#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Judicial Nomination Process, SCOTUS Biden Immigration Policy, CA 10yr Old Handcuffed During Raid

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

6.23.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Judicial Nomination Process, SCOTUS Biden Immigration Policy, CA 10yr Old Handcuffed During Raid Top members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for the Biden administration to withdraw two federal judicial nominees, raising concerns about the nomination process and the nominees' backgrounds.  We will discuss how this gesture may change who is included in the judicial process. The Biden Administration has a big win on immigration, with the U.S. Supreme Court siding with the administration on immigration enforcement guidelines.  We will give you all the details about how this rule will change immigration policy. Also, President Biden is seeking to bolster access to contraception.  We will tell you how he prepares to sign an executive order to help codify women's rights. Plus, the family of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is suing the suspects named in his murder.  We will speak with the President of Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois about the significance of the lawsuit and get an update on the ongoing gang violence that's forcing thousands out of their homes.   We'll introduce you to the Infinity Center Youth Performing Arts Academy in our education matters segment.  The program directors of this nationally-acclaimed program will explain how they teach kids how to act on stage while keeping them out of trouble. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. 2023. I'm Michael Imhotep sitting in for Roland Martin for a bit. He'll join us later in the show. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Top members of the Congressional Black Caucus

called for the Biden administration to withdraw two federal judge nominees, raising concerns about the nomination process and the nominees' backgrounds. We will discuss how this gesture may change who is included in the judicial process. The Biden administration has a big win on immigration with the U.S. Supreme Court siding with the administration on immigration enforcement guidelines. We will give you all the details about how this rule will change immigration policy.

Also, President Biden is seeking to bolster access to contraception. We will tell you how he prepares to sign an executive order to help codify women's rights. Plus, the family of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise is suing the suspects named in his murder. We will speak with the president of Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois about the significance of the lawsuit and get an update on the ongoing gang violence that's forcing thousands out of their homes. We'll introduce you to the Infinity Center Youth Performing Arts Academy in our Education Matters segment. The program directors of this nationally acclaimed program will explain how they teach kids how to act on stage

while keeping them out of trouble. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin and Filtered Streaming Live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. -♪ He's got it all, 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 rollin', best belief he's knowin' Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin', yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Top members of the Congressional Black Caucus are calling for the Biden administration to withdraw two federal judicial nominees just a day after they were nominated. The CBC is frustrated with the judicial nomination process. Representative Troy Carter, a member of Black Caucus leadership and the sole Democratic lawmaker from Louisiana, has not been adequately consulted on multiple judicial nominations.

In a letter sent to the White House, the lawmakers said they would not support the nominations of Jerry Edwards Jr. and Brandon Long to the federal bench. Our objection is not to them as individuals. Rather, our position is predicated on the process used to select the nominees because it did not provide the opportunity for our meaningful participation. Over the past several weeks, your staff reached out to discuss judicial nominees for the state of Louisiana with Congressman Troy Carter Sr. This outreach was the first outreach made to Congressman Carter. In the first instance, Congressman Carter was informed that a nomination was imminent

and that the outreach was a notification and that the nomination would be going forward. Congressman Troy Carter was assured that for future nominations he would be consulted meaningfully. Now, two more judicial vacancies are being filled. These nominations were again presented to Congressman Carter as a fait accompli. During your campaign, you promised to remake the bench to look like America. The federal judiciary, particularly in the South, is disproportionately populated with white males. It is past time to bring more black and brown people and women to the bench. It is particularly

important that the black and brown people appointed to the bench identify as black or brown and that people in the community also identify them as such. The black lawmakers have also expressed frustration with the Senate practice of blue slips, which gives a single home state senator veto power over Biden's judicial picks. They believe that this practice is trumping considerations of nominees' backgrounds or ideologies. And with that, I want to bring in my panel. We are regulars on Friday. We have Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of corpus christie texas and kelly bethea communications strategy she's also an attorney as well out of washington dc how are you all doing today good thanks good good all right absolutely all right so let's start with you here ke Kelly. What are your thoughts here on nine

members of the Congressional Black Caucus asking for these two judicial nominees to have their nominations revoked or withdrawn? Well, like the article that I read said, it's not necessarily about their qualification. Surely they're qualified. But at the same time, these congressmen also realize that all skinfolk and kinfolk. So just because they are black or brown doesn't necessarily mean they have our best interests at heart. And this is what I mean when I say do not tokenize black people when you have these appointments, when you hire anyone, because it's not just about having a face in the room where it happens. It's about having the face and the mental wherewithal of keeping us in

consideration when you are in these rooms. And if that's not happening, you might as well be, you know, a white person or a person in power that has no regard for black or brown people. So I understand where these congressmen are coming from. And I would be insulted, too, because apparently this is not the first time that this has happened under the Biden administration. So considering all of that, I think they handled it as politely and as full of decorum as possible. It's not like they're calling Biden a B word on the Congress floor. You understand what I'm saying? Like the other side of the country, and Green and Boebert, right? We are still practicing decorum. We are still practicing protocol when it comes to the

the disagreement here, but the disagreement is valid. Right, exactly. And just so people understand also, once again, the Congressional Black Caucus, they weren't challenging or questioning the qualifications, or they weren't challenging whether the two nominees identify as being Black and act as so. But they're saying they should have, they should be able to question their, you know, get more information, ask questions, et cetera. Matt, what was your take on this? What do you think about this? And then also, there is frustration over the practice of blue slips being used in the Senate. We know blue slips are being used by Republican senators to block

nominations by President Biden to the federal bench. What's your take on this? So, first, I think, you know, I'm glad you brought out that this is really two distinct issues, which is how I read it. And I think that the Congressional Black Caucus, in their opposition to this process, was very neater and I think did it in a perfect way, the way Kelly mentioned, you know, adhering to the quorum and in, quote, a polite way, but basically making it exceedingly clear. We don't have a problem with the actual people. We have a problem with the procedure. We want to make sure that the procedure is proper. And, you know, it's partially my ignorance, but one thing I would be interested in is knowing how robust

that vetting process is with CBC members every time from the Biden administration before they proffer somebody as a potential nominee. Because if we were to learn that every single time before there had been some interaction and this time there wasn't, then that would definitely make us understand exactly why they would take umbrage with this. If it's kind of a one-off thing or if it's not consistent, then that begs the question of why did the administration take this tack? But in any event, I think Kelly's exactly right. And I think we have to be vigilant to make sure that we are not accepting merely being in the room, merely being a part of conversations, but not having anything

meaningful happen with them. And that's what I thought was interesting about the letter is they merely being in the room, merely being a part of conversations, but not having anything meaningful happen with them. And that's what I thought was interesting about the letter is they basically said, look, our problem is with you essentially deciding this and then not telling us about it, rather than letting us have a part in the actual decision-making process. So I think that's important. As to the blue slips part of the problem, I think that's particularly important for people like me that live in states like Texas, right? Texas is a very particularly conservative state. So if they were to nominate someone here, that might be a good judicial nominee. Well, if you have this blue slips process, Ted Cruz, who is not my favorite person on Earth, gets to decide if he wants to veto that, right,

or John Cornyn. And that's a problem because if you have this rule in place, then you allow a lot of judicial vetting and finding the right people to fill these vacancies to go by the wayside by virtue of one Republican senator's, you know, decision to veto it. So I think that practice needs to end. And I am interested in seeing how that practice has worked on the other side of the aisle. Again, you know, bringing my own ignorance out of it. But I do think that it's important for them to bring this to the table, because if the Biden administration wants to show coherence going into the next election with Democrats, then they can't leave Democrats out of important decision making processes, because as we talk about on this show every week,

this federal judiciary and the nominations there, too, is incredibly important, right? So many of the issues that we discuss cover the federal judiciary. And if we don't have a meaningful table in deciding who will be potentially nominated to that, then you don't have our voices heard, and that's a problem. Absolutely. And something I think is really important here is also the focus on judges coming from the South, especially African-American judges coming from the South. And we know there's been a concerted effort to diminish the political power of African-Americans in the South. So as a result of Reconstruction, the Civil War, et cetera. Okay. All right. So. 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 one, two, and three on May 21st

and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper.

The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is Roland Martin and Filtered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. When we come back, we'll talk about the Supreme Court ruling today on President Biden's immigration policy and let you know what that means as well. We'll be back in a few minutes. You will not regret that. 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. Here's all the Proud Boys guys.

This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch. I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig?

Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm Joe Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus, and I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. The U.S. Supreme Court reinstates the Biden administration's immigration enforcement guidelines. In an 8-1 ruling on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Texas and Louisiana lacked standing to challenge the federal government's guidelines dictating which unauthorized immigrants should be prioritized for arrest and deportation. Republican leaders in Texas and Louisiana challenged the policy in federal court last summer, arguing that it limited ICE agents from fully enforcing

immigration laws. The policy represents a departure from former President Donald Trump's hardline approach, which encouraged arrest of anyone in the U.S. without authorization. The guidelines issued in a 2021 memo from the Biden administration instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prioritize arrests of immigrants with serious criminal records, were threats to national security, or had recently entered the country illegally. Given limited and strained government resources, the Biden administration has emphasized

that it wants to be intentional about who is detained and deported. The Supreme Court's ruling is a victory for the Biden administration, which has been trying to shift the focus of immigration enforcement to prioritizing the arrest of those who pose the most significant risk to national security or public safety. And I want to go back to my panel with this. And Matt, I want to start with you because you are in Texas and Texas was one of the states involved in this lawsuit, plaintiffs in this lawsuit. We see a distinction between the Biden administration and the Trump administration.

We see under the Trump administration, a demonization of undocumented immigrants and sometimes immigrants in general, especially those coming from African nations. And we see a change in the prior to prioritization of who they focus on deporting. So what is your take as a as a Texan? What is your take on this U.S. Supreme Court decision? So first, you know, I don't have much confidence, unfortunately, these days in the Supreme Court and some of the decisions that they're making. But this one, I'm very happy that they made this decision. And I think the word choice that you made there was particularly astute, demonization, because that's really what we see as it relates to immigration. And that is really kind of part and parcel with a larger Republican policy that you see taking shape in Texas and in other states around the country where they are trying to demonize the idea that law enforcement and prosecutors

are not prosecuting every single crime and somehow that is tantamount to weak public safety. The reality is ICE has 6,000 agents. It sounds like a lot of people, but this country has 330-plus million people in it. 6,000 agents have a finite body of resources, and it's just a waste for them to be trying to deport every single person who's undocumented and beyond that. The reality is, the elephant in the room, is that in Texas and in a lot of southern states and a lot of places around the country, people don't really have issues with immigration if that keeps the cost of their food on their table lower. Right. Right. Right. We all people act like they really have this issue with immigrants, particularly here in Texas. I've known incredibly conservative people who tell I don't agree with with political immigration. But, you know, when I got to build a fence, you know who I'm going to hire. And that's the kind

of dishonesty that we see as it relates to immigration policy. So I'm glad that the Supreme Court not only knocked it down, but that the Supreme Court was very strong, Justice Kavanaugh, in his opinion, in saying, look, first, the executive branch is the one who has the right to decide these rules, essentially. So this is a constitutional question, right? Does the federal judiciary determine this or does the executive branch? And they said pretty unequivocally the executive branch does. And on top of that, they also said there's no precedent for us basically curtailing the executive branch's authority in this context.

And that's important because what he said in his opinion is exactly what would have happened. Had they ruled the other way, you would have seen Republicans start attacking other things saying, well, Biden doesn't have the power to do that, so he doesn't have the power to do this. He can't institute rules in this way. He can't institute rules through this bureau. And before you know it, the administration is mired in litigation where everything that they try to do is, you know, fought. And it's really for a political point. It's not because there's really any truth behind it. It's because the talking point is public safety, crime. These immigrants are coming to steal your women and children and all your

possessions, right? So I'm glad that they made this decision. And particularly in Texas, we have that dishonesty. And in the South, that dishonesty about immigrants and the truth of the larger part of the undocumented population, which is wholly not criminal and not out here committing, you know, heinous crimes. So this is good because this allows ICE to prioritize those that we know to be violent. And the last addendum to that is that's exactly the policy that we see them attacking prosecutors on here, the idea that prosecutors are not enforcing every single case. And what prosecutors are saying is, I have a finite body of resources. Wouldn't you rather me keep the murderer off the street as opposed to this

petty criminal? And this is the same principle, right? Go after the bad people. Don't go after the people who are undocumented purely because they're undocumented. So I think this is helpful. And I think this puts us right in the right direction. Okay, excellent. Thank you, Matt. And as I've said here on this show before, all those who are against undocumented immigration, the best thing that you could do is don't eat food that you did not grow yourself if you want to fight undocumented immigration. So, Kelly, what are your thoughts on that? You're in Washington, D.C., and what are your thoughts on this? Well, I just find it, just from a legal perspective, very interesting as to their rationale regarding this, right? Because since this court has been,

you know, mostly conservative, we've been seeing this tendency for states to have more rights, per se. Like, we saw that in Dobbs. We saw that with the Voting Rights Act case, not the one that just passed this session, but the previous one. So it's interesting to me what exactly they want the federal government to oversee and what they want the states to keep or to take, rather. Like, what exactly are states' rights? What exactly are federal rights? And it appears that if the federal side of things, if it already exists within the federal side, then they kind of don't want to mess with it

and they don't necessarily want to rock those waters. But if the states want to do something such as, you know, like with the abortion case or the like, it just feels more politicized to me. I don't know exactly how to describe it. Like the ruling makes sense, even though it's eight to one. I find that fascinating. But I want to figure out why I feel like it's a little hypocritical at the same time. OK. It's hard for me to describe at the moment, but it's like I'm looking at what he said, what Kavanaugh said. He's saying if the if the court greenlighted this suit, we could anticipate complaints in future years about alleged executive branch under enforcement, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like, well,

okay, maybe it's just because it's a law enforcement issue and they're, you know, pro getting bad guys off the street. I feel like if this was another situation that did not, that did not involve crime in some way, they would have ruled another way. Right, right. Well, it may have something to do with the fact that three of these justices were nominated by Donald Trump, and they came from lists from the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. That may have something to do with it. I don't know. But anyway, what I find interesting is that when Trump was running, there was all this

talk about deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, and everybody, all the Republicans knew that wasn't going to happen. OK, first, if you want to start undocumented, if you want to start deporting undocumented immigrants, start with the ones that work at Donald Trump's resorts and golf clubs. OK, you just start there, number one. Number two, it is logistically and it's logistically impossible to deport 11 million. One could be because when you try to deport them, you are responsible for whatever happens to them. They are in your care. They're in your custody. OK. Two, the economy will collapse if you try to do that. And what's happening now down in Florida with the law that Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed into law, and they're trying to crack down on undocumented immigrants, and then

the farmers are saying, we can't find people to pick the fruit and pick the vegetables and things like this. They thought it was going to be this rush of Floridians, I guess who are white Floridians or something like that, who are going to apply for these jobs, and they're not doing it, okay? And undocumented immigrants there or immigrants in general, they're going to other states and getting jobs there, okay, in agriculture. So one thing that I think is really important, they talked about utilizing the 6,000 ICE agents and utilizing them properly and focusing on the most heinous actors, those who are murderers, things like that. What do you take away from this and how prudent, even though this is, even though they may strike down affirmative action, but how prudent this decision was when it looked at the utilizing the resource. 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 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.

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

That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. ...properly. I'll go to Matt with this one. Okay, well, yeah, I'm glad you asked because I think this really is less a question of prudence

and more a question of purview. Who has the purview to decide the prudent way to approach it? And here, it's clearly in the executive branch. And the reason I think that's important is because our Constitution has separations in it so that certain branches have certain spheres of influence, right? And the moment you start allowing other branches to usurp that, then the way the system of

government is set up is no longer functioning properly. And I do think it is prudent. I think it's prudent, especially having been a prosecutor, hearing this, you know, decried all over the state of Texas. Law enforcement does not have unlimited resources. And let's keep it 100 percent real. They're not going to look for Western Europeans. They're not going to look for Brits. They're not going to look for Australians. They're going to look for Guatemalans and people from Honduras. Right. And Ecuador. They're not

going to look for Western Europeans. And if they were, what would happen? Right. Then that would be a question of, well, we don't want to have the same enforcement. We want to make sure that the Biden administration is prudent and is picking out people who are really dangerous, because this is one, a dog whistle for racism, number one. Right. And number two, this gives the administration the purview to decide the appropriate way to use those resources. As much as we talk about government waste and all these other things, it's absurd to hear this idea that you want law enforcement to pursue every single particular offense or potential offense when they've only got 6,000 agents. So I think this gives the Biden administration the latitude to do what makes sense. And that

is what the Constitution requires. And unfortunately, we don't see the Supreme Court towing that line in every case. But I'm glad that they did here because I think that that's what the law and that's what our system of government supports. All right. Well, we're going to leave it right there. And Roland Martin and Filter will be right back after this break. When we come back, we'll talk about President Biden is going to sign an executive order protecting birth control access. You're watching the Black Star Network. Early days in the road, I learned, well, first of all, as a musician, I studied not only piano, but I was also drummer and percussion. I was all city percussion as well.

