#RolandMartinUnfiltered - LA Ronald Greene Charges Quashed, TX A & M DEI Hysteria, OK Tulsa Race Riots Reparations Dismissed

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

7.11.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: LA Ronald Greene Charges Quashed, TX A & M DEI Hysteria, OK Tulsa Race Riots Reparations Dismissed A Louisiana judge drops charges of two of the officers involved in the death of Ronald Greene.  His mother is here tonight to give us the latest. Yesterday we told you an Oklahoma judge dismissed the Tulsa Race Riots Reparations case.  Civil Rights Attorney and Founder of Justice for Greenwood, Damario Solomon-Simmons, will tell us what's next for his clients, the last three survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Roland will be here to comprehensively analyze how the Texas A & M Board of Regents allowed DEI fears to sabotage the university's journalism program. In our marketplace segment, a personal trainer's invention helps prevent injuries while working out. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. "See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. you there? No, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. 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. 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. Hello, it's July 11, 2023, and I'm Candace Kelly filling in for Roland tonight. Here is what is happening.

Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A Louisiana judge drops charges of two of the officers involved in the death of Ronald Green. His mother is here tonight to give us the latest. And yesterday, we told you an Oklahoma judge dismissed the Tulsa race riots reparations case. Civil rights attorney and founder of Justice for Greenwood, Demario Solomon-Simmons, will tell us what's next for his clients, the last three survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

And Roland will be here to comprehensively analyze how the Texas A&M Board of Regents allowed DEI fears to sabotage the university's journalism program. And in our Marketplace segment, a personal trainer's invention helps prevent injuries while working out. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin

on Filtered Streaming Live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin

Now Martin We begin tonight with a new development in the investigation of the five indicted ex-state troopers, John Peters and Dakota DeMoss, will no longer face obstruction of justice charges. A lot of this has to do with the body cams. The judge ruled that Peters' statements heard on the body cam audio were not a warning to destroy, alter, or remove the videos, noting that they did not meet the standard to charge him with obstruction of justice. Peters can be heard on the audio saying, bury the body cam video, and in the report, don't send the videos unless the blank, meaning the DA, asks for it. The judge

ruled that the obstruction counts against DeMoss should be dropped because turning off his body camera audio also did not constitute obstruction. Now, several other felony charges still stand, including the most severe charge of negligent homicide against Master Trooper Corey York. The officer's actions came to the light after the suppressed body camera footage revealed the officers beating, stunning, and dragging Green during his arrest. Now, don't forget that Ronald Green's family was initially told that he died on impact in a crash during a police chase. Prosecutors now have three days to go back and deal with these issues raised by the court. And what about the former Louisiana State Trooper Corey York? Well, he could have up to eight of his malfeasance counts squashed unless prosecutors can identify each specific criminal transaction that happened in those videos. Well, Ronald Green's mother, Mona Hardin, she joins me to talk about these latest developments.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you so much. I know us today. Thank you so much. I know that you have been through so much already. This certainly must be a shock because you have everything on the audio, on the video. I just want to know how you felt when you heard that this was the latest development. Disgusted, just totally disgusted. It was a display of the good old boys, this system to where they continuously act like they are above the law. This happens. There's so many complicit players since May of 2019. And as far as I'm concerned, Judge Rogers has joined the group. So the judge, in what he said specifically, he talked about how this was not obstruction of

justice. I know that you've been there, of course, all along the way. What can you tell us, people who have not been in the courtroom, to hear him, to see all of the people involved in terms of what's going on? Rogers can easily say that because this is not his child. This is not his son. This is not a family member. The state of Louisiana clearly does not see the harassment and the killing of black and brown citizens as a criminal act by state troopers, because this is totally condoned, the fact that they made such a mockery of the judicial system. The special committee that was put together by Clay Sheachnader that consists of a lot of the Black Caucus in Louisiana and the chair of that is Tanner McGee and everyone has been basically

pussyfooting around and let Governor John Bel Edwards get off the hook to where he does not himself have to answer for what he he knows what he sees. He's hiding and everyone's helping him hide. I know that the fight continues. What else legally is just kind of out there that we should know about in terms of other developments, who you're suing and what might be your next step because of this latest development that came down from the court? Well, there's still more that's soon to be revealed. As of that, I can't be clear. Because of that, I cannot speak on that. But this has not by a long shot stopped. We have options. And as they are finding all loopholes to get these killer cops off the hook, so are we to make sure they are held accountable.

So before I bring our panel in, I wanted to ask you this. Unfortunately, there are going to be other families who go through this. And as I mentioned, and as many people know, this was video footage that came out long after the incident. You were told lies along the way. What advice do you have for people who might find themselves in this position to try to deal with police, deal with the court system in order to get videos that you know rightfully you have the right to see? You know, I can tell you, first and foremost, reach outside your comfort zone. If those within different entities within that state does not help you, get you a legal representative outside of the state. To get a legal representative within the state is, I hate to put everyone in the same boat.

But what we've experienced in Louisiana, that's not the right choice. And continue. Do not stop. Do not be intimidated. Do not trust anyone. Write your notes down, dates, names, and time zone. We have to be sure because we had no idea. We just knew my son died in a car accident. And within hours, the cover-up began. And we've been our own investigators. We've been, if it wasn't for what we did and the whistleblowers, our Carl Cavalier and other whistleblowers and those behind the scenes and the reporters,

my son would have been buried a long time ago with the narrative they first put out. That is really scary. And I'm saddened to say that there's so many families who've gone years with no answers. And you mentioned something very interesting, and that is, you know, you do have to keep good records. You have to keep the dates because there are so many things along the way that you probably will just have to question as to whether or not it is the truth. So the more you keep records and what you have done is you've showed the community that you have to be your own advocate in all of this. I just want, before we go to the panel, can you say a few things about your son that you may not have seen in the media? We hear about all these latest developments in the court and what's going on with all of the entities involved.

What do you want us to know about your son and how he was as your child? You know, Ronnie was, and it's really, really true in heart for me to speak of Ronnie in the past tense. My psyche, emotionally, I refuse to believe he died in such a horrific way. And before, as we go into these interviews, I'm seeing that footage, and that's a reminder. But I must say that he was such a given soul. There was no obstacle. For those that existed, he continuously did his best to be the best person, the core of him, the goodness that exuded from within. There is not a soul in this

world who met Ronnie who would not say he was a good guy. And the fact that his last words were, I'm your brother. He lived by that rule. He lived by that rule. It was just the other day, me and my daughter, my two daughters were in a area that was in Louisiana where Ronnie would go out and give to those in need. And we took it upon ourselves to do that. And my family does that periodically. Ronnie lived and breathed that. And he was a barber by trade. And we intend on following through and doing what he did, going to the communities. But right before school started, he would go and he would just seek out anyone that needed a haircut. You know, come on, I'll give you a haircut. You don't have to pay a dime.

He was so good. He was so giving. And as we go through these neighborhoods and we do what he's done and he lived by it, he literally came back many a time with no shoes on, no clothes on his back, sometimes in his boxer shorts. So, yes, we literally had chains of clothes at our house in case that happened. He literally would do that. in the midst of total strangers. We are so proud to speak of Ronnie's story and knowing that we're spreading. He hasn't, he, we will not fail him. And we will continuously speak for him and who he was as a person.

He'll never be gone, just for that alone. He was a good loving person absolutely well I want to thank you for sharing that with us because you know we want to remind people that there really is more behind than just the names that we are saying there's a human being that was loved and so we appreciate you really making him the human that

he is and was we're going to go to a break but we're going to be joined by our panel after that break. So more of Roland Martin unfiltered when we come back. For decades, the tobacco industry has deliberately targeted Black communities and kids with marketing for menthol cigarettes. It's had a devastating impact on Black health. Tobacco use claims 45,000 black lives every year. It's the number one cause of preventable death.

In the 1950s, less than 10% of black smokers used menthol cigarettes. Today, it's 85%. Menthol cools and numbs the throat, making it easier for kids to start smoking. Menthol also increases addiction, making it harder for kids to start smoking. Menthol also increases addiction, making it harder for smokers to quit. Menthol cigarettes are a big reason

why black Americans have a harder time quitting smoking and die at higher rates from smoking-related diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke. It's time to stop big tobacco from profiting off black lives. An FDA ban on menthol cigarettes will improve black health, save lives, and protect future generations from addiction. Learn more at tobaccofreekids.org slash ban menthol.

Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch. A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network

and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Me, Sherri Shebritt. This is Tammy Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, I'm joined now by the panel, Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former senior advisor for environmental justice with the EPA. He's here in Washington, D.C. And Randy Bryant is a DEI disruptor, also out of D.C.

