#RolandMartinUnfiltered - LA Prison System Sued, Beyonce's NFL Show, N.C. Woman Burned, Bailing Teachers, Kwanzaa Celebrations

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

12.26.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: LA Prison System Sued, Beyonce's NFL Show, N.C. Woman Burned, Bailing Teachers, Kwanzaa Celebrations The Justice Department alleges that Louisiana holds inmates way past their release date. We'll discuss the DOJ's lawsuit and the governor's response to its claims.  A North Carolina mother wants to know who doused her daughter with gas and set her on fire.   Teachers are leaving the classrooms. I'll talk to an educator who says she knows why.  Beyonce's NFL halftime performance has folks on social media in a tizzy. We'll have a music industry insider to explain the significance of Ms. Carter's show and why folks are mad about Cowboy Carter.  It's the first day of Kwanzaa. We'll discuss the significance of this seven-day celebration of history, values, family, community, and culture and the Kennedy Center's Kwanzaa celebration.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. 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. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Thursday, December 26th, 2024. I'm Dr. Greg Carr sitting in for Roland. Umoja! Babarigani! Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. First principle of Kwanzaa is Umoja, or unity.

To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered live, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The Justice Department alleges that Louisiana holds inmates way past their release date. Surprise, surprise, surprise. We'll discuss the Department of Justice's lawsuit and the governor's response to its claims. A North Carolina mother wants to know who doused her daughter with gas and set her on fire. Teachers are leaving the classrooms.

I'll talk to an educator, a master teacher, who says she knows why. Beyoncé's NFL halftime performance, the Beyoncé Bowl if you will, has folks in social media on a tizzy. We'll have a music industry insider to explain the significance of Ms. Carter's show and why folks, at least some folks, are mad about Cowboy Carter. As I said earlier, it's the first day of Kwanzaa. First day of Kwanzaa is Umoja and we will discuss the significance of this seven day celebration of history, values, family, community, and culture with the Kennedy Center's Kwanzaa celebration. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network fact, the fine.

And when it blips, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's the Go-Go-Go-Go, y'all. It's rolling go-go-go-go, yo Yeah, yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Yeah We've got breaking news. Richard Parsons, a pioneering black business executive who led Time Warner after its disastrous merger with AOL and helped untangle some of the media industry's naughtiest dilemmas, died Thursday in Manhattan at the age of 76. On October 21st, he announced he was leaving the post after learning that his health had taken a turn for the worse. Parsons had been in remission for multiple myeloma following a stem cell transplant in 2016. For many years, Dick Parsons was the highest ranking African-American in any media company,

though he frequently played down that distinction. He advised young African-Americans to focus on their new opportunities. Richard Parsons, an ancestor at 76. We hadn't planned on breaking that news of this sad news of transition to Dick Parsons. And I just want to bring in just for a split second here, our panelists tonight, our Thursday night panel, Joy Cheney, founder of Joy Strategies, and Recy Colbert, host of the Recy Colbert Show on SiriusXM channel 126. Let's start with you Joy. Dick Parsons, you're hearing this news I think like all of us right now. Any

initial snap thoughts about this this tightening? Well first of all happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and of course Happy New Year. We're so glad to be on with you even as we celebrate the homecoming and the life of Mr. Parsons. Look, you know what I was thinking about as I was looking over his bio? What a great American for not just African-Americans, but all Americans, white included, to aspire to. And it's just a reminder of the greatness that is passing and the need to focus on our, you know, that previous generation, that greatest

general, not even greatest, the baby boomer generation that are passing now and just get all of their experiences. This was a man who was a bipartisan man. He worked during the Ford administration. He worked for Senator Rockefeller. He worked in public policy and business. It was a reminder that there's a bridge. You don't have to be in one area or another. And matter of fact, the people who have impact are not necessarily big names who are playing sports or playing TV. He drove a lot of resources and money and opportunity. He's a reminder of what it means to have diversity, equity, and inclusion. He did not shy away from

that, even as he didn't lead with that. He was a proud Black member of Wall Street and the banking community and did as good things in that role, even as he made the bottom line for those, you know, those who he worked for. And so, you know, just, just a passing manner. And I think we need more of that as we go forward. Absolutely. Thank you, Joy. Recy, any thoughts, initial thoughts, and we know Roland will be doing a major tribute to him when he gets back, but any thoughts in, as we said, Joy just said, we're just getting this news. Yeah. I just want to kind of echo what Joy said about, on the whole DEI aspect, even though he didn't lead with it.

It's really ironic, as you mentioned, Dr. Carr, that he has untangled some of the biggest messes in business. So we see this big push that's going on right now to try to characterize any time a Black person is put in a position of leadership as some sort of gimme, some sort of affirmative action handout, when the reality is that when the tough got going, they called Dick Parsons to get in there and to make it right. And I'm sure that he was undoing the dirty work of non-DEI people, let's just put it that way. But I also do want to draw attention to his philanthropic work, which included being a person who really led the charge on getting over $100 million of funding to the Apollo Theater, as well as his philanthropic contributions to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and

Culture. And so even though he did not emphasize that, even though he didn't lead off with that, certainly he gave back to our community and he did us proud. Absolutely. I'm glad you said that too, Recy. The only time I had a chance to meet and interact with Dick Parsons was over his years when he served on the Howard University Board of Trustees. And you're absolutely right. Very understated, very quiet, very stable presence through transitions and leadership at Howard, whatever the crisis would be in face, just his presence alone. He had a kind of presence almost like General Powell in a way who also kind of overlapped during his time on the board. And these guys, man, when they come into space, you realize that, OK, whatever crisis we face, they've seen a whole lot worse than we have. So, you know

yeah very serious yeah yes no question and it was serious without being dour you know i mean just kind of a calm spirit so so yeah uh fly well ancestor you know your ancestors will welcome you and we will have much more to say about that when Roland gets back and there'll be A long tribute with folks who know him a whole lot better. So we'll continue with tonight's news The Justice Department claims the state of Louisiana unlawfully imprisoned thousands of people for weeks and months after completing their Sentences in the 26 page complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana

the Justice Department states a years-long pattern of detaining people past their sentences, including those eligible for immediate release at their sentencing hearings, violating the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. According to a recent Department of Justice report, since at least 2012, more than a quarter of people due to be released from the custody of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections each year have been held past their release dates. In May alone, 141 people were held past their release dates, 120 of them for over a month. Nearly 80% of those unlawfully detained were eligible for immediate release during sentencing. Federal prosecutors filed the lawsuit, quote, to vindicate the constitutional rights of those who were unlawfully detained and to seek

injunctive relief to end the rampant and overstanding over-detention in Louisiana, end quote. The Louisiana governor and state attorney released this joint statement. And here we have the hillbilly horde, Governor Landry's statement with Merle. And we can put that back on the screen. We saw that previewed a second ago. This, of course, coming from the white nationalist government of Louisiana, quote, this is Grinch Joe Biden's parting Christmas present to the state and the people of Louisiana. The Trump administration would likely have not allowed this case to be filed. No shit. Yeah. As we saw this week in Concordia Parish, Joe Biden and Merrick Garland's orders seem clear. Jam through as many frivolous cases as possible before the clock runs

out. This is the same radical Justice Department that goes after political opponents, targets Catholics and sees concerned school parents as a threat. All the while our country was being invaded at our southern border and violent crime was on the rise across the nation. I'll pause here to remind everyone that this is a, I'm quoting this, otherwise I'm going to have to go gargle and brush my teeth after I read this. Let me continue. The American people have had enough of Biden's inept DOJ. As we have said, continue, continuously said, rather, this problem stems from the failed criminal justice reforms pushed by the past administration. Let me read this with a little less enthusiasm because, you know, this garbage is making me sick. Here we go. These reforms ultimately complicated the criminal

justice system, giving criminals a get out of jail free card. This past year, we have taken significant action to keep Louisiana safe and ensure those who commit the crime also do the time. The state of Louisiana is committed to preserving the constitutional rights of Louisiana citizens. We look forward to fighting this because the safety of Louisiana is our top priority. Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrell. Okay, thank you. End quote. Now back to humanity after leading that bullshit. Let me bring the panel in to discuss this mess. Recy, you are nodding your head. I'm sorry to have borrowed a few words from your extensive vocabulary, but please, could you please bring some color back to that? Please. What do you get your thoughts on on on this?

