#RolandMartinUnfiltered - NAACP Suspensions, Black Airman Killed by Fla. Deputies, FAMU's $237M Donation, Meta's subscription

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

5.9.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NAACP Suspensions, Black Airman Killed by Fla. Deputies, FAMU's $237M Donation, Meta's subscription Several former NAACP leaders say the civil rights organization has unjustly suspended them.  In an RMU exclusive, we will speak to six of them tonight. #BlackStarNetwork partner:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase A Texas District Attorney stood before the Tarrant county court commissioners defending his decision to try to re-convict Crystal Mason. The only black commissioner to question his motives will be here.  Another black man is killed by law enforcement.  Florida deputies enter the wrong home and kill Senior Airman Roger Fortson.  Ben Crump will explain how the deputies are trying to cover up their deadly mistake.  Florida A&M's board met today to talk about the multi-million dollar donation from Gregory Gerami and the Issac Batterson 7th Family Trust.   In our Tech Talk segment, Meta is expanding its paid verification service for businesses. Manager and founder of Fanbase Isaac Hayes III will join us to discuss this change.  https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (link) and Risks (link) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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

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. Today is Thursday, May 9th, 2024,

and coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live with the Black Star Network as we speak. The Florida A&M University Board of Trustees is having an emergency meeting regarding the $237 million gift that was presented to them over the weekend. Lots of questions have been raised regarding that gift. They are literally going over this relationship with the individual who gave the weekend. Lots of questions have been raised regarding that gift. They are literally going over this relationship with the individual

who gave the money later. The show will talk with a young man who has been posting a lot of comments. A lot of information on social media regarding Gerald Romney and his past and whether or not his donation is legitimate. Also, several former NAACP leaders say the civil rights organization

has unjustly suspended them in a Roland Martin exclusive. We'll speak to six of them tonight. A Texas DA stood before the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court defending his decision to try to reconvict Crystal Mason. Y'all, eight years after she voted, she, of course, didn't realize she could not vote. Mason y'all eight years after she voted. She of course didn't realize she could not vote. The only black commissioner to

question his motives will be here. Also, another black man is killed by law enforcement in Florida. Deputies entered the wrong home and killed senior airman Roger Fortson. Ben Crump is the family attorney will explain how the deputies are trying to cover up their deadly mistake.

Also, our tech talk segment meta Facebook. They're expanding their paid verification service for businesses. Will talk with the fan base CEO Isaac Hayes about this change. It is time to bring the funk rolling Martin unfiltered with Black Star Network.

Let's go. Whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks.

He's rolling. It's on go, go Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best

You know he's Rollin' Martin Now He's real the best, you know he's rolling. Martel. Martel. All right, folks, as we speak, the Florida A&M University Board of Regents, they are meeting regarding this $237 million donation that they received from a donor over the weekend. Guys, go to my iPad, please. This meeting is taking place as we speak. Lots of questions are being raised from alumni and others regarding the donation, because again, this is a large donation to any HBCU. A lot of people, though, are asking again, where did the donation come from?

Is it a legitimate donation? So a lot of questions, a lot of questions are being asked as we speak in this board meeting. We, of course, we are following it as they actually take place because we want some answers as well. Later in the show, we're going to be talking to a gentleman. He has been posting a lot of information on social media with regards to the donor, with regards to the donor. So as we speak, go right to my iPad. As we speak, the board members, again, are getting answers from the university with regards to how the relationship started, in terms of what's the valuation of these stocks. He is a private company, but I've been listening for the past hour,

and I certainly have some additional questions that are not being answered on this call, and so we shall talk about that later in the show. All right, folks, let's now talk about what's happening in the NAACP. Of course, the NAACP's motto is leading the fight to end racial inequality. But a group of former leaders say they have been unfairly suspended, harassed and defamed by the civil rights organization, the group, which includes more than 20 folks from across the nation, they've got stories of unfair treatment and unexplained suspension of their leadership posts and membership. Six of them join us tonight. In studio, Rachelle Belal, the former youth advisor and chair of the Axo competition from the Philadelphia branch.

She says she was suspended from sending out an out-of-date sponsorship form letter to raise money for youth. Leroy Candler, the past president of the Fresno NAACP chapter, says he was suspended for transferring funds from the NAACP to his personal account. He says that never happened, and he has a letter from the bank manager proving his innocence. Joining us, of course, on the line is Lou Walker, the president of the Antelope Valley NAACP branch, saying she was suspended after filing an internal

harassment complaint. Anthony Douglas, a past board director of the NAACP in Oklahoma, says he was suspended a day before the national convention after challenging president and CEO Derek Johnson and will be joined later by Nashville's past president, Vanita Lewis, who says she was suspended after challenging the direction of Tennessee State Conference President Gloria Sweetlove. Also, Betty Williams, the past president of Sacramento NAACP branch, says she was suspended three days before an election

after filing harassment charges. All right, glad to have all of y'all here. So first and foremost, NWSCP, obviously, based there in Baltimore, national office. And so the CEO, you have the CEO, you have the board, they have jurisdiction, obviously, over the branches. And so when it comes to both of you, what was the process that took place

that led to your suspension? First of all, thank you for having us because we do appreciate this. The process was not. There in the Constitution and bylaws in the NAACP basically states that there's an issue with any member that you have to file and they have specific way that you have to file what is considered an article 10 in the Constitution and bylaws that has to be filed with 20 members in good standing about what it is that you do most of these the article 10 was not filed if you are a friend of Derek Johnson which was was told to me, that you can go to him or go to Gloria Sweetlove or deal with Erica Kane, you can go to them and tell them about

something that they can make up that you did or didn't do, and give it to Derek Johnson. We recommend you suspend this person. He just signs it. He just signs it. No question, no nothing. In my case, if there was an error, I have aides that work for me. If there was an error, why don't you just call me and say, hey, you know you can't use a suspended member on your memo, and that would have been corrected because it's a template. So you're saying that what you sent out was a member that had been suspended,

their name was on this form, and that's why you got suspended? Yes, that's why I got suspended. As opposed to just correct the form? Call me so I can correct the form. First of all, my aide don't know nothing about NAACP suspension. So she wasn't aware the person was suspended.

So why not call me? 20 plus years in the NAACP, secretary that fell off your branch for more than 20 years. And let me make a correction. I was never over Axel's. I was over the youth council for 15 plus years. I've always raised funds to make sure the youth council go to the conventions, do what they need to do in the city.

Yes. Leroy, you said, according uh, that you were suspended for transferring funds from the NAACP account to your personal account. Uh, that was the allegation. Who made the allegation? Uh, Rick, uh, Callender made the allegation. Who was that? Rick Callender, president of the California, uh, conference. All right. So, made the allegation. but you say you have a letter from your bank saying the money was not transferred.

He even had legal regrets, chair, to get on a conference call with the bank manager, and the bank manager told him that he had the proof. She sent me a copy of the proof, I forwarded it to him. He showed the proof to Rick and E. Steele when it had me suspended. He later on had their attorney, Asante, ask me for the letter. I sent it to him and sent him to the proof,

and I also sent the proof to Ms. Alice Hoffman to verify that this never happened. Nothing happened. I sent letters to Mr. Williams and Derek Johnson asking for a hearing and asked to be heard, never got any response. I sent a written request, requesting that I be responded and that I be heard. Did either of you make an appeal to the board of directors?

When you get the letter, it tells you you have to make it within 15 days. I made it within two days. Right. And I made it within two days. And nothing. To who? To who? To, at that point, it was Quincy Bates.

You had, letter came from Quincy Bates. Who's that? He's somebody on the, was worked in a nationalates. The letter came from Quincy Bates. Who's that? He's somebody who worked in a national office that dealt with memberships. I got all this documentation because e-mails is stamped and timed. Got it. So sent that back, requesting a hearing. Never got a hearing.

Here's the kicker. Never got a hearing, and I was suspended right before I got to the national convention last year. Never got a hearing. But in August, got a letter said that they had a hearing without me. They deliberated and decided to suspend my membership for six years. Six years. You hear me? Six years. So you said it was a hearing?

They had a hearing. But you didn't know about it. Let me say this. This is a national organization about civil rights, but yet you violate the civil rights of your members. I'm not a subscribing member. I'm a life fully paid member. Been there plus. In Philadelphia, there are two other ones.

40 plus years, Shirley Jordan was the treasurer of the Philadelphia branch because she questioned the newly elected president of the Philadelphia branch who wanted a $500 check, which is against the Constitution and bylaw. That president made up a lie on a letterhead, took it to the bank, committed fraud. Me, Shirley, and the secretary of the branch who questioned her and did do an article 10 on the fill off your branch, we are suspended. Yes, she did because she's telling everybody that Derrick Johnson is a friend and nothing's gonna happen to her.

And guess what? Nothing's happened to her. So Leroy, how long you suspended? Unknown, it's never stated how long I was suspended. So you don't know? I don't know. They just sent me a letter saying you were suspended. When I write a letter to find out, no one can tell me to the district how long I was suspended.

Nobody has an answer for that. Lou Walker, you were suspended for filing an internal harassment complaint. What type of harassment complaint was it? I didn't have an internal harassment complaint. My letter said I was suspended for requesting that our branch secretary resign since he did not live in California. And I was actually responding to the community calls for help, crisis calls.

I couldn't challenge my suspension. I didn't get responses when I inquired about it as well. So how long were you suspended? A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,

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

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

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

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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

MMA fighter Liz 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. I've been suspended since August, but they didn't tell me how long my suspension is supposed to last. Betty, what about you? I was also suspended. I was running against the now state president of California, Hawaii. They are also saying that there was financial, my understanding through media, that it was financial issues. However, I also had harassment charges and complaints internally to the NAACP that they never responded to.

So, hold on, stop, stop, stop. You said you had harassment complaints that you filed or filed against you. Which one? I filed against the California Hawaii president. I internally filed three separate times. And you would say harassment complaints, what kind of harassment? Harassment as far as putting information out there

that was not correct. The example, I was also the election supervisor during the election period. And it stated, he put out an email saying that I was not fit to be the chair for the election chair because I was running against him. And the ballots had not been opened. They were sealed. They were supposed to be private and not open until a certain date.

