#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Houston & Voting Monitors, FL Voter Fraud Charges Dropped, Tucker Carlson Attacks Tiffany Cross

Episode Date: October 22, 2022

10.21.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Houston & Voting Monitors, FL Voter Fraud Charges Dropped, Tucker Carlson Attacks Tiffany Cross  Officials in one of Texas' most populous county is asking the DOJ to send federal monitors in response to state plans to send observers for the general election.  I'll talk to Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. All charges get dropped against a Florida man accused of voter fraud. I'll talk to Desmond Meade, the Executive Director of Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, about Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes. Ya'll remember that black man from Connecticut who ended up paralyzed in police custody; well, all of his charges against him have been dropped.   The January 6th committee formally subpoenas Trump.  And his side-kick Steve Bannon will spend four months behind bars for defying his subpoena.  I'll explain why he's not wearing in custody yet.  The lawsuit filed by GOP-led states seeking to block the student-loan forgiveness plan gets tossed out.  Fox News' Tucker Carlson calls out MSNBC, specifically Tiffany Cross, for broadcasting open race hate.  I'll break all of that down.  In our Education Matters segment, we discuss how an organization is helping schools and parents with children with learning differences thrive.  RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Black crowd. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Hey, Black, I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, October 21st, 2022. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

Officials in one of Texas' most populous counties, actually it's bigger than five states in America, is asking the Department of Justice to send federal monitors in response to Republican plans to send observers to the general election. I will talk to Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee about what Republicans are doing there. All charters get dropped against a Florida man accused of vote fraud.

We'll talk to Desmond Meade, the executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition about Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes, which is really a way for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to target black and brown folks. Remember that black man from Connecticut who ended up paralyzed in police custody? Well, all of his charges have been dropped. Hmm, it's amazing how that happens after he's paralyzed.

January 6th committee that formally subpoenaed Donald Trump and his sidekick Steve Bannon is gonna spend four months behind bars for defying his congressional subpoena. But he's not in jail. The lawsuit filed by GOP-led state's attorney seeking to block the student loan forgiveness plan of President Joe Biden. That crap got tossed by a federal judge.

And Fox News' Tucker Carlson goes on a racist rant against Tiffany Cross and Joanne Reid. Hmm, yeah, I got something to say about that white nationalist, Tucker Carlson. And why is it MSNBC more aggressive in defending their two black female hosts? In our Education Matters segment, we'll discuss how an organization is helping schools and parents with children with learning differences thrive.

Yo, it is time to bring the funk. On Roller Mark unfiltered, the Black Star Network, let's go. He's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling Marten. Yeah, 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. All right, folks, we told you how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been targeting black and brown folks formerly incarcerated there with his BS voter crime integrity waste of money unit. And we told you about there were about 20-some odd people who were arrested. We showed you that video. You remember the video? Let's play it again. This is a video that was released, a body cam video, where the police, I mean, they were apologetic literally in arresting individuals who supposedly voted illegally,

even though the state said they could actually vote. Well, Florida judges set a precedent today by, guess what, throwing out charges against Robert Lee Wood. One counted voting as an unqualified elector and one counted making a false affirmation on a voter application. The judge dismissed his charges because the prosecutor lacked jurisdiction. The state alleged Wood registered and voted knowing he was ineligible because of

a 1991 conviction. Wood said he did not know he was ineligible to vote because he received a Florida voter registration card. Under Florida law, individuals who exit prison, that's right, have their voting rights restored after leaving the

system. Now, again, what you have here is Ron DeSantis trying to conjure up this whole idea of voter fraud. Now, if you want actual voter fraud, go to the villages, a largely Republican community, where there were people who were actually arrested for illegally voting. Desmond Meade, the executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition,

he joins me now from Florida. I see you trying to sit here and have a studio. Look, look, your wife Shannon told you, stop trying to compete with me. But I see you trying to sit here and got your little light and everything. You got your upgraded camera. You know, you got your big old microphone. You need to get you a lavalier. So I see you, Desmond.

I see you trying to keep up with a brother. How you doing, Roland? Or should I say Uncle Roro? That's how it is. Before we came on air, I said, here, look at Desmond trying to keep up with a brother. I see with the whole look at the background, everything. You know, I see you.

I see you. For everybody watching, y'all don't know, every time I buy some new piece of equipment, all of a sudden Desmond go buy it. Desmond, I got my FPV drone. You got one of those? Well, no, I got a DJI, two of them. Well, I got DJI.

It's a DJI, too, but it's the FPV. Yeah, I'll send it to you offline. Let's talk about this deal here. I mean, bottom line is here. You know, y'all got Amendment 4 passed, voted overwhelmingly. Republicans in the state, they do not want to see all those formerly incarcerated people voting. They put roadblocks. They threw up there, have it now to pay all your fines.

And they went to the Supreme Court, got it affirmed there. And it's just one thing after another. Now you have this latest attack against folks who are formerly incarcerated. And we're talking about 20 some odd folks. Would you say there were other, there were lots more who were being targeted by DeSantis? Oh, yes. No, Roland, one of the things I tell folks, you know, when they ask me about my reaction about this case getting dropped, you know, I have, I mean, I'm guarded enthusiasm. It's because, you know, I know that there are thousands of people, you know, back in, I believe prior to June of 2021,

there was a list of thousands of individuals that was given to the state that allegedly should not have been voting. And, you know, people talk about the 20, but we know that 10 folks prior to the 20 in April of this year was arrested. One of them was a homeless man. You had a grandfather that was pulled out of his home and arrested. One of them was a homeless man. You had a grandfather that was pulled out of his home and arrested. But I want to share this with you, Roland, because I think this really centers where I and my organization are coming from. FDLE did an investigation of the initial 10 people in Alachua County back at the beginning of this year. And one of the statements from one of the gentlemen that was on the investigation was like, read like this. I wanted to be a part of civilization instead of being hidden away

from crack and everything else in the dark hole. I wanted to be a part of life again. So I said, let me try to vote. It felt good to be a part of something instead of being hidden away. You know, and I read that statement because it really centers me on people, right? At the end of the day, man, we're talking about returning citizens, citizens of this country that just want to be a part of democracy. But because of the political gamesmanship that we see going on, that we have people that are suffering, people that are being arrested, people that are being traumatized, families that are hurting. You know, what we don't hear about is that every man or woman that gets arrested, if they're the breadwinner for their family, while they're incarcerated trying to post bail, guess what? Who is providing for their family? These people could be losing their jobs.

And there we go, exasperating the collateral consequences that people with convictions or people that are interacting with our criminal justice face. And all for what? Right? For some kind of gain? You know, because at the end of the day, none of these people should have even been arrested. The thing here that is amazing that they're arrested. Now they got to go through all this crap. Now they got to go through the legal system.

Now they got to hire attorneys. Now they got to incur more costs. We just go on and on and on again. And that was also shameful. And then now you go to court and the charters get dropped. Well, they can't recoup all that money they lost. And it's not like these are people with

sitting on a bunch of money. I mean, you see this video right here. This black woman, she's like, what? And then she goes, let me go tell my husband. No, man, we got it. We'll go tell your husband. I mean, it's crazy. Well, you know know i'm one of the things i i'm just grateful that god has really allowed me and my wife to really be in the line of work that we are because right now you know frc our efforts have created funds to allow

people who've been arrested we will take care of their bail right and? And we'll also, if they want to, we would help provide them legal defense free of charge, right? And then the one thing that we have to also worry about is that when they're arrested, that arrest get on their record. Then of course, you know, clean up, sheena with the Clean Slate Initiative, that's something that they're working on to clear these arrest records off of people's records so people will be able to get jobs and housing and be able to really thrive, right, and be successful in life. And let's be clear what's happening here. You've got Republican state's attorneys who are saying, OK, this makes no sense.

This was a letter. Go to my iPad. This was a letter that you sent me, and this is dated October 14, 2022. Sex offenders voting in elections. The Lake County Supervisor of Elections presented six cases for review concerning convicted sex offenders voting in the 2020 general election. Letter goes through laying out the statute, things along those lines. This is what the state's attorney office said.

And all rightfully so, Roland. You know, one of the things that a lot of folks are not talking about is caught up in this snare or this persecution of returning citizens are people who registered as Republicans, right? And so when we look at the total breadth of people who've been impacted, you know, I thought that this was a wonderful opportunity to really talk about what does democracy really mean, right? We know some people,

they were concerned about the raid on Mar-a-Lago saying, you know, why would the FBI want to raid Donald Trump's residence two years before the presidential election? Well, if they're concerned about that, they ought to be outraged that people are getting arrested on the eve of election. Right.

Not one or two years before the election, but on the eve of elections and during elections, you have people being drugged out of their homes. You have people who, when they were arrested, the SWAT team came to arrest them as if they were Pablo Escobar. And it is about intimidation. And here's the thing this letter says. It says

two things. A person who willfully swears or affirms falsely to any oath or affirmation or willfully procures another person to swear or affirm falsely to oath or affirmation, okay, goes on and explains committing a felony. This is what they

say. In all of the instances where sex offenders voted, each appear to have been encouraged to vote by various mailings and misinformation. Each were given voter registration cards

which would lead one to believe they could legally vote in the election. The evidence fails to show willful actions on a part of these individuals. Therefore, the state is unable to file charges.

And this is not, from you, from you, this is not a progressive state's attorney. That's right. This is a person that is following the law and not getting caught up in politics. You know, that gentleman whose statement I read, in his particular case, him and nine other people, while they were incarcerated,

was approached by the local supervisor of election that told them that they can vote, right? In one case, the supervisor of elections told one of the individuals that was incarcerated, give me your name, right? I'm going to run your name through the system. If you get a pamphlet from me, that means that you can register to vote. Guess what? A couple weeks later, what this man got? He got a pamphlet. So he registered to vote and he voted. Right. And then two years later, now the state is coming and attacking him when they ought to be attacking the system that is broken. And that is something that we've been saying since Bush v. Gore, when we've seen thousands of people were removed from the voting roll

because they were erroneously classified as returning citizens or being unable to vote because of a felony conviction. So we knew that this system had problems way back then, right? Amendment 4 just exasperated the problems, especially with the requirement of the payment of fines and fees. But the system needs to be fixed. And before a state can take a person, American citizens' liberty, right, that's the thing that is guarded the most in this country, right, a person's liberty. Before the state can just haphazardly just take a person's liberty like that,

they need to clean up their side of the street. They need to get their ends taken care of. They need to do their doggone job. Well, again, what this is, I think what those arrests are for is to actually scare the hell out of anybody formerly incarcerated to go, you know what? I better not vote because I might get arrested.