So I was one of the best in the city on percussion. There you go. Also studied trumpet, cello, violin, and bass, and any other instrument I could get my hand on. And with that study, I'd learned again what was for me. I learned to what it meant to do what the instruments in the orchestra meant to each other in the relationships. So that prepared me to be a leader.

That prepared me to lead orchestras and to conduct orchestras. That prepared me to know, to be a leader of men, they have to respect you and know that you know them. You have to be the teacher of the music. You have to know the music better than anybody. There you go. Right, so you can't walk in unprepared.

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Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Hi, my name is Freddie Ricks. I'm from Houston, Texas. My name is Sharon Williams. I'm from Dallas, Texas. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamn believable. You hear me? President Joe Biden is seeking to bolster access to contraception, as the nation marks a year since the Supreme Court decision overturning federal abortion protections. Biden's executive order aims to strengthen and expand access to contraception.

Biden's declaration will direct the government to consider ways to make affordable over-the-counter contraception, including emergency contraception, more accessible, which includes pharmacies, employers, and insurers. Today, top Democrats marked the one year of the overturning of Roe versus Wade with President Biden attending a reproductive rights event where he spoke about the executive order to protect women's rights, to protect women's right to choose. After the desobstitution came down, I signed two executive orders. My administration

took a number of actions to protect the access to reproductive health care. And it's just the one I signed, the third executive order, which is to strengthen the affordability of high-quality contraception. The idea that I had to do that. I mean, really, think about it. Think about it. I know I'm 198 years old. But all kidding aside, think about that. I never ever thought I'd be signing an executive order protecting the right to contraception.

But the only sure way to protect a woman's health and rights is for Congress to pass a law. Okay, so that was President Biden. Now, Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley is leading the charge to get the Abortion Justice Act passed in Congress. Last June, the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the right to an abortion. The Abortion Justice Act is a comprehensive bill that calls for necessary federal investments in abortion care, including training, research, outreach, doula care, and innovation. It requires insurance coverage, including abortion care. It protects patients and providers from criminalization. It affirms a legal right to abortion and miscarriage care. It removes systemic barriers

to care, including for immigrant families, and it addresses disparity and systemic racism in the healthcare system. Representative Ayanna Pressley, who was joined by lawmakers and advocates who unveiled the bill at a Capitol Hill press conference earlier today, says the Abortion Justice Act will... In a just America, abortion care is normalized. And we speak plainly about the many varied circumstances where abortion care is sought. In a just America, bodily autonomy is treated as a right, codified in law, and your access to care

is not dependent on your zip code or your immigration status, your income or your background. Our bill moves us closer to a truly just America by protecting patients and providers from criminalization, removing systemic barriers to care, and calling for bold federal investments in abortion care, including training, research, outreach, doula care, facilities, innovation, and access. Let me be clear. A just America is possible. And I look forward to the day where

our bodily autonomy is our own. Before Roe was decided, people flung themselves downstairs or maimed themselves with wire hangers to terminate a pregnancy. I remember the stories of hearing women sitting on a toilet full of ammonia and waiting. Sepsis was the leading cause of death for people seeking abortion care.

Restricting access to abortions did not stop women from needing abortions. Rather, it only forced more people into dangerous and life- situations. If the so called, they call themselves the pro-life folk. If the forced birth folk, if that movement was sincere in its attempt to protect life, they will save lives by not only protecting access to abortion care, but by expanding access to sexual and reproductive care, health care. The truth is, we know that Roe, it was always the floor. That's right. It was just the floor.

So before, during and after Roe, marginalized communities have always faced barriers to care. As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to do all that we can to protect reproductive rights. And that's just what the Abortion Justice Act does. Vice President Kamala Harris participated in the exclusive roundtable discussion called One Year Post-Roe, a readout special with VP Harris featuring Joanne Reed and people impacted by the Dobbs decision. Here's some of that discussion. Amanda and I were in Tallahassee together, and her story, like so many, is a story of needing emergency medical care and being

denied because of the confusion. And what we're seeing, so many physicians and health care providers who are now really worried about what that does also in terms of access to all kinds of reproductive health care. In the top 10 states with the worst maternal mortality, in the top 10 states in the United States of America that have the worst maternal mortality, those top 10 states also have bans in place. Yeah. Think about what that means in the hypocrisy at play when people purport to say that their position is because they care about women and children. Right. But yet you don't have and don't give them access to high quality and affordable care, including postpartum care.

Let's also talk about that and what that means, again, in terms of, you know, really conflicting signals, but actually hypocrisy at play. With that, I want to go back to my panel, Kelly Bethea and Matt Manning. Kelly, we're going to start with you. So oftentimes, we hear, or at least I hear, insensitive things coming from men when it deals with women's reproductive rights. And oftentimes, women's reproductive rights just gets reduced down to abortion. And let's just be honest, some men may get mad at me. A lot of men don't understand women's bodies. Okay. Let me just put that out there. Okay. What, first of all, what do you think about this executive order and what are

some things that you think men should know when it comes to women's reproductive rights that we may not know? So two-pronged question. What do I think about the executive order? I think that Biden should never have had to need to sign it in the first place. Like he said, he's 198 years old, and he never thought he'd see the day where he would have to govern women's bodies in the positive, if at all. So I'm glad he signed it. It's some form of protection. But we've got a long way to go, again, because to your second point, what do men know about women's bodies?

Absolutely nothing. What do men need to know about women's bodies? Absolutely nothing. Mind your damn business. You're not the one birthing the kid. You are contributing by way of sperm to possibly

fertilize a kid, but you're not birthing that kid. Your teeth aren't potentially going to fall out because of that kid. You're not about to have postpartum depression because of that kid. You're not about to have your life at stake because you put your penis inside somebody's vagina. Like it's like, and I hate to be that vulgar, but that's really

what it is. Mind your business. That's it. Because that's all this is. This is about control. This is about maintaining your hubris and ignorance on the matter, because you can't stand the fact that there is an entity out there being women that knows something, anything more than you. That's all this is. And frankly, I'm tired of it. The fact that I'm 32 years old and there's a possibility that I will live longer than I've had the right to my own body is absolutely disgusting to me. So, you know, what can men do? Go to hell about it, frankly. I really do not care. I'm not in the mood. It's raining outside. It's gloomy. It matches my mood. I'm tired. Okay. So, Matt, let me come to you. So,

you're down there in Texas with Governor Greg Abbott, who said he's going to abolish rape. I don't know how he's progressing towards that. What are your thoughts on this executive order? In an allegedly free country, the people should not have to beg for the freedom to make decisions about their bodies. In an allegedly free country, the people should not have to beg their representatives to make decisions that allow them to have maximum freedom. In an allegedly free country, we should not have to beg for the basics of health care. In an allegedly free country, we should not expect that the states are going to now try to attack an executive order that expands access to health care. In an allegedly free country, we should have much greater access to health care, abortion

and beyond. That's what this comes down to, because in an allegedly free country, we should have much greater access to health care, abortion and beyond. That's what this comes down to, because in an allegedly free country, people are not subject to the whims of other people's religion and that religion shutting down their ability to have access to decisions with their body. What this comes down to is freedom. And this comes down to, obviously, women know their bodies better than we do. But beyond that, all people, by virtue of their existence, have the right to decide what is best for them as it relates to health issues. And that does not matter to me, if it matters to you, rather, that your opinion is this person should not do this by virtue of your value system. You don't have to make that choice. That's what's so absurd about this debate is this idea that the choice that you make somehow affects my life. It does not, right? So the fact that we even have to get to this point is a problem, and it shows the fact that we don't actually live in a free country. But beyond that, I would expect with this executive order, I'm glad that Joe Biden

took this step, but I suspect that Texas and other groups, right, states and groups are going to attack this and say he does not have the right to expand this access. And the problem for me is the fact that we even have to beg our representatives to codify something that we have as a natural right to make decisions about our bodies and our health care. I mean, it's really absurd that we even have to beg them to do that. And the fact that, I mean, I love Ayanna Pressley, so I'm not at all accusing her of this,

but the fact that what we see in the wake of these is we see people trying to increase their own political stock by being the one who comes out and champions a certain issue is a problem, because we the people should recognize we don't have to beg 600 people in D.C. to give us what's already ours. Right. The fact that Congress has moved swiftly on a law with this should be disgusting to everybody. And the reality with health care, frankly, is in our country, it is still entirely too commodified and it's entirely entirely too based on a patchwork of laws. It should be easy to get health care in this country, and it should be your sacred right to decide what health care you want in your life and what's appropriate to your life. And that's what I think, you know, this executive order should open the door to. All right. Thanks, Matt. Well, with African-American women dying— And just a little bit, abortion care is health care. That's all it is. I just wanted to put

that out there. I'm done. Right. And I know we're coming up on a break, but with African-American women dying at almost four times the rate of white women when it comes to pregnancy related issues, then all African-American men need to be concerned about women's reproductive rights. OK, Roland Martin and filter would be right back here on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, owning your energy. 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.

