#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Liberia's 200th, Kimberly Potter gets 2 years; Wright family outraged, Teaching Black Brilliance

Episode Date: February 19, 2022

2.18.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Liberia's 200th, Kimberly Potter gets 2 years; Wright family outraged, Teaching Black Brilliance24 months, 16 months in prison, and 8 months on supervised release. That's the sentence Kimberly Potter received for killing an unarmed black man, Daunte Wright. We'll let you hear Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu's reasoning behind the ruling and how Daunte's family feels about this "punishment." Journalist Georgia Fort has been following this case since Potter fired the fatal bullets on April 11, 2021.  She'll be here to tell us what the atmosphere is like in Minnesota.Ya'll remember the black man who was trying to save his autistic client from being shot by cops, and he ended up taking a bullet? Well, the Florida appeals court overturned the conviction of that Miami police officer who fired the gun, injuring the man who was trying to help his patient.This All-Star weekend, Howard and Morgan State are set to go head-to-head as the NBA expands support of historically HBCU's. We'll have a preview of the game.The Southern Black Women and Girls Consortium awards more than $2 million to organizations that serve Southern Black girls and women.And in our Education Matters segment, you'll meet one woman who had the desire to show the world that "B is for Black Brilliance."#BlackStarNetwork partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. 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 scape. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? We made it through the week. It's Friday, February 18th, 2022. I'm Ray Baker sitting in for Roland while he's still in Liberia for its bicentennial celebration. We'll hear from him a little later in the show. But for now, here's what else we've got coming up tonight on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. 24 months, 16 months in prison and eight months on supervised release. That's the sentence for Kimberly Potter received.

That's she received for killing an unarmed black man, Daunte Wright. We'll let you hear Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu's reasoning behind the ruling and how Daunte's family feels about this so-called punishment. Journalist Georgia Fort has been following the case since Potter fired those fatal bullets on April 11th of last year.

She'll be here to tell us what the atmosphere is like in Minnesota. And do you all remember the black man who was trying to save his autistic client from being shot by cops, and he ended up taking a bullet? Well, the Florida appeals court overturned the conviction of that Miami police officer who fired the gun,

injuring the man who was trying to help his patient. And this is NBA All-Star Weekend, and Howard University, HU, and Morgan State, Baltimore's own, are going head to head as the NBA expands their support of historically black colleges and universities. We'll have a preview of that game. The Southern Black Women and Girls Consortium

awards more than $2 million to organizations that serve Southern Black girls and women. We'll learn more about that. And in our Education Matters segment, you'll meet one woman who had the desire to show the world that simply be is for Black brilliance. We have all this and more coming up. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Blackstar Network. Let's go. He's got it. 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 Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling

It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. They were so tied up into her feelings and what's going on with her that they forgot about my son being killed.

My life was took. And it's just sad to say that I feel like we was tricked. So once again, we are standing here to say that we're very disappointed in the outcome. Yes, we got a conviction and we thank everybody for that. But again, this is, this isn't okay. This is the problem with our justice system today. White women tears, Trump's Trump's justice. And I thought my white women's tears would be good enough because they're true and genuine. But when they're cohorsed, coached, and taught by the defense attorney, I guess we didn't have a win in this at all.

That was the reaction from Da Dante Wright's mother and father. After judge from Hennepin County and Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu gave ex-Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter, who said she mistakenly pulled her gun instead of her taser, a 24-month sentence for killing her son. Let's take a listen to Judge Chu. This is one of the saddest cases I've had on my 20 years on the bench. On the one hand, a young man was killed, and on the other, a respected 26-year veteran police officer made a tragic error by pulling her handgun instead of her taser. Thank you to everyone who spoke. I have been profoundly moved by the comments of the Wright family.

Dante was very loved. His son has lost a father. profoundly moved by the comments of the Wright family. Dante was very loved. His son has lost a father. And Mr. and Mrs. Wright, I cannot begin to understand the grief of losing a child. I'm so sorry for your loss. Kimberly Potter honorably served her community for 26 years as a police officer. She was a respected officer and consistently went over and above the call of duty. She's a wife, a mother, an aunt, a granddaughter, a colleague, and a friend to many.

In addition to the letters that were forwarded to me by Mr. Ng, I received hundreds and hundreds of letters in her support from colleagues, family, friends, acquaintances, community leaders and members, and even strangers. I read them all. They paint a lot of people in a good way. I want to talk briefly about the aggravating factors that were brought up in this case. As I mentioned before, the state initially took the position Ms. Potter should receive a sentence above the guidelines and filed a brief in support

of two aggravating factors under Blakely. All parties agreed that I would determine whether aggravating factors existed to justify a harsher sentence than that set forth in the guidelines. I feel compelled to address the grounds for that request because they were made public and I think it is important to note they were not proven in this case. The state did not meet its burden of proof on the first factor. It is based on defendant causing a greater than normal danger to the passenger in the car and two other officers when she fired. But the shot only hit Dante Wright.

The passenger and the officers were not injured by that shot. The cases cited by the state in its brief did not support its position. In fact, they illustrate why this case does not involve a greater than normal danger to others. In the Fleming case, he fired a gun six times in a park filled with children. In State v. Omaha, defendant fired numerous shots into two apartment buildings. There is no comparison here. The state also did not meet its burden of proof on the second Blakely factor. Contrary to the state's claims, Kimberly Potter did not abuse her position of authority. In fact, it is undisputed Ms. Potter or Officer Potter was in the line of duty and doing her

job in attempting to lawfully arrest Daunte Wright on the warrant when she mistook her gun for her taser. What's more, she drew her taser legitimately to protect a fellow officer on the other side of the vehicle who could have been dragged and seriously injured if the car were to speed away. Officer Potter's conduct clearly was not significantly more serious than that typically involved in the commission

of the crime in question, justifying an upward departure. Turning to defendant's request for a dispositional departure, there is no question that Ms. Potter is extremely remorseful. She showed that today. She showed that when it happened. It is also beyond dispute that she is particularly amenable to probation. But the court retains the discretion to make departure decisions independently. The court is not required to depart even where mitigating factors are present and that set forth in State

versus Birch 689 Northwest 2nd 276 affirmed by the Supreme Court 707 This has been an extremely difficult decision. In making my decision, I looked to the purposes of incarceration. There are four. Retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Three of the four would not be served in this case. Incapacitation refers to the physical removal of a convicted person to prevent them from committing future crimes.

That is not an issue in this case. Kimberly Potter does not present a danger of future crimes, obviously. Deterrence refers to the prevention of future crime and the idea that those who have committed crimes will be discouraged from reoffending after experiencing punishment. That purpose would not be served here.

Rehabilitation is also not a purpose that would justify incarceration in this case. Ms. Potter does not require rehabilitation to become a law-abiding citizen. Retribution or serving time as a way for a convicted person to pay for the harm inflicted on a victim is the sole purpose that applies in this case. And in this case, a young man was killed because Officer Potter was reckless. There rightfully should be some accountability. Sentencing guidelines are just that. They are guidelines that inform a judge regarding sentencing for various crimes. They are not set in stone.

The court has the discretion to depart from guidelines depending on the particular facts of the case. A downward durational departure is justified if a crime is less onerous than typical. Put another way, if the conduct is significantly less serious than that typically involved in the commission of the crime, sentencing below the guidelines is justified. I find the facts and circumstances here justify a downward departure from the guidelines. First, Officer Potter's conduct was significantly less serious than your typical manslaughter case. The misdemeanor predicate for the manslaughter count was reckless handling or use of a firearm. Here, everybody agrees, and the evidence is undisputed, that Officer Potter never intended to use her firearm. She mistakenly drew her firearm at all times intending to use her taser.

There were police officers and experts who testified that the use of her taser was reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances presented for officer safety reasons. The fact she never intended to draw her firearm makes this case less serious than other cases. Second, the scene was chaotic, tense, and rapidly evolving. Officer Potter was required to make a split-second judgment. That constitutes a mitigating circumstance. Finally, unlike other manslaughter one cases, Officer Potter's actions were not driven by personal animosity toward Dante Wright. Instead, she was acting in the line of duty and effectuating a lawful arrest. This case is a case of the lawful arrest. This case is highly unusual. The other officer cases tried in this court are distinguishable.

This is not a cop found guilty of murder for using his knee to pin down a person for nine and killing an unarmed woman who approached his squad. This is a cop who made a tragic mistake. She drew her firearm, thinking it was a taser, and ended up killing a young man. Ms. Potter, will you please rise? Given all these considerations, and having carefully considered the comments of the family of both Daunte Wright and the comments of Kimberly Potter as well as the arguments of counsel, it is the sentence and judgment of this Court that you shall be committed to the custody of the Commissioner of Corrections for a period of 24 months.

You shall serve two-thirds of that time, or 16 months, in prison, and a third on supervised release, assuming no disciplinary offenses or conditional release violations. You have credit for 58 days already served. Restitution will be reserved. and a surcharge of $78 to be taken out of prison wages or due within 180 days. You must provide a DNA sample. You may not use or possess any firearms, ammunition, or explosives. You have the right to appeal the conviction and sentence. If you are unable to pay the cost of an appeal, you may apply for leave to appeal at state expense by contacting the state public defender. You may be seated, Ms. Potter. I'd like to make a few parting comments. I recognize there will be those who disagree with the sentence

that I granted a significant downward departure does not in any way diminish Daunte Wright's life. Potter was convicted of first and second degree manslaughter in December. Joining me now is journalist Georgia Fort, who has been covering this case in the Brooklyn Center. Georgia, tell us a little bit about what the atmosphere is like. We've heard from Daunte Wright's parents, but the activists who've been really agitating on the street, those may have been in the community. The journalist advocates that we heard that responded to a mere lock getting shot. I'm sure this has to have riled those folks up.

