorized, Cultural Revolution in the Black Power Era. And this is what's going on in so much of academia and in some movement circles. It's an anti-black national.

It's an hour of power that you don't want to miss. That's right here on The Black Table on the Black Star Network. Next on A Balanced Life, we're talking everything from prayer to exercise to positive affirmations and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way. That's on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie

on Black Star Network. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin on Tilted. Protests in support of palestinians have been taking place all across different college campuses columbia university they have been protests all week now it's spread mit it's gone to Emory in Atlanta. You've got University of Texas, USC, on and on and on. And what's interesting is how these protests are being framed here in Texas. You've got the governor, frankly, saying anybody who protests, they are all criminals. But I thought this was supposed to also be a First Amendment right to speak.

In Atlanta, protesters were met with force on the Emory campus. Like other students, they're calling for colleges to divest the funds from Israeli military operations. Some Jewish students on the campuses have called the protest anti-Semitic and say that they're scared for their safety. Again, these protests have taken place. Columbia, Harvard, University of Texas, USC and others. Tiffany Lofton, National Labor and Education Organizer, joined us from California. Tiffany also formerly headed the U.S. Student Association. Right, Tiffany? Yes, sir. So so here's the thing. I was I was communicating today with someone about what we're seeing.

And one of the things they said that that's happening in that is happening there in Columbia is that people are forgetting exactly why there are protests. And so apparently, Columbia University. 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 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 Lott. 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

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Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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All right. We're back to Tiffany Lofton. Tiffany, this was interesting. I was told that Columbia opened a global center with a dual degree program with Tel Aviv University. 40 students are enrolled. The problem is Palestinian students can't enroll or use the program. And the students in the original letter, they were demanding that the university end this program. Also, because of Israeli policies, it restricts Palestinians students from accessing or visiting the global center.

So what someone said is it said so. Columbia essentially knowingly constructed a Jim Crow educational program. That is that was the reason for the original protest. What you now see, you now see this back and forth. You hear people saying, oh, that even if you're protesting is anti-Semitic. Part of the issue you also have is on some of these campuses, you don't know who's actually a student from the outside. And so now this thing is all over the place. What are you hearing? And now you got Republicans showing up at Columbia. Now that the proud boy, how you got the racist proud boys rolling up to Columbia trying to fight anti-Semitism with their racist ass. I mean, this is what you're now dealing with, with these protests. That's right. Roland, I've been to Palestine three times.

So, folks, your audience should know this. One, I've been to Palestine three times. And as you mentioned, I used to be the president of a national student organization called the United States Student Association, National Civil Rights Advocacy Organization, student-run, student-led. And I have taught classes at UC Santa Cruz over the last three or four years. The students who are protesting at Columbia, like you said, are protesting for access to the program. But the hypocrisy is the reason why students across the country are now booming in protest is because those same practices of segregation based off of religion or based off

of identity or based off of your nationality are actually mirror to what Israel does to Palestinians already outside in the Middle East. It's what they do in Gaza. It's what they do in Israel outside of the Middle East during the occupation. So you have students who are Palestinian, who already have been displaced because they can't participate as whole citizens in Israel, come to the campus and now they can't participate in programs again because of their nationality and because of their religion. 42,000 people, Roland, have been killed. 80,000 have been injured. And 442 schools in Gaza have been destroyed. So when you have the valedictorian, which is a prestigious, prestigious accomplishment at the University of Southern California, who out of 400 other students got chosen to

give the remarks at the graduation, be told we're not going to let you speak for safety reasons. And because there are students on campus who don't feel safe with the valedictorian speaking, because the link in your bio on Instagram told people to donate to the damages in Gaza, we really have an issue. We're talking about democracy. And for everybody listening to this out of my voice, I want to remind us, yes, there are small cases where we have people who are not current students on the campuses and university. But a lot of the encampments that we see, and you named some of the schools, we got Princeton, Brown, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Rochester, Delaware, Tufts

University, Mahongra Ajas at UC Berkeley right now, University of Michigan, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Humboldt and Cal Poly, University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, USC, Columbia University, etc. These students that are building these encampments are doing it for one major reason. One, students are not criminals. So we are watching students live document their experiences with police officers on horses, with batons. Students at Emory University just got tased. 400 plus students across the country have now been arrested and now they're trying to fundraise money to bail these students out. My homeboy, President Griggs of the Georgia NAACP has demanded to meet with

the president of Emory University so that he can talk about mitigating the damages and the treatment from police officers off campus and off campus who are coming on campus and treating these students like they are criminals. These students are doing peaceful protests and they are on purpose because the definition of protest is also to disturb the practices as usual, business as usual, is that they are on campus occupying, which we have seen before, spaces for students to say, listen, we no longer want segregation. We don't want our campuses to invest in Israel. We want to divest from weapons, arms, and sending money over to Israel. We want to free Gaza. We want to free Palestine. And I think, Roland, police officers

and campuses, administrations, and especially elected officials need to take this moment more seriously and allow the students to peacefully demonstrate, to peacefully express their freedom of speech and come to the table to have discussions about how to make these campuses more inclusive. Because what you're watching right now is dangerous and it is wrong. I'm looking here. There was a protest at Ohio State. And they actually had snipers on the roof. Yeah.

So I looked for that on the Internet, Roland, because I was trying to see if that was real or not. It is as if there's this, I mean, literally in Texas, right here in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott called in. He didn't. University of Texas is located in Austin, Texas. The Austin Police Department wasn't at the protest. Right. The Travis The Austin Police Department wasn't at the protest. Right. The Travis County Sheriff's Office was at the protest.