And so I questioned how did he know that information? National did not respond. He kept bullying me so much so I had to bring individuals to the meetings and I had to make a statement and ask them to put it in the minutes that I'm being bullied. He's accusing me of things that I did not do according to the bylaws. And I wanted discrimination charges at least documented in the minutes. When those minutes came from the secretary from the election committee, it never happened. I continued to move forward. Then I started getting cyberbullying, and it came from a dark web. I had to hire an attorney who took the cyberbullying and sent it to the Department of Justice, as well as the AG, the attorney general, because in California that is a criminal act.

And so once I continued to do that, three days before the election, I was poised to win. I would have won. But three days before the election, there was an emergency agenda item saying that I should be suspended, not just me. He wanted the entire Sacramento NAACP branch to be suspended. However, it was myself, six others from the Sacramento branch, two of which had wrote support letters in my defense to the national board and Derek Johnson. They were suspended the next day for supporting me. A number of people rallied behind them and said they never should have. And then they repealed

those two suspensions. So they suspend, just like Rochelle was saying, someone can give them information without investigation, without due process, without any of that. If they had known in the beginning, especially those two, that they had to repeal the suspension, they would have known all they were doing was writing letters on my behalf. And it was personal for them to be suspended that next day. Anthony Douglas, you allege that you were suspended a day before the national convention because you criticized the president and CEO, Derrick Johnson. Good evening there, Roland, and thanks for having me.

And that is correct. I've been the president of the Oklahoma State Conference as a former member of the National Board of Directors. I received an email saying that I was suspended. I've written them over eight times, certified letter, requesting that they tell me why I'm suspended. And still to this day, I cannot get a reason for why I'm suspended. And I was also suspended for six years. So, and what's interesting to me here as I'm going through information here is what is consistent with all of you is due process. Now, based upon the rules of the organization and bylaws, does it spell out clearly what the process is when it comes to suspension, when it comes to appeal?

Who do you appeal to? And then do you appeal to the national office? Let's say they rule against you. Can you then appeal to the board of directors? What's that process? First of all, the Constitution and bylaws give you specifics. Now, the president can suspend you

if he thinks it is detrimental to the organization. But if your friends bring you stuff and you suspend people, why would you even get involved? No, no, no. Here's my whole point. No, no, no. So you have the authority to suspend. What I'm talking about, what is the process after that? If they suspend you, in the letter it tells you you have 15 days to appeal. Okay. You appeal to that. And who are you appealing to? National office. That's correct.

What, director of membership? Quincy Bates at the time worked for the national office. Carmen Watkins. Okay, so what's that person's title? You would appeal to Carmen Watkins, who's the operations person, vice president of

operations is where the letter comes from. And Rochelle is correct. There are specific dates that you go by, 15 calendar days, and then they should be responding within 10 calendar days of receipt. So there's a number of deadlines that the individual has to follow as well as national. What has been happening is that individuals like myself and everyone on this panel and others have responded within the guidelines that's presented in the bylaws. However, the same deadlines have not been given by the national. They do not follow up. We appeal.

My attorneys appeal. And we are waiting on an answer on the appeal. But they don't even tell you if you have a complaint against you, you're not allowed to see the complaint. You are not allowed to have an attorney to speak on your behalf. in front, like my branch was threatened if they said anything out loud against me or against, I mean, or support of me, that the entire branch would be shut down. So there's these bully tactics for people to be silenced. And so much like you have to ask permission for a boycott or a rally that I know you've already experienced, you have to ask permission.

And but yet you're the NAACP, you're a civil rights organization. This is worse than apartheid. So have any of you communicated any of this to national board members? Have any of you tried to attend a national board meeting? Have y'all gotten anything from any of them? Anybody? Let me say this. Yes. I got those.

Okay, hold on one second. Hold on, go. I have the whole package of everything that happened in the Philadelphia branch, and I sent it to all the national board members. Philadelphia branch is under receivership, but it's now called administratorship, which is the same thing. You know what the administrator says to me?

The national board want to know why you sending them this. Because I want to let you know what's been going on. So you sent, one second, to every board member. Every board member. Did any board member respond to you? None. Who else said that they reached out to the board? Who else? I reached out to, this is else said that they reached out to the board? Who else?

I reached out to, this is Betty Williams, I reached out to the board. As a matter of fact, I flew to Atlanta because I heard they had this emergency suspension on the agenda. I took a midnight flight, flew out there, actually had a conversation with, sorry about that, with Gloria Sweetlove, says, I understand you may or may not have an issue with me and or my branch. I'm here. If you have any questions, any concerns regarding me or my branch, I'm here to answer them. She answered me by saying, no, we've taken your issue off the agenda. I was physically there. As a matter of fact, Roland, when I finished meeting with them,

I ran into you in Atlanta in the lobby after talking to them. Oh, yeah, that's when that, because that was the same time Rainbow Push had their meetings there as well. Got it. I remember that. Who else said that they reached out to the board director?

Someone else did. I did. Go ahead. What happened? I filled everything out. I submitted my request for a hearing. I even recorded it. I sent it certified mail.

I recorded myself at the post office, and I was not getting responses. I documented my calls that I made to the national office as well. And I was just given to run around repeatedly. And this is why I joined the NAA team in the first place, because I was experiencing the same lack of due process as a state employee. Go ahead. I'm We, go ahead. I'm sorry, go ahead. Let me just say this. I served on that board.

Board members is not going to intervene or get involved, even if you reach out to them because they don't even know why you suspended. You don't know why you suspended. So even if they know, they still not going to get involved

because they don't want to get a letter saying that they are suspended. So a lot of times board members will not even ascertain or talk to you about why you got suspended. One of the things I wanted to say also, because you asked the earlier question, what the appeal process is, but first of all, when you get your letter, it says you've got 15 days to request a hearing. It doesn't give you the authority or the process to have an appeal. So you have to request a hearing within 15 days. But in the meantime of waiting for that hearing for whenever they want to schedule a hearing, then you have to continue to write as everyone else have done, call, email, text, or whatever, and say, tell me,

send me something in writing. Why am I suspended? So I can be able to prepare for a hearing. So my lawyer can be able to prepare for a hearing to assist me in the hearing process. And you still get nothing in writing. So I wanted to make sure that you understood that the process of the 15 days, once you receive that letter, you have to request a hearing with that 15 days. If you don't submit for a hearing, then you will be notified that you refused to participate in a hearing. And everybody has submitted their information within them 15 days. Let me say this. Even in the Constitution and bylaw, after you submit, the national Constitution and bylaw say that they supposed to do something within 60 and 90 days, which they don't do. They don't do that at all.

In my case, after, I guess it was like 60 or 90 days, they had a hearing, which I wasn't privileged to. They deliberated and decided to spend me for six years. Wait a minute, what civil rights organization has a hearing without you decide on your faith and you not even included on it? What are they doing? Let me just say this. The one thing NAACP has taught us, when you fight, you win.

We are fighting. Though it's a lot of us, but we know that there's more people out there that have been going through this with the national office, and we want them to contact us. Can I get that information out? We want you that's been going through this, because we know you think you're going through it alone. You're not. There's a whole group of us around the country. You can call us and email us. You can email us at justice, J-U-S-T-I-C-E, the number four, N-A-A-C-P members at gmail.com. You can also call us at 323-696-2078. They taught us this. When you fight, you win.

We are fighting, we are fired up, and we are not taking any more. I'm trying to figure out the National... Derek Johnson gets a $460,000-plus salary. More than the president. Salary. More than the president of the United States. He has board members that approve that.

I'm trying to figure out, are they a cult or they're just scared? How do you increase somebody's salary to 460 plus when all of us are volunteers that don't get paid at all? Don't get a dime. We reached out to the NAACP this week several times and right before we went on the air, we got this statement. Go to my iPad, please.

Trevon Williams is the SVP for Marketing and Comms with the NAACP. He said, I want to make sure you receive our response. I believe our Office of General Counsel emailed, but in the interest of time, the NAACP firmly denies any allegations of defamation, harassment, or improper suspension against the individuals mentioned. Furthermore, each individual has received or is receiving due process in accordance with the NAACP bylaws. The NAACP does not comment on specific internal disciplinary actions for its members. Currently, the black community is facing tremendous challenges, including attacks on voting rights,

diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, crucial upcoming elections, women's rights and most recently threats to free speech. To effectively tackle these concerns, we must maintain the strength of both our national and local branches. Our focus remains on empowering our

branches to effectively address and assist the needs of our community, and to encourage to encouraging all eligible black voters to cast ballots and assist the needs of our community and to encourage to encouraging all eligible black voters to cast ballots in the 2024 election, the most important election of our lifetime. That's the statement from the NAACP national office. Final comment. I'm sorry. Someone was saying. Let me say that. I just reviewed that statement, as you have read it also. I've been a member of this NAACP since 74. I'm a retired Vietnam, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Gulf War veteran, 100 percent disabled.

I volunteer my time. I've served as the president and interim president for the state of Oklahoma NAACP for going on 19 to 20 years. To see that statement, to shirk around with that statement, to say you're not going to comment, you're not going to address these issues, the Constitution bylaws give you that authority. When you raise the question about the 2019 organization in Delaware, then they threaten to say if you bring that up, you talk about the Delaware Corporation, we're going to suspend you. You question my authority, you're going to suspend me.

As the state conference president of Oklahoma, I have never had a sit-down, one-on-one talk with Derek Johnson as president. You do not treat volunteers the way we have been treated. We're volunteers. We care. We're the one on the ground fighting and walking and putting our families' lives in danger behind representative members in the community. Not just Derrick Johnson. We're out here in the field. You don't tell me

that during the George Floyd situation that the work that we did in the field did not help raise the money. Derrick Johnson personally say it's because of him that the NAACP got the money, not what we do as leaders out in this field. So don't tell me that I don't count. This is a volunteer organization. We should have due process. You cannot belong to a volunteer organization and be told you have no rights, you have no due process. You cannot belong to a volunteer organization and be told you have

no rights, you have no due process. We can degrade you, talk down to you, and treat you like we want to treat you just because you're a volunteer. Volunteers have rights no matter what organization we're in. Even in a clan, they volunteers have rights. So we should have the same right in the NAACP. Lori Walker. I just wanted to say this is exactly why we joined because our branch was not responsive. L.A. County has some of the highest racial disparities in the country, and we have very little representation from the NAACP. I was sending Senate reports. I was sending data, and I was not getting any responses. And they actually exploited. They started hurting some of the cases.