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. And how to use it. Trust me, it impacts the people on your job, who you attract, and even your love life. What you give out is what comes back to you.

So like attracts like, right? So if you come in with a negative space and I match that negative energy, then two seconds later, somebody else coming with more negative energy and then I was just always just matching negative stuff. And here's the kicker. If you're not careful, that energy can even be stolen.

That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Question for you. Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn what you need to do to become unstuck and unstoppable. The fabulous author, Janine K. Brown, will be with us sharing with you exactly what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career.

Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, I'm talking about that inner boldness that you have to take a risk, to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Jameah Pugh. I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My name is Jasmine Pugh. I'm also from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Stay right here. Alicia Clayton has been missing from Lansdow, Pennsylvania, since May 14, 2023. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 175 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Alicia Clayton is urged to contact the Yeadon, Pennsylvania Police Department at 610-623-1500. Virginia prosecutors dropped the charges against two Central State hospital workers in the Erval Otino murder case. Otino, a 28-year-old Black man, died on March 6 after being pinned down by Henrico Sheriff's

deputies and others while being admitted to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie. The state medical examiner's office concluded Otino died of positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints and ruled his death a homicide. Seven Henrico County Sheriff's deputies and three Central State Hospital personnel were initially charged with second-degree murder in his death. Second-degree murder charges against two of the three hospital staffers, Sedarius D. Williams and Darian M. Blackwell, were withdrawn. The remaining eight face up to 40 years in prison. The Sacramento, California Police Department is taking some heat after body camera footage of an officer handcuffing a 10-year-old Black girl was released

this week. The incident happened in February 2022, but was shown during Tuesday's city council meeting by the Office of Public Safety Accountability. Take a look at what happened. Police Department, probation search, open the door. Sacramento Police, probation search, open the door. Sacramento Police, probation search, open the door. Lights off. Lights off. All right.

Wow. Wow. Want to try these? This is not one of those ones that bends in the middle. It's actually a decent one. That's dead bolted. Just cover that longer. I got it. Hi. Can you unlock this, please? Can you open this screen door? It's the police department. Can you open this screen door?

It's the police department. Can you open this? Hey, Sacramento Police Department, come to the door. The door. Can you open this, ma'am? Come to the door right now. Listen, we're going to kick the door down, and we don't want to do that. Come to the door right now. Open the door.

Open the door. You're not a baby if you're not listening. Open the door. Come outside. Come outside right now. Who is here? Who is here? There's no one in here.

No, you don't get to go and hide and turn off the lights. That's not how this works. Okay, but you're going to be detained I don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. How old are you? I'm 10. Let me take this off you. I don't need you in here. Why are you running through the house and hiding and turning off lights? That's incredibly unsafe. I'm scared. I'm scared. Sit down.

You think this is going to be hard? Not going to come. Hey, when the police are at the door, you do not get to run and hide. The Office of Public Safety Accountability was detailing its findings, including over 100 complaints of improper search and seizure against Sacramento police officers between June 2020 and June 2023. The audit found the Sacramento Police Department does not have a policy regarding handcuffing a child.

The girl's mother reportedly submitted a formal complaint about the incident, which the department dismissed. Her mother says her daughter is terrified of the police. And that is a gut-wrenching video, and it's hard to hear that baby scream and say she is scared. So I wanna go to my panel on these two stories. Matt, I'll start with you down in Texas. What are your thoughts on these two stories. Matt, I'll start with you down in Texas. What are your thoughts on

these two stories here? So on the first story with the hospital workers who were originally accused of being involved in the murder, the prosecutor is apparently resigning and thought it was appropriate to dismiss those charges before she left. I was concerned at first that all charges had been dismissed, but they were not. My understanding is, I think as you reported, there are still seven deputies and other people who are still being held to task. And that's what unfortunately happens sometimes in cases. Prosecutors may cast a wide net until they're able to really investigate and drill down who was most involved. But that to me could actually potentially be a good sign. It could mean that they've got strong evidence against the others and they found that these

two they didn't have strong evidence on. So I don't think this is necessarily fatal to anything, not knowing the evidence, but knowing how cases sometimes evolve. This could be a sign that the prosecutors have strengthened the case and they have a strong case against the others. Secondly, as to the girl in California, I mean, this is a no-brainer case. I think that police department is going to have to pay a lot of money. In the state of Texas, a 10-year-old is actually the youngest person available or able to be prosecuted. So a 10-year-old being detained is absurd. And it's

particularly absurd in this instance, because I think the police would have had a decent argument that they did not know what was behind that door. Right. But once they made contact with her and recognized she was unarmed, she was not menacing. She was a child to then detain her and then berate her. You know, why would you do this? Why would you do that? I mean, yeah, she shouldn't potentially be turning on lights. And, you know, I can understand the safety risk, but you deal with the 10-year-old much differently than you deal with an adult. And this was unnecessary. And I think if they file a federal lawsuit, there's a really good chance a judge is going

to say, yeah, you don't have qualified immunity for this because this is just plainly incompetent. You don't put an unarmed 10-year-old in handcuffs. So I think it's absurd. And I hope they file a suit because I think they've got a stronger case than a lot of times you see in these instances. Exactly, exactly. And you know there's studies like from Dr. Philip Atiba Goff. His studies are at the American Psychological Association's website that talk about how African-American boys and then also girls appear older and more menacing at a young age, starting at age five as well, and then also

how African-American children are held to a higher standard when it comes to their actions and decision-making than their white counterparts. So, Kelly, what are your thoughts on these two stories? I think in both instances, you have a situation in which you were supposed to protect and serve. And in both instances, they failed, even though in the hospital setting, I believe none of them were officers, if I'm correct. But they were in charge of caring for and were, you know, had authority over these inmates, and yet still they decided to not just think of them as human beings. And it is just unfortunate that just because you are in a cage, that means that you have no rights, you have no humanity,

nothing to that effect. Everybody there should have been fired. It is an injustice if they still have their jobs and pensions and all of those things. And those who had the power to take those away and did not also should be fired and have their pensions and retirements taken away because clearly you don't know how to do your job effectively. Similarly to the situation with the 10-year-old child, I mean, I am more or less speechless at just how disgusting that is. I mean, it's a child. She is a child and it does not matter in what context that child is in. If you saw your daughter in that situation, would you be handcuffing her and berating her for turning out the lights because there's a boogeyman at her door? No, it's common sense. Like this, this is stupid to me. These

cops are stupid to me. And I'm not saying that all cops are stupid, but these cops in this state, no, y'all are stupid. Y'all are just dumb. Exactly, exactly. And in the first story dealing with Ervo Otino in the hospital, so charges were dropped against two state hospital workers, two central state hospital workers. But we know also there were seven Henrico County sheriff's deputies that that were charged in that case as well. OK. All right. Well, look, we're coming up on a break. And when we come back from the break, we're going to give you an update on what's happened. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. ...in the Tyree Nichols case out of Tennessee. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm Michael M. Hotef sitting in for Roland Martin on the Black Star Network. We'll be back in a few minutes. Up next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes. She's known as the Angela Davis of hip hop. Monet Smith, better known as Medusa the Gangsta Goddess,

the undisputed queen of West Coast underground hip hop. Pop locking is really what indoctrinated me in hip hop. I don't even think I realized it was hip hop at that time. It was a happening. It was a moment of release. We're going to be getting into her career, knowing her whole story, and breaking down all the

elements of hip hop. This week on The Frequency, only on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. A very different take on Juneteenth with the one and only Dr. Senada Ahmed. We'll explore the amazing foods, remedies, and rituals that are a part of our history and the Juneteenth holiday. So it's our responsibility to return the healthier version to our folks instead of just the red liqueurs marketed to us, the red sodas and the other things.

I mean, why does the Kool-Aid man have to sound like Louis Armstrong? He's like, oh, yeah. Yeah, right. An enlightening and tasty hour of The Black Table, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up? Keith Turney in a place to be. Got kicked out your mama's university. Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy.

