#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jacksonville brutal arrest, Pepsico’s Black-owned media spend, Morgan St. Shooting

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

10.4.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jacksonville brutal arrest, Pepsico’s Black-owned media spend, Morgan St. Shooting The attorneys for the black man brutally arrested by the Jacksonville, Florida, police department say he has a ruptured kidney. The sheriff's office launches an investigation, but the family wants the Department of Justice to intervene. One of the attorneys representing Le'Keian Woods is here tonight to explain why the cops never should have chased him in the first place.  Maryland police are still looking for the people responsible for the mass shooting at Morgan State University. We'll tell you why the mayor of Baltimore says Congress is to blame for the rise in gun violence.  President Joe Biden cancels more student loan debt totaling $9 billion in forgiveness.  And we'll look at who's vying to be the next Speaker of the House.  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, October 4th, 2023, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The attorneys for the black man viciously beating in Jacksonville are going to join us on the show. First of all, folks, again, we have showed you this video. It is shocking, it is stunning, it is just shameful what happened here.

The Sheriff's Office is launching an investigation. The family wants the DOJ to intervene. Again, one of the attorneys for Lakeen Woods is gonna be joining us right here on Roland Martin on the Pilcher. Maryland police are still looking for the people responsible for the mass shooting in Morgan State.

Four individuals were shot. We'll tell you what the Mayor of Baltimore says Congress is to blame for the issue of gun violence. President Joe Biden cancels more student loan debt, this time, folks, totaling $9 billion, and we'll look at who's vying to be the next speaker of the House. Also, in our Where's Our Money segment,

I told you I'm gonna keep updating you on these ad agencies, as well as these brands that are starving black-owned media. Today, I'm going to explain to you how we have been spending two years, two years dealing with PepsiCo and have gotten nowhere. And I reached out to several other black-owned media companies, and they also say they've gotten $0 from PepsiCo. Black folks spent a whole lot of money on PepsiCo products, and I'm not just talking about Pepsi. I'm going to break it all down and do a deconstruction on how black-owned media is being starved into extinction.

It is time toved into extinction. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network, let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's rolling it's rolling he's funky, he's real The best you know he's rolling Martel Martel

Folks in Jacksonville continue to demand answers regarding a black man, Lakeen Woods, severely beaten by police when he was arrested. This is what Woods looked like when he was booked into jail after the traffic stopped. Now, Jacksonville's chair, T.K. Waters, an African-American, says this video shared on social media misrepresented the facts surrounding the arrest of a suspect that went viral over the weekend. He also says it was altered. Walter says the body cam video shows exactly what happened and the use of force was justified in the arrest of LaKeon Woods. Now, according to his attorneys, LaKeon has a ruptured kidney and is suffering from migraine headaches

due to this incident. Joining us now, one of the attorneys, Harry Daniels. Harry, glad to have you on the show. What do you make of the sheriff saying that all the actions of these cops were justified in arresting your client? Roland, how you doing?

First of all, that's preposterous. He's talking about the video being altered. initial video that somebody placed and put out on social media. I guess they cut the video and made it appear that one of the deputies kicked LeKen in the face. That didn't happen. We released a full video of the bystanders that showed the assault on LeKen, including him being slammed in the ground was he was handcuffed. Let me tell you this. The kid was tased his face. He's face planted on the asphalt.

And after that, he was struck almost 17 times in his body and multiple knee strikes and punches in his head. Like he had suffered a severe concussion, which is a brain injury, multiple face lacerations and swelling to his face, as well as being told he suffered a ruptured kidney. This all stemmed from, according to their own police report, because the front seat, the driver of the ram truck that ken ran from uh didn't have a seat belt when the seat belt properly and probably used to the seat belt so they stopped these individuals uh at gunpoint to try to say they

was doing a felony stop but it had no probable cause to a felony stop the basis of the stop was based on a somebody having a seatbelt behind their back opposed to being in front of their chest. So Le'Ken, as the passenger, rolling, you know, they came out with guns drawn on him and giving commands with weapons. He takes off running. Then the next is history of what happened to him. The video is crystal clear.

It shows that Le'Ken was struck multiple times. The body cam as well as the cell phone footage from the bystander shows Le'Ken was struck multiple times. And even in the report, they do not deny that he was knee-struck in the head, knee strikes in the head, which Marlon, I mean, which Roland,

that is deadly force. Expressions of opium across the nation, that's deadly force. So now I'm trying to understand. So you're saying that he was stopped because of a seat belt, and now I'm really confused here, and they came out with guns drawn? That's exactly what happened. The video shows, and based on their report,

the basis of the stop was for improper wear of the seatbelt of the driver. LeCun was a passenger. So the Supreme Court has made it very clear if a person can walk away without resuspension or committing a crime, they can run away. LeCun chose to run away. They didn't like the fact that he ran. He was not under suspicion of committing any crime whatsoever. Now, they do talk about early on of them watching them at a gas station,

that LeKen was counting money, but there was no indication they saw any transaction of drugs, any transaction of drugs, money, or guns. So the basis of the stop was based on, well, we see this guy not wearing a seatbelt. Let's stop him, and let's see what they got. And LeKen takes off running, and he suffered a beating beyond words. He's in bad shape. He's currently in JSO jail. His face is swollen, eyes swollen shut.

I mean, you see the picture there. It's horrific. Can't even see out of his eyes. He was admitted into the hospital due to his brain injury. Let's be very clear. He was admitted into the hospital. He was released into the hospital due to his brain injury. Let's be very clear. He was admitted into the hospital. He was released from the hospital, and he was told he had, I guess, some type of rush with kidney as well.

So for the Sheriff Waters, who I've dealt with these same officers before, actually it's one of the officers, Jose Garriga, is the same officer who shot and killed a FAMU student back in 2019. It's the same officer involved that beat Lakin, who's one who actually struck him in the head multiple times with his knee. But, Roland, the reason why Jamie Johnson was stopped, the same reason, he didn't have a seatbelt on. Wow.

So this is this guy's M.O. to get the people to eventually, in Jamie Johnson's case, he shot and killed James Johnson. In this case, they beat LaKian mercilessly. So when you hear the sheriff say he should have complied like the other young man did, what do you say? Well, you know,

I tell people this all the time. They say, well, you should comply, you should comply, just because police give you an order. And you can make a determination, you can make a decision whether you're going to follow the comply, you should comply, just because police give you an order, you know. And you can make a determination, you can make a decision as to whether you're going to follow the order, or it has to be lawful, okay? Just because they stop some person doesn't mean you have to stop,

especially if you're not suspected of committing any crime or resuspension or probable cause of committing a crime. Like I told you before, he can walk away, he can run away. He exercises his right to walk away or run away from the scene. They're not constitutionally right or duty-bound to go after him because he's not suspected of committing a crime. So therefore, this is not just—let me be very clear, Roland. This is not just excessive force on the Kenwoods. This is unlawful force because they had no right to stop and see some in the first place. As you can see this video, this is for a seatbelt violation.

These black men are held at gunpoint and all they got right now is a seatbelt violation. Nothing more, nothing less. And the Ken, the seatbelt violation was based on the driver, not the passenger. But the passenger is bound. The passenger is not bound to stay there because you stopped the car. He's not one being cited for operating a vehicle in the state of Florida violating the law as improper way to seatbelt. But nevertheless, when he takes off running, they go after him,

and you see what happens to him next. All right. Harry Daniels, certainly keep us abreast of what happens next in this case. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it, Roland. Take care. Folks, my panel, Robert Petillo, he is the host of People, Passion, Politics, News Talk,

1380 WAOK out of Atlanta, Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President, Fair Election Center out of D.C., A. Scott Bolden, attorney based in D.C. as well. Glad to have all three of you here. See, here's the thing that consistently happens over and over and over again. I swear, Scott, every time we do

one of these stories, we start off with, it was a basic traffic stop. Why are the police even stopping people for traffic stops? I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st.

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

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program,

providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. With their guns drawn. If you pull that video, the criminal defense lawyer, civil rights lawyer that you just had on is absolutely right. One, he was not accused of a crime. He was the passenger. He even had his seatbelt on properly. That's the first thing. He gets out and runs and walks away. Why are you chasing him? Why are you have your guns on him? He has not committed a crime. He's not suspected. He's not under any suspicion whatsoever, but he runs and you chase him. Then you tase him.

Once you tase him, you have him under control. No need to use deadly force or physical force. He is tased. He is down. They then use deadly force on him, beat him up, not because he committed a crime, but because he made them run, right? And here's the training piece. Most police officers, I'm sorry to paint it with a broad brush, don't understand these laws and rules and the constitutional rights. If the passenger gets out and walks and runs away, the Supreme Court is sad. Unless he's under reasonable suspicion

for committing a crime, or you see a crime being committed or there's a threat to the officer you cannot do that you cannot chase him and hold him because that that passenger hasn't committed a crime i just throw it real quick this happened to me about 10 years ago i was a passenger in a car i got out of the car they were giving the driver a ticket i got out to get in my They were giving the driver a ticket. I got out to get in my own car that was right next door, and the police stopped me and wouldn't let me leave. I said, you're giving them a traffic ticket. My driver, my car is right here. Why can't I leave? I'm not threatening you, and I haven't committed a crime. Do you know they put me in handcuffs?

It was in D.C. They put me in handcuffs and threatened to arrest me for disorderly conduct until I told them to call their supervising officer, the sergeant, to authorize the arrest. Most people don't know, if you're being arrested, you can ask for the supervising sergeant who was on call that night to come and authorize the arrest. The supervising sergeant came. I happened to know him through the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. We give them awards every year. And he deauthorized the arrest. They took me out of handcuffs, and they let me go. But the officer, the sergeant told me, he said he could have detained you for disobeying a police order.

I said, what order? Just because he told me to stop? That wasn't a lawful order. And so the sergeant told me to write a letter to the chief, and I could take it up administratively, but I was free to go. Now, if I don't want to go home, I can go to jail and get out on Monday morning. Of course, I chose to go home. But this happens a lot

to many people, except white Americans. White America doesn't get treated like that. That's right. And Robert, again, okay, the guy is riding around. He doesn't have, he's got the seatbelt behind him. I'm trying to understand how does that elevate to guns drawn?