One of the stories was on your show, Yayo Russell. She was one of the stories that NAACP representatives didn't even contact the family for. And they went on the news in a press conference without the family's permission. So I want to stress that it's one thing to not be. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. 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. Active and effective in the black community. It's another to hurt and harm the black community under the guise of being a civil rights organization. Betty? Betty? In their response, there's a couple of things that they said as far as what they do. And so one of the things I would like to see them do, at least in California, there's at least five harassment charges from five different women that hasn't been addressed.

I'm one of the five and have documentation to prove it. So one of the things I'm sorry, you say five different harassment allegations, five different women. Five different women. Against whom? In California. In California. Against other members? Against who?

Against some individuals on the executive committee, the California Hawaii president. And so for them to say that they are busy fighting charges when there's harassment against women, one, try to look in your own backyard and deal with the women that are filing those charges internally. At the very least, acknowledge that it happened. Secondly, they're talking about they're fighting for elections, but yet internally there's so many things that's going on with their own elections. They are changing the script according to the bylaws. There's individuals who name a total of 46 names were taken off of a ballot with no explanation at all.

Leroy himself was suspended because he was a secretary challenging the election process. I was challenged. And things were just changed, people's names taken off of ballots. And so internally, when you appeal it, they throw them out. We appealed certain things that should not have happened when it came to the election, internal election process. And they would throw it out and said it had nothing to do with anything. And finally, the committee that handles the suspension is called the membership committee. And personally and collectively, we feel that they should eliminate that entire committee because they are actively not doing the due diligence.

They're taking on personal assignments. And if you don't do right by those individuals, they will go forward with suspensions without due process. We're saying it should be a third-party entity that has a legal arm that looks into the investigation of any and all suspensions. That's what we're looking for. Leroy? Yes. I would like to say that I sent my appeal to Derek Johnson, Russell Williams, and Carmen Watkins. They did have me speak with one of their attorneys. I believe his name was Asante.

And once I sent him the letter to prove that I was vindicated, I did the bank letter that I had proved that I did not take any funds in the bank. And when I asked him what he was going to do now that he had the proof, and he said that that depended on Mr. Callender to see what he had to say. And he was supposed to be a representative of the National, and he was telling me to go back to the same president that had suspended me wrongfully because it was retaliation for what I had done is exposing the names of these people that had been taken off of this list, which is a much broader conversation than what we

have right now. Rochelle? I'm going to say this and close out with this here. We know that there's people around the country that are experiencing this because a lot of these chapters are in chaos. Philadelphia, you know the election is supposed to be every two years. Philadelphia is going on the fourth year of not having an election because the friend of Derrick Johnson is the president.

The friend that we filed charges against for fraud is still the president. I'm saying that all of those around the country, you are not by yourself. We are keeping our options open. What we are not trying to do is tear down the NAACP because it has done good works across the country. But this administration, Derek Johnson, Sweet Love, Erica Kane, a so-called lawyer, Hoffman, all of them are on the click. Anytime you want to hang on to that $460,000 plus salary, when all of us out here put our money out of our pocket to continue to do the work of the NAACP, you are not alone. Call us 323-696-2078. Email us your information, justice for NAACP members at gmail.com. When you fight, you win. We are not going to stand here and allow that clique

to continue to oppress members that are out here doing the work. All right. Well, look, we certainly appreciate y'all being on the show. Certainly keep us abreast of what happens next. We keep our offices open. Trust me. All right.

Thanks a bunch to all of you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Folks, got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to discuss what's happening in Tarrant County where the white DA there continues to defend the prosecution of Crystal Mason. This is going on eight years.

Now, after the appellate court throughout the conviction, he argued at the county commissioner's meeting that they should, that he will continue to appeal the decision and try to prosecute her. We'll talk to one of the Tarrant County commissioners who challenged him in that meeting. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. A lot of y'all have been asking me about the pocket squares

that we have available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here. It's all about looking different. And look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying to tell fellas, change your look, please. You can't wear athletic shoes every damn wear. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square, these shiboris, because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares.

But also, I like them a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey at Essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser. I saw this feather pocket square, and I said, well, I got some ideas. So I hit her, and she sent me about 30 different ones. And so this completely changes your look. Now, some of you men out there, I had some dudes say, oh, man, I can't wear that. Well, if you ain't got sw swag, that's not my problem.

But if you're looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket squares saying, see, check mine out. And so it's always good to see them. And so this is what you do. Go to RollersMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. You can order Shibori pocket squares or the custom made pocket

squares. Now for the Shiboris, we're out of a lot of the different colors and I think we're down to about two or three hundred. So you want to get your order in as soon as you can, because here's what happened. I got these several years ago and the Japanese company signed a deal with another company, and I bought them before they signed that deal, and so I can't get access to any more from the company in Japan that makes them. And so get yours now. So come summertime when I see y'all at Essence, y'all can be looking fly with the Shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket square.

Again, rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. Go there now. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Rolling Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back. trustees meeting where they are asking a lot of questions of President Larry Robinson and his staff with regards to the funding of this donor gift of $237 million in stock that took place over the weekend. The president has announced

on this call that given the scrutiny, given this heightened scrutiny, they are putting the processing of this donation on hold. These board of trustees members had no idea about this donation. There are lots of questions. I can tell y'all right now, there's actually not real money here. Okay, so just so you understand what's going on, there's not actual real money that's going on here. And so this was a $237 million in stock that was given to the university, but stock in a private company. Well, there are lots of questions of what is this company? Is it a real company? What's the valuation of this company? And so we're going to talk further about that when we talk to a gentleman who's actually monitoring this. He's been posting a lot of information on social media.

We'll talk to him later in the show, so we're just going to keep you updated on that. Now, folks, let's talk about the continuing mess in Tarrant County where Crystal Mason continues to be terrorized by the Tarrant County DA. Now remember, it was eight years ago when Crystal Mason voted in the 2016 election. She thought she could vote. She filled out a provisional ballot. The ballot was never counted. But she was prosecuted. As a result of being indicted,

because she was already on parole from a federal tax fraud conviction, she was sent back to federal prison to complete that term. Two years was added to her sentence. They've been fighting it. They won in the Court of Appeals. Now, Tarrant County DA, Phil Soros, stood before the County Commissioner's Court this week to defend why he wants to appeal that decision and why he continues to terrorize Crystal Mason. The Court of Criminal Appeals told the Fort Worth Court to perform a sufficiency analysis.

Specifically, they told the court to determine if the state proved with sufficient evidence not only that Mason knew that she was on supervised release when she voted, but also that she actually realized that those circumstances, the fact that she was on felony supervised release, that those circumstances rendered her ineligible to vote. A sufficiency review reviews not uncommon the standard is well settled it's it's something that courts do regularly the appeals court in a sufficiency review there to look at the evidence so they look back at the evidence, they're not in the light most favorable to the verdict. So they look back and say, okay, we know what the verdict was.

The verdict was that she was found guilty. Now is there sufficient evidence to support that verdict? But that's not what happened in the second court of appeals this past March. Instead, the court reweighed the evidence. They acted a fact finder i like that piece of evidence i'll take that i don't believe that piece of evidence i'm going to push it away that's not what you do in a sufficiency standard they credited and discredited evidence just like they were the fact finder this is not a fact question we are not here to talk about facts this This is a legal question, a matter of legal principle, sufficiency of the evidence.

Their decision was a deviation from well-settled law on sufficiency reviews. So why is the state, why am I appealing this case? Well, I'll give you three reasons. Number one, I want would-be illegal voters to know that we're watching and that we'll follow the law and we will prosecute illegal voting. I want those that vote legally to know that we're watching and that we're working to make sure that your vote's not going to be diluted by any illegal votes. And finally, this is a deviation from the well-settled law regarding sufficiency reviews,

and it needs to be corrected. This case, if it's left standing, impacts every sufficiency case in the state of Texas, not just voting cases, murder cases, theft cases, capital murder cases, any kind of case, this case, it's a published opinion, can be cited for a proposition that this is how you review sufficiency cases, and it's wrong. So we need the Court of Criminal Appeals to come in and tell the Second Court of Appeals that you need to do the sufficiency standard evaluation again.

Happy to answer any of your questions. Questions for Mr. Soros? I have a bunch, but I'll wait until after public comment. But let me ask you this. How she did not vote. She submitted a provisional balance I keep hearing chatter in the audience I'm gonna start watching and start removing people that's not what we're gonna do so sit there let the process play out you'll have your opportunity to speak. Listen to what others are saying. Do not speak out or you'll be removed

from the chambers. Go ahead. So she didn't vote? She did vote. She cast a provisional ballot. It's the same with voting. That did not count. Where is the ballot, sir? What happened to the ballot? I can't tell you what happened to the ballot. What do they do with the provisional ballot?

I don't know where the ballot is, no. Chandler, do you know what they do with provisional ballots? I'm not an election administrator, so I don't know where the ballot is, no. Chandler, do you know what they do with provisional ballots? No, not now, ma'am. I don't know. My apologies. It didn't count. Is that correct? You're wrong.

The Court of Criminal Appeals dispelled that quickly and said this was a vote. The question was not did she vote, it was did she actually realize that while she was on felony supervision that she wasn't allowed to vote. Okay, so the ballot was never cured, so it wasn't counted, so she didn't vote. She did vote. How else does the Court of Appeals weigh the sufficiency of the evidence without weighing the evidence? They look at the evidence most favorable to the verdict. So they're not trying to figure out, did they get it right? They look to see if there's evidence. So you find your conclusion in an argument.

They have a conclusion. Guilty of the offense. So now they're going to look and see, is there evidence that supports that? Now, a normal trier of fact would say, look, this person testified and I don't believe anything they had to say. Or this person testified, I believe everything they had to say. Or you have another witness that says, I believe some of it, but part of that doesn't ring true. That's what a trier of fact does. That's not what an appellate court does.

An appellate court looks at the law, not the facts. It is sad to say that it is still true today, but Brother Malcolm X said this. The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman. You see, historically, we have been your mammies, your maids, and your mistresses. But today, we are your doctors, your lawyers, your judges, your teachers, your professors, your county commissioners, your vice president, and your Supreme Court

justice. Indeed, we are the backbone of this democracy we call the United States. So instead of wasting our taxpayer dollars as DA Soros just went after, going after a black woman who's been acquitted of an eight-year ordeal, why don't you go after the candidate who was declared ineligible to run for Mansfield ISD trustee place two, who did vote in the March Republican primary despite being ineligible at the time. I believe Crystal Mason did not know she was not eligible to vote. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 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. When she cast a provisional ballot, she only voted a provisional ballot, and it was never cured, and her vote was never counted.

