#RolandMartinUnfiltered - MBL policy vision; Haiti gang violence explodes; Niger kicks US troops out; WH Women's History Month

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

3.18.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: MBL policy vision; Haiti gang violence explodes; Niger kicks US troops out; WH Women's History Month Movement for Black Lives has an essay series that explores their policy vision for economic justice. I'll talk to their Public Policy Expert about how the six-part series will explore Black communities' economic challenges. As the gang violence in Haiti is expanding into more affluent parts of the country, some U.S. citizens are back on American soil, while others are waiting to get out.  Niger is kicking U.S. troops out. I'll talk to a National Security and Foreign Policy Expert about how this move will impact America's counterterrorism surveillance.  The White House held a Women's History Month reception, during which President Biden signed an executive order strengthening research in women's healthcare.  The Supreme Court justices are deciding if the government can regulate misinformation on social media. We'll talk to an expert about those misinformation is targeting the black community.  Download 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. 18th, 2024, and coming up on Roland Martin on photo streaming live on the Black Star Network from Los Angeles. The Movement for Black Lives has a essay series that explores your policy vision for economic justice. We'll talk to their public policy expert about that and what it means for the black community. Also, as the gang violence in Haiti continues to expand into more affluent parts of the country, some U.S. citizens are back on American soil while others are still waiting to get out. Niger is kicking U.S. troops out of the country. We'll talk to a national security and foreign policy expert about what this means for that country and other african nations also the white house held a women's history month reception

doing with president biden signing executive order strengthening research into women's health care supreme court justices are deciding if the government can regulate misinformation from social media we'll talk about that as well. Plus, NAACP Image Awards took place in Los Angeles on Saturday. We'll tell you who won and who the big winners that night and hear from some of those winners.

You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best

You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Now, I'm here for quarterly and the movie for black lives are launching a six part series focused on social justice. Right now, we're going to talk with Dr. Amara Inyeb. She is the Movement for Black Lives public policy expert. Glad to have you here on the show. So first and foremost, walk us through what is this six-part series and what do you hope to accomplish with it? Absolutely. It's really great to be here with you, Roland, to talk about this series. So we launched this series last year, in fact, because we felt that it was absolutely imperative to talk about what an economic policy vision for black people must look like. We have been tracking, particularly in the last three, four years since COVID, the economic

fallout for black communities. We have been tracking issues around wealth or the lack fallout for black communities, we have been tracking issues around wealth or the lack thereof for black communities. We've been tracking issues around housing, the unaffordability of housing, conversations around guaranteed basic income, reparations. And it was important for us to set forth what is a vision, an economic policy vision for black people that addresses the economic injustices but also is forward-thinking, forward-facing.

And so we partnered with Nonprofit Quarterly to do this series and put forth and engage the number of folks who are on the ground doing this work, experts who can really help us to craft that vision and really put it forth to the masses. So again, vision is one thing, but reality is another. And so what do you hope this is going to accomplish, is going to achieve? How do you make this economic issue a reality? Absolutely. So that's a great question. So one of the things that we tried to do was make sure that in every article in the series it sets forth concrete examples where work is already taking place on the ground, with the idea that our people are not just—we're not just speaking theoretically about what's possible, but we are talking about initiatives that have actually been launched where people

can plug in and amplifying work that's already happening. So, for example, we lifted up guaranteed basic income pilots that have gotten off the ground in cities across the country. We are talking about participatory budgeting, which is a mechanism that can be used to create more control for our communities over their municipal budgets. We've talked about the work that's already happening in the philanthropic space around reparations. And we talk about reparations for the war on drugs and what that looks like.

We talked about housing and some of the organizing that's actually happening in places like Washington, D.C. And so we wanted to make sure that everything that we're putting forth is grounded in the reality and the material conditions of our people, and so we're putting forth is grounded in the reality and the material conditions of our people, and so we're not operating just in theory or, you know, pie-in-the-sky thinking, but what is actually going to tangibly affect black people's lives. Well, one of the things—so, do y'all address all of these corporations that announce billions of dollars to the black community in the wake of the death of George Floyd? And frankly, most of that hasn't even been spent.

I haven't seen I've raised this issue with the NAACP, with the National Urban League. I spoke about this at HBCUs. And so who is what organization who is going to hold these people accountable to the promises that they made? Is this a part of this? Well, it's certainly part of the conversation. And so we've done pieces in the past and even organized in the past around the lack of accountability or really the lack of follow through for many of the corporations that made these pledges in 2020. And then when we looked maybe a year later, even two years later, we found that there

wasn't that much follow-through. And so a lot of our work has been in shining light on that lack of follow-through, also really trying to get beneath the layers of the PR, the public relations campaigns that many of these corporations had put forth, claiming that they wanted to invest in our communities, claiming that they wanted to have some impact on these longstanding injustices, the wealth gap, etc. And so we've worked to shine light on not only the issues, but the commitments and the lack of follow-through, that no one, no entity is

exempt from their responsibility in addressing, for example, the size of the wealth gap. And our ability to hold these corporations accountable and to be unafraid to do so is something that we've stood on. But, again, shining light is one thing. But who is calling them out? Are there plans for the movement of black lives to actually to protest, to do more? Because, again, whenever we have a look, it's just like what I talk when we talk about money here in this industry here, we're trying to hold these companies accountable for the three hundred and forty billion dollars being spent every single year in advertising.

Black-owned media gets 1%. Then we look at the money that's being spent in venture capital. We're talking about less than 2%. I mean, we can go on and on and on. And so you have folks, you have a number of people out there who are advocating for reparations. I'm also saying there are billions upon billions upon billions of dollars heading towards a trillion dollars that are being spent every single year. The federal government, five hundred and sixty six hundred billion dollars in contracts annually, one point six seven percent going to African-Americans.

And so there is real money being dropped right now that we are not a part of. And I think part of the issue is that we do not have a collective action to deal with in terms of pushing people to say, no, no, we got to start not just shining a light, but putting you on Front Street. Congressional Black Caucus

and the foundation at AOC this year, they had a big meeting focusing on economics and fiscal policy. Sixty, seventy people in the room. Robert Smith was there. Diddy was there. Chairman Horsford, you had NAACP, Derek Johnson, Martin Morrell, Reverend Sharpton, Black Economic Alliance, Black Economic Forum, all these groups. We met in October. My whole deal is, it's March. Nothing has happened. And so we have to have, I just believe, action to be able to begin to change these numbers, to access those dollars,

to change our community, to change our businesses. Absolutely. And one of the things that we have tried to do, and for example, on the municipal front, when we talk about city budgets, is really walking people through the process to understand how close they actually are and how they do have the ability to have impact on city budgets. So we've had cities where individuals from the community came in and said, this is what we envision, this is what we envision, this is what we need, and have put forth line by line in a budget, here's how we allocate funding from this to that. That same rationale exists, I think, also in the corporate sector.

One is to remove the myth of the distance between people on the ground in their communities and what these corporations are doing, that there is a benefit to collective action when we have put certain companies, for example, in the crosshairs, whether to protest them, but also to expose what it is that they're doing, right, which is very important. But there's work that we have to do at the ground level to educate people and to handhold to show this is actually what it looks like. This is some of the numbers that you set forth.

And here's how we can actually tangibly reallocate or push these companies to do what they said that they were going to do. So there have been some instances in 2020. I know JPMorgan Chase, which is not the best example, but when some of that on-the-ground work was taking place and we showed that they lent more to one predominantly white community in Chicago than to all of Chicago's black communities combined, then they started—they made some shifts and created new programming and things of that nature, right?

So it's an example of the kinds of pressure that is necessary for these corporations. And we, as folks on the ground, as organizers in our communities, not believing that there's so much distance between the kind of change that we can get if we apply pressure and if we are very clear and specific on the ways that those funds should be allocated and have some understanding of how corporations are actually using those funds so that we can propose the alternatives to them. It's not just enough to say we need more resources. We have to be—we have to clearly articulate what we need and for what purpose, and then hold the corporations accountable to that.

Also, I think—last question here. I also believe that what has to happen is the education piece. Because, you know, what I experience constantly, even with this show, a lot of our folks don't even understand how the dots are connected. And so when we're talking about public policy, we're talking about who's in control of budgets, things along those lines. You know, you got these people who say, man, Democrats ain't nothing, Republicans ain't nothing, I'm getting down to politics. And I'm sitting there going, that's where the money is. So you can sit here and say I'm getting down to politics, but that makes no sense because who controls city services, county services, school district?