The governor literally called in Department of Public Safety state troopers from several cities to come into the campus. And so these folks are literally trying to crush dissent. That's right. We've also seen rumors, Roland, that that the federal government is thinking about calling the National Guard in to dissent, to break up these students and to end the encampments. But I've also seen a video, Roland. So hold on one second. Hold on one second. So the federal government can't do that. So what has to happen is a governor of a state has to request the National Guard. So a governor, so if it's a New York state, Hochul has to make that request to the federal government in Texas the same way. And so the feds can't unilaterally

send the National Guard into a state unless the governor makes the request. Go ahead. That's really helpful for students to know right now. And I think all the information around the legalities, the fundraising, the legal processes are really important for us to share with students who, mind you, some of these students

were attending campuses and universities during the pandemic and have no idea what it's like to be able to organize on a university or on a campus. So all the information and all of the knowledge that we have about how to make sure they first stay safe and two, that they're able to demonstrate and exercise their right to freedom of speech is really important. I saw a video, Roland, in Washington, D.C., of faculty from different schools coming together and literally holding arms with each other,

surrounding the student encampment in order to say, we are standing in solidarity with these students and we will protect these students because they have every right to be angry. They have every right to demonstrate. And the power, right, of what is happening right now with student leadership across the country doing this in unison and showing up in encampments when the government is now trying to ban TikTok, I think just demonstrates the strategic capabilities of young people across the country to organize for one cause and one movement. Now, and every state and every school has different relationships to Israel, has different rules around divestment,

have different demands, but the cause in itself is the same. And you see students rocking keffiyehs on their campuses. They are spending the night at their schools. Community members are coming in to pass out water and pizza and face masks and sleeping bags and blankets and et cetera to support these students in their cause.

And it's so important that we give students a space. This is how I got into organizing, Roland. It wasn't necessarily through a protest for Palestine, but I got involved because somebody hung a noose on my campus when I was running for student body president. And if it had not been for the students at that school who stood with me in solidarity when the regents rose our tuition, if it had not been for the students at that school who stood with me in solidarity when the regents rose our tuition, if it had not been for community members who came to the campus to support students when they hung the noose at my school, when they told us that we couldn't mass mobilize and hold protests to keep ourselves safe or to demand change on campus,

I would not be a national leader right now. I would not have been the national director of the NAACP. I would not have been a national organizer in labor. I would have not have been a national organizer for student loan debt cancellation. So what we're seeing right now is really empowering. And I'm rooting for the students. And we've got to make sure that they're able to continue their movement and have faculty and labor unions and community members and elected officials come out and support these young people. Questions for our panel?

Let's go with the college professor, Dr. Greg Carr. Thank you, Roland. And, yeah, let me join with Nolan. And please tell your father, happy, happy birthday from me. Lucky double seven. That's a lucky number, brother. And it's good to see you, sis. Good to see you, Tiffany.

You too. I was following along some of the stuff. I saw some of the students from the AUC who had gone over. I think one young, at least one young brother was arrested. I saw them back over at the King Chapel. There was some video online. I'm wondering how you see this unfolding. Clearly,

it's not going away. I got a message from some colleagues at the University of Texas. They say no teaching today. They were out there, no grading, no teaching, no business as usual. Saruha Benjamin at Princeton saying something along similar lines. Do you see this unfolding, perhaps not the same, but in a similar arc, given that the Democrats will be in Chicago this summer, as the anti-Vietnam war efforts in 68, which, of course, some people would say led to the riotous convention in Chicago in 1968 with the racist daily and perhaps the return of Richard Nixon. I'm just thinking about how you see it, because not going away, how do you see this unfolding

on the landscape of national electoral politics this year? That's a great question, Dr. Carr. Let me say a few things. One, we have been watching the genocide of Gaza for over 200 days. And in any national campaign where young people have been a part of a movement, there have been ebbs and flows. We've seen mass protests across the country in major cities, metropolitan cities, to, say, free Gaza. And now we have students who have just come back from spring break who are taking over their campuses with encampments to say, we also want to free Gaza. And our university has a relationship with Israel, and we want to break that relationship. The school is going to continue for the next few weeks. We just saw, like I said, USC canceled their commencement because of the unsafe fear that they might have for a Muslim valedictorian speaking. I am sure that these protests will continue for the rest of the school year.

That I am confident in. What I'm also confident in is I actually just returned from Washington, D.C., Dr. Carr. And I'm sorry I didn't text you when I was there. But when I come back, I will hit you up. But I was in Washington, D.C. And there were nine states. This is hard for listeners to understand, so hear me. Where school systems, university school systems exist, there're what we call statewide student associations. What those are, are student governments from all of those schools in the school system

forming an organization. We had nine of those in Washington, D.C. gather together to talk only about how do we build now a national student organization? How do we bring back a national student organization? How do we bring back a national student organization that can be a vehicle and a container for young people to organize in really big ways? And this is, I mean, I'm really upset and pissed off and sad about what's happening in Gaza. But because of this catastrophe, young people have been able to mobilize and organize themselves to create structure to continue the fight.

And America ought to be trembling if young people are organizing on campuses right now, form an organization, and then use that organization to organize politically for the elections. America ought to be a part of that it matches their values. And Dr. Carr, you and I can talk about this all day. And Uncle Roland, we've talked about this. There are a lot of organizations right now that young people feel like cannot be their political homes because they don't identify with the values of the leadership of that organization. So if they can't find it, they're going to build it. And if they build it, this year's elections are going to suffer if they do not match the needs and the demands of what students are saying right now. Thank you, too.