She served time in jail, and her case went through the courts and appeal process. I believe the only reason DA Sorrells wants to reverse her appeal is because he wants to engage in voter suppression. He just wants to instill fear in voters. I'm adding my voice of disbelief to the action of the district attorney in seeking to restore Crystal Mason's conviction. As the appellate court noted in reversing the conviction the state's evidence was not sufficient to quote prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew that being on supervised release after having served her entire federal sentence of incarceration

made her ineligible to vote by casting a provisional ballot when she did so. Yes, voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. And that is exactly why the prosecution against her never should have happened. Our Tarrant County DA's office stated, and I quote, voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws don't apply to them. Now, when your office was given information about Angel Hidalgo, a disgraced and eligible

Mansfield ISD school board candidate for place two. You chose not to act. Even our local school board, which does lack integrity, chose to at least find Mr. Hidalgo ineligible. And even if he received the most votes, he would not have been able to actually take a position on our local school board. The public is not on your side on this issue, DA Sorrells, which is concurrent with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling which acquitted her of any wrongdoing. Why is our DA now appealing this acquittal? Maybe it's because the so-called Voter Integrity Task Force, which has prosecuted zero offenses, grasping at straws to justify the expense of our county taxpayer dollars.

Maybe it's because we like to target minority women of color to intimidate them not to show up at the polls. Maybe it's an homage to Trump's call to Tarrant County when he lost the vote to Biden in 2020 to look into voter fraud in line with his lies that the election was stolen. I am tired of our county officials wasting tax money while targeting people of color as their expression of allegiance to Trump. I am tired of black Tarrant County citizens being disenfranchised,

dehumanized, and incarcerated based on illegitimate and incompetent charges. The money wasted on useless voter suppression tactics would be better spent on a public defender's office specializing in mental health. I... With me now is Tarrant County Commissioner Elisa Simmons. Commissioner Simmons, glad to have you here. It is abundantly clear that this is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. Have you, Commissioner Brooks, or any other commissioner,

asked this DA to tabulate how many hours have been committed by the Tarrant County DA's office to this single case? Not yet. What I did Tuesday was ask how much of our taxpayer dollars will be committed to this frivolous, wasteful pursuit to overturn the appeal. If you have time to listen to that entire exchange, he said something about committing one attorney to this case. He wouldn't give a number and made some asinine comment again about saying he's going to commit one attorney

to this appeal. Just ridiculous. It wasn't nonsensical. This was 2016. We've had the 2018 midterms, the 2020 presidential election, the 2022 midterm election. Now we're moving towards the 2024 presidential election,

and they are still doing... It's like, dude, it's one person! One person. Look, this DA... And as you said, the ballot never counted. It was a provisional ballot. It was never processed. It was a provisional ballot. It was never processed. It was never, it never went through.

This guy is trying to make a name for himself. And he sees this as an easy way to do it, I guess. They ought to be embarrassed. Look, this guy, Judge Sorrell's DA, the DA, the sheriff, the MAGA sheriff, Bill Wayborn, and our county judge, who you just watched be rude to the audience because they moaned or sighed or something like that. These three guys came up with this election integrity unit. So we now have this election integrity unit that we, you know, we have to pay staff to staff it. And they are supposed to go out and receive, identify cases of alleged voter fraud. This county has had probably three to five voter fraud cases in the past decade.

There is no proliferation of voter fraud in Tarrant County. So I guess they're going to keep going after poor Ms. Mason to try and prove something. It doesn't make sense. The public commenters said it much better than I can. You heard them. This is a waste of taxpayer dollars versus sufficiency, just all of it. It's ridiculous. And we had probably a historic turnout Tuesday for a number of reasons. And because I anticipated the turnout, I agendized this topic and you saw this DA's poor performance in answering questions from a layperson. I'm not an attorney.

And this is embarrassing. And I will continue to call this crap out until I can't do it anymore. Are you planning on keeping this on the agenda every month to force this DA to come before the court and explain himself because his money comes from the taxpayers. Yeah, I like that idea. I've done it before on a different issue. I just

agendized it week after week after week after week. So y'all meet weekly or monthly? No, we meet the first and third Tuesday of each month. Listen, I would haul his ass down, have him have to stand there every week and defend this. And hopefully people keep coming out and protesting because it is shameful.

And what are your other colleagues saying? I mean, are any of them ticked off by this constant? Pull the commissioners up. Go ahead and show the graphic. Are any of them standing with you saying, DA, this is idiotic. What are you doing? No.

Now, in his defense, Commissioner Brooks was out yesterday. I think he was at a conference or something. But the other three sat there dead silent. The one in the center is the ringleader of all of this. You know, we have a MAGA court. You see the Precinct 1, Precinct 2 were the Democrats, and then the other three are MAGA. And so we frequently get outvoted on everything. Whatever we put on the agenda for our constituents, our communities, our nonprofits get voted down by these three. So, you know, people have to vote.

Right. But we will keep, you know, the two of us won't be able to do anything about Ms. Mason except for call it out, get the public commenters down there to speak to it. We had a record amount of public commenters yesterday and Tuesday, and many of them spoke to this issue. This is ridiculous. When I tell you how overcrowded our jail is, what's done needs to be focusing on reducing the backlog of viable cases, viable cases that he has. But no, he wants to play games with this woman's life and with our taxpayer dollars. Y'all, it is crazy here. Tarrant County is the last large urban red county in this country,

and they are not wanting to let loose because they would like to play games like this with this woman's life. This is crazy. I'm going to put in my panel right now, Arishi Colbert, host, series, XM radio show out of D.C., Dr. Greg Carr, Department of African American Studies at Howard University out of D.C.,

and Lauren Victoria Burt writing for Black Press USA out of Arlington, Virginia. Lauren, you first. I'm wondering why, have you heard from anyone from a national organization that does voting? I mean, obviously, black voters are always told, of course, to vote harder and all that.

I'm wondering if you've heard from the National NAACP or even the White House on this, because it seems to me that this person, Phil Soros, who's obviously obsessed with Crystal Mason, he should get his wish with regard to being famous. He should be made famous by every voting rights organization, anybody who cares about voting rights in the United States. And he should be made famous for all the wrong reasons. Have you heard from anybody on sort of a national level? I have not. No, ma'am. Not since he announced this on back on April 25th. Now, Crystal has some great local attorneys, and she has ACLU of Texas attorneys as well. And so I consulted them just in the past week about this case and how I should approach my line of questioning, but this guy was so abrasive and dismissive,

and I've been here since 10 a.m., so I'm not going to stay here any longer. You ask your questions now. I have work to do. But, no, I have not heard from the national organizations, but I need to, and I need some help. And I appreciate this forum, and I know you've had Attorney Kim Coles on before. I appreciate this forum to hopefully elevate this and get this out there. I need help. There are only two of us, and it takes, you got to counsel.

Absolutely. Recy. Commissioner, thank you for being here. Can you explain exactly the process, this hearing? I wasn't really clear if this was a hearing to grant his appeal or this is a hearing to just explain his appeal. Can you walk us through where exactly this is in the process of this DA trying to recharge Crystal Mason? Well, she was acquitted or got the ruling, I think it was March 28th. Yeah, it was March 26th. You had the Court of Appeals that threw out her conviction. And so the Tarrant County DA is seeking to appeal that ruling of the Court of Appeals. Okay, and so what you just witnessed, commissioners meet the first and third Tuesday of the month. And so this was our first meeting since the DA announced he was going to appeal that ruling. Okay. And so I agendized this to get a briefing from him. He needs to come to commissioner's court and tell us why he has chosen to appeal this, what it's going to cost, so on and so forth.

And so he was there to take our questions. And so when we have an item that is agendized, the public can sign up to speak to it. And so they also asked questions and had comments to make. So that's what you were watching, the first commissioners. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms,

the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 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 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. In reading one of the reports about what we were just viewing in terms of the meeting, I read that Crystal Brown, a Florence Hill resident, said that she wanted to thank Mr. O'Hare for waking the sleeping Black Panther of Tarrant County. I'm wondering if you see this as perhaps a galvanizing moment. And forgive me if I have this incorrect, but last month, did this punk O'Hare, this faith family and freedom punk, the judge, did he tell you you'll sit there and be quiet? I'm just trying to, I mean, these guys are talking about impunity. Could this be a moment to spark black people to finally get together in what appears to be a county of over two million people, majority non-white, at least if it's 44%,

I understand white, although there are some white banks as well. You know, could this be a flashpoint moment with these guys just talking so crazy, telling you to be quiet, telling apparently law enforcement to be prepared to remove people from the building if they look like they're going to be disruptive? Who the hell do they think they're talking to, Commissioner? And can this be a moment to kind of get our people fired? Sir, yes. So our last meeting, I questioned a contract that he had on the agenda to hire a Republican political consultant to work in his office. Well, we don't pay, use county tax dollars to pay Republican or Democratic political consultants to work for us, you know. And so I questioned his contract. Commissioner Brooks, the brother you see, questioned the contract and really went hard on him, and the public speakers did, and so I went last, and I said, well, I agree with Commissioner Brooks, and he on your i said we're not talking about my social media we're talking about your contract and he tried to ask me questions i said okay i'll

i'll answer one of his questions in the process he said you be quiet you sit there and listen to me until i'm finished and so uh you got to see the video. Oh, we're going to find that video. I cussed really bad, but I didn't. And I just simply said, who are you talking about? Like, you cannot tell me when and when not to speak. And so that was the thing that caught everybody's attention. And so a lot of local organizations, white, black, purple, Hispanic, faith-based, not the Divine Nine, planned direct action.

And yesterday or Tuesday, they came to court. And because I knew that they were planning it, I was not in on the planning. I decided I'm going to agendize Crystal Mason. And I was quite alarmed. Because we will have a lot of people there. I was hearing a lot of people were coming. So I decided let's agendize Crystal Mason.

So the people aren't there at a commissioner's court meeting, bored, listening to us talk about contracts for HVAC. Yep. Agendize Crystal Mason. I agendize the jail deaths. We have a proliferation of jail deaths. We had two in a matter of four days. The last one was after an altercation. And so I agendized the sheriff to come give us an update on that. I agendized the DA to come give us a briefing on the Crystal Mason case. The sheriff refused to come.