I mean, we see what Ron DeSantis is trying to do. Roland, that's one of the main reasons why I wanted to come on the show, because I understand that this may have a chilling impact on people, right? But I want to ensure anybody that's listening in the state of Florida, and if you have friends or family that's in the state of Florida, that the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, I can tell you right this, right now, right here, right, in living color, that we're standing

with each and every one of them. That's why we started the bail fund that anyone could donate to. We bailing people out. And that gentleman that had his case shop is because we arranged for him to be, uh, uh, represented by a criminal, uh, legal defense counsel, right? And so we're fighting this too, and now we're pushing back.

And our message is, is that a person ought to do their due diligence to see if they're eligible. And if they truthfully, honestly, earnestly believe that they have the right to vote, that they should not let any of this prevent them from going out to vote. And if they think that they may not have the right to vote, at the very bare minimum, they need to get five to ten of their family members and friends to turn out and vote on their behalf, right, in this election. Make sure that we're sending politicians

a very clear message. Returning citizens don't scare easy. That's been made. Always good to see you, man. Thank you so very much. And look, we're going to be right here, again, letting people know about these issues because what too many of these Republicans are doing is that they don't want free and fair

elections. They don't want to open the opportunities for everybody to vote. And this is all meant to have a chilling effect on the formerly incarcerated, the 1.4 million people in Florida. And it makes no sense whatsoever. And as you said, there are people who are formerly incarcerated, the 1.4 million people in Florida, and it makes no sense whatsoever. And as you said, there are people who are formerly incarcerated who are registering as Republicans. So there's no assumption that all of these people are going to be Democrats, but what they're doing here just simply makes no sense whatsoever. And it's a massive waste of taxpayer money.

Oh, of course. It definitely is. And, you know, it's a shame that this is going on now. You know, one of the things I said earlier was that, you know, you would expect people who we elected to office or appoint into certain positions to not try to manufacture excuses for a failed system or a broken system. What we expect these individuals to do is to develop solutions, right, to these problems, not put the blame on citizens when the responsibility is really on the state. All right, then. Desmond Meade, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. All right, folks. Again,

another example of what Republicans are doing is in the state of Texas. They cannot stand Harris County. Why? Because Harris County has gone blue in many ways. And so, Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the Secretary of State, the thug Attorney General Paxton, they have been targeting Harris County.

Remember, they battled them when it came to the voting changes they put in place during COVID. Now they're trying to send in observers to look at the vote in Harris County. Why? No reason whatsoever. Now Harris County leaders, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Judge Linda Hidalgo, they are

sending requests to the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, for federal monitors. In the letter, Harris County officials say they are concerned about the timing of the Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General's plan to send inspectors, election security trainers, and legal advisors to observe the election. Harris County is the state's largest metropolitan area. And of course, as I said, Democratic leaning. The changing demographics, Texas Republicans have made it harder to vote in the state, and this move adds to the restrictive measures

to intimidate and add doubt to voters' confidence. The DOJ has not responded to Harris County's request. Joining us now is Harris County attorney, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, one of the signees of the letter. Christian, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. This has been, and let's take people back for about five years. 2017, Republicans were so pissed off because Democrats were being elected countywide in Texas, countywide in Harris County and Dallas County, that they changed the law and they

got rid of straight ticket ballot, straight ticket voting, all because of what happened in Harris County. COVID hits. Then they get upset about the changes put in place when it came to drive-through voting. It's like, oh, no, no, that's bad, which made no sense because literally if you can vote in your car, what's the difference between you getting out of your car and walking into a building? But it was all because of health and safety protocols. Then they went after Harris County because of drop boxes.

And so one location in all of Harris County and people don't understand Harris County is what, larger than about four or five actual states in America. And so- For a state, Roland, it'd be the 25th most popular state in the country. There you go. So this is a direct attack on Harris County because Democrats have been elected countywide in Harris County. That's exactly right, Roland. And really, you make the point perfectly. It's about context here. This is part of a pattern of state GOP leaders in Texas directly working to undermine election

officials in Harris County and to cast doubt in the election processes. Back in 2016, you saw folks being elected countywide, and that really started in 2008 when President Obama first got elected. But the first midterm that we were able to win in Harris County was in 2018. And immediately, you saw the state of Texas stepping in trying to undermine our processes. Of course, during the global pandemic, we expanded voter access in ways that people hadn't seen before. You had drive-thru voting. You had 24-hour voting locations. Not only did the state come in and threaten to take legal action against Harris County for doing that, but in the next legislative session, they passed one of the most restrictive voting laws in the entire country,

directly aimed at undermining the things that have been done in Harris County. In fact, on the floor of the Texas House, one of the representatives who was a sponsor for the bill took some language out of the Texas Constitution, which clearly has racist roots. It was intended to preserve the purity of the ballot box. They let us know exactly what these laws were about. Fast forward, we changed from a clerk administration system to an elections administrative system.

And when we created that office, the state of Texas at first refused to acknowledge the creation of that position. And now here we are today, where they have announced a nonsense audit. And this audit was announced last year. Former President Donald Trump publicly called on Governor Greg Abbott to audit the 2020 election in areas in the state of Texas. And just hours later, the Secretary of State's office magically said, oh, actually, we've already been auditing that election in several counties, and so we're gonna continue doing that

with our full forensic audit. This was obviously done to appease former President Donald Trump. And they have now stretched that, used it as leverage to come up with a bunch of unremarkable conclusions that they say require that they send inspectors and a task force of folks from the attorney general's office. And I think that those words are very important, Roland.

Inspectors and a task force. They're trying to intimidate our election workers. They're trying to make people fearful of participating in the process. And that's why we're calling on the DOJ to send monitors to watch the state of Texas as they involve themselves in our election. And here's the crazy thing. He won Texas! But in Texas, they are pissed off at Democrats being elected in Harris County. They're mad. Republicans used

to control Dallas County. Now, Dallas County is flipped. The sheriff, the DA, judges, they're angry about that. They are upset. Bexar County, San Antonio. They've been upset with Travis County, where Austin is. They cannot stand what has been happening in these larger counties.

And then they're really upset with the white suburbs. Folks don't realize, in the 2020 election, Democrats were within four or five seats of taking control of the Texas House. That's what they're most freaked out about because then, if Democrats get control of the Texas House, the Senate is just hard because you've got all those rural areas of Texas,

and so they're all going red. But they know that if Democrats control the House, they control the Speaker of the House. And they can't ram through gerrymandering and other bills. And they do not want the suburbs of Houston dictating politics in Austin. That's why there's a target on the back of every official in Harris County. That's right. These efforts were aimed directly at Harris County. You made the point that Dallas

County went blue before Harris County did, and that's exactly right. But what we've seen is the way that they have attacked Harris County and the Houston area has been unique to the state of Texas. It's nothing like anything we've seen in the history of the state of Texas. And I would argue that if you look at the mayor of Houston, an African-American man, Sylvester Turner, if you look at Lena Hidalgo, who was elected as the first non-white man, a young Latina who serves as our county judge. If you look at my race, I was the first African-American elected as Harris County attorney. The people who are in these offices look different and think different from the folks who run these states and this state. And that's why they've directed their vitriol towards our county. And they understand that

the policies that we're implementing in Harris County are working. People are beginning to see the light and now shift their votes to Democratic. And everybody knows that the path to flipping the state of Texas must go through Harris County. You've seen many of the major candidates on the Democratic side spending heavy amounts of time campaigning here. And at the same time, Roland, we've seen an unprecedented amount of money being poured into our local county judge race by Republicans from across the state. We've seen our governor talk about folks involved in that race. We've seen our lieutenant governor talks about folks involved in that race. They very much want to try to take Harris County back.

And, you know, if all else fails, you come in, you set up, and this is happening across the country. It's part of, you know, a nationwide thing that occurred after Trump pushed the big lie. But you put processes in place so that people can call into question the results of the election. And immediately following the election, you can try to undermine the legitimacy of the people who took elected office. All right, then. Christian Minifee, look, y'all keep the fight up. It's just ridiculous what is happening there. And this is all political payback from Republicans in Austin.

We're going to keep up the fight. That much I can guarantee you. Thank you. I will see folks in Houston. I'll be there on Sunday. There's a GOTV rally taking place, a get out the vote rally. Folks, pull the graphic up if y'all have it ready. We're going to be there partnering with the NAACP and

other organizations for this GOTV rally. The point, folks, is simple, is, again, drive the vote. Understand we can talk all day. We can criticize all day. We can complain. But the way to shut these folks down is to do so at the ballot box. And so there is tremendous power in doing so,

and we have to be willing to use our power at the ballot box. And so this is going on iPad, please, when it pulls up. It's called the Fight for Democracy. I'm going to pull it up right now. Give me one second. We're going to be there with a number of entertainers, other speakers, and activists as well. Again, encouraging folks to vote. Early voting is taking place. We are seeing massive turnout

of early voting in various places. And so you see it right there, the fight for democracy. Again, working with the NAACP Sunday, 4 to 7 p.m. at Avenida Plaza. And Bun B, Latoya Luckett, Slim Thug, DJ Mr. Rogers, DJ Frank Ski, Lil Kiki, Spud Howard, Lenora, Mango Punch, and many others will be there. And this is a partnership with a number of organizations. This GOTV rally taking place in

Houston. As it is my panel right now, folks, to talk about this, again, what is happening, because I keep warning y'all, we can sit here and play games if we want to, but what Republicans are trying to do is devious, understand how utterly ridiculous it is, and their whole strategy is to keep us from voting because they know if we use our power and if we drive our numbers in a significant way, they cannot win,

which is why I keep telling y'all, if we start voting at 70 and 75 and 80, 85, 90% of our capacity, we could flip elections all across the country, all across the South, the Midwest, the Southeast,

but it can't happen when our turnout is at 35, 40, 45, 50%. It simply can't happen. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney, Michael Imhotep hosts the African History Network show. Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service. Glad to have all three of y'all here. I mean, look, Matt, you're there in Texas.

You take the case in Florida, how they're targeting folks, those formerly incarcerated. You look at what they're doing, trying to move to Harris County. This is all a part of the Republican strategy across the country to keep us from voting. This is classic voter suppression. Absolutely. There is no question that it's classic voter suppression. And as it relates to Florida, what's particularly interesting there is that Ron DeSantis, obviously we know he's doing all of this to try to get reelect's something that a basic prosecutor would look at and know whether they have jurisdiction or not. So that's what's particularly insidious is that, you know, they're going forward on claims that they know they can't

prove because they want to chill people's right to vote. As it relates to Texas, you're exactly right. I mean, they attacked Harris County during the pandemic, trying to, I think, cut it down to one drive-through ballot box for an entire county of four million people. I mean, not even hiding their position and not even hiding their strategy. So I think you're right. I think the right to vote is completely under assault here in Texas. And Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, as I say every week, are both trying to use people as pawns to get reelected. All of this is not only the Republican strategy, but their individual strategy to try to stay and to leverage some of that, you know, votes from the Republican base and to let people

know, look, we're doing everything we can to keep this America the way you want it and the way we think it should be. And they're not hiding that fact at all. Look, Nola, I mean, I can tell you right now, folks are watching, people out there who are like, oh, you know, I'm not quite sure. Look, there's a very deliberate effort by Republicans across this country. We can just go state by state. So this is not all isolated. No, this is all by design because they know if they shrink the electorate, they got a better chance of winning. Why Donald Trump so angry?