Yes, sir. Noah! 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. Yes, sir. We are back.

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers.

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

Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Thank you so much, sis, for doing the work that you do. And, you know, I have so many intersections where this hits home. I got my Ph.D. at USC. I did not have a great time at USC. I got my undergrad at UCLA and I went to Harvard and I'm a professor at Georgetown. There's a lot of intersecting things for me that's happening, you know, and, you know, on the other side of things, I'm also a national security informed policy expert. And so when, when this whole situation first started at USC, when I first saw it in the news, I said, Oh Lord Jesus today, please give us strength. And when that young woman was denied being able to speak and the messaging that went

out, that USC put out, I was so upset as a security professional because I thought that it failed not only the student body, but it failed the American people by not saying, what are those security threats? Now, in my mind, the first thing that I went to was, okay, a day or two before that happened, the FBI came and said, the amount of terrorists... No, hold on. No, I need to add,

USC came in about an hour ago, so USC has decided there's not even going to be a commencement now. Oh, yeah, I said that. I know. Yeah, they. They canceled the entire commencement. First they canceled the valedictorian, then they canceled guest speaker, now they canceled the entire graduation. So she couldn't speak.

I know. It's crazy. And you know what I think they should do? I think they should hold their own graduation. They should hold their own graduation. Here's the context thing that I'm really, really upset with. If there's a security concern, let us know what is it? The students not only need to know what that is, but everybody else, if you have not met social media, need to know what that

is too, because the FBI absolutely did come out and say that terrorist threats, that the rise in threats are very real and we need to take those into serious consideration. Is that what it's about? I want to know. I still have questions. What are these security concerns? So that's the first part of it. As you know, having been at USC for six years and having my own situations that happened to me and what's happening to students and some of those students. And we need to keep in mind, these are babies that are still suffering from quarantine. Yeah. Okay. So they have still not have had experiences in terms of, you know, experiencing college life or high school life. And now you're taking this away from them. That is going to leave a scar. That's one part of it. The other parts in

terms of the way that this has spread to other universities. And when I read the demands, I'm getting to my question, I promise. As a UCLA student, the UCs have a long tradition of protesting. And honey, I was one of those students protesting for any and everything when I was an undergrad. So there is precedent for universities divesting from things like apartheid. There's precedence there, right? So what the students are asking for, many of these things are not outside of the realm of reality, right? So my question is, I have a lot more to say, but I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up.

What do you think, in your professional opinion, and from all of your experiences, what can that conversation look like between the students and the administration? What do you think needs to happen for there to be some sort of diplomatic endeavors, some sort of consensus, some sort of agreement, because to see semi-automatic weapons pointed at students on campuses that I grew up on, that I taught on, breaks my heart in so many directions I cannot even begin to express. In your professional opinion, what do you think next steps are? What needs to happen? So that's a great question.

And I won't pretend. What do you say? I hear you. I said, I'm glad we finally got to that question. We was building, we was building, this is how organized work was building. He said, I This is how organizers work. We was building.

He said, I'm glad we got to the question. I'm glad you asked that. And I want to preface this by saying that although I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, I'm not a current student. And we are constantly receiving new information for how the students want to move. And they are leading in this moment. What I would recommend and what I also am training my students to understand is how power works. And to answer your question, the next things that they can do, because school's almost out in a few weeks, graduation is coming up. There are things that they can do to support themselves on campus, like I said, host their own graduation. And there are things that they can do to challenge the relationships of power. And, you know, when I was on campus and when I told you all the story about somebody hanging a noose at school,

we worked with the student government to have meetings with the administrators on campus and the chancellor. And then when they didn't listen to us, we met with elected officials on the statewide level. What we're seeing is the demonstration of power in numbers. This is not just because 10 students took over the campus. We've got 50, 100, 1,000 young people on these campuses taking over and spending the night for multiple days. They are demonstrating in numbers how powerful they are. And there's currently a letter

that is being drafted by students that is going to go around nationally for all students to sign on to, so we can measure not only how widely felt this is, but how deeply felt this is. And once those young people, I'm about to say we, once those young people are able to demonstrate the number in powers, they can go to their elected officials and demand certain changes during a presidential election. We've been demanding it on social media, but elected officials don't really listen to us on social media, right?

This social media is for us. What we need to do is demonstrate our power and meet with elected officials. Now I am very well experienced that sometimes you meet with elected officials and they don't give a damn what you have to say. And then we have to escalate our tactics and we will continue to see that happen. Even so now while young people are getting arrested for the cause. So I think that there are multiple avenues that young people will continue to take.

Resistance is one of the biggest tools that we have in our toolbox. And we're going to continue to support students as they're taking over their campuses. And whatever it is they decide to do over the summertime, gearing up for the fall when they come back to answer Dr. Carr's question again, which I do believe this will continue into the rest of the year, especially since elections are November 5th, we're going to see students build on a strategy that we have not seen before. Thank you. Lauren? So, Tiffany, they're building on a strategy. Hey, Tiffany, how you doing? How are you? Good to see you. Great seeing you. They're building on a strategy towards what issue, I wonder. Earlier this know, I look at things through the lens of, how is this going to

affect African-American students in the United States? That's just what I think about. And you know, I'm not seeing where this would matter for that particular cohort. Obviously, as you know, Tiffany, Congress just allocated another $60 billion to Israel—I'm sorry, $60 billion to Ukraine and $24 billion to Israel and $8 billion to Taiwan in a world where people are sleeping on the streets in the United States. And obviously, Biden has done good with student loan forgiveness, I believe. But I just wonder, where in this story should this matter for HBCUs, for African-American students, for the things that are seen through that lens? It's not that I don't care about what's going on in the Middle East, but