Who controls state services and federal? We're talking about, again, trillions of dollars. The last thing black folks can do is check out of a political process, because when you do that, you're checking out of the economic process. Absolutely. I mean, the politics fundamentally is about who's getting what. And so the people who are in the game or who are at the table will largely make the decisions about how resources are allocated and to whom. And so we actually have additional responsibility, because we know that for so long those who are at the table implemented and instituted policies that would deliberately exclude black people.

And we can run down the history of that, whether it's redlining, whether it's just looking at local procurement budgets and which are black vendors getting access to procurement opportunities in your local city, right? So we have an additional responsibility, because we know that those who have been at those tables have largely intentionally excluded our people. And if we check out of the process, then we actually have no way of influencing the decisions that are made, particularly around how budgets are developed and how resources are allocated.

Where can people access the six-part series? So, they can find the six-part series on Nonprofit Quarterly's website. If you just type in Vision for Black Lives, Economic Policy Agenda, any of those keywords, you'll see all of the articles. Again, we talk about reparations. We talk about guaranteed basic income. We talk about housing, the lack of affordability. We talk about the wealth gap, black households, 24 cents to every dollar for white households.

These are very real, affecting our community. So, we encourage folks, Vision for Black Lives, Economic Policy Agenda. You can also learn more at m4bl.org, where we have the Vision for Black Lives, our robust policy agenda for Black people. And folks can read it and digest it. And especially in this political climate, where we have to articulate what we want, not just say what we don't want, but clearly articulate what we want and a pathway to get there. Just really want to encourage folks to check it out and to continue to follow us on our platforms. All right. That'll end it.

We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. So much. All right, folks. We'll talk about this with our panel when we come back right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president. Of the United States?

Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected. Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history. You're going to be president? You ain't no man. Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote.

You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician? Freedom! Truly, you can't win. Then why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference. Creation! This isn't a campaign.

It's a joke. The only thing anybody's going to remember is that there were a bunch of black folks who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! See, too much suffering. And I don't know how to not try. We're living it proud!

Still right, still right. I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible. We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning. I'm going to

force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're going to do all that. I'm a school teacher from Brooklyn. Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic. What is it you do for a living again? Lady, I'm golden. I'm starved.

It's my age. Running rich. My rich. The people of America are watching us. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. When you go dead I'm Raheem Dubon. Me Sherri Sheppard and you know whataux, president emeritus, been in college, economist and author.

Joining us out of Washington, D.C., Derek Jackson, Georgia state representative out of Atlanta. Teresa Lundy, principal founder of TML Communications out of Philadelphia. Julian, I want to start with you again as an economist. Let's talk about the money. I mean, the thing here is that what they're doing here is great shining a light. It's great sort of unpacking this, but the audience has to understand the money game. I always say, if you're not having a money conversation, you're not having an American conversation. And so what people have to begin to understand is that when we talk about how do you change the money, you have folks who are advocating for reparations. You see what's happening in California. You see what's happening in New York.

Obviously, that was on the federal level. That's a long, long process there that folks have been fighting for for decades and centuries. What you also have right now, you have budget allocation. How money is being spent city level, state, county level, state level, school district, federal level. Then you have the money that's in public private partnerships. Then you have the money that's in public-private partnerships. Then you have the money that's coming from corporate America. And from a leverage standpoint, what we have is the ability to challenge call-out folks, but also withdraw. Now, the King talked about this April 3rd, 1968.

So what black folks are going to have to understand as long as we are willing to keep buying products, they have no incentive to change. As long as we are not voting at a maximum of our voting power, they do not have an incentive to change. People really need to understand if we are voting at 65, 70, 75, 80, 85 percent, that will scare the hell out of folks on the local, state, national level.

And then you're going to see a change in how dollars are being allocated. You're absolutely right about that and about so many other things around this issue. One of the things, I mean, I found the young lady's conversation obviously making great points, movement for Black Lives does great work, but I found it specious from this perspective. As you said, and push her on, where are the concrete steps? If anybody, NAA, well, they probably can't do it. They get sued. But some black organizations said, we're going to boycott X, whatever X is, for 30 days, 130 days. They would feel it, and they would respond. We have become so very timid. You're right. Dr. King talked about economic

withdrawal. He talked about strategically withdrawing from cooperating with those who are oppressing us. And we have the rhetoric. And then some folks shilly-shally back to very same stores, very same companies that have been oppressing us. And these companies are very great at window dressing. So many of them have a DEI person or a black person in charge or whatever, and they throw, you know, a mill here, a mill there for something. But let's remember that in the wake of the assassination, the murder of George Floyd, $50 million went on the table of corporations who said they were going to do this, they were going to do that. Two things about that.

One was just ultimately self-serving. Those banks who said they were going to provide more mortgages, well, that's not free money. And you're going to get interest. So that's just whatever. But secondly, of the money that was put on the table, probably only $5 million of it really went to black organizations like the Urban League and AA. And much of it has not—it was pledged, but it was not realized. And so I find these—from an economic perspective, from my economic perspective, I find these conversations very frustrating. I mean, it would even—they could put out, let's boycott, let me say, McDonald's,

for want of a better word. And I'm not picking on McDonald's. They're, you know, Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 50 companies. But let's just say that somebody said, let's do that for a month. They will feel it. And the whole issue is not, they don't feel rhetoric. They don't care about rhetoric. But when the bottom line is affected, they care about that. And again, that's why the voting issue is also so important, because we're not at nowhere near max. I don't know that we've ever gotten up to 70 in national elections. But if we were, again, we could be influence public policies in different kind of ways. So I applaud what they're doing. I couldn't find their report. We got very close. Julian, we got very close. We got very close to that number with Obama.

But the thing that I am trying and again, like, you know, again, I think that what we have here, and I'm going to go to Derek. What we have here is there are a lot of people who say, I'm frustrated. Things are not being done. Totally understand it. But I then go, okay, but being frustrated and checking out of the process simply is not the answer. If there is a guaranteed way you're not going to get anything is when you check out of the process. And so what we have is we have a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, a lot of people who feel as if nothing is being done. If you are not organized and mobilized

to become difference makers, nothing is going to get done. I am speaking as somebody who is the son of two parents who were founders of a civic club who said, we want to change our community. My parents didn't go to college. Most of the people who were in the civic club, they weren't college educated, but they care enough about the community. What they did was they used people power. They understood, okay, fine. Okay. We want to fix that. Okay, who's over that? Who controls that? Councilperson, county commissioner, member of Congress. And so they did it. But it wasn't one or two individuals. They actually got together to make it happen.

I just think that we have a lot of people in our community who are complaining about things. We have to understand as long as we are not mobilized and not organized, nothing is going to change when it comes to accessing the money. You know, Roland, that's the reason why you see right now a lot of state houses, and I'm here in Georgia, where the government is going after their constituents. They prevent them from protesting. They don't want to be heard by their constituents. And they want our constituents to be checked out of the process for the very point you're making. Here, listen, let's make this real.

Here in Georgia, we're sitting on a $16 billion surplus, Roland. Surplus. That means we're going to pay all of our bills, and we're sitting on a $16 billion surplus. And so I'm a co-sponsor of a reparation bill, House Bill 955. And one of the things that we're asking is, hey, you're sitting on a $16 billion surplus. How much are you going to allocate for those that are black and brown communities? And let's have a real conversation, because the thing that you're also highlighting too, Roland, is this. Who has the largest pocketbook or wallet on the planet?

The federal government and the state government, we have the largest wallet. And so we have a wallet larger than any corporation. So if we do not exercise our First Amendment right and talk to our government at the federal, state, and local levels to say what our tax dollars should do for us because we are taxpayers, then by us checking out a process, we are doing a disservice to our community. You know what, Teresa, here's what just is a perfect example.

I get a kick out of these folks who love to comment on my social media. Man, there you go big in money from the corporations. There you go big in money from these campaigns. There you go big in money from the government. And then I go, don't your dumb ass know that you go where the money is? I mean, I forgot who was the bank robber that asked them, why do y'all rob banks? They said, because that's where the money at.