Because because the electorate expanded in 2020 with drop with mail in balloting and ballot drop boxes. And Republicans are pissed that they lost. Absolutely. Well, first of all, it's really nice to be in studio. So I'm happy to be here. And you know, it really, it is strategic. And it's strategic and it's very dangerous. I often feel like, well, lately, like, Thanos snapped his finger and like half of the population across galaxies disappeared. It's like he snapped his finger and we're like back in the 1950s before Brown, before civil rights legislation. That's what it really feels like.

The fact that the federal government has to come in and monitor voting, that is just mind-blowing. And it's setting a very dangerous precedent. And, you know, again, by design and strategy, it's to intimidate voters not to vote. Especially when we think about the change in our country. It has been over time, but it's also been abrupt in many ways. You have people who just want to live their lives. They want to get up and go to work, you know, enjoy their own time with their friends and their family. We weren't thinking about having to get up and marching in the streets to protect our voting rights. So there's this level of comfort that we've all been in, to now we're waking up to a very

different world where we're not mobilized the same ways in which we were. So I'm really happy that that event is happening that you're going to in Houston. But we really woke up and we're in a different time and it's calling for different types of measures. And, you know, I hate to say it, you know, we have to get out there and we have to continue fighting. As tired as I know, especially black folks are, we have to continue fighting because we are not in a country right now where equality and equity are on par. You know, we are still having to fight for just basic,

basic liberties, basic democratic rights, such as voting. Michael, when we walk through this, when we talk about, we walk through these issues and people go, oh, you know, this is really not that big of a deal. It's not that alarming. You know, what they're not understanding, when Steve Bannon and his minions out here

are saying this crazy stuff, when they're talking about what they want to take over, they're serious. They are running people for secretaries of state. Absolutely. For election supervisors. They are desperately trying to overturn elections. And the thing I keep trying to tell all these black people, they're not hiding it.

This is not overt. This is not covert. It's very overt. They're saying if we win, Trump's going to win. They're saying it. Yep. And they're letting you know what's going to happen. They're saying it. Yep. And they're letting you know what's going to happen. They say they're going to impeach Biden.

They say they're going to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. But you talk about Stephen K. Bannon. Bannon said some months ago on his podcast that the way to political power in America today is through the local school boards. And if you study what today is through the local school boards.

And if you study what's happened with the local school boards and the fights over banning books, the fights over critical race theory, this is funded by dark money. This is funded by—and they've organized numerous organizations. There was an expose by NBC News, and they estimated about 165 right-wing parent organizations across the country, okay, have been funded. And they get help from Fox News and politicized by Fox News. And they're using this to go from the grassroots up to the federal government and focus on local offices, local politicians, local political offices from the grassroots up. We look at what's going on in Florida. I cannot stress this enough.

I know, Roland, when you were interviewing Desmond Meade, and shout out to that brother, you were saying that this doesn't make sense or something like this. It makes perfect sense when you understand the history of Florida. OK, Florida was the first state to have poll taxes in 1889, before Mississippi had poll taxes. Florida instituted its felony disenfranchisement law in 1868, two years before the 15th Amendment was adopted. And when you go research the history of Florida, they did this. They instituted felony disenfranchisement laws in a state that had a 48 percent black population. Almost half of the state of Florida after slavery ended was African-American, and they knew that if they did not put laws in place, these black people would vote and take over the state legislature. Okay? So this makes perfect sense. What we have to understand

is that this may be our last free and fair election here in 2022. People don't understand how dangerous this stuff is. These people are playing for keeps. Indeed. Gotta go to a quick break, folks. We'll come back

and we're going to talk about an effort to combine comedy with voting. It's all about folks using every tool at our disposal to turn people out in this November midterm elections. We'll discuss that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. When we invest in ourselves, glow our vision our vibe we all shine together we are black beyond measure welcome to atlanta one of the most expensive housing markets in america but rather than help out brian kemp cashed in He made hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate.

His net worth skyrocketed. And while Atlantans struggled to stay in their homes, Kemp gave $10,000 tax handouts to the richest Georgians and a nearly $700 million no-bid contract to his campaign donor. Brian kicked back Kemp, making Georgia work for him, not you. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hi, I'm Vivian Green.

Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world, what's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, y'all. The voter suppression tips are not funny, but National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, they are in the middle of their Unity 22

Get Out the Vote comedy tour. That's right, to engage voters in through laughter. Joining us right now is Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, as well as Michelle, the indie mom of comedy. They're in Pontiac where they're getting ready for tonight's comedy show.

All right, so how many places have y'all gone to already with the comedy shows? Four, high rolling four states in how many places have y'all gone to already with the comedy shows? High rolling four states and how many cities? We've had, this is our fifth city. Gotcha. And so, how have things been going thus far? And it was, I mean, so you have comedy shows, but what are you doing there?

Is it a requirement that, are they free? Or if you can buy a ticket, you've got to register? Explain what's going on. High rolling. The comedy nights are really for the organizers and activists. We talk about how stressful it's been. So we are hosting these comedy nights to bring some laughter and some joy to the folks on the ground who are doing the hard work.

And then we're joining them in their organizing. These are, a lot of these are our state affiliates and partners for the National Coalition, but many, it's a coalition effort. And the whole idea, because we had heard from folks in the summer saying, look, we've not had a break in six years. It has been relentless. And part of the strategy is to get folks so tired that we can't continue to fight. So that's what the comedy nights are all about. And then we go out and canvas, knock on doors

and bring it. And yes, it is free. We're not charging anything, but to come and enjoy themselves so they can fight another day. And that is something that we're quite sure. You try to use culture in different ways. And so Michelle, my Sarah here, Dr. Sarah here,

who has been our lead on this. And so, Michelle, anything? So, Roland, for us, we understand that there's a lot of apathy. Even for the people who are boots on the ground, they're tired. And so we all know that laughter is able to bring levities to some of the heaviest situations. That's how we've made it as Black folks in this country. We've been able to laugh through our pain. And so our intention with this is to show the power of the ballot, but also to invigorate those Black women. We got to be honest. We're here with the Black Women's Roundtable. We're

here with the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. These black women for years and decades have been working, going door to door, phone banking. And so we want to make them laugh. We want to make them feel encouraged. We want to let them know we appreciate that hard work, but we can't give up. We've got a long way to go. And so we put this together and I'm excited to be the host of this amazing Power of the Ballot Get Out the Vote comedy tour. Excited to have B-Flat with me, Vanessa Fraction with me, and Erin Jackson with me. Black women who have been doing comedy for decades and making great strides. And so

we're combining laughter, levity, and getting out here to get people to the ballot and vote on November 8th. Ain't no brothers? Yes! No brother comedians, Roland? No, no. Michelle's talking about all the black women on November 8th. Ain't no brothers? Yes. No brother comedians, Roland? No, no. Michelle's talking about all the black women working. I was like,

I'm like, what? The brothers can't laugh? The brothers are right there laughing with us. I just want to make that clear. Michelle ain't like, the brothers ain't working. Nobody said that. Don't let me have to roll the video back. to make that clear, because Michelle act like the brothers ain't working. Nobody said that, bro. You take your phone.

There you go. Don't let me have to roll the video back. Anyhow, anywho, we are right there. And look, everybody's coming in. You know, yes, it's Black Women's Roundtable. But we got the Black Women Initiative down there. We had John Taylor with us on the ground. We got brothers right there with us laughing as well.

And also, we're leveraging the power of the Sister Vote, power of black women who are leading in this work on the ground. But the comedy night is for everybody that wants to come, that's doing the work. Absolutely. You can come, Roland. Look, no, no, no. Look, I ain't dealing with you.

This is the last time I had to deal with you. Thank you for showcasing a lot of what we're doing on the ground. We know you're all over the place, too. But if you find a minute or two to come join us, we're actually extending it. And we're going back to when we leave Michigan, we're going to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But we're going back to, when we leave Michigan, we're going to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but we're going back to Florida and Georgia to help them with

the final push. In Florida, we're going back because when we were there for the comedy night, a lot of dealing with it still, even though they don't talk about it on the news as much, that storm really impacted black communities. So we're going back to Daytona.

We're going to be on Bethune-Cookman's campus. And we're going to Orlando as well as other parts of central Florida. And then we're coming back to Georgia to close out right through election day. We're not going to let off the gas until election day. No, absolutely. And so that's great. Sounds great. Comedy is great.

And so, Michelle, what? Your hair going to stay that color through the whole tour? You know what? See, that's why you petty. I'm just asking. I'm just asking. You petty Murphy. You petty Murphy.

Look, I don't admit to being petty. Acting like a good alpha man. Come on. What? I'm just saying she got Delta red hair. I'm what? Why? Representing and making these folks laugh and getting them to the polls. That's the whole point. I don't care if I got to wear a zebra wig. I will do whatever it takes.

Units. We wear our units. We got our units. We got units rolling. Units and catsuits. Okay, all right. All right. I appreciate it. Good luck.

All right, tell people where they can go to get more information. Tell people where they can go to get more information on the comedy tour. Unitycampaign.org. Unitycampaign.org. All right, then. All right, well, appreciate itampaign.org. All right, then. All right, well, appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch. All right, bye-bye. All right, folks, we come back. We were in Georgia. We stopped by a number of different places, including this coffee shop. I'm by sister who graduated from Howard just a few years ago. And we talked about, you know, the Senate campaign,

Raphael Warnock, Hershel Walker. And she expressed some concern in terms of, from her position as a business owner. And so we're gonna share that conversation with you when we come back. Also, we're gonna talk about the blatant racist attack by Tucker Carlson against Tiffany Cross and Joanne Reid on MSNBC, especially against Tiffany.

I've got a few words to say about that. And, of course, there's some other news we'll be covering as well. Folks, don't forget to download the Black Star Network app. All platforms, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And, of course, you can also join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. And of course, you know how we do.

If you want to send your check and money order, please do so at appeal box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash App, dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is R Martin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland S Martin. That's the only way0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal's R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And if you want to get your copy of your book, White Fear, How the Browning of America Is Making White Folks Just Lose Their Minds, Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books A Million, Target. You can also order your book through your favorite black book store.