And anyway, they got wind that there was going to be a crowd there. And we had historic attendance. They had to do two overflows. They had my staff came and got me from the parking garage because now I have to have some personal protection when I'm downtown. And I got, we walked up to the building and I said, what on earth is all of this response? There were sheriff's units around the building. There were 40 sheriff's deputies teaming all throughout the small administration building. They were everywhere. Just disrespectful, because you anticipate black people are coming to their commissioner's court, just like the White House, that's the people's house, commissioner's court's people's house. And so it was a galvanizing moment. So I had, there were people there talking about the disrespect to Simmons, Commissioner Simmons, Crystal Mason, and the jail debts. And so it was overflow.

We had pastors and bishops and just so many people. And the good thing about it is they were amazed. There were two mega church pastors sitting in my office after a break. And I went to speak to them and they said, I'm sorry, we had no idea. This is what commissioner's court deals with. I said, oh, how long have you been sitting here? They'd been there since 10 o'clock and watched that man talk rudely. He didn't want the people to speak. They couldn't sigh. They couldn't clap. They couldn't. And understand

in Texas, all 254 counties, they have a five-member commissioner's court. The county judge has no more authority than the four commissioners. He presidesides the meetings. He can declare an emergency without the commissioners.

Right. Like a burn ban. You know, if it's summertime and the grass is dry, he can do that. Other than that, he has no more authority than I do. He has no more influence. He has no more influence over the budget. But the power this man has no more influence over the budget. But the power this man has is he's got three votes.

Right. It's the same. Look, look, in Harris County, Democrats now control the county commissioner's court, which is why they've been trying to take out Lena Hidalgo. And so because that's the case now, they broke that Republican grip. Republicans used to control the Dallas County Commissioner's Court. Now Democrats control that as well. And that's really what's ticking off all these MAGA Republicans. Democrats control Dallas County. They control Harris County. They control Bexar County. They control Travis County. And so Tarrant County is really the last large county in Texas that Republicans have control over. Well, you could go ahead. So here's so you could go ahead and tell the sheriff's department that they're going to need to do that again. I've already sent a text message to a variety of folk. We plan on coming down to Fort Worth to also have a larger rally.

And so I've reached. So I've been talking to Reverend Frederick Douglas Haynes, who's there in Dallas. And so we'll be communicating with you, getting information on the next commissioner's meeting when we plan this action, because this is not just Crystal Mason. It's what they did to the brother in Harris County who stood in line for six hours. They scared that brother to death so bad. He says,

I'm not going to vote in the election again. We saw what happened in Florida when Ron DeSantis sicked his dogs on formerly incarcerated folk, arrested them. All the charges were thrown out. They were trying to, again, keep those formerly incarcerated folks from casting ballots. This is what MAGA Republicans are doing across the country. And so the amount of resources to targeting this one woman is offensive. And that's why I say Phil Soros is terrorizing Kristen Mason. Kristen Mason, there's no other way to look at this here. This is one case, eight years old. This man is spending more time going after this one woman who cast a provisional ballot than they do fighting other serious crime in the county and is shameful. And this is trying to create a

chilling effect to tell black folks in Tarrant County, we're going to do the same thing to you. And so this is why black folks in Tarrant County and Fort Worth have got to rise up and vote their numbers in these elections because these people can be beat but they have the power because we also don't turn out in maximizing our numbers. We have more registered Democrats

in Tarrant County than Republicans. It's a turnout game. These people got to turn out. They can't call me. Yep. Mad and upset. Yeah.

Right. And I've been, I was the NAACP president in Arlington for 10 years. And so I've told people, don't stop calling me. And now I've gotten elected and I, I had more authority, more power,

more influences in NAACP president than I have. You were the chapter president when I spoke there? Yes, that was me. Yes. All right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, we're coming. And so they better add some more sheriff folk because the number of folks we're going to have out there is going to be much larger than what they saw this past week. And the pressure has to stay on them uh and uh absolutely i would put his behind i will put christian mason on the agenda at every commissioner's meeting and that way that

way he got to haul his behind there and face the people and not behind not hide behind closed doors yes sir thank you for hearing from me this this has been therapeutic uh it is it is insane yep what's happening here. All right. Tell Roy Brooks I'm calling him next to have him on the show as well. So I saw him a couple of weeks ago. So tell him I'm hitting him up. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. And I want to say thank you to everybody that came out. It was amazing. It's a lonely proposition up there, I'm just telling you. Yep. And for the turnout, overflow, seeing people everywhere was amazing. All right, then. Thank you. Thank you. Won't be the last time you're on. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thanks. Bye bye. All right, folks. We'll come back. We're going to check with Ben Crump about this case out of Tulsa. We're going to talk to Florida A&M donation. Folks, this is why you got to support Roller Bart Unfiltered. I keep telling y'all this, and it's not a lie. There is no other Black-owned media outlet that covers Black news every single day. There is no other Black news outlet that literally hits the road to cover the stories that we cover every single day. We went down to Bethune Cookman last year. We went down to Tennessee State. We're going to go down there to Tarrant County. We went there with Reverend Barber. We went at the Poor People's March, Voting Rights March in Austin area as well. And so your support is crucial for us being able to do these things i can tell you right now bringing three of my team members us traveling down there without gear and everything

that's going to be easily a 10 to 15 000 trip see these networks they're earning millions i was on a call today withu, the ad agency, talking to them. I've been on calls with publicists. I'm waiting on Group M next month. Horizon not returning our phone calls. You're going to get called out. So we're out here trying to cover this stuff, but it takes resources. And we want to go down there, live stream this rally, and we cover this event so a senior check-in money order the peel box five seven one nine six washington dc two zero zero three seven dash zero one nine six cash up dollar side rm unfiltered paypal r martin unfiltered venmo is rm unfiltered zale rolling at rolling s martin.com rolling that rolling mark on filter.com we'll be right back. best, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.

Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, the necessity of believing in things you can't see. It's called faith. It comes in all shapes and sizes and it's powerful. And it's a big part of being able to live a balanced life.

The valley I experienced being a cancer survivor was one where my footing was completely unstable. I had no idea what to do. And in that instance of not knowing what to do, I had to rely on faith. That's all next on A Balanced Life, only on Blackstar Network. First, President Barack Obama's road to the White House. We got about 500 copies of the book available. And so this actually is all of the coverage of the 2008 election. But the

other thing is this here. I talk to folks like Malik Yoba, Hill Harper, Erica Alexander, Kevin Lowe, Spike Lee, Tatiana Ali. There's a lot of behind the scenes stuff in here as well, where I talked about some of the stuff that went down at CNN. Also, when you go through here, a lot of the photos that you see in here, photos that I actually shot, photos that were my time at CNN. And so what I decided to do, because one, I published the book and I own it myself, is that so I said, you know what, I'm going to slash the price to $10.

And so we're going to have Shipping and Handling $5.99. I'm going to personally autograph every copy. I'm not reprinting the book. So once we are sold out of these $500, that's it. They're gone. So you can go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash the first to get a copy of this book. Everybody who orders this book through the website, not on Amazon, only through RolandSMartin.com. I will personally autograph and mail you a copy of this book.

It's all of the coverage, the actual interviews that I did with him. And just to show you, of course, when it came out, there's actually even in here the interviews that I did with him and Michelle Obama, which won TV One Cable Networks its first two NAACP Image Awards. And so all of that for $10. Shipping and handling is $5.99. So go to rollingmissmartin.com the first and order your copy today. Hey, what's up? Keith Turner in the place where we Got kicked out your mama's university.

Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy. But right now, I'm rolling with Rolling Mark. A lot of times, the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Folks, another shameful story of police action, this time out of Florida. A senior airman, a black Air Force senior airman, has been shot and killed by Florida Sheriff's deputies. 23-year-old senior airman Roger Fortson was fatally shot on May 3rd after the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office burst into his home. Reports said the deputy was responding to a call about a disturbance in progress and reacted in self-defense after seeing Fortson with a gun. But family attorney Ben Crump says the officers were at the wrong address

and did not identify himself when knocking on the door. Fortson, reportedly on the phone, retrieved his gun when he did not see anyone outside. But the knocking continued. Crump and Rogers' family viewed the body cam footage today. Ben Crump joins us right now. Ben, so what the heck

happened here? What were they even executing? Was it a disturbance? Roland, it's unbelievable. This young man was a model United States member of the armed forces. He has no criminal history in his background. He was on the phone with his girlfriend on FaceTime the whole time leading up to this. The family is adamant.

Everything that we know about this case tells us they went to the wrong apartment. And when you see once that door opens, he told him to step back. Roger was very, very respectful of law enforcement. He stepped back in a split second, Roland, in a split second. He shot him six times. And what is being left out of this argument, out of this case,

is they keep saying, well, he had a gun when he came to the door. Well, the reality is they didn't hear the police identify themselves. He said who it is, and nobody identified himself based on what the girlfriend said. And she's going to do her own press conference, so it's not lost in any translation. But when he saw a black man with a gun, even though he was a law-abiding citizen with a registered license to carry a weapon. The Second Amendment rights, that police lit him up. And right after he shot him, he then said, while he was on the ground,

toss the gun. He didn't give any verbal commands to drop the gun or put your hands in the air when he came open that door. And that's what's troubling Roland. They continue to try to justify the killers, even our best young people. Did they knock down the door or did Fortune open the door? The video showed it opens in less than

a second. He then began shooting. So wait a minute. He hit him six times. So wait a minute. Fortson opens the door. And instead of the officer saying

come out with your hands up, the moment he opens the door, the officer starts firing. Starts firing. Roland, when you see this video, you know, Roland, I mean, it is deplorable when you look at how fast he took this young man's life. And this young man was outstanding in every way. He was a special ops roller.

He had a bit of tour duty. He was taking his mother and was the hero to his little 10-year-old sister, 16-year-old brother. In fact, there is a photo we'll give to you. He was so proud of being in the United States Air Force. He had an Airman's uniform on, and he brought his nine-year-old little sister at the time an Airman's uniform, and it's so adorable because she is saluting him. And this is the type of person we had that they are trying to make out to be the bad guy. He wasn't the bad guy. He was a good guy.