This breaking news story. What it says is the Klan is back, bitches. More. OK, what they're saying is a new Klan sheriff is riding into town by the name of Donald Trump, who's going to save the day and allow us to be the degenerate rampant criminal vigilantes that we are masquerading as a criminal justice system it's very clear that the law is actually beside the point what the point is is keeping mostly black men and black women in some cases in prison for as long as possible regardless of the time you want to say, do the time they've done it. They're not supposed to be there any longer, which last I checked is called doing your time. And so what we're going to see, what we're getting ready to usher in, and they're saying,

thank God we have Trump coming in, is that there's going to be a complete disregard for even adhering to the law from law enforcement who already does a shit job of doing it anyway but now they really feel like oh we have immunity and so this is be very clear very much part of the republican playbook going forward a lot of people are saying oh they can't get rid of all the the immigrants who's gonna do this is gonna do The prisoners. Whether they belong in prison or not, the prisoners are going to be the new labor. I should put it more accurately, slave labor. So they are

so excited that they can just dismiss this, put out a bullshit statement and say, we're going to go back to doing what we've always been doing and we're going to make it seem like we're doing it in your best interest, even though, by the way, it costs taxpayer dollars to keep people in prison beyond their prison day. But you know who it doesn't cost? The companies that benefit from

the labor of prisoners. It doesn't cost them. It actually helps their bottom line. And so we're going to see a lot more prioritizing of corporate profits, a lot more dehumanizing and a lot more emboldened Republicans doing whatever the hell they want to do with whoever the hell they want to do with. And who going to check them, boo? Who going to check them, boo? As you always say. I mean, it's quite striking, Joy, to get this news. Let me say, I'm going to do a friendly amendment, Terese. When you hold people beyond their release date, it's called slavery. How about that?

How about that? It's called slavery. Now, I would say that incarcerating mass numbers of people, mostly African-American, mostly Latino, is slavery to begin with. Most of them on nonviolent crimes is slavery anyway, but whatever. Holding them beyond their release date absolutely is. This is the right

thing for the Justice Department to be doing. And when we say, look, the statement was insane, but it was perfect in its construction. First of all, he started talking about the Grinch. If you've watched the Grinch to the end, you know that the Grinch is ultimately the hero. Okay. Number one. Number two, yes, it does make a difference that when Donald Trump comes in, elections matter. And we were telling all of you some of you i just i just have to believe we're not that bright that elections ultimately matter and that it matters who is at the justice department do they file charges to protect people some of whom could be your family members some of whom could be you that finds yourself in a situation and you're being held even though you're supposed to be released.

That's insane. That's called slavery. And now, yes, we're going to have a different set of priorities, but this administration is saying, even in our last days, we are going to run through the tape. Even though the American people, some of them rejected us, we're going to use the mandate that we already had and run through the tape and make sure we are filing lawsuits on behalf of those who deserve it on behalf of the people of the united states that's what they're actively filing at behalf on behalf of because what louisiana do is doing is an affront to the rule of law us so yeah that that's what's happening here and if the trump administration wants to undo it they will but Trump administration wants to undo it, they will. But they'll have to undo it and they'll be held accountable for it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we know that they're big mad.

Of course, Joe Biden commuting the sentences of nearly all the federal inmates on death row. Thirty seven, at least three. And since they're so hell-bent To kill people I don't know what Robert Bowers Who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue is thinking Or Dylan Ruth who killed our Sisters and brothers and Mother Emanuel AME in South Carolina Or Zokar Tsarnaev, the bomber of the Boston Marathon

Are thinking But I will say this Mr. President-elect Since you're so, you know're so pissed off and wanting to show that you're tough, there are three cats sitting on federal death row, and I'm not a death penalty guy, but if anybody's going to get it, I can't think of anybody better than Dylann Roof. You got three in your sights. We'll find out what that's about. Governor Landry, just a word to you, my friend. Some of us know our history.

We know that that big prison in Louisiana named Angola is named Angola because most Africans who came here directly to the United States, the plurality of them came out of West Central Africa, including the country Joe Biden just came back, which is called Angola. That's why it's named that. We also know that your funky friend who is at the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Kevin Roberts, Dr. Roberts, did his dissertation on slavery in Louisiana. Y'all think slavery is that we also know that your funky friend who is at the heritage foundation mr kevin roberts dr roberts did his dissertation on slavery in louisiana y'all think slavery is uh coming back here's here's a message to you mr governor let's dance baby because you ain't built like that so uh let's uh we'll be back in a moment here roland martin unfiltered on the black star network

and we'll continue our conversation tonight on the first day of kwanzaa we'll be right back now streaming on the black star network i was challenged by my uncle early on before i even had a career like i was maybe eight years old and my uncle said what do you want to do and i told him i wanted to be a rapper he said okay, I don't know anything about the music business, so what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business, and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through. And so I went and bought books, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, hit me, and I just went and bought a bunch of books to start reading as a 10-year-old, just reading, reading.

And so I learned, you know, all things, licensing, mechanical rights, I learned about publishing, learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces, the writer's portion and the producer's portion. So by the time I actually learned I can't bend, I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He was going to prison. So I had all this information.

All this knowledge. All this knowledge. All this knowledge. You're like, well, what am I going to do with it now? Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase.

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Watch what happens next. We'll be right back. Leave it to Roland Martin Unfiltered to have this very important story inserted right at the perfect time. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for 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.

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

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

Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds.

You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Teachers are having a holiday break and touch and win between the end of this year and the beginning of next academic year. Teachers are quitting their jobs and record numbers, raising the question of why. A recent report by the Pew Research Center found that 44% of K-12 teachers in the United States reported feeling burned out often or always.

Over 270,000 teachers are expected to quit each year for the next three years. And the ever-changing national and state-level policies are making teaching particularly difficult. We've been joined tonight on Roland Martin Unfiltered by a master teacher, Njemile Tamala Anderson, who is an English teacher at Science Leadership Academy at Beaver, Denver Beaver Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She practices liberatory education. She has recently been named Educator of the Year by the Philadelphia Citizen. Very important work. For many years, she served as a lead academic at Philadelphia Freedom Schools and has done so much

work over the years. And we are really honored that you join us right now to discuss this very important situation in Jamelia Anderson. Welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Carr, for having me. Absolutely. It's a pleasure. We are very much looking forward to your thoughts on this. You heard the statistics and you've lived with the ebbs and flows of teaching for quite some time. You've served with a number of incredible teachers and young teachers, those who hit a wall and leave and those who hit a wall and stay. Your initial thoughts on this report and its implications for education? Well, for one, I think it's sad and it can be discouraging. Unfortunately, it is very true. I talked to a lot of young teachers coming into the profession and it's stressful. You know, being a teacher is stressful. It is amazing and wonderful and enriching, but it is stressful. And, you know, depending on what school you're in, where you land, like the type of administrators that you have, it can make it either a more pleasurable experience or it can be

flat out unbearable. And, you know, we often read a lot and we hear a lot, particularly for veteran educators like yourself, that there are moments in the life of a teacher, particularly a young teacher, and then as folks get more experience where they hit walls. Could you, if you had to think about this in terms of numbers, are there first year, second year, third, 15th, five? I mean, where are some of the walls that teachers hit as they kind of progress through their careers? I would say it's on each end of the spectrum. Brand new teachers that are coming in because they're not coming in fully prepared for what they're going to encounter when they get into the classroom, especially if they're teaching in urban areas where underfunded schools, unsafe buildings, not properly being kept up with facilities, having to buy their supplies for things that they might want to have for their classroom or for their students. That can be

very stressful for a brand new teacher just getting into the profession. Because student teaching, you're not paid for student teaching. You have to do that for free. Except for just this year in Pennsylvania, they have made changes in that where student teachers will be able to now receive a stipend, which was long overdue. Because I don't really know any other profession where you do your interning or you do your clinicals and you're not paid, just teaching. They don't make teaching attractive. They don't make it sexy for somebody to want to become a teacher. So first year teachers coming in, I see them hitting quite often a wall early, just from the stress of being a new teacher in a new

school, not really feeling prepared, the financial situation. And then the other end of the spectrum, you have teachers who have been in the game for a minute, but have been unhappy for a minute but have been unhappy for a minute and so like all right i just i can't do it again i can't do anymore i can't take another change i can't take another demand i can't take another class and so they're like i'm out have you i'm thinking about this because you know those of us in and around the Philadelphia area know your work for quite some time. And you work in just about every kind of iteration that you can work in as an educator, administrator, classroom teacher, that teachers can take that can help not only enhance their skills, but keep them emotionally healthy and balanced? I mean, things that will enhance their classroom experiences. I'm talking about doing work as educators. I mean, could it be at

the school programs? Is it working to help other teachers? Through your experience, what has helped sustain those teachers who might hit that wall, who might say, okay, I can't take another change. I can't take another break. It's important for all teachers, but especially for new teachers, when they're coming into the profession, when they're coming into a school to find a community. And it would be ideal if new teachers are coming into buildings and the existing staff are like building a wall of support for them and a network for them. And in many schools, this does happen. But there are instances when you come into schools and the young new teacher coming in, and not necessarily young teacher, because we have people who are doing their second career and are doing it as teachers, right? Coming into the classroom that don't

get that support. But here's the thing with that also. Everybody, once school starts, once the bell rings at the start of the school year, every teacher has their own load to carry, right? So it's not really a lot of support that your colleagues can necessarily give you as a new teacher coming into the profession, especially if you're really struggling. And then if you don't have good administrative staff that is there to support you in the areas that you need, it can really be a really hard and lonely place, a really hard and lonely place. So if teachers are coming into buildings and they don't have that support, they need to find a community of teachers outside of that space. I talked to many young teachers coming into the profession. They have my cell phone numbers.