Oh, look, and it's great to see Harry working on that case. Somebody I've known and worked with for years. And this is why we have been pushing for comprehensive criminal justice and police reform for all of these decades. Black men have not been making these stories up. This is the reality for many of us in this country. And when you look at the situation that took place, this is the reason that we have so many municipalities nationwide that are instructing officers to not chase people, to a limited number of traffic stops. They're not prosecuting minor violations because of the nature of their escalation. This is beyond training, to Scott's point. These officers know exactly what the law is and what

they're allowed to do and what they aren't allowed to do. It's about recruiting the wrong people onto forces. This is about not having qualified—this is about not piercing qualified immunity where people take a personal responsibility for their actions while under the color of law. that they can get away with this enough times until one of these suits comes through that starts to bankrupt the jurisdiction, that it's still worth it to continue employing these officers to enlist these types of tactics. And until we make real statutory change, legislative change on the national level, federal level, we're not going to find an end to this. So that's why it's important to keep pushing the White House

and keep pushing Congress to get this done. And, Rebecca, here's the deal. There are a lot of people who you got these right-wingers who say, oh, these soft-on-crime George Soros DAs, but this is why you have an increasing number of

police chiefs who are saying enough with the basic traffic stops. No more. And this is why. I mean, if you're trying to stop violent crime and all you're seeing is somebody and they ain't got a seatbelt

on, actually, how hard is it to pull them over and say, sir, you know the law states that you're supposed to be wearing your seatbelt. But the moment you come guns drawn, I don't care who you are, whether you are, you know, a $2,000 an hour attorney like Scott,

or whether you are this young brother here, you're going to naturally tense what the hell's going on, and it's a fight or flight. That's what happens. You know, I have a couple responses to this. The first thing is, Tim Scott, where are you at? Each time something

like this happens where someone is getting brutally beaten or even sexually assaulted or, God forbid, killed in police custody, I want to hear from Tim Scott. I want to hear from Tim Scott. I want to hear how he continues to justify what he did with the George Floyd bill negotiations. The second thing is Chuck Schumer.

At the beginning of the next Congress, if you are still the Senate majority leader, when you're carving out the rules package, which determines the number of votes needed to end debate, i.e. closure, in order to pass legislation, I need you to carve out two exceptions. One, carve out exceptions when it deals with the George Floyd policing bill, and two, carve out exceptions when it deals with the voting rights, with the John Lewis voting rights bill. Those are

two things that the Senate majority leader can do. And those are two things that we ought to demand that Chuck Schumer does if he is elected as the next Senate majority leader in the next Congress. Oh, indeed, indeed. All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, we're going to talk about this mass shooting that took place last night on the campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered

on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do. First and foremost, if you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button. That impacts the algorithm and this video being shared to other folks by YouTube, so please do that right now. Our goal is to get 2,000 likes every time this show airs. Also, folks, support us as well on Bring the Funk Fan Club.

I was dropped by the Funk fan club. I was dropped by the post office today. The whole mailbox full of checks and money orders. A lot of y'all who don't wanna use the digital currency, not a problem, so you're checking the money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, DC, 2007-0196, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, RM Martin Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

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as well as the live TV portion of Amazon Prime Video. That's right, so check us out on those channels. We'll be right back. is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot. Well, and I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in.

I still am a black woman in business. Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change. Respectful the pivot. Being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change. Respectful of pivot. Yeah. Fearful? No.

Uh-uh. No. No. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future.

I'm a genius. It's saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey,

we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Naira Jade Mitchell has been missing from her Boston home since September 20th. The 14-year-old is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 175 pounds, with maroon and black braided hair, brown eyes, a nose piercing, and a birthmark on her left hand. She was last seen wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt, blue trousers, and black sneakers. Anyone with information about Naira Jade Mitchell is urged to call

the Boston, Massachusetts Police Department at 617-343-4560. 617-343-4560. Folks, here we are almost 24 hours later, and Baltimore officials are still looking for a person or persons responsible for the Tuesday night shooting on the campus of Morgan State University. Five people were injured in that shooting. Investigators believe there was a dispute between two groups when gunfire erupted near a university dorm.

At least three people were believed to have been armed. Four men and one woman between the ages of 18 and 22 were shot and hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds. Last night's shooting has the city's mayor laying some responsibility at the feet of Congress. This is what he said, what Mayor Brandon Scott said after he was questioned by a local reporter. They just ousted their speaker yesterday. It's chaos on Capitol Hill. Why do you believe that these members in Washington, D.C., can address this problem when they're struggling to do the basic functions of government?

Because it's their job, Mackenzie. The same way that the residents of Baltimore City want me to make sure that the police department is actually out there arresting these individuals. And it's up to those individuals who have the power to do something to actually do something. So what specific legislation are you looking for? There's a bunch. So I can run the whole list down and I'll get Brian to send you more.

One, they should ban ghost guns, period. They should remove the immunity for gun manufacturers, period. They should ban assault rifles and magazines, period. They should remove the immunity for gun manufacturers, period. They should ban assault rifles and magazines, period. Why can't you and other state leaders push for legislation at the state level to ensure there are tougher penalties for people who shoot and kill other people? I think that when you look at Maryland's laws around guns and gun violence, we have some of the best in the country, McKenzie. The guns are coming in from other places, other states. That is why this is a national issue. It's a both and, McKenzie, not an either or. Now, Morgan State University President David Wilson released a

statement regarding the shooting. He said, what happened on our campus was such a senseless act of violence perpetuated on our community. It was so disappointing to learn of what took place, especially after what was a family-filled and fun evening of celebrating the pageantry and beauty of our students. But rest assured, our Morgan family is strong, and we will march on with determination to keep moving on. Homecoming is happening this weekend. And I must say, Rebecca, when these things happen, when these shootings happen, and we've seen them happen on other HBCU campuses, on PWI campuses, this is this unfortunate reality of senseless gun violence

in this country. You're right. There is a lot of senseless gun violence in this country? You're right. There is a lot of senseless gun violence in this country. What's especially sad here is that in the last four years, the last four homecomings, this is the third time that there has been shooting at or near Morgan State during their homecoming. And so I could only imagine that the parents of these students trying to figure out if they feel it's safe to actually send their students back to campus. I can't imagine getting a phone call hearing that my child is locked down in a bathroom and there is a gunman somewhere and that they're uncertain. Or even seeing the images that you're showing now of students in their dorm room when they're doing a

sweep going from dorm room to dorm room and seeing that there's automatic weapons that are at the door as soon as they open it up for law enforcement to double check to make sure that the students inside are safe and that the gunman isn't inside of any of the dorm rooms. My heart really goes out for a lot of these students. Even think about the mental health. That's a lot for those students. But secondly, I would say that we also need the city of Baltimore to step up to make sure that there is adequate safety around Morgan State's campus. I think about some of the PWIs and think about the levels of security that we do see at some of the PWIs. And I hope at Morgan State that they receive the same level of support from both

the mayor as well as, sorry, from the city of Baltimore as well as the state of Maryland. You know, Robert, we often talk about students, but we also got to realize faculty and staff. I know a particular faculty member who texted last night saying, hey, I'm

good, I'm safe, but I'm not good. When these things happen, I mean, it shakes up not just students. You're absolutely correct. And to Rebecca's point, this is a question about security on campuses. We have to ensure not just for situations such as this, but just for the safety and security of our students at HBCUs, they should be the most secure areas on earth. This is the next generation of leadership. And we have to protect them just as a mother hen protects her eggs. That's how we need to treat our HBCUs. And we had this happen at Clark Land University many years ago. And if anybody was at the AEC in the 80s or the 90s or the early 2000s,

you remember how open the entire area was. You walked through one campus to the other. You drove from place to place. You congregated at Stiegel's. You went on down the street, et cetera. But as we have these outside individuals coming through, causing trouble and actually shooting on campus, they have to start closing parts of the campus down, shutting off streets, increasing security patrols, hiring additional police officers. And that's what I believe has to happen in this area because we have to protect these students at all costs. And I think the national media also does a disservice to these conversations because once it was reported, at first the media said mass shooting on the college campus. And then it's as if they got a message saying, it's just Black folks doing Black folks stuff. And then it all went away within about an hour. We have to continue having these conversations, not just when it's a white shooter shooting at black people, not just when it's a white police officer shooting at black people. We have to take the safety and security of our students seriously in all situations and provide the type of protections that are needed to secure all these campuses. Scott? Yeah, a couple observations. I agree with Robert. You know, I'm a news junkie. The news is

on at my house and at my office all the time. I don't remember white media covering this at all. If it was, it was a byline. They didn't show the helicopters circling. They didn't show the police ushering. Well, I know Fox News took it live last night. Some of the other networks are still talking about Donald Trump. But, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, but, I mean, it just wasn't the same level. They didn't cover it for four to six hours. I know there was a lot going on yesterday. But, again, this whole issue of gun control and what we're going to do about guns, we are so numb to mass shootings now. Think about this. thought, Roman, that once small white children, white students, and white people start getting shot by mass murderers or these mass shootings, that white conservatives on the Hill would cut a deal with the NRA and do something about gun control, something that would stop the killing. We have exchanged tolerance for mass shootings, black people or white people, in exchange for our

love of the NRA. Think about that. We have tolerated mass killings and accepted them as a byproduct of our protection of our Second Amendment right and protection and our allegiance to the NRA. Something is really, really wrong with this country and really, really wrong with those who do that deal. It's a deadly deal and it just keeps going on over and over again.

Bottom line is, were those kids at Sandy Hook when they were murdered and they did nothing? They were very clear on how they're going to respond. Alright, folks, hold on one second. Got to go to break. We'll come back. We'll talk about more next speaker. A couple Republicans are throwing their name

into the hat. One of them said he's David Duke without the baggage. The other one is a man who was a former wrestling coach at Ohio State who did nothing when men were being sexually assaulted. Way to go, Republicans. We'll also talk about our Where's Our Money segment. We'll also talk about, again, the companies, these brands, these ad agencies

that are giving short shrift to black owned media. And so I told you I'm gonna spend the time educating you and walking you through the reality of a lot of these companies. We're gonna talk about a company that's worth $230 billion. That's their market cap. PepsiCo.