And Lauren Victoria Burke is with the Black Press USA. And she joins us from Arlington, Virginia. And Lauren, I really wanted to start with you, especially because being with the press, we know how these stories get out there and we get the wrong stories at first until we realize things are not the truth. And this is a family that was not told the truth. And I wanted to know, because evidence is always so important. As journalists, we write about evidence. What do you think about the outcome of this particular part of this case? Because we have evidence and things on record that point to otherwise in terms of the result that came out. Well, yeah, we write about evidence as presented by law enforcement. Unfortunately, the habit of the media to really sort of just regurgitate what law enforcement

tells us is still alive and well. Obviously, law enforcement is the arm of the government, and reporters tend to report what that arm, you know, says. And, of course, what they said in the first iteration of this story is that Ronald Greene was killed in a car accident. And it is interesting to think about the fact that in this moment, and we've seen it in other moments around the country as well, that, you know, cops remain, police officers do remain a sort of unofficially declared protected class under the law. I mean, they sort of have this sort of shield from prosecution, even in cases where there is physical, you know, in this case, taped evidence, audio evidence, which is fairly rare, becoming more prevalent because we have

body cameras, but still fairly rare. And you have to wonder, you know, if it's not obstruction of justice to turn one's body camera off and it's not obstruction of justice to say, bury the body camera footage on audio, and it's not obstruction of justice to say that the man was killed in a car accident only to later find out he was killed by the police, then what exactly is obstruction of justice? What qualifies as obstruction? Obviously, nothing qualifies as obstruction in this case, but it shouldn't be a surprise. Louisiana has a terrible record when it comes to police brutality. This country has a terrible record when it comes to African Americans and police brutality, but Louisiana is a special place when it comes to this type of thing. So it really isn't surprising

from a historical standpoint. You know, Dr. Ali, Ms. Hardin, she talked a little bit about just the work that she had to do and her family had to do in order to bring so many pieces of evidence to light. I just wanted your take about, you know, the work that we actually have to do as a community and individuals within the community, Dr. Ali, to really make sure that justice is seen to the end. Well, the first thing that we always have to do is make sure that we're supporting the families who are losing members of our community, which is so incredibly important because it's very taxing mentally, spiritually, and physically to have to go through this. The other thing is that we have to continue to raise

our voices and to put pressure on both these law enforcement agencies, the elected officials who often protect them as well. And we also have to make sure that we're utilizing our dollars to make sure that organizations and attorneys that are taking these cases have what they need to make sure that they are properly being adjudicated. And we often lose track of these types of cases when they are no longer on the headlines of the media. So that's why the Black Star Network is so important, because we continue to raise these injustices that continue to happen in our communities. Randy, we see these cases all the time.

What is it to be said about what the police need to be doing in this process? Certainly, this is something a question. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Dr 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. 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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos.

You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. We have all thought about, there is no exact answer, but what are your thoughts about, especially in Louisiana, how you think things should unfold when it comes to monitoring, managing, and policing the police? We would have to have some personal accountability.

The big problem is we talk all of the time about that blue ball, where the police are policing themselves. And of course they're not finding themselves guilty whatsoever. And that extends past the police onto the court systems and the judges, where it seems as that police officers can get away with just about anything. I mean, clearly, they clearly tried to obstruct justice. From the beginning, they have not been honest about what happened to Ronnie. And that is just absolutely that should not be tolerated whatsoever.

I don't know how we make it happen, though, right? We have the body cams. They're not supposed to turn them off. But if a judge is not going to hold them accountable for doing so, then it makes it very difficult for us to make change. Again, you know, it goes back to the polls, and we have to realize that it's not just about who we vote every four years as president, but these judges make such a difference in assuring that everybody is given a fair chance at justice. Absolutely. We still have Ronald's mom. And before we go to a break, Lauren, I wanted to know if you have a question for Ronald's mom as she goes through this process and as we wrap up.

Sure. You know, I wondered if the authorities communicate with you on a regular basis, or are you just finding stuff out in the media? No. I found out yesterday. I've been talking to—well, I made an attempt to call D.A. Belton. He told me that he had nothing to tell me. I repeated the text him, phoned him. This is D.A. Belton. He's the only one who's made any attempt, but as far as I'm concerned, it's all for show.

He's all for show. He's a politician. If nothing else, I learned the politics of Louisiana other than DA Belton. And mind you, this was way after the fact, because there was a time the first couple of years before the videos were released by AP News and the whistleblower came forward called Cavalier. There was no one. They volleyed me back and forth with no problem. And that was the DA's office. All right. I want to just thank you, Mona Harden, for being with us today and sharing with us not only your work, but again, humanizing your son and making us appreciate really who he was as you did. This is Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. And we'll be right back. Early days in the road, I learned, well, first of all, as a musician, I studied not only piano, but I was also a

drummer and percussion. I was all city percussion as well. So I was one of the best in the city on percussion. There you go. Also studied trumpet, cello, violin, and bass, and any other instrument I could get my hand on. And with that study, I learned again what was for me. I learned what it meant to do what the instruments

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

There you go. Right, so you can't walk in unprepared. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not regret that. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is

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

This is white fear. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? All right. So yesterday we told you that a judge dismissed the Tulsa Race Riots Reparations case, and we told you that we would have the attorney for that case. In fact, he is here, Demario Solomon Simmons. He's not only attorney for the case. In fact, he is here to Mario Solomon Simmons. He's not only attorney for the three survivors, but he is also the founder of Justice for Greenwood. We thank you

so much for being with us today. I know that this has been years, years in the making to come to a result that obviously you don't want. The result, you know, is not going to stop you. The fight is not over. But what I want to know is in this case, when we look at the reasoning of the judge, all right, what would you say people should know about this? Because this was the same argument in terms of this being a nuisance that was used in the opioid case. And there have been billions of dollars given for the opioids case and how opioids on the community and the effect was in in fact, a nuisance. Well, good. It's good to see you. I'm good to be with you tonight. Thank you so much for covering this important issue. And what people need to understand is what we were asking the court to do,

as you stated, is not something that was novel or new or was not something extraordinary. We were asking the court to simply follow the law that has been in place since 1910 that simply said that there's a nuisance that is ongoing and continuing, there is harm still happening, that that nuisance has to be abated and there's no statute of limitations. So just because you burnt down buildings in 1921, you destroyed businesses in 1921, those businesses were never rebuilt, those buildings were never rebuilt, therefore the nuisance is continuing. I always tell people, think about that BP oil spill that happened about 10 or 12 years

ago, and that water, that oil was spilling out. And we all saw it on TV, that oil just rushing into the Gulf of Mexico. That was the nuisance. That was the start of the nuisance. Well, they plugged that oil spill. So they stopped the oil from spilling, but the oil was still polluting the water. It was still killing animals. It was still polluting the air. And as long as that occurs, as long as there's oil from that oil spill, the nuisance continues. That's the same thing we're saying about the massacre. This was a travesty, unjust, and should not have happened.

And when we talk about the rippling effects, what you have said essentially is that, you know, the ramifications of what have taken place and the consequences are still kind of built in the system in terms of what the system in Tulsa, Oklahoma has been doing in order to make sure that blacks do not get to a point where they should be because of the riots. But legally speaking, how was that explained to the judge? And why did the judge say what he did in terms of the response to say, no, this is the way that we're going to go. We're going to end this case. Yeah. And our judge is a female. Her name is Caroline Wall. And we explained to her very, very quickly, very clearly that God just stated to you right here when we talk about what a nuisance is, what is the standard. I want everyone to understand that's listening right now, that we were just in court over the last two and a half years to have the opportunity to move forward to a trial. We were at what's called the motion to dismiss stage of a case.

This is, in Oklahoma, we have the very low burden to overcome and be able to survive a motion to dismiss. In other words, all we have to show is show that we are pleading facts. We're stating dark facts that any court should be able to look at and say, okay, they have a means to move forward with this case. We have not had the opportunity to prove any of our evidence. We have not had the opportunity to bring in any of the national and international experts that are on our team. We have not had opportunity to have people go and say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and be cross-examined on trial. None of that occurred. She kicked us out with prejudice means that we cannot refile this case at this particular time or forever, actually. She kicked us out without even giving us an opportunity

to move forward in this particular case. Now think about this. No one disputes that the Tulsa race massacre was the worst race massacre in the history of this country. That's right. No one disputes that 40 square blocks were burnt down. No one disputes when they see the video that we had, the pictures that we had, the hundreds of insurance claims, the 10,000 to 12,000 African-Americans who suffered through the massacre, the 3,000 African-Americans who were never heard from

again disappeared into thin air. I don't know if they did. They ran away. What happened to them? No one are saying that my clients, 109-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher, 108-year-old Leslie Benefield Randall, and 102-year-old Hughes Van Ellis,letcher, 108-year-old Leslie Benefield Randall, and 102-year-old Hughes Van Ellis, they're not saying that they didn't suffer the massacre, the pictures that you see they experienced in their real life. They're simply saying, we don't care that this happened to you as a black person, because in Oklahoma, we don't believe that blacks have rights that a white man is bound to respect, going back to the Dred Scott case of 1857.

As you said, this case was dismissed with prejudice, which means that it ends there. However, legislatively speaking and other options that you have, what's next for you? Well, luckily, we are appealing and we have 30 days to appeal and we're going to get that appeal in. And we feel confident. Maybe we shouldn't feel confident. We feel confident that even our conservative leaning Oklahoma Supreme Court would look at the plain language, the black-letter law, and say, this was wrong, Judge. You should allow these individuals to move forward in court. And that's what wegreenwood.org. We could connect with us and stand with us and fight with us, make a donation, sign up for our newsletter. Because in addition to this particular litigation that we're talking about today, we have other cases that we're moving forward. And we also have been advocating for two-plus years, two-plus years for the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation. There's never been a criminal investigation into the massacre in 102 years.