Right now, right now, there are media companies that, not even right now, last year were projecting, oh, we're going to have an increase of 30, 40% in revenue because we know we're going to get $300 to $500 million in political advertising. Why wouldn't black-owned media want to get that money? There are people right now who are tapping into, who are raising millions of dollars through venture capital, private equity, and that money is coming from pension funds. People talk about Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, not because he pulled himself up by his bootstraps. It's because he got government contracts.

Because he got tax subsidies. So when I hear these people yell and complain and bitch about the Congressional Black Caucus and well these black politicians, they not doing this. They not doing that. Do you know who calls them? Corporations looking for tax breaks. Looking for tax incentives. When we look at right now, Teresa, city contracts. You're in Philadelphia.

Look, you ain't moving contracts in Philadelphia unless you're dealing with black people. What's the number that we're getting? Our people are going to have to understand. Whining, complaining, yelling, screaming does not change the economic game. Voting, organizing, mobilizing, putting pressure does. I don't know of anything black people have ever gotten in American history that we got just because. It was because we had

to apply pressure. So what I was saying to the sister from the Move of Black Lives, I totally get shining a light on something. Ida B. Wells talked about that. We do that in media. They have to feel pressure in order to change the game. No, you're absolutely right. You know, when we, especially New York Rolling, when you start getting on this topic, obviously it's near and dear to my heart because I do own a business. And the many conversations and many contracts I've even

received from the city of Philadelphia and other cities had to do with, you know, being a minority and a subcontractor. And even, you know, that whole subcontracting process is something else than the same. But we also have to look at the percentage that they're trying to give minority businesses. And there is concerted efforts to make sure the minority businesses are getting the contracts that they are in the room and a part of the project. But part of it is it's always, you know, a very, very slim piece of the pie. And so I agree, staying silent has never worked. You know, being in the background and hoping that you can get to the next positions after you've stayed there for 20 and 30 years just doesn't work anymore. We have to really understand that

truth to power really means understanding your network, understanding your net worth, and understanding your value. And the only way people understand those three things is if we activate it differently. That means speaking up. That means writing. That means asking others who look like you that is in that room, hey, by any chance, you know, what are you getting for, you know, this type of work? Because it is, you know, it's a conversation starter. But again, you also see the inequities of those that are in that position.

I can go on and on. Teresa, while we wait for Roland, can I ask you what has been the biggest contributor to your success in terms of getting contracts, et cetera? Can you hear me? i can hear you i don't know that that the team can but you know i like i said while we had a little dead air just wanted to ask you a question about the biggest contributors to your success yeah i think the biggest sorry about that i lost uh sorry i yeah i lost i lost one second i lost video return there uh so um So sorry about that. So we got the technical glitch fixed out here. Teresa, can you hear me? Yes, I can. All right. I want to pick up on when you used to open it, you said, you know, as a small business owner, When we're talking about this money game, this is the problem

that I keep having. I was on a phone call with an advertiser two hours ago. But it also comes to capacity. So when people are talking about, man, black women are starting business at a faster rate than anybody else. Absolutely correct. But they're small. And so we're talking about accessing the money. When we have the ability to access the dollars, when we have the ability to get the contracts, we now can go from 1 to 3 to 5 to 10 to 20 to 50 to 100.

That changes the game. The problem is a lot of us are small. And so our people have to begin to understand that it's not just starting a business. It's building and growing a business and having capacity. Capacity is the number one issue that small businesses have. Some of the things that I've been recommending to people, you know, I think I started out with the whole employee method, you know, so that is everybody is getting on a W-2. But remember, employers have to pay those taxes. So I think when you're starting out, one of the recommendations I would do is hire the crucial individual or

individuals that can help grow it. And then 1099 everybody else for special projects and everything else. Because once you start paying those employee taxes and other taxes therein, it gets a little steep. But again, when we talk about capacity, that's one of the major things that contracts from local and state are looking at. Do you have 10 or more that can, you know, work on a three or $5 million project? And if the answer is no, you're already

looked to the side. So, you know, in preparation for some of those big projects, you know, I always kind of go to those who've had the prime contract year after year and ask them, is there a way we can partner so we can also understand their system and figure out the best way that, you know, the next year when it comes for renewal, that we can also be in an opportunity to also be in that space to get that project. Because more than likely, especially in the business that I'm in, communications and public relations, we don't need that many people. So many people think it takes 20 to do a message or a statement. And really, it could take five or six really good people that is focused on that

project, you know, for hours. And see, Julia, I'm going to stay there because I'm just I mean, I'm just going to go there. And I think people need to understand this. Okay, so. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

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

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Teresa has a public relations communications firm. So, I'm just going to lay this out. Our black organizations, who are we employing? The Image Awards was just...

Are they using a black PR firm? Hmm. If we are, if we're building things, who are we using? See, I'm going to start. See, here's the whole deal. It's like, again, when I address this issue with HBCUs. Okay. Who has the food service who has the food services contract on an HBCU campus?

Come on. Who has the transportation contract? See, if we start going down this line Come on. There are a lot of black organizations and a lot of black people and a lot of black companies who talk a

good game about what we need, but they're not doing what they're saying. So, so here's what I'm trying to frame. We do not have a national black owned public relations firm. Well, that's because they're not getting the large monthly retainers. They then can't go out and hire 20, 30, 40, 50 people to service the contracts. So you got that.

So now we start talking about sectors. Construction, engineering, communications, transportation, catering. We could go on and on and on. The challenge has to be to black organizations, and we got a whole bunch of them, who are you hiring? Who are you using? I've said it. When we built the Black Star Network studio right there on 16th and K, the lighting, black lighting company. The control room, a black engineering company.

The green screen is a black drape company. The set was built by a black set design company. We use black transportation companies. When we have events, we use black caterers. We're actually walking the walk. I'm telling you right now, Julianne, and you know this as well, it's a lot of our organizations are not being proactive, utilizing black businesses, but we love talking about the need to build and create wealth. You can't do it if we don't hire them. Go ahead.

We have to walk the walk that we talk. And I can give you example after example of how entrenched we are in the predatory capitalism that basically oppresses us. When I was president at Bennett College, one of the first things I did was look at our contracts to find that we didn't have that many contracts with black people. And when I went to change that, you would not believe or you would believe the backlash that I got from the majority community in Greensboro, because the college had been used to dealing with so-and-so. And for my notion of let's change it was you're upsetting the apple cart. And I mean, I remember one time it got so ridiculous, some brothers came to see me to tell me that I could not do what I said I was going to do because the white people was their friends. And so I had one of my infamous Malvo meltdowns and paid the price for it, of course, but said this BS is not going to work. We are running around saying we want to empower black entrepreneurs.

Remember, I started the first entrepreneurship program at Bennett. We want to empower black entrepreneurs, but we're not doing business with them. I just found out that one of our major Greek letter organizations is doing a survey. And, you know, we do surveys. Terrence Woodbury does surveys. They got a white firm doing these surveys. I'm like WTF. And I was told, just keep your mouth shut. Why do you always have to start something? I'm like, because I was just born that way.

But I could go down the list. Our major organizations are not, you know, the B2B is really important. So it's not only who the big organizations do business with, it's who does business with each other. Like I would hope, given what she talks about, that Teresa often works with other minority entrepreneurs. And I'm hoping that others do as well, because the B2B also becomes important. What you're doing becomes extremely important. And one thing I want to lift up, you know, we are all out in the street for our African countries. But one of the things, Roland, that works my nerves to the bone is how many of these countries have white-owned PR firms, white attorneys. They come to us as African Americans expecting us to advocate for them, but they don't spend money for us. I mean, money talks and you know what walks. And basically what we're seeing is the contempt that even many black people have for black owned business. Just the utter contempt that we have. Because when you walk by a brother to give some money, to give some money to a white man or woman, what you're saying is you don't matter. But then you're going to turn around, you're going to turn around on the minority

business tip and try to get yourself another contract. I'm a minority business. Well, what are you doing with your minority business dollars? And for probably, I don't have a number, but I'd say 70 to 80 percent of black-owned businesses do not support black- owned businesses.