Tell our audience about that, please. Absolutely. Well, there was a large crowd that was gathered here just moments ago, but they all now have gotten in their cars and they're traveling over to the judge's home to hold a protest outside of her home for this sentence that they say is both unfair and a slap in the face to the Daunte Wright family. And you're absolutely right. The trauma here in Minneapolis is compounded, not just this sentencing, but also that's on the backdrop of the federal trial that's happening now for the other three officers who are charged with the murder of George Floyd. And then we know that Amir Locke was fatally shot and his parents said their final goodbyes at his funeral on Thursday. And so all of these things are compiling again, right? And what a lot of people don't know about the city of Minneapolis leading up to the murder of George Floyd

was that there was a compounding of trauma that happened at that time with the death of Jamar Clark, as well as Philando Castile, and so many others. And so what we heard from activists today outside of the Hennepin County Government Center was that they feel that the people in power, the mayor, the interim police chief, legislatures, lawmakers are not listening. There were nearly a dozen bills that were presented to lawmakers here in Minnesota immediately following the murder of George Floyd. And activists today are saying, why didn't those bills get passed? Activists here today were saying, why did the bills that got

passed, why did they get watered down? And, you know, again, even in this situation where there is a conviction, it doesn't match up to the amount of time that Mohammed Noor got here in the city of Minneapolis when he said he mistakenly, fatally shot Justine DeMond, who was a white woman. And so, again, what we're hearing is that there are two justice systems, one for white America and one for black America. Georgia, I'm glad you brought up the example of Muhammad Nawar because Judge Regina Chu brought that up. And I thought that was particularly curious because, sure, we can make an observation that perhaps this exchange was uniquely different than Derek Chauvin and George Floyd. But this exchange seemed very similar to Nawar and Ms. DeMond, excuse me, who were killed because they both responded out of fear, intensity of the moment, and in a mistaken behavior. But Judge Chu seemed to see a difference between the two. I'm not going to ask you to weigh in legally,

but does that seem to hold any water to any of the people you were talking about or any of the lawyers you may have interviewed? Well, you know, even with Mohammed Noor, it was very convenient that there was an unraveling of justice in that case because he did appeal and he won his appeal. And so his sentence was reduced shortly before this trial started. And so a lot of people pointed to that because, and this is so significant from a legal standpoint, because Mohammed Noor's case was the precedent in both of these cases, right? Especially we heard it cited a lot in the Derek Chauvin trial. And so for Mohammed Noor to win his appeal, it unravels the foundation that specifically the Chauvin trial was set on. And so while these cases are very different,

the details and circumstances are different, for the community at least is an interconnectedness to the way in which the judicial system and the criminal justice system and the police department and how all of these components are working together to produce outcomes that are unfavorable to the Black community. And so when you juxtapose Mohammed Noor's sentence to Kim Potter's, it's not fair. It doesn't compare, although the circumstances are, yes, very similar.

So one of the things I'm also curious about is that our national organizations sometimes are not consistent or in the same lockstep with what the local branches in those places are. Now, the NAACP has released the following statement. I believe this is from the national office. So hang tight one second. I'm going to read their statement. The NAACP says stands with Wright's family in collective outrage as we witness yet another injustice in Minnesota. 16 months in prison and eight months on probation is a slap on the wrist. As scores of black men sit in prison for the rest of their lives for committing nonviolent crimes,

Kim Potter will be a free woman in one year despite the fact thatunte Wright's daughter will live the rest of her life without her father. This only magnifies what we already know. The system is broken. Our hearts and minds are with the Wright family today as they suffer another injustice, end quote. Now, before I go to that, I'll come back to you, Georgia, about that, because there's a lot of intensity on the ground. Is the local branch of the NAACP in the lockstep with what we heard nationally? Because the national is really, you could tell there's frustration there. They're building up a frustration and disappointment with the justice system as it is playing out. Yeah, absolutely. The NAACP here locally has been extremely active throughout each one of these cases. And, you know,

when you talk about from a national standpoint, in comparison to being local here on the ground, is the narrative matching up? One thing I really, really want to point out is the simmering and the brewing of all of these things happening and the collective trauma that the community is experiencing is very parallel to what we were experiencing before the murder of George Floyd. don't want to see that level of destruction, then when are they going to intervene and start using their political power and their corporate power to get some of these bills passed, get some of the legislation that the community was presenting forward? When are they going to use their voice and offer resources even for the trauma that the community is experiencing. And so from a local level, yes, absolutely, the NAACP has been in lockstep with the community and the Wright family. And one thing I haven't heard much on a national level that I'm hearing locally

is the idea of anti-Blackness in the Asian community, with Regina Chu being an Asian woman and this sentencing being so favorable to former officer Kim Potter, it has raised some questions within the activist community because there's been so much solidarity. And the protesters that we see come out is a very diverse group here in Minneapolis. But there has been this reoccurring question about anti-Blackness in the Asian community. And I think that this has reignited that conversation. I want to ask a little bit about that, Georgia. Folks that you're talking to and engaging with, are they moving forward with a hostility toward

Asian Americans believing that there's anti-Blackness? Or are they moving forward with a hostility toward Asian Americans believing that there's anti-blackness? Or are they skeptical of anybody who is now buying into the justice system as it exists because whomever is now an officer of the justice system is now reflecting the same anti-blackness that our justice system is doing? Well, I wouldn't say that there's anger. I don't think people here are upset with the Asian community, but I think that there have been, there's been some pushback in the Asian community that anti-Blackness doesn't exist. It's not a thing within their community because they're also people of color. But I think in this instance, you're seeing a clear allegiance to white supremacy. You're seeing a clear allegiance to the sympathy and the empathy

that Judge Regina Chu showed to Kim Potter today. And so I think it's reigniting the conversation that anti-Blackness is a real thing. And just because you're a person of color doesn't mean that you too can't have those values of anti-Blackness. Now, I'm going to ask, I'm going to bring a panel in after this question, but I've got one more question for you, Georgia, right before I go to the panel. When we saw the unrest after George Floyd and the rebellion after George Floyd, the weather actually was an important factor because the weather was comfortable enough that masses of people could get outside comfortably to get engaged in the protest, to ultimately, we saw what happened

with the 3rd District Police Station. We can see you right now. It does not look comfortable, to be honest. And so do you think that the bitter cold of the weather will discourage the groundswell of human beings who would otherwise be involved in activist behavior? Well, I think that we've seen the activist community here get pretty creative with the

way that they protest. We've seen a number of car caravans that have happened during below zero weather, where you'll see hundreds of cars taking to the street, honking their horns as a form of protest, still having signs displayed around their car or holding signs outside of their car. So we've seen people get pretty creative and still trying to show up and be disruptive. We've had a number of sit-ins at City Hall where activists and students come into City Hall and they sit in because it's warm. But in terms of the numbers outside, it's a little hard to say. Today is extremely frigid cold. However, about two weeks ago, there were thousands

of people who came out in the frigid cold to demand justice for a mere lock. And so it can be challenging to try and anticipate the pulse of these protests and when people are going to show up and what different factors play a role. There's also been a number of communication disruptions that I've heard from activists who say that they will post an event on Facebook, a protest event specifically, and the time gets changed. And so people are confused about what time to show up. So there's been some interesting things that have happened within the activist community here. But in terms of numbers, I mean, just last week, we saw thousands of people out in the street demanding justice for Amir Locke. And so we're going to continue following the

community response to the Kim Potter sentencing. Like I said earlier, there was a number of people gathered here moments ago that have now left in a car caravan to the judge's house. So I'm actually going to head over there and live stream what that scene is like as soon as we get done. Real quick, before you go, tell folks where they can find and follow that live stream so they can also get up to date if they can't catch it right now because they're watching the show. But if they want to come back a little bit later and make sure they've taken a look at it, tell folks where they can find that. Absolutely. If you look up GeorgiaFort.com, you can connect to all my social platforms

and we'll be live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Georgia, stay warm. Go get somewhere warm. We thank you for being on the ground covering this. Enjoy your weekend. Absolutely. You as well. Thank you so much. We're going to pivot and bring in our panel now. We're joined by Michael M. Hotep,

the host of the African History Network show, Kelly Bethea, J.D., communication strategist, and Xavier Pope, host of Suit Up News and the owner of Pope Law Firm. Everyone, thank you so much for joining us. Xavier, I'll start with you because this is a legal question. suit up news and the owner of Pope Law Firm. Everyone, thank you so much for joining us. Xavier, I'll start with you because this is a legal question. You heard Georgia and I call back to Muhammad Nawar's example when Justine Damon, Ms. Damon was shot and how similar it looked to us, but neither one of us are legal experts. So I defer to you.

Am I out of bounds for trying to compare these two incidences? No, you're not out of bounds for comparing the incidents in terms of a mistake being made by the officer. And even if it's a reasonable mistake, it was reckless. And that was a standard. And that's, this is what the judge openly said. Judge Chu called Kim Potter's behavior reckless. And this goes beyond the scope of her duty. And for the prosecution in this case to call for upward gradation in the sentencing and the judge looking at that instead of just flat out denying the upward trajectory sentencing, she chose to downgrade the sentencing. Some of the reasoning of the judge was questionable, particularly the deterrent aspect of it. You just had a rundown with Georgia of Amir Locke and of George Floyd. And the fact that this continues to happen in this community and breaking the souls

and the mental capacity of a social contract that is broken in that community. And so a deterrent of this magnitude, when you only give Kim Potter her tears and a slap on the wrist in terms of his sentencing, it remains to see where is the real connection when the legal precedent is there. And you go to that and apply her tears in this case, and you have that drip all over the justice system, and it's now drowning out true justice for the death of Daunte Wright. I appreciate the wordplay there, the tears dripping over the justice system, and it's now drowning out a true justice for the death of Daunte Wright. I appreciate the wordplay there, the tears dripping over the justice system. Kelly, as a communications expert, I'm curious about what the historian Errol Lewis calls the semi-public transcript, which means that thing that's being communicated that we haven't quite heard

explicitly, but all of us are clear to hear. And so when we see and we hear Daunte Wright's mother say, I thought that my white tears might matter because they're legitimate, but then we hear that Ms. Chu observes the behavior of Ms. Potter in the courtroom, and that means something in a way that seems to supersede what else was there. What do you think both law enforcement officials and citizens in Minneapolis and Hennepin County,

what do you think they heard when they hear this verdict? I think they heard that Black lives don't necessarily matter. And the threshold for a Black life to matter is so high that not even the justice system has that standard, really. And I kind of alluded to this back when the verdict came down for the George Floyd case in that they basically set the bar incredibly high.