I'm gonna show you all the products that they sell that black folks buy, but ask the question, why are they not spending a fair share with black-owned media? I'm going to deconstruct that right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black get wealthy with me deborah owens america's wealth coach we talk about the principles of mindset strategy and execution this week we're adding a fourth faith you're going to hear from a mother and daughter duo who are helping thousands of Black women build wealth all through their faith. You are more than you can ever imagine. Not just obtaining things to show that, but seeing yourself. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

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

Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help

our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Faith work for you. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital 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. is the wrath of the proud boys and the boogaloo boys america there's going to be more of this this country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people the fear that they're taking our jobs they're taking our resources they're taking our women this is white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson.

And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Martin! Folks, the man accused of Tupac Shakur's murder had his first day, first appearance in court today. This took place, of course, in Vegas. Dwayne Keith D. Davis's ramming him was cut short after he asked Las Vegas and Nevada District Judge Tierra Jones to postpone while he retains counsel. The 60-year-old was arrested Friday for allegedly masterminding

the 1996 shooting death of Tupac on the Las Vegas Strip. The judge rescheduled Davis' arraignment for October 19th. I must say, Robert, that's a long time. When the police searched this home, they were looking for evidence, and they claimed they uncovered it. We're talking about something that was almost 30 years ago. Yeah, it's very interesting the amount of time that seemed to be needed to prepare for this case, because after having 30-something years to put this together, you would think that all the ducks would be in the row, and then the minute that they arrest a suspect, they'd be able to

proceed very quickly in this case. I think it's going to be very difficult. I've worked on cold cases of this nature previously. This will be considered. And witnesses change. Witnesses die. People move. Evidence is destroyed. Videos aren't as crisp in 1996 as they are in 2023. It's going to be a very difficult case to prosecute, and I think that we're going to have to just hold on and kind of wait with bated breath, understanding this is going to be a process that's going to take a while to get through. It is proof, however, that our justice system, there is no statute of limitations for murder. And if you are involved in something, criminal activity of this nature, maybe you shouldn't go on a bunch of documentaries and podcasts to talk about it. It just seems like it might be a bad idea.

Some things you take to the grave with you, this might be one of them. Scott, that's one of the things. He has been quite vocal, writing a book and others talking about how he's one of the things. He has been quite vocal writing a book and others talking about how he was actually in the car when the shooting took place. Dumbass. Just a big dumbass. Scott, I said it the nice way. Did he check with his lawyers?

Say what? I said it the nice way, Scott. Yeah, he's a dumbass. Who let him write that he was in the car and gave the gun to the shooter and put it in his memoir, the life and times of an original gangster or street hustler or whatever it was. I mean, in 2019, by 2023, he's arrested. You think? I mean, he got lawyers.

His current lawyer had been with him for 20 years. You think he would have ran this book by his current lawyer and said, okay, you got co-conspiracy here. You have a murder charge here because you were accessory to it, and you helped him do it. You were the mastermind behind it. Let's put that in a book and publish it and just take our chances, right? Because

you're an OG now, and nothing's going to happen to you, dumbass. Hey, you can always depend on folk running their mouths, Rebecca. That doesn't make no sense. Look, Vlad TV got depend on uh folk running their mouths uh rebecca look vlad tv got another one i mean he's been on vlad tv numerous times talking about this quite frankly i don't know why it took the las vegas police department so long to actually go and arrest him and continue on with the investigation

he's been talking and blabbing um out hand, like, for the last four years. So, yes, the murder happened 27 years ago, but when you have someone who's making a statement against self-interest and admitting their part in a high-profile murder, like, it shouldn't take four years to piece it together, but here we are. I am curious about the timing. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, let's talk about something that President Joe Biden promised when he was running for president. And the White House says he has delivered today the announce the cancellation of another nine billion dollars in student loan debt.

This is canceling the debt for one hundred twenty five thousand more student loan borrowers. And of course, President Biden explained that this is not a new program. They're simply correcting some errors in what he called the broken student loan system. We fixed what's called the income-driven payment repayment program. Here's how that works. If you have an undergraduate loan, after 20 years of straight paying, not missing paying the debt on a monthly basis, whatever is left of your loan is forgiven after 20 years. But because of administrative failures, some people who did pay their loans for 20 years or more did not get the debt relief they had earned. We fixed that and made sure borrowers got credit for every single payment they made. As a result of these changes, today I'm announcing my administration

has approved an additional $9 billion relief for 125,000 borrowers in just the past few weeks under that program. With the latest debt cancellation in total, my administration has canceled $127 billion in student debts for nearly 3.6 million Americans. This kind of relief is life-changing for individuals and their families, but it's good for our

economy as a whole as well. By freeing millions of Americans from the crushing burden of student debt, it means they can go and get their lives in order. They can think about buying a house. They can start a business. They can be starting a family. This matters. It matters with their daily lives.

This latest progress builds on other steps we've taken. We made the largest increase in Pell Grants in over a decade, helping students and families making less than $60,000 a year get to college. We've made additional improvements in the income- driven repayment program. Before I took office, student borrowers would pay no more than 10% of their discretionary income on a monthly basis if they wanted to do it that way. But under my administration's plan, which is called SAVE plan, we reduced that to 5% for undergraduate borrowers. That's now the most generous repayment program ever.

Under this plan, no one with an undergraduate loan today or in the future, whether they're a community college or a four-year college, will have to pay more than 5% of their discretionary income to repay these loans. That's income after you pay for necessities like housing, food, and other necessities. You can sign up for the SAVE plan at studentaid.gov slash save. All right, folks, this new discharge takes it up to $127 billion in cancellation for nearly 3.6 million borrowers during the Biden presidency.

Rebecca, I mean, Scott, first I'll start with you. When you hear people say Biden hasn't canceled student loan debt, hello, now, of course, he tried to cancel all student loan debt. Supreme Court said he could not. I don't see how somebody could act like $127 billion for 3.6 million people

is no big deal. And it's going to take heat from the conservative right on it. This is going to invite lawsuits because he did it by executive order or through the Department of Education. But he's doing it as he's chopping it up one, and he's doing it to correct a faulty system, hoping that he'll survive the court challenges, which I think he's got a better shot at it. The other criticism he's going to take is, what impact does this have on a shaky economy whereby people don't believe that they're concerned about a recession, they're concerned about putting food on the table and gas prices are up and inflation and all these other things.

He's got to be prepared to respond to that. But he's keeping his campaign promise. And I'll be honest with you, he needs to lead in his communications. I know he's going to be talking about abortion and he's going to be talking about Bidenomics and he's going to be talking about democracy. But he needs to remind his constituency that he's kept this promise. He made this promise. He kept this promise. Because in the end, whether he's tied with Trump or not, whoever's on the ballot in November, right, this election is

going to be all about get out the vote. Who mobilizes more? We can't take anything for granted, whether Trump's indicted or convicted or in civil court for fraud. We've got to get out and vote, cover all our bases, because we can win this House, maybe keep the Senate, but we've got to win the White House. And it's all going to be about mobilizing voters. I think all of our money is going to go into those grassroots groups that are going to mobilize voters in all of these swing states, as you've said very often on this show. And here's the deal, Rebecca. Look, it's a bunch of Republicans. They don't want any student loan forgiveness.

I would say first, in response to Scott, every single election is about getting out the vote. Every single election is about turning out people to vote. That's every single election. And I would say that it is good that Biden is holding on to his campaign promises. And I want our viewers to understand that this isn't about necessarily young people, but this is also middle-aged people. You heard in Biden's remarks earlier today that these are people who've been paying for over 20 years and some of their loans were supposed to be discharged and it was not. So these are people who are in their 40s. These are also people who are in their 50s. These are also pre-retirees who've had to choose between paying off student debt versus saving for

retirement, which is why many of them are choosing to stay in the workforce a lot longer because they simply can't afford retirement because during those building years where they would have saved up for retirement, they were paying enormous student debt. The second thing that I will say, there are a lot of folks that I've seen today in response saying, oh, well, this doesn't benefit me. I had to pay off my student loans. Well, guess what? I'm also one of those people. But also, I'm someone who pays taxes for Medicare, and I don't directly use Medicare. I pay taxes that support Medicaid and Medicaid expansion, and I don't directly benefit from that. I pay taxes that support public education, and I don't directly benefit from those things. But I understand just like those three things and paying off and eliminating $127 billion in

student debt, it is good public policy. And I support good public policy and making sure that people who need access to health care have access, people who need access to skill sets and education to better help the economy are able to do so and then able to actually live their lives. So this is good, decent public policy that we saw today. Robert? Well, I think the issue that a lot of people have is that people underestimate the enormity of the problem of student loan debt. Biden's $127 billion that he's canceled student loan debt still only comes out to one-twentieth of the problem. There are over two trillion dollars in student loan debt in this country. So it's going to take

congressional action for this to take place. And of course, we want to try to take back the House in 2024, trying to increase the majority in the Senate in 2024. But right now, I implore people, there are 18 Republicans who are in districts that Biden won. If you are in one of those districts, start calling your representative's office. Flood the phone lines starting today, because if we can get five to six Republicans to vote for Hakeem Jeffries next Tuesday to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, we can flip the House right now, not waiting until the clown show gets things done, not waiting for them to propose Donald Trump as Speaker of the House.

We can actually flip the House with just five to six of those Republicans who are in Joe Biden districts right now. And that will give us the ability to pass a compromise bill through the House and through the Senate. They can do more to take a bite out of that $2 trillion. As Scott said, each of these executive orders are being attacked by groups led by Stephen Miller and other conservatives, wrapping them up in court for years. The Black Farmers, for example, that they're $10 billion tied up in court for over two years. The only way to get... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

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

Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires,

they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments Thank you. rebuild. It takes all of us. It's done through legislative action, and that means we're going to have to flip the House, and one of the ephemeral chances is going to happen next week, and the Speaker of the House vote start flooding those phone lines right now and try to make a difference. But you've also got to have, we talked about the people again, exercising the vote. Get the Gary Chambers video ready.