I'm curious about that. And I'm always focused on that no matter what's going on. So I just wonder what your thoughts are on that. That's a fantastic question. And this would not be the Royal Martin Digital Show if we didn't ask that question. So thank you, Lauren. I two things. One, we talked about on this platform, the public safety training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, that is being built, that protesters have been escalating tactics around to stop from building and to reframe those funds for other other purposes in the state of Georgia and in the city of Atlanta. We have watched young people during the Black Lives Matter movement take over their campuses and form Black Lives Matter chapters and protest against the police, against police brutality, to stand in solidarity with families who have lost loved ones to police officers. We've talked about all of that here on this show. And there are direct connections, financial connections, political connections, electoral connections to how Israel trains police officers in the United

States and how those United States police officers who were trained in Israel attack and target black students on campus. So there is a direct correlation, which is why you see so many black people who understand that connection and who have been to Palestine or have joined Blacks for Palestine, the organization, or send a solidarity with Blacks and Muslim people, because we know Black folks are Muslim as well. You've seen so much language and conversation about those communities coming together. That's one reason why. It's because state violence is inspired by

Israel. And America continues to fund Israel and store our weapons. There's a whole warehouse in Israel with bullets and missiles and weapons that the United States has just in case they need it for us. And we know that they didn't use them during the insurrection. But if Black people were to take over this country and have a protest for whatever it is that we wanted to fight for, we're going to see the exact same attacks on black folks that we have seen on students right now and on Palestinians in Israel. So there's a direct connection here when we talk about state violence and police officers. But to answer your question as well, we know that the budget does not work as easily as I hope it would. I hope that we can just say, Joe Biden, don't spend billions of dollars on foreign aid,

cancel all the student loan debt. But the budget doesn't work like that. And so what we're seeing is young people right now on campus don't at all qualify for Joe Biden's plan on student loan debt forgiveness because their loans were not discharged in 2021, I believe. 2021. I might fact check that. I think it was 2021, 2022. I believe it was 2021. If their loans were not discharged by June of 2021, then they don't qualify for this program. There are other programs that they can apply to, and we hope and pray that that works out. But in terms of his student loan debt cancellation process that he's been doing, the rounds that he's been making, it's for people who have already graduated and already have the debt. But young people are like, well, wait a minute. If you can give billions and billions of dollars to Israel to continue the occupation,

then why can't you make education free? Then why can't you cancel student loan debt? Then why can't you pay teachers a fair wage? Then why can't you support DEI programs? Why do we have to fire 61 faculty members in Texas because y'all wanted to ban DEI? Why can't we support undocumented students with financial aid? Why can't we increase the Pell Grant? There's a direct correlation here, and all of those issues impact the black community. They all impact young black people who want to go to school. They all impact black people who want to graduate when they go to

college. And so these issues are intersected and there's no way to separate them, especially as we think about black people who are incarcerated in the United States and the connection that that means from the inspiration they get from Israel. All right, then. Well, Tiffany, all right then well tiffany uh we'll appreciate it we'll see exactly uh if we're gonna see more protest uh grow across the country thanks a lot thank you sir love y'all all right then folks crazy day supreme court's uh supreme court listened to oral arguments regarding the um absolute immunity argument of Donald Trump and his lawyers. Some of the questions from these conservative justices were insane. Then, of course, you've got David Pecker testifying about all the legal crap they did, blocking stories, paying off people to help Donald Trump win in 2016.

And people are actually still supporting this shameful, despicable, evil man. We'll break it all down. You're watching Roller Mark Unpiltered on the Blackstone Network. A lot of y'all have been asking me about the pocket squares that we have available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here.

It's all about looking different. And look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying to tell fellas, change your look, please. You can't wear athletic shoes. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs 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 ban. 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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth.

Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Every damn wear. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square, these shiboris, because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here, versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares.

But also, I like them a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey in essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser. I saw this feather pocket square, and I said, well, I got some ideas. So I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser. I saw this fella pocket square and I said, well, I got some ideas. So I hit her and she sent me about 30 different ones. And so this completely changes your look. Now, some of you men out there,

I had some dudes say, oh man, I can't wear that. Well, if you ain't got swagger, that's not my problem. But if you are looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket

squares saying, see, check mine out. So it's always good to see them. And so this is what you do. Go to RollinThisMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. You can order Shibori pocket squares or the custom-made pocket squares. Now for the Shiboris, we're out of a lot of the different colors and i think we're down to about two or three hundred so you want to get your order in as soon as you can because here's what happened i got these several years ago and they the the japanese company signed the deal

with another company and i bought them before they signed that deal and so i can't get access to any more from the company in japan that makes them and so get yours now so come summertime when i see y'all at essence y'all could be looking fly with the shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket square again rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares go there now. Thank you. Thank you. We truly do have, frankly, a corrupt Supreme Court. Today, all arguments were heard regarding Trump's claim of complete immunity. And I swear, the questions from these conservative judges, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, even Justice John Roberts, you're shaking your head going,

are y'all serious? Are you literally serious? This idiot Clarence Thomas came out of the gate. First of all, why is he even hearing the case considering he's married to somebody who's an insurrectionist? Y'all, Lord have mercy. Okay. All right. Check this out.