Like, the reason that he was sentenced, found guilty, all of that, I'm talking about Chauvin, it was beyond the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. There should have been no question that that man should have, uh, been convicted and sentenced. But we had to basically put on, uh, a trick pony show and-and dissect a man's life

and dissect the last eight minutes of that man's life down to the millisecond so that other people could see that not only did this Black man's life matter, but that someone who thought it didn't matter took it. With this case, with the Kim Potter case, it shouldn't have to take that much effort to see that not only was, I'm not going to argue malice, but she was reckless in her conduct towards this young man. The fact that the judge alluded to there was a chaotic situation,

she was responding to it. Kim Potter created that chaotic situation. Kim Potter created that situation. Kim Potter is the one who doesn't know the difference between a taser and a gun. That situation is what is chaotic, not the fact that a Black man is scared of police

in a jurisdiction where police don't really like Black men, or Black people for that matter, as evidenced by their conduct towards the Black people in that jurisdiction. So, what did people hear? I know I heard that my life does not matter in Milwaukee. And I'm sure that other people heard that too. Yeah. Minnesota as well. I mean, Milwaukee has its own host of racial

problems and challenges, but Hennepin County, a place that's often thought itself to be good. Michael, Kelly told us about reckless, and she really hammered reckless, and I appreciate her doing that. Oxford defines reckless as without thinking or caring about the consequences of action. So if a law enforcement officer demonstrates that they behave without

thinking or caring about the consequences of their action, why then do we think that they are no longer a threat to anyone else if we only hold them for 18 months? Well, this was another example of white privilege, and this is what I was afraid of. Even though she was convicted, I still wanted to see what the sentencing was going to be like.

And, you know, she should have... So the prosecution wanted seven years. Uh, Judge Regina Chu, uh, gave her two years. have. So the prosecution wanted seven years. Judge Regina Chu gave her two years. She should have gotten at least seven years because what's really important is to look at the minutes after Kim Potter shot Daunte Wright. She didn't render aid. She didn't go after the car because the car drove down the street and hit another car. She focused on herself. She called her union representative. She said that she grabbed the wrong gun. She said she's going to jail.

She focused on herself. She didn't focus on Dante trying to save his life. That's more recklessness, okay? So she should have gotten at least seven years. But the other thing that I think is really important to understand is a couple things. Number one, I-I watched it live, and, you know, Judge Regina-Regina Chu,

then, after she renders her sentencing, then she wants to bring up President Barack Obama talking about, put yourself in the other person's shoes. Well, why don't you put yourself in the shoes of Daunte Wright's parents, who are there in court grieving, trying to get a just sentence for their son,

who was wrongly killed and won't see his own son grow up. The other thing that's really important to understand is understanding how elections have consequences. Judge Regina Chu was appointed by Governor Jesse Ventura in 2002. She's a Hennepin County district judge. She was reelected in 2004. She was elected in 2004 to serve a full term, reelected in 2010 and 2016. If she runs for reelection, she's up for reelection in 2022, this year. The activists have to organize to vote her ass out of office also. Elections have consequences as well.

And yes, they should protest at our home also. This is serious. And lastly, we talked about the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Where are the corporations that put out statements when George Floyd was killed and pledged money and things like this? They should be putting pressure to get the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act passed. It already passed the House of Representatives, 220 to 212,

March 3rd, 2021. No Republicans, I want everybody to understand me, no Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the bill. The one Republican who did put out a tweet saying he made a mistake and was going to change his vote. Okay? So now these corporations have laryngitis and amnesia as well.

So we have to put pressure on them also. Talking to you, Target, UnitedHealth Group. Absolutely. 3M. Target has a Target on their back. U.S. Bank, Mayo Clinic, and so many more. We're going to have to take a break. Stay right there. This is Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the so many more. We're going to have to take a break. Stay right there.

This is Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok On the next Get Wealthy, make the shift from earner to owner and achieve the level of success that you desire and that you deserve. You have to know your worth. You can't settle for what someone is going to give you. You've got to take ownership and be prepared to make some smart money moves. Oh my goodness, it's such a good feeling to achieve the goal that I set. If charity can do it, you can too. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network.

Pull up a chair, take your seat. We'll be right back. on the Black Star Network. Negro life is not only founding new centers, but finding a new soul. Scholar and critic, Allan Locke. Liberia, like the rest of the world, has been greatly impacted by COVID. But a strong-willed Liberian woman who spent 30 years here in the United States, in New York City, made it her mission to do all she could to keep Liberians safe.

Roland Martin caught up with her. Mm. Mm-hmm. Someone went to the United States. They have two homes. So they felt the weight. Now, we are beginning to bring it down. because they have two homes. So they feel the weight. Now we are beginning to bring it down.

I am the national coordinator for COVID-19 response in Nigeria. I'm the president. So now I decided to do certain things. And as we can see, the numbers have gone down. I decided to bring the vaccine center to help Minister of Health and the incident managers. And notice the pushback on this vaccine.

Let me do something to see how they can come. So I started giving them food packages. I started with the youth, the troubled youth. And then they started coming in, getting packages from them. They called their friends to come in. So we vaccinated 400 of them. And then you have women coming in, young people coming in, get the package from them. They call their friends to come in. So we vaccinated 400 of them. There you go.

And then you have women coming in. Right. Young people coming in. Now we have the 12 to 17. They're not supposed to come here, they're supposed to be in the schools. Right. But they are coming to me.

Okay. Our platform is the best. We do it all the way. You come in, we register you, vaccinate you. We observe you, then we certificate you. You have to have that PRN, that vaccine registration number. It's for all over the world.

It is helping a lot of people. So this is what I've been doing. I've done about 27 to 28,000 people already. Wow. In this little space. Got it. Yes, and we've been working seven days already. And the message is out and the money's gone.

So I'm very pleased. All right. Great job. Yeah. You haven't had any deaths at all. Wow. Even the cases, all the way down. Good.

Yeah. Some days that they are just two, some days one, some days zero. Glad to hear. No deaths. Glad to hear. Yes. That's how you do it. For the purpose of, give your name.

Give your name. My name is Mary Bro. I am the Director General. Hold on. Hold on. I'm going, give your name. Give your name. My name is Mary Brough. I'm the Director General. Hold on, hold on. You got to spell your name. Okay. Mary, of course you know Mary. The last name is Brough, B-R-O-H. I am the Director General for General Services Agency here in the Republic of Liberia.

I'm the former mayor of the city of Monrovia. I was also a passport director and I was also at the port, at the free port of Monrovia. And so I'm so happy to see you. Glad to be here. Mr. Ronald Martin. You know, I'm a New Yorker, you know. Well, I'm glad to be here. So I'm so happy to see you and thank you for coming.

And this is just a blessing to our nation. I appreciate it. For such our nation. I appreciate it. For such a good- I appreciate it. You're looking mighty colorful there too. Oh yes I am, you know. And I'm 70 years old now. Okay.

I'm getting older, so I will soon be leaving the stage, but I will do some volunteer work. And I'm teaching a lot of young people how to volunteer their services. But it's good to see you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a bunch. For coming to commemorate with us the 200 to see you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a bunch.

For coming to commemorate with us the 200 years of freedom. I appreciate it. Okay. All right, you take care. All right, have a good one. All right, be well. Субтитры добавил DimaTorzok I'm sorry. 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 is consistently on your shoulders?

Let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, 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. Hey, everybody, it's your girl, LuMail. So what's up? This is your boy, Earthquake. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Treasure Dorsey disappeared from Norfolk, Virginia on February 11, 2022. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Treasure was last seen wearing a green hoodie with a smiley face, black jeans, sneakers,

and a ring on a left hand. She has a scar on the left side of her upper lip. Anyone with information on Treasure Dorsey's whereabouts should call the Norfolk Police Department at 757-664-7000. A Florida appeals court overturned the conviction of an ex-Miami cop who shot an unarmed artistic man and his caretaker in 2016. Arnaldo Rio Soto, who has severe developmental disabilities, developmental disabilities, ran away from his

group home, sat in the middle of the street to play with a toy car. Now, his caretaker, Charles Kinsey, laid down on the ground with his hands up, telling officers they had no weapons. Jonathan Aleda was the only officer who fired a weapon striking Kinsey. Aleta testified that he thought that he perceived Kinsey was in danger. The appeals court ruled that the lower court was wrong in not allowing information about Aleta's hostage situation training to be brought up in court. Aleta was convicted of negligence but acquitted of attempted murder charges. Whether Aleta will be retried in the case will be up to Florida's state's attorney. In Ohio, a federal judge says a former sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a black man was not acting as a federal agent, sending it back to state court. Jason Meade, a now-retired sheriff's deputy, shot Casey Goodson five times in the back as he entered

his grandmother's home in December 2020. Meade was not on assignment as a marshal's task force member when he fatally shot Meade and had no authority to arrest him. Now, Meade faces two charges of murder and one count of reckless homicide. Also, in Indiana, elementary school parents received a letter giving them the option to opt out of Black History Month lessons.

Spruinicka Elementary School counselor Benjamin White sent this letter home giving parents the choice to pull their kids out of class for the Black History lessons. The letter went viral on social media. Here's how the superintendent of the school district responded on Twitter.

He says, quote, earlier this week, unauthorized by Brown County Schools, was released to elementary school families erroneously advising our students and parents that they could opt out of certain instruction regarding Black History Month, close quote. To be clear, the district does not permit students opt out of history lessons,

including ones based on historical injustices. We apologize for the confusion caused by the letter and offer our assurances that Brown County Schools is committed to providing an inclusive educational environment for all students in families. Let's start with you, Michael. I'm going to bring back our panel. Michael, Xavier, and Kelly are here to join us with this conversation. Michael, I'm going to start with you. Do you believe the superintendent when they say that they are intending to be inclusive of all history, including ones that center around injustice? Well, you know, it's

interesting that we talk about this topic today because I talked about this last night on the African History Network show. So, Sprenica Elementary School is a school of approximately 240 students. The school is 97% white. So, the counselor, and I read the memo, the letter that the counselor sent out, Benjamin White, and at the bottom, there's a place where parents can sign off to opt out of the Black History Month lesson.

The superintendent, Emily Tracy, from looking at the reporting from WTHR Channel 13 there in Indiana, it looks like what she's saying is true. However, I want to see how this matter is fully handled. OK, I want to see how this matter is fully handled. I don't know. I haven't been able to find out how many parents opted out or if any parents opted out either. I've been looking at reporting from The Washington Post, NBC News and local reporting from WTHR Channel 13.