I was just talking to a sister last week. She was texting me like a red alert, like I need help. And so you have to, one, as a veteran teacher, be available to new teachers coming into the profession, right? Knowing that you were once that new teacher coming in. The other part of it is that teachers, no matter how long you've been in the game, you must always be new teacher coming in. The other part of it is that teachers, no matter how long you've been in the game, you must always be perfecting your craft. Always. No matter what you have to do, getting into a community, going to workshops, doing planning meetings. Like I have a sister, Dr. Rosser, we would sit at her kitchen table and just sit and just do planning together right now that goes back to this article about this work-life balance because while I'm planning it's not on my teacher contract hours that's

right now is right so finding work-life balance is also key. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what, Injumay, we're going to open this up and bring our panel in. I want to ask Joy first if she has any questions, comments in this extended dialogue with you. Joy? You know, hi. So I'm from Orlando, Florida. And one of the things some of my teacher friends say that's weighing on them is just the instability that, you know, they get a good principal, they really like that principal, then, you know, if the principal's doing a good job, next couple of years, they move that principal and they bring in someone who may not be as good, right? And they just can never gain

traction. There's not that, you know that kind of stability where they can really gain traction and they don't feel supported as teachers. What role do things like that, like just the way the school system works, weighs in on like just bringing teachers down? Yeah, the problem is, and it happens not just with administrators, but with teachers as well. So say you have this excellent dynamic teacher, right? People will begin to approach that teacher and say, oh, you need to be an administrator. You need to be an administrator. You would do such great work as an administrator. No, leave that phenomenal dynamic teacher in the classroom.

That's where they need to be. Too many teachers get lured with the sexy carrot of it being an administrator. Don't. And if you will leave the classroom to be an administrator, then you need to still be teaching. And that's something that does not happen. Every single administrator should be responsible for teaching a class, one, all the time, period, one class. Cause that will continue to give you street cred with your teachers who you're supervising. And it will keep you connected to the work. The same thing happens with principals. Oh, you're such a great, phenomenal principal. Look at this work that you're doing. You should be an assistant superintendent or a superintendent. No, you shouldn't. If you're a great principal,

stay being the great principal. But what are you in it for? Are you on a job or are you on a mission? Right? Because if you're on a mission and you know that you're called to do the work that you're doing as a teacher or as a principal, then keep your hand to that work. That's where you're most effective, that place. Don't get lured into, you can make such great change on a larger scale and we just move you up. No, stay where you are because you provide stability.

If you're doing a great job, you're providing stability for your teachers. You're being great for your teachers. You're being great for the students. You're being great for the families. Thank you, Sister Njemile. Sister, Sister Rizzi, any questions for Njemile Anderson? Yes, first of all, congratulations

on being Educator of the Year. Obviously we can see why you were bestowed that honor. My question is, I'm curious to hear your thoughts in terms of the role disinformation and misinformation is playing in the teaching profession. pain that was largely waged on the premise that educators in particular are on some sinister mission to change the genders of children attending elementary school as well as elementary school. And so I'm just curious if any of the dissatisfaction with people in the field right now is related to a lot of the lies that are being spread about the role of teachers in the lives of these young children. Wow. Okay. Where do we begin with this? First of all, the teacher for me, because I only speak for me, right? I am the co-parent with my students, parents. We're co-parents. And that's how I address my parents. We are now co-parents because I have your child

a lot of hours out of the day, right? Throughout the day. And as a teacher, your role is to be the educator, but your role is also to be this person that can open up the mind of the young people that you have in front of them. Your job as an educator is to help expand their thinking, to have them go places they never even considered. And one of the greatest challenges with being a teacher is helping the children to see the possibility beyond what's in front of them. Right. And as an English teacher, I can do that through all types of literature, all types of things that we can read and places we can go and things we can think critically about, right? Now, I have a young person. I had a young student and I just saw them. They're grown now, but they were struggling with their identity, their sexual identity, right? And so they were transitioning to be a male. And the mother was against it. And so I have both of them coming to me for counsel.

Right. And I explained to that mother, listen, she's going to always be your baby girl. But she's making a choice that she wants. She's a boy. But all the experiences that you've had with her does not change. That's still your baby. And you have to love her through because the world and the decision that has been made for her life, the world is going to be throwing bricks at her. Well, him, he's going to need his mother. Right. So I find myself in my career in situations like that with young people in my job.

First and foremost is the well-being of that student. Absolutely. Well, this has been an excellent conversation. We appreciate you joining us, Sister Injamila Anderson, Philadelphia Citizen Educator of the Year, newly named. Looking forward to having you back with us soon at Roland Martin. Thanks for spending part of your very hard earned holiday break with us. Although I suspect she's probably still texting with her students right now. So we're just going to take a couple of days, would you please? I know you're not, but anyway, thanks for joining us. All right. Well, thank you so much. Y'all have a great rest of your day and Habaragani. Umoja. Yes. Umoja. Habaragani. Yes, indeed. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network, and we will be right back. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes, the third founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers

and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine.

We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to StartEngine.com and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in fanbase right now today. And then use fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits. 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 One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

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

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer Riley Cote, Marine 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 of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. work. I was challenged by my uncle early on before I even had a career like I was maybe eight years

old and my uncle said what do you want to do and I told him I wanted to be a rapper and he said okay well I don't know anything about the music business so what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through and so I went and bought books all you need to know about the music business, hit me in, I just went and bought a bunch of books, just start reading as a 10 year old, just read and read. And so I learned all things, licensing, mechanical rights, I learned about publishing,

learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces, the writer's portion and the producer's portion. So by the time I actually learned that Kang Ben, I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He was going to prison. So I had all this information. All this knowledge. All this knowledge.

You like, well, what am I supposed to do with it now? Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saras. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl Lundgren Show. Well, should it be the Cheryl Lundgren Show and the Roland Martin Show?tered here on the Black Star Network. We now turn our attention to the epical news of yesterday.

I confess I wasn't quite aware of what was about to happen, but here in georgia as the as the moment neared uh shout out to ashay kelsey spelmanite who was like uh yeah y'all got to turn on the beyonce bow what the what the what okay all right so the hive's not coming for me beyonce's halftime performance yesterday at nrg stadium on christmas day during the houston texans versus bal versus Baltimore Ravens game was met apparently with mixed reaction. The 32-time Grammy-winning artist began the performance by singing 16 carriages from her studio album, Cowboy Carter, while riding a white horse into the stadium. I guess we're going to talk about that horse and colors in old Denzel Washington movies. I'm sure we're going to get into all that in a moment her performance again brought up the discussion about what country music is tasha love is here to help

us tasha is a music industry insider she's joining us from the atl to discuss the impact importance uh of and why folks at least some folks apparently are so mad about be's performance. Sister Love, welcome to your role in Martin Unfiltered. Hello. Thank you for having me. I appreciate being here. No, it's a great pleasure. Listen, we need to hear your voice right now. Could you walk us a little bit through both the performance last night, maybe put it into context and give us some of your thoughts about what we all witnessed last night? Well, quite honestly, we witnessed history, right? Depending upon who you ask, let me say that.

In 2013, Beyonce performed at the Super Bowl to 110 million viewers. In 2016, she performed with Coldplay and Bruno Mars to 115.5 million viewers. And last night during that Christmas halftime show, which wasn't even the Super Bowl, had viewers from 200 countries. The performance viewers,

the numbers spiked right before Beyonce came on. Everybody turned off after the game. Aside, of course, from the viewers that were actually there for the game. But I think I'd be pretty hard pressed to find out who was actually playing. I ran from the kitchen with so many other of my family members, probably like you. You were like, Beyonce, what is that? Yeah, right. Depending upon who you ask, nobody even watched or knew what was happening during the game until B hit the stage.