And we talked about what has to happen and how Black folks have got to use our power. We've got to learn to use our power. I'm going to go to a break. We come back. Gary Chambers, of course, he ran for United States Senate there in Louisiana. He put a video together breaking down how abysmal the numbers are of

African Americans voting in Louisiana early voting. You've got an oral election in Memphis and the numbers have been abysmal. Folk can't keep complaining about stuff. They're not using their power. So we come back. We're going to play that video and talk about it with our panel.

Top of the hour, we're going to talk about PepsiCo. What's up with their spending with black-owned media? I'm going to walk you through, and I reached out to several black-owned media companies today, and they told me point blank, they're spending virtually no money or no money at all. We sure as hell buy a lot of their products, and we'll walk you through that. Plus, in the next hour, Congressman Jim Clyburn will join us to talk about Republicans picking the next Speaker of the House.

They got a couple of crazy ones who have already thrown their names in the hat. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Havre. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a bad daughter.

Like you even hear black women like aspiring to be this ride or die chick. Aspiring to be this strong black woman at their own expense. Next on The Frequency right here on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, two facts that you need to be aware of. African-American women have the highest diagnosis of breast cancer than any other group in the U.S. And young African-American women are most likely to be diagnosed with one of the highest aggressive forms of breast cancer than all other groups. It is a disease that requires fast action, determination, and a whole lot of support. On our next show, we'll meet a young woman who's chosen an alternative path and approach

to tackling this disease. And you'll hear from our medical and support experts on how to maintain balance through it all. We encourage exercise. We encourage, you know, changing diet and making, you know, all those personal changes. That's on the next A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. I'm a genius saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius.

I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Joe Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Alright, folks. Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Our friend Gary Chambers

out of Baton Rouge is an activist. He really has been trying to get black folks to vote there in his state, Louisiana. And so he put this video together. If you want to see how abysmal our voting numbers are right now in the early voting period in Louisiana, you got a black man running for governor. You got a Democrat governor right now, John Bill Edwards. Republicans control the House and the Senate. They want to take back

the governor's mansion. Black people, our numbers are huge. What are we doing in Louisiana? Watch this. Let me give you the black voter turnout for the first day of early voting in Louisiana for our governor's race. Of 900,000

black people in our state, 21,000 went to vote on the first day of early voting, less than 100,000. 7,000 black men, 14,000 black women went to vote. Age breakdown, 18 to 20, 90 black people ages 18 to 20 went to vote. 1,011 between the ages of 21 and 34, ages of 35 and 44. My age group, 1213 people went to vote 45 to 54, 1968, 55 to 64, 3473 and 65 and up 13,940 black people showed up to vote. The majority of the people who showed up to vote were over the age of 65. And you wonder why your politicians are old. Put this on TikTok, okay?

Young black people in the state of Louisiana, ages of 18 to 20, only 90 of them went to vote. We make up 34% of the state. We're the second blackest state in America. If you want to be like Georgia, you got to vote like Georgia, Louisiana. If you want to end up with a metropolis like Atlanta, you got to show up and give your voice to the things that matter. Are you just going to sit home and let Jeff Landry take over? Let me show you Jeff. Jeff Landry, that name right there, as the attorney general in his official capacity on September the 28th in the year of our Lord. OK, 2023 filed a motion that was granted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals here in Louisiana to stop a hearing that was going to happen on October the 3rd to give a majority minority district consideration by a judge here because the Supreme

Court said that Louisiana is a state that is 34% black. We have six members of Congress. Two of them should be black. Currently, only one of them is black. So the courts are making them do it. And Jeff Landry is right now today suing to stop black people from getting that representation as attorney general what the hell you think he's gonna do as governor what do you think a man who as attorney general is trying to stop you from getting more representation in dc is going to do when he becomes the governor do your part today okay because southern and gremlin put their homecomings on election day october 14th is election day early voting is going on right now. And the black leadership at Southern and Grambling let homecoming be on election day,

October the 14th. So you already know that everybody going to want to have their pots out and boiling and cooking and barbecuing at the football game and at the parade instead of going vote because we put it there. Because we did that. Ain't nobody make us do that now. Okay. And we got young black people ages 18 to 20. Only 90 of them went to vote on the first day of early voting. You have from now until Saturday to go early vote. Let me say this as an advocate. People are always DMing me, calling me and saying,

Gary, we need you to do this. Gary, we need you to do that. We need you to show up. We need you to speak up. Do your part. This is your part today. I'm doing my part every day, taking risks that my family has to deal with, sacrifices that we deal with. It ain't going to sacrifice you nothing but five minutes to go down there and go vote. Do your part. That makes our job easier so we don't have to fight against radical, crazy

people like him. This is an urgent message. Black people in Louisiana, please share. Rebecca, homecoming on an election day. Well, I'm going to have to push back just a little bit because I was on Grambling State's campus and working with students who are part of their student government association, as well as the Royal Court. And what they're doing on October 14th, a week and a half from now, not this Saturday, but the next Saturday, they're actually shuttling people from homecoming to the polls. They actually start doing a series of events starting, I think, about three weeks ago of really promoting voting on their campus. So a lot of the alum, I think, about three weeks ago of really promoting voting on

their campus. So a lot of the alum who will be at the homecoming festivities, a lot of the people in the community who will be at homecoming, and a lot of the students who will be at the homecoming will be actively shuttled to the polls. So I do understand. But hold on. But here's the issue, though. If, okay, again, but if I'm not, so Grambling's in what, Ruston? No, it's not in Ruston. Okay, I'm sorry. That's where Louisiana Tech is. It's in Grambling. But here's the whole deal.

Grambling's in Grambling. Here's the whole deal. If I'm not from the city and I have not voted and I go to homecoming, I can't vote at that precinct. Correct? Yes. They're also encouraging people to vote before you get to homecoming. Right. But I'm just, but again, but the whole point, which Gary's point is, thousands show up for both homecomings,

and a lot of those people don't actually live in the city. Or the state. Or the state, and hopefully they vote. That's why he's showing those abysmal numbers. And it's like, yo, based upon that, and also based upon we know from previous elections, the numbers are absolutely awful. I just think it just grates on me, Robert, when I see those numbers and to know 900,000 African-Americans in that state

and when we see voting percentages that are 25, 28, 32, and then folks complain about what we don't get. Well, you know, I think part of it is we have a very disaffected political generation right now, particularly the young people, the people under 40. They are the people who grew up really in that hope and change generation, who really thought that they would be able to make a political change. And we've seen a lot of those people become disaffected in recent years. These political campaigns, they fundraise millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, every campaign cycle. I really want the parties to start thinking about

getting in there and working on the type of grassroots organizing that isn't just during election season, isn't just telling people turn out to vote, but actually talking to communities, holding town halls, holding events and rallies, where you can hear the needs of the community and make sure you are reflecting that in your campaign messaging to those individuals. Those numbers can still turn around, but it's going to take the type of effort needed to actually put money into grassroots organizations, into field organizers, into black radio, into black media to spread that message. Make sure that you are talking to trusted community leaders, making sure that you are at the churches, that you're at the fraternity halls, that anybody who needs an absentee ballot has the absentee ballot, that you're informing

and educating voters. Just look what the other side of the aisle has been able to do with the MAGA movement, the Tea Party movement, inside of a decade, and turning them into the political powerhouse controlling the Republican Party. We need to do the same thing on our side of the aisle, and that starts with candidates really reflecting the needs and issues of the community and making

sure they're campaigning properly, but also the party apparatuses have to start paying people and paying black media and paying black organizations to get the information out there. I agree with all of that, but Scott, I also still go back to if you are complaining about what you don't have,

if you're complaining, if you are, if you're in Louisiana and you saw that story about how HBCUs are underfunded and if Southerner and Grambling is on that list, well, guess who plays a critical role in that? The governor, the legislature. And so I get all of that.

But at some point, people who are disaffected are going to have to understand while you sitting your ass, your disaffected ass at home, it's some other people who are voting and getting their people in, and that's why they begin to get the kind of policies they want passed. I'm sorry, Roland. You basically...

Why is Grambling and the other school having homecoming on Election Day? Rebecca, you really going to bet on black people voting when they got a drink in their hand and going to party and going to the stadium or going to tailgate? They got to get on the bus to get shut off. I'll be honest with you. They don't vote without homecoming. So you want me to bet on them to choose voting over homecoming?

Over their frat brothers and their sorority sisters and the good time? I'm sorry. I ain't betting on black people like that. Because I got a history of them failing us. Sorry. I got a history of them failing us. So now if I got to put another barrier up, barrier,

then I'm sorry. It just ain't going to happen. And Grambling and the other school got to put another barrier up, barrier, then I'm sorry. It just ain't going to happen. And Grambling and the other school got to do better, in my opinion. This core issue, the simplicity of voting, just is amazing to me as to why we just don't exercise that right. Why we don't make it a priority. Okay, we're disaffected, right? So then the real issue for grassroots voting organizations is how do we reach them, touch them, and reverse and re-engineer that mindset to say, go vote. Do that first. You can do whatever else you want that day, but go vote first.

And by the way, vote up and down the ballot, state and federal, if it's all on there. All you got to do is check the mark, and then you can go do whatever you want to do. But do that first for all the reasons that Roland said. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information.

Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. And these organizations say, Rebecca, you say, but so far, you and I wouldn't place that bet if we were at a casino, that they're going to all go vote and then come back to homecoming. That's very disappointing. So I'll say this, Rebecca. Hold on, hold on. I'll say this, Rebecca. First of all, what the students are doing is exactly what they should be doing. But this is also where I

look to university leadership. Because here's the deal. When we talk about southern and grambling, there's grambling the institution, but then you've got the southern system. So the reality is, those, the leadership has to be thinking, wait a minute, our funding

comes from the state. So we're going to need, to me, the last thing you do is put your homecoming on an election day for the governor of the state. But I'm not just making this about Southern and Grambling. I'm looking at the total numbers

for everywhere. Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Opelousas, Leonville. We can go all around. The numbers are horrible, and all I'm saying is black Louisiana, and also all you Negroes out there who run your mouth on

YouTube and other platforms who are from Louisiana, why you ain't sitting here trying to get folks? Because again, people keep saying they want change, but our voting habits are going to have to change in order for you to get change. Rebecca, go ahead. So this is what I'll say.