Questions from the panel, Recy? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Crump, for bringing attention to this case. What about the neighbor that supposedly led the police to Mr. Forsten's door. What have they said, if anything, about the situation? You're brilliant, Ms. Reesey, because you get to the crux of the matter. When you listen, watch the video, you listen to her describe what's going on and that it's 1401. Well, the reality is he is in that apartment by himself on FaceTime with his girlfriend with his little dog. There is no domestic disturbance.

They went to the wrong apartment. And God help that leasing agent at the apartment if she's the person who sent them to the wrong apartment? Because that is the question, where they're at the right apartment. But even beyond that, you watch that video. I mean, it has so many troubling questions that become apparent. Number one, why didn't he give verbal commands to put down the weapon, put your hands up versus just unloading on him? Number two, when he's on the ground, he then gives the command, toss your weapon.

And Roger couldn't have been more respectful of authority. He said, I did. And then when you look at his girlfriend's FaceTime video, he's saying, I can't breathe. And the officer yelling, stop moving! Stop moving! He's like, I can't breathe. And they don't offer him any medical assistance.

And you watch this 23-year-old American patriot die right before our eyes. Lauren? Ben, it's Lauren Burke. Do you know—is there anything you can talk about with regard to the police officer, the age of the cop, any prior record of abuse, or the time on the force? Any experience at that address before?

Ms. Lauren, we don't have any information about the cop. Obviously, they want to try to assassinate his character, because the first statement that came out from them was—they didn't mention he was a military officer or anything. This is in Fort Walton, Florida, where Eglin Air Force Base is at. It's full of military people. They didn't want to say that. They said an officer responding to a domestic dispute kills an armed citizen in self-defense. Well, the issue is you came to his apartment.

He had every right to have a gun. This is Florida, for God's sakes. Every citizen is encouraged to have a firearm. He is an officer who is militarily trained. He's one of the people we want to have guns. He's responsible. He's very diplomatic. He's very—a rule follower. I mean, he was the person who you would say,

if you're going to be a good owner, how about we have that guy who's trained to use bombs? And so—but when he had that gun, they tried to say, oh, it was self-defense. And it suggested, Lauren, that he did something bad, that he was a criminal or something. There was nothing further from the truth. The officer went to the wrong apartment. Thanks, Bill. This right here, give me one second. I'm pulling it up. Give me one second. And I'm going to advance this because, folks, this is the body cam footage. I'll talk over. So go to the body cam footage. This is the this is the deputy arriving at the scene.

The body cam footage was released publicly just three hours ago, folks. And so we roll. All right. Got it, folks. To turn it all to you. We closely, Roland. Got it. Folks, turn the audio up. We'll stop talking. Turn the audio up. Go. What's going on? I'm not sure. I just was told to let her know if you guys come by. So I'm going to give her a quick call and let her know. So there was a fight going on or something? I was not present for that.

Okay. Yes, sir. Are they fighting or something? She's saying that it happens frequently, but this time it sounded like it was getting out of hand. Okay, which door? I don't know. I'm not sure. Two weeks ago, I was walking by their apartment, basically, on this side. And I was hearing something that was like, stupid V word and all this other stuff.

And I heard a slap right after it. But I wasn't sure where it came from. And I didn't want to call it to leave. Which room is it? 1401. 1401, okay. 1401. But the girl sounded scared, the one that called.

She said she was like, it's getting out of, it sounds like it's getting really out of hand. Hey Ben, she said 1401. Was that Fort's apartment number? It was, yes. Okay, hold on one second. Okay, got it. She said she went here and did to me where the unit was at.

But then she said 1401. 312- 111. 312 and 111. The1909年 10月1日 北海道新幹線の駅として開業 Звук вулиці Берліна Sheriff's office, open the door! Sheriff's office, open the door. Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun! 312, shots fired. Suspect down. Do not move 312 get EMS my location unbelievable

oh alright that's the end of the body cam video there I mean absolutely Ben no warning Now, let me just let me that's that's the end of the body cam video there. I mean, absolutely. Been no warning. Door barely opens. Barely opens the weapon. Yeah.

Go ahead. Didn't tell him to drop the rep. He didn't give a verbal command. Drop the weapon. Put your hands up. Step back. Roger was stepping back. Never raised the weapon. It was in his right hand.

And he just unloaded on a rolling Martin. At no point, at no point in this did he ever give the order to drop the weapon, nothing. It was like literally that ever give the order to

drop the weapon, nothing. It was like literally that door opened, he saw a black man with a gun and he fired. And as you said, we're in Florida. You can have a gun in your home. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Hey, Roland, it's so deep when you look at him on the ground and he start giving the commands after he's been Yeah. But it didn't matter because for whatever reason, I think we all know the reason, when he saw that gun in his hand, he just said, bad guy. And Roger was a good guy. Nothing in his racket. It's unbelievable. He was a decorated airman. He was in special ops.

I mean, he was doing everything right. Greg Carr. Thank mean, he was doing everything right. Greg Carr. Thank you, Roland. Thank you, Brother Crump. I wasn't aware that black people are encouraged in Florida to be armed. In fact, I think we should probably stop talking about a right to be armed. There is no right to be anything in the United States of America when you're black. Not really, at least if the law means more than just some words on a page.

But I want to ask you about the question. The question I have to ask is, what is the cost to this struggle against these murderers for us to continue to frame the victims as good as opposed to bad people when no one should be executed by the hunter. From what I've read, the hunter has been put on administrative leave, probably paid. The deputy hunter, the one who strode so confidently to the door and as an accessory before the fact, named the apartment 1401, certainly won't be punished. She's a deputy cop, as are all people who do this kind of thing. But what's the strategic value of us mounting a defense of someone as a good person, as if there is anyone who deserves to be murdered by these murderers? Is there some concession?

And does the burden then shift from the killers to the victims when we start talking about good people as opposed to bad people? Should it matter? And why or why not? It shouldn't matter. But unfortunately, we live in an America where race is always an issue. And they try to criminalize our race. They will assassinate our character as they—after they assassinate us. And that's what they're attempting to do.

He tried to say self-defense. It reminds you of Botham Jean in Dallas, Texas, when a policewoman went to the wrong apartment and killed him. And they're talking about, I was in fear of my life, self-defense. It's the same notion that it doesn't matter how good the black person is. They still try to justify the unjustifiable killings of our people. It happens over and over. Atiana Jefferson, I mean, we can just go down the list, and it's all these black people who are in their own home, in the sanctity of their own dwelling,

their castle, and their sanctuary, Breonna Taylor. But yet they all get killed and then they all try to justify it. And so it shouldn't matter whether they have an unblemished record or not. But we know without a shadow of a doubt, if he would have had a checkup passed, that's all we would have heard about for the victim. We still won't know anything about this killer officer. We won't know anything about this killer officer. We won't hear one word about his past. Ben Crump, we hate to have to have you on for these type of stories, and we hate to have to show those videos, but the reality is we're left with no choice because this is what happens to us all too often.

We will keep on this case, and we will certainly see what is next. Thank you, Roland Martin. Thank you for covering our stories. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Ben. Folks, going to break, we come back. We're going to stay in Florida. The Florida A&M University Board of Trustees meeting is over. And frankly, there are more questions than we have after the meeting than we had before the meeting you're watching roland martin unfiltered with black star network support our work join our bring the fuck fan club our goal is to get 20 000 of our fans contributing

on average 50 bucks each that's four hours and 19 cents a month 13 cents a day you can send your check and money order to peel box 57196 57196 Washington, D.C. 2003 7DAD 0196 Cash Happens, 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.

I'm Dr. Greg Carr, and coming up on the next Black Table, thinking about the Black Freedom Movement in a global way, Dr. John Monroe joins us to discuss his book, The Anti-Colonial Front, which maps the social justice movement in the United States and its impact internationally, from Asia to Africa, and how movements like anti-communism were used to slow down racial equality, like critical race theory today. Critical race theory today, communism back then,

that's essentially mobilized to shut down any challenges to a given system of power. Connecting the civil rights movement to colonialism on the next Black Table, exclusively here on the Black Star Network. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million and now is your chance to invest. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman.

Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin, Unfiltered. A few moments ago, the Florida A&M. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. Ad-free at Lava for Good

Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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. The trustees meeting ended where they were discussing this multi-million dollar donation from a Gregory Jarami and the Isaac Batterson,

the Seventh Family Trust. The check presentation took place this weekend where he also was the commencement speaker. It is the largest donation given to Florida A&M and certainly one of the largest to an HBCU in history. The board had an emergency meeting today because there have been so many questions surrounding this particular gift. This here was a video Florida A&M released on social media about this donation. Turn the audio up, please.

I mean, and sign this agreement on behalf of Florida A&M University, the Durame Family Foundation. The $237 million gift is more than the size of the FAMU endowment value and represents one of the largest single personal donations to a historically black college and university. To be able to give back to HBCU at this level is important to me. To be able to choose for our foundation, to be able to choose a university where our legacy will continue and will be the most impactful for generations and generations to come. That is the most important thing to our foundation and us. President Dr. Larry Robinson says this donation will have a far-reaching impact on the academics and the athletics programs at Florida A&M University. Well, we are extremely grateful and ecstatic about this game-changing donation to Florida A&M University.

Jaramie is the founder of Batterson Farms Corporation and a champion of sustainable agriculture and biodegradable hemp products in Texas. For Florida A&M University, I'm Javonnie Hampton. All right, folks. Well, after that news came out, it took everyone by surprise. So folks begin to ask themselves the question, who is this guy? Who is Gregory Jerami? Well, Jarrell Blakely penned an op-ed in Education News Flash called For the Love of Money, Has FAMU

Been Fooled? He's been posting a number of different things on social media about Gregory Jerami, and these are questions that, frankly, were not answered in today's board meeting. Jeremy joins us from Indianapolis. I'm glad they had, Jarrell, sorry,

joins us from Indianapolis. So Jarrell, I listened to about an hour of the board meeting, I had to go live on the show. And so I'm listening to this conversation, and they had the company on that handles investments for Florida A&M, and they were talking about paperwork things along those lines. So basically those guys did not vet any of this.

And so then I had to jump off right when they had the official on talking about the vetting process and how this, Jeremy reached out to them, how they begin to have conversations with him. He wanted to make a donation to the school. After the Spelman donation was announced, $100 million, they said, well, he wanted to increase his offer. Then they begin to talk about this courtship.