I mean, she's the queen bee. And I think that needs to be respected. Two hundred countries last night, there were people live streaming their performances from Thailand, from Japan, from Switzerland. Beyonce ruled the night hands down. OK, well, I tell you, yeah. And I haven't watched a down of the NFL. I will probably die without seeing another down since Kaepernick. I understand there's a phenomenal quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson. I've never seen him take a snap, probably never will. But as you said, everybody's running from their plates. They run in to watch this thing. So the

phenomenon is uncontested. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about this in the larger context I mean we've all heard about the little Wayne so-called controversy and you know and Kendrick Lamar performing New Orleans And we know that Char Carter is involved in the planning of Super Bowl halftimes I wonder if you have any thoughts about maybe the chestnut checkers. I've heard that bandied about in the last 24 hours, moves about that Miss Carter, that Beyonce knows Carter is engaged in. Because could you put this in a conversation with what's going to happen in the Super Bowl in 2025? I mean, where does this fit relative to that? I mean, is there a larger strategy at play? Any thoughts on what's going on, even in terms of what she's trying to accomplish in this moment relative to this larger complex of sports and entertainment in this country? Oh, great question. I think that anything with Beyonce knows Carter, Sean Carter, Blue Ivy Carter. I think we're looking at a dynasty here. And I don't think that it's fair for us to pigeonhole her to just being an R&B artist. She's from Houston.

You think that she didn't dream of performing in Houston from day one since she first hit the stage or when Matthew Knowles had her and the rest of her bandmates running around in heels. I think we really need to look at the larger scale here and see, she used to perform in high school talent shows. Let's take it back even before then. She was performing at talent shows, period, across the Texas area as a young, pretty teen. Then she goes and she starts performing at talent shows. And then we all know Star Search, right? I used to watch Star Search when I was a kid. But now, look, now she's performing in her hometown at the Christmas halftime at the biggest game ever. Aside from the Super Bowl, we're talking, again, 200 countries, millions of viewers, millions worldwide.

Do I think there's a bigger game here that that's taking place? Absolutely. There's a strategy here for the 2025 Super Bowl. We know that Kendrick Lamar is performing. After what Beyonce did last night with that drum line, the speculation is that now Kendrick can't come with a band, right? Beyonce took that drum line there. But is there a bigger strategy? Yes. We know that Netflix is now going to be releasing just her performance alone on their streaming platform. They, of course, are not going to rebroadcast the game. People, they don't want to see the game. We want to see Beyonce, right? The bigger strategy here is that on January 14th, there's something else coming.

I've heard rumors of a possible tour slated from little hints that she was dropping through the previous tour. We just really have to wait and see. But I think that the bigger picture here is that definitely there's more to come. I can't pigeonhole her to what her husband has done. She wasn't there. She married somebody who is equally as big. They did a song about it. It's called Bonnie and Clyde and Let Me Upgrade You. So we already know that something else is coming from the Carters. Okay. Yeah. I'm not one of those people who likes to engage in a lot of make-believe and neither one of them are NFL owners. And so, I mean, to the degree that they are performers, albeit rich ones i mean i

think you're you're right you know you're raising something that is very important for us to consider uh and certainly a lot of people are talking about the symbolism and we certainly want to get into that in terms of the show and everything shout out by the way to texas southern the ocean of soul making their second appearance in a major beyonce platform So it's good to see that HBCU band culture. No question. You know, you raised several things. And of course, you know, my sister, and of course, Roland is from down there,

Houston Third Ward out there, Jack Gates High School. Think about the Shape Center there in Houston, where they say when she was a little girl, girl's time, they still had her picture on the wall down there. You know, I don't think it gets any blacker in terms of her roots. I was recently in New York at a new exhibit at the Met called Flight Into Egypt, which looks at African Americans

and how we've engaged in this kind of study of ancient Egypt over the arc of basically 150 years. And Solange, her sister, has in the exhibit catalog a photograph of their parents on the Nile and her father and mother are dressed in Egyptian attire. I mean, there's all of this deep grounding in Black history and culture flowing through the veins of both of those sisters. And any thoughts on how Beyoncé may be kind of wielding this immersion, this surrounding immersion she's had from the beginning in Black culture as a kind of point of entry to push back against an industry that not only has not always been welcoming, but that is this billion-dollar

behemoth. I mean, from what I understand, between Amazon Prime streaming a football game and Netflix doing one with no commercial interruptions, there seems to be this whole shift that has nothing to do with us as anything other than entertainment. But she seems hell bent on not allowing this thing to roll over us without us gaining some point of entry to try to push back. Any thoughts about how she's using her culture as a weapon in this moment? Yes. You know, it's so hard for me to just sit here and be still and not nod to everything that you're saying. I know how passionate you are personally about our culture. I've watched you for the longest time and it bleeds through. So yes, absolutely. There's so much symbolism that happened last night from Beyonce. Her red carpet was the American flag.

Did anybody peep that? I mean, she rode in on the Lipanzer horse, which is a horse that starts out when it's first born. It's a black horse that is either born black or dark gray, but then turns pure white, which is used to pull carriages and perform. It's a stallion. And I think that if we, I've heard some rumblings go on on TikTok. There's a variety of conspiracies that talk about how this symbolism here could either be the white horse. You remember that song that happened back

in the seventies. That's a whole nother conversation. I don't know about about that message, but I can certainly see where the horse turning from black to white was the whitewashing of country music that has that theory has been floated around. I personally like that and believe that. And I think it falls right in line with her stance as to how the CMAs denied her this year with zero nods. But here she comes, here she comes in riding on that horse. And she snags 11 Grammy nominations, five of which are in the CMA American Roots category. And it puts her at just one nomination shy of being at a hundred Grammy nominations throughout her career. She's younger than me. I mean, what a young, amazing artist that we've watched grow from, like you said, from when she was in Girl's Time to just being a star that is consistently being denied by not only some of her culture, her own culture, but of course the white community. Just because she came out with a country album from her own, this is from her roots, okay?

We have to really pay attention to how country music is trying to close the door on such a prolific artist in the music industry and so here she comes with the flag and all riding in on a white horse with a giant middle finger up and i'm not mad at her for that no i ain't mad at her either in fact that last thing when that red white and blue uh phallic symbol unfurled from between her legs and hit the ground, I'm like, oh, you're not playing. She knows her history. She knows her history. And she's letting it be known that she to touch on this really quickly, but, you know, people are talking about the finger guns that she did. There is an autograph picture that Dolly Parton has that is up for auction right now where she's done the same gesture with the gun pistols that is right now up for auction for over close to $1,000. And that is just because I don't think people

really know about it, but Beyonce's not the first. But what she is saying is that I will not be the last Black artist that does country music. I'm not even the first. I'm just showing you how many of us are out there. Absolutely. No, no, we're gonna touch on that in all, in a moment, Sister Tasha.

In fact, we're gonna take a quick break and then we come back. Joy and Reesey are going to join the conversation and I, for one, am going to sit back because I can't wait to hear you three sisters walk us through what we're talking about. Absolutely. So you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. This is

why you support the Black Star Network. You're not going to hear this anywhere else. We'll be right back. going to hear this anywhere else we'll be right back coming soon to the black star network well y'all when you're on that stage or when you're and you're seeing two and three or four generations in the audience that's got that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all become oh most definitely i think we were doing our show before our tour before our break and remember i was watching this kid i could not take my eyes off him because he was about right nine or so he's sitting in the front row with over on the right hand side yes yes yes yes i was yes i was amazed that this kid knew everything.

And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels uh everywhere you know like like what philip was saying seeing this young kid then you see hear our songs on commercials cold commercials then you have the younger ones that seen out here our music in animation Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase.

Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today.

And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support the Black Star Network. We're joined right now, talking all things Beyonce's performance, the Beyonce Bowl with Sister Tasha Love joining us from Atlanta. And so I'm going to ask Recy to jump jump in. Rissi, any thoughts about what we saw and any thoughts of conversation for Sister Tasha? Of course I have thoughts. I mean,

the Beyonce Bowl was absolutely sensational, spectacular, magnificent. It was like a love letter to Black America. I was like, this is how I would have felt if Kamala Harris had won. We would have had our own Black Girl Magic moment. We would have been like, yeah, we're running shit. So I absolutely loved every single moment of it. I mean, she gave every emotion and I loved that Black women were able

to be centered with the Blackbird quartet that she highlighted Black women country music artists. She highlighted Black men country artists. And she just owned a whole ass stadium. And so it gave everything. It gave more.

You know, you always think that it's going to be hyped up, overhyped, and then she delivers even beyond anybody's wildest expectations. But I just want to take a moment to say, can we normalize not giving a fuck about what racist white people are triggered by?