First, I'll address with Grambling, and then I'll address the greater point that you're making. So first, Fair Election Center's Campus Vote Project, we work hand-in-hand with Grambling, with doing our HBCU initiative, with increasing voting of HBCU students. So one of the things that we've helped launch is this concept called Vote Coming, bringing our votes back home. So we're helping HBCU campuses link homecoming to voting, which is why we're calling it Vote Coming, because we're trying to show that civic engagement, the activities that you see during homecoming. You see fundraising for the community during homecoming. You see different community outreach. You see volunteering.

There's a lot of different things that you see at homecoming. And it's not just the parties. But, yes, it's the parties, too. But it's also partying with a purpose. And so we're connecting that community engagement, that civic engagement to voting. So they understand like, hey, there's a history and legacy with our HBCUs when it comes to voting, voting rights, as well as activism. And so we're trying to marry those two concepts together. The second thing is I do want to know when did the secretary of state actually release the primary date?

Was it after these schools already set up their homecoming calendars? Was it before or was it after? Because I will say the way the voting system in Louisiana is set up, is set up to intentionally disenfranchise black voters in that state. That's the reason why you have a late primary and the primary is not connected even to federal elections. And then you also see where there is this runoff scheme. A runoff scheme came out of Jim Crow because the assumption is that black voters won't show up. So, Scott, I hear your cynicism. And I would say with all of the work that Grambling State specifically is doing to make sure that they're showing the connection between. So I hear what you're saying.

I do think that there has to be concrete improvement, but I do see where we have our HBCUs that are trying to figure out how do we activate our HBCU communities. Well, here's the deal. Go ahead. You missed my point here. Real quick. Real quick.

Real quick. Real quick is I agree with everything you're saying. I like the whole thing, voting a homecoming. But you defeat yourself by holding homecoming on the day when they need the votes. If General Wonkang first, Southern and Bramley can just move that date. I'm sorry. Because then you take them to the polls on that day and you go to homecoming a week later or a week earlier. That's my best thought.

I hear you. I don't disagree with your goal. It isn't that simple. Because when you set up homecoming, you're also coordinating across some of the other HBCUs. You're also coordinating. Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You're giving me excuses.

No, no, hold on, hold on. First of all, wait, wait. This is real simple. Typically, first of all, if you look at the history of elections, if they're going to be held on the second Saturday in October, okay, you can look at that. Then guess what? You put homecoming in September.

That way you don't clash with it. I'm just saying that's an easy fix. But the bottom line is, here's the deal. Bottom line is, it's already set. Black Louisiana, don't wait for that day. Early voting is happening right now. Go vote now. Go vote now.

Those numbers Gary laid out are awful. We're going to stay in contact with Gary as he's tracking those particular numbers. All right, folks. Got to go to break when we come back in the next hour. We're going to talk about again, our continuing conversation regarding black-owned media and the lack of resources that we're getting from major companies. I told you that I'm going to be talking about ad agencies and talking about specific companies.

And so one of them, I'm going to talk about PepsiCo. We've been trying to deal with them for the last two, two and a half years, have gotten nowhere. And so I'm gonna unpack this issue because I believe that PepsiCo can be doing better when it comes to black owned media. And frankly, they are not. Plus in the next hour, Congressman Jim Clyburn is gonna be joining us, talking about the mayhem

in the house when it comes to choosing the next speaker of the house. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause

to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff.

So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Check some money orders. Go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. All change is not growth. Right. But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot.

Well, I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business. Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change. Respectful of pivot. Yeah. Fearful? No. Uh-uh. No. My name is Lena Charles, and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world.

My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia Games. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have Black-owned media. All right, folks, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered. So you've constantly heard me talk about on this show

how critically important Black black owned media is, how critically important the resources that for black owned media, how these things absolutely matter. And one of the things that we have seen, we've seen how some companies have stepped up when we in the black owned media collective began to make make these issues known in the wake of the death of George Floyd. And just so you can understand when I talk about how significant this is and how this has been going on for quite some time, John H. Johnson and the leaders of Essence magazine, they were talking about this stuff 30, 40 years ago. In fact, 23 years ago, 23 years ago, when the New York Times did a story on the sale of BET, I want you to read this here. Okay, go to my iPad. It says, this is dealing with BET and Viacom. The two companies are betting they will be able to increase the advertiser revenue at Black Entertainment Television, which reaches 62.4 million homes.

But where, in Mr. Commerzen's view, as Merrill Commerzen, who was the then CEO of Viacom, the network has had a tough time getting the ad revenue that its audience merits. Blacks represent 13% of the population, but capture just 1% of advertising spending, according to Christopher Dixon, USB Warburg's entertainment and media analyst. Now, Mr. Carmesan said the sales staff could say to advertisers, how can you justify these lower rates other than discrimination? And obviously, you don't want to discriminate. BET has been getting its prices up, but we think we can accelerate the process. Now, if you read Brent Pulley's book, BET and the Billion Dollar Bet, the unauthorized biography of Bob Johnson and BET, you read that particular book,

he writes in that book that BET was getting, when it was black-owned, it was getting $1,500 for a 30-second ad. When it was, and what MTV was getting, was $8,000 for the same 30-second ad. That's what Mel Carmisen was talking about. He was like, when Mel Carmisen and Sumner Redstone

saw what BET was getting, they were shocked. They were trying to figure out how is BET a similar size of a company with MTV, yet MTV was getting $8,000 and BET was getting $1,500. My frat brother Todd Brown, who worked at Ebony, he talked about how Ebony was getting $20,000 for a full page ad, yet Esquire, a smaller magazine, was getting upwards of $200,000 for the exact same ad. And so I'm talking about even these black media companies, how we may actually get some advertising, but then what then happens when we don't get any advertising? So even when we do get the advertising,

we're actually getting less money than white media. So when a lot of y'all out here talk about, man, we need black media for this, and we need black media for that, we need black-owned media doing this and doing that. This is real simple. We can't do any of that because we can't hire the additional people because we don't have additional revenue to hire the additional people.

Then what the ad agencies and the brands then do, oh, you can't reach more people. Well, guess what? I can't reach more people because I can't market myself and do take. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

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

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

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care.

It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Check out billboards and digital ads and sponsor events because I have smaller revenue. Do y'all understand how this particular game is played? And so what then happens is same companies, though, greatly depend upon African-Americans buying a lot of their products.

And so when we were talking about these issues, we were talking about, again, what's being done. And I remember, I remember because I saw some Pepsi ads, I think it was in the BET Awards. This is 2021. So what happened was I sent this tweet to one of the black board members at PepsiCo. Darren Walker is the president of the Ford Foundation. Great brother who's doing some amazing things there. And so here's the tweet.

I said, hey, Darren Walker, would love to connect with you to discuss Pepsi, PepsiCo, because he's also on the boards of Square and Ralph Lauren, and their commitment to spending money with black-owned companies, especially black-owned media. Please drop me a DM. Never heard from Darren. I also sent Darren an email today saying I was going to be doing this segment. And again, Darren's a good brother.

But here's what happened. I got an email immediately from John Banner. John Banner worked at PepsiCo. John is now over at McDonald's. We had a great conversation. John hit me up. And John wanted to facilitate a meeting. And so we did that meeting. And again, I'm going back in my emails here and I'm checking

to see. And in fact, so the email, don't show it. So the email went out on July 13th. And he said, I hope my email finds you well, safe and healthy. If I may, I wanted to follow up on your tweet below. Would you have time to connect? Sure. So we did that. And so we connected. We got an email. And then what ended up happening was we then did a meeting.

And in that particular meeting, we met with a number of different people. Derek Lewis, who was the then head of multicultural for PepsiCo. Christina Tyson, who supplied diversity for PepsiCo. John Banner, the head of sports. I believe they had, I believe the head of their foundation was on there as well, which I never understand. So let me just go ahead and say this as a side note. And I want you all to understand something.

We are a media company. I have New Vision Media. Under New Vision Media, I have Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's a separate company. Black Star Network is a separate company. This is a media company. I don't have a 501c3. But let me tell you what often happens with black-owned media.

When we do these meetings, in the meeting, they'll have the foundation person or the diversity person. When they meet with Disney and Comcast, the foundation person ain't there. The DEI person not there. Do you know who's there? The chief marketing officer. Do you know who's there?

The chief investment officer of the ad agency that represents them? That's who in the meeting but what happens is black-owned media We are treated like we're just this different animal as opposed to treating us like a media company It's okay. So we took the meeting So we began to have conversations and And so we had this conversation. Again, it's a great conversation. And so as I look at my emails that went through, there were some meeting requests that went through as well. In fact, I remember as I'm scrolling through, I believe we had a meeting that was in October of that year and it

was with some different folks and I remember John said, Roland, thanks so much for following up. Hope all is well. We would very much like to connect with you and your team to discuss our efforts to support the black community and specifically black-owned media. Susan will work to gather the correct

members of the PepsiCo team. Let us know who she should coordinate with. Many thanks and looking forward. So we did that. We chatted with them, did all sorts of things, and then we actually had the meeting. So then we had the meeting. Okay, so then all of a sudden those things happened.

Then nothing happens. So now understand, Urban Edge Networks, Hardy Pelt, Todd Brown, they handle third-party sales for us. And so they begin to work on an initiative because they begin to acquire some rights of various gains with HBCUs. And so they begin to talk to a variety of people, General Motors, P&G, PepsiCo, things along those lines. Well, they're in a lawsuit right now with the SWAT over that very issue. And in that particular lawsuit, I'm just going to pull it up here. This is the, I'm just going to show you the top of the lawsuit. So this right here, go to my iPad, is the lawsuit where they are suing Weber Marketing and Consulting and the Southwest Athletic Conference and Charles McClellan, who was the commissioner. This is Urban Edge Network.

