#RolandMartinUnfiltered - MS Rolling Fork Devastation, Chris Christie v. Trump, VA Irvo Otieno Funeral, SC Hate Crime Bill

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

3.29.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: MS Rolling Fork Devastation, Chris Christie v. Trump, VA Irvo Otieno Funeral, SC Hate Crime Bill The town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, was hit by a deadly tornado on Friday that claimed 25 lives across the state. We will speak with the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships Director about the continued recovery efforts and how the public can pitch in to help. After a failed presidential run in 2016, Ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie thinks he can be the next president in 2024. Now he is saying Trump's Presidential run isn't ending well. I will show you what he said and remind Christie about the last time he and I had a conversation about presidential elections, which didn't end well for him. The funeral and memorial service for Irvo Otieno took place in Virginia this morning. We will show you what Otieno's Family Attorney, Ben Crump, said at the service and how the family continues fighting for Justice. Also, a new video was released showing the hours that led up to Otieno's death. We will show you the security footage contradicting what deputies reported about Otieno's behavior. In our tech talk segment, We will speak about an eLearning platform revolutionizing how people learn. The CEOs of Skilldora will explain how they make learning more interactive and personalized through cutting-edge technology. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. self. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. The Mississippi community of Rolling Fork is trying to recover from Friday's deadly tornado that killed 25 people across the state. We will speak with the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

director about what is happening in the recovery efforts. After a failed presidential run in 2016, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie thinks he can become president in 2024 and he says he will take on Donald Trump. Dude, stop lying. No, you not. You know this. Irva Odeono's funeral was held today in Virginia.

We will show you what his family attorney, Ben Crump, said at the service, how the family continues fighting for justice. Also, a new video shows the hours that led up to his death. We will share the security footage that contradicts what deputies reported about his behavior. In our Tech Talk segment, an AI, excuse me, an e-learning platform making learning more interactive and personalized through cutting edge technology. AI, excuse me, an e-learning platform making learning more interactive

and personalized through cutting-edge technology. We'll have the CEO of Skildora right here on the show. It's time to bring the funk. Oh, also, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris still leaves Ghana. We'll show you what happened with her trip and where she's off to next. It's time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Now.

Martel. All right, for the tornado levels of Mississippi community, 25 folks are dead across the state. Hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed. An E4 tornado ripped through the Rolling Fork community of just over 1,800 people, 1,400 of whom are African-American, leaving a trail of destruction for residents

to piece back together. Rolling Fork is about 85 miles northwest of Jackson, Mississippi. Here are satellite images of Rolling Fork before and after the tornado. Look at the massive piles of debris. People are sifting through, of course, salvaging anything they can. President Joe Biden has issued an emergency declaration for the majority black community. Joining me now to talk about what's happening there

is Marcus Coleman, Jr., the director of the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Marcus, when we talk about helping folks after this, what are you providing? Well, Roland, one, thank you for having me on. And what we are providing not just at the federal emergency management agency but across the full federal government is our support directly to the people of Rolling Fork. The people in all of the affected counties in the state of Mississippi. President Biden signed the declaration as you mentioned what that means for individuals and families, if they call 1-800-621-3362 or go to disasterassistance.gov, they can jumpstart their road to recovery now. That is the number and that

is the process that unlocks federal resources for individuals and families. But we recognize, right, like you mentioned, this happened about an hour and a half north of Jackson. When I was with the administrator, Administrator Criswell and Secretary Mayorkas in Rolling Fork on Sunday, what we knew immediately is we needed to get to people and to families where they were. So we have disaster survivor assistance teams from FEMA, not just in the shelters, not just in the communities, but making sure that we're working with faith leaders, community leaders to get to the people in need. And so again, for those that are listening and have friends and loved ones, they can call 1-800-621-3362. But we are leaving no option unturned to make sure that every affected individual could get access to the benefits available from FEMA. And we continue to work across a broad coalition of interagency and non-government partners to make sure that we're able to meet the immediate and the unfortunate long-term needs. Okay. When you say assistance,

what are we talking about here? Very practically. So we're talking about assistance to help with home repairs. If we have, or folks that need rental assistance, people that need transitional shelter assistance. And so when we think about people that have to stay in hotels, stay in lodging, we met with many survivors who lost everything. And so what we recognize and know is that, right, they're going to need all the support that they can get, not just in the days and hours of today, but in the weeks and months ahead. And so, again, 1-800-621-3362 starts the process. And what you're going to see is you're going to see a few federal agencies that are doing deep work in the community. When we were there with the administrator and the secretary,

we also had the U.S. Department of Agriculture state director present, Congressman Bennie Thompson, the governor, full congressional delegation, everyone focused on making sure the unique needs of Rolling Fork and all of the impacted counties were met. But from FEMA's perspective, one of the big things right now is making sure people get registered to access individual assistance. Small business owners, again, we're talking about rural areas, agribusiness. Many black farmers also can access resources not just through FEMA but through the Small Business Administration, who was also on the ground with us in Rolling Fork, and is making sure now that people are able to also get back any economic injury they received as a result of these tornadoes. Obviously, 25 folks have been killed.

And so what's the number of people who were displaced? So when we were in Rolling Fork with the mayor, man, we saw an entire neighborhood gone. And so in terms of specific numbers displaced, I can't give you an exact number. But what we recognize is that this is a traumatizing event for many. And the damage went from complete and total loss of house to there might be some significant damage where it may not be safe to be in their home. Recognizing that many of the individuals and families that have been displaced or might have issues related to access and functional needs, which includes access to medical devices, medical equipment, our state, our director for the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, Sherman Gilliams, is on the ground now to ensure that anybody that has been displaced is also entitled to the additional resources and support to replace

any medical equipment and things that might come up missing. But again, we know that it is thousands for sure that are displaced and looking to figure out what to do next, which is why we know from FEMA's perspective and the full interagency through the Biden administration will be with this community for a long time. When you mentioned, obviously, help for homeowners, for business owners, they also go to Department of Homeland Security or do they go through commerce? How does that work? So for business owners or small business owners, we want to make sure that you're connecting with the Small Business Administration. Again, because this is a predominantly rural community, we're talking about USDA as well. Department of Commerce absolutely is a predominantly rural community, we're talking about USDA

as well. Department of Commerce absolutely is going to be a part of some of the formula to build the road to recovery. I think most importantly for us, from the FEMA perspective, we actually have the ability to convene and coordinate federal interagency partners. So every federal government agency we're mentioning is going to be coming together and more because we realize, right, these are whole lives and whole communities that are upended, and we need a whole of government and whole community support, which is why I am so thankful for some of our nongovernment partners. I've been on the phone with the Bray Connor from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, talked to folks associated with John Hope Bryant's Operation Hope that provides disaster recovery support services. And Chantia Willis from the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency

Management. These are some of the external partners that are helping us make sure that we are mindful and thoughtful to the unique needs of communities that are impacted, again, from a whole community perspective and making sure we provide a whole of government federal response to the states and to the counties. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us, Marcus. Thank you very much, sir. All right, folks, got to go to break.

We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. First of all, support us in what we do. Download our app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the like button, y'all. I see y'all commenting. Hit that like button as well. And of course, be sure to watch

us on Amazon News, our 24-hour streaming channel. If you got Amazon Fire, click Amazon News and you can watch not only this show but all of our content continuously without interruption. You're watching the Black Star Network. Back in a moment. Click Amazon News and you can watch not only this show, but all of our content continuously without interruption.

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

This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys.

This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Coming up on the next Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French on his new book, Born in Blackness, covering 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today is a gift from Black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa.

That's on the next Black Table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Martin! All right, folks.

Welcome back to Roll Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. So, you got to love all of these Republicans who now they want to talk big and bad about Donald Trump. And who's really running his mouth more than anybody else is Lord have mercy Chris Christie. Man, we all remember how Trump just

punked him. Just punked him in 2016. And so, he just got punked. Y'all need to be advancing that video. We should be starting with him, not Whoopi. He got totally punked.

So he's in New Hampshire, y'all, talking big and bad. Talking big and bad. Watch this. To go, I am your retribution. Guess what, everybody? No thanks. He doesn't want to be my retribution. Guess what, everybody? No thanks. He doesn't want to be my retribution. That's baloney.