The federal government has an obligation to do that. Our dear sister, Kristen Clark, who's the Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights, we've had several meetings with her and her staff. We're pushing them and we're demanding them to open a civil rights investigation pursuant to the Emmett Till Act of 2007, reauthorized in 2016. That act gives them the authority, the ability to today open an investigation because this was a civil rights cold case. As you said, it is clear crimes indeed were committed. It's just whether or not anybody is going to acknowledge that, rightfully so. Dr. Mustafa Ali, I wanted to go to you to have you join in this conversation. Do you have a question for DeMario? DeMario, it's good to see you to have you join in this conversation. Do you have a question

for Demario? Demario, it's good to see you, brother. We miss you. It's secret, man. I miss you, man. I know you've been busy. Dr. King said, justice delayed is justice denied. Can you help us to have an understanding? So with our Japanese brothers and sisters who were placed in internment camps, they were able to get reparations. I believe it was $1.5 billion. How is it that a judge that still has living descendants of this massacre could not see the importance of letting this case go forward, even with the precedents that we have from these other former cases? I think that really speaks to what we're dealing with here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Look, this has been Trump country for 25-plus years.

It's a very conservative place, and so we're nowhere in the belly of the beast down here. But we also understand what you just stated with living survivors, that the Tulsa case is so important, not just to Tulsa, not just to Oklahoma, for black people throughout this nation. Because the things that they had always said to go against our reparations are just reparations claims. There's no one still living. We don't know who we should give it to. We don't really know what happened. We don't know who actually did it.

None of that exists here in Tulsa. None of that exists here. We know who did it. We know when they did it. We have pictures of them doing it, video of them doing it, and we have living survivors. These three last living survivors. So this is an issue that as black people throughout this nation, we cannot allow this to stand because this impacts our entire justice, racial justice claims throughout this country. Randy, I want to go to you with a

question. Are you thinking that as we see that how they also tried to cover up January 6th, that just happened and they're trying to say that there wasn't this uprising that occurred. And so do you think that if we were to publicize this more, if not only the people in Oklahoma were involved in talking about this, but they understood that the entire nation was looking at what they're doing right now, that the judge may feel some pressure, that the court system there would feel some pressure to act justly? Because right now, that the judge may feel some pressure, that the court system there would feel some pressure to act justly. Because right now I'm wondering if they're feeling as if they're working within a bubble. Well, that's no words to say pressure as an attorney of law. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it

and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car

always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by nizza and the ad council never pressure a judge but let me just say here we definitely want to keep the eyes of this nation on this case during the centennial and the years before the centennial remember we had lovecraft country we had the watchmen everybody wanted to come to tulsa everybody wanted to get their cred to show that they were about racial justice after George Floyd by coming to Tulsa. Well, two years later, many of those cameras have moved on. That's why I appreciate Roland Martin Unfiltered and our supporters here who continue to amplify these stories.

But you're so right. We must continue to fight. We must continue to talk about this story. We must continue to support Justice for Greenwood, continue to share our information, share our posts, make donations to our cause, because this is a very costly, costly, costly fight. It's costly for time. It's costly with emotional. It's costly with your mental strength, your spiritual strength. Let me tell you, when I found out Friday night around 7.45 from a reporter sending me a text message asking me did I care to comment on our case being dismissed. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach by a 500-pound sledgehammer.

It just destroyed my night. And I sat in the car for 30 minutes trying to compose myself because I had to call my client. I had to call my 100-plus-year client because I didn't want them to learn about it on the news because I knew a story was coming out. And I was so distraught, so dejected, so depressed to give them a call because I had no real answers for them. But I will tell you this.

They said, you know what, this is wrong, but we are not going anywhere. We're going to continue to fight. We're going to continue to push. And we want everybody in the world to know that we, until our last dying breath, we will be fighting for truth, justice, and reparations for our families, for our community, and for black people throughout this nation. That was what kept me going. And I hope everyone that's listening today can have that same fight as these 109, 108, and 102 people because they understand what real Jim Crowism, they

understand what real being a sharecropper, what it means to have no rights that these Republicans and these right-wingers and these white supremacists are trying to take us back through. This is not a game. This is not a drill. This is not a joke. We have to get focused on making sure that we stand up for our rights and it starts with the Tulsa race match. Wow. What we can learn from them still at that age is amazing. Listen, we have about 45 seconds left, but I want to get Lauren in this conversation. I just wanted to give a question to Demario as we go to a break, Lauren. Demario, is there a reason why this is a state case and not a federal case? Was that already exhausted? And also, under the noose and statute, do the relatives have standing EXHAUSTED. ALSO, UNDER THE NUISANCE STATUE, DO THE RELATIVES HAVE STANDING AT ALL?

SO DO THEIR RELATIVES HAVE STANDING OR IS THAT JUST OFF THE TABLE? THANK YOU. NUMBER ONE, THE FEDERAL CASE HAS ALREADY BEEN EXHAUSTED. IT WAS ALREADY DECIDED IN 2004 AND 2005.

THAT WAS A CASE THAT PROFESSOR JOHNNY COCK AND MANY OTHERS BROUGHT THAT CASE. I WAS A BABY LAWYER IN THAT CASE. THAT CASE WENT ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT AND THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED NOT TO HEAR THE CASE. SO THAT ISSUE HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED, UNFORTUNATELY, STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. WE WENT THE STATE ROUTE BECAUSE THE PUBLIC NUISANCE DOES NOT HAVE A STATUTE OF LIMITATION.

IT'S A LAW THAT'S BEEN IN OKLAHOMA SINCE 1910. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BE SUCCESSFUL. AS FAR AS DESCENDANTS, WE BELIEVE THAT ANYONE THAT LIVED IN THE TULSA AREA SHOULD HAVE STANDING. I DON'T WANT TO GET TOO TECHNICAL. should have been able to be successful. As far as descendants, we believe that anyone that lived in the Tulsa area should have standing. I don't want to get too technical. We don't have time, but the descendants were a part of the case, but they were stripped out back in May, I mean, August of 2022. Last thing I would say, remember this judge said in May of 2022 that we could move forward. She reversed herself a year later, kicked us out with prejudice, but as I tell all people yesterday during our press conference, it ain't over.

It's not over. It's not over. Demario Solomon-Simmons, we thank you so much for being with us and breaking all that information down. I know that the fight continues, and as it continues, we will continue to have you on. We'll be back after a break on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay with us. And what happens in Black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement.

A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks.

We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Ways to $100,000. We're behind hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Up next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes. She's known as the Angela Davis of hip hop. Monet Smith, better known as Medusa, the gangster goddess, the undisputed queen of West Coast underground hip hop. Pop locking is really what indoctrinated me in hip hop. I don't even think I realized it was hip hop at that time. Right.

You know, it was a happening. It was a moment of release. We're going to be getting into her career, knowing her whole story, and breaking down all the elements of hip hop. This week on The Frequency, only on the Black Star Network. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family.

Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of the Proud Family. Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin. Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville is disputing the definition of white nationalists as being inherently racist. During an interview with CNN's Caitlin Collins, he defended his stance on a podcast where he defended the white supremacists in the military. Now, this morning on Capitol Hill, he was asked to clarify and said, I am totally against racism. If the Democrats say that a white nationalist in which they said, well, that's the definition, I'm totally against white nationalists. I'm not going to get into definitions, but I'm totally against any form of racism and always have been. As Senator Tuberville refuses to clarify if white nationalists are racist,

we have a disturbing reminder of the dark era in American history. A small church in Los Angeles, California, was targeted with a KKK-style cross burning last week. The predominantly African American Sylmar Christian Fellowship Church reported that crosses were burning outside the church. Now, these crosses were already outside of the church, and investigators believe that some used an accelerant to burn them. A Good Samaritan saw the fires and put them out with a garden hose.