And of course, you can also download the book on Audible as well. So, going to the break here. So let me go ahead and since Nola decided to come in here. First of all, did nobody invite Nola to come in to be on the set? She was like, I'm coming in. I was like, seriously? Seriously?

I should have made the COVID test. So since she's from New Orleans, let me go ahead. And I was playing some Johnny Gill earlier. She had no appreciation for Johnny Gill. No. Yes. What did you say? What did you say, Nola? I didn't know one song. What did you say? No, that's not what you said. You like, I don't even know the last time I listened to anything

with Johnny Gill. See, he put extras on it. You put extras on it. No, I didn't. You were putting extras on it. That's what you said. I'm just not up listening to Johnny Gill. Well, you need to like, you need to step your music game up. Oh, Well, you need to step your music game up. Oh, okay. I got to step my music game up. Yeah, because right now it's lacking, y'all. Apparently

it's lacking. I'm about to snatch the black card. Johnny Gill is the barometer of blackness. I'm about to get snatched. Johnny Gill is the barometer of blackness. No black card is in review. Oh, Lord. Y'all go get y'all Johnny Gill now. Yeah, y'all damn sure better go listen to my man Johnny Gill. So let me go ahead and go to break with this right here.

So I guess, you know, she'll wake up now. Since she's coming to my show. Please don't play no juvenile. You're about to play juvenile. Two, one, two, three. All right, y'all. I'll be back in a little bit. I'll be back in a little bit.

Bye. Bye. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Welcome to Atlanta, one of the most expensive housing markets in America. But rather than help out, Brian Kemp cashed in. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate. His net worth skyrocketed. And while Atlantans struggled to stay in their homes, Kemp gave $10,000 tax handouts to the

richest Georgians and a nearly $700 million no-bid contract to his campaign donor. Brian kicked back Kemp, making Georgia work for him, not you. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are Black beyond measure.

I am on screen, and I am representing what a Black man is to the entire world that's gonna see this. And this might be the only black man, a representation of a black man that they see. Right. So I am responsible. Right. For how they see black men.

And it's my responsibility to, if I am not playing an upstanding, honorable, someone with a strong principle of moral core, to make sure that this character is so specific that it is him, not black men. And I wish that more actors would realize how important their position is as an actor, as an actor of color playing people of color on screen.

Because there are people that see us all over the world in these different images that we portray. And not everyone knows black people to know. Yes. That's not all. This is Judge Matthews. What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wilde. Hey, what's up, y'all?

It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! All right, fam. When we were in Savannah, Georgia, we stopped by several black-owned businesses encouraging folks to vote. One of those places was called the Culturalist Union.

E.B. Elm, she is the owner of that. She's a graduate of Howard University. And we had a good conversation going by her place. And so, check this out. Hey, how you doing? How are you? Good. Hey, how you doing? Welcome.

This is the oldest L.A. Hey, how you doing? Hi, how are you? Doing good? Yeah. Good to meet you. Yeah. I've actually met you before.

Really? Yeah, at Howard University in 2019. All right, good to meet you. Yeah. I've actually met you before. Really? Yeah, at Howard University in 2019. All right. I came to the theater department, did a little work series there. Oh, so it was a panel conversation. Yep.

Yeah. Absolutely. Cool, cool. I'm glad to be here. All right, absolutely. Full circle moment. Oh, yeah. So how long have you had this spot? Since Juneteenth. Okay.

Yeah. Cool, cool. Yeah, it took us a minute, but we did it. I said it took us a minute, but we did it. Okay. We crowdfunded. Crowdfunded? Yeah.

Really? Yeah. So how much did you raise? About $175,000 over three years. Uh-huh. And Harper State helped us reach our goal. So you know, black home business, black home community.

So how how has it? So you said since Juneteenth of this year? Yes, gotcha. So about four months. Yeah, OK. Yeah, we pre put on six months. So how has it? How is it going so far? It's been good.

It's been a blessing to study. Now, you're from here? No, no. I'm from Pontiac, Michigan. So how'd you pick the name Georgia? I am an Army brat. I was in the Air Force for 10 years. And when I got out, my parents retired here.

And I went to SCAD for performing arts. And then I left SCAD and then I went to Howard for theater management. Got it. Decided to come back here because I wanted to do that. So you went to Howard for theater management, and you're on the coffee shop? And I own a coffee shop. Okay, so. Well, more than just a coffee shop. We do, it's a gathering space.

So we do events here. Got it. We have our marketplace that has about 50 black-owned sole proprietor businesses. And, yeah, we just, we do our thing. So yeah. Yeah, but how did you come up with this concept? Like where did it come from? It was kind of a smorgasbord of all of these places

and things that I've collected over my years of traveling. And I just wanted a place where black creatives could come and, you know, feel centered and take up space. So really, what you really wanted was, you wanted a black creative space that kind of got coffee on the side. You got it. OK.

All right, cool. Cool. And so folks have embraced it? Yeah, they have. OK. They have. So it's been good. I think that the mayor comes through sometimes. So it's been good. It's been good.

The mayor comes through sometimes. So it's been a blessing. A lot of, so has there been lots of talk and stuff regarding the election? Yes, we do a lot of bipartisan forums here. You know, it's about voting, making sure that they know what's on the ballot, and, you know, what issues are, you know, centered for us in our community, yeah. I was here, I think 2020, and said we did the same thing. We actually visited different Black-owned businesses.

And so that's one of the conversations that I've been hearing on the state side with Abrams, Kemp, but also on the federal side. What are those conversations been like folks talking about entrepreneurship and black owned businesses here in Georgia and how politicians dealt with that? You're asking me how I can help? Yeah, have those conversations with people and talking about is that an issue for folks? It is an issue. I would say the number one issue is access to capital, access to funding opportunities.

For me, I didn't have that opportunity. I was a single mom. You know, my credit was limited. My access to my net worth was limited, my access to my net worth was limited, so I had to crowdfund in order to actualize this dream. Whereas I've had counterparts, you know, white counterparts who have been able to walk into a bank with the same circumstances on paper and, you know, get triple, quadruple the funding that I've been able to receive. Right. And so, you know, I don't know how to move that conversation forward, but I definitely

know that it's an issue that needs to be addressed immediately because there are a lot of black businesses that just need the funding. You know, oftentimes they want to offer resources as far as marketing support on how to get your LLC or how to, you know, file your taxes. That's all the easy stuff. Right. We're not ignorant people. We need money. Money begets money. And so until you are talking about numbers and capital that can help with funding a business,

creating the, buying the equipment, paying for the staffing, paying for the inventory, then it's a non-starter. Then you're going to keep us, you know, behind the curve when it comes to economic progress. Now, did you come from an entrepreneurship family? For me, I did. No, I have a military family. So my dad is military. My uncles are military. My aunts, everybody in my family before that, they all worked at the plant in Detroit, you know, building cars. So I think it's been a learning curve for you. I've explained to people, ownership, people think it sounds sexy. They think it's, oh my God, it's amazing. Work for yourself. I'm like, ain't that simple. No, it's not. There's a lot that goes into owning and operating a business

beyond what it looks like. You know, there may be people in here, but at the end of the day, I have to go home and I got to, you know, reconcile my budget and I got to figure out inventory. And again, I got to figure out where this money is going to come from, because, you know, you think it's just an even exchange. Somebody gives you a dollar. That dollar has to pay for all of this, you know. And so, yeah, it's a learning curve. So when it comes to, let's say, the assembly ranks, you've got Raphael Warnock running against Hershel Walker. And what have you heard from them on the business side that's been appealing to you? I would say that Hershel Walker, as ridiculous as some of his ideals and his platform. When it comes to tax incentives, they have been more appealing to me.

Warnock seems to be offering as much as I want to vote for him, more of the same. And so, for me, it's like, well, what do I do? Because I don't want to vote for someone who's morally corrupt, but I also don't want to vote for someone who is not going to make me and my business a priority. So it's one of those things where I'm just going to have to turn out. I have not decided. Do you think that, because I've heard that from other folks as well, that it's on one hand, we have folks who talk about, oh my goodness, we've got all of these black women who are starting

businesses. We've got other African Americans who are starting businesses. But then what happens is when you're starting a business, you all of a sudden, you're not an employee. You're thinking like an employer. So you start looking at tax rates, start looking at pass-through, start looking at, okay,

am I keeping more of my money to grow my business? And what they don't tell you about that statistic about black women, you know, creating more businesses, to be quite honest, most of those businesses are side hustles. There haven't been a lot of black women who've been able to get capital funding from investors, less than 1%.

There also hasn't been a lot of black women who've been able to grow businesses outside of the six figure range. So you have this- But it's not just black women. Right. I mean, like literally, pre-COVID, there were 2.6 million black owned businesses,

2.5 million at one employee. Exactly. And the average revenue is $54,000. The average revenue doesn't even cover a household. Right. And so what are you supposed to do when you need to pay for the things that you need to pay for, when inflation is at an all-time high, when you can't afford to grow your business because you can't afford to pay someone

you know so there's all of these nuances but they just want to say oh blast women are killing the game yes we're innovative on paper yes and that's why i keep telling people that's on paper but it looks it sounds great right until you go on and be like hold on let me actually look at the data and there's a whole different conversation. So until the numbers make sense, until we're actually talking about some ceiling-breaking numbers, some numbers that actually can fund and support a family, then we're talking about side hustles. So I'm going to go back to the point you just made about businesses, because somebody watching may say, oh my God, that makes no sense.

And when you look at all these other issues, but when you're an owner, and again, I think a lot of people don't understand what that means. That means your business is the center of everything. It drives all aspects of your life. It does. And so that's, I won't say your children are not a priority. I won't say a child is a priority for owners.

But in many ways, the business is the priority because it feeds everything. It feeds everything. It feeds everything and oftentimes especially for first-time business owners like myself your personal credit is wrapped up in the business so when it comes to home ownership and you bought a business that's a whole nother conversation or if you need you know an emergency happens or payroll happens that's coming out of your personal funding because your personal credit is a part of that conversation.

And so I just don't think that people actually realize the nuances that comes with business ownership. So what would you want to hear more from Warnock on as it to to appeal to you as a business owner. I want to hear more about equitable funding opportunities. I want to hear more about equitable tax opportunities for businesses in low-income communities. I want to hear about more capital investments for revitalizing buildings in low-income communities. If I can go and purchase a building in my hood and renovate it with government funding and tax initiatives, and then I'm able to employ someone using tax benefits and tax initiatives or splosh funding or whatever, then you're giving me an opportunity

to actually achieve this American dream that everyone else is talking about. See, that's why when Tim Scott and Republicans talk about opportunity zones, I keep trying to explain to them, that's for mega developers to park money. Yes. That's not an actual opportunity zone. To me, what you just described is an opportunity zone.