Now, in this particular lawsuit, they're suing them, claiming torturous interference because of some things that they allege that SWAC did and Weber Marketing did. But I just want you to see this here. Go to my iPad. It says right here, number 36 on page 12. Within the last year, UEN instituted an oral agreement with PepsiCo through direct communications and negotiations with Christina Tyson, director, Supply Diversity, Global Procurement, located in Dallas, Texas. PepsiCo agreed to start advertising during HBCU Games on UEN's streaming channel.

Scott Finlow, Global CMO, Food Service at PepsiCo, said the $50 million PepsiCo has put towards black-owned businesses over five years as a part of our company's larger commitment of over $400 million towards advancing racial equity, racial

equality within the company, industry, and communities we serve. Based on negotiations between the parties, UEN expected to be a significant part of PepsiCo's growth initiatives. Full stop. Come to me now. Now, you see here he says, PepsiCo, the $50 million PepsiCo has put towards black-owned businesses over five years.

Okay, y'all. $50 million over five years. That comes out to be $10 million a year. Now, I'm going to show you something here that's going to blow you away. I need you to understand. See, some of y'all who are watching right now, y'all are going, oh, my God, that's amazing. That's wonderful. Go to my iPad.

This right here is the close of business today of PepsiCo's stock. PepsiCo closed at $168.91 for their stock. I want you to see something right here. It's called MKT cap. See that MKT cap, folks? That's called market cap is $232.52 billion. Let me say that again. It's $232.52 billion. 10% of that represents $232 million. 10% of that represents $23 million. You keep going down, the numbers get smaller and smaller. So when you talk about PepsiCo wanting to commit $50 million to black-owned businesses over five years,

we ain't talking about a lot of money. Now, some of you may be saying, well, okay, Roland, you keep saying PepsiCo. Well, what's all of PepsiCo? PepsiCo is not just Pepsi. Here are the products that are under PepsiCo. Please show it. You see right here, Pepsi, Lays, Mountain Dew, Doritos, Gatorade, Quaker. So when you go to the store, you're buying PepsiCo products.

You see bubbly sparkling water, Ruffles, Cheetos, Mug Root Beer, Brisk, Nuts and Seeds. Keep going. Tostitos, Sierra Mist, Starry, Stacy's, Sobey, Propel. Keep going. Off the Eatin' Path, Pasta Rony, Pure Leaf, Pure Delicious Simply, Rice-a-Roni, Sun Chips, keep going. Frito-Lay, Jack Link's, The Walking Taco,

Al Valle, Aquafina, Aunt Jemima, Baconettes, Baconettes. Bear, Boat 24, Cap'n Crunch, Chesters, Cracker Jack, Dole, keep going. Drift Whale, Evolve, Fritos, Fruitly, Funyuns, Game Suck, keep going. Grandmas, those are the grandma's cookies there. A Health Warrior, Hilo Life, life water, Lipton, Lusa, Manzanita Soul, Maui style, Miss Vicky's, Mother's, Munchies, Ocean Spray, Pop Corners, Red Rock Deli, Rockstar, Road Gold, Sabritas, Sabratones, Santitas, Neon Zebra. Hope I'm pronouncing those correctly.

Let's see here. Nut Harvest, Smart Food, Spitz, Soul Boost, Tazo. They have a deal with Starbucks with some of their coffees. Variety Packs. Yatchat. Is that it? Now, if I go through that, I'm thinking about those pretzels I bought, Gatorade I bought. I love the chili cheese Frito-Lay.

I'm thinking of Funyuns. My family loves Funyuns. I eat oatmeal, quick Oatmeal. So it's a ton of those products that I bought. It's a ton of those products that black people buy. So now you have to ask the question,

alright, PepsiCo, are you spending fair share with African Americans? What you're spending on black-owned media? So earlier, I sent an email to several of the board members. I sent an email to several of the board members. I sent an email to some others as well, because I wanted to know that. And first of all, let me just show you here. So this here is the, I'm going to show you first, leadership. So this is the leadership

of PepsiCo right here. So you see their chairman and CEO, go to my iPad, you see the other executives, you see Tina Bogolke, who is the global chief diversity and equity and inclusion officer. And then if I keep going here, and I keep going and keep going and keep going, and then finally I get to, so hold on, I'm gonna find, what was the name here? Cause that was a woman who was the CMO, I get to, so hold up, I'm going to find, what was the name here?

Because that was a woman who was a CMO, Jane Walker Lee. She's Executive Vice President, Chief Consumer and Marketing Officer. Then I get to the brother, Stephen Williams. He's the Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Foods. So their executive leadership is only one African-American, all those positions. Okay, I got that. So then I go over here. And then, so then I want to show you their board members.

Because this is also important. We talk about leadership. We talk about members of the board of directors. These things matter as well. Because when we talk about leaders, and so here you go. So you got the chairman of the board. You got Segun Agbaje, his brother, who is with the CEO of Guaranteed Trust Holding Company. He is here. Then you also have Edith W. Cooper, who is the former executive vice president and global head, human capital management, Goldman Sachs Group.

You got other board members here. Then, of course, you have Darren Walker, who is with the president of the Ford Foundation. I see Cesar Conde. He's right here, chairman of NBC Universal News Group. And so all these people. So I'm showing you that. So they've got representation of African-Americans on the board of directors. And that's critically important. It's great to have a CEO in Stephen Williams. That's important as well. But when we talk about African Americans in business, we're not just talking about black folks who are on boards and then black folks who have senior positions.

We also are talking about being in the deal flow. We're talking about business being done. We're talking about business being done. We're talking about spending being done. And I can tell you what has transpired over the last two years with us specifically has been nothing. Now, I had a call with Christina Tyson, and one of the things we talked about was that, well, because here's the deal, you had UEN with their lawsuit against them. First of all, Urban Edge Network is third party. They are their own company.

I can handle my own sales. So I've done meetings with their ad agency. So I remember we had like a year went by. I was like, yo, I ain't heard from your people. And so all of a sudden, we began to have those calls. And those things began to happen. And again, if I sit here and go through my emails here, I see lots of emails back and forth. And we're having this meeting and that meeting.

And I'm literally sitting here going meeting set 923. And then I'm sitting here seeing stuff in January. I remember when that was an issue with the black farmers we reached out and PepsiCo got a statement from them I remember again when we had an additional meeting with the PepsiCo folks in

April of 2022 so we had that and then all of a sudden so it's April of 2022 then guess what nothing was happening. And so then I began to say, okay, fine. What's happening? And so began to reach out to folks, and I began to go through here and different activations and things along those lines.

And then I'm looking here at my email here. And that was November 11, 2022, there was a meeting I had with, it was an email, Christina Tyson, Katie Hannafee, their media folks. And guess what? We had a meeting set up. And then, of course, I see November 11. And then all of a sudden, and then we have, Here we go. And so you see right here, if you go to my iPad, it says objective PepsiCo team to learn about Roland's non-news media opportunities. Come back to me. Why is that important? It's because what often happens is these companies will say, hey, we don't buy news shows. We don't

buy news shows. So therefore, you know, we really we really can't do your show. Well, that's not a problem because guess what? We've done major deals, seven-figure deals with Coca-Cola. We've done customized content. We've done deals with Procter & Gamble. We've done deals with General Motors. So we've done deals with major companies. So right now, we have a seven-figure deal with McDonald's. So there's no other major let me be real clear y'all you don't get bigger and we and we've done stuff with apple so we've done customized content deals with apple png coca-cola mcdonald's general motors five of the biggest brands in the world. So there's no excuse. That was November 2022.

Well, guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing goes on. I literally said, I remember November 8th, 2022. Hey, Christine, it's been three months we've seen anything. And then all of a sudden, here we are in November. Like, what's up? January or February 2023. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot

your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing, Benny, the butcher, Brent Smith from shine down. Got be real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer, Riley Cote,

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing

non-profit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us.

I do a meeting with their people. Again, nothing. I see their folks at Essence. I meet the new brothers of Older Mother Culture. He said, hey, we need to get together. You're absolutely right. That was July. Nothing. I see one of their folks at Invest Fest in Atlanta. She's like, hey, our people need to get together.

Says, hey guys, you need to get together with Roland. That's in August. Nothing. So here we are in the last quarter of 2023, nothing from PepsiCo. I sent their various executives a question. I sent them emails earlier asking them, and I sent this to their chief diversity officer, CEO of North America Beverage, CEO of North America Packages, as well as a CMO.

And I asked them a series of questions. I asked them. and what I wanted to know from them, and this is exactly what I said. I said, what is the annual marketing advertising spend of PepsiCo? Please provide numbers for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023. What is the total black-owned media spend? Do you have an established goal of what you desire to spend with black-owned media, 1%, 2%, 3% or higher? What is the total spend of contracts from PepsiCo? And what is the percentage and dollar amount with black-owned companies?

Thanks a bunch. Look forward to hearing from you. Why am I asking all of that? I'm asking all of that because, folks, these companies want black consumers to keep buying their products, but they do not want to then invest in black-owned businesses. I have Marc Morial on here, and we talked about the five-year, $10 million initiative they have with the PepsiCo Foundation to stand up black restaurants. I absolutely support that. We talked about the initiatives that PepsiCo had trying to drive $100 million in receipts to black-owned businesses over five years. I support that even though they can't track

it, and that's coming from one of the members of their advisory committee. But here's the reality. If PepsiCo is spending $3 billion annually on advertising and marketing, and if PepsiCo spends just 5%, just 5% of their marketing advertising budget with black-owned media, that's $150 million a year. Over five years, that's $750 million. So if I compare that comment that was in the UEN lawsuit, if they were trying to spend $50 million over five, and in the advertising space alone, you could spend $750 million over five. Don't you think that changes the look and the face of black-owned media? Do y'all now see how we are being starved out of business by not being able to get resources? I see ads everywhere. I see ads

on mainstream media. I see PepsiCo ads on black-targeted media. But what about black-owned media? I reached out to several of my friends in black-owned media. Do y'Co ads on black targeted media. But what about black owned media? I reached out to several of my friends in black owned media. Do y'all know that Butch Graves' dad, they were PepsiCo bottler for about 20 some odd years. They haven't had any PepsiCo advertising in at least a decade. I reached out to my folks at Rolling Out, Munson Steed, nothing. I reached out to Ben Chavis, head of the NNPA, the Black Press of America, advertising nothing. Shall I go on?