The only person he cares about is him. You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco. Because that's the only thing that's going to defeat Donald Trump. And that means you've got to have the skill to do it, and that means you have to be fearless, because he will come back, and right at you. What did he do to Marco?

It's like a horror movie. Okay, that was the response on The View today, y'all. So, now, what is he talking about? Now, Trump utterly embarrassed Chris Christie. I mean, constantly. In fact, he punked him after the election. When Jared got him fired as head of the transition team, he kept punking him.

Hell, Trump gave that fool COVID and he had to go into the hospital. Now, Chris Christie, really? Now you think you can take on Trump? You couldn't even handle me in September 2021 on ABC This Week. Governor, but the reality is this. You have to admit, Sarah,

you have to admit the role that you played in putting the person in leadership who is driving conspiracy theories. It's one thing to condemn them after the fact, but you have to own up to the role that you played in putting the person in power. We both ran campaigns against him. No, no, no, no, no.

I'm going to finish. No, no, first of all, I don't have to admit anything to you. Can I finish? First of all, can I finish? And second, I ran against Donald Trump in 2016. You also coached him. I ran against Donald Trump in 2016. Here's the deal.

You ran against him. But when a person has principles, morals, and values, they do not support them even if you lose. And what they say is, I choose patriotism and the country over party and power. And the problem was too many Republicans chose power in riding with Donald Trump as opposed to patriotism in America. I'll sleep fine tonight with you judging my morals. Well, guess what? As a voter who has 13 nieces and nephews, what I also want to see in America are Republicans and Democrats

who have the guts to stand up to narcissists, to folks who lie, to folks who sit here and lead a country in the wrong direction. And what that man has unleashed on this country, any Republican who stood with him has to own it and accept the role that they played. Yeah, well, that's fine. I'll accept the role that I played in the 2016 election running against him. And I'll accept the role. Let him finish his point now. Let him finish his point. And I'll accept the role that I played in my belief

that Hillary Clinton was not the right person to be president. We all get to make choices, Rowan, in this democracy. I made my choice. I'm on record of my choice. And I'm not walking away from my choice. But it does not preclude me from being able to be critical when the person that I did support does things that I am against. And so this false choice that you're trying to set up... It's not false.

It's a false choice and one that the American people are not going to buy either. Roland, let me just press one other point. Right now, I would argue that the fact that so many Americans can't buy into simple facts is probably the biggest existential threat we face to our democracy. So when somebody speaks up for that, isn't it something to be praised? Facts are critically important. But again, when you support someone who said fake news, who when you were truthful and then push that, then when you have the networks and the conservative

radio talk show host, that whole echo chamber driving that, that's the problem. I am a native of Texas who is still registered there and I am dealing with Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick who is consistently lying and making things up and you're dealing with that I'm dealing with people who are changing textbooks and as a and as a well here's the deal I have a very basic principles as I've been a journalist if you do good I'll talk about you if you do bad I'll talk about you at the end of the day I'll talk about you somebody has to say what others are afraid to say you get the you get the last word. If you want to persuade half the country that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 to move to your side,

then you've got to stop villainizing them. You've got to stop having these conversations where everyone who is not with you is against you. And when someone says that Donald Trump did something wrong, you may want to consider praising that and trying to use that to persuade the people who are not going to be persuaded by what you just said. That is going to have to be the last word just to make it obviously continue. I'm sure it will in coming weeks. Lord, Chris Christie was so upset, you thought I took his Krispy Kreme donut. He went complaining to the ABC people.

Oh, I felt he was complaining, said it was a, it was, I got ambushed. He complained more than Umar Johnson did. It was dumb. No, Sarah, I'm not going to credit you for waking up when Chris Christie supported his re-election. He wanted him re-elected. Let's go to my panel. I'm laughing at these people because they can't be taken seriously.

At all. At all. About anything. All right. Rebecca Carruthers, she joins us on our panel. Glad to have you here, Rebecca. She, of course, is vice president of Fair Election Center. Robert Petillo hosts People, Passion, Politics, News and Talk 1380 WAOK in Atlanta.

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

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

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things Stories matter and it brings a face to them It makes it real It really does It makes it real Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2

on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. The thing why I laugh at, Robert, Chris Christie is going to wilt like a wet noodle under the vicious assault of Donald Trump. He did it before and he'll do it again.

Look, Chris Christie can't stand up to, as you said, Jared Kushner. I don't think this is a serious campaign or serious candidacy, because what exactly has Chris Christie done since he left the governor's mansion in New Jersey? What exactly new credentials does he have to justify him being the president in 2024 going forward? What support does he have? Who's going to bankroll or finance that campaign? He is yesterday's news in American politics. And Americans don't look backwards. They look forwards. And even looking backwards, he represents a Republican Party that no longer exists. The Republican Party that he is part of, that he wants to appeal to,

that is the party of John Boehner and Paul Ryan. That's the party of Mitt Romney and a bygone era. Those people are called rhinos now. Marjorie Taylor Greene runs this party now. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Donald Trump. That is the MAGA party that is energizing the base. And Chris Christie, you know, he used to be seen as kind of a moderate voice in American politics, but now he seems to be simply wishy-washy, going along with whoever's in charge. One day you're meeting with Obama because of Hurricane Sandy.

The next day you're following around Donald Trump like a lost puppy. He has no political waters going forward, and I think if he does announce, it'll be comical how quickly he falls out of the race. The problem here, Rebecca, is they don't want to say it like it is.

They don't want to call him a liar. They don't want to say it like it is. They don't want to call him a liar. They don't want to say he's a fraud. In fact, maybe if they go back and replay their comments when they ran in 2015 and call it that now, they might have some credibility. Well, here's the issue here. It's that Chris Christie isn't showing leadership. Quite frankly, going after Marco Rubio at this point is punching down, is not punching up.

Marco Rubio is not the standard bearer for the Republican Party. He's not going to see the inside of the Oval Office unless he has a visitor badge on. Like, he's not going to be president. So to go after Marco Rubio instead of the now front runners to run for president on the Republican side in 2024 by Governor DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, it simply doesn't make sense. And even for him wanting to have brownie points because he spoke truth to power in that moment when he was very critical of the type of president that Donald Trump was going to be. And then it turns out that he was the type of president that Christie attacked or forecasted for Trump to be. It simply doesn't make sense. So the other thing about

Chris Christie is that in 2016, he didn't appeal to Republicans in the presidential primary. I really don't see what the difference is between 2016 and 2024. And I don't understand why he's punching down. He should go take the fight to Trump because Trump is the standard bearer for the party right now. See, the thing here, Joe, is they're gutless. They're gutless. And the thing that I'm laughing about, I mean, and I really am, is because they're scared of his followers. They're scared.

And they're not going to sit here and challenge him. They're not going to call him a liar. You know why? Because it's going to be a little hard to say, oh, he's a liar. Oh, but I supported that liar. I stood with that liar. I mean, you got Tim Scott, center out Tim Scott, talking about he running. What are he going to say when he praised the liar?

They defended the liar. They voted not to impeach the liar. They have no credibility, Joe. That's right. I mean, when it comes down to it, here's what they should have done. A bunch of them should have got together and said, look, we're going to get rid of him right now. And the people are upset. His base would be upset for a minute.

But they'll come back around when he's not on the ballot. They should have decided somebody should have snitched him out, dined him out a long time ago, got rid of him and let that be that. Chris Christie, when he won reelection for governor, he had something going. He was, to a lot of people, the potential frontrunner for president because he was doing it a little bit different than a lot of the Republicans were. I agree with Robert. He is now part of a bygone era. And if you sit and talk about what you did to Marco Rubio, it's like, OK, oh, you and one of the other of the 11 or 12 footnotes in the Republican 2016 race. He was a prosecutor. He put Jared Kushner's daddy in jail.

Why is he scared of Jared Kushner? He blew his brand. He had a brand. He had the right brand. He was going down the right street, and he blew it. You know what I mean? So you don't get to come back around for that. You know what I mean? So you don't get to come back around for that. You know what I mean? And so now the idea that he's going to say it's somebody that was never consequential trying to say it. But here's somebody that actually at one point was consequential.