That is, or as I think about, I've covered city hall, tax, incubate financing districts, where the money actually stays in that. What you're talking about is, so imagine if this was a TIF or you had funding mechanisms set up to say, all right, we're going to encourage people to open businesses in this location, in this corridor. And then giving us access in first dibs, too, because oftentimes they will say minority, and then that will feed into white women or that will feed into LBGT, you know,

gay men, and not taking away anything from them. But you're all talking about MWBE. Right. Because really when it started, it was supposed to be black. Right. So, like, for me, I'll tell you, one of my biggest dreams right now is to open up another one of these coffee shops near SSU,

Savannah State University. Savannah State University is an opportunity zone on Waters. I would love to be able to acquire a building, have the resources to, you resources to revitalize that building, have the funding to hire a staff, get that thing going, and then provide a service to HBCU students in this community.

But I don't have access to capital. I don't have resources to revitalization. I don't have tax benefits to support the staff, buy the equipment, or any of the things that I need to actualize that journey. And because my personal credit is wrapped up in this, and they're not offering any sort of opportunities for minority business owners, women, men, regardless, especially low-income business owners who are moving themselves, then you're kind of stuck, and you're in this cycle of just barely making it. So that's what I want to hear more of.

Like, how can you help us help ourselves? And build, grow, expand. Because I'm not saying the same thing. I say the biggest issue for black business is the past. That's in fact people got mad at me when I see it. I said I don't want to hear anybody else talk about starting like a week. I'm a guy what you mean I said no, I'm somebody you have

to roll that I see that's it having a bunch of businesses is one person and you're right it really is a side hustle as opposed to having five, six, eight, ten employees. So for instance, when you tell me, how many employees do you have here? I have four. Got it. And so when you started, that's what you started with? No, I started with me. Got it. And I still work behind the bar, you know. My employees are part time because, again, I can't fund a full-time employee. I can't fund a manager. So not only am I the manager of this marketplace, which is an entire different business, I'm the manager of the event space that we hold, which is an entire different business.

And I have to be behind the bar because, again, the resources just aren't there. So until you drive in revenue, at the end of the day, you've got to do all of those jobs. And that's what I try to explain to people. That's the unsexy part about entrepreneurship. Again, this notion that, oh, you only could just chill and relax and just direct

people. I'm like, nah, that ain't it. I'm not there yet. I don't know. Maybe one day. As we grow and as we acquire more. Right now, I'm in the hustle. I don't know. Maybe one day. As we grow and as we acquire more. Right now, I'm in the hustle. I'm in the fire with everybody else. All right. Sounds good. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a lot.

You know what? When it comes to these elections here, folks, what you're looking at is choices that voters are making. And the thing here, Michael, that if you look at data here, what's happening, you've got people like, you've got a lot of Republicans out there who are ecstatic. They think it's trending in their favor. Folks out here predicting it's gonna be a major red wave. You've got Morning Joe going on and on and on today saying that old Democrats, progressives are ignoring voters when it comes to crime, how all of a sudden crime is like the dominant issue. And no, crime is a dominant issue because Republicans have been lying about it.

You had the district attorney who was recalled in San Francisco. And the folks were like, oh my God, crime's out of control. When you look at the actual stats, it actually wasn't. And so now same thing, and so we're seeing what's happening. And so one of the things that I think often happens is that Democrats

allow, and we discussed this the last couple of nights, Democrats too often allow Republicans to set the parameters of the debate. And so then the debate is on those issues. So now it's, oh no, and then media

goes, well, you know, the focus, everything is, you know, the voters care about crime, they care about inflation, they care about gas prices. Well, he's a perfect example. How many media outlets bitched and moaned when gas was going up, yet when gas prices fell for 99 days, no one talked about it? Right. For everybody who's watching, how many live shots happen on local TV stations, on network TV stations, saying, showing gas prices falling.

But all the stories were on gas prices increasing. And so we can't act as if media doesn't play a role in shaping the narrative of what people are talking about. Yeah, media plays a role. And I saw Morning Joe this morning, and Charles Coleman did a good job for an omega. He did a good job of really articulating how crime becoming an issue in a campaign can be racialized. And he really took Joe Scarborough to task on it as well. He did it. It was a textbook analysis of how he did it. But what's happened is something that many analysts predicted was going to happen. Dark money has come into the campaign. And when we see these races tightening in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, these Senate races, we see that Republicans have spent over the past two or three months, something like that, right around dealing with ads, dealing with crime, about $240 million. Washington Post had

an analysis on this a couple of days ago. And we see things like in the Georgia gubernatorial race, we see ads of Stacey Abrams with her complexion darker. We see ads of Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, who's running for governor of Wisconsin. He's lieutenant governor now. And I'm sorry, Senate. He's running for governor of Wisconsin. He's lieutenant governor now. And I'm sorry, Senate. He's running for the Senate against dumbass Ron Johnson. We see ads where his complexion is darker. And we see them running another Willie Horton ad on white suburban women, okay,

on white suburban women, scaring them about crime. And Democrats should have seen this coming. Yes, abortion is a huge issue, but it ain't the only issue. Right. Two things that Republicans have been focusing on this past month to two months is inflation and crime, inflation and crime. And you notice how critical race theory has disappeared. Yes.

Again, we all knew it was total bullshit when it happened. Go ahead. Exactly. So these last 18 days, these last 18 days, Democrats have to hit hard their plan to deal with crime. I would talk about public safety. And when you're talking about crime, you are talking about it on their terms. Yeah, so I would talk about public safety, which not just addresses crime, but it addresses the factors that lead to crime, which also deals with quality of life. It deals with education, deals with job training.

It deals with mental health. It deals with dealing with public safety and policing holistically, as opposed to what Republicans are saying, because what Republicans are saying is vote for us and we'll protect you from them, million Black people. Yeah. OK, this is the Willie Horton ad of 2022 that Republicans are running. So what Biden did today, his speech dealing with the economy and then his speech dealing

with student loan forgiveness. It was extremely important. He needs to do that for the next 18 days. But Democrats cannot run away from the economy and inflation, OK? They got to talk about the 10 million jobs created, 3.7 percent unemployment rate. American Rescue Plan that saved the economy, and every Republican in the House and the Senate voted against the American Rescue Plan to save the economy. Inflation Reduction Act, every Republican in the House and the Senate voted against the American Rescue Plan to save the economy. Inflation Reduction Act. Every Republican in the House and the Senate voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, but they want to cry about inflation.

You got to hit them hard for these next 18 days. Um, Nola, Tim Ryan is running, Congressman Tim Ryan is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. And one of the things that he addressed on my plate in a second, and

everybody who's watching knows I've been trashing these sorry-ass white Democratic strategists because they're controlling the money and they're controlling the messaging of the party. And so there's a Washington Post article that was done and one of these strategists

says in the article that Democrats should give up on places like Ohio. We should focus on college educated white voters. Well, this was the response here of Tim Ryan. Go to my iPad, please. Yesterday in the Washington Post, there was a national Democratic consultant, high level consultant that said we can't play in places like Ohio. We shouldn't really go after seats in places like Ohio. We got to go to the states that have more college educated people.

That pisses me off. That is an absolute slap in the face to everyone who's out there busting their ass who just may not have a college degree. And I will tell you something. I will not let the Democratic Party turn into a party where you have to go get a college degree as a passport to get into the party. That's bullshit. And I'm not going to let that happen. Now, this is the same Tim Ryan who, for some reason, Chuck Schumer's PAC refuses to

put any money. He literally is running neck and neck against J.D. Vance. Democrats are operating from this vantage point of, well, Trump blew Hillary Clinton away, beat her by 450,000 votes in 2016. Biden lost the state by eight points.

But here's the crazy part. They're putting money into the race in Nevada and the Republican is leading. This race is actually tied. And so when I hear that white Democratic strategist, so that Democratic strategist, we don't know if they're white. Yeah, we do. Say that,

that's exactly what they say about candidates who run in the South. Where black folks are. And this is one of the reasons why. So, if you start shrinking your possibilities, you're not competing in places where you can potentially win, because you're not even trying to compete for those voters. That's what Tim Brown is saying.

You know, absolutely. And I have two points to make about this. As a Southerner and also as a professor teaching at colleges. So I think that a large part of the problem is that we are not dealing in traditional politics. I think that a lot of these kind of ways that we used to operate in, the traditional metrics are not going to work. And people need to understand that the landscape has vastly changed. I don't know where people get the idea

that college campuses are these liberal bastions, that people like me are somehow in the classrooms, you know, trying to convince all the kids to vote blue. That's not what's happening. And actually what I am seeing in some of the universities that I've taught in, I've actually seen a more kind of turn towards conservatism. So this kind of idea that we need to get more college-educated kids because, you know,

this kind of trope of that's like a... where all the liberal future elites are, that's not necessarily true. And then as a southerner from the very deep south, it's condescending. And it's not only condescending to someone like me, but it's condescending to maybe one of my cousins who literally work on a bayou and fish for a living. Because they internalize it, they're like,

well, they're not for us anyway. They're not thinking about us anyway, so why would I even care? First, to go out and vote during midterms when it's always historically low. And then secondly, why would you wanna give somebody your vote when they're not even interested enough to target you in a positive way,

to actually go after your vote as if it has value. So those two things alone tells me that we're not always playing on the same field because, like you mentioned earlier, the bullying and the messaging, which is why it's always louder, which is why it's always dominant, which is why it's always dominant, we're sticking to traditional politics in terms of metrics, in terms of going high when they go low, you know, stats, you know, versus narrative. But I think that we do need to roll up our sleeves a little bit and get a little dirty and get a little muddy

because I think actually this is what a lot of younger voters are wanting from the Democratic Party, too, to be quite honest. When we do talk about domestic politics in my classes, this is the feedback I am getting from Gen Z. This is what they are saying. Let's roll up our sleeves a bit and let's get a little muddy. The thing here, Matt, that I keep saying to folks, and that's why I call out these white Democratic strategists the way I do, is because they collecting checks. They're going to move from campaign to campaign,

and they're kind of like, yeah, whatever. But see, the other thing is, the reason they really like those white college-educated voters, they don't want to work. These white Democratic strategists, they also don't want to spend the money going into black neighborhoods, Latino neighborhoods. They don't want to go into barrios. They don't want to go into ghettos.