But this is a this is a crazy story. And there was a counselor who did this, and I haven't been able to find any statements from the counselor why he did this. He referred the news media to Superintendent Emily Tracy. And Kelly, when you hear what's going on, I mean, this seems to us, can keep in mind, Ohio is set to pass three anti-CRT bills. And we already know, we've done it, we're here. CRT is not being taught in K-12 education. It's really just a facade to keep folks away from being honest, a reckoning of the United States history.

Given all the details that Michael just put before us, is your takeaway anything other than they were trying to shield these white students from the truth about the country they call home? That's interesting that you say shield. I don't know if it's shield so much as just be in denial about it. Because I don't even know if they know what the history is, right? I think people, white people specifically,

are so afraid of the truth that they are willing to do whatever it takes to just not showcase it, not to bring it to light. And we've seen this for almost centuries, plural. You know, literally stripped it out of history books, forbade it to be spoken about on a communal level. So, I mean, you have that with Tulsa, with Rosewood, with Seneca Park in New York. And it's not necessarily about shielding so much as it is burying. Like, they just do not want to talk about it

because we have this facade of whiteness that is good, that is pure, that is, you know, the standard. And when you start dismantling the pedestal that they put themselves on, people get shook about it. So I understand just from an objective perspective why they would not want the truth to come out. But I don't think it's shielding so much as it is burying and frankly just being in denial about what has really gone on in this country. Xavier, you have some experience in your background and spend time up in the Chicagoland area, very familiar with the Midwest. So often folks hear about these kind of stories pervasive ways of historical negligence about anti-Black sentiment and an unwillingness and an interest to engage the fullness of the American story, particularly regarding Black people, also thrives in the Midwest just as much as it would in the South or other places? Yeah, great question.

The great migration that many African-Americans chose to come from the South to make a better life for themselves. And I think that's part of the narrative we're also missing here. We all grew up with the kings and queens of Africa all over in our classrooms, the various calendars depicting the different accomplishments of African-Americans, the inventions and things of that nature. The statement by the district was about injustices, but it basically assumes that African Americans were only enslaved and fought in civil rights when African Americans have contributed to the greatest advances in Western civilization. And also prior to, in 16, as Rihanna Jones liked to call it, but there was history of Black accomplishment in the world prior to coming over here to America

as enslaved people. And so there's also contribution to art, into architecture, into music. There's so many different things that are richness of the black experience that we've given this world. And it's worth teaching in the classroom to young kids just as much as teaching injustices. Yeah, that's a great point. And I think it's important that all of our viewers make sure they know that and take away. We're going to have much more about that Black brilliance, about the kindness and importance and greatness of Black people absent injustice on the other side of this break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered

streaming live on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. I'm sorry. On the next Get Wealthy, make the shift from earner to owner and achieve the level of success that you desire and that you deserve. You have to know your worth. You can't settle for what someone is going to give you. You've got to take ownership and be prepared to make some smart money moves. Oh my goodness, it's such a good feeling to achieve the goal that I set. If charity can do it, you can too. 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.

History and experience should not be ignored. Civil rights activist Roy Wilkins. The first ever NBA HBCU classic between the Howard University, HU, and some school in Baltimore called Morgan State University will take place in a nationally televised game for All-Star Weekend, a part of the NBA's All-Star Weekend festivities. The league is expanding its support

of historically black colleges and universities with this. Now, tomorrow's game will be broadcast on TNT and ESPN2 from the Wolstein Center in Cleveland State's home arena. Not only will these two HBCUs get national exposure,

but each school will also receive a $100,000 donation from the NBA and AT&T. The funds will support student athletes with academic and wellness resources. Mia Barry covers everything HBCU for The Undefeated,

and she joins us now. Mia, thank you so much for taking time to join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here. So, Mia, tell us a little bit about this. You know, I know that you cover HBCUs for The Undefeated. That's the ESPN property that focuses specifically on African-American life, sports, culture,

and everything else. Our good friend Kelly Carter is over there, so salute to her. But also, what the focus on HBCUs now seems to have been generated largely in the wake of what happened after 2020 and all the unrest that we saw. But kudos to ESPN and even more so to the NBA now

because it seems as though that's a commitment, no longer just a quick moment where they were acknowledging. Is that a fair read? Absolutely. It's not just the NBA. Also the NFL. I recently went to the NFL's first ever HBCU combine. So you have multiple professional leagues taking the opportunity to make these investments into HBCUs. And the drawback and the feedback I'm getting from student athletes and coaches, they're excited. They want this type of national exposure.

You know, there's always a stigma around HBCUs for their student athletes. You know, guys don't know if they could pursue those professional aspirations. So seeing different leagues commit to HBCUs, commit to giving them exposure has been good all the way around. Now, what's interesting, you mentioned the NFL, and we'll only stay there shortly because I know this is a conversation about the NBA. What's interesting, there are several HBCUs who have more Pro Football Hall of Famers than some of the big schools we might have heard of. You can consider, for example, Jackson State, obviously Deion Sanders there, home of Walter Payton and many countless others. Morgan State University has put plenty of people into the National Football Hall of Fame, and I don't

even think Ole Miss has as many as some of the schools in Mississippi, so some of the HBCUs there. So is this energy that you're seeing not just from the students, alumni, and parents at the HBCUs, but the larger communities around those HBCUs. Are they rallying around sports there? Absolutely. Look at Jackson State, 40-plus thousand people in one stadium just for their home games. HBCU alumni, the community, they've always been involved.

They always have supported. It's just now you're seeing it at a larger scale. It took for Deion Sanders to come to Jackson for people to notice. Oh, wow. Jackson State's selling out. They've been selling out for a while now. It's just you finally got the eyes and you got the attention there. You mentioned Deion Sanders in football. We know that. We also know that Eddie George had made his way over to Tennessee State. We know that Hugh, his last name is escaped. Hugh Jackson, excuse me, is down there grambling right now. But changing over to basketball, we saw that Chris Paul, when he was in the bubble,

would almost daily come in with a different HBCU shirt. I saw Jimmy Butler wear a pair of Howard basketball shorts that, as an alum from Howard, I was a little jealous and I wanted to get my hands on them. So the NBA's pivot into HBCU seems to be surprising, but from what you're telling me, this is consistent with things that we should expect. Is that true? Absolutely. And one thing, you mentioned Chris Paul.

Chris Paul is actually a student at Winston-Salem State. His family are alums, so HBCUs have been running through his veins. Last year with the NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta, the Mecca for HBCUs with Spellman, Morehouse, Clark, Atlanta, Chris Paul, the Player Association president, was pushing for the NBA to do something at that point in time. You saw the HBCU bans, but he wanted a little bit more. So you're seeing players make that investment now as well.

Chris Paul, he also did, he partnered with ESPN. He had two HBCU tournaments this year for both Division I and Division II. So you're seeing players buy in. I'm sorry, forgive me. I remember that. Was that the one that we saw earlier this year where Delaware State competed against North Carolina, Norfolk, if I'm not mistaken, or North Carolina Central? Is that the same one we're talking about?

Yes, that's one of two. That was the Division I, Division II. You saw Blue Bloods like Virginia Union, Ben Wallace, famous alum. Yeah, yeah, Ben Wallace there. So this game coming up, Morgan versus Howard, they played against each other in Baltimore. And in a regulation game, Howard scored 90 up, Morgan versus Howard, they played against each other in Baltimore and in a regulation game,

Howard scored 90 points, Morgan scored 80 points, and I mean for HBCU or even college basketball because quite honestly, if you watch the University of Wisconsin, it's not always a scorefest there. But for college basketball, that's really good scoring. So what can we expect out of basketball

sets out of this game from these two schools? Out of these two schools, you're going to expect a battle of the backcourts. Howard currently third in the MEAC right now. I expect graduate student Kyle Foster and freshman Elijah Hawkins to be the difference maker for those teams. Same thing with the backcourt for the Morgan Bears. You have the Tarion where and you also have Malik Miller so backcourts are going to be important for both schools when they first met up Kyle Foster had an off game three points a huge drawback from his usual 16 but now he's

developing a rhythm four out of the last five games, 20-plus points. So I'm expecting to see this game is going to be determined by which backcourt does the most, which backcourt is going to make those plays down the stretch. A quick shout-out to our friends over at HBCU Game Day. You can follow them on Instagram and whatnot. Also, Donald Ware from Press Box and Press Row, organizations that have been covering HBCU sports for a long time. And I'm surprised that you did an HBCU game day. Excuse me, are the ones who had the viral Internet video of I believe it was Kyle Foster

from Howard with a monster dunk on another player that really trafficked and showed that HBCU athletes have just as much athleticism as we can see from other athletes across the country. Yes, absolutely. And not just the viral video. We have other HBCU coaches, namely, Tennessee State Brian Collins. He partnered with Vanderbilt earlier this season for an HBCU combine because he knows the talent. He's seen the talent

every day. He plays against it. You know, every he just wants this talent to be shown on a national level right now. The NBA's only HBCU player is Robert Covington, who plays for the Clippers. And hopefully with the added exposure, hopefully in the next couple of years, we're going to see a couple more HBCU players in the league. And you mentioned Vanderbilt, and if I'm not mistaken, isn't Jerry Stackhouse the head coach there?

Because Jerry Stackhouse has some North Carolina ties, and although he went to the University of North Carolina, there is no way you can be anywhere near Durham and not know about basketball at North Carolina Central. I know there are some famous pickup runs between Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, all down at Central. And Lavelle Moten had a documentary series on ESPN or ESPN Plus, if I'm not mistaken,

chronicling Central's basketball season during the pandemic-affected season. Is that correct? Absolutely. ESPN Plus is Why Not Us? And you kind of got to saw Coach Moten and his team battle through COVID. That was the issue. A great season for them. They were expecting to win the miyak got cut by covet last year they dealt with covet i talked to moan earlier this season about it and he said and i

quote we were the most impacted team by covet six week six weeks miss at a one point one week here they just couldn't get a rhythm this year year, you're seeing them rebound more. You have Justin Wright stepping up. So Central's doing what they're, they're finally back to a rhythm. So it's good to see them rebound and get a handle on the virus. Me, I got to be honest. I live in Baltimore. I'm an alum of Howard. I want no parts of Central winning the MEAC this year.