I didn't necessarily agree with anything he said, of course. But for that party and for what he seemed to be trying to do, I'm like, oh, OK, he might be formidable. But those days are long past, and it is because of how wishy-washy he is. At the end of the day, somebody's got to take their stand where if you disagree with them, Liz Cheney, you can disagree with her all day, but she takes her stands and she keeps her guards up on her stands regardless of what it costs her. That's where the Republicans need to be,

and the fact of the matter is none of them have that kind of heart, and Chris Christie certainly doesn't have that kind of heart. The reality is, folks, they're going to fall in line. And I'm just going to sit here and just enjoy all they do. I'm just going to enjoy to see them dance around the subject, to see them sit here and be unwilling to challenge because that's what they are. They're not going to say anything about January 6th because they defended it. They're not going to say anything.

They're not going to say anything about his constant lying because they defended it. They're not going to say anything about his behavior because they actually sucked up to it. In fact, remember

I'm just going to play this for y'all before I go to the break. I just want y'all to remember a time when Lindsey Graham actually had some credibility. When he wasn't a Trump sycophant. When he wasn't so, and again, so focused on power that he actually had some credibility. You ready for this? Give me one second. Because I really,

because I find this fascinating, y'all. I find it fascinating when I listen to these fools. Go ahead and take it from here. The only way we lose this election is to nominate somebody that cannot grow the party's vote among minorities, young women, and the coalitions we need to win. If you nominate Trump and Cruz, I think you get the same outcome.

You know, whether it's death by being shot or poisoning, does it really matter? I don't think the outcome will be substantially different. Here's my take. Dishonest, which is Hillary Clinton in the eyes of the American people, beats crazy. I think Donald Trump's domestic and foreign policy is gibberish. I think Ted Cruz has a reputation of being ideological to a fault and that when it comes to problem solving, he will have a very difficult time proving that he is a problem solver. When it comes to the immigration issue he has doubled down on a line of attack

that's hurt us with Hispanics. I think he would be easy prey to basically stereotype as being too rigid to be president. I think that is no exceptions for rape and incest will be a tough sell with young women. I'm proudly pro-life but most pro-life people have an exception for rape and incest. He does not. So that entire package of Trump and Cruz in my view would make it possible for her if she's the nominee or, to win an election they should lose. And if you take those two off the table, dishonest loses to normal. So let's just pick somebody out of the phone book.

If we have to, we can win this election unless we lose it. And I think Bob Dole's concerns about Ted Cruz I share. I don't know the extent of the loss, but I just really do believe that he would be easily demagogued. Not demagogued. He'd be easily portrayed as somebody not ready to be president of the United States. Not having the temperament, the judgment. And what has he done as a senator?

He's best known for running down the Republican Party, not building up the country. Well, that's what Graham said then. And then what did he do for four years? Kiss Trump's ass. What did I say? They chose power over party, patriotism, morals, values, principles, and ethics.

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

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

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

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

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.

This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff.

So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.

The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. VenignRM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, re-entry anxiety. A lot of us are having trouble transitioning in this post-pandemic society and don't even realize it. We are literally stuck between two worlds in purgatory. How to get out of purgatory and regain your footing and balance. What emotions they're feeling and being able to

label them because as soon as you label an emotion, it's easier to self-regulate. It's easier to manage that emotion. The next A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. My name is Charlie Wilson. Hi, I'm Sally Richardson-Whitfield. And I'm Dodger Whitfield. Hey everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. Captioned by StreamCaptions.com Today, hundreds filed into a church in Chesterfield, Virginia to remember the life of Irva Otieno.

The black man killed earlier this month while in police custody in Virginia. Otieno's family and friends shared memories of him and expressed their grief and pain at his loss. His family wanted folks to remember him as he lived, not the tragic way in which he died. Ivor was slow to anger and quick to forgive.

To me, Ivor represented more than just a black man in America. He represented a black man in Kenya. He represented sisters in Kenya. To me, Ivo's life gives me purpose. The community has responded graciously. Thank you. We couldn't do this without you. Thank you for dropping food off. Thank you for running errands. Thank you for your phone calls.

Thank you for your emails. Thank you for your donations. Thank you for your support. The image of which I see here in front of me today is exactly who Ivor's neighborhood looks like. To say goodbye to my son, Otieno. When I took my son to the hospital, this is not what I envisioned. I didn't think my son was not coming home.

But son, this is where we are and I'm sorry. Son, you are a great man. You were gentle and slow to anger. When attacked, you responded. You stood up against intimidation. You stood up against hate, racism, and microaggression. The family attorney, Ben Crump, he also spoke. Your head and you say, but he had handcuffs on his wrist. And he had leg eyes on his leg, Reverend Jones. And he was face down. And they piled on top of him. And my God, Councilman Jones, less than three years after George Floyd, why would any law enforcement officer put their knees on a man who is restrained and face down?

But we see it on the video. And they stayed on him, Leon. Not one minute. Not two minutes. Not three minutes. Not four minutes. Not five minutes. Not six minutes.

Not seven minutes. Not eight minutes. Not nine minutes. Not ten minutes, not four minutes, not five minutes, not six minutes, not seven minutes, not eight minutes, not nine minutes, not 10 minutes, not 11 minutes, but almost 12 minutes. They stayed on him. And Reverend Allen, if they say he was struggling, he was struggling because he couldn't breathe. And they try to say, well, technically it's legal. So we go back to the letter from the Birmingham jail where Martin Luther King reminded us just because they say it's legal, that don't make it right. Folks, a Henrico County Sheriff,

first of all, several Henrico County Sheriff deputies have been charged in the death of Artieno at a Virginia State Mental Hospital. It took place on March 6th. Again, his family continues to demand answers. In fact, more security video of him before he was transported to the hospital has been released. The security footage shows deputies entering the cell carrying a pair of pants before pulling him from his holding cell and transporting him to Central State Hospital on March 6th, where he later died during the intake process. Again, seven Henrico deputies and three hospital workers have been charged with second-degree murder in this particular case.

And it is still baffling, Rebecca, that the family had to bury this man today. They're telling us that technically this is legal. They're saying technically we didn't do anything that was illegal. And so anytime that you have to start something with technicalities, you're usually on the wrong path. You're on the wrong footing. And so we're still hearing that technically it's still legal to kill unarmed black men, that technically it is still lawful to kill black men who are in the middle of a mental health crisis. And so we're hearing that the law is going to support them based upon what the Enrico officials are telling us so far. So at some point, just like the letter from the Birmingham jail, we have to move beyond

technicalities and we have to start doing what is right. There was a police union president who posed the question to me and to some others, well, what are you trying to say? That all of us have to be perfect when we go to our job? There's no other job where that standard of perfection exists. And my response to law enforcement officials who believe like that, we're not asking for you to be perfect because we understand that you're human. We're asking that if you have the ability to lawfully take someone's life, you don't kill people. That's what we're asking law enforcement officials

across the country. Stop killing us. Joe? Yeah, I mean, you know, when you're talking about what's legally wrong and what's morally wrong, we know that this is morally wrong all day long. Perhaps we are starting to be,

for as much as we're going through and as much heartache as this is and hearts go out to this family, as much as this is, that it's going on, at least there ultimately were charges. At least there is some action on the criminal front because it looks to be that if, you know, from the prosecutor's standpoint,

that, yeah, perhaps it was legally wrong, and that's why this is going to go down this road. But again, you know, this brother was struggling for his breath. Listen, you know, you might not like the brother next to you, the person next to you. You might have, you know, a whole lot of things you don't have in common,

but one thing you do have in common is that you all need to breathe. And there have a whole lot of things you don't have in common, but one thing you do have in common is that you all need to breathe. And there's a natural inclination for us to struggle to breathe if we are not breathing, because we can't live without breathing. So you put seven or eight folk on top of this brother, and he's going to struggle

to breathe. They translate that, or transmit that as resistance, and now they're doing harder what they were doing before. The more people you have, the more it should be possible to save his life, not get rid of his life. Robert? Well, you know, it reminds me of 1 Timothy chapter 1, 8 through 11, where they say, but the law is good so long as a man uses it lawfully. In this case, we see that this may be technically legal, but clearly they're not using the law lawfully. We have a situation in this country where law enforcement decided that instead of enforcing the spirit of the law, they would rather exist within the gray areas of it, where, simply put, they will use any excuse for the ability to kill black and brown people in this country.