Okay. We're going to first play you a soundbite. This is Justice Katonji Brown-Jackson, one of the sane folks. That's more worried about. You seem to be worried about the president being chilled. I think that we would have a really significant opposite problem if the president wasn't chilled. If someone with those kinds of powers, the most powerful person in the world, with the greatest amount of authority, could go into office knowing that there would be

no potential penalty for committing crimes, I'm trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country. I don't think there's any allegation of that in this case. And what George Washington said is, what Benjamin Franklin said is, we view the prosecution of a chief executive as something that everybody cried out against as unconstitutional. And what George Washington said is, we're worried about factional strife, which will... No, let me put this worry on the table. If the potential for criminal liability is taken off the table, wouldn't there be a significant risk that future presidents would be emboldened to

commit crimes with abandon while they're in office? It's right now the fact that we're having this debate because OLC has said that presidents might be prosecuted. Presidents from the beginning of time have understood that that's a possibility. That might be what has kept this office from turning into the kind of crime center that I'm envisioning. But once we say, no criminal liability, Mr. President. You can do whatever you want. I'm worried that we would have a worse problem than the problem of the president feeling constrained to follow the law while he's in office. I respectfully disagree with that because the regime you've described is the regime we've operated under for 234 years. All right, folks. Here is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Malum in se is a concept long viewed as appropriate in law, that there's some things that are so fundamentally evil that they have to be protected against. Now, I think, and your answer below, I'm going to give you a chance to say if you stay by it, if the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity? It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that could well be an official act. It could. And why? Because he's doing it for personal reasons. He's not doing it like President Obama is alleged to have done it to protect the country from a terrorist. He's doing it for personal gain. And isn't that the nature of the allegations here, that he's not doing them, doing these acts in furtherance of an official

responsibility? He's doing it for personal gain. I agree with that characterization of the indictment, and that confirms immunity, because the characterization is that there's a series of official acts that were done for an unlawful or improper reason. No, because immunity says, even if you did it for personal gain, we won't hold you responsible. How could that be? Now you go from that brilliance to this, let's just say crap, from Justice Sam Alito. I'm sure you would agree with me that a stable democratic society

requires that a candidate who loses an election, even a close one, even a hotly contested one, leave office peacefully if that candidate is the incumbent. Of course. All right. Now, if an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the president is going, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy? And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process, where the loser gets thrown in jail. So I think it's exactly the opposite, Justice Alito. There are lawful mechanisms to contest the results in an election. And outside the record, but I think of public knowledge, Petitioner and his allies filed dozens of electoral challenges. and my understanding is lost all but one that was not outcome determinative

in any respect there were judges that that said in order to sustain substantial claims of fraud that would overturn an election result that's certified by a state you need evidence you need proof and none of those things were manifested So there is an appropriate way to challenge things through the courts with evidence. If you lose, you accept the results. That has been the nation's experience. I think the court is well familiar with that. Mr. Sauer and others have identified events in the past. Conduct that might have been charged as a federal crime.

And you say, well, no, that's not really true. This is page 42 of your brief. So what about President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese Americans during World War II? Couldn't that have been charged under 18 U.S.C. 241, conspiracy against civil rights? Today, yes, given this court's decision in Trump versus United States, in which Trump versus Hawaii, excuse me, where the court said Korematsu was overruled. I mean, President Roosevelt made that decision with the advice of his attorney general. That's a layer of safeguard. Is that really true? I thought I thought Attorney General Biddle thought that

there was really no threat of sabotage, as did J. Edgar Hoover. So I think that there is a lot of historical controversy, but it underscores that that occurred during wartime. It implicates potential commander in chief concerns, concerns about the exigencies of national defense that might provide an as-applied Article II challenge at the time. I'm not suggesting today. But the idea that a decision that was made and ultimately endorsed by this court, perhaps wrongly in the Korematsu case, would support criminal prosecution under 241, which requires under United States v. Lanier that the right have been made specific so that there is notice to the president. I don't think that would have

been satisfied. All right. Lauren, is it me or the conservative justices? Nuts. Yeah, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, what we're listening to is an argument about whether or not Donald Trump can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, to whomever he wants. Right. That's what Sam Alito wants to check for everybody, whether or not Donald Trump can just do anything, anytime, anyplace, whether it's assassinate other people, whether it's, you know, call for an attack on the U.S. Capitol, whatever. We just want to know that. I mean, that is the backdrop of what we're talking about, a U.S. president that incited an attack on the United States Capitol.

It's incited an attack on the legislative branch to. It's inside an attack on the legislative branch to block the certification of his opponent who beat him by 8 million votes. And these guys are up here talking about this like it's past assault. That's the line that they've moved us to, that this is normal conversation. And Sam Alito is an absolute trip. But, you know, it's all for Donald Trump. It's all for the tiki god of Donald Trump. It's all to please Donald Trump. And it's the audience of one theory once again. Sam Alito wants to make sure, and Clarence Thomas wants to make sure, that Donald Trump can hear what they're saying and make sure that everybody knows in Trump world,

in MAGA world, that we're standing up for Trump. So this is going to be an interesting decision because I actually think they may go in Trump's favor. I mean, you're sitting here and you're listening to a Trump lawyer, Nola, say, yeah, you know, hey, he can actually have Navy SEAL Team 6 kill a political rival. Right. Sure. Not a problem. I mean, this is insane. This is crazy. Right.