But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? The family of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise is suing the suspect's name in his murder. Moise was shot a dozen times inside his private bedroom on July 7th, 2021, and his wife, Martini, was seriously injured. She and their children have filed a lawsuit in a Miami-Dade County court seeking a trial and unspecified damages against several suspects charged in the killing. Since Moise's murder, the country has been in turmoil. Thousands of Haitians have fled shelters because violent gangs forced them out of their homes. According to an AP report, up to 80 percent of the capital city is controlled by gangs. Joining me from Chicago is the president of

the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois, Anastasi Sanat. Welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Anastasi, I am Michael M. Hotep. How are you doing today, sister? Hello, Mr. Hotep. How are you? I'm good. Excellent. Excellent. Well, fill us in on this lawsuit. And also, let me first ask, how is the widow to President Moise doing? How is his family doing first? So Martine Moise, as you know, was also injured in the situation that ended up in the life of her husband. She ended up being flown into South Florida, where she was able to receive treatment from doctors here in the United States.

And she has recovered significantly, in the sense that now she's able to fight back not only for herself, but for her family. She's limited in the fight that she's able to do because the United States government only has jurisdiction over approximately 11 suspects. Those 11 suspects are basically residents of South Florida, two of which are not in custody because they have enough assets in order to be released from custody. The other people in custody are deemed what is called indigent, meaning they're too poor to be released from custody. They have no assets. But what this lawsuit is seeking to do is to take their assets. Whatever they have, whatever that they were able to acquire

as a part of this treasonous act, what she's trying to do is make sure that they can never do something like that again and that they will suffer beyond measure. Because this heinous act of taking not only the president of a country, conspiring to take the president's life, but it's taken, as you have already mentioned, the country is now in more turmoil than it was before. Now, even though

gangs were introduced into Haiti, obviously, many, many years ago, the history of Haiti goes long, long back as far as the political strife of Haiti. Countries have constantly tried to influence Haiti's politics and their governance of themselves. And so the security is definitely gone. But what we do here in Chicago area is not only do we try to encourage others to speak for immigration reform, to allow these countrymen and these citizens that have been displaced from their home to come to the United States, but also to work here in the United States legally. We've also encouraged our community here to contact their elected officials, which is important. And so if you're a friend of a Haitian, you know Haitians, you like Haiti,

we're asking you also to contact your elected officials. What we want to do is have some immigration reform. As you already know, the United States is not going to go back into Haiti. Currently, Joe Biden is not trying to do that, because we don't want a repeat of what happened in 1915, where they occupied Haiti until 1934. We also don't want a repeat of 1994. And the U.S. Marines stole like $500,000 worth of gold from Haiti also. Oh, sure. Yeah. The resources in Haiti have been pillaged. Absolutely. Yes. And it's not only the United States that has stolen from Haiti. Obviously, France, right?

Spain has done so. United Kingdom has done so. And that's where the problem started, 1791. So I am obviously a descendant. I wasn't born in 1700s. But, you know, the fight has gone on. And what happens in the black community has happened all over the world. We tell our children, our children tell their children. And it goes on and on and on. So here we are in 2023, obviously wasn't there, but I know what the struggle is. I know what the fight is. My sorority, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, they're already on the ground in Haiti. They have an elementary school. They've been trying to educate people. But in trying to do that, what do we have? Natural disasters. We've got a hurricane that came.

We had an earthquake that came. We had another earthquake that came. And then you also had all of these United Nations men that came and gave an infection of cholera to the people in 2010. So we just don't want a repeat of any of those things. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Now, I know you mentioned 1791. That's the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, August 1791.

And they declared their independence January 1st, 1804. But I would have to take it back to 1492 when Columbus conquers Hispaniola, La Isla Hispaniola, the Spanish island in the western third of that island, the Spanish call Santo Domingo, and the French take over the western third of that island in 1697 from the Spanish and call it Saint Dominique. So we got to go back, you know, because those territories that Columbus conquered on behalf of Spain have never recovered from what happened over 500 years ago, and Haiti is an example of that. I'm not sure if you knew, but Española was not the original name. That's what Columbus gave it. Haiti restored it back to the original name of the indigenous people. Haiti is the island that they conquered. It severed itself because

of the Spanish, but it was Haiti, and it was one island, and then it got split into two because of colonization. Right. And from what I've seen, the spelling was, or pronunciation was like Ayiti. A-Y-T-I, something like that. Ayiti. Right. Okay. Right.

Because the indigenous people spelled it that way. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Now, I was looking at an Associated Press article today, and it talks about how so much of Haiti is controlled by the gangs now, things like this. Can you give us more insight into that? And what would be the solution to that or the remedy to the gang control over much of Haiti? So if we look back into the history of Haiti, so

gangs were, quite frankly, they were introduced as paramilitary organizations under the Jean-Claude Duvalier. Jean-Claude Duvalier was, he was, I guess it was affectionately known as Papa Doc Duvalier in the 50s. And so the Tonto Makut is what the paramilitary name was. They were the ones that were extremely private to the president, and they ended up being more numbered than the police and the military of Haiti. And they were there to not only protect him, but to keep political, I guess you can say, dissidents from being able to speak out in Haiti. And then when his son took over upon his death in 1971, he also used the tonto makuku in

order to keep people from being able to speak out and, you know, like we have here in the United States, a freedom to speak our voice. They were not able to do that. And so then you had, in 1994, as I was mentioning, you had Jean-Baptiste Aristide that came in, and believe it or not, all of the political allegiance had their own types of tonto makut. They didn't call them that, but that's what they were. They were paramilitary organizations. Fast forward, the United States deports regularly numbers and numbers of Haitians that were basically raised here and affiliated with a variety of different gangs, like Gangsta Disciple and the Folks and things like that. So they take their knowledge

of criminal activity and they bring it down there. And what they do is they try to raise money because they're not familiar with the country. So they raise money by kidnapping people, by holding them hostage and in seeking out ransoms. And so that started, like I said, more than 50 years ago. So when you're thinking of what is it that we can do today in order to fix this problem, well, quite frankly, the people are going to have to march united. The national anthem of Haiti, basically it's in French, but it says, translated, march united, march united for the ancestors, for your country. So the only way that we'll be able to take all of these gangs that have

primarily taken over Port-au-Prince, I think there's about 200 gangs located in the country throughout the country in key areas, right? Ports of entry, things like that. The people are going to have to fight back. If they don't want Canada, which has already said, no, they're not going to do it. And they don't want the United States or the United Nations to come in. Quite frankly, the people that are there are going to have to get up and they're going to do it, and they don't want the United States or the United Nations to come in, quite frankly, the people that are there are going to have to get up, and they're going to have to fight for their country. They're going to have to come in and take these folks out. I mean, the prisons ended up releasing a lot of gangs after the 2010 earthquake, because obviously there was no more structure. So all of them got released. So there's just so—and of course, the Haitian police,

unfortunately, they were easily bribed and were able to help assassinate the president of Haiti. So you have so much corruption, but it comes down to the individual character of the people, the individual character of the people. If they want their country back, they will take their country back. Right, exactly. And lastly, in the next minute or so, what can the Biden-Harris administration do regarding their immigration policies toward Haiti to help those who are trying to come here? Well, how can how can U.S. government help in that manner? Well, the first thing is removing the barriers to getting into the country. A lot of people are not familiar with immigration history. I teach immigration law at Roosevelt University here in Chicago. And one of the things that the students notice is that the immigration policies that we have in place favor European countries. They do not favor Caribbean or African countries or even South American countries. So we're going to have to lift some of these policies and the allotments that allow more of the European countries to come in and allow more of these Caribbean, South American and African countries to come in, number one.