Like at the end of the day, Beyonce is that girl. She doesn't have to ask permission from the Country Music Awards, Funky Ass or anybody else to get out there and perform the Cowboy Carter, perform country music, reclaim it for black people she can do that

because she's beyonce and if you're mad about it you're gonna have to stay mad about it because you can get trump but you cannot get beyonce okay we had a dance party with beyonce and we loved every moment of it netflix is very smart for putting it on because i will be restreaming it with my sound bar blasting next time and if you don don't like Beyonce, who cares? She's been famous for 30 something years. There are no more cookies left for people who like Rihanna or Mariah or whoever, Taylor Swift more than Beyonce because she is and has proven that she is one of the greatest entertainers of all time. So that's my comment. Now for my question for Miss Tasha.

Yes, go ahead. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the special guests she had in the audience? I mean, in the show, we know that she had Blue Ivy, but there are also other people that she kind of gave a platform to, like the first Black rodeo queen and others. So can you just shed a little bit of light about some of the special guests throughout the show that she highlighted sure first of all I 100% agree with everything that you just said

I think you know the one thing about Beyonce is that especially that she does that I especially love is that she will recognize those that have come before her. Now, we all know that the theories of, oh, she bit this person. Oh, she took this style or she canceled this artist. So, you know, she just corners the market. But one thing that she did here, she was extremely smart. Some of the artists that she featured was one, Shaboosie. Shaboosie is number one right now in the country music chart. Let's just keep this 100. When Beyonce put Shaboosie on the album and she highlighted him, there were certainly rumblings. His music really was getting on the charts and she highlighted him. There were certainly rumblings. His music really was getting on the charts, but once

Beyonce featured him, I don't want to take anything away from his talent, but he did shoot to number one because now not only are there white country music artists just listening to him, now you have black rappers listening to Shaboosie. It wouldn't surprise me a little way we have an album

um so i think that we really need to uh we need to pay homage to that um certainly she featured the b uh the banjo solo uh the artist was not there um that actually did that but there was a tiara there was um uh um post malone while post malone um is white he's still on the chart and in fact he's number two on the chart so what beyonce is really doing is she's crossing these boundaries by saying listen i'm not really trying to acknowledge color here in the country music but if you want to go there okay i can i can cross back over into another genre um and make it number one and i think that that's what is um really really important here um not only that but she featured um again just the drum line the drum line to me was impressive because i went to morris brown college you no question you might talk about a drum line we got it for you. I mean, come on, come on and everything. But before I came from

New York, I was not aware of the drum line. And then, of course, I get to Morris Brown where the movie drum line is shot. So I just I mean, there's no bounds to what she's done. And then if we're going to talk nepotism and we talk, if Trump could do it, Beyonce could do it. I'm not mad at Blue Ivy standing there next to her mother on the biggest platform, the biggest stage, acknowledging that she is Texas bred. She's born there. I can't wait to go back to White Plains and do a performance in the middle of the square where I'm from, or go back to my high school and say, hey, I'm broadcasting from my high school. This is where I'm from. But I think we need to acknowledge that she was born there and she took it all the way back. And not only did she take it back, but she brought these other artists with her. And the

women that did Blackbird all are historic within their own right. They all have their own music, their own albums. And Beyonce, whether the CMAs allows her to or not, she's still gonna get the country music sales. So you can keep your little award, that's not what we after anyway. It's really the sales and the money and the charts. So it really doesn't matter the door has been shut on black women before all we do is come and kick it down so what

no question sister joy please uh yes you guys are leaving off right where i wanted to start i mean the fact of the matter is this is a metaphor for life, right? Just because you are not being recognized by the gatekeeper, whoever is the official person, you can just simply go around, you know, here we are on, you know, the black, you know, news network, right? You can create your own. You don't have to do it through someone else waiting for them to acknowledge you. You can create your own. You don't have to do it through someone else waiting for them to acknowledge you. You can go direct to consumer. And so I love that in the same year that Simei snubbed her, right, stupidly,

while the rest of us embraced her and bought it and blew it up and other artists are saying, "'Hey, we wanna be associated with that because we know ultimately she's bringing in the dollars and she's bringing in the talent. She's bringing in great music. It's so silly. But to then have, I'm not a big fan of the NFL, trust me. I'm not a big fan of any of these. I mean, I can't even. But they're not stupid, right? And we know they go where it's hot. And they would not be they are selecting her because they understand that's what people want to see they understand that she's

significant so even if a gatekeeper doesn't see you so you have to see yourself and beyonce sees herself and you can see that she sees her people and she brings that to a multicultural audience. You would have thought only Black people were watching. That's how Black it was. And yet everyone is watching. Everyone is watching. It's for everyone. And they're all getting a piece of that history. They're all being like, let me look this up.

What was the significance of this? And in so doing, they're getting the Black history. They're getting what they're not being taught of in school so i love it right i love it i'm all for it now let me just ask you about the business so netflix i what i have been loving look i'm a taylor swift fan fan too what i've been loving is that not only have they been doing these these concert tours they've also been making movies right of the concert tour which it tells a unique story so then netflix is now going to re-air it how can we like are we going to be seeing more of that where you know you that you have the concert you have the ecosystem who watched it maybe in real time or even if it's being shown on tv um live but then

you have this whole other group that gets to re-air it over and over again, and how the artists monetize it back. Well, in my opinion, Netflix, this was one of the smartest moves, and we already know that Netflix has just stepped into an arena that nobody saw coming. You could never have told me that I wouldn't have to go sit in a movie theater. I could watch a new release at the same day from home with my slippers on and my hair up. Are you kidding me? And I don't have to pay money to go to a concert. I could watch a live stream from the own comfort of my home and drink Beyonce's whiskey if I wanted to while I was watching her perform. Netflix is super smart. There are 282.2 million people who are subscribed to Netflix. Like I said, 200 countries watched Beyonce last night, not just us, right? And

with this announcement that's coming on January 14th, I wouldn't be surprised if somehow there wasn't a Netflix tie to it. Who knows? I just believe that Netflix sees the bigger picture. They see that our music translates into buying power and spending power. Netflix really needs subscribers. You know, ask anybody who has a subscription. Is somebody else on your account? OK, but if you what Netflix wants to do is they want to make sure that they get our demographic. They know the power of the black dollar and they know that we will subscribe if uh we get to see content that is appealing to us um and so i do believe that this is a step in the right direction for netflix

i do believe that um once taylor started dating dating kelsey unless i'm just gonna keep it 100 real i didn't know about kelsey until taylor um just didn't. And then I started liking him. I started liking his appeal. I started liking what he was doing. Right, yeah. I just started paying more attention to him. Now, I'm a New Yorker. I live in Atlanta.

If the Giants, the Jets, and the Falcons aren't playing outside of what Sierra's husband is doing, I mean, I just really not, I'm not there. But that's just me. I'm not there. Um, but that's just, that's just me. I'm not a football fan like that. I did have tickets, um, to the Falcons, but I was, I was in the hallway, you know, where the, where the real party was. So, you know, I I'm, I'm that girl. I'm that social girl. Um, but I will tell you that Beyonce doing this Christmas halftime performance was so appealing that. Oh, I think we might have. It was so hot that it broke the literal connection. The CMAs took us out. There she goes. There she goes. George there. Go ahead and finish. Go ahead and finish, Tasha.

You were so hot, you just broke the screen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. People are calling me. I thought I put Do Not Disturb on, but what I was saying is that I'm really, you know, I am a music person. You know, I love sports. I can go watch it. I can

hold a conversation with you about it, but what Beyonce did last night for our culture and pulling people not just from, you know, downstairs who are who are, you know, dancing with the family. But they really pulled us into in front of our screens. And this isn't the last time that we've seen this partnership with Beyonce and Netflix by far. I don't think that this is the end of our partnership with Beyonce and the NFL. So far, this is her third performance. I mean, she's gaining millions and millions. And I'm not talking just single-digit millions. She's already got a billion streams on Cowboy Carter. It's only going to go up from here. Let me just say, my son just screamed out,

don't forget Kendrick Lamar is doing the Super Bowl. I'm like, he missed it. We already talked about it. Yeah, we already talked about it. Absolutely. Absolutely. I will be watching Kendrick Lamar recording because I refuse. I will die before I watch another minute of NFL football, which kind of leads me to, or anything related with it, quite frankly. So, I mean, it leads me to my final question for you, Tasha. And, you know, we always benefited when you were on with our brother Faraji and the culture here on the network. And so we look forward to this conversation, particularly, oh, absolutely, emptying into the next year, as Joy says, with Kenneth Lamar at the Super Bowl.