Right. Right. You're saying so much. Did you say my name? Okay. Anyhow. Yes, you did. You know what? This is a, for many years, I TA'd and co-taught law policy, a law and policy class at USC, as we're talking about young folks. And one of the things that students will constantly say over and over, how can any fair adjudication ever happen when the starting point is, oh, this is a liberal judge and, oh, this is a

conservative judge? So the starting point, let's start there with the problem of you can talk about this in terms of being a constitutionalist or a traditionalist, but at the end of the day, you're going to find something that fits your ideology that already exists. And, you know, there are particular judges on the Supreme Court that were handpicked by Donald Trump just for this reason. And it was not kept a secret. It was in plain view, in plain sight, you know, trying to pregame for a situation just like this.

So the conversation, while it is around this particular situation, is a lot larger than this. We need to completely rethink our Supreme Court system. It should not be along the lines of political ideology. I think that is a mistake. It is a mistake. And it will continue to drag us down into the same voids, the same black holes that we are in right now, because basically it's a situation of who can craft the best argument that fits an ideology. And that is not okay. And I'm not saying that the, you know, I tend to have more empathy and sympathy for the liberal judges because I feel like they have to do a lot of, you know, acrobatics to speak in a way that makes sense versus the ideology. But if

we, you know, talk about correcting the entire system, it needs to happen on both sides. The way that our system currently exists, it is not working and it is not helpful. Now, in terms of where they will land with this, they're going to kick it back to the lower courts because they understand, you know, beyond Donald Trump, even though I believe if he gets in, you're going to have to drag him out by his toes in that hairpiece that was flying around in the wind today, because he's not going to come out. And the next person who gets in that would be a Democrat, then that same standard has

to apply. And that will be the only thing, the only thing that will keep them from going full Trump. And, you know, I think that they will kick it back down to the lower court. But this is a huge problem in our country that needs to be fixed. Greg, these justices, they literally, this is how deranged MAGA is. They want to allow this man to do whatever he wants, when he wants. And this is all a move to further delay the trial. And it's I mean, it's it's sickening, but it is who they are. And the fact that Clarence Thomas is actually allowed to sit on the bench,

knowing exactly what his wife was involved in that I keep telling people, you can sit here and talk about I'm not going to vote. Let me be very clear to all y'all people who are thinking that right now. Clarence Thomas is 75. Sam Alito is 74. If Donald Trump is elected in November, those two are going to immediately retire so Donald Trump can replace them on the bench.

And Sonia Sotomayor is 69. He may actually, again, if he wins, he may actually replace three. That means he would have picked six out of the nine Supreme Court justices. But folks go ahead and decide they want to sit their ass at home. Greg, go ahead. That's right, Roland. And that's what this is about. I agree with you, Prof. I agree with you, Nola. They're going to try to kick this back down more than likely. And that will leave it in the hands of Judge Chuckton

to try to parse when a public act or private act might fall outside the scope of presidential immunity. And you're absolutely right, Roland. This is really what this is about. This is about getting their master, as you say, their tiki guy, Lauren, past November. This is what this is about. And so, you know, John Henry Clark used to say in some stories there are no good guys.

So when you bring up the specter of Korematsu, it's a tragic moment in U.S. history. When you say something like Clarence Thomas, who was a complete embarrassment to the bench, to his race and to basically to everything, anything associated with any common human decency. Clarence Thomas brought up the Bay of Pigs today and said there were no prosecutions after the Bay of Pigs. And the lawyer had to remind him, well, there's a doctrine called a public authority defense. So when you see a president who acts in a way that you might not agree with, he's protected for prosecution for overseas acts. And that was kind of like in the same vein, a similar vein, as you heard the reply to the Korematsu case. But as a black person, you know, I can sympathize with the

idea of illegal actions or immoral actions. And you heard Sonia Sotomayor refer to a Latin phrase, malum esse. Malum ense in the law means it is evil in itself. It's a moral wrong, regardless of whether it's illegal or not, or whether it's legal by legal standard. It is wrong in itself. Well, that's what we're facing here if we get to that issue. But I agree. I agree we're not going to get to that issue because their number one goal, the Christian soldier, Sam Alito, who is a hard right-wing ideologue, but also a political animal, Clarence Thomas, who is a black man, who knows how much time he's got. His hair turns snow white.

We know that diabetes and heart disease is real in black communities. And with the stress he's under as a whole manservant of white supremacy for decades, God only knows how much time any of us have on the earth. But I wouldn't bet against Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, as you say, tendering. 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. B one two and three on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad 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 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 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 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. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals.

Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. There are resignations at some point under a Trump presidency and finally I'll end with this. If they can get him past the election, then we all know what happens to this case. He will direct the Department of Justice to dismiss it. But that's exactly what they're trying to do. They're trying to string this clock out. And that is the case. All right, folks, I got to go to a quick break. We

come back. Another poll that focuses on African-Americans that mainstream media probably is going to ignore. But we won't. We'll talk about that next on Roland Mardone filtered on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I was just in my backyard. I just said I was manifesting about life. I said I would love to come back because it was a great time. And these kids need that right now. They need that male role model in the schools, I think. Even on TV. Because people are scared to go into the high school.

You know, the high school, you know what I mean? I would love to bring it back. And I think we can bring it back. You know, what do you think? I think we'll ask the people, we'll ask your people. Do a poll. Y'all wanna hang with Mr. Cooper? Yeah, I say let's go.

We all look good, you know, Ali looked good, you know, Raven looked the same, Marquise, Don Lewis. It'd be funnier than half the bullshit you see out there on TV now, god damn! What the fuck? What happened to TV? Damn!