Now, even with all of these details, investigators don't believe that the arson was a hate crime, even though the cross burning is rooted in KKK's efforts to intimidate and terrorize black Americans. Always has been like that. In fact, there's been a 30% increase in hate crimes against African Americans in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had this to say about what happened. Whether it's determined to be a hate crime or not, what happened in Sylmar early yesterday morning, the burning of crosses on the lawn of a church invokes a painful history of despicable acts used to terrorize black people in this country for centuries. At this point, I want to talk to the panel about this cross burning, about Tuberville, and just the whole idea that this could not be considered a hate crime. I want to start with you, Dr. Ali. Of all things in the world that couldn't be considered a hate crime, it is a shame that people cannot see that the burning of crosses on the front of a church would not qualify. Yeah, I think everyone is quite

clear that the burning of crosses is a racist act. And we also know the history that's there. So for those who would deny that, it just means that they are not being truthful in their response. They are not being truthful about the historical hurt that is tied to that. And they are also not being truthful about the work that still needs to happen. So for a law enforcement agency or anybody else to come out and say that this is not a hate crime without there being the due diligence of an investigation is quite curious. And, you know, Randy, we think about what Tuberville said and how white nationalists are not inherently racist. It just seems that people all around, whether it's in the school systems, whether it's in libraries,

whether it's on the Senate floor, that people don't understand that we are at a state where we need to understand that when white people say they say that they mean something, that's exactly what they mean. I believe he does understand it. I believe most people understand it. You know, they practice cognitive dissonance because they want to act as if they don't, but they do. Our country has been dedicated to ignoring the way black people have been treated. We really try, they've tried everything to leave so much out of history books, you know, even from the last story when we were talking about Tulsa. I mean, they don't even talk about the history of the massacre in the history in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it's covered up, much less the entire country. When we talk about a cross being burned, of course, I mean, it's very obvious that that

has to do with racism. The history spells it out, but it's easy for them to say, oh, it can't be. And just as with Tuberville, Tuberville knows what a white nationalist is. They get reports on it all the time. There's been a lot of conversation about the level of terrorism, but it is more convenient for him and his constituents to deny the rapid racism that we're seeing against Black Americans. What do you think is the political strategy, Lauren, of Tuberville at this time to say something like that? He got caught out there. He had to backtrack a little bit because he was questioned about it because it just didn't make sense. But just strategically, as a politician, what do you

think was going on in his head? Well, what's going on in his head is what's been going on in this country for four centuries, which is that there's the intentional denial of what African-Americans have gone through in the United States. The irony here couldn't be more deep. Tommy Tuberville's entire life and all of his wealth was built on the talent of black people on the athletic field. And unfortunately, he has now risen to be one of the stupidest members of the United States Senate, rivaled only by a few other people, but he is a shining star in stupidity. This is actually, this was actually within 24 hours the second racist thing to happen for the Republican Party in

the United States Senate, the other being the statements of Rand Paul this morning. But the Republican Party is now branding itself to racism. They're actually branding themselves to racism in a more clear-throated way than we heard from George Wallace. I mean, at least he was trying to talk in code and say things like, you know, deep down, you know we're right and all this other nonsense. But the blatantness of it and the desperation of it is pretty stark right now. And it shouldn't be that surprising. We're OF IT IS PRETTY STARK RIGHT NOW. AND IT SHOULDN'T BE THAT SURPRISING. WE'RE SEEING THE DYING OF THE OLD REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE REAGAN REPUBLICAN PARTY INTO SOMETHING ELSE, WHICH IS REALLY THE TRUMP REPUBLICAN PARTY. TUBBERVILLE IS AN IDIOT. AND NOW WE HAVE A REPUBLICAN PARTY WHO IS OPENLY AND OUTWARDLY AGAINST LAW ENFORCEMENT, WANTING TO DEFUND THE FBI, AND OPENLY AND OUTWARDLY TRIPPING UP OUR MILITARY, WHICH TOMMY TUBBERVILLE IS SINGLE-HANDEDLY DOING. WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF DELIBERATE MISINFO AND wanting to defund the FBI and openly and outwardly tripping up our military, which Tommy Tuberville is single-handedly doing. We live in an age of deliberate misinfo and disinfo, deliberate lying about what has happened in history,

particularly with regard to African-Americans, because people cannot handle what the truth is. They haven't been able to handle it specifically right after Barack Obama. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

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. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

This election, which turned all these people into liars because they couldn't deal with the fact that we had an extremely talented, extremely smart black president who was there for eight years. And it's something that they are reeling from. They're still reeling from it. And lying has been their answer so far. Lauren, I want to stick with you for a moment. Do you think that, and I was talking to this, about this with someone earlier today, that so many cross burnings, so many senators, as you said, and politicians saying just stupid things that were kind of desensitized so that we don't react in the same way anymore, so that a cross burning somehow is not considered a hate crime, that a white nationalist somehow is not considered inherently racist. Could there be just people getting used to it and it's like the boy who cried wolf? I don't know that it would

desensitize. I watch a white senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, light up his colleagues, Senator Tuberville. I'm sure if I look at my Twitter account, I'll find other senators who have done the same thing. I do wish that the Democratic Party was more organized in their effort to respond to these things and more quick. They should be on rapid response on these things, particularly Tuberville. This guy got confused last night on CNN about whether or not what a white supremacist was. And he was talking to a former Fox News anchor who one would think would not have come down as hard as she did, but she did. And, you know, the idea that a U.S. senator can't articulate what white supremacy is should be shocking to everybody. But we're

seeing some response today. We are seeing some reaction. I do wish it was quicker. I don't think it's desensitized yet. But I think the Democratic Party is terrible generally at communication strategy. We know that. But these are the moments where they shouldn't be that terrible. I mean, we should be getting some communications from the White House as well. Why they're silent in this moment, I have absolutely no idea. But that's the Democratic Party. They're terrible at comms. And until we get to a next era, a younger era, quite frankly, of politicians that know how to do some rapid response, we're going to see this. Dr. Ali, I have the same question for you. A little desensitization there? No, I agree with Lauren. I think that there is the need for us

to continue to educate folks, to continue to put a spotlight on these issues, and to really continue to highlight how we are stronger when we're together. For all of those who want to stand against racism, who want to stand against bigotry and discrimination. So we can become desensitized when we don't have the counter narrative as Lauren and others have shared. You know, Randy, it's interesting here because this is somebody who said something and then they had to kind of, you know, backtrack and kind of go back to what they said, make a correction. What is it that you think these politicians don't get when they say things like this in terms of trying, you know, understanding what's going on in the world in regards to race and race relations? I think that many of them are trying to appeal to their constituents, those who are white nationalists.

I believe he purposefully kept sidestepping the question because he did not want to upset them. I don't think it's that they don't get what's happening with race relations and racism in this country. I believe that they don't want to deal with it. And to be quite candid, many don't care about it. It's not their pain center. They're not suffering. And they certainly aren't willing to change their position, where right now they're winning. It would be very difficult for some of them to say, I want to admit that there is a problem and we deal with that problem, because that means that they would have to confront how they have benefited greatly from the system as it is right now. When we look at what people are saying, whether it's on the congressional floor,

whether it's to newspapers when we think about three crosses that were burned um you know it's just one of those things that you kind of have to step back and say this this is still happening in 2023 and not even being considered a hate crime lauren when we think think about three crosses that were burned, a good Samaritan was able to put those crosses out. But what is your take about this whole idea that, you know, this was not even considered a hate crime at all? What is it that we need to do in America so that people can understand what needs to be done when something like this happens. It seems as though years ago it was taken slightly more seriously than what's going on today in 2023. Well, obviously we have to call a thing a thing. Obviously it's a hate crime. Just because some

official someplace says that, you know, something is not something doesn't make it true. We've lived for 400 years in this country with this nonsense as African Americans. There's nothing new for us to see here. These are the same old games, the same old lying, the same old sort of denial of racism when it's right in your face. This has gone on for 350 years. I mean, so it's not as if, it's not as if this is new, a new phenomena, but it does have to be called out. It does have to be confronted. It does have to be dealt with. We can't stop what other people are doing, but sure as hell we can react to it strongly. or teach your children is becoming highly problematic in a world where lying is becoming very commonplace and particularly drilled and focused on erasing black history and erasing things like the Tulsa massacre. We never were particularly good at teaching history in this country when it came to the negative side of history as applied to African

Americans. Now we're getting to the point of absolute lying or changing the entire narrative. You see the effort certainly on the other side of trying to sort of change history entirely and fool people and gaslight people into thinking that things were false, that were true, and et cetera and so on. And we have an entire news network that is now engaged in that and so at some point we do have to get real about how our children are taught as coming up because we cannot trust that they were going to be taught accurate history in the situation that we're in now particularly around the DEI debate and obviously the so-called CRT debate which is a phony debate, but there it is.

And you know what? You bring up a good point because we know what Democrats and Republicans are both doing and car companies do it as well as big celebrities when they star in movies where they're catering to young people. You get them young because then once you get them young, you can groom them into anything that you want them to be. And that's what's happening in the school systems. They're getting to them young or trying to so that they can indoctrinate them so that they grow up to be the people and puppeteer puppets that they want them to be. Well, listen, we're going to be back after this break. Roland Martin unfiltered. We'll be right back. You're watching the Black Star Network. See you on the other side of this. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

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

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

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

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

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

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

one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. For decades, the tobacco industry has deliberately targeted black communities and kids with marketing for menthol cigarettes. It's had a devastating impact on black health.

Tobacco use claims 45,000 black lives every year. It's the number one cause of preventable death. In the 1950s, less than 10% of black smokers used menthol cigarettes. Today, it's 85%. Banned menthol cigarettes save lives. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's wealth coach.