They don't want to go into low income areas. They want to stay safe, run some ads, run some TV ads in the suburbs and run these nice, wonderful, neat campaigns. They don't want to get down and dirty and gritty. And so that's why these folks must be called out and challenged, because they also, unfortunately, they're the ones who are controlling the checkbooks in the Democratic Party. And this is why they don't win. And this is why they lose. They lose because the best way to lose is not to fight for votes. Yeah, I think this is exactly right. I think it's as big a strategic blunder as you can make, particularly because we've seen so much

populism from Trump and his cronies in the Republican Party. I mean, this works directly against your interests. If you alienate people who might otherwise be able to come over to your cause by saying, you know, if you're not college educated or you're not of the ilk of the people that we want, you know, we're not going to appeal to you. That seems to me to just be per se a strategic blunder. But on top of that, to your point, I mean, I think Michael said this earlier, you know, Republicans are playing for keeps. Democrats are playing for likes. Republicans are playing for keeps. We see that time and time again. So obviously the people who are We see that time and time again. So obviously, the people who are in the strategy positions and who control the purse strings

are not making some of the smart decisions. Case in point, here in Texas, I saw just yesterday, I got an email that Jessica Cisneros is running against Henry Cuellar, and the DCCC is paying Henry Cuellar, despite his conservative leanings and the things that he's done, showing that he's not really, you know, for the Democratic cause. So, I mean, I don't even understand some of the decisions they're making behind who they're backing and who they're not backing, including the sister that you had on from Florida last week, who said that they are choosing a different race, despite hers being very competitive and having a big number swing. That could mean that that district will go to her.

So with that being said, you know, it just seems like these strategists have heads in the sand, particularly because the trend right now with the populism on the Republican side seems like that's the last card you want to play is appealing only to college educated liberal folks. Yeah, absolutely. That absolutely. That's what's going on. All. Alright folks, hold tight one second. We come back, our Black and Missing. Also, Tucker Carlson shows his racist, misogynistic attack on black women last night. I got a few words to say about that. But also, why isn't MSNBC and NBC being more aggressive

at protecting their own? Yeah, I'm gonna speak on that next. You're watching Roland Martin and Phil Chip on Black Star Network. Hey, on YouTube, y'all watching, stop sitting on y'all asses and hit the like button. It's damn near 3,000 of y'all watching. We got less than 1,000 likes.

Can y'all explain why? Y'all love commenting. Hit the damn like button. It ain't hard. Click, move on. It's free. Like, literally, it doesn't cost a dime to hit the like button. Hit it.

So when I come back, I should see us up to around 12, 13, 14 hundred, no, damn that. We should be at 1500 likes, okay? So hit the button. Same thing on Facebook, on Twitch, on Instagram, and same thing on the Black Star Network. Hit the like button, hit the share button as well. Download our app, Black Star Network,

Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, join our Breeden Funk fan club. Send check in money orders to PO Box 57196, Washington D.C. 20037. Come on, let's go. Washington D.C. 20037-0196.

Cash App, Donaldson, RM Unfiltered. Y'all sleeping there. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And, of course, by the book, Why Fear How the Brown of America

Is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books A Million, Target. And, of course, you can, Chapters, Books A Million, Target, and of course, you can also download the book on Audible. You can also get it from your favorite black bookstore as well.

And so what am I going to play going to the break since Nola's in here seriously bugging her brother? Let me tell you what Nola did. First of all, Nola came in here and you know what's about to visit your house? Nola wasn't one of them black folk come visit your house. She's like, why you got the music all the way up? I can't hear.

And then she's like, are you burning candles in here? Is there anything else? I'm listening to your lies. Go ahead. No, I'm just saying. Is there anything else you want me to not do that I normally do since you here? Didn't nobody say nothing about that ashy candle

that you burned? Didn't nobody say nothing about it? Isn't that the name of the candle? The Neal Pauling's ashy candle. It smells good. But I'm just saying. I sat here to mind my business. No, you were like commenting on, yo, then she going to say, why you got to have all of my pen and paper. You like commenting on.

Y'all, then she going to say, why you got to have all of my pads? I didn't do all that. Yes, you did. I didn't do all this. See, this is what, right here, next time Nola comes in the studio, I want cameras rolling the entire time so we can roll back. So y'all can see. Y'all, this is how it works.

See the lies. Y'all, come on now. Why you got all of my pads? L now. Why you got all of my pads? Lies. Why you got all of my pads? I did say that. I did say that. Yeah, you did. No, no, no.

I said, I said. No, she's admitting. What I said was, how many iPads do you need is what I said. That's exactly what I said. But the rest are lies, y'all. I told y'all. This is what happens when certain black people come to your house, and they want to start telling you about your house.

Your house. I was minding my business, y'all. Minding my business. That's all I was doing. See, I see. See, y'all be hitting me when you're bringing the panel back in studio. Exhibit A. Exhibit A. Mama, don't listen to this man. Exhibit A. Exhibit A.

Mama, don't listen to this man. Exhibit A. Right, even your mama watching. Your mama texts you. Mama said, well, I like rolling tops. I like rolling tops. See? See, I'm always good, y'all, because I always

got the mamas on my side. And so when the daughters and the sons get out of line, I'm always good y'all, because I always got the mamas on my side. And so when the daughters and the sons get out of line, I can always count on the mamas to cuss out the daughters. Not cuss out, mm-mm. You know you got a lot of mama going, you know your mama going, where your mama from?

New Orleans, Louisiana. She gonna hit your ass with a root. She gonna hit you with a root. All right, y'all, I gotta go to a break. Let me listen to my man, Willie Hutch. I'll be back! Huh? When we invest in ourselves, we all shine.

Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Welcome to Atlanta, one of the most expensive housing markets in America. But rather than help out, Brian Kemp cashed in. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate. His net worth skyrocketed. And while Atlantans struggled to stay in their homes, Kemp gave $10,000 tax handouts to the richest Georgians and a nearly $700 million no-bid contract to his campaign donor. Brian kicked back Kemp, making Georgia work for him, not you.

When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Creating. Making moves. The move is all forward. Together, we are Black beyond measure. Hatred on the streets.

A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting.

I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.

This is why I feel. Libraries empower the community with education. Liberia Economic Development Initiative, LERI, is hosting the International Life Changers Awards and Liberia's Bicentennial to celebrate LERI building the country's first modern public library and technology center. Join event host Roland Martin. Our honorees,

Reverend Dr. Jamal Bryant, Zernona Clayton, Thomas Dortch Jr., Dana Lupton, Dr. Tammy Gray-Steele on October 29th at the CNN Center Atlanta. There are no public libraries in Liberia, but together we can change that. Get tickets at ledinow.org. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. Hey, I'm Arnaz J.

Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. Kami Ramirez-Covado has been missing from St. Joseph, Missouri since September 30, 2022. The 25-year-old is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information regarding Kemi Ramirez-Coveto's whereabouts should contact the St. Joseph, Missouri Police Department at 816-271-4777. 816-271-4777. All right, folks. When I was writing my book, White Fear, one of the things that immediately jumped out in terms of how I framed this whole deal is the literal white nationalism, the white racism of Fox News was created by Roger Ailes, it was designed to appeal to the racial buttons of white America.

It has always been about the white outrage. That's why they have targeted African Americans, target Latinos, that's why every time they need their ratings boosted, they'll conjure up a caravan coming to the southern border. That's their entire deal. And so when they decided to oppose, if you will, or speak truthfully about the election with Donald Trump, he began to attack them and One America News and Newsmax's ratings began to increase. And so they began to lose numbers. And so they freaked out and said, well, let's double down on Donald Trump,

double down on election lying. That's why Dominion is suing them. And so they've even allowed Tucker Carlson, who is nothing but a trust fund baby, born with two silver spoons in his mouth, to all of a sudden create this whole notion that he is a populist and he cares about the working class man and woman, when really, if you listen to his show or watch his show, he is nothing but a white nationalist who's spewing hatred against people of color. And that's why his show is the highest rated one on cable news. He is all about white grievance. He's always he's all about, oh, my goodness, the white people. It's all ending for us.

He is the epitome of my book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. That's who Tucker Carlson is. And so this week, what, a couple nights ago, he decided to take aim at Joanne Reed and specifically Tiffany Cross, two sisters with shows on MSNBC. If you want to see this level of nastiness, hatred, and bigotry, just watch this. Have you watched MSNBC lately?

Likely you haven't. Like the Tootsies, you're not the target audience, but you should tune in sometime. It's remarkable. Given that opposing racism is America's national religion, it may surprise you to learn that open race hate forms much of the substance of that channel's programming. And when we say race hate, we're not referring to the subtle coded variety. You want border security? You're giving your kids piano lessons? You like Shakespeare? You believe in the SAT? You must be a racist. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking

about the kind of race hate you cannot mistake for anything else. The kind of people just come out and announce, I hate this race of people, and here's why I do. It's hard to believe that anything like that is happening right now on American television, but it is out in the open. And the most amazing and the most creepy part of all is that no one is saying anything about it. It's all but ignored. And honestly, we had no idea it was going on either until we started getting texts from people. Are you watching this? Can you believe this? So we tuned in.

Apparently on the left, what you're about to see is considered completely normal, even good. And that should worry you deeply. You don't want to live in Rwanda. But on MSNBC, they're already there. Now, you probably knew about Joy Reid, the race lady who's been fixated on race hate for years now. But MSNBC has a new host, someone called Tiffany

Cross, who hosts a show called The Cross Connection. Here's a selection. Many of us have seen the dangers when powerful white people decide they want something, they annex it. And they've never had a problem replacing the people who stand in their way. We see American white people are going crazy. They're resorting to violence. This is literally what conservative white folks do when they don't get their way.

They turn violent. White people deputizing themselves in some position of authority to have jurisdiction over their life when they need to mind their blanking business. I don't think it's our responsibility to be tasked with destroying and dismantling the racial oppression that's against us. That's just saying we're more at fault than the white people who constructed this system and the white people who continue to practice institutional racism.

A majority of white people do not support policies that would unpack and unroll and reform this system of justice. This is what they want. Matt Gaetz is giving the white folks what they want. White replacement can strangle culture. So yes, we should all be concerned about white replacement. It is, after all, a very threat to our survival here. Is there anything worse than white people? They're violent. They're heartless. They're cruel. They're deranged.

They're secretive. They're dishonest. In fact, as you just heard Tiffany Cross say, white people are a mortal danger to you and your loved ones. They threaten your life. Are they poisoning the wells? Are they baking bread with the blood of your children? If not, according to Tiffany Cross and MSNBC, they're fully capable of doing those things.

They've certainly done worse. This is Hutu Radio. But it's not an independent radio station in an African country. It's part of one of the biggest news organizations in the world. So it's not just whites, it's white women. Their women are bad too. Women, of course, are the key to reproducing the white race, which is clearly a threat, as she says again and again,

to you and your family. They're dangerous. They want to hurt you. Now, don't be fooled by the fact that Tiffany Cross can barely speak a coherent sentence. She was a communications major, apparently, according to the Internet. That didn't work. So what do we do here? So you see how Tucker Carlson tries to, oh, we start getting text messages.