It's some... I'm like, oh, my God. Me, Sherri Shebritt with Sammymy roman i'm dr robin b pharmacist and fitness coach and you're watching roland martin unfiltered all right folks the recent poll conducted by In Our Own Voice, a national black women's reproductive justice agenda, they did it in partnership with the nonpartisan public opinion research firm Peri Undum. It found that economic security and opportunity rank as the highest priority for most young black voters. Joining us right now is President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss to talk about this poll. Dr. Moss,

glad to have you here. First off, okay, how many, first of all, how many people were polled? Were they all Black? Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's, thank you for lifting that up. We are centering Black people in these polls. And the polling sample, was it 800 to 1,000? So what we do is, all in, it was 4,500 black people. For our national poll, we polled 1,000 black men and women, and then we went into nine states and polled 500 women in each state, for a total of 4,500. And this is because since 2012, we've been doing this work because, number one, we've been

tired of people speaking for us, always having to be on the defensive, and quite frankly, just not getting it right when we, you know, we're just only like small samples in these larger polls, and they're always misreading and misrepresenting us. And so we set us out to do that, just that. Well, that was one of the points that I made last week about when Steve A. Smith went on Sean Hannity's show and they were talking about, you know, polling. I'm like, dude, y'all are speaking to a

small sample of black people in that New York Times CNN poll. This is the fourth black poll. Black Pack, Higher Heights, Blackness Roundtable, this one. So the past two months, there have been four black specific polls. So it'll be nice, at least if the black journalist on mainstream will at least cite the black polls. We'll be discussing polling numbers.

Now, what did your polls show in terms of the top priorities for African-Americans? So one thing I want to say is that in our poll in particular, we were centering reproductive justice. And for those who do not know, reproductive justice is the right to decide if, when, and how to have a child, but also when you decide to have that child, you can raise that child in a safe and sustainable environment. So that's things like Trayvon Martin, you know, when we want to make sure that kids are not exposed to excessive police force and all the other things once we have those children.

And so in our polls, we found, similar to the other ones, that young people are not as motivated, that the voting issues that are top of mind, as you have already said, are cost of living, but racial justice. So things like free and fair elections, democracy, those are really key. We are very interested. One of the things that came out is that the influence of states, our motivations for voting, Black communities are supportive of abortion rights and access and comprehensive sex ed.

But I don't want people to get mistaken by this. It's an important issue for us, but it's not a top tier issue for us. And then we start getting into things of like, what is the impact of, on Black women after Dobbs? And one of the things that came out is that it's really impacted Black women in a very personal and life altering way. They are, some Black women are literally scared to get pregnant at this point.

They are considering moving to states where there's abortions, that they can access them. They are considering—they're concerned about being arrested for things related to pregnancy. So there are real impacts to these things, and I don't think people should be taking these things lightly. There's a real ripple effect of all these laws and policies, and so that's why we've got to get out and vote in every election. Questions for the panel. Nola, question, Nola, question.

You're very funny, Roland. Thank you so much for doing this poll. And that is a sizable end. That is very impressive. So my question is a little data driven. So you mentioned that you polled in several cities. What were those cities and were they heavily concentrated black areas? Or what did the demographics look like as a social scientist? I'm very interested in your work. We polled in California, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, all the states where there's a large majority of Black people. And, you know, as I've said, we've been polling for the last 10 years and consistently this one comes up. You know, we are in places like, like I said, Michigan, places like Georgia, places, Louisiana. So this is one of the other things that I wanted to lift up is, you know, the conversation around young voters versus

black voters. For both, economics was a key issue. When we start looking at older voters, things like democracy are more important, but not that different. I mean, that's when, you know, when we do these types of polls, we ask them, we force them into ranking top tier issues. But overwhelmingly, everyone is feeling the squeeze. You know, we're out here hustling. Gas prices are high.

Food prices are high. Student loans. All of those things are going to be important issues in terms of how we need to be talking to voters. Thank you. Lauren? And so you're not seeing anything in the poll that would indicate any sort of benefit for Donald Trump, right?

Because, of course, the media wants that horse race. They want that result. But did you see anything that would benefit a candidate on the right? I mean, we asked the question in terms of, you know, who they would vote for. So one in five voters, Black voters, are on the fence. Fifty-five percent say they would vote for Biden. Seventy-five percent said they would vote for a Democrat, 9% for a Republican candidate. So that's about, and then, but I also want to lift up that about 20% are not sure and 5% said

others. And that's about the same, you know, that what we see in the general population, you know, that's what I think is really good about these polls is that they really do represent, like that Black people are not a monolith, right? So, you know, we shouldn't expect that everyone's going to be, you know, voting from one particular party. But we do see that it's about what we see generally, which is about 9 percent. Greg? Thank you, Roland, and thank you,S. Attorney General, U.S. Attorney General's Office of Justice and Justice. Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Ms. Davis-Moss, for this work. I'm wondering what you think the role of, if any role, political education might play

in pushing the needle. I mean, it was very interesting, as you say, with one in four 18- to 29-year-olds saying they've thought about not voting in 2024. But at the same time, 72 percent of those young voters feel the black community has power to change elections. So this seems to be almost like a dissonance. You have the power, but you're choosing to withhold it. And I'm wondering if this might be a message to be sent to engage in more political education, particularly around young people. And the other thing I thought was interesting, I wonder if there's an age variation involved,

looking at the issues at the top there, cost of living, racism, health care and education being kind of closely grouped together. But at the very bottom, the war between Israel and Hamas, and then LBGTQ plus rights. How should we be reading that? Are there variations in age that affect that? And thank you again for the work. Yeah. So a couple of things there. I would say I love how you lifted up the fact that they said while it was 38 percent of young voters that are certain to vote, 70 percent that were not sure, I'm sorry, 17% that were not sure, 70, over 70% said they know the power of their vote and they think it can affect real change. So what that says to me is that they know that their vote is not wasted, but it also says that they have real concerns, right?