The wealth gap has literally not changed in over 50 years, according to the Federal Reserve. On the next Get Wealthy, I'm excited to chat with Jim Castleberry, CEO of Known holdings. They have created a platform, an ecosystem to bring resources to blacks and people of color so they can scale their business. Even though we've had several examples of African-Americans and other people of color being able to be successful,

we still aren't seeing the mass level of us being lifted up. That's right here on Get Wealth with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. A few weeks ago, Texas A&M University introduced a new director to revive its journalism school. Kathleen McElroy was ready to train the next generation of journalists, but that isn't going to happen. According to this Texas Tribune article, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents was concerned about McElroy's past work on race and diversity in newsrooms, of course. Well, listen, Roland joins us from Rhode Island to take a break and give us a breakdown of everything that's going on. All right, Candace, thanks a lot. So I was on the golf course, the Jeffrey Osborne Golf Classic

today, of course, raising money for various charities here when I got a text message with this Texas Tribune article detailing what has happened at Texas A&M with Kathleen McElroy. In this Texas Tribune article, you see the article right there. It says, Texas A&M recruited a UT professor to revive its journalism program, then backtracked after DEI hysteria. Now, understand what's going on here. So Kathleen McElroy is a Texas A&M graduate. Her father, George McElroy, was one of the pioneers in the black press in Houston, distinguished journalist. She goes on to work for the New York Times, a very successful career, and later becomes

head of the journalism program at the University of Texas. Now, of course, that's a rival school with us, but they have the preeminent journalism program in the state. So what Texas A&M does, what happened was several years ago, they got rid of the journalism program because most of the students in the journalism program didn't want to be in journalism. So what they did was they got rid of the program. So then the current president decided to, with Chancellor John Sharp, decided to bring the journalism program back. And so they made it into, you know, this different department. And so what then happens is they want to recruit someone to lead it. So what do you do? You go out and you want to get a top star. That's exactly what they did.

So President Catherine Banks, Chancellor Sharp, they go out, they recruit Kathleen McElroy. They sign her to a five-year contract, significant contract. So then all of a sudden, of course, all contracts must then be approved by the Board of Regents. And that's where the problem comes in. All of a sudden, because right now in Texas you've got all this DEI hysteria with white conservative Republicans in the state, where Texas Governor Greg Abbott has now gotten rid of all these DEI programs. So then people start raising a stink about the stories that she covered and worked on focusing on race and diversity. So then they started raising these various issues. So all of a sudden what then happens is now folks begin to say, well, what's going on here? And so what do they then do? They then essentially, now she already agreed to

the job, signed the deal, you know, agreed to the contract, put in resignation at the University of Texas, and all of a sudden they start going back on their word, Texas A&M. They then all of a sudden now again come back and offer her a new contract this is exactly what uh the texas tribune article here says that they did they came back and offered her not the five-year deal they came back and offered her a one-year deal she'll be an at-will employee who can be fired at any time. She also was an offered tenure. Okay, that's stupid. Okay, you don't recruit someone of this stature and then you renege on the deal. And so what the hell were the Texas A&M Board of Regents thinking?

This is equivalent, folks. Okay, let me be real clear. Hiring Kathleen McElroy is the equivalent of A&M going out and hiring Jimbo Fisher or Texas A&M going out and signing a five-star athlete to come play ball so you don't renege on your offers to Jimbo Fisher you don't renege on your offer when you try to get you a five-star recruit and so what does that say about the university's commitment to diversity? And so what? All of a sudden, they had a problem because she did stories on race and diversity at the New York Times. They have a problem because her master's thesis dealt with civil rights leaders. So really, that's what the issue is. This right here, folks, is a serious problem.

And it goes to show you how feckless, how weak, how trifling, how childish and how impotent this border region is. The Texas A&M University leadership should be absolutely ashamed by what they did here. And let me be perfectly clear. And yes, yes, President Banks, Kathleen Banks, and yes, Chancellor John Sharp were the ones who initially made the offer. But they should have told the Board of Regents to go to hell to come back with this new offer. This right here is the Board of Regents. Bill Mahomes, an African-American, is the new chairman of the Texas A&M Board of Regents. Shame on every new chairman of the Texas A&M Board of Regents. Shame on every single member of the Texas A&M Board of Regents, including Chairman Bill Mayholmes, a black man, for what they have done to Kathleen McElroy in this situation. It is beyond shameful what they have done. And what they have done is they have embarrassed themselves. They have embarrassed themselves, and they have also brought shame on every Black student who

has come through the university, including yours truly. What makes this ridiculous is that what is Texas A&M saying? That even someone of my stature who's in the Texas A&M Journalism Ring of Honor, who's in the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame, who's in the Texas A&M Journalism Ring of Honor, who's in the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame, who's in the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame, because I have covered issues of race and diversity in my career that somehow I wouldn't be able to get hired there. You would want someone like me. And let me explain something to y'all.

Here's the deal. When I got to Texas A&M, do you know who the greatest journalism graduate was in the history of Texas A&M before I got there? Country singer Lyle Lovett. Country singer Lyle Lovett. Now, I told Lyle this joke when he was named a distinguished alumnus. I said, Lyle, I said, I made it my mission to become the best journalism graduate ever to come through this school because I couldn't have a country and western singer as our greatest graduate. Lyle cracked up laughing at that, but it's true. And so I'm not dissing

Lyle, but Lyle didn't go into journalism. Lyle is a country and western singer. He's one of the best. He's a great edit, but he's not a journalist. And so what does it say about the history of Texas A&M University that prior to Kathleen McElroy, prior to me, your greatest journalism student was a country and western singer? And so this is what you now do to a former graduate?

This is what you do to somebody with a stellar resume? And so let me just put this very clearly. And I want any black student who is an athlete. And if you are a parent of a top black athlete and you are considering Texas A&M, remove them from your list. I have never in, since I left, I have never ever said this. I've never ever said this about something that's happened before. This is a university that has asked me to help recruit students, has asked me to help recruit athletes. When that white racist, white supremacist, Richard Spencer, came down there, I was invited back to speak at a rally there as well.

They've called on me for any number of things. But if you think I am going to sit idly by and watch how this board of regents has treated Kathleen McElroy, you are sadly mistaken. Let me be perfectly clear. No top black athlete and their parents should consider going to Texas A&M University and signing a letter of intent or a scholarship until this board of regents and the leadership apologizes to Kathleen McElroy, until they reinstate her offer, until they offer her tenure, until they reverse exactly what they have done.

Let me be clear. It is abundantly clear. It's abundantly clear that the Board of Regents and the president and the chancellor, they don't mind DEI on Saturday afternoons. They don't mind seeing black athletes throwing the ball, catching the ball, running the ball. They don't mind seeing these black basketball players during March Madness. They don't mind seeing these black volleyball players

and these black track athletes. But all of a sudden, if you are a black faculty member, then we've got a problem. No top athlete should consider attending Texas A&M University until this Board of Regents fixes this mess that they have created. And let me be also clear. To Texas A&M, I will never represent the university publicly again because what you have done. In fact, to the folks in the studio, do this right now. Whoever's directing, Anthony or Henry, give me a wide shot of our studio set. If y'all look at our set right now, I actually have on my set in D.C., I actually have my Texas A&M Ring of Honor Award that's right there on right below the Harry Belafonte photo. So here's what I want.

I want somebody in the control room to right now and remove that from my set piece. It will never be on my set again until Texas A&M fixes this problem. I want, no, no, no. I want you to go back. I want to go back to the shot. I want somebody in the control room

to go out and remove that from my set right now. That's how angry and embarrassed I am of what Texas A&M has done. They do not deserve to have that on my set, sitting between a photo of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a journalist, and Harry Belafonte, and also, of course, James Baldwin. That's how angry I am about this here.

I have worn the Texas A&M lapel pin. I have given to the Association of Former Students. I've been a part of the President's Club. They've called on me. But if this is how you're going to treat an African-American, an esteemed graduate, someone with impressive credentials, then shame on every single one of you. Enough is enough. This is where black athletes must say to these predominantly white institutions,

you are going to stop disrespecting African-Americans. You're going to stop wanting our labor. You're going to stop wanting our talent to make millions off of come Saturday in football season, but then this is how you want to treat a graduate. Enough is enough. This is precisely why I wrote my book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. And the folks at Texas A&M, that's exactly what you have done. You have lost your mind of what you have done to this sister. She is the head of the

journalism department at one of the top journalism programs in America, the number one program in the state. And she decided to leave that program to come back to her alma mater. And let me be real clear, Texas A&M journalism program did not make me. It was a program that was actually weaker than my high school. And I said so when I arrived there, because we didn't have a radio station. We didn't have a television station. All we had was the battalion and the school newspaper. And so here she was trying to come back and improve it to make it better. When I was notified that she took the job, I didn't say much at all because I wanted to see how foolish they were and how serious they were. Well, we see what kind of fools they made themselves out of.

This is the kind of reason, this kind of crap that's causing black faculty members across the country to not go to a lot of places. The African-American Studies program at the University of Florida, they can't fill their positions because African-Americans don't want those jobs because of what Ron DeSantis has done in that state. It's what Gregory Abbott has done there as well.

And so one of the reasons A&M wants to revive their journalism program, because they say, hey, we can get more Aggie journalists. We'll have better stories about Texas A&M in the national media. Well, congratulations. You've made yourselves look like fools to the country and the world of what you've done to this sister who spent years at the New York Times at the top of her game. And you somehow thought this was a good idea.