Number two, what we're going to have to do is create a pathway to citizenship. a law, HARIFA, the Haitian American Immigration Relief Act, that allowed people who had come in prior to 1998 during the aristide time in order to come in and apply for different various forms of relief. But by being here at a certain time, they were then able to get a green card. And after they've had their green card for five years, they were able to apply for naturalization in order to become citizens. So when you're thinking about what are we doing with the people that are on TPS, what are we doing with the people that are on Haitian humanitarian parole or who have been sponsored for Haitian humanitarian parole, what we need to do is create a law that allows them to become citizens, get on a pathway to become a citizen. And then finally, the number one issue that we have in Haiti

is that the U.S. Embassy is denying people who are seeking entry legally. They are finding all types of reasons for students not to come in, for family members not to connect to each other, and for businesses not to be, businessmen not to come in and establish their businesses here. One of the things that the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois has done is we've worked with the Chicago Kent Law School. We've also been working with the Loyola Law School in order to get lawyers that were trained in Haiti to educate themselves here in the United States for what is called a master's

of law, a LLM. And once they get the LLM, they do some community service, then they'll be on a pathway to getting a license here in the United States. Because a key barrier to being able to help the people here is that people like myself who are, you know, first-generation American, we don't speak the language fluently enough, English and Haitian Creole, in order to deliver the legal information that they need. I am seeking volunteers. So if anyone wants to reach out, please reach out to us at holla.illinois at gmail.com, or you can visit our website at hollail.org in order to

volunteer your time. But that's what we need. We need some relaxation from the Secretary of State in order to make sure that they can stop denying these people that are trying to get in here legally that have the funds and don't need these other pathways. But those are the three things that I would say that we need. Okay. Now we're coming up on a break here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And we come back from the break. I'm going to have my panel pose a couple of questions to you as well, Anastasi. You're watching Roland Martin. Anastasi, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I'm Michael M. Hotep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. 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. 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. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Succession. We're hearing that word pop up a lot these days as our country continues to fracture and divide. But did you know that that idea, essentially a breaking up of the USA, has been part of the public debate since long before and long after the Civil War, right up to today? On our next show, you'll meet Richard Crichton, the author of this book, who says breaking up this great experiment called America might not be such a bad thing.

That's on the next Black Table, right here on the Black Star 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. Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now, I want to go to my panel, Kelly Bethea and Matt Manning, to pose questions here dealing with this lawsuit. Let's start with you, Kelly. What questions do you have for Anastasi? That's correct. Thank you.

Anastasi. OK, go ahead. Hi. First and foremost, thank you for coming on the show and enlightening us with this information. I guess my question to you is this pretty boilerplate, like what can we do as Americans who do not get this news often outside of places like Roland Martin and Filter, now that we know,

what can we do as Americans to spread the word and act either on your behalf or with you in this fight? The first thing I would say is what I had mentioned earlier. Speak up. If you know someone Haitian, you like the Haitians, you want to help the Haitians, contact your elected officials. I'm in Illinois. I've talked to Danny Davis. I've talked to Jonathan Jackson.

I've talked to Robin Kelly. I've talked to Jonathan Jackson. I've talked to Robin Kelly, talked to Lauren Underwood. But we need more people to speak out with their elected officials in Congress in order to get these laws created, in order to get laws and policies changed. So when you reach out on our behalf saying we want this to stop, you know, as in the deportations, and we want to create the pathway to citizenship, this is how you can help us. I mean, obviously, money, food, shelter, that helps, too. But I don't want that to be your focus. I really want your voice to be the focus.

Okay, thank you. Matt, what questions did you have for Anastasi? So I have two questions, and I really appreciate you elucidating all this for us. So the first question is actually as to the lawsuit. So what is the principle under which the lawsuit is brought? Obviously, I'm an attorney and I'm interested. So is it like a wrongful death suit or is it some kind of prosecution of the conspiracy that took place here that ultimately culminated in Haiti, number one? And the second question is kind of drilling down the populace, the people in Haiti taking back their country. How do you envision that happening

without that becoming an even greater mushroom effect with, you know, violence? Like, how do you see that happening without more people dying? So as to the lawsuit, as you know, I'm an attorney, but I am not familiar with actually how she filed it in the Miami-Dade County Court. I do believe she's seeking civil damages. And so by seeking the civil damages, she's only seeking for their asset. Not only does she want the people that are associated with this crime to go to jail, but she wants the assets to be taken away from them in total. Now, I'm not sure if anybody can be rewarded for that kind of action or if anybody who doesn't have assets can really be punished with damages, but obviously she has damages.

Not only did she have to leave her home, she was injured. She has medical bills. She has all the things when it comes to personal injury that you can think of that you can file, emotional distress and things like that. So the lawsuit is basic, a civil personal injury case from what I've read in the Miami Herald. As to what it is that the people can do, well, quite frankly, it's going to be difficult. But just like we have here in the United States, we have homies that we know are in gangs. We know family members that might be in gangs and associated with criminal activity. If we don't speak up and speak out, we're not going to be able to identify the people that are causing the problem.

So first things first, people have to feel confident enough in order to speak out, number one. Number two, the pillaging of the businesses, the pillaging of the food and the water and all things of the infrastructure that are just common and normal for people to live nowadays, they need to be fought against by the people. Now, if we had a government in place in Haiti that the United States can speak to, I would then encourage them to do what is called a plan of recovery, right? And this plan of recovery is somewhat similar to the Marshall Plan. I'm not sure if you're familiar with after World War II, what happened was after all the European nations had fought each other,

the Secretary of State from United States at the time, Marshall, decided to institute a recovery act. So that would be another thing that we can do as people. We can encourage a recovery act to be formed, where hopefully in that we can do the reconstruction of the streets, because they're horrible right now, waterways, plumbing, you know, get back to tourism so that they can have their own economy, maybe even seek reparations from all of the countries that have benefited and the double debt that France took from Haiti, maybe we can get that back. I believe that The New York Times did

an article saying that in today's dollar, it would have amounted to about $21 billion of loss. So when we think about companies that have all of this kind of money, it's out there. We know it's out there. We just need to make sure that we can get it back to the country so that it's being used properly by the people. Yeah, Anastasi, I was going to ask you about that. So, New York Times did a series of articles, and I covered this. I'm the host of the African History Network show. I dealt with this on my show back in May 2022. One of them was called Six Takeaways About Haiti's Reparations to France. And I wanted you to talk some about that because oftentimes we don't, here in America, we don't get the information. We may hear about the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture,

Bookman Dada, but we don't understand that France forced Haiti to pay reparations to France after France enslaved these Africans in Haiti. OK, can you talk some about that history a little bit, please? Well, basically, the way it was is that after the revolution and they declared their independence January 4st, 1804, they threatened to come back. But, of course, the people had been depleted. Their weaponry had been depleted and things like that. So one of the people that was president at the time had signed an agreement, signed a

treaty that, in lieu of additional attack, which may have taken the country back into slavery, they agreed just to pay for their freedom. And that's what they decided to do. But in paying for the freedom, they realized they didn't have the money because they had decimated the plantations that were the sugar cane and the coffee and bananas and all of those types of resources that existed on the island. And they were not doing business with them. So it was a business that existed in smaller time, but also in the fact that they were not willing to do business. So the United States was no longer

willing to purchase and other countries were not willing to purchase. So you had a whole bunch of product that wasn't able to be sold. And so what happened is the things that were able to be sold, they were sold at a ridiculously low cost. So out of the, for example, $3 that the country made, the debt to pay back would have been about $2.53. So you left the country with 47 cents for themselves. So what they did was they took out loans. And by taking out a loan, the only people that were willing to loan the money was the French. So that's how you get a double debt. First, you had the president, who obviously died, signing away saying, we don't want to

fight. We'll pay you. We'd rather just pay you the money. But then not having enough money because you kept taking so much of the money away from the banks and taking over the banks that we were only left with 47 cents, and we weren't being able to sell anything, so we need some money in order to continue with the payments. So they took out a loan. And that's how France ended up with a double debt.

Now, United States ended up coming in and enforcing the double debt between 1915 and 1934. But Haiti has fully paid their debt as of 1947 based on some treaty that was signed in 1804. So they don't owe anybody anything, but other people owe them. Because obviously slavery was an atrocity. It happened here in the United States. It happened in South America, the Caribbean. And it should not have happened. And the people that profited and are continuing to profit in wealth should, quite frankly, give back at this point. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And lastly here, quoting from the article from The New York Times, it says that The New York Times tracked each payment Haiti made over the course of 64 years.

In all, they added up to about $560 million in today's dollars. But they go on to talk about the impact it had on the Haitian economy. And they said, after reviewing thousands of pages of archival documents some centuries old and consulting with 15 of the world's leading economists, our correspondents calculated that the payment to France cost Haiti from $21 billion, with a to $115 billion with the B in lost economic growth over time. That is as much as eight times the size of Haiti's entire economy in the year 2020. Okay, so I encourage people to give people the email address again where they could support and get more information? H-A-L-A dot Illinois at gmail.com. And our website is H-A-L-A-I-L for Illinois dot O-R-G. All right. All right. Well, thank you so much, Anastasia Sinat, for coming on and sharing

this valuable information here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you for having me. Okay, thank you. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I'm Michael M. Hotep, and we will be back in a few minutes. 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. Early days in the road, I learned, well, first of all, as a musician. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

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

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

of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes

rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I studied not only piano, but I was also drummer and percussion. I was all city percussion as well. So I was one of the best in the city on percussion. Also studied trumpet, cello, violin, and bass, and any other instrument I could get my hand on. And with that study, I learned again what was for me. I learned what it meant to do what the instruments in the orchestra

meant to each other in the relationships. So that prepared me to be a leader. That prepared me to lead orchestras and to conduct orchestras. That prepared me to know, to be a leader of men, they have to respect you and know that you know the music. You have to be the teacher of the music. You have to know the music better than anybody.