Of course, we see our sister Missy Elliott there over your shoulder. Portsmouth is, what, about 10 minutes from from Norfolk where she and Timberland mixing up. So with Mike Vick down there and Allen Iverson at the conference, I imagine in a minute Norfolk State is going to be what people thought Deion Sanders was going to try to pull off at Jackson State. I guess my question then, my final question is how much is too much for these white supremacists? In other words, the reason they have to defend country music. I'm from Nashville. So I understand, as you say, it isn't just culture, it's politics. And so how much blackness is going to finally become, in your mind, the tipping point?

And like you say, you're working program directing. You know, you help break Mariah Carey records in Atlanta and beyond. You like to say Missy, all these things, black women in particular, I'm talking now about Missy, no shade. I mean, that one only has come from me. Which way? Mariah Carey. Yes, exactly. But that having said, and I'm glad you brought up Morris Brown.

A lot of people didn't know they were marching bands at HBCUs before they looked there in y'all stadium and saw that battle between Morris Brown and the fictitious Atlanta A&T. So, you know, at what point does this kind of capitalizing on Black culture bleed so much into politics? And Beyoncé tried to help the vice president get over the finish line. Of course, white supremacy is a little too tough this cycle. But how much longer before this bleeding becomes so political that they just drop all pretenses? They can't cancel her. So, I mean, is there a tipping point?

I mean, you've obviously been a part of this work for quite some time now, long enough to see ebbs and flows. You know, as 2025 opens and we see, as you say, Joy, Kendrick Lamar at Super Bowl, you know, at what point does making a buck kind of clash with the politics that kind of tries to keep us in line? Well, listen, you know, I've spent the last, I don't know, so many decades, I hate to age myself, in the music culture, but immediately, of course, I can think of a song, Luther Bandross, never too much, never too much, never too much. Right. Plops right into my head. Listen, we got to do what we got to do.

I think we've been oppressed and just motivation to come through music. We just can't stop. I mean, Marvin Gaye wrote a song, What's Going On? We still don't know what's going on. I mean, the song is so prevalent today. We just really can't be stopped. And if we need to put hidden messages in our music, then that's what we're going to continue to do to the end of time until the message gets out. Kendrick Lamar coming into the Super Bowl is a bold, brave decision made.

And I understand that people were hurt by Lil Wayne, who sits on my wall here, one of his platinum albums. But I think what we really need to do is in this day and age, we need it to be heard no matter if they hear it just on a surface level or if we hear it down to our bones. I think that we all need to dive a little bit deeper and listen to the lyrics that were being said. And as far as politics is concerned We need we need music to get us through these next four years mmm

Absolutely, absolutely and quite honestly the messaging outside of what you all provide and what the Roland Martin Network What what comes from it? We're gonna need hidden messages in the song in order to get it through Because quite honestly, you know, with newspapers are going out of business, it's not being printed. TikTok is the new source of information. YouTube is the next source of information. And quite honestly, music is the gateway for that. And without the message getting through, it's going to be missed. I have a 10-year-old son, and he and I are in deep discussion. I let him listen, the clean versions, of course, to Kendrick Lamar. We listen to Wu-Tang. We listen to KRS-One. We listen to Queen Latifah. We listen to Sister Soldier.

We listen to Run DMC. We listen to LL because he's one of my faves because I need him to know the soft and sensitive side. But I mean, you mentioned Norfolk State. My dad went to Norfolk State, so I got a shout out to my dad. But I think that the times of our music being stolen from us are gone. I think that if we continue to push the bounds and cross into where they don't want us, I think this is just a normal path for us. This is not new to our culture. It might be new to other people because we've been suppressed for so long, but all in all, we're just not going to take it anymore. And if we need to claim it on the music charts, that's what we're going to do. No question. Well, Dr. Carr, can I add one thing? Oh yeah. No, please, please, please.

Not that Tasha didn't say it all, but I just have to say that when we're in this anti-woke, anti-CRT, anti-DEI era where it seems like they're rocking their win after win, I think that Beyonce shows the limits of that. You can kill DEI, but you cannot kill the demand from the people. You cannot kill the way that Beyonce and Black people and our sauce

and our swagger is always going to evoke the emotion, which is the opposite of the apathy that has gotten them all of these wins on the political side and so what they should be looking at instead of us looking at the limits and the tipping point they should be looking at the limits and the tipping point of what they're trying to do because they keep around and we're not going to be having a debate about whether or not beyonce is is the greatest or whatever situation we're going to be

having a debate about the kind of things that they've had people in a slumber over. And so this is of the limits of their political willpower over the people and what the people want to see. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're vibing on this call because that is literally what I was going to say. I mean, the fact of the matter is the NFL isn't just playing Beyonce because we listen to Beyonce or Kendrick Lamar because we listen to Kendrick Lamar. We love us, but they're doing it because white people, young white people, middle-aged white people are listening to Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar and all of those things, right? And when they are getting messages, they may not be getting the same messages

that we're getting, but they're getting a message. Okay? And so when they go to their workplaces and they see some of the activities that their forefathers and their mothers and their grandfathers and even their older siblings are doing, they're starting to say, no, I don't like that. Young people

were supportive of Kamala Harris. They are ready, right? It's the older generations who are not ready. And that is why they are afraid. That's why they're trying to control what we do in our classrooms and our education. And music is a way of circumventing that. We really are doing that since Colin Kaepernick, when he took the knee, right? It just became this large controversy. Think about it. Think about what's happening here. Even though people are upset because Jay-Z came and started working with the NFL, technically, he's really doing the same thing. I know people don't want to hear that because of the optics yeah but technically he's doing the same thing is yeah is he though look at every performer if you look at every performer since jay-z is taking hold it has been about me it is the knee it is the knee yeah he said he said we're past he said we're past kneeling he said we're past kneeling and many of those old white men old white men listened to Beyonce in their headphones as they walked into voting booths and voted for Trump. I've never really always understood.

Remember, as you say, you quote KRS-One, the table's turned as the cross is burned. Remember, you must learn. So at any rate, now they got white kids calling themselves. I mean, I'm just thinking about, you know, MCs act like they don't know. But at any rate, I'm not sure about I'm not sure about Sean Carter. At last I know he and his friend Milbot are made back for a man who could buy that with his lunch money and put both them Negroes in prison. But anyway, we talk about real power. Maybe another. I just want to say nobody's saying this is revolutionary nobody's saying it's

revolutionary it's more so that it is absolutely though a display of the limits of what they're trying to do they're trying to erase all of this even if this isn't the the the best thing to happen to black people since the civil rights act nobody's claiming that they don't even want us to have this much, but they can't help it because the demand far exceeds the power that they have that we've allowed them to have because of our apathy. I know you're skeptical, Dr. Carr, and I

will defer to you. We're all skeptical. But you know what? We got to take our wins before we can get them. A win is a win. In the famous words of Kendrick Lamar, we're going to be all right. Period. We're going to be all right.

I guess we'll see. We'll see. Dr. Carter says they're not like us. No, no, no, no, no. Look, I don't know who they and us is when you're shaking a leg in prison jumpsuits at the Super Bowl and five years later you're out there talking about they're not like us. You mean like the owners in the booth laughing at you while you're out there dancing in front of them? But we'll save that for the Super Bowl. And five years later, you're out there talking about they not like us. You mean like the owners in the booth

laughing at you while you're out there dancing in front of them? But we'll save that for the Super Bowl. But I don't even know who they and us is, but it's all good. But Tasha Love, you have given us a lot to think about.

And between you, you're in recent. This conversation has to happen more. I love this. Oh, no question. No question. This is, and only here. So it's good to see you again, sis.

We got to have you back on the network very soon. Pioneer industry insider Tasha Love. Thank you for joining us again here on the Black Star Network. Of course, always. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on Black Star Network and we'll be right back. You are amazing. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age.

The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs ad. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I was challenged by my uncle early on, before I even had a career. Like, I was maybe eight years old, and my uncle said, what do you want to do? And I told him I wanted to be a rapper. And he said, okay, well, I don't know anything about the music business,

so what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business, and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through. So I went and bought books, All You Need to Know About the Music Business hit me and I just went and bought a bunch of books to start reading as a 10 year old. Just read and read. So I learned you know all things licensing, mechanical rights, I learned about publishing, learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces, the writer's portion and the producer's portion. So by the time I actually learned I can't bend,

I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He would go in the fridge. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

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

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

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

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

sign up to volunteer donate furniture or even donate funds you can go to a sense of home.org to find out more information together we can help our la community rebuild it takes all of us so i had all this information. All this knowledge. All this knowledge. You like what I'm going to do with it now. This is Tamela Mann. And this is David Mann. And you're watching Roland Martin. I'm filter.