Again, this is the same idiotic Board of Regents who gave Jimbo Fisher a raise of $1.5 million and extended his contract when he actually hasn't won as many games as the previous head coach, Kevin Sumlin. Yes, these are the people who made the decision. These are the people who screwed up. These are the people who has made my alma mater

look like a second-rate institution by rescinding this offer. This, folks, makes no sense whatsoever. Again, if you are a star athlete in any sport and you are African-American, do not put Texas A&M on your list until they fix this. Reinstate the offer to Kathleen McElroy. Give her tenure. Apologize to her. Now, she probably is going to

turn you down, just like Nicole Hannah-Jones turned down the University of North Carolina when they screwed her over and decided to go to Howard University. But they should do right by Kathleen McElroy because they have disrespected her and they have embarrassed her by what they have done.

And I, as a Texas A&M graduate, as a black journalist, a person who is the founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists chapter at Texas A&M University, will not sit here and be silent by what they have done. I will. 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 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 one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season 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 Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

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

You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Never wear my Texas A&M pin on the air. I will not shout this university out and you will not see me wearing the gear on this show. Because you don't deserve it. Because you are showing

how you treat black former students. You are showing how you treat black Texans. You are showing how you treat black faculty. And Texas A&M, to President Banks, to Chancellor Sharp, to the Board of Regents, you will never be a top-tier university if this is how you think you're going to treat

African Americans and other minorities. It is not going to happen. You will not be held in the same esteem as other top universities. I'm also calling on Secretary Cardona of the Department of Education, as well as the Department of Justice, to launch a civil rights investigation into Texas A&M University. This is a discriminatory action taken by the Board of Regents against Kathleen McElroy. They have recruited her. She had agreed

to a contract, and now you want to change the terms because she wrote about race and diversity when she was a reporter, the stories that she was assigned by her editors? This is what you want to change the terms because she wrote about race and diversity when she was a reporter? The stories that she was assigned by her editors? This is what you want to do? Texas A&M receives a ton of federal funding for research and development. It's one of the top research institutions in the country. That means that the federal government has a right to investigate them. And this is exactly what the Department of Education should do.

The Department of Justice should do as well. If A&M is going to receive federal funds, which is taxpayer funds, then they cannot act in a discriminatory manner. And what they have done by rescinding this offer to Kathleen McElroy is to act in an egregious manner. And frankly, I hope Kathleen sues the university because this makes no sense whatsoever. And so they may say, well, we don't care what Roland Martin has to say. Oh, sure. He's a 1991 graduate. Sure. His sister's a 1992 graduate. Sure. His brother's a 1990 graduate. Sure. His wife's sister is a graduate of A&M.

Sure, his sister's husband is a graduate of Texas A&M. But I can tell you what's not going to happen. You will never get my money. I can tell you what's not going to happen. You're not going to see me representing this university in any capacity whatsoever

because if this is how you will treat a Kathleen McElroy, we know exactly how you will treat a Roland Martin and the other black graduates who come through this institution. Texas A&M is our school too. I'm a native Texan. My parents are native Texans. My grandparents moved to Texas from Louisiana in the 30s. All of my family is residing in that state. And this university gets taxpayer money and they are thumbing their noses at African-American taxpayers.

I hope the Black Caucus in Texas says something about this. And trust me, A&M, I will be on that campus. To the Board of Regents, you will see me at a meeting because this is not the last time you will see me speaking on this. If you think I'm ticked off, wait till you see what happens next. And I will put on every social media platform that every black athlete boycott Texas A&M University until they fix this. Candace, back to you. All right. Thank you, Roland. Roland has spoken. And as we know, there probably will be a lawsuit coming and we're going to have our eyes on that. Thank you, Roland. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll

be right back. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media

and then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Succession. We're hearing that word pop up a lot these days as our country continues to fracture and divide. But did you know that that idea, essentially a breaking up of the USA, has been part of the public debate since long before and long after the Civil War, right up to today? On our next show, you'll meet Richard

Kreitner, the author of this book, who says breaking up this great experiment called America might not be such a bad thing. That's on the next Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Hi, my name is Brady Riggs. I'm from Houston, Texas. My name is Sharon Williams. I'm from Dallas, Texas. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin.

Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Elijah Mays has been missing from her Birmingham, Alabama home since May 14, 2023. The 13-year-old is 5'6", weighs 164 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. When Elijah was last seen, her hair was dyed burgundy and blonde. Anyone with information about Elijah Mays should call the Calhoun County, Alabama Sheriff's Office at 256-236-6600. All right. A group of black staffers file a racial discrimination lawsuit against the University of Houston downtown? The lawsuit, filed by an unnamed openly gay black employee, alleges the university failed to address his claims of bias against Charles Jingler, the former dean of the Maryland Davies College of Business.

The employee says he encountered racial discrimination and homophobia as soon as he began working there in September of 2021. Attorneys representing the unnamed employee says that the university has perpetuated and emboldened the dean's discriminatory behavior by failing to correct him. And this potentially violates Texas labor law and the U.S. Civil Rights Act. Although the lawsuit does not name Jingler as the defendant, it alleges that the plaintiff was falsely implicated by Jingler for campus crime and that he also heard him suggest to another employee that he wear a monkey suit.

Officials from the University of Houston downtown say that's not true and that they are committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful environment free from harassment and intimidation. Moving on, a Detroit area police officer is charged with a federal civil rights crime after punching a black man and slamming his head to the ground. Now, listen to this. Matthew Rodriguez was fired on June 23rd. He was caught on video exchanging words with Jaquan Smith before punching him and knocking

him to the floor on June 13th. Rodriguez was processing Smith, who was arrested for multiple felonies. Now, it's unclear what was said, but Smith said something to Rodriguez before getting punched repeatedly. It was other officers, meanwhile, who jumped in and reported the incident to managers. Rodriguez is facing two misdemeanors in a state court. In other news in Tennessee, the city of Memphis wants a judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Tyree Nichols family. The black man beat to death by five cops. The city claims his death resulted from five rogue police officers. While the city says it was in no way condones or approves any of what

happened, any of the officers actions and court filings, the city also said it had no hand in the man's death. In April, Nichols' family sued the city of Memphis, its police department, and nearly a dozen city employees for $550 million. Nichols was pulled over on January 7th by the Memphis Police Department and died three days later from the injuries inflicted by the five cops. All right, some Donald Trump news. Donald Trump's attorneys want to delay his federal trial, of course they do, on charges related to handling classified documents. Trump's attorneys say that the extraordinary nature of the case means there should be no reason to expedite the trial, suggesting it would not be possible to try the case before the 2024 election.

Trump pleaded not guilty last month at 37 federal criminal counts related to handling hundreds of classified documents after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return them. The materials contain classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was prosecuting the case, has not responded to the delayed requests. Meanwhile, some Bank of America news. They're always in the news, people. Bank of America is paying millions to customers for double-charging accounts with insufficient funds. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the second-largest U.S. bank to pay more than $100 million to the hundreds of thousands of

customers they harmed over several years and across multiple products. The bank imposed a $35 fee when a client purchase was denied due to insufficient funds. However, the bank would further, charging the fee multiple times. The bank also illegally used customer information to apply for credit cards and bank accounts without the customer's consent. Now, in addition to paying millions to customers, the bank must pay $150 million in penalties. You may remember that last year, Bank of America paid $235 million in fines

for illegally garnishing and failing to give out state unemployment benefits during the pandemic. All right, some free tuition news. Some North Carolina students who want to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill can do so for free. To expand their diversity efforts following last week's Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, the school will offer free tuition to some in-state students. This offering will begin with the incoming class in 2024 for undergraduates from North Carolina whose families make less than $80,000 a year. Tuition and fees for full-time in-state students for the 2023 academic year is about $9,000.

All right, so much to discuss. I wanna start with Trump though. I wanna start with Trump and his people saying that we need more time. We need more time because there's so much information and it's so complicated that we need to do this after the election. Dr. Ali, I think we smell what's going on here.

What say you about this tactic? We can't be surprised. No, we all know the game that's being played. They're trying to run out the clock so that he might have the possibility of being elected and therefore can pardon himself and others who are part of his inner circle, I guess, of folks. So, you know, it's so nonsensical that people can't understand this game that's being played. And if, you know, we do have a situation where he has appointed a number of judges that continue to lean in his direction and to move outside of the bounds of the law. So we'll see how it all plays out.