And that includes our HBCUs. Tragically, you know, you know, you know, Derek, I'll give perfect example there. I remember in Illinois, that was an initiative that was they were trying to the LGBT community was trying to defeat this initiative. And they kept coming to the black lawmakers. And one of the black lawmakers said, why is your whole lobbying team white? Y'all coming to the black legislators and your whole lobbying team white. They said, don't come back in here unless you got some black lobbyists. Now, that's a black politician. That's a black

politician making it clear. Y'all want our votes, but your whole team is white. We know the story when Beyonce met with Reebok and walked in the meeting and the whole room was white. She walked out of the meeting. I ain't doing business with y'all because how y'all going to disrespect me? y'all can't have anybody on the other side of the table looking like me. What we're talking about here is you've got to have black CEOs, black corporate execs, black politicians making demands and making it clear

no, I'm going to use my leverage, influence, and power to change the economic paradigm. And so if it means getting one black person hired, five black people hired, if it means making sure contracts are going to black people, I'm going to do that. So now if that begins to happen in many places with scale, overnight, overnight, we changed the economic paradigm. I said this here, Derek, regarding PepsiCo. And I had Mark Morial on and I told Mark, I said PepsiCo Foundation has a five-year, $10 million initiative with the Urban League to stand up black-owned restaurants.

Support it. PepsiCo has been running these commercials. They want to drive $100 million in receipts to Black-owned restaurants over a period of five years. I support it. PepsiCo spends $3 billion a year on marketing. And they own a ton of stuff. $3 billion. If they spent that 5% with black-owned media, that's $150 million a year. That's $750 million over five years.

Which one of those three has a greater impact on black America? The five-year $10 million partnership with the Urban League? The $100 million in receipts to black restaurants that they can't track, or the $750 million to black-owned media. We've got to have, and I said this to the CBC, I said, the starting point, if y'all want to support black-owned media, I said to the CBC, start with every single one of those logos who

sponsors the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. All those companies. I said the CBC should go to them and say, are you committing a specific spend to black owned media of your marketing dollars? They should be saying, what are your black transportation contracts? PR, audio-visual, catering, on and on and on. I said to the CBC, I said to the CBC, I said this to the NAACP,

to the Urban League, to all these groups, stop letting people come in and be on your boards and sponsor your events and you're getting a table check believing billions on the table for black America. Derek, go ahead. You know, Roland, to the essence of your question and what you're highlighting is do we know our value and do we know our power? Because once we know our value and we know our power, we can affect change.

Case in point, right here in Georgia, like I mentioned earlier, a $16 billion surplus. And so we're asking, hey, what are we going to do with this surplus? We're going to pay all our bills. And you're talking about doing more in the black and brown communities. We want to know what that is. Another way that we can address this right here in Georgia as well, we got over 400 lobbyists. Only of that 400, about 21 are black. And so here we sit in the largest black caucus in the nation. If we don't do something with this power and knowing our value and our worth, what good is it? The last point to your point, Roland, is this. According to the economists, the black community, just the black community, is $1.8 trillion. That can create our own. We can have

Black Wall Street on steroids. But we've got to get through the mindset that we can do this with other Black companies. We don't have to be validated by white companies yep there you go hold tight one second

we'll be right back on the Blackstar Network supporters of what we do join the Breonna Funk fan club send your ticket money to PO Box 57196 Washington DC cash app PayPal Zale 211-96-WASHINGTON-DC, 200-379-0196.

Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. I'm Dee Barnes, and next on The Frequency, Beyonce has always been country. We're talking to music, pop culture, and politics writer Taylor Crumpton about her new article on Beyonce's new country songs and how country music has always been part of Black culture. Since the release of Texas Hold'em and Sixteen Carriages, there has been a definition of what Black country music is and a definition of what white country music is.

White country music historically has always won the awards. We've always got the certifications. Black country music has not. This is a conversation you don't want to miss. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Cole call democracy in the united states is under siege on this list of bad actors it's easy to point out the donald trump's the marjorie taylor greens or even the united states supreme court as the primary villains but as david pepper author

scholar and former politician himself says there's another factor that trumps them all and resides much closer to many of our homes. His book is Laboratories of Autocracy, a wake up call from behind the lines. So these state houses get hijacked by the far right. Then they gerrymander. They suppress the opposition. And that allows them to legislate in a way that doesn't reflect the people of that state. David Pepper joins us on the next Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. It's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show.

This is your boy, Irv Quaife. And you're tuned into... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Folks, welcome back. We've been covering a variety of stories that's been happening, of course, on the international scene. So much attention has been on Israel, Hamas, Ukraine. But we know what's happening here in Haiti, Nigeria and some other countries. And so let's talk about what's happening in Nigeria. They've actually made a decision that has caught a lot of folks by attention, and that deals with the removal of United States troops.

The government there is breaking off, quote, with immediate effect its military operations agreement with the United States. It is expected to risk U.S. counterterrorist operations in West Africa. So Asha Casabira-Hernandez, national security and foreign policy expert, joining us right now. Asha, glad to have you here. Walk us through, what does this actually mean? Why are they taking this action? Yes, thank you so much for having me today. So since July 2023, when you saw a successful military coup happen, orchestrated by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, that has pretty much complicated relations or the game changer

of complicating relations with the United States and Niger. So you saw the successful coup that was pretty much fueled by terrorist groups, as well as populism that was in pursuit of ousting President Boussam. Then subsequently you start to see where the relationship went south, where complicated CT operations or counterterrorism operations for the United States, as well as humanitarian assistance, providing humanitarian assistance to Niger. Then furthermore, you start to see in terms of European representation, there was French troops that were removed in December. And then just recently there was a visit, a U.S. delegation that visited Niger.

And as a result of that meeting, the Niger officials accused the United States of having some sort of relations with Russia as well as Iran on some deal with uranium reserves. So subsequently, you start—the Niger—excuse me, the coup, the military junta pretty much came out and said that the delegation disrespected him by accusing him of the secret deal with Iran and Russia. And then they also mentioned that with this current status force agreement, that it's representation of being unconstitutional, where the people of Niger do not want U.S. troops located, because it does not represent the interests of the people of Niger do not want U.S. troops located because it does not

represent the interests of the people there. So that's the developments and it definitely was a game changer since July 2023. My understanding that we have a major drone base in Niger? Yes. And so that is it. Niger has since 2016 been a strategic location for the United States to conduct CT operations, mainly drone operations, conducting surveillance ops as well. So this is definitely a hit for providing security assistance to Niger, as well as the rest of the sub-region of West Africa. So what we're seeing as far as a potential solution is definitely in response to what happened recently, where you have the Secretary of Defense using diplomatic channels to try to secure troops there. We had over 1,100 troops in Niger conducting drone operations, drone missions there, as well as, well, just recently it's been reduced to 648.

But if we cannot be able to secure those true presence there, then we must look into possibly relocating them in West Africa. But this is definitely an impact for Sahil, and we've been doing this since 2016. Questions from my panel. Derek, you first. So my question is around, and being a retired naval officer after serving 22 years in the Navy myself, and I've been in that region for a couple of tours. What's bringing this divorce on with some of our allies? Is it because of the politics? What's really spurring this on?

Yes, thank you so much. So you start to see a rise of military coups happening in the African continent and definitely in Niger and also amongst its neighboring countries. I mean, just Mali and Burkina Faso has experienced, like, more than four since 2020. So there's been an uptick of military coups happening. And as a result of that, it's pretty much complicated the relationships with the United States and many African countries. Then you're also seeing this as an example of the symptoms of strategic competition, where Russia is trying to undermine our relationships with many countries in Africa.

And this is one example where, in response to what happened recently after the military junta announced that we are no longer have a security—we want United States troops removed. They then went on to say we want to expand our security interests with Russia. So you're seeing where Russia and China, especially Russia, is undermining the security relationships for the United States. Is that because of our position? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry sorry i'm sorry i'm done there go ahead go ahead no i was just saying because as we try to grow nato more and how russia is trying to

prevent us from growing nato more um do you see that also playing a front to this game of chess? Yes, absolutely. Again, during the Arab strategic competition, you know, it's imperative for Russia to grow its influences or presence around the world, especially in Africa. Africa is definitely a playground for them as far as growing their influences or just the overall global south. So you're seeing, just like what is mentioned in the United States National Security Strategy in 2021, they said in the next 10 years, you're going to see the intensity of strategic competition where Russia and China are going to double down as far as competing against the United States. In doing so, they're going to undermine our alliance system. And this is one clear example.