I was on the news in Iran yesterday on press TV, and they're asking us questions about the U.S.'s role in enforcing human rights around the world. And one of the anchors asked me, well, how can we talk about human rights around the world from the United States' perspective when they still fail to treat African-Americans with the types of human rights they demand other countries to do so. And we don't have a good answer for that. How exactly can we criticize China for their treatment of the Uyghurs when we still have African-Americans being murdered by the government of this country on a regular basis? How can we talk about the actions of Putin in the Donbass and in the Luhansk regions? The International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for his arrest, when we still have black people being murdered in the streets by government agents who are acting

under the cover of state law, under the cover of law, with a badge on that is issued by the government with governmental immunity from doing so. We have to clean our own house up before we can go to anyone else's house. And until we can answer that question on the international stage, America will never be that shining city on the hill that we purport to be. Indeed. Indeed. All right, folks, hold tight. When we come back, we'll talk Vice President Kamala Harris ending her trip in Ghana. And now she is in Tanzania. We'll tell you about her day three in Ghana and what is next on her next piece of her seven-day leg to the motherland.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network YouTube. Hit that like button, y'all. We should be at 1,000 likes by now. Shouldn't have to take us two hours to get there. Also, download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

And, of course, you can also watch us on Amazon News. You got Amazon Fire? Go to Amazon News. You can check us out. And don't forget, your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do. Folks, trust me, I am fighting this battle for us to get advertising dollars, but it's critically important that we're able to support us in all that we do. And so please, again, contribute to us.

Senior Check and Money orders, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. And Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Pull up a chair. Take your seat.

The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together,

pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network, aanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network.

My name is Charlie Wilson. Hi, I'm Sally Richardson-Whitfield. And I'm Dodger Whitfield. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

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

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

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

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

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

brought to you by the U S department of health and human services and the ad council. All right, folks, Vice President Kamala Harris has ended her initial stop in Ghana. Today, she met with some women entrepreneurs. Here are some photos the White House provided us of that meeting. She met with some female entrepreneurs, where she also announced more than $1 billion in private sector commitments to empower women across the continent. The investment will help digitize women-owned businesses, provide access to capital, health care and education, and combat gender-based violence. As part of this, the vice president announced a new fund, the Women in the Digital Economy Fund, alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The White House says this fund will help close the global digital gender divide. Now, she left Ghana

and, of course, has made her way to Tanzania. Here's some footage of her arrival in Tanzania. This is on her Next Step. Guys, roll the video. Thank you very much. She's there with the second gentleman, Doug, as well.

They were, like I say, arriving there while they were in Ghana. She made her visit yesterday to one of the slave dungeons. The vice president is going to be in the motherland, hitting several countries over the course of a week. Here's what I find to be interesting. Y'all keep rolling the video here. But here's what I find to be interesting here, Joe. If you watch mainstream media, it's as if she's in hiding. And people are always whining and complaining.

I remember Chris Christie was on ABC. Oh, my God, we never hear from her. We never see her. She's literally in the motherland, making the visit there, and these folks act like nothing is happening. Joe, you're on mute. Oh, jeez.

Oh, I'm not on mute. Now you're on mute. Oh, jeez. Oh, I'm not on mute. Now you're on. Okay, sorry about that. She's, you know, shoring us up all over the world, but nobody's talking about it. And so it is terribly unfortunate because there's this narrative that she's disconnected from the president,

that they're not together on the same page, and that she doesn't bring anything or enough to the table when, in fact, she's a from the president, that they're not together on the same page, and that she doesn't bring anything or enough to the table when, in fact, she's a large part of the reason why Joe Biden won. You forgot Joe Biden never ran a good campaign until James Clyburn and Black America thought that we wanted him to win over Bernie Sanders, and that changed everything, and she was a big part of that. So she's going to continue to do her job. Hopefully the media coverage gets a little bit better. To be honest with you, this is the first media coverage I have seen on it, to your point. And so hopefully that gets a little bit better because she is not this faceless and nameless person. She's the second in power and she's on her job.

See, this is why, you know, what I keep trying to tell people is, Rebecca, why black-owned media matters. It's because who else is covering this? Yeah, the vice president does a really good job and is very well-received each time that she goes abroad. When Kamala Harris was in Asia, she was very well received. And so whichever continent that she goes to, she is very authentic in how she shows up and how she represents the country abroad. And she really connects with folks around the world. And that simply isn't shown in mainstream media within the United States. Even when she travels domestically, we never see the coverage. When she was recently in South Carolina, we really didn't see much coverage in mainstream media with all of the work that she's doing and how well received she is, not just internationally, but even beyond the Beltway. learning to work for administration and to be senior advisor to Kamala Harris's team.

I'm hoping that changes how media starts to interact with the office of the vice president. Robert, I think we have to put this against the backdrop of how important this trip is indeed for the vice president. Just in the last two weeks, we've seen China broker a landmark agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, ending the decades-long Cold War existing within the Middle East. And then going directly from that, President Xi having a three-day trip with Vladimir Putin and then reaffirming their strategic friendship, their strategic partnership. The reason that is significant is if you think back through 500 years of colonial history, and any time there's been an agreement between a European nation and a, quote-unquote, developing nation or a non-European nation, this is the first time that I can remember where the non-European nation is on top in that negotiation, where Russia is now basically a vassal, where China is in suzerainty over the Russian Federation currently because they need their help that much.

The reason China is in this position is because over the course of the last decade, while America was doing, quote unquote, America first under Trump, China was investing in their Belt and Road Initiative, putting trillions of dollars into developing nations in Africa and across the Middle East and South America, building up diplomatic gravitas there. And many of those countries are more closely aligned with China than the United States of America. This trip from Vice President Harris was about reestablishing America's interest and their activity within the African continent, not just militarily where we have troops stationed there, but in the humanitarian front and also on the development front. We cannot go dollar for dollar with China where they're building ports, building airports, building entire parliament buildings on the continent. But this is a first step in reestablishing that America will play on the

economic playing field within the developing world and that we will no longer be on this America first footing that has put us a decade behind in development. Well, the thing that people have to understand here, Rebecca, is that we're talking about Africa, 54 countries, the motherland. We're talking about the youngest continent. The United States had damn well better have some type of relationship with these African leaders. Yeah, we really should understand that by 2050, I think one out of four people on the planet will live on the continent of Africa. And so we really need to understand that Africa should be the continent of Africa should be one of our main trading partners or sets of trading partners across 54 countries. And here's the other thing. I would say for Black entrepreneurs in America and Black business owners, don't wait for the United States government to start that trade partnership, but actually figure out how can we connect business to business with African Americans

and Black folks in Africa. I think we should really go ahead and take the lead on it, because I'm not sure that the types of administrations that we've had had really focused on that. And again, I'm sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, Roland, you can actually do an entire sequel to your book, White Fear and do White Fear Global, because if you look at reproduction rates in Europe, they're at 1.5 percent. We need to be at 2.2 percent to be at replacement levels. So as Rebecca just said, the population growth that we're going to be seeing in the latter half of the 21st century is going to be in Africa and in South America and in Oceania. Because of this, you're seeing many European governments, they're now experiencing the exact same white fear there that you're seeing happening here in the United States of America, whether it's George Maloney, the neo-fascist

Mussoliniite in Italy, whether it's Orban, whether it's Lukashenko, whether it's the Brexit movement, which is about closing off immigration in the U.K. So this is becoming a global white fear pandemic that we're falling into. And when it comes to investment, many of these developing nations, particularly African nations, aren't really in a hurry to go back and be friends with the same people that colonized them and enslaved them. And that's why China has the upper hand when it comes to diplomacy and diplomatic favor across the globe. We're going to see a very different world in the latter half of this century than we've seen over the course of the last 500 years. Well, again, folks, if y'all want to understand why the Black Star Network matters, it's because of this.

First of all, it would have been great for us to be actually on the trip. But you know what? It probably, we're talking from a cost standpoint, anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 to be able to travel there, to be a part of that pool and all of that sort of stuff. That's why resources matter. Our goal is to build to that. But I'm going to tell y'all right now, this happens all the time, folks, where you're not seeing the level of coverage, where you're not seeing folks talk about these sort of stories. We talk about this all the time. This is why black-owned media matters. So please support us in what we do.