And do you see what they're saying? Folks, we have watched Fox News for years. We have watched as they have attacked black rappers and other groups, how they, Glenn Beck, when he was there, talked about how Obama hated white people. We've seen how that was the strategy. We've actually heard from people who used to work at Fox News talk about how their strategy absolutely is about appealing to the issue of race and driving this issue. This is what we have seen repeatedly. And so it's no shock they're doing this. I told y'all in my book, White Fear, that the whole point is, oh my goodness, how dare we? But the real anger of the Tucker Carlson of the world and Megyn Kelly, of course, the former right-wing zealot at Fox News who took a shot at Tiffany Cross as well, what they cannot stand is that we now have a voice.

See, what bothers them, what bothers a Tucker, what bothers all of them. And in fact, Megyn Kelly even tried to say Tiffany Cross had a failed show, which I was very surprised by because Tiffany actually has the highest rated show on MSNBC on the weekends. Megyn is the one who got paid $69 million to leave because she failed. Her show sucked at NBC. She didn't even last two years. And so what you have here are folks who literally cannot stand the fact that we are now hosting shows. We now get to give opinions. We now get to actually share our thoughts. See, I warned y'all back in 2009 this was going to happen. I told you as we move closer to 2043, you're going to see the vitriol increase because it is a part of their rage

machine to amp up their white conservative viewers to go look at them how dare they, look at what they are dare saying, what's going on. We can roll the tape and we literally do not have enough

hours in the day to show you the kind of vitriol that we have heard come from Fox News since its inception with its targeting of black and Latino people. Tucker Carlson is about driving the white outrage which drives the cash registers at Fox News. There is profit in white rage. He is their leading prophet. That's who he is. And so when you understand that, then how do you counter that? For some reason,

I've yet to see, and maybe y'all can let me know in the control room, I've yet to see a forceful reaction from MSNBC or NBC regarding the attacks on their host, Joanne Reed, Tiffany Cross. Now, Fox News, one of the things that they always did, they employed a very aggressive PR team. They pushed back hard when folks attacked Sean Hannity

or Bill O'Reilly or Megyn Kelly. I don't understand why MSNBC and NBC is so quiet. Why they are unwilling to engage. See, I'll deposit this. And let me just help you all out. One of the biggest problems, y'all, with progressives is they're scared to fight. See, progress, no, no, that's, we don't want to do that. That's just not how we do things over here. See, Fox News will viciously attack,

and they will have all of their shows attack and attack progressives. Oh, no, we don't want to engage. See, that's why I went at that right wing zealot Mark Levin, three weeks ago on his radio show, attacked me and said, Roland Martin will never invite me on his show. I did that night. It's been three weeks. He hasn't responded. See, I'm not willing to fight anybody on the right.

Sean Hannity, I ain't scared of you. He's been running from me for a decade. Bill O'Reilly, running. Tucker Carlson, running. Laura Ingraham, running. Take your pick, all of them. Lincoln Kennedy over there, running. Greg Gutfeld, running.

All of them, running. Greg Gutfeld, running. All of them, running. Lou Douser, I did a show at CNN. We got the Fox News, Fox Business, running. Jeanine Pirro, running. Because, see, they love talking trash, but they don't want to do it in front of you because they can't handle that heat coming back. And so if Republicans win the House and the Senate in November,

we're going to need Joanne Reed, but especially Tiffany Cross. We're going to need people who are on air, who are unafraid to fight. See, when it's time to fight, you don't bring soft people to a fight. What's the song, Michael? Nuck or buck? Is that the song? Nuck if you buck. Nuck if you buck.

Nuck if you buck. MSNBC execs, NBC execs, y'all need to get some nuck or buck. MSNBC execs, NBC execs, y'all need to get some nut or buck. Y'all need to wake up and understand what is going on here because this thing is not going to get for the better. You got to have some

folks who are willing to throw down and willing to fight, willing to swing. And I dare say, and let me be real clear, I'm not doing this commentary because I get invited on Tiffany's show. I'm doing it because I understand what is at stake. I understand democracy. I understand that we've got to have folks who are willing to fight,

willing to engage, willing to do battle. There's a great story in the Bible of one of David's mighty men, and there was a field of lentils. And the people of Israel were like, man, look, that's a field of lentils. We're going to get that thing up. We ain't fighting over that. But there was a certain man named Shema. And Shema said, no, if God gave us this land, I'm fighting over it. And stood there and fought with both

hands. Slayed them with both hands over a field of lentils. We've got to have modern-day shamers, men and women, who are willing to go hard at Fox News, at Tucker Carlson, at white supremacy, at these domestic terrorists in this country. And we need folks who are modern-day shamers, who are men and women, who are black, who are white, who are Latino, who are Native American, who are Asian. Because when you say this is a fight for the soul of democracy, what this is about is now the redefinition of America

and becoming a more perfect union. And folk like Tucker and Fox News wants us to continue to be what we've always been. Now, this is game on, and we need warriors like Tiffany Cross on the battlefield. We got enough people on the sidelines watching. We need folk who are ready to swing, and her bosses and her network should have her back.

Period. Real quick, thoughts from our panel before I go to my education segment. I'll start with you, Matt. I think you're right. I think we shouldn't be surprised that a paleo conservative who is often saying off-the-wall things did it again, particularly because

we know he espouses great replacement theory. I mean, this is Tucker Carlson's forte. This is what Fox News leverages for the people that watch it. And you said it. Profit is the motive. So I think you're 100 percent right. I think we need those people. And I think those people to fight.

And I think the Democratic Party, to your point, you know, we talk about it every week. They not only don't fight effectively, but they don't fight voraciously and they don't fight for keeps. Republicans tell us at every turn what they're doing, what their plans are, and they fight no holds barred. And Democrats need to do the same thing. Nola. You know, this is definitely a personal, it touches me personally as a guest on Tiffany's show and her professionalism and the important voice that she is for everyone in this country and beyond, but especially for black women.

I know what it feels like to have a powerful white man to try to tarnish your reputation. And I know what it feels like for these sorts of attacks, not in such a public sphere like this, but I do know what it feels like to have a colleague try to tarnish your professional image. And the dangerous part is that as black people, we are raised with this idea that we have to be 10 times better. And I would posit as a black woman, let's multiply that by three.

So we have to always be mindful of our professionalism, how we present. And then we also have to always be mindful of our responses because, you know, we have to work in these environments where, you know, people have the trope of the angry black woman. And so we always have to negotiate just how far we want to take it, how much of our authenticity we actually want to show up with. So, you know, Tiffany has this platform. Joy Reid has her platform where they can speak an uncomfortable truth. And that's really what this is about. These are uncomfortable truths that many people in this country are trying to put bows on it and wrap it up in new kind of wrapping paper to present it as something else.

And the thing about it is this, trying to, you know, put these women in a light that sheds them as angry black women, and I'm sure the trope of, you know, not being smart and trying to come at Tiffany saying that, you know, her show is failing when that is not the truth at all. But it's not about the truth. And certain platforms have nothing to do with the truth. It's all about painting a picture and holding up a familiar target, you know,

and people believing that. And so my issue is I hope they are safe. At the very least, I hope that they are being provided some level of security, because this has definitely endangered their well-beings in a way that just isn't fair. And that's not how it should be in a democracy like the United States. And it's not how it should be in a democracy like the United States. And it's not

how it should be when you at work amongst colleagues. So I just hope that they are safe. Michael. Well, this is more white supremacy coming from what I call cool plotter TV or White Nationalist TV. And, you know, Tucker Carlson is the golden child over there, like Bill O'Reilly was. And it was the sexual harassment scandal, but the boycotts from a number of different civil rights organizations that work together to get 80 advertisers to divest from Bill O'Reilly's TV show, The O'Reilly Factor. And it got to the point where that show was not profitable, and they canceled his show. I've said before, we need to go after Tucker Carlson's or Tuckum's, as Joanne Reid calls them, go after Tucker Carlson's or Tuckum's, as Joanne Reid calls them, go after his advertisers.

And at the same time, we really have to understand, this is somebody who embraces authoritarianism. He embraces Viktor Orban of Hungary. He did a documentary of Viktor Orban. This is somebody who did that interview with Kanye West, and there were excerpts of the interview that were deleted that are being leaked out now as well, and they're pimping Kanye also. Fox News is extremely dangerous. It's Fox News who really propelled the media outlet that really propelled the most to the

forefront this anti-critical race theory, this fake attack on critical race theory, things like this. So this is extremely dangerous, especially in a midterm election year. So I watch Joanne Reed and Tiffany Cross as well. Hopefully they're safe, but we definitely need to fight back against white supremacists like Lil' Tuckums. Indeed. So let me be real clear, y'all. NBC don't pay me. NBC don't pay me. I own this show.

I control this show. And the bottom line is if somebody's going to come after your people, you defend your folk, especially under that kind of vicious attack. The ADL, pull the tweet up, please. There was a response I saw. This will be the last comment. This ADL, Tucker Carlson has again used this platform to stoke racial tensions, falsely and dangerously accusing a black MSNBC host of instigating a genocide against white people.

His incitement and the trivialization of the Rwandan genocide must be forcibly condemned. I have not seen a tweet from MSNBC or NBC. That makes no sense to me. Got to go to a break. We come back, our Education Matters segment, as a group fights to help folks with learning challenges get an education. We'll discuss that next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the

Blackstar Network. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. You know what's on the ballot it's not just legislation and policies we believe in it's democracy our democracy there's a choice on the ballot between freedom and fear between cruelty and compassion between chaos and community between voting or violence. And the end of rights generations have fought for.

The extremists have a plan, a roadmap for a nation where your voice is silenced and your vote is a memory, where they count their votes and cast ours aside. That's why this year, this fight, this vote is so important. Register, engage, volunteer, fight back against the disinformation and despair, and most of all, vote. Because your vote is all that stands between our future and theirs. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hey, everybody, it's your girl, Luenell. All right, folks. We know that children with learning disabilities or learning difficulties are often overlooked and left behind when it comes to learning environments.

There's a group called the Shadow Project. And what their goal is to help those children, especially African American children and black students with disabilities. They're more likely to be restrained and excluded from general education classes. They're based in Oregon. They're a nonprofit doing the work to offer children with learning differences support they need

to thrive in school. Their mission is to make schools more accessible and engaging K-8 with learning challenges like dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and trauma. Executive Director Sharon Juneman from the Shadow Project, she joins us right now. Sharon, glad to have you with us. What was the impetus for starting this? What caused you others to say, you know what, we've got to make this a priority? Well, I'll tell you what, the reason why the Shadow Project exists is because children with learning challenges have so much potential to contribute to our society and to be

successful. And right now, they're not being given that opportunity in school. Our schools are overwhelmed. And in the pandemic, kids with learning challenges fell even further behind than the general population. And our world is missing out. We are missing out on these children because they're in the state of Oregon, 40% of kids with disabilities do not graduate high school on time with a standard diploma. And so they're not even getting the opportunity to reach that basic education milestone. So the Shadow Project is partnering with teachers. need more resources, more education, more support to teach kids who have learning differences like ADHD and autism and dyslexia so that they can have their gifts recognized and encouraged and go on to achieve their dreams and their goals. First of all, how many places are you located in?