Teresa. Yeah. Well, one, thank you for that whole set of information. I actually had to read a few articles before I came on here to figure out the best question for you. One of my questions is, now that this is happening, is this something that we'll see in the immediacy this year? I know they're getting removed now, but is there—because I haven't seen anything from the White House really make a statement about this, and I'm not really sure why. But is this something that's going to happen this year that's really—that we going to see the effect of it since apparently this is happening in other countries? Well, yes, there is a possibility. Advisor Jake Sullivan, along with Secretary of Defense Austin, mentioned that they're trying really hard to work very closely to secure a quick decision on making sure that we have troop presence there. But again, because this is a strategic competition, this is harder to do right now with our allies and partners in the African continent. So some of our decision-making, we don't end up with our desired outcomes because of the fact that it's being more contested through Russia and China.

But the best thing is to right now maintain diplomatic channels and ensuring that we have we maintain our presence and continue to conduct CT operations as well as providing humanitarian assistance. Julian? operations as well as providing humanitarian assistance. Julianne? I was in Zambia in July, and it was very clear to me the Chinese influence on the African continent. I mean, much of the new construction that was taking place in Lusaka, you know, the signs were Chinese symbols, et cetera.

We do not do what we used to do in terms of foreign aid. And yet China is picking up their aid on the African continent especially, as is Russia. Help us with the economics. Should the United States be doing more to maintain these strategic alliances? Are we allowing China to elipse us? Even as they're having their own economic—you know, we cut foreign aid because we have a different mindset. We cut foreign aid off and we say, well, why do we give all this money to X when we could be using it at home? You don't get that same situation in

other places. So help me with the economics of this. Are there economic drivers to this withdrawal? Yes. Thank you so much for that question. And I really admire your perspective on economics. So thank you so much for asking this. Well, that is the main domain right now where China has been able to secure a lot of economic techno opportunities or deals with African countries, especially since the existence or the start of the Belt and Road Initiative, where they built a lot of infrastructure projects within the African continent. So there's been a lot of investments when it comes to ecoeconomic tech deals. Now, in terms of United States involvement in Africa, especially when it comes to economics,

because we have been so engaged from since 2001 in terms of post-9-11 all the way up until 2018 involved with the Middle East and other parts of the world, we have lost the finger on the pulse in terms of trying to do more in Africa because we prioritize other sub-regions. So now you're seeing Africa, I mean, excuse me, China has been able to come and eat up all the potential economic deals. And since the outcome of the African Leadership Summit, now we're engaged in the continent, but with limitations because a lot of deals have been eaten up by the Chinese. So we're kind of like more reactionary. And I mean, it's really sad. I actually saw a news clip like prior to us hosting the African Leadership Summit in 2022, end of 2022.

Prior to that, we had more focus on Africa since during the Bush administration. So they had to go like 20 years later and say, wow, we're finally reinvigorating our interests in Africa. And unfortunately, a lot of those economic deals have been eaten up by the Chinese. All right, Ben. Well, Asha, we certainly appreciate it. And we'll see what happens. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs

podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Next, with the folks at Amnizer. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Coming up next, Supreme Court. Here's the case, folks.

When it comes to misinformation on social media, we will talk about that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president of the United States. Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected. Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history. You're going to be president? You ain't no man.

Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote. You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician? Freedom! Truly, you can't win. And why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference.

Creation! This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. The only thing anybody's going to remember is that there were a bunch of black folks who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! I see too much suffering. And I don't know how to not try. I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible.

We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning. I'm going to force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're going to do all that? I'm a schoolteacher from Brooklyn. Harriet was just a slave. Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic.

What is it you do for a living again? Lady, I'm golden. I'm star in each, by each, running brick by brick. The people of America are watching

us. Yeah! Baby, I'm golden. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus, and I'm to Roland Martin on the field to the Supreme Court. Justice is it today or her arguments about the dispute with Republican led states over how far the federal government can go to combat the controversial social media posts like COVID-19, national security and others. This could, of course, say for a lot when it comes to the issue of free speech. Isosa Osu, the founder and CEO of Onyx to Impact, an organization created to fight harmful information targeting black communities, joins us now from Atlanta. Glad to have you here. What we have, Isosa, here, you've got, for instance, in Virginia and

Texas, you've got them putting age restrictions on, let's say, accessing porn material. You've got other states banning access to TikTok and other apps. You've got I mean, you've got all these measures that are going on under the guise of government protecting teens. But the question is still the people are posing like, wait a minute, who are you to impose these restrictions on individuals using these sort of apps? Is that what's at the heart of the Supreme Court case? So much for having me today, Roland. I think what we're seeing here is that this lawsuit appears to be a far-right strategy to weaponize the First Amendment and to weaponize disinformation. And it will have a direct negative impact on our ability to protect

Black voters and Black election workers in 2024. And so, when you're looking— So, unpack that. How so? Unpack it. How so? What type of misinformation they're hoping to allow? So, how did this case come to be? We had two attorney generals from very red states team up with five conservative pundits and activists, claiming that their posts were being taken down by social media companies at the behest of the U.S. government, because they seemed to be inaccurate and misleading. They went to conservative courts to uphold this. And a very conservative court, the Fifth Circuit, actually threw out most of the case. The remaining parts of the case are what was being argued today in front of the Supreme

Court. And today, the Supreme Court seemed incredibly unhappy with the way the case had been framed. They seemed incredibly dubious about the blanket First Amendment claims being brought before it. And so, the Supreme Court should see through what is, at this point, a blatant fear campaign that's being brought before them and throw out the case for a host of different reasons. But the problem is that so much damage has already been done at the local level, at the state level, at the national level.

There's been an incredible chilling effect that this litigation has had on all sorts of very important parts of our democracy. Let's just talk about elections and false statements about the election. State and local officials have been—basically, a lot of them have been cut off from social media platforms from communicating about what they're seeing and how we can help and combat the problematic content that we saw. In previous cycles, we had seen how this false content, these false election lies led directly to disinformation campaigns against black voters, led directly to harassment campaigns against

black election officials. And right now, any communication is essentially being stymied. And again, we're just seeing this fear campaign that's being driven by this litigation strategy that's just creating an America that's not where I think a lot of us want to live. Well, and what we're seeing is that what used to be the mainstay of old were robocalls. So what they're now saying is, wait a minute, they know how vital social media is, and so this is the next frontier in this battle. They want to be able to say whatever the hell they want to say. It was like the argument they used when it came to Facebook and Twitter banning Trump. Well, because he's a candidate, he should be able to say whatever he wants,

not when it's about lying and misinformation. Exactly. Exactly, Roland. And when you look, when you think about it, our government has a responsibility. It has a duty to ensure free and fair elections. And when you're seeing inauthentic persuasion campaigns, AI images targeting Black voters, when you're seeing, as you point to, false robocalls to black voters, foreign dissuasion campaigns imitating black activists like we saw in 2016.

At the end of the day, if we're not allowed to set up to protect ourselves, we're just putting black voters at risk and we're putting our democracy at risk. Questions from the panel Teresa you first Yeah well thank you so much For giving us a high level Overview One I find it disturbing But I'm also very curious

On what some of the big The big media Individuals like Facebook And LinkedIn What they have to say about it? Had they had any input on this particular decision? So, social media companies are—I would say that they're taking—they seem to be taking a posture of passiveness to this particular case.

But the social media companies cannot pretend as if there's no link between false claims about the elections and the political violence and harassment that we saw against black election workers and voters in the 2024—or in the previous elections. We—social media companies need to be held to account before, during and after elections for their role and responsibility for the content that's spreading on their platform. They're making billions of dollars off of our information and refusing to share any of theirs, no matter how much harm is shown, no matter how often we see negative impacts. And so I think that there is a lack of accountability that really has to be studied and pushed back on from social media companies right now.

Julianne? Thanks for giving us an update on or just an explanation of how this got to court, because I think when I first read about it, I'm like, how did this even get there to the Supreme Court? My question, I mean, you mentioned the Black election workers and the two sisters who were, they were harassed, but somebody put their information out so that people knew where they live, what their phone number was. They were getting all kinds of threats. Would this case amplify or diminish people's ability to do that kind of thing? This case would amplify people's ability to, what you're calling is called doxing, is putting out people's personal information so that they can be harassed online.