If somebody going to win the MEAC, I'd rather it be Juan Dixon over at Coppin. I'd rather it be our good friends over at Morgan. Or ideally, it would be Coach Kevin Nickelberry. Is it still Kevin Nickelberry over at Howard University? Actually, no. You have Kenneth Blankley. Kenneth Blankley. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So former Duke. Duke assistant. I'm sorry. Coach Nickelberry was really good to me. I guess that's why his name is still at the top of my head. Now, beyond the court, we know that AT&T and the NBA are making financial contributions to

student-athletes, but there's a unique spot that student-athletes play at HBCUs because we remember the former Ohio State quarterback who said, I didn't come to college to play college, play class. I came to play football. But at historically black colleges and universities, our professors there ensure that our athletes, while they are playing sports, oh, you're here to learn something. So talk to us a little bit about how this contribution can benefit the scholastic career of these student-athletes. Of course. Mostly the financial contributions would go to classrooms, adding any type of extra contributions that each college needs. So off the court, I think this is fantastic. Them actually not saying, you know, we're going to bring you in to play basketball.

We're also going to add a little extra money to the schools. I know the schools are both very thankful. I'm not sure just yet where the money's going to be put toward, mostly scholastic, but that's something I'm definitely going to follow up on. And that's something that we're really excited about because we are excited that at HBCUs, when our athletes bring money back to the university, if it's something that's affecting the classroom, all of our students, regardless of whether they're athletes or not, get to reap in the spoils of that. Isn't that a beautiful spirit of collectivism of people of African descent?

Mia, tell folks where they can find and follow you if they want to keep up with your work and what you're doing over there with The Undefeated. Absolutely. If you want to follow my work, you can see it on www.theundefeated.com. And you can follow me on Twitter at I am Mia Berry. Mia, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you taking time to converse with us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered,

streaming live on the Blackstar Network. Have a great weekend. Enjoy All-Star weekend. Who's your pick for the All-Star MVP before we let you get out of here? I'm going to go King James. Oh, I think he's getting a little old. He might not want to participate in all the All-Star games or anything like that. But

we appreciate you. And you know what? Before I let you go, though, not just who's your pick for the All-Star, three-point contest. You got a favorite? Ooh, not just yet. It's a toss-up for me. Three-point contest is never who you think is going to win is going to win.

That's true. That's true. And the dunk contest. I like Jalen Green. As someone that's seen him in person, his athleticism, his bounce is phenomenal. I can't wait to see. Hopefully he comes up with something creative. And the most important question of the weekend, who's going to win tonight's Celebrity All-Star Game MVP? I have no idea. They didn't teach you that in journalism school, did they? You would come on television and someone would ask you who's going to win the Celebrity Game MVP.

Well, that's what happens when you come on Black Media. We're going to have fun. We're going to make sure we get the information out, but we're going to have some fun with you. Mia Barry, thank you so much for your time. We look forward to all your fantastic reporting on HBCUs here at The Undefeated. Thank you. Yeah. Mia Barry, thank you so much for your time. We look forward to all your fantastic reporting on HBCUs here at The Undefeated. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now, in other news, a federal judge says he's dismissing a lawsuit challenging Arkansas's new state house districts as diluting the influence of Black voters unless the Justice Department joins the case. Now, that's some new

information, but U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky gave the Justice Department five days to join the lawsuit as a plaintiff. Two groups are challenging the new districts for 100 House seats. The ruling comes days before the one-week filing period for state and legislative offices begins in Arkansas. The redistricting plan created 11 majority black districts. The group says there should be more. Going to go back to our panel now. We're joined by Xavier Pope. We're joined by Kelly Bethea and also Michael M. Hotep.

Kelly, we're seeing all types of redistricting challenges and issues squaring off in court houses all across the nation. Should we be looking at this as an isolated incident regarding Arkansas or should it be taken in the most aggregate form that's there? I mean, without question, this is a totality of circumstances. Arkansas is certainly not an isolated event. You can trace what's happening in Arkansas all the way back to the Holder case almost, what, over 10 years ago at this point, where the Supreme Court more or less dismantled our current Voting Rights Act. And that more or less set the precedent for what we're seeing right now, in that states feel like they have the power to dismantle their own respective voting processes so that Black people can't vote the way that white people

can vote. And that's really what it boils down to, the fact that white people see and feel their power slipping away and minorities, Black people specifically, getting, you know, getting their power in their voice, in their vote. And they are doing whatever it takes to suppress that power, to suppress that vote, so they, white people, can retain whiteness and retain power. But no, what's happening in Arkansas is certainly not an isolated event. You can see that across the country. Arkansas, Texas, we just saw a case in North Carolina. Even Maryland had some bills that came down the pike. I don't think any of them passed, but they even had some

scares, so to speak, regarding their voting processes. And it all stems from whiteness trying to be preserved. Michael, are you seeing it the same way, simply that whiteness is trying to be preserved here? Oh, absolutely. I mean, what's taking place right now is the same thing that took place after Reconstruction ended in the 1880s, 1890s. And you see, starting with the poll taxes in Florida in 1889, you see the Mississippi State Convention of 1890, where the white county judge that presided over the state convention, Solomon Saladin Calhoun, said, we're here to exclude the Negro. And they rewrote the Mississippi State Constitution and wrote into it poll taxes and literacy tests to suppress the African-American

vote in a state that had a majority African-American voters. We saw South Carolina do this 1895, Louisiana 1898, Alabama 1901. So this is a continuation of going back to Shelby County versus Holder 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case that gutted Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. This is white conservatives, white Republicans who see they have a declining population focused on maintaining control of the Supreme Court, the federal court, and who can vote as well. So this is why elections have consequences. This is why we have to educate ourselves on this and fight back against this. Now, Xavier, the thing that I'm curious about is this judge clearly sees that something is wrong here, but says unless the Justice Department

intervenes, then he's just going to dismiss the lawsuit. Would it be activism out of the judiciary if he were to take some other course of action other than almost mandating that the Justice Department intervene? Well, the issue is the machinations of government may not necessarily have the web of thought to bring these suits to bear in the first place. And maybe the judge was triggered by the fact that NAACP activist groups are bringing forth this lawsuit. But it significantly weakens the Voter Rights Act. It's already been weakened over time. And the fact that you're allowing, that now you're only limiting it to the Justice Department really makes it difficult, depending on the administration that's in office, what happens. And so it's just weakening and weakening. The Voting Rights Act is now weaker in 2022 than it was when Dr. King was assassinated. It's astounding the same people who are standing up against African Americans having a free and fair shot to be able to contribute to their democracy and using Martin Luther King and civil rights leaders as a shield for their racism now support laws that put things before

he ever stepped on the scene in the first place. I appreciate that. And I'm going to follow up with you. that put things before he ever stepped on the scene in the first place. And I appreciate that. And I'm gonna follow up with you. I wanna come back to you because we appreciate your expertise on this matter. The judge, Judge Rudofsky, for those who don't know, was a Trump appointee. He had this quote where he said,

there is strong merits that case that at least some of the challenged districts violate the Voting Rights Act, right? And so to your point about the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, right? And so, to your point about the weakening of the Voting Rights Act and the mechanisms in place, I don't want to sound like the radical who says throw it all away, but seemingly throw it all away because it doesn't seem to be, their mechanisms, as you alluded to, Xavier, don't seem to be in place to serve the interests of justice because Rudolfsky, a Trump appointee, gets to say, well, if the Justice Department won't do anything,

I will put my hands up. But as you alluded to, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the because Rudolfsky, a Trump appointee, gets to say, well, if the Justice Department won't do anything, I will put my hands up. But as you alluded to, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the NAACP both appeal to the judicial branch, and the judicial branch is saying they have nothing to do. Is there... I don't want to be so pessimistic to ask, is there any hope for the system as it is? But quite honestly, is there any hope for the system as it is? We have to have hope for the system. Otherwise, what are we doing here in the first place?

That's number one. Number two, like was mentioned earlier by my colleague, elections do have consequences. And all the different Trump appointees, we look at the Supreme Court and what's happened at the highest level, but all through the different levels of the judiciary, well, there are a bunch of Trump appointees. And many of them not necessarily qualified to do the job to see who's sitting on the bench in the first place. And so if you have judges that have a political bent and that you can't rely on their independence or real sound knowledge of the law and seeking to dismantle things as it goes. We're looking at decades potentially of the impact of the decisions that have been made to put them there in the first place. And that's where the hope of changing how we even consider looking at the judicial branch and reforming it as an institution

has to start becoming serious to such discussions of activists as we move forward in this era. One of the things I'm curious about, Kelly, is that we saw that out of 100 house districts, only 11 of them would be majority black. But Arkansas has a 16 percent black population. The numbers just aren't adding up, even when it's obviously there to add up in that way. And so beyond the limits or the constraints of the system that we have and beyond the question of voting, what is beyond the question of voting? What recourse do black Arkansas residents and forgive me for not knowing how Arkansas residents define themselves. But what course of action do they have beyond the course of voting? I'm not entirely sure.

I mean, you certainly have protests. You certainly have boycotts. You can find out who these legislatures support and boycott those businesses. There are recourses. It's just a matter of exactly what they are, how serious, like, how serious are people when it comes to preserving the right to vote? You can, again, throw out a bunch of suggestions, but it's really about what people are willing to do and how to move forward in that regard. Outside of voting, you know, that certainly is the most important one, I would say. But I mean,

I mean, I would be looking back towards history and see how other protests were done, specifically in that state, because everything doesn't work everywhere. Michael, Xavier makes a good point. He says, if we're not going to try to work with the levers within the system, what are we doing here? Yet there is a community of activists, Black and otherwise radical activists, who are very much on the tear it down and to borrow from Joe Biden, build back better. But is there a way that we can do this in the short term that can ensure the rights and privileges that Arkansans, excuse me, deserve while also attending to our larger needs to create a system that ensures justice for all of us. Well, I know one of the problems that you're dealing with is the clock is running

because in some states they've already started the beginning, in February starts the beginning of those midterm elections. Okay. So some things that can happen and not knowing all the laws in the state of Arkansas, you got to, you have to make this a national fight. It can't just be a state fight. These voter suppression bills that are being crafted by Heritage Action, the Heritage Action for America group, with Jessica Anderson as the executive director. They are the sister organization to the Heritage Foundation.