We're back. Sorry about that. You all had a little bit of a moment there with the check, but I think we're back. Happy Kwanzaa, or as the greeting goes in Kiswahili, Habari Gani. Kwanzaa means first fruits of the harvest. This is, of course, again in key swahili today is the first day of the seven day celebration from december 26th to january 1st uh that honors african traditions and culture this is a pan-african holiday created uh by malana ron karenga and the organization us in 1966 a week-long celebration that honors history values family, family, community, and culture. Each day, a different principle is highlighted. Of course, first we have Umoja, representing unity. That's today. Fujichagalia, tomorrow, the second day of Kwanzaa, which means self-determination. Ujima, collective work and responsibility. Ujamaa, which is cooperative economics, Nia, which is for

purpose, and Kuumba, creativity. And finally, on the last day of Kwanzaa, January the 1st, which also coincides with Emancipation Day rituals. People go to watch night services on the 31st of December in Black churches all around the United States. The day, January the 1st, the last day of Kwanzaa, Imani, faith. Very important. This is celebrated all over the United States. The day, January the 1st, the last day of Kwanzaa, Imani, it's very important. This is celebrated all over the world. This is celebrated in many places, big and small. It is a Pan-African holiday. It is not a Black Christmas. It is a made-up holiday, as is Christmas and Easter and every other holiday. So those who might want to say, Kwanzaa made-up holiday, say name one that isn't. And then the crickets begin to sing.

For the first time in over 20 years, the John F. Kennedy Center will host a Kwanzaa event here in Washington, DC with music, performances, stories, and an African marketplace. These events kick off Friday night with the legacy of the Dibinga sisters and the Origination Cultural Arts Center. To tell us more about this event is Shamba Dibinga Sisters and the Origination Cultural Arts Center. To tell us more about this event is Shamba Dibinga,

the founding director of Origination, Shamba Sabira, Dibinga Robinson and Yumi Nishizawa, no, let me say it right, Nishizawa Cloud, the lead in Tafuta, A Young Child's Search for the true meaning of Kwanzaa. This is an important moment we are joining in right now. We have these three sisters with us. Oh, look at y'all. Okay, DC, I see y'all with that red, black, and green in the back. I see the Kanara and the candles.

Yes, indeed. Okay, I'm looking for that Kikango Umoja. Looking for that Unity Cup, and that's the Wadi, those gifts. Welcome! Welcome to Roland Martin. Okay, now I'm talking. Okay, there they go. I see the rest of y'all in there. Yeah. Wait a minute. I think I know something about one of them books behind

your shoulders, sis. That's like a book from my man, Omokongo. So, okay. Somebody talk to us about what's going on at the kinder city y'all blacking up johnny's good name in dc these days i'm barry ghani thank you thank you for having us i am shaun bayandra the binga the founding artistic director of origination cultural arts center and next to me i haveume. What is your last name, Yume? Nijizel Coy.

That's right. And then we also have in here with us, Shamba Subira. Dabinga, there you go. Who are you? I'm Shamba Subira Dabinga Robinson. Yes. Yes. And we are excited to be at the Kennedy Center tomorrow night and bring, you know, we're going from Congo to the Kennedy Center and we are going to bring the energy tomorrow.

Yes, you are. Talk to us a little bit about the journey to the Kennedy Center, the energy you're going to be bringing. And maybe about some about Origination Cultural Arts Center. This institution building is I mean, hey, that's the principle of Kwanzaa. You've got to build institutions. Right. Talk to us a little bit about this journey. So our journey to the Kennedy Center was something that was in the back of my brain. You know, so I'm always trying to think about things that we can do for our young people and how we can bring awareness to Africa and African traditions and culture and our voice. And so a friend of mine, I also, outside of Running Origination, I teach Infernal Hot Pilates and other, you know, fitness classes. And my friend, Pierre, she works with the

Smithsonian. And she came to my class one day and I said to her, you know, it'd be so cool if we could perform at the Kennedy Center. And I literally just said it just to say it. But also in Boston in December, we participate in community Kwanzaas. And those have been going on in Boston for over 20 years. So my dad, the late Reverend Dr. Domingo Wasaid, was one of the people along with Sadiqi that created these community Kwanzaas that happened throughout our community. And so she actually came to our community Kwanzaas and scouted us. And then she brought the information back to the Kendi Center. And she had did a presentation about us and then we were invited. So that was

a dream come true. That is something I never thought would come to fruition, but it did. And we are here. And tomorrow, I brought in the team tomorrow. It's right? Yes. It's going down tomorrow. So we are going to present a Kwanzaa ceremony and that is going to include Dr. Omekongo Dibinga. He will be part of the Kwanzaa ceremony as well as performing tomorrow. We have members of our alumni from origination, as well as some of our present members of Nia Dance Truth, Girls of Imani and Imani Jr. that are going to perform spoken word, modern dance, African dance, hip hop, Afro beats, you name it, we're going to be doing it.

And it's all going down tomorrow at the Kennedy Center. Yes. And thank you so much for raising the name of your father, the great ancestor, Dabin Gowasaid. Of course, some people might know him from Harvard Divinity School, but we know that son of central africa for bringing all of that africa here yes born you know born 20 years before the cia tried to take out patrice lamoma but they couldn't kill the spirit that brother brought rocago here so oh my good yumi and and and shawna subida y'all got to talk to us as well young people involved in this which one's going to go first and tell us about your work here and particularly maybe we can start you because you're playing the lead in tafuta what what is that about so tafuta just so you know tafuta is a musical about ponza and so this year you may was the lead so you may talk to us a little bit about um um so tafuta is about this young girl who goes to like a mall and goes to this African-American cultural store and she meets these dolls and they represent the seven principles and so she goes on a journey the principles talk about

kwanzaa and what the principles mean and to me when i got that role it was very surprising because um last year i was imani and there was a lot of lines. And Yumei was actually bullied. So in the production, the lead is bullied. And so the students at her school, they celebrate other things, but nobody knows about Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is boring and Yumei is like, it's so boring. There's nothing exciting about it. Why do we have to celebrate this ridiculous, you know, this ridiculous thing? And so through the journey and the people she meets along the way, they help her understand the trimmings of Kwanzaa. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

You were incredible in this role. She's underestimating us. You were incredible in this role. Yeah, I can see by that smile. She quiet with it, but we already know what quiet folk do when they get ready to get comfortable. So you may, it's clear. It's shining through, sis. It's shining through, young sis. Shabba Subita, talk to us about your role in this work and how you're coming to us in this Kwanzaa season

to help us really think about this intergenerational work and particularly the role of young people in the work that y'all are doing? Oh, hi again. So for me, I grew up celebrating Kwanzaa and in growing up, Kwanzaa wasn't really mentioned in school. It was really just the more well-known holidays. And so it was very difficult in school when they would talk about it and I wasn't able to relate to anybody. So when I used to participate in Tafuta, it was really nice to be able to educate young people about what Kwanzaa really is and how it's such an important holiday and it should really be talked about more. And for the Kennedy Center, I'm very excited because I've been with Regenation

since I was, since I, before I was born. My mom is actually, I'm Sean Bianchi Dominguez. She's the head. She's on the call right now. So I grew up in origination. So to see it being able to go to such far lengths after so much community service, so much helping the community, it's really, it makes me really emotional because my mom has done so much for the community. And to see it finally being recognized on such a big stage at the Kennedy Center means a lot for me personally. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, listen, we've been in the conversation. I hope you all don't mind going to bring in our sister and then to ask you all some questions and be in conversation. We can start with our sister, Joy. Joy, will you come in and maybe be in conversation with these sisters? First of all, how delightful are you all? Thank you. I mean, I love it.

And I think so many people do know about Kwanzaa, but not enough, right? And, you know, I'd love to know a little bit about, like, if you aren't familiar with Kwanzaa, why is this important? Why is this something worth talking about? Why is this something African-Americans and really beyond should consider celebrating? I'll let Sean with Sabira answer that first, and then you may. OK. I think Kwanzaa should really be talked about more because of what the principles represent.