Make it possible for us to cover the news that, again, mainstream media is ignoring. Checking money orders, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

We'll be right back. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

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

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. Hi, how's it going? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seals.

Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What's up? Lana Wells, and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Survivor to the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina. They are fighting for a hate crimes bill there in the Palmetto State. That's right. The Senate's, first of all, the Clementa C. Pickney Hate Crimes Act would expand the definition of a hate crime to include crimes based on sexual orientation,

gender, and disability. The Senate subcommittee passed it Tuesday and the whole Judiciary Committee in a 15-8 vote this afternoon, but the bill failed in the South Carolina State Senate. The bill has been introduced multiple times but has not passed due to resistance from legislators arguing that existing laws are sufficient and would impede freedom of speech. Really? Survivors of the shooting believe that a hate crime bill would provide a more

significant deterrent and message that hate crimes will not be tolerated in the state. South Carolina Republicans are considering a version filed in the Senate that includes a definition of sex and a statement that nothing in the bill could violate freedom of speech. Really? Really, Robert?

We're talking about hate crimes bill. And these folks talking about freedom of speech? Really? Well, as we've seen, we have a Republican Party in this country right now. They're seeking to roll back rights, not to expand them. They're trying to get rid of the things we've done in the 1960s and the 1970s. We saw affirmative action before the Supreme Court. That's probably going to be overturned. We're seeing the Dormant Commerce Clause will probably be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. And they're trying to find every way to take out every bit of progress

that's been made over the course of the last century and a half when it comes to African Americans out of the minority group. And the fact is, we are seeing more and more hate-related attacks on people based on gender, based on sexual orientation, based on how people dress, et cetera. We have to provide protections to the updated threats that exist today. The Republican Party has for a certain reason decided that the transgender community is now their new punching bag, which is motivating more attacks on trans people, that's encouraging more attacks on the LGBT community.

We saw the last major hate crimes legislation that we had with Matthew Shepard and James Burdett, which was meant to fight that on the federal level. We have to stop these states from being able to push backwards when it comes to these rights, as opposed to expanding them going forward to provide additional protections. Joe?

If you close your eyes and listen to the conservative church and you listen to Donald Trump, you can't tell which is which. And so they're going to bring up, uh, free speech, which basically amounts to hate speech. So they want to be able to say whatever it is that they want to say. But listen, Jesus wasn't a hater. He had a stance for sure. He wasn't a hater. There would be no confusion if what they were doing and what they were saying was in the right spirit and from the right place. And so here we are again, protecting, you know, people that do mass shootings for racial reasons, like what happened

in Charleston a few years ago with Brother Pinckney, protecting people that would say things that would instill hate, et cetera, you know, all under the name of the Lord. Oh, let's protect free speech. So we'll see. Where there's a will, there's a way. And if there's a will, we'll see it coming out. But the fact of the matter is, we can close our eyes, listen to them, listen to Trump, and there's no difference.

And they are aligned with him and aligned with hate. And so there you are. Rebecca. Roland, I'm so confused. I thought these were the very people who believed in personal responsibility. Look, there's free speech in this country. You can say whatever it is that you want to say, but it doesn't mean that there aren't consequences to what you're saying. So what it sounds like, these people just don't want to have to deal with the consequences of the quiet parts that people used to not say out loud, or maybe they were too politically correct to say out loud. Now they're saying it out loud. And now they don't understand why people

are reacting negatively to the vile speech and the hateful speech that they're spewing. Like, I really want to ask these people, what happened to personal responsibility? Say what you want, but be responsible with what you're saying, understanding that there's consequences to everything that you say. So I just don't understand. It's like take personal accountability there. Well, again, it shows you exactly what you're dealing with in South Carolina, where for the longest, they didn't want to bring that Confederate flag down. And it only took nine black people getting shot and killed in a church, including one of their fellow legislators, for them to finally go, you know what, we might want to go ahead and do this.

But it goes to show you how screwed up Republicans are in that state. And it's really a doggone shame. And I just really wish black folks would use the power of our vote. If we voted out numbers there, trust me, we could kick a bunch of them out of office if we use the power of our vote. All right, folks, the House Oversight Committee

held a hearing examining crime in city management before voting on the D.C. police accountability legislation. The House Oversight Committee hearing addressed some of the district's police reform bills that D.C. leaders began passing in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. The Oversight Committee may block the bill aimed at increasing police accountability and improving community relationships with law enforcement in D.C. Here's some of the BS we heard from Republicans on the Hill.

A hundred D.C. officials have not carried out their responsibility to serve their citizens. Therefore, our committee must fulfill its responsibility to conduct oversight of the District of Columbia. We have a tall task today examining D.C.'s failures. The crime statistics alone are shocking. According to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, carjackings in the district have increased 105 percent compared to this time last year. 56 percent of these carjackings are committed by juveniles. Total property crime... Constitutional scholars urged Congress to admit D.C. to the union,

explaining in a letter that, and here I'm quoting, there is no constitutional barrier, end quote, to admitting the state of Washington-Douglas Commonwealth. In 2016, D.C. held a referendum on statehood. What percentage of D.C. residents voted in favor of statehood? You know, Congressman, I don't remember whether it was 80 or 85 percent, but it was somewhere around there. Yeah, well, it was around that. It was 86 percent. The people of the District of Columbia want statehood. They want voting representation in Congress. They want to govern themselves like everybody else in this country. Congress has the authority to admit the state of Washington, Douglas Commonwealth.

It is time for Congress to pass the D.C. statehood bill. Well, it goes to show you what happens when they still want to tell black people what to do here in D.C. The bill includes provisions such as requiring body cameras on officers, banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and mandating de-escalation training for police. In a historic move, Republicans have brought back-to-back-to-back resolutions disapproving various D.C. bills, which is rare, only happening three times in the past three decades. A month ago, the GOP-led Oversight Committee was also expected to advance a disapproval resolution seeking to overturn D.C.'s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act.

Republicans argue that the bill would increase crime. The bill could move to the House floor for a vote. I just love these people who always talk about local control, local control, Rebecca, except when it comes to D.C. Well, Roland, it's not even just D.C. Any black jurisdiction in the country is now dealing with this. Or even when we think about Black prosecutors that we now have across the South, like in Georgia, where we see now there's

a piece of legislation that's advancing to the governor's desk that would have oversight for local prosecutors. We're seeing that happen de facto with state attorneys in Florida. So we see wherever Black folks have power, then all of a sudden we're seeing that there are conservatives and there are members of the Republican Party who are saying, oh, no, we don't want to take the power. Joe? Yeah, I mean, really, at the end of the day, you know, they find their pragmatism, their inner pragmatism when it's time for looking for police accountability. D.C. government passes things related to that.

And so now here comes Congress to have oversight and to break their only, you know, regular rule about local government control. Meanwhile, the biggest crime that I saw take place in the last couple of years in D.C. was on January 6th. But they don't want to talk about that. You know, in the South and in other places in the country, again, they are going after oversight. Well, they're actually overseeing judges where they're trying to get to a place where even locally picked people, people that were picked by local citizens, often black citizens, don't have the say that they're supposed to have constitutionally. So it goes on and on and on, and I think we're going to continue to see it because of this fear, this white fear that you talked about, this fear of people being in charge, being in charge of

their own destiny, and how that shakes out, particularly as it pertains to making agencies and institutions accountable that they don't want to be accountable. Robert? It's interesting to me that this entire conversation that you hear from the Republican Party about, well, there's crime and there's carjackings, et cetera. But then when it comes to Donald Trump, all of a sudden, all that law and order talk goes out the window. Hey, hey, hey, you don't need to prosecute him for all the crimes that he did. You know, what are we even doing? These prosecutors, they are weaponizing the government against us.