And there are certain guidelines that some companies, some social media companies try to push back on, but they are unbelievably loose and they didn't protect Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss, right? And so, if you're in a situation where you're trying to—where there's a case that protects the amplification of disinformation, this is a definite—and it chills the ability for local and state election officials to talk to the government about what they're saying, it will 100 percent lead to situations where these types of disinformation campaigns, harassment campaigns, are far more likely. And we know who those harassment campaigns tend to target the most. Derek?

You know, my question is around accountability. I would have thought after Fox News lost the lawsuit and having to pay $787 million, that was enough accountability to tell both networks and social media that you will be held accountable. But what we're seeing now are all these state legislatures, while the Supreme Court is, you know, dealing with this case at that level, right here in Georgia, as you well know, last week we just passed a bill that is a Republican-led legislature. They said it's okay for misinformation and disinformation to be done as long as it is not done within 90 days of an election day. I truly asked—yours truly asked the question, well, wait a minute, that doesn't mean the misinformation and disinformation is going to just evaporate within 90 days of the election.

What can we do to hold these state legislatures accountable while the Supreme Court get their business in order? We absolutely—this is such a great point—we absolutely need to be more proactive on the state and local level, because what we're seeing is social media companies across the country passing state legislation to make sure that they have as little accountability as possible. And so, we need to be aware when these types of bills come up, and we need to push back on it, because at the end of the day, what we're seeing across the country, across the world, is that the cost of spreading disinformation is approaching zero, with some bad actors actually being paid to spread disinformation, while the cost of accessing truth is becoming more and more expensive as you get to paywalls, as trusted

messengers become harder and harder to find, as you need subscriptions to different types of information. And so, we're really at an inherent disadvantage. And so, some of the things that we need to do—one of the things we need to do, as far as the black community and black voters go, is we need to invest so much more in black media. It's such a critical news source. It's such a trusted messenger for black communities across the nation. I think there was a Pew study that said that 64 percent of black people are turning to black outlets for their information.

And so, if we want to—we need to arm black media with the resources they need to be able to continue to do what y'all are doing here, push good information to our community so that we know, so that we have some type of pushback against what is essentially a zero-cost campaign to spread disinformation. Indeed, indeed. Well, it's a lot that's going. And trust me, the folks on the right, you know, they see, you know, what's next in terms of the horizon. And I think they were hopeful that a conservative Supreme Court was going to allow them to do what they want to do. So hopefully that gets stopped.

We sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for having me. Folks, going to a break. We'll be back. Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network broadcasting live from Los Angeles. Don't forget to support us in what we do. Be sure to first join our Bring the Funk Fan Club. The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each

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And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

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

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. on the next get wealthy with me deb me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, less than 5% of the top executive positions in corporate America are held by women of color. We know it's not because of talent. A recent study says that it's microaggressions, unconscious bias, and limited opportunities being offered to women of color. On our next show, we're going to get

incredible advice from Francine Parham, who's recently written a book sharing exactly what you need to do to make it up into the management ranks and get the earnings that you deserve. I made a point to sit down and I made a point to talk to people and I made a point to be very purposeful and thought provoking when I spoke to them. That's right here on Get Wealthy only on Blackstar Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. Louder and Prouder on Disney+. And you're watching Roland Martin

Unfiltered. I'm Ted. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris held a Women's History Month celebration today at the White House. The president signed an executive order dealing with the issue of women's health. Here are their remarks. My name is Joe Biden. I'm Joe Biden's husband. Folks, happy Women's History Month. I'm smart enough to know that when you have Jill, Kamala and Maria and all of you, the most powerful, accomplished women in the room, all at once.

I should hush up, as my mom said, and leave. But all kidding aside, just let me say this. Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, here at the White House. Today is Women's History Month. Two of the best days of the year, back to back. The late Irish poet, E. Van Boelen wrote, I've learned my name. I rise, I rose up, I remembered it,

and now I can tell my story. It was different from the story told about me. End of quote. That poem entitled Mother Ireland, but she captures the spirit of women's history in America as well. And in your own way, all of you, or generations of women before you, have risen up, shown your power, and told your story.

It's made all the difference in the world in telling the full story of America. We're the only nation in the world divided and defined. Every other nation is defined based on geography or ethnicity. We're the only nation based on an idea. Think about it. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all women and men are created equal, endowed by, et cetera, treated equally our whole lives, it's supposed to be. We've never fully lived up to that, but we never walked away from it either. But Jill and I, Kamala and Doug, and the entire administration never walked away from it either, especially when it comes to women.

State the obvious, women are half the population and underrepresented across the board, but not in my administration. State the truth, all the women in our family are brighter than all the men, so it's not a hard decision. We're proud to have an administration that looks like America, with more women serving the senior positions at any time in American history. Our historic vice president, who's doing an incredible job. The cabinet and staff at every level across the administration, including military women, have gotten confirmed for two four-star generals to lead combat, combat command.

The second and third women in history to do so, as well as the first woman ever to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It matters. Together, we put the first black woman on the United States Supreme Court. I'm mildly prejudiced, but I think she's the brightest person on the court. And more black women on the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals than all previous presidents combined. And together, we made historic progress through one of the toughest periods our nation has ever been through. Folks, and as Jill just talked about,

we've launched the first-ever White House initiative in women's health research to pioneer the next generation of scientific research and discovery in women's health. Think of all the breakthroughs we've made in medicine across the board, but women have not been the focus. Research has been taking much too long to get to you all. I've called on Congress, as we've said, I'm repeating myself here, $12 billion for that effort.

And today, today we're jump-starting that investment by dedicating $200 million to the National Institute of Health to tackle some of the most pressing health problems facing women today. With the executive order I'm about to sign, I'm directing the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve women's health.

Ever taken. And I'm going to ensure that women's health is integrated and prioritized across the entire federal government. It's not just in women's health, ever taken. And I'm going to ensure that women's health is integrated and prioritized across the entire federal government. It's not just in women's health. It's not just at NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency. I mean, across the board, this is

really serious. And I will spearhead new research and innovation for breakthroughs in a wide range of women's health needs and the experience about you, you experienced throughout your lives. Because it really matters. It matters. Because we're focused on supporting women together, our administration has turned around the economy.

Because we focused on women, by the way. Focused on women. We've achieved the long- Greetings, everyone. Greetings and happy Women's History Month. To our incredible President Joe Biden, who, of course, we all know as a tireless fighter for the safety and

well-being of women. To our First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, who is a long-standing, lifelong champion for women's health and women's health research, to the first second gentleman of the United States, my husband, Doug Emhoff, who's been a powerful advocate for gender equity,

and to the members of our administration and all the extraordinary leaders, and I'm gonna come to Maria later, it is an honor to be with all of you. So this month and every month, we honor the women who shaped our nation and our world through their vision, courage, determination, and incredible skill. And upon whose broad shoulders we all stand. So as many of you know, my mother was a scientist, and when she began her career, only 7% of

science and engineering PhD graduates were women. And even fewer, of course, were women of color. My mother had two goals in her life, to raise her two daughters, my sister Maya and me, and to end breast cancer. And because of the fact that our mother never asked anyone permission to pursue her dreams, within one generation, I stand before you as the first woman vice president of the United States. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And as Vice President, I have traveled to 20 countries in every hemisphere in the world, and I believe the measure of the strength of a democracy is measured based on the standing of its women. President Joe Biden and I then have been very intentional, and he's been an extraordinary leader of our country, in ensuring that we do all that we can to lift up the status of the women of our nation, including their economic status, understanding of course that when you lift the economic status of women, families benefit, communities benefit, and all of society benefits.

And so with that knowledge we have taken on issues like student loan debt, understanding women carry nearly two-thirds of all student loan debt. Two-thirds. And we have canceled nearly $138 billion in student loan debt for almost 4 million Americans and counting, an average of more than $30,000 per person and for public servants, including our teachers, of whom more than 70% are women, and one quarter of this stage. And for those who are in public service, like our teachers, we have forgiven an average of over $60,000 in student loan debt.