So basically, for everybody who doesn't understand, FAMU has not gotten any money. There's actually no money. So this $237 million number that people are hearing, this number, it's not a real number. What he has given them is stock certificates in this privately held company where he has assigned the value of these stocks to be $237 million. And what they did was, so he assigned, if I'm correct, a $15.85 price per share, and he's given Florida A&M University 15 million shares in this company.

But it's a private company. So the reality is, it's not a publicly traded company right now so until there's an IPO or until someone privately buys this company Florida A&M ain't got no money from this guy right did you hear the same thing that I heard? Well, first, Brother Roland, thank you for having me on here. I'm really honored to be on here to discuss this very important issue. Today's foundation board meeting at FAMU was a disgrace, and I believe that it was a symbol of institutional failure at Florida A&M University. What we learned today was that the trust contains several million shares of worthless stock.

There is no value to Batterson Farms. It doesn't have any land. It doesn't have all of the necessary licenses. It doesn't have any employees. It doesn't have any revenue that would allow it to be evaluated anywhere near a $100 million evaluation. And so today's meeting was disturbing, to say the least. The fact that Florida A&M allowed this man to basically con them into accepting work led the president and leadership to not share this with their board, either the foundation board or the university board, because of a NDA is, quite frankly, preposterous. For FAMU to basically share that they received a worthless gift, I mean, it means nothing.

I mean, it's completely— I mean, just for everybody who's watching, okay, I own this company. I own Black Star Network 100 percent. It's a private company. If I I right now I could say I'm going to gift Texas Southern University. I'm going to gift Paul Quinn College 15 million shares of stock in the Black Star Network. Now, even though I have an actual company, I've got employees, I've got revenue, I can then say, and this is listening to the call, I could say I am assigning a value of this stock of $15.85 a share. I could just do it on my own. No one,

because what happens is unless there's an IPO, then you can call it whatever you want to call it. That's what this guy has done. And then, Jarrell, when I was listening,

here's what I never heard, and I was waiting on it. Did FAMU leadership ever visit this guy's company? Did they ever visit his office? Did they ever confirm how many employees

he has? Go to my iPad. Tallahassee Democrat has this story. Woman listed as co-CEO with FAMU donor says she never worked for him. Kimberly Abbott, who formerly served on the city council in Birmingham, has known Jerami for years, long before the 30-year-old was celebrated for his donation. In an operation that Jerami himself says employs only a few full-time administrators in a workforce of 7,000 contract employees, Abbott was listed as co-CEO and vice chair of Batterson Farms Corporation, where Jarame is CEO.

When asked if she worked at Batterson Farms, Abbott said, I never did. Jarrell, that's called massive red flag. So here's the thing, Brother Roland. They didn't even have to visit these places. They could have merely Googled. So when I heard about this sort of gift on Saturday, I just Googled. It took me about 10, 15 minutes to realize that this was a complete hoax.

I don't understand how it took me 10 minutes to figure out that this was a hoax. And it took FAMU months of investigation. Six months. They claim it was a vetting process that lasted six months. It took me 15 minutes to realize that this was completely a hoax, which is why I was able to get an op-ed so quickly, because it was apparent. And so the fact of the matter is, this is embarrassing. And I feel really bad for a number of reasons.

Number one, the students. You know, those students who graduated from Florida A&M University worked really hard to graduate. And the fact that they had to hear from this flim-flam artist was actually shocking. I can remember my commencement address speaker. I graduated from Howard University, and we had some really, really esteemed individuals to give the commencement address. The fact that a university like FAMU

did not do their due diligence and allowed this man to con them. Listen, the president of, what's that? Well, for the people who are on the call, here's what's even crazy. They're on the call. They're discussing the donation. I thought I heard this correct, maybe correct me if I'm wrong,

where they said some questions came up, and they still let him speak. I was literally going, whoa, whoa, whoa, did I just hear that? They literally said some questions arose, but the president made the decision, yes, let's move forward with him as commencement speaker. I was like... So let me say this.

So let me say this. So let me say this. FAMU deserves better. The fact that this happened is an institutional failure of massive proportions. The fact that this man was vetted, or wasn't vetted, and they allowed him to speak is just outrageous. And so, you know, it took me just a few moments to realize that this gentleman was a fraud and a hoax. And so I don't understand how you had an entire university infrastructure.

I was listening to the vice president of advancement and the head of the foundation who actually mentioned that she didn't actually even Google this gentleman or she didn't do any due diligence. When you look at it was very easy to figure out that this guy was not kosher. When you look at what he did at Coastal Carolina University, they could literally pick up the phone and call the advancement office to say, hey, what's the deal with someone who is giving this this large amount to FAMU. And so overall, I just want to say FAMU deserves so much more. And for folks who think that I'm picking on FAMU, I'm a Howard graduate. If this happened at Howard, I would do the exact same thing. I just think that it speaks to a culture at FAMU's leadership that allows themselves to be conned when they literally could have

spent 15 minutes or 10 minutes and realized this was not to be. Let's be clear. You pulled us up. First of all, the guy just created a website. I mean, if you do a search, it is as if

this guy's a ghost. But when you pull stuff up, a search, it is as if this guy's a ghost. But when you pull stuff up, and I'm just sort of shaking my head going, what in the hell were the FAMU folks doing? And of course, the president now says they're putting this

thing on ice, but I'm still trying to understand some basic things. Does he have a real business? No. Have you seen it? Have you been to the offices?

No. He supposedly is, the stocks are in hydroponic and agriculture business. Have you seen any of it? Has anybody with Florida A&M physically said, yes, we visited his corporate office, we saw the farms, we met with workers? Everything I heard in that call, nobody ever said that. When I got off after about an hour, did you hear anybody say that? No. So that is what's actually outrageous.

The fact of the matter is you have an advancement of this. You have a president. And the fact that the president did not let the board know is malfeasance of a highest level. I can tell you that it's incompetence. And I'll just say this, FAMU deserves better. The fact that an esteemed university that was led by so many great people has fallen to these sort of levels is really a shame. The class of 2024 had a very difficult time. You know, they started college in the middle of a pandemic, and they deserve to have a commencement address, Speaker. So I'll tell you what. I am willing for nothing. I actually make a donation.

I am willing to give a commencement address at Florida A&M University so that they can hear from someone who, you know, basically did more work to uncover this than the university that they were educated at. Hell, I spoke Saturday at Wilberforce graduation, and I've done Stillman, South Carolina State, Lane. I got a real resume. This dude ain't got no resume. I mean, this Batterson Farms,

this, I mean, the family trust, all this stuff sounds great, and oh, the family trust, all this stuff sounds great. And it's just like, what are y'all talking about? I'm going to say this. If you are familiar with New Jack City, there's a scene when Nino Brown is in the boardroom where he's going around saying, nobody know nothing. I mean, the fact of the matter is how this could happen is an institutional disgrace. And I'm not picking on FAMU. You know, the fact of the matter is it doesn't take a PhD in nuclear chemistry like the president of the university has

to figure this out. It took me 15 minutes. And I can tell you that I appreciate some of the phone calls that I've gotten from the Rattler Nation thanking me for this. But I can also say that I was a little disturbed by some of the social media venom from some Rattlers who... Oh, man, they were dogging you, bro. Mind your...

First of all, listen. Let's just be real frank. Where'd you go to college? I went to Howard University. Okay, all right. So you went to HBCU. Listen, I went to Texas A&M. And HBCU folk are protective

about their individual school and HBCUs as opposed to, let's deal with the truth. And there were people who were attacking you. They were attacking others as opposed to fighting out the truth. And you've been posting a number of different stuff like, is this the house he live in? Is this the farm?

I think you posted one item where he supposedly said he bought some farm or something and the property is still not sold. The thing never went through. I saw one story where he reached out to the University of Texas and they basically laughed at his ass. He called the University of Texas to try to give some money and the University of Texas essentially laughed at him and hung up. But he's supposedly based in Texas. Bruh.

Come on. I'll just reiterate. FAMU deserves better. This is, in the board meeting today, was an embarrassment. You tweeted a tie for an audit is nasty work. Explain that. What happened?

Well, what happened is they, one of the board members was suggesting that they do an audit to evaluate how they got here. And it was a tie for like 10 minutes. And someone texted no, which broke the tie. Then there was another motion for another sort of audit, and it passed. But the fact of the matter is, the fact that FAMU board and the president allowed that board to go out in public like that and represent the university like that is shameful. I work in nonprofit management. That's what I do for a living. I'm a manager in an educational nonprofit. If I embarrass my board like that, I wouldn't have a job.

And I can tell you that if everybody just goes along like this is no big deal, the fact of the matter is this university trumpeted in a consistent way the fact that they got a quarter of a billion dollars when they really received nothing. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. 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. There has to be some consequence for folks who allow this to happen. They got sheets of paper. Let's go to my panel.

Greg Carr, you first. You want to meet Greg? Thank you, Ron. There you go. And it's good to see you, Brother Jarrell. I used to be a student at Dr. Carr, by the way. I took a class with Dr. Carr at Howard. Absolutely.

That's absolutely right. It's good to see you, brother. It's good to see you continuing the great work that I encountered when you were at the university, man. It's good to see you in that regard. My question has to do with, I guess I could frame it by saying we don't have all the facts. I mean, we can certainly certain last things circumstantial. What would your best advice be to Florida A&M or any black institution, for that matter, who finds itself in a situation where they have received at least the property of a gift like this, and now everybody is basically deciding that there is no gift, there is no

money? is basically deciding that there is no gift, there is no money. I mean, what would you suggest to be their best course of action at this point until the facts come out? Because we know the facts have not yet been established. Well, first I'll say, Dr. Carr, that some of the facts are out. So we do know that the family trust consists of 15 million shares of Batterson Farms. We do know that Batterson Farms doesn't have the licenses required to grow hemp, does not have employees, does not have any properties. And so we know that just because you say a company is worth a billion dollars doesn't make it so. And so, I mean, I think it's important to deal with that. But on the second level, and then also there's just some questions, and I think research and articles have proven that Mr. Germany is not who he says he is or he doesn't have

the personal wealth that he has. So those are two facts that I think are important to consider. To your second part of your question about what advice I would have, I would give them the same advice that I would give any institution, to do their due diligence, to ensure that they're doing the proper sort of research and vetting to ensure that something like this could never happen. Quite frankly, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this was a situation that was not real. Well, here's a perfect example. Jarrell, hold on a second.