They have a 50-state strategy, okay? So when you fight back, it can't just be in your county or in your state, okay? You have to link up with people across the country. And one of the things that's really important, and I know there's an effort to change the Electoral Count Act of, I think, 1887. Representative James Clyburn is suggesting take the preclearance from the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, put that in the bill if you can get it passed. There's bipartisan support for rewriting the Electoral Count Act. When we talk about

voting rights, and I've said this a number of times, we have to make this a fight beyond just civil rights and John Lewis and Dr. King. Because when you do that, it gets boxed in as a Black issue. If this gets relegated

as a Black issue, most likely we're going to lose because we're 13% of the population, okay? You got to talk about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and white women's voting rights and women's voting rights, the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and college students' voting rights

because the 26th Amendment lowered the minimum age to vote from 21 to 18. So we're talking about white college students, Latino college students, African-American college students. We're talking about white college students, Latino college students, African American college students, we're talking about white women, et cetera. So we have to, it has to, and also we're dealing with women's reproductive rights, all of this, okay?

So there has to be a, it has to be a coalition. It can't just be on the backs of African Americans for this fight. Now, Michael, let me push back for a second because you noticed that you mentioned that this should be a national strategy, a national fight. But we remember the quip that was most famously used, although not originated by former Speaker Tip O'Neill, all politics is local. And forgive me for borrowing the names that you just asked us to go beyond. But even with Dr. with regard to Dr. King or with regard to John Lewis, they made their names doing specific local organizing. And so how do you recommend or

advise those Arkansans who are activists in this space to do that local organizing to ensure justice for them in their home state while also incorporating the larger strategy that you're talking about? Well, yeah, you had local organizing, but at the same time, you had the attention of America. We talk about Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. We talk about a letter from a Birmingham jail. You had people coming from around the country, like Viola Louisa, who was a White House wife

here in Detroit, who went... who saw Bloody Sunday on her TV in the living room, drove down to some Alabama to help the African Americans organize it. She was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. So now we're dealing with a situation where we're under attack by organizations, whether we talk about the Heritage Foundation, whether we talk about, and we have in the state legislatures, Republicans who are passing these voter suppression laws.

So now we're at the point where we have to realize that it's not just an African American issue. So it's the NAACP, it's the National Urban League, it's National Action Network, it's Black Lives Matter, it's women's reproductive rights, it's the women's organizations that were there January 21, 2017, the day after Trump was inaugurated, and there's about 500,000 of them in Washington, D.C., and they were organizing all across the country, and they had rallies all across the country,

is all these organizations. Because they're coming for all of us, okay? They're using African Americans as the foil, but when you talk about, when you see, for instance, there are 38 million disabled Americans who are voters. 38 million. When you talk about cutting out mail-in

ballots, that hurts those disabled Americans, regardless of race, who vote through mail-in ballots, okay? So we have to get beyond, we have to get beyond just Dr. King and John Lewis. I saw the commercials running, talking, and Dr. King talking about the. I saw the commercials running, talking,

and Dr. King talking about the filibuster, things like this. You got to get behind this and show how these bills harm everybody, regardless of race. This is why, even though I love John Lewis, I think it was a tactical mistake to name the John Lewis Voting Rights Act after him. I know he wrote the majority of the bill. I would have named that the Susan B. Anthony. Because if you named the bill after Susan B. Anthony,

now you put the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution front and center, and you can talk about how... See, I would have ran commercials talking about how white women's voting rights were at stake, and I would have dealt with the history of white women's voting rights. Okay? So we have to get beyond that. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. I tell you what, I think about the words of the rapper Lupe Fiasco, who's

saying greed, but we can use the term power. It's colorblind. So they're colorblind. They're going to come for yours as soon as they dump with mine. All right. We're going to take a quick break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live here on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. I'm sorry. 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 is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on.

So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, 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 gonna talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad,

only on the Black Star Network. Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, I'm Deon Cole from Black-ish. Hey, everybody, this your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. Organizations supporting Southern Black women in about a dozen states will get

financial help from the Southern Black Women and Girls Consortium. The group is giving $2 million to 71 Black-led organizations. Natasha Brown, of the Southern Black Women and Girls Consortium. The group is giving $2 million to 71 Black-led organizations. Latasha Brown, co-founder of Southern Black Girls and Women's Consortium, joins us now. Latasha, thank you so much for joining us here

on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you for having me. So, we're so excited to hear about this, right? These 71 different organizations, and the thing that I like most about this is because these are the organizations that are on the ground doing the work. And so explain to our audience a little bit

of how this money is being allocated, what it's allocated for, and who some of the recipients will be. You know, what we had is we had a vision of... I had a vision a couple of years ago that we needed to make sure that we were putting more money on the ground for Black-led groups, for groups that actually service Black girls and women.

And part of what we did is over the last three years, we've been meeting, building a network of the consortium, which are Black women and Black girls consortium, to build the power of Black women and Black girls by funding, supporting their work, and also amplifying their work. And so what we did is this cycle, we were able to provide over $2 million in funding, $2.2 million in funding to 71 groups that are based throughout the South. We work in 12 states in the South, throughout the South for Black girls. Some of the organizations that we're working with, like Destination Liberation, is an organization that is providing travel opportunities, travel and educational opportunities

for young black girls to actually have experiences, girls particularly from rural areas in the deep South. We're looking at organizations that are doing work around leadership development, organizations that are doing work around self-image, organizations that are doing work around music and the arts and the cultural arts. So the whole notion is that we would actually support what we believe are black girls.

That black girls, we think that black girls are the future. Just as black women are leading on the front lines, we recognize that black girls have been severely underfunded, underinvested. And so our organization is seeking to build that network of organizations throughout the region to be able to give funding to, to connect, to share, to learn, and to amplify the voices of Black girls.

Now, there's a particular focus on Southern Black girls and women and Southern Black women-led organizations. How does that... How is that particularly unique and necessary given the moment we're living in today? You know, part of what brought this about, there was a study that was done by the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative, and it was called Unequal Lives.

And what it talked about was that black women in the South, black women and girls in the South, received less than 1% of philanthropic dollars. Of the $4 billion that were coming in the South, less than 1% of those dollars were going to black women and black girls in the South. When you look at the South, the majority of African Americans actually live in the South, less than 1% of those dollars were going to Black women and Black girls in the South. When you look at the South, the majority of African Americans

actually live in the South. When you look at the kind of investment in the South, particularly in organizations that are doing social justice work, organizations that are working with Black women and Black girls, they're severely underfunded. And so what we wanted to do

is we wanted to create a solution that was really around being led. Everything about this, from the inception of it to the execution of it, has been designed, implemented by Black women and girls. And what we wanted to do is create a self-determination model that we actually believe that we are the solutions to our problems, that we will put our heads together, we will bring our skills, our talents to bear, and we will create this consortium, this network, that would support and lift up the leadership and the work of Black women and girls,

those organizations that are centering the needs and the interests of... and the voices of Black girls and women in the South in a region that has been severely underfunded and underinvested. And so that was a part of the work that we've been doing. Even before allocating the money, what has been the response of some of the organizations

that you guys have umbrellaed over and provided that larger sense of resource, support, and needed, needed, needed enthusiasm and resources, as I mentioned earlier? What's been the response to those organizations when they've now been almost a federation with you guys? You know, we have been honored. We have learned so much.

We see this as a village. We see this as a... What we wanted to do is we wanted to shift this paradigm of this grantee-grantor relationship that philanthropy has, that we think in many ways is very exploitive, that philanthropy usually approaches these issues as the philanthropy knows what's best, and they've got to fi... and then organizations or groups have to

show that they're worthy enough to get the investment. We actually want to reverse that. What we wanted to do is to make sure that we were providing resources, but that we were co-thinking about it, that we set our priorities not in a vacuum, not in an office in New York or Atlanta somewhere, but in community. So what we did is for almost 18 months, we went all around the region. We had convenings of listening sessions with Black girls and women, and we talked to Black girls. We had two questions. The first question was, what is a Black girl's dream? What is your dream? And the second thing is, what is needed to make that dream, to support that dream from manifesting, right? And so as a result, we created our programs.

We have four funds. Our fund that we've launched that this comes out of, it's called the Black Girl Dream Fund. The whole purpose of this fund is to support the dreams and support an environment, those organizations that are working to have an environment so that black girls, Southern black girls' dreams can come true, right?

And so part of what we have been doing is building this relationship and this ecosystem that we're knowledge sharing. All of the grant decisions are actually made by what is called wisdom councils. That there are people within the community, black women and girls in the community from the South that we believe that they best know

what it is that they need. That all of the grant making decision, the recommendations are by that panel. And so that all along the process, we're showing that this is a self-determination model, that we are literally the solutions to our own challenges. Latasha, that sounds wonderful, and it encourages me, and it gets me to think about something that we say often,

which is, what is the purpose of having black folks in charge of things if they're just gonna do it the same way that other folks were doing it before? So, you all being the grantors now, it sounds fantastic that you're having a Democratic center-out approach as far as the top-down. Reminds me of one of my heroes, Ella Baker. Are you finding that the organizations that you're partnering with in the services they're providing to the girls and women in the communities they're in are also modeling that center-out approach as opposed to top-down? Oh, absolutely. You know, one of the organizations I'll just to the girls and women in the communities they're in are also modeling that center-out approach

as opposed to top-down? Oh, absolutely. You know, one of the organizations I'll just lift up right now is in South Carolina. It's an organization called Every Black Girl. And Vivian Anderson leads that organization. And the young women that we're seeing take leadership that are actually doing...

They're doing conferences. They're creating, um... They conferences, they're creating businesses. We're seeing Black women are creating spaces and support networks for Black girls to be centered in it, but not be centered in a way that they are seen as victims, but that they are actually seen as contributors to all of us. That we believe that when you literally, you create the space for black girls to thrive,

then that helps all of us thrive. And so part of what we're seeing is we're seeing all this work being led and at the center of this work by young women. You know, we have 22 ambassadors, youth ambassadors, most of them are in high school, that not only they've been informing this work, but they've been shaping this work.

They're planning a tour this month, I mean, this summer, that they're going to go around and meet with other Black girls all across the South and talk about what their dreams are. That part of what we're doing is we're standing in the middle of a dream, a dream that actually centers Black girls' voices and our leadership

and that through that process, it is being co-led by Black women and Black girls. It's a multi-generational strategy, and what we believe is that we're going to make a difference because we believe that part of the biggest resource in the South are that black women and black girls. I'm going to go to my panel in just a second. I would love for them to offer their questions to you, Latasha.