So which is it? Are you saying that the police in this country, prosecutors in this country are weaponized against its citizens? In which case I will in large part agree with you and think we need to reform it. But they only mean that when it comes to Donald Trump, the January 6th protesters, and whatever crime they're doing at any given time. We have to have some consistency when it comes down to it. The entire D.C. issue can be solved via statehood, but they don't want to do that because they don't want another black state. They don't want to throw off that balance they have in the Senate. They don't want to throw off the Electoral College. So they would much rather grandstand in Congress than actually do

something that will fix the problem. All right, speaking of Congress, Congresswomen Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley, they have launched the Gender Equity and Justice Caucus in Congress. Pressley and Bush explain why this caucus is vital during a news conference today on The Hill. So we're here today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Because we believe it is time that Congress affirms the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

And we are organizing Congress by launching this caucus to make sure that equality becomes enshrined in the supreme law of our land. It is time Congress makes constitutional gender equality a national priority. It is time that Congress centers the people who stand to benefit the most from gender equality. We're talking about and including black and brown women, the LGBTQ plus community, people seeking abortion care and other marginalized groups. We're here because from the start, people like me and many of my constituents were intentionally written out of our nation's founding document. That ain't right. The absence of foundational equality allows discrimination to persist and injustice to fester.

One example of this discrimination and injustice is the fact that on average, women make 77 cents on the dollar in comparison to men. Now, we've heard that over and over again. So as striking as this statistic sounds, it only really became real to me when I sat down and I actually did the math for myself in my own life and I realized exactly how much was missing. Pass that mantle over, that it's important that this movement in this moment be led by those and centered by those who stand to benefit the most from the past of the ERA and who have been ignored, left out and left behind in our founding document and often not given the credit they deserve in this fight. So we pay that tribute to many of these sheroes in the people's house to register officially into the congressional record their contributions to the movement because

for so long we have either been erased or relegated to a footnote in history. And so I hope this representation, this demonstration here today of a truly multiracial, multigenerational coalition affirms that there will be no erasure any longer. All right, folks. Got to go to break. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to be on YouTube. Hit that like button, y'all. We want to be, we want to

hit 1,500, 2,000 likes every single day. It impacts the algorithm. And don't forget, you can also do the same. Hit the sharing button on, first of all, let me see, because, you know, Facebook keeps tripping, you can also do the same. Hit the sharing button. First of all, let me see. You know, Facebook keeps tripping, you know, especially with our numbers. And I keep telling you all what Facebook is doing. Facebook is actually blocking our content from getting out.

And I'm always showing you this. And just so you all know, here's a perfect example. Y'all see it. So yesterday, yesterday's show, you saw us talking about Seattle police reform and Vice President Kamala Harris. Okay, see, this is what I don't understand. You want to show that Facebook trip show? So this is a perfect example.

Yesterday's show, we talked about Seattle police reform, Vice President Kamala Harris in Ghana, a lawsuit in Virginia, education bills in Texas. We covered your post because it may show graphic content. There was literally no graphic content in yesterday's show.

I'm curious. That's how confusing it is for me and Facebook. I don't understand why they would cover it, but, you know, that's what they do, okay? So it's nuts. That's what they do. So I'm always checking to see for them, because like I say, they love to sit here and block what we do.

And you sort of, when you go to the page, you sort of pull in here, you know, you pull up to see how many people are watching. And I told you they're blocking our content. So here's a perfect example, all right? Go to it now. Right now, 80 people, 81 now are watching us on Facebook. Yo, we got 1.3 million followers on Facebook.

So Facebook is deliberately suppressing our content. And so they're not even letting our people know that we're even live. So just understand what happens with these various platforms. Now, if I go to our YouTube channel right now, let me give me one second. Don't go to it yet. I want to pull up. So right now we've got more than 1,700 on our YouTube channel. Don't pull it up yet because

they got a... Let me take the airplay off. I got to keep it on. So look at our YouTube channel. You'll see what they've got. I don't think you can see the chat room. About 1,700 who are watching our YouTube channel right now. We've got a million subscribers on our YouTube channel.

So what does that tell you, 1.03 million? What does that tell you about Facebook? That's why, y'all, we can't be beholden to these platforms. So I need y'all to understand why we've created these additional things and so that's why if you if you go back to the to have it on here I should have it on here so why do we create our black start network app we created our black start network app so we aren't dependent upon a platform for being able to get to you. Let me say this again.

Now, I'm going to tell y'all this because, again, I keep telling y'all how much stuff costs. So if you go to my phone here. So this is right now. So I'm on my iPhone. This is our Blackstar Network app. Our Blackstar Network app, y'all, cost us $161,000 a year. $161,000 a year.

So when you hear me talking about making contributions and donations to our show, this is one of the things that we're actually paying for. $161,000 a year. We do this because we don't want to be in a situation where we are beholden to a platform. If Facebook is blocking our content, then you can't see our content. Follow me over here.

This is also why we now have our 24-hour streaming channel on Amazon News. And so we go over here. So you'll see right here, okay? I'm in here, okay? So when I click, when I click, so when you go to Amazon News, so we decided, so we launched our 24-hour streaming channel. And so on these fast channels, Amazon is a fast channel. They got FreeV, they got Prime Video. You've got Philo, Fubo, Pluto, Zumo, Samsung TV Plus. You've got Vizio TV, LG. All of these are what are called fast channels.

So fast channels are these streaming platforms that allow for you to watch your content. Well, guess what? If you go to Amazon News, if you go to Amazon News, we actually have our 24-hour streaming channel on Amazon News. And so when you go to Amazon News and you go down here and you go right across, you see ABC, NBC, CBS, Bloomberg, all of these people. Guess what you're going to see on here? Black Star Network. We're the only, so you see all of these networks

that are down here. They're all here, okay? And so all these networks, we are here as well. You're talking about we're the only Black News and Information Network that is on here. When I go up to here, go back to news, when I go up to the top here, you'll see when I go to live,

if I go down to live under my channels, you see the Brio down there, but then you see Black Star Network. So we're on here as well. But our OTT platform is important because we completely control our OTT platform. This is our way of getting our content out to our audience that we will not block by any platform. So we got 1.3 million people who follow me on Facebook, 1.03 million subscribers on YouTube. We would really prefer to have a million downloads of our app.

That way we're guaranteed to get our information out to you and nobody is controlling us. And so, your support matters. Check your money orders. Go to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash chat is dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal or Martin unfiltered. Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal or Martin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. A lot of these corporations or people that are running stuff push black people if they're doing a certain thing. What that does is it creates a butterfly effect of any young kid who, you know,

wants to leave any situation they're in, and the only people they see are people that are doing this. So I gotta be a gangster, I gotta shoot, I gotta sell, I gotta do this in order to do it. And it just becomes a cycle, but when someone comes around and is making other, oh, we don't, you know, they don't wanna push it or put money into it. So that's definitely something I'm trying to fix too, is just show there's other avenues. You don't't, you know, they don't wanna push it or put money into it, so.

That's definitely something I'm trying to fix too, is just show there's other avenues. You don't gotta be a rapper, you don't gotta be a ballplayer. You can be a country singer, you can be an opera singer, you can be a damn whatever, you know? Showing the different avenues, and that is possible, and it's hard for people to realize that it's possible until someone does it. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, re-entry anxiety.

A lot of us are having trouble transitioning in this post-pandemic society and don't even realize it. We are literally stuck between two worlds in purgatory. How to get out of purgatory and regain your footing and balance. What emotions they're feeling and being able to label them because as soon as you label an emotion, it's easier to self-regulate. It's easier to manage that emotion. The next A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Let's go. Kavya Hopewell has been missing from Knoxville, Tennessee, since February 1st. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 10 inches tall,

weighs 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She also has a nose piercing. Anyone with information about Kavya Hopewell is urged to call the Knox County, Tennessee Sheriff's Office at 865-215-2243. 865-215-2243. You know, we were talking about earlier, we were talking about, again, to us, is that we're operating in a world where we are not setting the tone. What I mean by that is we are not the ones who are in control of the messaging. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit with, there was a black press, a black media gathering. It was black-owned media, but also black journalists who work for mainstream media outlets,

who had a roundtable with Secretary of HUD Marsha Fudge. And the reason that was important is because the opportunity to find out what they're doing. And the thing here, Robert, is that there's so many things that are happening in the administration that you're not seeing on these other platforms.

And it's why I keep saying to the Biden administration, I think this to governors, to mayors and others, if you're waiting on mainstream media to cover it all, you're going to be waiting. Because the reality is on television, they cover the same three, four, five, six stories all damn day. And I'm like, what are you doing?