To lift up the economic status of women, we have also invested in women entrepreneurs and small business owners. Across our nation, millions of women want to start or grow a business but don't necessarily have access to the capital that allows them to do that. So building on work that I did with many of you in the United States Senate and under the leadership of our president, we have now invested billions of dollars to expand access to capital for women entrepreneurs. To lift up the status of women, we have lowered the cost of health care. In particular, the cost of insulin for our seniors. What many of the leaders here know is that a fifth, one-fif fifth of women over the age of 65 have diabetes,

and far too many have had to make the choice between either being able to afford to fill their prescription or fill their refrigerator. We also know seniors who are women are 80 percent more likely to live in poverty. So the President and I and our administration cap the cost of insulin for our seniors at $35 a month. But even as we lift up the women and all people of our nation, there are those who are intent on dragging us backward. At this moment in states across our nation we are

witnessing a full-on attack against hard-fought hard-won freedoms and rights including the right of women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do. Today in America, one in three women of reproductive age live in a state with an abortion ban. Since Roe was overturned, I have met women who have had miscarriages in toilets because they were refused care. emergency room to receive care and were rejected because the health care providers there thought they would be sued and potentially sent to jail if they administered care. And it was only when she developed sepsis that she received care. Just last week, I visited a clinic in Minnesota where I met with medical professionals, courageous and dedicated women who provide critical health care and who see, like we all do, clinics across our country which have been closing and forced to close, leaving millions of women

without access to essential, everyday, life-saving care. So in conclusion, I'll just say this. There is so much at stake in this moment, and we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a country of liberty, freedom, and rule of law, or a country of disorder, fear, and hate? Each of us has the power to answer that question with our feet, with our voice, and with our vote. So let us continue. Let us continue to fight for our freedoms. And as we know from our history, when we fight, we win.

All right, folks, going to a break. We come back. The Department of Justice, the White Division continues to do great work. We'll tell you about another person they're seeing in the prison. We'll also recap this year's NAACP Image Awards. I was there here in Los Angeles, and we'll have more to say about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president.

Of the United States? Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected. Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history. You want to be president? You ain't no man. Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote. You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician? Truly, you can't win. Then why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference.

Creation! This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. The only thing anybody's gonna remember is that there were a bunch of black folks who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! I see too much suffering. And I don't know how to not try. We're living it proud. Still right, still right.

I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible. We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning. I'm going to force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're gonna do all that? I'm a schoolteacher from Brooklyn.

Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic. What is it you do for a living again? Lilliam Golden! The people of America are watching us! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden!

Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden!

Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! Lilliam Golden! My name is Lena Charles And I'm from

Opelousas, Louisiana Yes That is Zydeco capital of the world My name is Margaret Chappelle I'm from Dallas, Texas Representing the Urban Trivia Games It's me, Sherri Shepherd And and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered.

A former Tennessee correctional officer will be spending the next 15 months in prison for one year on supervised release for raping a female inmate and covering it up by falsifying reports. James Stewart Justice, a corrections officer with the Maury County Sheriff's Office, formerly known as James Stewart Thomas, was indicted in May 2022 and charged with falsifying records related to nonconsensual sexual contact that he had with a female inmate in his custody. Frankly, got off easy. He was facing 20 years in prison. I mean, this is this is quite bothersome to me, Julian, that you will have this correctional officer who would rape an inmate and all he gets is 15 months in prison. Roland, I agree with you. When I read about the case, I was horrified. He should be spending at least a decade in prison, and I'm not sure what kind of legal machinations took place. The flip side of that, however, is that very rarely are these folks charged with anything,

and when they're charged, they don't stick, because all these law enforcement people stick together. He has 15 months, and then he has a year of supervised probation. What ought to be added, at least, to this is that he can never serve in a law enforcement capacity again, because, as we know, they move jurisdiction to jurisdiction. He's already changed his name. And so, you know, he's setting himself up for some form of reintroduction into law enforcement. But what little value—we just watched that so inspiring Women's History Month reception at the White House with all our folks, you know, Kamala nailing it, President Biden doing

just a brilliant job. We just watch that. And then we pivot to looking at the devaluation of a woman's body and a woman's life. Fifteen months for a rebated inmate, just because she's an inmate does not mean she does not have rights. And so I find this progress on one hand, outrageously disgusting on the other. Well, one of the things you see, Derek, I mean, this administration, and again, for the life of me, I don't know why they don't talk about it. They've spent a lot of time putting a lot of folks, corrections officers, wardens and others in jail. Again, they just never even bring it up. I don't get it. of folks, corrections officers, wardens, and others in jail, again, they just never even bring it up.

I don't get it. I don't get it neither, Roland, and the sad part is that you have a presumptive nominee for the Republicans who dehumanize individuals. And when who dehumanize individuals.

And when you dehumanize individuals, when you see them less than a human being, you can basically award folks, depending on the pigmentation of their skin, 15 months in jail for doing a very egregious act. I mean, let's face it. I'm a father. I've got four daughters and I got three sons. You know, when I think about where we are in our society and we teach them right from wrong, we teach them how to, you know, basically approach everyone with a certain amount of grace and mercy and love because they are someone's daughter. They are someone's wife, aunt, mother. And so when you see cases like this rolling, and then on the flip side, when you see individuals who do something even less than that, they get 20 years, 30 years in prison. That's the reason why a lot of those of us in

the black and brown community just think that there's two criminal justice systems. You know, Teresa, the press release from the DOJ says, according to court documents, the defendant wrote an official report for the Maury County Jail in response to allegations that he had sexually abused an inmate he had guarded in a hospital room while the inmate recovered from major surgery in his report. Justice falsely claimed that he had reported to two Maury County jail supervisors. The inmate had made sexual advances towards him while the inmate was in his custody at the hospital. He falsely claimed that those two Maury County jail supervisors both advised him not to write a report about the inmate's alleged sexual advances and admitted a claim he later made to criminal investigators that he had a sexual relationship with the inmate after the inmates released from custody. He was lying across the board. I mean, the reality is this here, that is the DOJ can request a number of years, not sure what the request was, but this is what the judge sentenced him to. So the judge could have sentenced him to more years in prison.

So this was the judge's decision on sentencing. I'm sorry, this is abhorrent. 15 years, excuse me, 15 months in prison and one year of supervised release for raping an inmate. Inmates have rights to. You're right. And for them to think that they don't is just an understatement just for that person. I think there is a lot of issues with this case. You know, when people think you're you're in jail facing your sentence is also a death sentence.

We know a lot of times the justice system gets it wrong, but, you know, when it feels like, you know, you are supposed to be doing a time for the crime you committed, that, you know, other things are happening to you inside like it's supposed to happen, that's the problem. And I think that is where, you know, all these reform and advocacy organizations really need to step up and make sure it stops happening. Because those who feel like they have power over you will consistently do this unless we really find the need to put justice into action for us. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, folks, we are here in Los Angeles.

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

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

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne from brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now

isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It was a big weekend. It was the NLSCP Image Awards taking place at the Shrine. And Queen Latifah was the host. It aired on CBS and BET. And guess what? Vice President Kamala Harris made a cameo appearance.

Not on this line. Thanks. Hey, Queen, I have a mission for you. Madam Vice President, you know I would do anything to serve, but I'm about to host the NAACP Image Awards. But that's why I called. You are the only person who can do this job. Okay. Well, off top, I can tell you I can get you some fresh usher sweat about a pint.

Fruit of the gods. I can get you some extra security. You know they clone Tyrone, right? Also, I got the hookup on a silk press. Now, that's one assignment I have never misunderstood. I thank you for that. Listen, here's the thing. All I need you to do is remind people about how important this election is coming up in November.

And if you can ask people to go to vote.gov to register to vote or to check their registration status, that would mean a lot. Oh, that's easy. You know, I got you. Thanks, Queen. Have a great show. Period. Thank you. I'm about to do this. Take care. You be safe. All right. During the show, Queen Latifah certainly invoked Taraji P. Henson in her fight for pay equity for actresses. Secret, we are facing some seriously pivotal issues. Everyone's talking about inflation. You know what's not feeling inflation?

Equal pay for black actresses. Yeah. Thank you, Taraji, for standing up for all of us. You know what, Taraji, as a matter of fact, if you are a black actress in this room, would you please stand up? Thank you so much for working so hard and representing for us. Don't sit down.

Don't sit down. Everybody else in this whole room, stand up for all of us black actresses who have been representing for us. Support us. Join us. Because it's you who stand next to us every day. We know this. And we want to say thank you. Now you may sit down. Thank you so much. See, we're not alone. We are supported. Big night for us. Sure, he won Entertainer of the Year. He also was presented with the

President's Award for his foundation work. My heart is beating really, really fast. But it's good. It beats with passion. I'm very honored to be able to receive this amazing award from the depths of my soul. My passion work is what has mattered for me the moment my mother made me understand what purpose lies with the opportunity to be able to speak to the entire world. I recognize her more than anybody. I know it's on the prompt of, hold on, don't move.