But before I do, tell our audience about the Black Girl Dream Fund that you alluded to that's actually ultimately a $100 million effort that we want to see through to its fruition at the end. Tell our audience about that, please. So listen, we are, when we're talking about a Black girl dream, we're talking about a big Black girl dream.

That's what we're saying. We're talking about big dreams. We have a 10-year, this is a 10-year initiative. A $100 million, the Southern Black Girls and Women's Consortium is a $100 million 10- year initiative. Everything about it has been actually organized, funded and supported by black women and black girls that we've raised 11 million so far. We are actually have four funds that are set up. And just like we said, we are first funding cycle, which we're very excited about.

We've actually just invested over two point.2 million to organizations that service and work and center Black girls' leadership currently right now. And so our goal is for every year, for the next 10 years, the next decade, over the course of a decade, we will actually build the resources and invest $100 million in organizations and efforts that support and center

the voices and the leadership of Black girls and Black women. Well, we're going to start the questions on our panel with our Black woman here. Kelly, go right ahead. Thank you. First and foremost, I've been a fan of LaTosha for years now, especially when it comes to Black Voters Matter. So it's an honor to be speaking with you again. My question for you regarding this initiative is, while I know that these organizations are vast in their missions and their causes and their respective states and communities, is there, outside of money, of course, is there a common dream or a common denominator that these Black girls, these Southern Black girls, want to see to fruition? And how has your organization, how has this fund helped propel those dreams? Thank you for asking that question. I want people

to understand that we actually are a consortium. A fund is, we've got these four funds that are actually a part of the work. That's part of the resource and investment work. But what we see is we see this as a larger network of organizations, of thought leaders, of women and girls who are coming together to figure out how can we address not only our problems, but how can we actually contribute and use our skills. And so part of what has happened, you know, I talked about, we did these listening sessions for about 18 months, but since that time, we've done a number of things that just not just around money, but we've done a number of things to support black women and black girls. One of the things that we did is during COVID, we recognized that many organizations that had been supporting black girls were actually very vulnerable in that minute, very vulnerable out of COVID. And that many of them, what we also saw, and we were hearing from our partners on the ground, that there was an increase in domestic violence.

There was an increase in what people were going through at home. Home is not a safe place for many folks. And that girls were actually saying that they needed outlets, they needed space. Some of them were also talking about how they were depressed because of COVID. But we created a special opportunity,

which was to provide some support for those organizations that were on the front lines that to be able in COVID, that some of this extra demand for them to actually support Black girls, that we would actually support them, not just connect them with resources, but also provide them with funding directly.

In addition to that, we've also been developing leadership pipelines. We wanted to demonstrate that it's not just about centering, just objectifying girls, that we needed to create spaces that we can pour into Black girls. And so one of the things we had is we had a Black girls table talk where we literally brought experts in the subjects that Black girls decided that they wanted to learn more, whether it was around self-esteem, whether it was around how you develop a plan, how you even put together a business, all of those different elements. We had people like Anjanue Ellis, the actress Anjanue Ellis, to come up and talk about her journey, to be able to bring these young women with other Southern

women who have actually broken barriers. In addition to that, one of the things that we did is we actually had a dream corps where there were 58 Black girls who said that they had a dream and that they, in their dream, that they had a particular kind of goal as part of their long-term dream. They had a short-term goal of what they wanted to do. Some of them talked about what they felt and where there was a common denominator is Black girls wanted to feel like they were seen, that they were seen in a way that they were respected and they were valued. Over and over and over again, that's what we heard, that they wanted to be respected,

they wanted to be valued, they wanted their ideas to be supported. And so as a result of this Dream Corps initiative that we did, we had almost 70 girls, actually, almost 70 girls, actually, almost 70 girls that we actually put an investment seed in their dreams. We also put them with a coach.

They had a team. We had a dream coach, and they had a support network so that they actually could develop a plan of what they wanted to do to actually meet this particular goal as part of their larger dreams. In addition to that, ongoing, you know, what was really interesting is when we first started,

we hired an evaluation team of Black women who did an evaluation to actually identify some of the things that Black girls said that they wanted. What was really interesting is that Black girls, many of the Black girls overwhelmingly were concerned, not just about themselves, but they were concerned about their family, the economic stress on their family. And one of the number one issues that kept coming up,

ironically, which was actually surprising to me, was around healthcare. There was a lot of anxiety with Black girls around healthcare and stress, and how their family, how medical issues had impacted their families and had impacted them personally. And so another thing that kept coming up

is they wanted expanded experiences. They wanted to be able to try new things. They wanted to be able to travel. And so those are some things that came up in our work. Absolutely. Michael, go ahead. All right, LaTosha, thanks for sharing this with us. And between Black Voters Matter and this, I don't know where you find all the time to do all this work, but this is excellent. I know one of your new grantee partners is Brown Girls Read from Spartanburg, South Carolina. And they deal with literacy and making African-American girls lifelong readers, things like this, and connect this to leadership skills. Can you talk about the importance of literacy, comprehension. And one of the reasons why that organization was created

was because it was driven by the 2019 Nation Report Card for the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Can you talk about that? Absolutely. You know, I'm so glad. We are so proud of the work and so proud to be partnering with them because at the end of the day,

part of what they're doing is shifting the culture that we're saying that it is cool to be smart. It is that we are literally, not only are black girls fly, right? Not only black girls got flavor and spice, but we are brilliant, that we have, that literally we would take the space to be able to understand that the, that some, many of them know that the foundation of education, that there has economic benefits in that. And so many of the organizations that we're supporting have actually made that a key initiative for them, that black girls are actually seeing themselves. And that was one of the key pieces that came out of our research around black girls saw themselves as lifelong learners. And so it's really key and critical because what we recognize is that many of the girls also said that they feel like that education is failing

them, that they are not getting the full experience of learning about their history, learning about who they are, and learning some of the things that they're interested in learning about that can actually help them as they pick their careers going forward. And Xavier. Latasha, congratulations

for all your great work with Young Black Girls. With you having your organization get $11 million and a goal of $100 million, what attention have you paid to connecting to larger foundations and others that manage significant amount of assets for foundations collecting significant amount of sums for foundations collecting a significant amount of sums to be able to make sure that there are diverse handling of those funds, also growing those funds. So it's just beyond not just the donations that you're taking in, but also creating a pathway of wealth and revenue for the organization to continue to succeed and continue to thrive and continue to thrive

and able to support those businesses and those dreams of those young ladies as you continue to carry out your mission. Thank you so much for that question. It's an excellent question. Matter of fact, part of one of the funds that we've created is a philanthropic partnership fund that we will provide matching dollars

with another foundation that will actually support black girls. Part of what we want to do, and we created this organization as a model, that we're saying if we can come up with $100 million, organizations, large foundations, you know, that have millions of dollars, have millions of dollars of resources, corporations that have millions of dollars of resources, if you don't know how to fund black girls, we'll show you.

We have a model that we're willing to share our information, share our data, and partner with you. And because of that, one of the funds that we set up is specifically to actually facilitate that partnership, that part of what we wanted to do when we were creating the Southern Black Girls Consortium, we knew that $100 million, based on the structural issues that we have in this region, that's barely a drop in the bucket of what we need in our communities and investment, but that it would be catalytic, that our fund would actually be an activator. It would be catalytic that we would provide a model

to show and to demonstrate that this works, that we would also show and connect, that we would have a consortium and a network of hundreds of organizations that we can lift up and share their work so if there are those that want to invest, there would be no reason, that if you want to find good work, here we are. We can find some for you. We can connect you with organizations on the ground. And then the third thing is we want to

also actually shift this culture of not funding Black girls and women. And so part of doing that is setting up this matching fund so that if a foundation, we would say, if you want to set up, we want you to set up, we are encouraging them. We're meeting a fundraising fund so that if a foundation... We would say, if you want to set up, if we want you to set up, we are encouraging them. We're meeting with other foundations. We're having conversations. We're meeting with donors. We're having donor tours. As a matter of fact, this summer, we're actually gonna do a donor tour with the girls as part of actually talking to them about,

in their portfolio, making sure that there's a commitment to support black girls as well. Mm. That is fantastic. LaTosha, we thank you so much. We know you're super busy. Michael told you everything you have going on. So we're going to let you go. We appreciate you taking this time speaking with us here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered.

But you know your family. So thank you for stopping by again. Go ahead and get yourself a to-go plate. Put some aluminum foil on it and go ahead and let yourself out when you need. Thank you. Thank y'all for having me. Sure enough.

We're going to take another break. You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. On the next Get Wealthy, make the shift from earner to owner and achieve the level of success that you desire and that you deserve. You have to know your worth. You can't settle for what someone is going to give you. You've got to take ownership and be prepared to make some smart money moves.

Oh my goodness, it's such a good feeling to achieve the goal that I set. If charity can do it, you can too. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. It's Black History Month, yet our children are still reading from textbooks that do not feature people that look like them or celebrate the achievements of our people. Well, B is for Black Brilliance wants to empower young minds and educators with books and materials

that amplify the genius of the black community. B is for Black Brilliance celebrates black history and shines a light on the greatness in upcoming generations. Founder and CEO of Black Brilliance, Shawna Wells, joins me now. Shawna, thank you so much for making time. Tell us a little bit about the book and about what you hope it stimulates in young Black readers.

Hey, thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Listen, the book is an agitation tool. It's an opportunity to have a conversation about Black brilliance, right? But it's just a book, and we cannot be confined to the pages of this book or, frankly, to Black History Month, right? We need to celebrate our brilliance 365 days a year, 12 months of the year, right? And so we hope that Be Us for Black Brilliance is an opportunity to start a conversation

between students, between kids, between caregivers, and between their teachers to start talking about and reclaim the narrative of blackness in this country. The reality is this country wasn't built for us. And so the narrative that's been taught about us time and time again has been limited. And we represent a more robust narrative, one that centers our brilliance, And so the narrative that's been taught about us time and time again has been limited.

And we represent a more robust narrative, one that centers our brilliance, centers our genius, and allows us to heal, and the next generation to set themselves up to really build lives of abundance, and to build new legacies of what it means to be Black in this country. Now, Shawna, that sounds fantastic, And all of us here are excited about that.