There you go. Right, so you can't walk in unprepared. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word.

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Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to Peel 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. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. If you think your child really has what it takes, there's a program geared to teach kids how to act out on the stage while keeping them out of trouble. The Infinity Center Youth Performing Arts Academy is a nationally acclaimed program that develops future stars. Joining me from Nashville, Tennessee,

are the program's creators, Reverend Jeff Carr, who you see here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, an award-winning playwright, filmmaker, and media scientist whose works have been featured at the Smithsonian, and his wife, Kanitha, who is the executive director. Welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered and Reverend Jeff Carr, you're used to being here. How are you all doing today?

Brother, we are absolutely great. We've had a long day working with the kids. But I tell you, man, aside from Brother Roland Martin, man, you couldn't walk into a better surprise than to have the legendary Detroiter, Brother Michael M. Hotep, on the screen. Man, we are honored and blessed to be here with you and the crew tonight. It's awesome to be here. Yay!

Well, thank you. Thank you. I used to guess Hose Rollins' Nasty Syndicated Radio Show numerous times when he couldn't do the show. He would call me last minute, so I'm kind of used to it. All right, so this is excellent because it's summertime. Children want parents are looking for something positive for the children to do. And give us some more information about this. And how do you help children actually become stars or tap into the star within them?

Yes, absolutely. I think we start by just the philosophy behind the program. As brother our brother Neil deGrasse Tyson will remind us that the stars themselves have hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen within them and every element emerges from them. So if we take that scientifically to its longest conclusion, we are actually made of stardust. So we are actually, as the Earth, Wind and Fire would say, we're a shining star no matter where we are actually made of stardust. So we are actually, as the earth, wind and fire would say, we're a shining star no matter where we are. But we also need to know how to express that. So myself, I have three siblings, of course. Y'all know at least one and a half of my siblings, probably all three of us. But out of the siblings, I was the beige sheep of all of them. And I remember finding myself getting put out of high school,

finding myself in a juvenile cell, and realizing that I had to change my life. But fortunately, the music, fortunately, the arts, fortunately, the acting, by the time I barely made it into college at Tennessee State, those saved my life. And I recognize that as I got older and became a professional, that the arts actually give people an opportunity to express themselves in a powerful way. We get to tell our stories. So we get to teach kids every summer since 2006 how to act out on a stage instead of a street corner. If you give them a space where they will have their voice, they will actually speak it

loudly and proudly and not have to lean into those negative influences in society. That will give them a voice if we won't. My wife here has been the executive director of the academy. She works daily, and she could probably tell you about actually the curriculum that takes place every day and what kind of things happen there. Yes. Yeah, Kenita, go ahead. Okay, excellent. My turn. No. So Monday through Thursday, they're able to go have different classes like acting

and they go through, well, not creative writing sometimes. Sometimes I teach that. But also music and art. So they're getting all of these different classes during that the whole week from Monday through Thursday. And then on Friday, it's a special day because we get to do Coco Lounge where they're able to perform in front of everybody and get those nerves out of the way. We have hot cocoa and all of that good stuff. And we snap when everybody finishes performing. We also have Share My World, where it's kind of like a show and tell, but for us to be able to get to know each and everyone a little bit better. And then we have classic movies at the

end of the day. So like today, we had watched Cabin in the Sky. And it's interesting to see how all the kids respond and them learning some of the people that have really been trailblazers for our communities as well. So, yeah. Yes, indeed. Awesome. So how many children usually you've been doing this? I think you said since 2006. You say since 2006? Okay. Yes. So each year on average, how many children do you have in the program and how long is the

summer program? We have at least two dozen kids in the program. We've had as, as up to 50 in the program when we were able to have the space for it. But the program is six entire weeks. So we don't just do a weekend arts workshop. We have kids six weeks, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 p.m. We also have a partnership. We provide free breakfast and free lunch for these young people. And many of our kids are at or below the poverty line. We're 100 percent funded by donations. But I think the biggest thing that we brag on over the almost 20 years that we've been close to doing it is 100 percent of our kids, Brother Michael, have graduated from high school. And I think that means the most for us. And we have kids who literally could not raise their head and look you in the eye.

But through the performing arts, they've gone on to be 4-H club speech winners. They've gone on to be scholastic achievers. They've gone on to play the lead in plays in college and become speech makers and get involved in politics. So literally, when you plant a seed and you intentionally do that and you give our children a place where they can express their voice, you're going to see the results down the line. That's fantastic. And, you know, today with so much access to social media, negative corporate control, hip hop and just nonsense, we need something like this to give a positive outlet for our children to help build self-esteem as well. Now, Kanitha,

give us the website here, and can people donate through the website? Can people support you all through the website? Yes, most definitely. So I'm going to let you go ahead and give- Yeah, it's our infinitycenter.org. It's right on the screen for you. But most definitely, we want to receive as many donations as we can, again, because we are fully funding these students so that they don't have the burden of that. The families don't have to receive that type of burden. But for them to be able to come to somewhere that's going to be safe and they're going to learn so much about themselves and also be able to get all of that good stuff that makes them even better individuals in life. Yeah, it's a great journey, Brother Michael, and to everybody at Roland Martin. We all know what it's like. You go back to the

Empowerment Network and before, you know what it's like to have to build something from the ground up. So it's important that we step up. Man, you know what I mean? And you know it's like to have to build something from the ground up. So it's important that we step up. Man, you know what I mean. And you know it's challenging. It's worthwhile, but people don't understand when you talk about money. I tell people, and Roland's done a great job. We all have. But I want to give props to everybody.

Sister Kanitha coming out of the high school system, reviving a drama program at McGavick High School, and then creating standing room only programs where she was dealing with raising money through theater productions to give kids homes who were homeless. Just the kind of work that we're out here in the street doing. I say to anybody out there, listen, if the spider webs unite, as the African proverb says, we can subdue the lion. So I give thanks to the program tonight for giving us a moment to talk to you. And again, you can find us at infinitycenter.org. You can donate securely. It costs about $1,000 per kid for us to get these kids in here and keep them all summer.

We're at about $16,000 of about $20,000 that we want to raise. So hopefully, hey, $5, $10, it goes a long way, as you well know. Well, the Roland Martin Unfiltered family will definitely help you with that. And for those that don't know, this is Dr. Greg Carr's brother, one of his brothers. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. As my wife would tell you, Dr. Greg Carr is my brother. Right, right. Okay.

I want to go to my panel here. I want to go to Kelly and Matt. Kelly, we'll start with you. See if you have any questions for Reverend Jeff Carr and Kanitha. First and foremost, thank you, Reverend. We did not need the disclaimer that you were Dr. Carr's brother. We see it on your face that y'all can't give each other away if you, Reverend. We did not need the disclaimer that you were Dr. Carr's brother. We see it on your face that y'all can't give each other away if you wanted to.

I just wanted to put that out there. But thank you for sharing this with us. I had no idea. I'm in D.C., so I had no idea about what's in Nashville. My question to you is, on top of the Youth Performing Arts Academy that I see here, you also have a segment of your website dedicated to innovative housing regarding, I guess, the Infinity Center itself. Can you expound on that and how

this audience can also help you with that endeavor? Yes, indeed. We are an outreach of the Infinity Fellowship, which we co-founded in 2014. We wanted to make sure we had a strong social action component to the work that we do in a community, bringing together people of all races, of all religions, of all faiths and traditions and all orientations and genders. In 2014, I always throw props to this lady here. When I'm on Roland Martin and I'm talking, I always mention my wife and my five kids because not only is she exceptional, but the family is exceptional as well. There was a tent city that was in Nashville on a historic site called Fort Negley where Negro soldiers actually built a Union fort that's here in Nashville about 10 minutes from where we are now. And that site was mowed over by the city. The mayor at the time got rid of all the homeless people in the interest of downtown development.