I reached out to, so these are black-owned media companies. Nothing. Now, PepsiCo does business with Revolt. They got a great deal with them, but this is not about one black-owned company getting advertising. I'm not just concerned about me.

Oh, by the way, I dropped by the NAVOD, National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters Convention, ran into the ad folks for Urban One, Radio One, TV One, PepsiCo, nothing. So now I'm curious. If it's not Black Enterprise, if it's not Urban One, if it's not NNPA, if it's not Black Star Network, if it's not... Who else y'all spending the money with? Because we're not talking about a number of larger black-owned media companies. When we challenge these companies, when we challenge General Motors, who haven't spent a dime with us in 2023, even though I made clear last year I wanted a multi-year commitment, and they didn't even tell us what they were going to spend in 2024.

Guess what happened? We found that all these companies were spending one or less than 1% with black-owned media. And because of our pressure, all of a sudden they started making commitments. Oh, we're going to do two and four and six and eight. But had we said nothing, we will still be getting 1% So if y'all want to know why black-owned media is small Do you want to know why black people can't contribute more money to HBCUs? If you want to know why we can't buy our own tables at the NAACP National Urban League Convention

Do you know what you want to know why we can't contribute to Congressman Jim Clyburn's campaign or other CBC members or anybody else. It's because black-owned media and black business overall are literally being frozen out of the economic pot in this country. They are feeding us a crumb and trying to convince us it's a meal. Hell, PepsiCo not even feeding us with their chips and their drinks. We literally are getting nothing. And so you as the black consumer do understand they want you to keep buying their products. They want you to keep spending, but they do not want to spend with black owned media. Now, I told PepsiCo.

I'm going to give you all time. I'm going to give you all time. I'm going to give you all time. I think two and a half years is long enough. And I said, I'm doing this show. We don't get to where we are if black folks remain quiet. Operation Breadbasket was not about that. Reverend Leon Sullivan was not about that.

And I'm telling y'all right now, let me be real clear. I have absolutely nothing to lose because they gave me no money two years ago, no money last year, no money last month, no money last week, no money yesterday. And this is not about old rolling. You just wanted to get some money. Here's the deal. I can't hire more reporters. Do y'all know I would love to have one or two reporters whose sole job is to cover the 58 members of the Congressional Black Caucus? I can't afford it because then we can't get the advertising.

But you know what I see? When I go to CBCF, I see all these companies spending money on parties. But are you supporting the black-owned companies who are doing the work the other 364 days a week? What I'm trying to get everybody listening to understand is that we are never going to have robust black-owned businesses as long as corporate America, these major brands, and the ad agencies are freezing us out of the $322 billion being spent annually. You are the consumer. There are at least eight or ten, go through them real quick. So I spend money, Roland Martin spends his own money on Lay's, on Gatorade, on Quaker Oats, on Ruffles, on Cheetos for my nieces and my other family members.

That means that I, as an individual, am literally spending more money on an annual basis than what PepsiCo is spending with me and five other black owned media outlets. That literally makes no sense for a company with a $232 billion market cap. Scott Bolden, nothing changes if we stay silent. And people tell me, man, why you got to call these companies out? We did the right thing, Scott. We had the meetings. We put the presentations together. We showed capacity. We showed what we can do. We showed other clients that we've done it with.

And they still literally ignore us. Those numbers are incredible because we know that Black America spends, is the largest, one of the largest group of consumers in the country. I think it's a trillion or

three trillion or three billion. No, no, no. It's 1.3 trillion in five years. It's going to be 1.7 trillion. Go ahead. Close enough. It makes the case. But, you know, Roland, as I listen to your report, I'm sitting here thinking there's a lot of arrogance on the part of these companies. Yep. of these companies because we don't make them spend with black media because they almost

presume that black America as consumers and big consumers, they're going to buy our products anyway. They're not going to listen to this particular show and say, I'm going to stop buying those products because black people have gotten comfortable being in that consumer space. So on one hand, you're absolutely right. Anybody listening to your report would say, you're absolutely right. Anybody listening to your report would say, I agree with you. That's outrageous. Then as a strategist and as a lawyer, I would say, okay, so what's our leverage point? How do we make, compel compliance

or compel just some leverage on making them spend more with black media simply because black people consume their products? Well, Scott, I tweeted this out yesterday. I'd love to get your thoughts. Robert, I said there are two ways to impact these folks. Class action lawsuit and boycott. If they don't want to do business with us, Dr. King literally told us this on April 3rd,

1968, that we must redistribute the pain. Robert? Well, I think particularly with PepsiCo, we might need to be boycotting that in general because of diabetes and everything else and heart disease. I think we need to boycott a lot of those products just off top. But you're completely correct, and we have to start exercising economic power. Not only should we be looking to divest from people who don't invest with us, but we need to be investing in Black-owned businesses within

our own communities to grow them to such a size that they will be able to have the capacity to invest in Black media. You have to create an entire circle, an entire ecosphere around this. There are plenty of Black-owned soda companies in this country, small mom-and-pop shops that you can order on Etsy, that would love to grow, and they would love to have the opportunity to have those dollars that we are giving to PepsiCo every year. There are playing potato chip companies around here. They're made out of people's kitchens and sold at farmer's markets on the side of the road. They will love to have the support of the black community to get behind them. There's not enough simply to tell people who we aren't going to spend money with.

We have to vote with our dollars and start supporting people in our own communities, grow those businesses up, and then we're able to create the economic system where we can support ourselves. Go to my iPad. Rebecca, you get the final comment here. This is what Dr. King told us in his mountaintop speech, because too many of us focus on the mountaintop part, not what he said above. He said, we don't have to argue with anybody. We don't

have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores and to these massive industries in our country and say, God sent us by here to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow, and our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.

Rebecca? You know what, Roland? I'm thinking about in 2017 when PepsiCo decided to run an ad featuring a Black Lives Matter-type rally, and it starred Kendall Jenner breaking up the crowd in the rally and bringing peace because she was drinking a can of Pepsi. And as far as I know, I'd never heard of that particular agency that decided that that was a good idea to run that type of ad. I haven't heard that PepsiCo fired that agency and decided to actually work with inclusive agencies that would have known that wasn't a good idea. So I would say that Pepsi, PepsiCo has a history and they need to prove that they care about their consumers,

that they care about their black consumers and not just keep doing business as usual because it simply isn't working. My last point here, I need black board members to also be far more aggressive. Being on the board is not just you collecting a check or getting stock options. It's you being a voice there.

John H. Johnson and Earl Graves and others did not fight to increase more black people on boards and directors for those African Americans to get paid while other black folks do not. There's a collective call that you must be involved with and Dr. King in that same speech talked about

when we as black people move as a collective. And so, PepsiCo, I would love to hear from you. So would Black Enterprise. So would Urban One. So would the NNPA. So would Rolling Out. So would other black-owned media. But let me be perfectly clear.

Do not think for a second that I'm going to stop just with PepsiCo. I'm going to use this platform and use this voice to call out ad agencies and companies by name who refuse to do business with us. Dr. King made it perfectly clear that's what we're supposed to do, and I can guarantee you I'm not going to stop. Coming up next, we'll talk with Congressman Jim Clyburn about the drama on Capitol Hill dealing with these crazy House Republicans getting rid of Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network, Black-owned, all day, every day. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved.

Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our L.A. community rebuild. It takes all of us. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You are not soiled.

You will not be. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist

in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down.

The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a bad and an honor. Like you even hear black women like, aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman, so at their own expense. Next on The Frequency,

right here on the Black Star Network. What's up everybody? It's your girl Latasha from the A. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Joining me right now is South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn. Glad to have him on the show. Congressman, before we talk about the House deal,

I do have to ask you what I just talked about. Look, you met your late wife, Emily, in jail. You were out there fighting a good fight for civil rights and economic inclusion. How shameful is it that here we sit, look, you're 83 years old, I'm 54, turned 55 in November, here we sit in 2023, and we literally are still talking about trying to get more than a half a percent or one percent of these companies that do business in our community, but they don't want to do business with us like PepsiCo. Well, I want to thank you very much for your approach to this, Roland. You are raising an issue, as you said in your presentation. It's not new. You've quoted pretty extensively from Dr. King, who raised these issues way back in the 60s. He talked

about being able to sit down at a lunch counter, but being able to purchase the hamburger or whatever you're sitting down there for. That said to me way back then that our focus had to be more than the social side. The economics of this is very, very important. to support the Congressional Black Caucus, its foundation, its institute, its PAC, and its members. And as you said, you do that when you are able to get a good return on the investment you've made in Black stock and the investment you continue to make. And the only way that can be done is for those products that we consume, the manufacturer of those products, to be spending equitably in the African-American community. Now, I use that word equitably because that's the word I want to use. I'm not talking about equality here.

I'm talking about equity. And that's what we have to focus on. That's it. That's it. That's it. You're absolutely right. And the thing here, Congressman, look, people need to understand, you and I talk about this on the federal level. The federal government spends a billion dollars on advertising and the same thing as well.

When President Joe Biden talked about last year increasing black contracts, you and I talked about it as well. So for everybody to understand, I'm talking about increasing black-owned contracts in the government, in the private sector, all over, and it's ridiculous when we look at these small, paltry

numbers, and that's why during COVID, 41% of black-owned businesses went out of business because out of 2.6 million black-owned businesses, 2.5 million had just one employee. And people talk about access to capital. Here's the deal. I don't have any debt. I have no debt.

I don't owe anybody. So I don't need access to capital. I need contracts. If I get contracts, I've now got capital. Absolutely. That's how money turns over. In the African American community, it's got to get there first.

You can't turn it over four, five, six, or even seven times unless it gets there in the beginning. When it doesn't get there, there's nothing to turn over. And so all of the businesses that we have

in the African American community, from private to public, they rely upon these dollars getting into the pipeline to begin with. And that's where we are lacking tremendously. And we in where we are lacking tremendously.