But we know that we've been getting pushback in all kinds of ways from those adversaries who, to your point, don't want to support us and are anti-Black. What is the anticipated response for those folks who undoubtedly will say, if there's a book that says B is for Black brilliance, where's the W is for white brilliance book? Yeah, listen, they're out there. People are going to say those things. What we have to do is stop the narrative, stop giving in to the oppressive statements from people, from our haters, right? We have to be able to reply with, listen, we have been in big and small ways part of the fabric of this country for a long time. And we have an opportunity now because we have buying power, because we have voting power.

We are powerful human beings. We get to take back the narrative in different ways that our ancestors were not able to do. And so, great, let them write the book. And let's keep writing our own. And let's keep talking about and centering our stories over and over and over again to rebuild and to take the opportunity to be ourselves, our authentic and true selves.

What are some of the ways that you guys aggregate or determine which authors and creators that you want to really amplify and magnify the work for these various illustrations and books? Hey, listen, we're just getting started, right? So this book is an opportunity to highlight a fully Black team that wrote a book together. That is very rare in the industry. In fact, 81% of editors and publishers out there identify as white, which is alarming considering that they're making decisions about what goes in front of our children, right? So the first step is to

make a decision that, hey, we want to come together and want to tell different stories. And the book is just 26 individuals. We're just getting started. We have opportunities to highlight artists, to highlight poets, to highlight musicians that haven't been able to be in the mainstream, not because they're not talented, but because they don't have access to the resources that, the industry resources that are out there, right? So we're making moves and we're having conversations with people that aren't known, right? We want to talk to the unknown artist, to the unknown illustrator, to the unknown author to try and get their work out there and to amplify it.

Now, we are about excellence, don't get me wrong. Like, we have to have this conversation in an excellent way. And so I'm an educator. I have a team of educators that helps us figure out what do we want to put in front of our kids over and over and over again so that we can be able to embrace fully our brilliance.

Well, I'm going to go to the panel in just a second, but one more question for you. Just because you said something and it really stuck with me. So how do you make the decisions as what should be put in front of our children? Because there's going to be a lot of folks, even within our community, who may have agreements or disagreements

about what they think is the vital or essential evidence of Black brilliance and how it should be communicated to our children. Listen, like, this is gonna be tough, right? Because it's never, like, it's not been done before in the way that we envision it, right? So first and foremost, we are building a set of criteria that we look at to make decisions about what we put in front of people,

what gets airtime, and what doesn't. But the other thing is that we are at to make decisions about what we put in front of people, what gets airtime and what doesn't. But the other thing is that we are not a monolith. Our stories need to be told in very complex and robust ways. So this is not just me making a decision. This is our team comes together to make decisions about what we put in front of our children. And hopefully we're able to bust this thing out, right? Like we need to be able to have that 81% number. We have to tackle it and say, hey, listen, we're here, we're going to make a decision, and we're going to talk about how we talk about and reclaim our history and our future. Xavier, your question first. Shauna Wells. Shauna, thank you for being an aggregator of Black excellence. You said that

your healing journey consisted of searching and finding Black excellence, and it spurred you on to create this project. How do you seek to duplicate the healing you receive from finding affirmations of the brilliance of Black expression and Black exceptionalism? And how do you get to plant that into those who intersect with all the different artists that you find and collect and pass on that passion that can be healing, be a balm to the soul of people that are seeking to put together

the pieces of a broken America to create a better future that we contribute more and more and more to the fullness and richness of our expression? Ooh! I love this question. I love this question. Uh, you are exactly right. This was a healing journey, right? As I started to look for the names of people that had gone undiscovered, untalked about,

this whole new world unearthed to me and caused me to get in touch with my ancestors, caused me to have conversations with myself about what I believe and the oppressions that I had accepted from the culture that surrounds us. Listen, we have to disrupt this narrative, right? And we have to challenge ourselves to accept and expect different. So here we are in Black History Month. I see us all celebrating. I am, this is my, one of my favorite months of the year. But as I started to think about the term Black History Month,

I said, nah, I'm not here for it. Like we have to talk about Black Brilliance Month and then we need to continue the conversation. And as Black people, as Black creators, we have to stop accepting that we are limited to one month or one shelf in a big box store, right? We have to start demanding and expecting that people will recognize our brilliance.

So how do we continue to heal? We have conversations with one another. We start at a young age with our kids at zero, talking to them about how brilliant they are, how they can evolve the narrative that's been told, and how they can change and really dictate the future and have different seeds than we all had, right? This generation, it's our job to be activists on mindset, right? Not just in the streets, but on mindset, so that the next generation has the framework they need to build out their abundant lives.

Michael. I'm sorry. Yes, yes. I'm sorry. I didn't want to step on you there, Xavier. My apologies. Michael, your question. All right.

Hey, Shana, this is great. B is for Black Brilliance. So in reading the article from Medium.com, you talked about how you searched on Google. You did 197 searches. You were trying to find African-American inventors and things like this. And you kept coming up with the same 10 names from the Google search. OK. And can you talk about that process and how that search led to this book?

Yeah. Yeah, I can. So here's the thing. We all know the names that I found, right? and how that search led to this book? Yeah, yeah, I can. So here's the thing. Like, we all know the names that I found, right? Every Black History Month in schools and when we talk about Black narratives, we talk about the same people over and over again. Deep respect to the struggle

that our ancestors went through, right? And at the same time, we have to start looking for and acknowledging that there are other people out there. So what did that look like? Well, I had this big old post-it note, right, that I had posted on my wall, and I started writing the names of people that I would find. And then I started talking about that

with other Black individuals, like, hey, have you heard of this person? Have you heard of this person? Have you heard of James West? You know, have we recognized Issa Rae for all of her contributions? And then people started adding to the list, adding to the list. So talk about healing from the last from the last question. Right. When when you start to add to the list and realize that, hey, blackness is an important part of my identity. And actually, I can build out a robust list of people that have contributed in big and small ways to this country.

Then we're having a different conversation about who we are, what we've done and who we're about. And Kelly, Kelly, your question for Shauna Wells. Kelly. Kelly, Kelly, your question for Shauna Wells. Kelly? Oh, I'm sorry. You broke up for a second. I apologize. Hi, Shauna. Hey, Kelly.

I'm looking on your website right now, and it says regarding your values, that one of them is about inclusion and accountability. And I kind of wanted you to expound upon that a little bit because as wonderful and robust as many people have tried to make Black History Month and blackness in general, I still see a sense of monolithic visions when it comes to things like that, such as narrowing the scope of religion regarding Christianity, narrowing how we see LGBT plus Black people in our communities, how

I still see others othering them, if that makes any sense. Can you talk about how you are bringing everybody and everything regarding Blackness into the fold so that it doesn't feel like, even though what you've done is so diverse, it still, in a sense, could be monolithic? Yes. So this is the critical nature of this movement, right? Like, we have got to get better at having conversations about the robust narrative of what it means to be black in this country, and beyond it. So I'll tell you about the struggle that I had, as I was writing this book, I had so many people trying to talk to me about the black experience in America. And that's one experience of being black.

There is a whole world of people experiencing being black in different ways and having to deal with that struggle. Right. And having to deal with not being able to talk about their own brilliance. So we have a job to do at Be As For Black Brilliance to expand the conversation. It can't just be me. It can't just be the members of our team. It has got to be everybody, right? Our hope, my hope is that in every household across America, black is synonymous with brilliance and that we're able to include everybody in that conversation. What that means is we've got to have some tough conversations with one another about understanding, about acceptance, and we have to hold each other accountable

to coming together, to building a new community. Us fighting each other just doesn't work. It's not going to work. We have got to come together to have a conversation about what it means to change mindset around brilliance and blackness. Shauna, that sounds fantastic. Tell folks where they can find and or follow you to make sure they get all they need to know from what is your work. Yes. Yeah.

Come see us at BSForBlackBrilliance.com. We're just getting started. You can also follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn at BSFor is for Black Brilliance. And it's been so nice to have this conversation. Thanks for pushing me as I had it with you. Absolutely. We're grateful for the conversation and grateful for the work that you're doing.

Happy Black History Month. We look forward to celebrating B for Black Billions in March, April, May, June, July, and subsequently all through the rest of the year. Yes, sir. You mean Black Brilliance Month and subsequently all through the rest of the year. Yes, sir. You mean Black Brilliance Month. Black Brilliance Month. I love it. Thank you so much. Now, before we go, we have more educational news.

It's something that I want to remind all of our viewers. I know you have heard it, but I need you to hear it one more time. Here's a reminder for you HBCU juniors and seniors and parents of juniors or seniors. Time is running out for you to apply for that scholarship from Roland and McDonald's. If you attend an HBCU and Thurgood Marshall College Fund member institution, you can submit your application for the chance to receive a $15,000 scholarship. The deadline is February 28th. Go to tmcf.org for details on how to apply. Now, in addition to the free money, scholarship recipients will also have the opportunity to engage with McDonald's executives working within their respective fields of study.

And lastly, we have some sad news to pass along. Longtime journalist and pioneering veteran journalist, Askiya Muhammad has died. WPFW radio announced Muhammad's passing on Twitter saying, with deep sadness, the family of Askiya Muhammad announces his passing of natural causes today at the age of 76. A private service will be held with a memorial planned for a future date. There are no words to express the profound sadness we feel at the passing of our dear brother. For more than 40 years, Muhammad was a fixture on WPFW, The Final Call, and his column appeared regularly in black-owned newspapers like the Washington Informer.

Our dear brother, Askiya Muhammad, has become an ancestor at age 76. On a personal note, I first met Askiya at the Opportunity Dwayne Rowland show when we were over on TV One at News 1 Now. He was kind, gentle, caring, and encouraging of a young know-it-all journalist who quite honestly knew nothing. I thank Askiya for his mentorship, his kindness, his friendship, his encouragement,

and ultimately his love for our people. In the words of Fred Hampton, if you love our people and live for our people, you must be willing to die for our people. And in death, we will forever hold dear our brother, Askiya Muhammad. With that, I thank our panel. I thank the production staff for all they've done, helped me get through this show. And I thank all of you, the Roland Martin Unfiltered community, all the conversations on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember the words of the Yoruba proverb, that if we stand tall, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us.

Good night. Martin! 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.

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