Yeah. And you know, that's what I was going to say, Randy, that when we look at this, we know that so much power is in the hands of the judges. So this could go any way. But, you know, when we talk about expediting a case and making sure that we don't have a president that might win an election and serves it in jail, what is your take on perhaps what these judges might do? I know it's a toss-up to anything, but it just seems to be burdensome to the system to put this off any further. It's absolutely a burden to the system, but we knew that this was what he was going to do no one's surprised whatsoever and um it is scary it's scary because he absolutely stacked the courts so he could you know get some judge to rule in his favor and and that's just absolutely

unfortunate it is it is lauren i want to bring you in you know when we talk about trump he's always doing you know certain chess moves inside of the system because he knows that, as Randy said, he has stacked these courts to his favor. So he knows that there are people on his side. 37 counts and indictment. We know that everybody is, when you are a defendant, you have a right to a speedy trial. This is what the Constitution says. This seems to fall in the face of reason that this would even be a question. We're looking for a speedy trial for the defendant. What say you? Yeah, I'm surprised actually they're doing this. I mean, they do have a year and a half for the election. So it's not as if the trial couldn't be adjudicated. He does have a judge that is seen as being somebody

who's likely to be favorable for him, Judge Cannon, on this particular case in Florida. So I'm surprised that they're trying to delay it because, you know, theoretically, they could actually adjudicate it. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always

be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 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 Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. into a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos you say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store so when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there no it can happen one in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look,

lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. They do have a judge that's favorable to them, so that's an interesting strategy. But he does have the other case in New York, so maybe they're thinking about that, the timing on that. But I am surprised that they're actually asking for a delay for the case. Lauren, I want to stay with you as we move to some other news. And let's talk about affirmative action and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You know, a lot of schools are doing what they can do in order to deal with the affirmative action decision. And one of them is to offer free state tuition to some people who may qualify. But at the end of the day, when we look at that type of a strategy, which is not a bad strategy, I mean, someone's going to get free tuition, but can it really be an answer to deal with the decision of

the Supreme Court and affirmative action, Lauren? Yeah, it absolutely could be an answer. The schools can do whatever the schools want to do, as long as they don't violate the letter of what the court said. Now, it doesn't necessarily state plainly that race cannot be considered. You heard the president of the National NAACP, Derek Johnson, suggest that what students should do is bring up their experience and their lived experience in the college essay portion of the application, which of course would very much indicate if you want to do it that way and show the school that you being black does matter, which in this country, of course, does. Yes. The school will pick who they want to pick.

I suspect Harvard in particular, some of these Ivy League schools are not going to pay any attention to what just happened. I mean, we're going to have to see. Right. They pick who they want to pick to come to their school. They don't care about what Stephen Miller says or any of these other people. They are going to pick the student body that they want to have. That's always been the case. The other thing, the other backdrop to that is, you know, this idea, there's this idea in the heads of racists like Stephen Miller that these campuses are overrun with black people. Oh, no, they're not. And a few people put out the stats on that. And for a lot of these Ivy League

schools, you know, the black population on the campus is under six and seven percent. We're 14 percent of the population. So but I think that a lot of these schools do want the diversity. As Roland said last night, we bring the sexy, we bring the action, we bring the culture, we bring the excitement. And these schools know it. And that's why they're picking certain students. So I don't think that's going to change at all. Oh, Randy, I'm so interested in hearing what you have to say as a DEI disruptor. What is it that you think about this plan and especially how schools can deal with this affirmative action decision? You know, of course, I'm always happy to hear that they're offering education to those who may have more challenges receiving it. But it doesn't solve the problem as far as African Americans

with this affirmative action decision have essentially blocked us. Because one thing it just suggests is that only black people are poor, are living under minimum wage, which we know that is not the case, right? Only black people make under $80,000 per year in a household. And so, and it also, it penalizes any middle-class black person. They will not be

helped by this rule whatsoever. But I do agree that, and I hope that schools will act as they want to act. If they are dedicated to ensuring that they have a diverse student population and that they want to ensure that they have black students on the campus, at better numbers than we're really seeing, because, you know, it's true. There are not a lot of us at these colleges. They will defy and say, we are going to admit who we want to admit, and we are willing to fight the cases one by one should we in any way be penalized. That's what I'm hoping that we see. But the, I mean, California tried the same thing, where they said, okay, we're going to

go by, you know, people's, look at socioeconomics. It has helped, you know,'s look at look at social economics yes it has helped it has helped um you know because we stopped with affirmative action in california back in was at 1996 i believe um it has helped but you still there's a big gap i mean there's a big gap there and particularly uh when you're dealing with uh white people who know the system what a lot of white people did when they created where they were looking at socioeconomics and family household income, they emancipated their children, right? And put it on that they were looking at the students' income and not at the family household income. So, you know, it's just going to be a lot of, you know, twists and turns. So hopefully this whole thing works out. But I'm hoping what we see from the universities is a real dedication and they will stick to their claims of wanting black students on campus and they will defy and they will just

go ahead and consider race. I think they're going to have to be honest about considering race. Yeah, exactly. Because there are a lot of workarounds, but those workarounds are for everybody to work around. So that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to equal the results of what affirmative action was. All mean that it's going to equal the results of what affirmative action was. All right, we're going to get into more of these hot topics. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, and we'll be right back.

Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch. A real revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Early days in the road, I learned, well, first of all, as a musician, I studied not only piano, but I was also a drummer and percussion. I was all city percussion as well. So I was one of the best in the city on percussion.

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

That prepared me to know, to be a leader of men, they have to respect you and know that you know them. You have to be the teacher of the music. You have to know the music better than anybody. There you go. So you can't walk in unprepared. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

On that soil, you will not be put to death. Horrific scene white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence As an angry pro-trump mob storm to the US Capitol We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.

There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is Whitefield. My name is Lena Charles and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world.

My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia Game. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered. The Republican Party selects a date for the highly anticipated 2024 presidential caucus. The Iowa GOP State Central Committee voted unanimously to hold the caucus on January 15, 2024, which falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This decision is a major departure from the time of the past three caucuses and could have far-reaching implications for both parties.

Now, Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufman said they see holding the caucus on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a way to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon. This decision was made in response to the Democratic National Committee's plans to shake up the nominating calendar and potentially remove Iowa from its premier position. Now, Iowa Democratic Chair Rita Hart says the date for the caucus was selected without their input. But the Democrats are now proposing to hold their caucus on the same day. They also want to allow participants to vote for the presidential candidate through mail-in ballots. Iowa Republicans passed a bill prohibiting mail-in ballots. Iowa Republicans

passed a bill prohibiting mail-in participation for their first in the nation caucus. The difference in approaches between the two parties raises questions about the potential legality of the Democrats' plan and how the DNC will receive a January 15th Democratic caucus and even New Hampshire. The clash over the Iowa caucus dates could disrupt both parties and the voters. Now let's move on to a Senate announcement. Speaking of voting, actor Hill Harper, known for his roles in The Good Doctor and as host of HLN's primetime series How It Really Happened, wants Michiganders votes to be their next senator. He released this video announcing his candidacy.

Dear Pierce, I'm recording this video for you because I'm about to make a big announcement and it's going to be tough for us. You know, I'm not going to be able to tuck you in every night or do our nighttime prayers together. But these are sacrifices so many hardworking families have to make every single day. Fighting for what you believe in is hard enough, but it's worth doing when you've found something that makes your heart beat faster.

And for me, it's you. Yeah, I started a nonprofit, owned a small business in Detroit, even beat cancer, served on President Obama's cancer panel, earned Ivy League degrees, and written best-selling books. But for me, adopting you is the greatest thing I've done in my life. You see, the world you're growing up in doesn't feel like it's getting any better. It's more divisive and more dangerous.

When you told me that you were afraid to go to school because of shootings, it's not freedom. Our economy works for the richest, while the most vulnerable have to work even harder than ever to keep up. That's not freedom. At the core of so much of this are too many politicians in office

that don't really care about people. You see, what I learned on my grandfather's farm growing up is that when you plant something in good soil, you get something much better in return. That's why I'm raising you in Michigan, a community where people are kind, work hard, and believe the future is worth fighting for.

Because every child in every neighborhood, in every town across Michigan deserves the freedom to flourish. I believe our government should work for the people, be a force for good, and protect our freedoms. And that won't happen if we keep electing the same type of people to office. That's why I'm running for the United States Senate to represent Michigan. I love you, son.

And I hope to make you proud. All right, Harper is running as a... 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 thing is.

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car

and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Democrat and is seeking to fill the seat that will be vacated by retiring democratic senator debbie stave now now harper joins a primary field that already includes michigan representative elisa slotkin who announced she'd be running in february she is seen as a top contender michigan is a crucial state for

the democrats let's remember that having flipped from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020, the outcome of this Senate race could be a determining factor in the hold on the Senate. I want to start with Harper and then let's back up and we'll talk about some other issues. What do you think about good old Harper Hill? I mean, when I see him, I do see someone that has planted some good seeds, Randy, in terms of things he's already been doing in the community. But that's a big old ring to throw your hat in. What do you make of his run?

I'm excited about it. First of all, whoever outlined that commercial, it was brilliant. It made you see him as a real whole person. He showed his soft side by still giving us some of his history. It made you see him as a real whole person. He showed his soft side by still giving us some of his history. I met Hill Harper some time ago. We both had books coming out around the same time, and we were at a book fair. He just seems like a solid person.

So I'm excited about what this is going to be, And I and it is it is a critical race. And so, yeah, I wish him the best of luck and happy to see this. Yeah. And, you know, Dr. Ali is someone who was seen as a young black man putting his hat in the ring here. What do you think he should really be speaking to that can get Michigan behind him? What are some of the topics? What are some of the things that would really put him in the running here? Well, you know, it goes back to education, goes back to jobs, it goes to healthcare. I grew up in Michigan along with in Appalachia, so I know the issues that people care about there. And they also care about the content of someone's character.

And Hill, you know, full disclosure, is one of my fraternity brothers. All right. He's an amazing person. I've got a couple of friends who are actually running for this position. So I want to be fair to everyone. But, you know, Hill comes from good stock and he's someone who really cares about other people, which we often don't see enough of in politicians. So I'm excited to actually see this race and see who ends up being the victor in this because Michigan is critical and Michigan deserves to have a senator who truly cares about our most vulnerable communities and cares about our country. Absolutely. Lauren, before we go to the break, I want to ask you, say you're writing an article on Hill Harper. What do you want to make sure is in that headline about this man?