Specifically, my personal favorite one is Kumba, which is creativity. And I think that's the most important principle because you need to find what you're what you're uh what would I say I would say your niche what you're really looking forward to and what you really want to do in life I feel Kumbha really represents that and I feel like the principles of Kwanzaa um really allow for people to express how they are and I would say I think that's all I really have to say for me personally. All right. You, May? What I think is that Kwanzaa really helps you embrace yourself and helps you reach

to your ancestors and tells you the real meaning about the world and your ancestors. Yeah. And just to add to that, you know, and thank you, ladies. I love them. You know, in looking at the principles of Kwanzaa, the principles of Kwanzaa should be celebrated throughout the entire year. So, yes, we have our seven days, but those principles should be lived by throughout the year,

not just for those seven days. And when you look at a principle like Kujichaguli, a self-determination to define yourself, name yourself, speak for yourself and not let others speak for you, we are very big at Origination about helping our young people understand the power of their voice and not allowing people to tell them their voice doesn't matter. And that is a big deal. So when you look at the principles of Kwanzaa, you can do a whole curriculum about the principles of Kwanzaa. It's really, really important. And in my family, my mom, Dr. Gulayla Dabinga, and my dad were very big on us understanding the power of our voice. So not only should people understand it for the seven days, but throughout the entire year. And as you may say, our ancestors, our ancestors are very,

very important. You have to understand the importance of the people who came before us, or we wouldn't be able to be here today. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sister Recy, please, questions, comments. I'm so excited about this program. Kennedy Center is my second favorite place, the first one being the Black Smithsonian. But I know normally they do have some live streaming capabilities for different programs there. So I'm just curious for a practical reason or logistical reason, is question, is there going to be a way to actually watch the program that is going to be performed live if we're virtual? Absolutely. So we will be getting the link.

It may be up on the Kennedy Center site now, but it will definitely be live streamed around the world, which is huge for us and our dancers because, you know, for them to be able to perform for people in London and Africa and be right here in Washington, DC is a big deal. It is, congratulations. Thank you. Wonderful, and Rissi, it was good to see some photos from the new exhibit in Slavery's Wake.

You and hubby, my brother, there at the opening, quite a powerful thing if you all haven't had a chance to check it out yet down at the National Museum of African American thing if you all haven't had a chance to check it out yet down at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Slavery's Weight, a major exhibition that I'm glad to see that y'all were there to help open. I've been down there two times already and it ain't been there but since two weeks. So I mean, it's quite a thing. But the Kennedy Center, this is Friday night, right? Remind everybody a few more details, including where those who are remote will be able to log in. Talk to us a little bit about some of the

logistical details around what's going to go down Friday at the Kennedy Center. So it will be tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at the Kennedy Center, and you will be able to live stream it. So if you visit the website for the Kennedy Center, you will have the link there. Please check it out because our dancers are from nine years old to 24 year olds and they are going to really teach tomorrow. So not only are we going to do spoken word, but the dancing, my sister Mwadi Dabinger is one of our choreographers and the pieces they're going to present on stage are mind-blowing and I'm also going to be doing a tribute to Nikki Giovanni by her poem Ego Trip Tomorrow so yes we hope you tune in at six o'clock you know our dancers have worked really really hard we want to fill the house and fill the the network you know we want to overpower the network with with them with the joy they're going to bring

tomorrow evening absolutely in the words of our great new ancestor nikki giovanni ego tripping i turned myself into myself so that is the thing wow self-determination what better way for self-determination for coochie jagalia to manifest that tomorrow night at the Kennedy Center. We are all going to be present either physically or spiritually And we'll be tuning in virtually. Thank you. Thank you Joy virtually Shamba Dabenga founding artistic director of origination artistic director of origination sister Shamba Subita Dabenga Robinson And sister Yume Nishishawa Cloyd. Yes, it is so good to have you sisters with us here at the

Black Star Network and give our brother Omokongo our best love and embrace because we'll be watching him do his thing tomorrow night. So, happy Kwanzaa and it's good to have you all with us. Thank you so much. If you're looking for earrings, Yume made these earrings.

Just, you know. Stop. No, no, no. made these earrings. Just, you know. Stop. No, no, no. Come on now. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yes, Yume has an Etsy. Yes.

She does custom orders. So if you're looking for jewelry. How do we find her? How do we find her? Yume, how do we find you? So sometimes I sew my earrings at events. So you might see me around. And if you get earrings in the bag,

I'll have like a little paper with a QR code to, oh yeah, so that QR code brings you to my Instagram page and you can see a bunch bunch of theories and if you want more information on how to purchase them you can reach out to me um and you can go right to the origination website our info at originationinc.org and we will connect you with you may or we'll connect you with sean with sabira because she's a fashion designer over at howard university so that's yes tonight that's what i'm talking about. And origination is all one word, right? O-R-I-G-I, nation. Yes, absolutely. Well, we're looking forward to that. And thank you

also for reminding us in this season of Kwanzaa that the Zawadi, the gifts should be either made by someone out of love or purchased at Black businesses. So I think you've helped us with that as well. Look, cooperative economics. Y'all just showing all the principles of Kwanzaa on the first night. That's what we talking about. Thank you. So again, thanks for joining us. See you all.

See y'all tomorrow night. Yes. See you tomorrow. Thank you. Harambe. Harambe. Let's pull it together. No question.

All right. Well, I guess we've reached the end here. It is so good to be on Thursday night with our dear sister, Recy Colbert. Recy, you're not taking this weekend off. You got the show going up this weekend? I will be live on Sirius XM Urban View Channel 126 for two hours, 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern. And speaking of Black businesses, I have a Black business. My Am I True game is almost sold out.

But my Sounds About Right trivia game is still very much available to purchase. Both of them on my Am I Trippin? game.com. I've been on here for five years now. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Y'all can hook it up. The Urban View audience will hook us. They'll buy my stuff. So, world of what I'm saying Y'all can hook it up, the Urban View audience will hook us They'll buy my stuff, so

World of Modern and Seltzer audience, if y'all looking for a black Business to support during Kwanzaa Amitrippigame.com is where you can get My stuff, alright, thank you Dr. Carr No, no, thank you, in fact We were playing Amitrippin, there they go Okay, yes, there we go There we go, we were playing Amitrippin in Dayton

At the ritual We do for Mark Delaney every year, we were there in June And they broke out playing Am I Trippin' in Dayton at the ritual we do for Mark Delaney every year. We were there in June and they broke out the Am I Trippin'. Really? Of course. That warms my heart. Oh, my gosh. Let me just say, I'm a black business owner, too. I own JLS Strategies, which is my own consulting firm.

So if anyone needs a consultant in Washington, D.C., you call me. But here's the thing. It's also about us defining our own space and deciding that we don't have to do it through everyone else. And that everyone else is not better and bigger than who we are. It's enough to be black in America. It's enough to own it yourself, to be supported by us. And when we do that, other people are watching. There's a reason the Kennedy Center is covering Kwanzaa this weekend. And it's not just because they love Kwanzaa. It's because the people who subscribe to them, okay, some of them are like me, but some of them don't look like me. Most of them don't look like me. And they want to see it too.

You cannot outrun the importance of diversity in this country. We are not going anywhere. Please don't get discouraged. Please don't get discouraged. And when we just show up as our authentic selves, not trying to be filtered through white America, frankly, just showing up as ourselves, that is good enough other people see that and they are attracted by it including our white cousins and friends so so trust me just be yourself be yourself it's enough that's right that's right look you have you have put us perfectly where we need to be put to end today uh as we empty into the second day of Kwanzaa tomorrow Coochie Chaglia which is to define

ourselves name ourselves and create for ourselves and speak for ourselves instead of being defined named or created by others so you man this is the Kwanzaa season and both of you black-owned business of course which am i cooperative economics and on this night of unity the first night of kwanzaa understand there is time now this is where you support black businesses this is in the spirit of kwanzaa so both of y'all should be uh uh overflowed on websites and orders and consultants and all that stuff between now this in january the first let's break the bank and that includes supporting the black star network so again you

know thank you racy thank you joy always and y'all remember now support the black star network you all know how to give you know roland always has the ways to give the flashes up there we are you see stripe there's the qr code uh cash out they moved away from that but you can click the click click the cash app pay button to contribute as well. Hashtag Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hashtag Black Star Network. You see the PayPal there at paypal.me backslash rmartinunfiltered.

Venmo, which is venmo.com backslash rmartin, I'm sorry, rmunfiltered. And at Zelle, roland at rolandmartin.com. Also roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. So again Roland at Roland Martin.com also Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered.com. So again, for those of you who do it the old way, like my mom and them used to do it, which is put the money in a piece of white construction paper or something like that, fold it over, put it in the envelope and trust that Louis DeJoy and them won't open your mail and we'll get it to Washington, DC. You saw the PR box, PO box there. So again, Joy, again, Reese.

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

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

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

from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Always, always. And so we'll see you all tomorrow night on rolling martin unfiltered folks black star network a real uh revolutionary right now support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told i thank you for being the voice of black america rolling i love y'all all momentum we have now we have to keep this going The video looks phenomenal See this is the difference between Black Star Network And Black Owned Media And something like CNN You can't be Black Owned Media

And be Skate It's time to be smart Bring your eyeballs home You dig? dig hey drew scott here letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even

donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. 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 Glott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.