I just wanted to say something before I started, but I wanted to make it known far too often in our industry do women, you know, not get the recognition that they truly deserve. And when we first started, it was even harder for a mother to believe in the dreams that I had because I was unwavering being raised without a father in our home, being raised from a single parent, it was a lot. But she was more defined, if anyone deserves it more than anybody, it's her. Because the tenacity that it took to look within a male-dominant industry and believe in your son unwaveringly,

and no matter how hard those boardrooms may have been, she didn't have the experience. Thank God she had Donald Passman in order to read his book and understand the industry. But because of that, I have this moment. So first and foremost, Mom mom even though I wrote you down in it I want you to know how much I really love appreciate honor recognize appreciate you it is an incredible honor to be recognized by the NAACP and this beautiful community.

All right, folks. In one of the acting categories, Damon and Idris won. Many people thought the other Idris was going to win. Here is his speech. Hi. Wow. Wow, six years. Thank you, God. My mother, she flew from Lagos, Nigeria, 17 hours. To be here with me tonight.

Before she got on the plane, she said, Damcy, if I come to Los Angeles, you better win. Thank you, NAACP, for blessing me. Shout out to my Snowfall family.

This award's been won by so many heroes of mine. James L. Jones, Michael K. Williams, Lawrence Fishburne. I'm honoured to be standing amongst them. I'm honoured to be standing amongst you, people who inspire me every single day, people who make art that I could be proud of, art for the present, the past, the future. It's peace and love. Hopefully Denzel knows who I am now.

And thank you so much for this honor. Love you all. Peace. New Edition was inducted into the Image Awards Hall of Fame. Here's some of their presentation. Wow, can y'all hear us? Wow, ladies and gentlemen, can y'all hear us up in this place tonight? This is such an honor. This is such an honor. So many people poured into us over the 40 plus years that we've been in this music industry.

God, our creator. Our parents who gave us the gifts and the talents that we turned into our purpose. A gentleman that gave us our name. New addition, Mr. Brooke Payne. Gifts and talents without, it's like coal. Without someone to refine it and put the pressure on it, it doesn't turn into the diamonds that we are standing before you guys, right? So we thank you, Mr. Brooke Payne. Come on, man. Come on, man. Talk about it. Come on, man. The NAACP as an organization, 1909. W-E-B Dubois, or Dubois depending on which Negro you hear it from.

You know what I'm saying? or Du Bois, depending on which Negro you hear it from. Sammy Davis, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Ida B. Wells. So many shoulders we stand on top of right now. We thank you for providing us a firm foundation that we stand on today. Those any for lifers out there, come on, make some noise, y'all. Don't forget the bean. Come on, Mike. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen.

You know, I don't normally get to talk, but I had to take the opportunity. Listen, listen, we stand here from Boston, straight out of Orchard Park Projects. We stand here for Washington, D.C. And more importantly, we stand here in brotherhood, okay? Y'all seen our story. You know what we've been through. But we call each other every day. We text each other every day.

We check on our families. And we just want to say, y'all watched us grow up we're still growing get a ticket in the flight and hotel to vegas i got you yeah come to vegas come enjoy this our beautiful wives are there and always know new edition was meant to be here we just had to understand our purpose and it's coming together tonight, y'all. We love you. And finally, Fantasia took home an NAACP Image Award for her work in The Color Purple. Thank you.

I don't, um... I don't even have a speech. Um, because I didn't think I was going to play Celie, but I'm glad I did. Because I kept saying, if I don't win an award, the awards that I will win is the people who will watch Color Purple and the women who will relate to her and will feel like Oscars when they walk out. So, I didn't think I was going to win it. But I want to say

thank you to my grandmother who's in heaven right now and my, who was the first queen that I saw, who carried herself with elegance in class and showed me that went through a lot of things, but I saw her, after everything she went through, walk out as a queen with a smile on her face. She always kept God first, and I will continue to do the same. This does not make me, but I thank you for it. But everything that I went through, God, God, God, and the Holy God. So, so, so, so, I know before I leave, I want to say to God be the glory.

To God be the glory. To God be the glory. For the things that he has done. Big night. A lot of different folks. But the thing here, Julianne and Derek, is that, first of all, awards were given out over a three-night period virtually because there's so many different categories. The pre-show dinner was on Thursday night. Frankie Beverly was honored.

So many other people were honored as well. And it really, Julianne, is about black excellence, not just when it comes to movies and music and television, but it's also podcasts, literary arts. It's sort of a wide variety of folks who are honored. Absolutely. It is an extravaganza. Years ago, I think 2011, one of my books was nominated for an Image Award. It didn't win, but it's just even an honor to be there. And it really is about Black excellence. I regret the fact that the literary part does not have a bigger presence, a televised thing. But as you said, Roland, there are over, I guess, 100 categories. And these are, you know, people. These are the people who are feeding into this.

So it really is about the people. I was happy to see Usher, happy to see Fantasia, and obvious always, Queen Latifah just does the best job of hosting and lifting up. So this was about us, y'all, and that's what we have to remember. This is about us. The NAACP is our organization. I challenge those who are listening who are not members to get you a membership. It doesn't cost that much, and the NAACP is one of our legacy organizations that stands up for us. It has its flaws. There's some gender issues, but it still has been there since 1909. 1909. And so thank you for lifting this up, Roland. This is really You know, I wish they did. I wish they did have a point in the in the televised portion to sort of shout out some of those not entertainment categories, because I just I've long said this, that you've got news specials, news host, you know, the host.

I've won twice. Best news special have won twice as well. I just think that I think that we have to show America, but more importantly, black America, that we're not just actors and singers. And so to Julian's point, if you do that, even if you say even if you just list best new author, if you just take 30 to 45 seconds or even a minute to show those, just the names of the winners, I just think that we have to push our people to think beyond just, again, the actors and the singers. You know, Roland, you have to ask the question, why do we have the NAACP Image Awards to begin with? Right. And the reason why, because no one else really showcase our black excellence. during the televised portion to not only help market those who are in those various categories

that are normally, you know, untold, right? We got a lot of untold history makers in the black community. And so what better way during the NAACP Image Award, during the televised portion, to highlight those who are doing great things on the local level, state level, global level. We got to do a better job in showcasing black excellence. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. Derek, Julian, as well as Teresa, I certainly appreciate you joining us on today's show. You two folks, why are y'all so slow? Y'all should be hitting these likes. We should easily get a thousand likes. All right. So hurry the hell up.

Hit that button right now and let's hit a thousand before I sign off. So, again, let me take my panel, Teresa, Julian, as well as Derek. All right, folks, you've been seeing the the the trailer for the movie Shirley, which launches. Of course, we just focus on Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. It is going to air on Netflix on March 22nd. Tomorrow night, they have the red carpet and in the world premiere screening of the movie. We will be there. We'll be we will be streaming live on the red carpet. I will do the show tomorrow from six to 8 p.m. Eastern. So we'll be here for the show.

I'm going to take a 90 minute break and then at 930 p.m. Eastern go live from the Egyptian theater, which is literally not far from where I'm where I'm staying. So we're going to be live broadcasting that red carpet. And then I'll be attending the movie as well. Looking forward to that. Can't wait to see and chat with Regina King. And so that's going to be great. It's going to be really, really great to do that.

So we look forward to you sticking with us. Don't forget, support us in what we do. Again, YouTube people, hurry up and hit that doggone like button. Let's hit 1,000. We're 13 away. Okay, you want to support us in what we do? Please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Send your check and money order to PO Box 57196,

Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, Martin Unfiltered. Bemos, RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

You can also, of course, watch our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week streaming channel. We're available on Amazon News. Go to Amazon Fire and check us out there. You can tell Alexa, play news from the Black Star Network. You can watch us on Plex TV, Amazon Freebie, Amazon Prime Video. Don't forget to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds available. Bookstores nationwide, Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books a Million, Target, and get the audio

version. I'm reading it on Audible. That's it. I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on the Black Star Network. Roland Martin, unfiltered, live from Los Angeles. Black Star Network News. A real revolution

right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

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