And so when I'm out here talking about black-owned media and advertising, you know, I get these people, man, you out here always begging, but they don't understand. We see example after example of things that are happening in our community that no one knows about. Secretary Fudd said something yesterday. She said of the four women who were in the meeting yesterday, they control 7% of America's gross domestic product.

That was in the meeting we had yesterday. And so there are things that go on every day that we don't even know about because if we don't have black radio and we don't have black newspapers, what we do here, we're not going to find out about what's happening, which is why Kathy Hughes had the statement, information is power. Well, Roland, now you're seeing why Noah became a drunk. Imagine telling people every day that it's going to rain and nobody's listening to you. And I stole that from Reverend Jackson,

in case y'all were wondering. I'm not that crazy. No, it's not. Is this the second biblical reference Robert has used to show today? Just say you went to Bible study last night. It's Easter season, Roland. Hey, look, if black trying to get saved, so can I.

But, Roland, look, I think that this goes down to the fact that this administration has had an abysmal press shop since they've been in office. If you look at the national media, everything down from late night comedy to your 24 hour news networks, they still cover Trump as if it was 2015 leading up to the 2016 election cycle. If Trump sends out a tweet, you get 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week coverage around it. Meanwhile, literally in the last two weeks, Joe Biden's administration saved the banking system from collapsing, and it got completely covered up by one tweet from Donald Trump. Secretary Blinken had a landmark agreement with the Philippines to

reestablish U.S. naval presence there, completing the string of pearls there which meant to contain China's expansion within the South Pacific. That got no coverage. There was a deal put in place to sell U.S. nuclear submarines, subconventing France, to Australia, rebuttracing American naval power within the region. No coverage. So at some point in time, the administration has to understand you have to get your press shop in order, where instead of you waiting on these cable networks and for individuals to cover these things, you are sending out surrogates. There should be a surrogate from the administration on your show three or four days a week. They should be hitting

up all black radio stations. I'm on a lot of different Black radio morning shows throughout the country, throughout the week. And all of us say, no one's ever had the press secretary on. No one's ever had the vice president. No one's ever had a spokesperson for the administration. So as long as they continue to fail at just the most basic parts of PR and the most basic parts of getting your messaging out there, they can't be upset when their poll numbers are still in the toilet because nobody knows what you are doing.

If nobody knows what you're doing, how are they going to support it? All they're going to continue to get is the MAGA narrative. Remember, Donald Trump comes from TV, comes from media. He's a game show host. He knows how to control the media cycle. President Biden's going to have to get somebody on his team

who's able to do the same thing. But the thing here, though, Joe, this is not just a function of the Biden-Harris press shop. The problem is, if you do not have black media that covers these issues, there's nobody to send.

So what I'm trying to lay out here is that when you look at, and again, I'm just going to use the vice president's trip. Now, I know Essence is on the trip. Their CEO on the trip, the reporter who's on the trip, okay? The reality is, that's it. NNPA, the black newspapers,

don't have a correspondent on the trip. I can't think of, you know, Urban One, which owns more black radio stations, does somebody on the trip? And so what I'm saying is that when we're dealing with what's going on here,

when you have a dwindling number of outlets, when you do not have the resources that are going there, you're not going to get the coverage. So when people then go, oh my goodness, we ain't know about this stuff. It's because we literally are hoping and praying mainstream talks about it. As I said,

CNN, MSNBC, Fox ain't even covering what the vice president is doing. So what do they say? A tree falls in the forest, nobody heard it. This is why I keep imploring our people,

wherever our eyeballs are at, that's where the money is going to be. And as long as we keep giving our eyeballs to love and hip-hop, Real Housewives, money's going there, then we can't complain about, man, how do we not know about this stuff? It comes down to the money. If you don't get the ad money,

you can't build and grow and sustain yourself. Go ahead. That's what Gwen Guthrie said in her songs. She said, my favorite part of it is no romance without finance, right? And so we have to have Black media to be able to

build because, among other things, if we aren't there, our story's not getting told. I believe in, you know, I tell my daughter, she's getting ready to start at a station actually in South Carolina, and I tell her, you know, you got to be objective about the facts themselves because the facts are the facts, but be subjective about the stories that actually need to be told. Tell stories that aren't being told, stories about us when we're the growth segment, when we're getting bigger, when there are more of us, when we're doing things that are significant. The vice president of the United States is thriving in a white institution and can't get a story told about what she's actually doing. And so we have to continue. And Trump, when my, you know, when my parents got serious with me, they would tell me that I was ungrateful.

And every now and then I do the same thing with my daughter, and it works every time. I've never seen it fail. But Trump is as ungrateful as he can possibly be. The media made him. They made him. They follow him. They continue to follow him.

He said they're getting ready to arrest me on Tuesday. No indication they actually were, and everybody covered it like it was getting ready to be in the apocalypse. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, all these things that are going on and the administration are going on, and nobody's talking about it. CNN's not talking about it,

but they say breaking news at the top of every hour. MSNBC's not talking about it. Mainstream media's not talking about it. And so it's pretty frustrating to see that for where it is, but it underscores the importance of what we're talking about it. Mainstream media is not talking about it. And so it's pretty frustrating to see that for where it is, but it underscores the importance of what we're talking about, because our stories don't get told unless we're there, unless we're at the table, and we're

not going to be able to be at the table the way that we need to if we don't have the ad dollars to build and to grow. So I'm going to unpack this thing when we come back with our Where's Our Money segment, and I'm going to unpack this thing when we come back with our Where's Our Money segment. And I'm going to mention a major company that everybody black has used their products. And we're asking, what does your black-owned media spend?

We buying your stuff, but what are you doing? Wait till I show y'all the name of this company. Oh, y'all know who this company is. But it's amazing. What are they doing with black-owned media? I'll explain. You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered 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 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 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. We're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us.

Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Ways $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM

Unfiltered. Zelle is Rolandland at rolandsmartin.com. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday

on Blackstar Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Hey, everybody, it's your girl, Luenell. So what's up? This is your boy, Irv Quake. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now.

You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks. Welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered. So, are you familiar with this company? Do you have my... Do you have it up? Okay, here we go. Y'all familiar with this company here? Let's see here.

Okay. For some reason, we're not able, why is it not pulling up? Let me just double check it here. Give me one second, y'all. I know, I'm gonna pull it back up because it keeps going in and out, so. Okay.

All right. All right. So, let's see here. Airplay is, ah, see what's going on here. So the Clorox company, of course, company. I think Anthony is the distance from where it is.

So we use Clorox, all right? I'm going to walk back over here. I need to show y'all what I'm talking about so you can understand what's going on. So we talk about the Clorox company, okay? You may go, okay, I heard of Clorox, but, you know, what are you talking about? The Clorox company, isn't that just, they just sell products and then, you know, cleaning products and stuff along those lines? Well, that is what they do. But they are a $19 billion a year corporation. Let me say it again. $19 billion a year. In fact, you should be able to see it now. This is their market cap. Okay. That's right. Their market capitalization is $19.21 billion. Their stock price trades at $155.50. And so, now why is that important?

It's important because we spend a lot of money on Clorox. Every black person I know has used Clorox products to clean something in their home. We still do. And we have been reaching out for the last couple of years to Clorox to talk about, you know, their spin with black on media. Crickets. Now, black folks use a lot of the products and we've been looking at, you know, we've been challenging all these corporations, and many have stepped up to commit to spending with black-owned media, General Motors, McDonald's, Coca-Cola. Group M announced several of their companies will be spending at least 2%, that number.

They say the number went up to 5% with diverse groups. And you're talking about Clorox. Now, here's what's interesting when we talk about, again, these companies. went up to 5% with diverse groups. And you're talking about Clorox. Now, here's what's interesting when we talk about, again, these companies. And I need y'all to understand when these companies are doing certain things. So go to my iPad. So this is their website right here, okay? Now, what you'll see right here is when you go down right here, you see that?

Ooh, inclusion, diversity, equity, and allyship. Let me click that. And so all of these companies, they have all of these DEI statements, diversity, equity, inclusion, and what they mean and their goals and gender and ethnic minority, pay equity, gender and ethnic minority representation,

inclusion index. Let's go ahead and click that inclusion index. Not sure if they have it. Let me just click more, what their goals are. And again, leadership team and all this sort of stuff like this. And so here's the inclusion index. In terms of the inclusion index for women was 82%. People of color, 76%.