So, you know, if politicians really want to earn the vote, they're going to have to be responsive to their needs. They're going to have to really engage with younger voters and, for all that matter, Black voters, you know, directly. And, you know, I like to think about things like, you know, truth and reconciliation, right? So when you do that work, you have to acknowledge, you have to engage in truth, and you have to provide the redress. And that reconciliation comes when there's political will, there's trust building, there's a transparency. And then it falls with a substantial investment in the resources. And so that's what the conversation needs to be.

But at the same time, we also need to be talking about the progress, right? The progress, we have had some wins, right? And if we want to have more wins, that comes from voting. And that comes from saying, you know, if you care about Black history being taught in school, if you care about critical race theory, all of those things, those don't happen at these national elections. Like, those are things that are happening in states. And I don't think people appreciate that, you know?

So that's why we have to really educate people on the process to say, if those are things that are happening in states. And I don't think people appreciate that, you know? So that's why we have to really educate people on the process to say, if those are things you care about, that's going to require you to, you know, think about library councils, city council, boards of education, get really educated on those candidates because that's going to make the difference. And that's that real progress we want to see happens when we continue to vote people in office that reflect our needs and our values. Thank you. Doc, where do people go to actually look at the poll results and learn more about it? So, yes, you can visit us at blackwomensrj.org.

And then for those that just want to get more engaged in voting in our work, we have a campaign. It's called I'm a Reproductive Justice Voter. So you can follow us at blackwomen.vote or imanrjvoter.org. And that's what we're doing 24-7 is helping people understand how do you connect these issues. You know, one of the things the mother of the movement we're talking about is that we don't, when we're talking about reproductive justice, we're not talking about, you know, pro-life, all these other things, because really the truth of the matter is all of the things that we need to be talking about happen before you get pregnant. Okay. So if you don't, you know, can't afford to pay for the child, if you're not going to be able to finish your

education or these other things, what you have not going to be able to finish your education, are these other things you have to think about when you have an unintended pregnancy? If you don't have good answers to those questions, then you have to have that difficult conversation about whether or not I should think about an abortion. But if you have good answers to those questions, which is a result of great policy, then an unintended pregnancy can become a baby. So what we want to do is help people understand all the other issues, things like the built environment, clean air, clean water, the criminal injustice system. All of those things have an impact on our reproductive decision making. All right, then.

Well, Shirley, appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. All right. Thanks a bunch. All right. Let me thank my panel, Lauren Victoria Burke. I appreciate it.

Dr. Greg Carr, appreciate it as well. And Nola, somebody actually put in the message board, they said, is your name actually Nola, or do you just call yourself that because that's short for New Orleans, Louisiana? I told somebody I would ask the question. I think you're on mute. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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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. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council that old mute well I was going to ask the question

I'm just saying I just asked the question see that old mute alright well we all waiting for the invite to the to the bougie gumbo. So please let us know when you fire that up, Nola. So that bet. OK. All right. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. we'll see we'll see all right uh that is it hey y'all i am in dallas uh we did not get to the crystal mason story today uh i am going to get with that tomorrow uh these yahoos in tarrant county they literally are trying to appeal that decision they have been

terrorizing that black woman for eight years uh and so we um are going to keep uh uplift to her talking about that story as well you two folks uh you two folks y'all need to go ahead and hit that like button before i sign off so crystal mason and her attorney will join us tomorrow hey folks i'm here in dallas my dad turned 77 so i went out to took him out to lunch flew in town took him out to lunch with my mom as well now it don't make any sense. You know, he, like, I got the cowboy hat on me. My mama got on, like, I bought him a cowboy hat as a birthday gift.

Why he ain't got it on? See, black people are so uncooperative. Just uncooperative, just uncooperative. So he turned 77 today. Mom turned 77 in November. So we were hanging out uh getting some seafood there so glad always glad to be home folks that's it i'll be actually broadcast tomorrow from miami i'll be speaking to the uh black county executive there i'm actually moderating

a conversation with fanny willis fulton county da so i'll be in uh me on me tomorrow uh still doing a show but i'll be there tomorrow. Look forward to seeing y'all. Hey, folks, don't forget I've got several different things. First of all, support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do all these shows on the Black Star Network. You can see your check and money. Order the

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I'm personally autographing all of these copies. $10 plus $5.99 shipping and handling. You can go to RolandSmartin.com forward slash the first and put your order in. And I'm telling you, I'm not printing any more copies. Once they're gone, they're gone. They're gone. I'm not going to print any more copies. You're not going to be

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you're also investing in the Black Star Network. Folks, that's it. Yes, I'm rocking the alpha gear because Saturday's my 35th alphaversary. Pile McCrown, Texas A&M, Epsilon Line. So shout out to my LBs,

Paul, Freddie, and John. Kevin, he died actually on our anniversary on April 27, 1999. And all the folks in Dallas County. Yes, I have my button here. I voted in Dallas County. Local elections today.

I did vote. So no matter where you're living, find out if you have elections going on right now or when the local election is happening. I keep telling y'all, every race matters. City council races, school board races, county races. All of these races matter. And so you may be having elections uh happening you don't even know anything about it go to your county website go to your city website and see when the municipal and the county elections are taking place all right i'll see y'all tomorrow tomorrow. and something like CNN. You can't be black on media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. 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. homes. We met them at the 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. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me.

Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org.

Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.