You know what? He's been involved in politics and issues before. I actually met him on Capitol Hill like 10 years ago. I can't remember what the issue was. He's like at a congressional hearing. So he doesn't just sort of come out of nowhere. But we're in an era right now of people running for office who have no government experience, and nobody is having any particular problem with that. It's become a character thing, particularly when you're fighting for your democracy. So I do think he's going to do fairly well. But going up against a member of Congress, a sitting member, is a tough

deal. But she hasn't been there for very long, so it should be a very interesting race. All right. All right. Thank you for that. Well, we're going to have more headlining topics when we come back. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back after a break. in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it, and you spread the word.

We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks.

We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Rates $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Up next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes. She's known as the Angela Davis of hip hop. Monet Smith, better known as Medusa the Gangsta Goddess, the undisputed queen of West Coast underground hip hop. Pop locking is really what indoctrinated me in hip hop.

I don't even think I realized it was hip hop at that time. Right. It was a happening. It was a moment of release. We're going to be getting into her career, knowing her whole story, and breaking down all the elements of hip hop. This week on The Frequency,

only on the Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. You're watching Rolling Mark. Until then. All right. It's summertime, and we're either trying to maintain our summer bodies or tighten them up. One of those two normally will fall into where we are dealing with.

As we work out, we've got to be careful to prevent those injuries. With that in mind, there's one trainer who invented some fitness equipment uniquely designed, he says, to develop and strengthen the total body while targeting the core and the chest. The Core Champion Push-Up Bar is an all-in-one bar that can increase metabolic and core strength using our body weight. E. Earl Jenkins, he's a certified fitness specialist, and he is the Core Push-Up Bar inventor. He joins us from Columbus, New Jersey, my home state. It is so good to see you. How are you doing today? Good to be here. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. All right. You know, I want to know a little bit about how you got your ring in the market,

because this is a market that is highly populated with equipment, whether you're watching YouTube or, you know, Shark Tank, somebody is always pitching something new by way of equipment. What does your equipment do? It pretty much allows a person to use the body to develop their core, their body weight, to develop their core, which is the plumb line of the body between the bottom or the legs and the upper body. So the device is designed to create a proprioceptive environment, which is an unstable environment and uses the body or the core to balance the body that forces the intrinsic muscle to be strengthened while doing resistant training. I know that you have a demonstration.

Before we get there, though, I just want to know the business side of this because there are a lot of people who are watching and they, too, have ideas. And I know that when you go to get something trademarked, when you go to get a patent on something, it's a process. So in terms of this patent and the business aspect of it, how was that for you in that journey? Very difficult. Ten years in the making. After the pandemic, we went full force into it. But it took us about 10 years through all the processing and engineering and testing, going back after it didn't work, the fiberglass didn't hold within the nylon process. And so it took some time, but over about five years into it, we started seeing some light. All right. And so a lot of other people are watching this.

If you have an idea, hopefully you will see some light too and be inspired. We are ready for this demonstration. Tell us what you're about to do and what we're going to see. Well, what I'm going to do is something that we created called Fit in 15, meaning that we're going to do a metabolic training, get the heart rate up, and do some resistant training as well as a plyometric training that's going to help us get the body in a position where we can get a full workout in just 15 minutes

15 minute a lot of people want to go to gym because of time but this design is to help you get up to him and look out in just 15 minutes. This very quickly all right. Let me see if I can get here. So 15 minutes right. What we do is we go here, right? That's for the back. Uh-huh. Boom. Anterior raises. You do that for a mile and seconds. Then you go to the curl. Then you go for the shoulders. And so is the weight on that, can that be changed?

12.5 pounds, 36 inches, 9 inches wide. They hold up to 300 pounds of weight. So when you're doing your push-ups, you're doing your squats on it, you can really get a good workout with it. And I want to close this out by saying this, that I understand that a lot of people, gyms, different places across the country, they have taken to this. They love it. Can you let us know if this is someone who is a beginner or do we have to look like you?

E. Jenkins, do we have to look like you? It's on all levels. You have different cycles, one, two, three, four, on our website. And it shows you on all different types of levels. You can get fit. You can get it. Everybody can use it kids, adults, there are people workout for work out a lot is for everyone. All right, I love exploring new businesses that are out

there so I want to make sure that we go to our panel if you have any questions that even have to do with the business side or what this is he is actually physically doing I want to start with you with side or what this is he is actually physically doing I want to start with you with doctor Ali a question for Jenkins. Yeah, the Jenkins congratulations. On your fitness journey of a lot of people want to know that. Well I worked out all my life, you know, I'm 60 now I've been

working out since high school. I wrestled in high school, a black belt karate expert I do different types of exercise and always been a part of fitness in my life. Fitness has always been a part of my life. But after the pandemic, I really got really heavy into it because I noticed even in the episcopacy or the church, a lot of people were prayed up, but they were dying because of a lack of fitness, a lack of education. So that really pumped me after 10 years, taking that break during that time. After the pandemic, I really jumped into it and really finished it out because a lot of people were dying because of a lack of education would come to physicality, spiritually good, but physicality. Now they were losing it. So it inspired me to really get involved. A lot of stuff happened during the pandemic. How about that? Lauren, I want to go to you.

Great, great idea. Really great idea. Does that come with a case? I just wonder, does it come with a case? Because it looks like something to be very easy to travel with. Yes, yes, it does come with a case. It comes with bands for more resistance. For those of you that want to develop what they call hypertrophy, more muscle, instead of just getting the air intake up stronger. So it comes with a resistance band up to 50 pounds, 10 pounds up to 50 pounds, but also has a case and some other devices that come with it. Very nice. Yeah, indeed. Randy? Well, congratulations. This looks fantastic. I was wondering, you mentioned a website. So there's a place that we could go and see which exercises to do? Yes. Because I'm the type of person, you need to babysit me a little bit.

Right, right. So I can go and follow along? Yes. CoreChampion.com. CoreChampion.com. Fantastic. All right. And how much does this run? This one 69 at the moment. Okay. And it's the special edition because we have the hand grip. We have another edition coming out. But this one has this hand grip. The other bar won't have the grip. You will have to purchase the grip. But this one comes with the grip. We have a few left. So get it now. All right.

I love a before and after. So I want to ask you about the people that you've worked with and what you have seen their journey come out to in terms of, you know, is this something that's going to help you lose 10 pounds in a month, or do you have different types of threshold that you use in order to explain this? In all honesty, I try to know myself first, and I do understand that some people have different body types. But overall, if you apply 15 minutes worth of workout a day with this, I was at 225.

I'm 214 now at a body percent of 13% body fat when I was 90%. And I did this for 30 days consistently every day for 15 minutes. And it works. And I'm 60. Now you know that the black community and America but we're talking about the black community we've got an obesity problem right and I'm sure that that was probably something that compelled you to get to this. I also understand that you're a pastor. Yes ma'am. All right so look gotta add a little Jesus too that doesn't hurt right but when you look right? But when you look at your community, when you look at your congregation,

what is it that spoke to you also that I'm sure motivated you to create this? Because so many people are overweight. That's the society that we live in. Too many people were dying. I was burying too many people from a lack of understanding. And I recognize that over the years, I helped build the spiritual body or the body of Christ. And so in this season, I decided to build a physicality where Christ lives, the body itself. And a lot of us, we have church, but the real church in us is dying, the body. And so that's the reason I decided to just really focus in on this. And it's been very rewarding seeing so many in my church. We even have a gym in our church so that people can get themselves in a place of being comfortable.

That's a spectacular idea that people can go to church, worship, and then also maintain their temples in a different way, spiritually and then physically, and have a gym in the church. That is a very novel idea. What would you say you want this to do for your community? Because again, there's a spiritual journey, there's a physical journey. What's your hope for this particular dream of yours that has come into fruition? That we become knowledgeable of who we are and how important health is. Health is wealth. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have your health, you have very little to work with.

And it doesn't, for me, life is more than just having stuff. And then also I'm concerned about us being concerned about our children, our families. Yes. That if something goes wrong with us, how it's going to impede their lives to take care of us as we get older. So my goal is to really focus in on not just now, but the generations to come to have a fair shot in life and not just focus on us as we get older, start deteriorating. You know, we can sustain even more as we get older. All right. We've been talking about that theme all throughout the show in terms of teaching them young so that they teach the next generations after us. And it continues and it continues. I want to thank you quickly. Your Web site again. And you said this was $169.

What's that website? CoreChampion.com. All right. CoreChampion.com. I thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your business journey. All right. I also want to thank our guests today. We've got Dr. Ali and Lauren and Randy. Always good talking with you. I'm Candace Kelly, and I want to thank Roland for allowing me to sit in. It's been a good time these two days, and I hope that you guys have a wonderful evening. You've been watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. See you next time. Holla!

Holla! Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. A real revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland.

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

Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin,

and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world that's consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture

with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. We'll see you next time. to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car.

Always stop. Look, lock brought to you by NHTSA and the ad council. 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. 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. 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 it. It makes it real. It really does.

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