The total company was 81%. I have no idea what the hell that means. I have no idea what that means. Their inclusion index. See, I told a company this year. I told a company that I don't praise you because of press releases. I don't praise you because of, you know, posts you put on social media. I said I praise you based upon direct deposits.

It's really what you do. And what we should be doing as African-Americans is challenging these companies in every way. Not just what money do you spend with black-owned media, but you have law firms you do business with. Are you using black law firms? You have PR firms. You have event planners. You have transportation companies. You have catering companies. You have an array of accounting. Do you have black accounting firms? There's an array of professional services that all these companies utilize. And what often happens is when we start asking these questions, all of a sudden you start looking at numbers. And the numbers don't all add up in these companies.

And so we're challenging them. Because like right now, you can go to my iPad. I mean, this is the executive team of Clorox. This is them. The CEO, Linda Rendell. And, you know, you're going on here. And so the executive, the black executive is a sister. She is the VP and chief diversity and social impact officer.

Now, let me explain why that's sort of a problem. And again, I don't know the sister. I got nothing against the sister. But the problem in corporate America is that these are not what we call P&L responsibilities, meaning that you don't have any profit and loss responsibilities. So when you're in one of these jobs,

how is that really an important factor? So when you don in one of these jobs, how is that really an important factor? So when you don't have any African-Americans who are on, when it comes to the executive team, who are in those P&L responsibilities, well, then it is a problem. Now, again, when I think about the board, they do, here's the board. Go to my iPad, please. This is their board of directors. And so you see who their board members are. Various people.

And there is a brother on here and I've met Christopher before and I plan on reaching out to Christopher. Christopher J. Williams, he's the chairman of Seabrook Williams Shank and Company, LLC. Like I said, I've met Christopher a number of times. And again, the thing that we said, I met Christopher a number of times. And again, the thing that

we are, why this is important is because, folks, black board members must also, and I'm not just calling Christopher, I'm talking about all black board members, must be pushing these companies to deal with this. Because if we're not discussing the money,

y'all, we ain't having the right conversation. And Robert, Rebecca, and Joe, people keep saying, man, you know, because I saw you on The Breakfast Club, and I saw you on Ebro in the mornings, and I saw you on Vlad TV, and man, you keep talking about this stuff, and man, I don't understand why you begging and why you doing all this. And I keep trying to explain to them, when you're talking about

social impact, when you're talking about social justice, if you're not having a black economic social justice conversation, ain't a damn thing changing, Robert. You're absolutely correct. One of the things that when I first started in civil rights, I was an intern for Janice Mathis, the current executive director

of NCNW. And what we would do is a corporate report card of Fortune 500 companies within the Southeast detailing the number of, as you just did, African Americans on the board of directors, African-Americans in senior leadership. Do they have a diversity and inclusion initiative at that corporation? Whether or not their supply chain is diverse, et cetera.

And the last time we updated it was a 20-year update, and the numbers had only barely changed. Other than some companies put in place a diversity and equity and inclusion officer, board members still 90-plus percent white, corporate leadership 90-plus percent white. And the reason that this is significant is, for people who are wondering, those media outlets you consider to be Black media outlets, where they're not fundraising or where they're not asking for money, often that's because the people behind the scenes are not reflective of the people in front of the camera. And therefore, the people in front of the camera do not have full editorial control. They do not have the full ability to tell the stories that our community needs to hear because there is this stereotype in white media

that Black people don't like news and information. The only thing we care about is entertainment, celebrity gossip, sports, those sorts of things, and occasionally Black violence porn, but that we do not care so much about hard-hitting Black news. This is why so many efforts at Black news have failed over the years because of this belief that we simply put do not want and do not believe in it. And I think it's time for us to stand up and make a clear showing that we want real news to come to our communities and we will support real news when it comes to our communities. What I'm trying to unpack here, Rebecca, for everybody who's watching, is that $322 billion is spent every year on marketing. And black-owned media

gets.5 to 1%. If people want to know why there's only one black-owned media out on the trip with Vice President Kamala Harris, if people want to understand why you don't have a single

black-owned media person that covers Congress, if people want to understand why when the Megan Thee Stallion, Tory Lanez trial happened, Black-owned media wasn't covering it, it's because you can't afford to pay people if you don't have the money.

I think it was Dr. King who said that budgets are moral documents. And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Because what a budget does, it shows what your priorities are. And if Black folks, if Black-owned businesses, if Black media is excluded from any budget, it's letting us know that we are not a priority, that our Black doctors, our Black lawyers, our Black business people, our Black media companies, our Black public relations companies, our Black public affairs companies aren't a priority for that particular business. And at some point, we do have to hold these businesses

accountable. Because when we think about the wealth gap in America, it's not just because of the gender pay gap, but it's also because our Black businesses aren't receiving some of the same breaks that white businesses aren't getting. And this isn't just an issue with corporate America, but it's also an issue with our government and our government spending that they spend on media but don't do that same level of spending, that same percentage of spending for Black-owned media. And so, go to my iPad, please, before I go to Joe.

And Joe, this is the Clorox. This is what they spend every year on advertising. According to this chart, in 2019, they spent $581 million. Now, this is according to this chart here. Now, I was looking at another before I go. So come back here. Now, according to this, in 2022, it says, come on, go to my iPad, that Clorox spent $709 million in 2022. So here's the deal.

If African, if black-owned media, Joe, got 10%, let's just say 10% of the money that Clorox spends, that's $70.9 million, okay? Just for our audience's sake. If, let's just say, of the $70 million, let's just say, again, it's 10%, y'all.

$70 million. It's black-owned media. We're talking about, now mind you, multiply that by, let's just say, there are 30 companies that are out there spending the same amount of money. So if 30 companies, if $70 million was spent by 30 companies,

that amounts to $2.1 billion. Black-owned media will get 10%. That's $210 million. Then we'll be able to afford staff, be able to afford marketing, be able to grow. And so I'm very curious, and I'd love to find out, and we're going to reach out to them because we're trying to reach out to them. I'm going to hit the sister. I've already texted a couple of people. Robert used to work with Reverend Jackson there. I know Christopher Williams has done stuff with Rainbow Push before.

We need to get his number because we need these black board members asking the very same questions I'm asking in their board meetings, who's the money being spent with? If you don't follow the money, Joe, then you can't have a real conversation. Now, I want to be left out on the scriptures. I'm going to Matthew 621. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So we're going to know by looking at the budgets of where the money is and where the money is going. And at the end of the day, you know, here we are in another situation where you plant a seed

and you're supposed to get it harvested. It's one thing if we don't buy Clorox. There's a bunch of things we can talk about. Well, black folk don't really get into this. No, we all got Clorox. Now, sometimes we don't use it. You go to your cousin's house and it's not cleaned up the way it needs to.

And what do you tell him? You tell him, go get the Clorox, because I know it's here. Me, I was using the Clorox over the weekend on the edge of my toothbrush, straightening out my deed as superstars. Can I be real? You know what I mean? We've all got Clorox. We all use Clorox, okay? And so, plant a seed, get a harvest.

You know, there was a time when we bought a third of movie tickets all those years ago and didn't have any Black-owned theaters. You know? Um, so, you know, at the end of the day, we have to be serious. I appreciate you trumpeting this horn because it has to be trumpeted. The fact of the matter is, if they do the drop in the bucket that they're actually supposed to, which would be commensurate with the investment that they have. Clorox is truly a product that transcends color. We all have it, all right? And so, therefore, if they do what it is

that they're supposed to do, and that's why we have to press that button, we would be a lot further along, and the stories that need to get told would get told. And so we have to continue to press that button. Well, we're going to keep pressing it, and we're going to keep calling and emailing, and then we're going to keep precedent and we're going to keep calling and emailing. And then we're going to report back to you and tell you if they actually answered our phone calls or emails.

And if they didn't, we'll be having another conversation. Tech Talk is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we've seen we're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson

at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Bye bye, compa. Hi, I'm Vivian Green.

Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. sometimes as dads i think we're too hard on ourselves we get down on ourselves on not being able to you know we're the providers but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves a wrap away you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

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

This is an iHeart Podcast.