And we in the Congressional Black Caucus Institute are beginning to focus a little more on that. And I think you're going to see much more focus in the not-too-distant future. Absolutely. And look, when I met with the Senate Democrats, I told them they need to be having a congressional

hearing calling these ad agencies to the meeting. And I'm talking about Dentsu, Group M, WPP, all of them to question them on their lack of advertising. Because I'm telling you, we're getting screwed by these agencies. But the brands, I told them, it's your money. You're sending them. So y'all should be doing more as well. And so we're definitely going to continue that. Let's talk about this speaker battle. Boy, yesterday was some of the dumbest stuff I've ever seen in my life. And how offended are you to see these folk on Fox News

and these Republican commentators and Republicans mad at Democrats for not saving Kevin McCarthy's behind? That ain't y'all job. It has never been our job. It has always been the majority party gets the chance to organize the House. When we were in the majority, we organized.

And I want to point out for your listeners here today, you got to understand the so-called close number that McCarthy has, this exact same number that we had when we were in the majority, exact same number. In fact, I was the majority whip. It was my job to count the votes. And I can tell you, there were times during that process because of absentees, because of deaths or resignations, when we were down to three, not four or five, but three. And we never had that kind of calamity in the House because we were always focused on the people's business. And when it came time for us to carry out our own personal agenda, it was nothing for Speaker Pelosi, Senator Hoyer, and myself to sit down and work out what we needed to do to keep our caucus together.

And nobody is as diverse. No caucus in the history of the United States of America is more diverse than the Democratic caucus is today. We've we had today of 200, now 212 people. We got all those religions in there. And if you go beyond that, we've got every source of strata that you can think of representing that caucus, all and most of them on the other side, they don't have 58 African-Americans in their caucus like we've got. They don't have eight. And so when you've got this kind of diversity, you've got to spend time listening to people,

helping them get the kinds of, reach the goals that they want to reach, so they will help you get yours. The problem on the Republican side, they won't listen. I was talking for a week, maybe more than that, saying all McCarthy has to do is to sit down

with Hakeem Jeffries and look at these numbers and come together with some kind of a bipartisan approach. I was talking to people on the Republican side, and there were Republicans over there waiting for an opportunity to coalesce with some Democrats to keep stability in the House. For some reason, McCarthy wouldn't do it. And then when he finally decided to put a bill on the floor, he lost over half of his caucus. But he got all but one of the Democratic caucus.

That's how he passed that bill last Saturday. And then he goes on Face the Nation on Sunday and blames y'all. And blamed the Democrats for having caused it. The next morning, that's not the way you say thank you for helping pass my bill. That was not our bill. Our bill had Ukraine in it. He took that out.

He put the bill on the floor to guarantee what, 47 days? Everybody's saying 45, but I think 47 days in the bill. And then he put in the disasters. And that was great. And so that was putting the people over the politics. So Democrats came in and voted for him. We put up 210 votes.

Two people were absent because of emergencies and one person voted no and he put up about 213 votes to 11. We voted 208, I believe, for him. So this is when I saw that Sunday

morning, I said, my goodness, why would he do this? Why would he say that? So now you have Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise who've thrown their hats in the ring, said they're going to run for Speaker. And Steve Scalise, isn't he the guy who actually said, and then they got some of them talking about

they may even try to put Trump in as Speaker. Isn't Scalise to say he's David Duke without the baggage? And then you got crazy Jim Jordan. I mean, Lord, we got more crazies on the way. Yeah, you know, I listened as the debate was taking place on the other side. If you notice on yesterday, we stayed out of their way.

We let them do their thing. And you had Republican against Republican, the whole country getting a chance to see on the floor of the House the kind of stuff we see almost every day in committees. You saw a little bit of it last week when you had them having this hearing on whether or not to impeach Joe Biden, they brought in four witnesses, three of whom came from them and one from the Democrats. What happened? All three of their witnesses said that they did not have anything close to what is required to impeach a person. Their witnesses said that. So that was a prelude to what you saw yesterday on the floor. So we

stayed out of their way, and I was listening to the debate. Now, one of those people you just put up there, what's his name, Emmer? Yeah, Tom Emmer. I listened to his debate, and he kept saying, Republican only, Republican only. That's not what the people want. We've got more than just Republicans in this country. We've got Democrats. We've got independents. We've got non-affiliates. These people deserve to be a part of this process as well.

And for him to tell you upfront, if you elect me speaker, it's going to be Republican only. Go back and listen to his debate on yesterday, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Because I'd heard a lot about this guy. I said, I'd like to know more about him. And then I listened to his speech. I said, well, I don't think I'd like to know more about him. And then I listened to his speech. I said, well, I'm going to think I need to know much more about him. Well,

the Speaker Pro Tem, I got to get to the last thing from you. This new little dude, he throws out Steny Hoyer and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of their offices. Speaker Pelosi said she didn't treat former Speaker Denny Hastert that way

when he was no longer Speaker. Like, that's really the first thing that you do as the Speaker pro tem? Retribution against Dems? Sound like somebody got Napoleon complex. Well, you know, I saw that last night, and I read some things about that this morning. And retribution is part of what this is all about. You know, their leader is running around the country saying to every government, I am your retribution.

They picked that up. Their whole thing is to mimic Trump. And they may not see what I see or feel what I feel. I can tell you, getting on and off airplanes, as I did today, listening to people in the airports, as I do, Trump is losing credibility fast. A lot of people, they are sometimes, they walk by me in the airport and almost whisper. Don't want anybody else to hear. Keep doing what you're doing. You got more friends out there than you think.

They are intimidated. And so Trump has bullied a lot of people. But he don't bully the attorney general up there in New York, because she told him that today. They got to know this guy is falling like a rock. And by the time we get to the president's election next year, I think they'll see that the vast majority of American people rejecting that approach to governance. Let's sit down. I would hope that the Republicans would put somebody up for speaker that even I could vote for, though they won't need my vote.

But if they put somebody up that's decent, and you've got only those eight or nine people who decided they don't want somebody that's decent, and that person they put up sits down with Hakeem Jeffries, we might be able to get enough votes on the Democratic side to offset their foolishness. And they can still be able to run the caucus or the House

with the vast majority of Republicans. Congressman Jim Clyburn, I appreciate it. I see that John Lewis book just over your right shoulder. Keep making good trouble. Oh, absolutely. And I have been blessed with my experiences. The book right next door.

Yes, sir. Thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. Okay, buddy. Thanks a lot. Real quick, my comment from my panel here. Robert, the Republicans, a total mess they've made of this whole deal. And again, how are you going to blame Democrats for y'all screwing this whole thing up? Robert, the Republicans, a total mess they've made of this whole deal.

And again, how are you going to blame Democrats for y'all screwing this whole thing up? Robert, go ahead. Well, I just want to remind people Republicans are in the middle of the worst week ever. We start last week with Donald Trump being declared a fraud on Monday. By Tuesday, or sorry, on Tuesday, by Wednesday, you're having the Republican debate where they talk about invading Mexico and curtains in Nikki Haley's office. By Thursday, you're having the impeachment hearings where the witnesses said that they don't need to be there. There's no point in this impeachment hearing. By Friday, there's a government shutdown countdown.

By 7, Democrats saved them from a shutdown. By Sunday, you have Matt Gaetz threatening to vacate Kevin McCarthy and Kevin McCarthy threatening to expel Matt Gaetz for having sexual underage prostitutes. Monday and Tuesday, Donald Trump is in the courtroom. Tuesday night, the Republicans are closing down Congress and heading home for the first vacation of the speakership in American history. Don't never catch a falling knife. Let these people hit the floor. Rebecca? Just the way this whole thing is playing out, I wouldn't be surprised if in some bizarro twist

that Hakeem Jeffries actually becomes the next speaker. I mean, at this point, anything is possible. Unfortunately, with McCarthy, he wanted the title, but he didn't have leadership. This is what happens when you elect people because of power versus electing people so you can actually govern and legislate. Scott? I love what he called it, ignorance on display.

Not ignorance, ignorance on display. But in the end, guys, none of this really matters. Of course, we're showing America how crazy the Republicans are and their lack of leadership. The only thing that matters is can the Dems use this and other arguments to win the House back? Those 18 to 20 seats, can they win the House back and get control of the House, raise the numbers

in the Senate and win that White House? It's a heavy lift, but it's quite doable in my opinion. Well, I'll tell you right now, if they're able to get that congressional seat in Alabama, get that congressional seat in Alabama, get the congressional seat in Louisiana, NAACP, LDF is going to Supreme Court arguing about the racial

gerrymandering in South Carolina. You got your two congressional seats that Ron DeSantis blew up in Florida, plus you got Georgia right there and then, of course, now you've, New York Democrats have got their act together. You're talking right there, potentially five to 10 seats that could easily flip to give the Democrats control of the United States House. But they also got to keep control of the United States Senate and reelect Biden and Harris to ensure that you're going to see the right kind of federal judges.

It keeps getting pointed to the federal bench. Robert. Absolutely. Robert, Rebecca and bench. I want to vote. Absolutely. Robert, Rebecca, and Scott, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, don't forget, Louisiana, go to the polls. Memphis, y'all got to be voting as well. Your election of your new mayor is in two days, and so please go to the polls there as well.

Folks, that is it. I'm going to keep y'all abreast of what the next action is. I'll wait to hear from PepsiCo, but trust me, to other companies out there, you're on my radar too, and I'm coming. Support us in what we do, folks. Send your checking money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App is dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear,

How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, Books A Million. Download your audio version on Audible. Also, download our Blackstar Network app. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You can also support our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week streaming channel. We're available on Amazon News, so go to Amazon Fire.

You can also see Alexa play news from the Blackstar Network. Also, check us out on Plex TV, on their platform as well. And this week, last week, we added, folks, two new platforms, Amazon Freebie, as well as if you go to live TV under Amazon Prime Video, you can see us there as well. Folks, we're building, getting bigger, getting bolder. That's why we're challenging these companies when it comes to advertising because it ain't all about CNN, Fox News, and ABC, NBC, CBS. We gotta have a strong black-owned media. As Dr. King said in his book,

Where We Go From Here, Chaos or Community, that must maintain its militancy in its quest to liberate black America. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now.

Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Big 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 scary.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing Thank you. We'll see you next time. the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Gregton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.