So we decided that we wanted to do something innovative. So in 2015, in the summer, I went to live in a small micro home that was built on a trailer by Dwayne Jones in Memphis, Tennessee. And I stayed there for 45 days. I thought they'd be there for seven days, but it was 45 days. I stayed in that micro home on a lot in North Nashville. The end result was $60,000 that we then used to build six micro homes. And we built Nashville's first micro home community. We donated that to homeless people absolutely for free. And so we've seen the power of social action. We hosted a Me Too event so that sisters and even brothers could come in a safe space and talk to a licensed therapist to help them through workplace discrimination. Our entire community education approach,

whether it's financial literacy or reaching out to bring people together, is all about how do we put spirituality, how do we put history, how do we put it into action so that we can see proven results? Absolutely. Absolutely. And Matt, we have about a minute left. So, Matt, go ahead and ask your question as well. Well, let me first say I was blessed to go to Howard and be around. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. B one two and three on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad and this is season two of the war on drugs podcast sir we are back in a big way in a very big way real people real And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. So thank you to him and to you and your family and what you've contributed to our people. Let me ask you this really quickly. What kind of buy-in have you had from Black entertainers? And I ask specifically because my sister is a professional actor in New York,

and she talks often about how important it is to expose children early to this kind of thing. So have you had buy-in from the Nashville community? And if not, what can we do to help engender that among the people who are actors and other performers? Surely, surely. Some big events that we've had included people like the great Dr. Takiyah Crystal Kimah, who has come to town and helped us with fundraisers. Lisa Arendelle Anderson, who I co-starred with in the movie Second Chance back in the day, has been really supportive in advancing things for us. Nashville is a growing professional culture. So we are dependent literally on voices in Nashville and beyond Nashville. So if you're feeling that you understand the importance of this, hop on infinitycenter.org, make a secure donation and trust. If you are an artist that wants to

collaborate, we are relaunching a series of plays and children's plays. I've had pieces appear at the Smithsonian. Sister Kenetha here has done a lot of work nationally in touring. We are here to pass this on to the next generation. And I appreciate that, Matt. Tell your family we said hello. We know that struggle and we know what that means to contribute the arts back to the next generation. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, I follow Luther Arendelle on Instagram. She's one of my favorite actresses.

I had a crush on her back in the day. So tell her I said hi, Reverend Jeff Carr. All right. Well, look, thanks for coming on, sharing this powerful information. We want to have our children involved in something positive for the summer. The website, once again, is infinitycenter.org

infinitycenter.org Roland Martin and Filtered Family, please support. Thanks for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for having us. We love you guys. Thank you. All right. Tell Greg I said hi. Oh, I will, brother. He needs to get me on his show, too.

He needs to get me on his show, as well. On the Black Star Network. Huh? Yes, sir. He needs to get us all on there. You know, he's so busy, but he's got it. That's for a reason. For a good reason. All right, take care, guys. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Michael M. Hotep sitting in at Roland on the Black Star Network. When we come back, we'll talk about a stamp being unveiled for my frat brother, not Roland's, the legendary Congressman John Lewis. We'll be right back. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, owning your energy and how to use it. Trust me, it impacts the people on your job, who you attract, and even your love life. What you give out is what comes back to you. So like attracts like, right? So if you come in with a negative space and I match that negative energy, then two seconds later, somebody else coming with more negative energy,

and then I was just always just matching negative stuff. And here's the kicker. If you're not careful, that energy can even be stolen. That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Question for you. Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's

Wealth Coach, you're going to learn what you need to do to become unstuck and unstoppable. The fabulous author, Janine K. Brown, will be with us sharing with you exactly what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career. Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, I'm talking about that inner boldness that you have to take a risk, to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder.

Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Congressional leaders unveil a new stamp featuring a photograph of civil rights icon John Lewis in a Capitol ceremony commemorating his life and legacy. John Lewis, who served over three decades in Congress, died in July 2020. Marco Grob designed the stamp and featured a photograph of Lewis taken for Time Magazine's August 26, 2013 issue. The Lewis Forever stamp will be available in July 2023. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke on how vital the commemorative stamps are to tell stories, honor heroes, and capture critical historical moments. The stamp will forever represent and commemorate one of our country's greatest sons and the

conscience of our Congress. It's appropriate that one of our forever heroes will be recognized with a forever stamp. Personally, as all of us who had the opportunity to serve with John Lewis know, we will deeply cherish the time that we had to spend with him, serving in the people's house, and in my case as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. I remember how special it was when, as a new member, I first saw John Lewis on the House floor early in January of 2013. He called me over to him, and he asked,

Are you the new guy? I responded, yes, sir. Because anybody with any sense called John Lewis, sir. He didn't ask. You're from Brooklyn, right? Now, I was tempted to say, Brooklyn is always in the house. But this was the great John Lewis. So instead, I said, yes, sir.

And then he said something to me that I'll never forget. He said, well, I was talking to your predecessor. He had a few positive things to say about you. But Washington, D.C. can be a rough place. So, young man, I don't want you to get into any trouble unless it's good. We talk about it being fitting to have it in this room, but it's not just in this room, it's the location. I want you to look at Mary smiling down on him. Two great educators, two great civil rights leaders, and two people who changed the course of history. Atlanta's main post office facility will be named after John Lewis in August.

I want to go to my panel on this, but I want to say that John Lewis was a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, my fraternity, so he's definitely missed. And it's interesting, Kevin McCarthy commented about John Lewis because Kevin McCarthy voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Act in 2021 in the House of Representatives. Kelly, I want to go to you first. What are your thoughts on the unveiling of this stamp? I mean, my first thought was that McCarthy can go to hell. Like, he should not have been up there at all. But after that initial intrusive thought, I thought it was absolutely incredible

and overdue, frankly, for this unveiling to have happened. I realize that usually stamps of this nature are unveiled after someone has gone on to glory. But even still, I feel like John Lewis should have gotten even more flowers than he already received when he was alive. And this is, again, while commendable and incredible, in my opinion, it's still overdue. He was a force to be reckoned with. He will be in every history book, you know, critical race theory or not,

for being an incredible person in general, but a pioneer in civil rights, a pioneer on the House floor, and just what men are supposed to be, what congressmen are supposed to be. He's up there with me, like, with, like, Elijah Cummings and Hastings and the like. I revere them on such a high level. And like I said, this is just overdue. But McCarthy, he can go to hell. He didn't need to be up there. He kind of like dampened the mood for me a little bit. Other than that, congratulations. Okay. Thanks, Kelly. Matt, I want to come to you. And John Lewis was the last living speaker at the March on Washington, August 28th, 1963, here in Detroit. We're commemorating the 60th anniversary of the march in Detroit that took place June 23rd, 1963. But Matt, what are your

thoughts here on the unveiling of this stamp and John Lewis's legacy? I think it's a nice stamp. I know I'll be buying the stamp. I think it's ornamental. I think John Lewis would want them to pass legislation. You know, look, I don't want to be the cyn. I think it's ornamental. I think John Lewis would want them to pass legislation. You know, look, I don't want to be the cynic, but this is the kind of thing that we fall for and we have short memories for. Right. It's a beautiful stamp. He has no question. There's no question. He should be commemorated. And it looks like a really nicely designed stamp. But the fact that you're voting against things that John Lewis advocated for and then lionizing him in a stamp, to me, is disrespectful. Because if you really want to honor him, then you pass legislation that you know not only empowers the people, but that was within what he fought for.

And the idea that you vote against the Voting Rights Act and then come up and say, you know, he's this great civil rights leader when you're voting against the civil rights for which he fought and bled, to me, is disgusting. And we often, you know, fall prey to this. And I get it. I mean, the pomp and circumstance is necessary to some extent. It's part of politics. But to preach the same sermon I always do, you know, they work for us. We don't work for them. And the fact that we've got to hope they pass legislation on a number of issues that we talk about on here, to me, is considerably more important than the stamp. And, you know, John Lewis, I suspect, would have demanded that legislation be passed more so than him getting a commemorative stamp. And with that, you know, I think it's a good stamp. But I think we really need to stay on the course for the legislation that Congress has not passed that would improve our lives the way it should. Right.

Well, we have the power to bring that into existence after 2024, but we got to get rid of these MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives. Well, look, that's going to do it for us today. I want to thank my panel, Kelly and Matt. Roland will be back on Monday. I'm Michael M. Hotep sitting in for Roland Martin on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thanks for bringing the funk with us. Be sure to support Roland Martin Unfiltered.

We'll talk to you next time. Holla! Thank you. Thank you. សូវាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប� Thank you. Thank you. I'm Martin. Martin! Thank you. Thank you. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Like, wow. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller.

Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not.

From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

music and sports. This kind of star-studded 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 new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org., brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

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