You're based in Oregon, but are you national? Do you have chapters? So how does that work? We are based in Portland, Oregon, and right now we're a small non-profit. We're expanding. We support about 50 different schools in the Portland metro area and the mid Willamette Valley. But our mission and our goal is to be in all of the schools in the state of Oregon. We hear from parents and teachers all over the state who are saying, you know,

how can we bring the Shadow Project to our school because our kids need these resources? All right. And then how many children have you helped thus far? And what is your goal over the next two to three years? How are you looking to expand? Yeah. I mean, over the last 15 years that we've been around, we have supported over 15,000 students to improve their reading, become more persistent, and really believe in themselves and their ability to succeed in school and in life. But, you know, every year there's 80,000 kids in special education

programs in Oregon. And so we have a goal over the next four to five years to serve an additional 10,000 students. So we want to expand and grow and eventually become a national organization. Cool. Questions from our panel. Nola, you first. Thank you so much for doing this very important work. As an educator, I can tell you that these sorts of programs are definitely needed to level the playing field, so to speak, inside the classroom. So my question is, what are some of the challenges regarding maybe funding issues? And then secondly, how does the program help the students kind of matriculate into other populations where other students are? So is that like a seamless process? Is that challenging? So I'm just curious about some of the challenges.

Yeah, I think that in terms of funding, I mean, one of the biggest challenges is that the federal regulations that provide the basis of the law that children with disabilities get a free and public education, that the legislation exists and has existed since 1975, but it's never been fully funded.

So it's only ever been funded at about 40 percent of the total cost of what it actually would cost to follow through with all of the federal mandates. So funding is a huge challenge. But beyond that, I think that there's education and awareness. That's another huge challenge. At one study in 2017 by the National Center for Learning Disabilities showed that actually 33% of teachers surveyed felt that students with learning disabilities were not achieving to their potential because of laziness. And that's a, so there's a stigma in our society and there's stereotypes about people with learning disabilities, that if they just try harder, they could do it. And the fact of the matter is that kids with learning challenges are working hard every day.

They're working 10 times harder than every other kid to achieve basic milestones. And what they need is to not have a one-size-fits-all education system. Our education system was not built to educate people with disabilities. And, you know, there's change slowly coming over time, but the change is slow and more change is needed. And schools need more resources because, you know, a teacher might have 30 kids or more in the classroom, and the teacher's job is so hard to be able to know every student and to understand the individual things that that child needs to succeed in school. because we bring in more resources. For example, one of the programs that we do is help schools build a sensory space, and then we train teachers and staff how to use it. And a sensory space

is a learning space in the classroom or in the school where kids can, on a schedule, on a routine, be able to take breaks and have movement breaks and learn for themselves like what their emotional state is and how they're feeling and what they can do to support their own needs when they're feeling stressed, when they're feeling triggered, when they're feeling like they've got too much energy to be able to sit down and sit in their chair and pay attention. Well, what happens right now is when kids feel that way, they get sent to the principal's office, right? Because they're acting out, because they won't sit in their seat, they won't raise their hand to talk.

But we have seen tremendous, tremendous changes when we bring a sensory space into a school. We've had teachers and principals tell us that it was a game changer for them. Instead of having to send kids to the principal's office, they start putting these kids on this sensory routine, and all of a sudden, kids are able to stay in class. They're able to attend to learning. These are simple, low cost things that that schools can do. We make it low cost because as a nonprofit, we do the fundraising and bring in the resources to the schools and partner with the schools. So, you know, so a lot of these, you know, societal challenges that we face there, they're very hard to make change, but these resources that we're bringing in are very low cost and they're very effective. Michael. All right, Sharon, thanks for coming on and sharing this information with us.

On your website, you talk about closing the opportunity gap in special education, and you talk about how students with disabilities don't get to graduate with their peers. And then with black and Latino students and how you're able to help them, how you're able to help them overcome those obstacles? Yes, absolutely. When we're talking about working with Black and Latino students and the additional education disparities that they face. First of all, black and Latino students are disciplined at a much higher rate, you know, nationwide and in the state of Oregon too, than white students are. And then you add on top of that, the learning challenge and the, or the, or the disability. And, and so then it just magnifies all those issues. I mean, we had a, it magnifies issues for families too, because there's a lack of trust in the schools because of their

generational experiences with education systems. And so there, you know, for parents who have kids with learning disabilities, there's a lot of advocacy that you have to do. There's a lot of talking to the teacher, talking to the principal, make sure they know your kid, making sure they know what your kid needs. But for black and Latino families where there's that distrust there, they're not sure if they're going to be heard by the school. They may have not been heard before. So there's like, well, why, you know, why should I try to do this? Because, you know, my voice wasn't heard before. And then, you know, for some families as well, Latino families, like if they are undocumented, they may be afraid to engage with the school in that way and, you know, kind of go things that we do with our reading program is we bring in mentors to work with kids. We give them an assistive technology that helps them read at their comprehension level

when they can't necessarily read grade level books in print because of their reading disability. So we pair that with mentors who, you know, we recruit these volunteers from these communities and we give the mentors access to all sorts of training about bringing out for the kids these books where they can see themselves, oh, I'm reading a book about a kid with a learning disability and I'm reading about how they overcame this disability. Or, you know, when I filled in for a mentor, you know, one time recently and I was mentoring this, you know, young boy and he was jumping all over the hallway. You know, I was trying to get him to read and, you know, and I was like, okay, he likes to move. He's got this ball he's playing with. And I said, hey, you know what? Do you like basketball? Yeah, he likes basketball.

Okay, well, let's look for some books about basketball. And I tell you, he was, as soon as we found a book about basketball, he was reading. He was sitting in his chair, and he was reading, and he was paying attention. He was engrossed in that book. And so these are the kinds of things like when you get to know kids and you really take that time, then you can get them reading and you can capture their attention. But teachers don't have that time very often to spend with individual children when their classrooms are already very busy

and they have so many demands on their time. Matt? All right, thanks. I have a two-part question, and thank you for doing this very worthwhile work. So I know these aren't the same thing, but when it comes to students that have learning disabilities, is part of your advocacy helping people, particularly Black and Latino people, understand IEPs and 504 plans? And is there a part of your program that is supplemental to students that have those programs? Because I'm finding in my practice that some of my

own clients don't know what their children are entitled to and that schools are not providing that. So how do y'all address that issue in your advocacy? Yes, that is a huge issue. I can tell you I have a child who has an IEP and it's a very intimidating process. It requires a lot of knowledge and, you know, honestly, a lot of emotional fortitude sometimes when, you know, you want so passionately for your child to succeed and be given the right education that they deserve. And you're often faced with, you know, the answer no, a lot of the time, no, we can't do that. No, we don't have that resource. And so the Shadow Project does provide parent outreach to the families in the schools where we partner, where we talk to families about, for example, the role of audiobooks in learning. And in that, we also refer families to other organizations.

There's great organizations all across the country whose sole job is to help families learn how to advocate in that IEP process. This is something that isn't known by very many families, I find, but every state in the country is required by federal state. And it's usually a community-based organization, a nonprofit where they have a special federal grant. And that's their job is to provide training and webinars about how to be an advocate for your child in special education. All right, then we'll look at folk. Want more information about your group. Where do they go? Shadow-project.org. All right. Sharon, gentlemen, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. All right, folks. That is it for us. Let me thank Michael. Let me thank Matt. Let me thank, I guess, Nola for coming here, being all disruptive and everything. Anyway. Sitting here.

What? Nothing. What? I didn't say nothing. Oh, I'm sorry. You had something. What? I didn't say nothing. Oh, what? I'm sorry. You had something to say? I didn't say anything.

I'm sorry. Since I'm on the other side of the studio, what? You had something to say? I didn't say nothing. Oh, I'm just checking. Just checking. Like always, I'm just sitting here being, you know, minding my business.

I'm just checking. Look, they're not a sponsor. Put their water down. They ain't spend no money. That's a free advertising. We don't do that. We don't do that. We don't do that.

All right, y'all. Don't forget, if y'all want to support us, download the Black Star Network app. Available on all platforms. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And of course, you can also join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do. That of course is seeing your checking money order at

PO Box 57196 Washington, D.C. To get your check in money, you can also go to www.BringTheFunk.com. And you can also join our Facebook group, The Black Star Network. You can also join our Facebook group, The Black Star Network. You can also join our Facebook group,

The Black Star Network. You can also join our Facebook group, The Black Star Network. You can also join our Facebook group, The Black Star Network. You can also join our Facebook us to do what we do. That, of course, is seeing your checking money order at the P.O. Box, 57196 Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal's RMartin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And, of course, get your copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available on all bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course, you can also get it on Audible

and go to your favorite black bookstore. Folks, Sunday, actually, first of all, tomorrow, I'm in Buffalo speaking to the Buffalo NAACP. It's a Buffalo. I look forward to seeing y'all on, let's see here, Sunday. I have the GOTV rally. That will be in Houston, 4 to 7 p.m. Pull the graphic up. So, I'm going to be there on Sunday.

Monday, Augusta, Georgia. We will be there working with, of course, on behalf of the the one I campaign looking forward to having a town hall there and the folks in Swainsboro back by popular demand. They said we're going to pack the joint out. They said they're going to have three to 400 people there waiting for us in Swainsboro on Tuesday. And so it's going to be a busy for a few days. I'll be back in studio on Wednesday. And so, Buffalo tomorrow, Houston Sunday, Augusta, Georgia on Monday, Spainsport, Georgia on Tuesday. Looking forward to all of the folks. Y'all take care. We always end the show every Friday, of course, with the folks who contribute to our fan club.

And so, we'll do that. And so, don't be talking about my Ashley Larry candle, Nolan. Don't be. It's a black show on a black network. No, I don't. That's what's called black star network. So, that's why we got candles going. We got like, you know, the LED lighting.

So, all right. We got it going on. She know this. Y'all know. She know. This ain't how MSNBC and CNN do it. Ain't that much flavor. Ain't that much color.

Our chicken is seasoned. I see y'all on Monday. Holla! Să ne urmăm. Martin! ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! សូវបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា� this is an iHeart podcast