Jarrell, hold on. This is from the Tallahassee. Again, this is the deal. In a media availability arranged by Family U Monday, Jerome told the Tallahassee Democrat that Abbott, quote, left us maybe about a couple of months, maybe about a month ago. She has more of an advisor role right now. She had some health issues. When asked later whether he would be surprised to hear Abbott said she was never an employee of Batterson Farms and never received any compensation as an employee, Jerome said, quote, nothing surprises me anymore.

He described her duties as co-CEO as really just there to guide and give more advice. And she didn't do as much work as others in the company. Her compensation, he said, was given through penny stocks. Now, right there, right there. Right there. So what people need to understand, Jarrell, we talk about penny stocks. First of all, penny stocks are publicly traded companies. So I think what people don't realize is I can right now go out and I can go buy a shell company.

I can go buy and create a publicly traded company. And I can be trading with penny stocks. This article right here shows you how he gets caught in a lie. So if you paid her through penny stocks, what was the publicly traded company? What were the stocks? This woman is listed as co-CEO. She now says, I never served as CEO of the company. Hello, that's red flag.

And so what I don't understand is how did the FAMU board today not vote to call for an extensive examination and investigation and literally track these things down. By the way, according to this same story, there was supposed to be a meeting on Wednesday. You see it right here. On Wednesday, a FAMU spokesperson invited the Tallahassee Democrat to meet with to meet with Jarami and officials of the university's foundation office, but moments before it was scheduled to begin, a family official said it was canceled because, quote, something came up, unquote. He said any future interview, quote, was unpaused. I'm sorry. That's a joke.

Yeah, and I do want to say this. I want to answer the second part of Brother Carr's, which is like an alpha sort of meeting here. Well, that's how it always happens, but go ahead. Absolutely. So I will say this to Dr. Carr's point. It's important to do your due diligence, and it's also important to inform your board. I think that is a massive failure on this part. The fact that the foundation board and the university board was not informed is a failure of just massive proportions. The fact that the president is

saying that they couldn't tell their board because they had an NDA is crazy. The fact of the matter is the president is an employee of the board. So that's just pure board governance and just pure organizational governance. And the fact that he thought it was appropriate to say, hey, we couldn't tell you because we had an NDA. You can't do anything. And you're a state institution. And so even though you are Florida A&M

and you signed a NDA, somebody in the state of Florida has the authority to review the NDA. You can't, you're a state institution. You can't just hide behind an NDA. And I'm going to say this again, and it's really important. This did not take a lot of work, right? Like, I knew immediately that this was bizarre, and within 15 minutes, I realized it was completely a joke.

Right here, right here, right here, when contacted by a Tallahassee Democrat, the head of the Texas Hemp Growers Association said he had not heard of Barrison Farms Corporation or Jirami. Now, if you're supposed to be a big time hemp grower, the Texas Hemp Growers Association might know who you are. So let me say this.

You know, I think Jirami has some challenges that I hope he gets help for. I don't necessarily blame Jirami because it's obvious that he needs help. Right. Who I do blame is the university that allowed themselves to be appalled. Yep. The fact that they didn't do their due diligence and allowed this man to give a commencement address. That, for me, speaks to massive institutional failures that has to change. FAMU deserves better.

And not only that. We don't deserve this. Not only that, Kim Godwin, who at the time was the president of ABC News, of course,

was out the next day, sent two camera crews to the graduation to cover it. So, Recy, go. Mr. Blakely, thank you for being here. I think it's strange

that FAMU did less due diligence than Recy Tisa did in Who the F Did I Marry on TikTok. But thanks to and part of your voice around this, this has brought attention to a very bizarre and strange scam, it appears. I just want to get your thoughts on the layer of protection and the defensiveness people seem to have around the, you know, you specifically calling this out, what seemed pretty outrageous from the start, and people's willingness to call themselves digging up dirt on you, as opposed to focusing on the issue at hand, which is it looked like FAMU was being scammed. And have you gotten any retractions or apologies for the people who were dragging you on the social media about this? Well, I'll just say that people are kind of quiet. I haven't really heard anything recently since the board meeting because it turns out I was 100 percent

right. I don't purport to be perfect. I'm not purporting to be a saint. You know, I've done things that I've regretted. But quite frankly, this isn't about me. And folks are engaging in ad hominem attacks. Don't make the story about me. Make the story about what I'm saying about FAMU. And so it doesn't matter who I call what or what I did when I was an elected official. That's in the past. I've moved on. The fact of the matter is I should not have had to say this. This should have been something that should have been captured months ago. The fact that this gentleman gave a commencement address and the fact that they didn't do their due diligence is the reason why they're here. It's not. In fact, it should have been someone at FAMU.

It should have been someone in the audience that said, yo, this meeting, this commencement address is strange. Who's this guy? But the fact that the entire academic hierarchy at FAMU, folks with PhDs, law degrees, JDs, PhDs, MBAs, allowed themselves to allow this man to present a worthless check on the stage of FAMU's graduation and have Charlie Wilson's I'm Blessed and the OJ's For the Love of Money playing is shameful.

Like, it's just, it's the most ridiculous thing ever. And the fact that they allow that to happen is the story, not who I called what when I was an elected official. Lauren? Jarrell, is there any possibility that FAMU had some sort of, like, McKenzie-Scott fever and thought that this was real? Have they ever gotten another donation that was even close to this type of donation? Well, I'll say that's a really good question.

So, I mean, the fact of the matter is HBCUs deserve this kind of money, and it's unfortunate that they don't get this kind of money. The highest contribution to a historically black college was a recent donation to Spelman College by the Stryker family of $100 million, which is the largest contribution to a historically black college ever. Compare that to Michael Bloomberg's philanthropy towards Johns Hopkins, where he has donated $3.5 billion to one university. That $3.5 billion is more than all of the HBCUs endowments combined. And so I think there's a desire. I can understand why one official was crying because this type of investment would have been very transformational for Florida A&M University and other universities

of similar stature. However, just because we want something to be true doesn't mean that it is. And it's incumbent upon the people who are paid to represent the university and to do their due diligence to do the right thing. And so I know that, for example, these types of investments just don't fall from the sky. For example, the Stryker endowment that was given to the Spelman College, that Stryker has been on the board for 30 years, and they have given countless money before that $100 million donation. And so for FAMU to think that someone was going to basically walk off the street and say, hey, I'm going to give you a quarter of a billion dollars, particularly when that person has no track record, you never heard of them before, speaks to a level of gullibility

that is actually breathtaking and really, really shameful. If I was a board member next week when the full board convenes, I'd be wanting some answers. And if I didn't get any legitimate answers, I'd be telling folks, we'll send your box in the mail, go home and do something else with your career.

This is a very big deal. The fact of the matter is, this is an institutional failure of huge proportions. And multiple people failed the university and failed the students by not doing their due diligence. So let me say this here again. What was said on the call today, which was stunning, was that this guy called out of the blue. He just he just called the office one day saying, I want to make a gift.

And they begin to have different conversations about different gifts. And you heard Jarrell mention the $100 million on the Spellman. On the Zoom call today, they said that after the Spellman College donation was announced, Jarrell came

back and said, I want to increase my gift to exceed the Spelman donation. And they went, yay! This is absolutely insane. Lauren? No, I didn't have anything else.

Thanks. Well, Jarrell, so what? So this was the foundation meeting today. What's next week? An actual board of trustees meeting? Yeah, I believe it's an actual board of trustees meeting. I think an outcome of the foundation board meeting, the president, Robinson, mentioned that the sort of gift is on hold, right? Which is another example, because the gift was never on. So how can it be on hold if it was never on? I think that the board meeting was outrageous. The fact that people just didn't follow in their sword or people just didn't say, hey, we messed up, I just think really speaks to a culture. Listen, if Dr. Robinson has a job next week, I'd be shocked. Like, I couldn't imagine. Put it like this. If Dr. Robinson is able to survive this, the problems at FAMU are a lot more intense than even this situation would imply.

We shall see what happens next. Jarrell Blakely, thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. Take care. All right, Frat, take care. We come back. Isaac Hayes III joins us for our Tech Talk segment. Man, my head's still reeling from that fam-view segment. We'll be back in a moment.

Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. We'll be back in a moment. To learn how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, the necessity of believing in things you can't see. It's called faith. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and it's powerful. And it's a big part of being able to live a balanced life. The valley I experienced being a cancer survivor was one where my footing was completely unstable. I had no idea what to do. And in that instance of not knowing what to do, I had to rely on faith.

That's all next on A Balanced Life, only on Blackstar Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that

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Don't think for a second these apps are going to be free. Isaac Hayes III, founder of Fanbase, joins us right now. Isaac, here's what's interesting here. These social media apps have been getting killed when Apple made changes to their phone, allowing people to stop being tracked. That's how they were making their billions. Now these companies are freaking out.

They've got to figure out how to find that money. And so they're going to start charging folk to be on these platforms. Absolutely. I think when Apple and Google allow users to opt out of being tracked when they're not inside the applications, that prevented a lot of these companies from being able to sell data and increase ad revenue. So for that very reason, a lot of people, including myself, have opted out of being tracked while I'm not using specific apps. And so Instagram and Meta are finding a way to offset that cost with this new Meta Verify for business. That's pretty pricey if you look at it, Roland. Absolutely. And here's the deal. When we talk about this,

you know, what happened, I remember when that happened, because what the phone, what the folk realized was, well, look, we got the power here. So Apple's all about privacy. And when Facebook was getting crushed on Capitol Hill, when it came to selling of data, when they put that, that became basically a poison pill for Facebook, and they've been reeling ever since. And so now you have this new deal, and it's starting in Australia and New Zealand, and they're going to be charging, what, $14.99 a month for businesses? A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

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

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

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

early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm going to tell you these prices, $14.99, $44.99, $119.99, and $349.99. Yeah, the max plan is $350 a month. Yeah. And, I mean, you're paying for more visibility, which should tip people off to the fact that your content is being suppressed, meaning, like, if they're making you pay to be seen,

then they're basically charging you to already be visible to the people that already follow you, and they're going to allow you to put links in your profile, other things like that. So I just found it extremely interesting. But this is just speaking more to the fact that I think these platforms are trying to offset the cost of losing ad revenue. And they're so ad revenue dependent, which by this shift towards subscription-based services and social media is changing. And this is kind of like a middle point. This is like a way to kind of lead people into where fan base already is because this is basically a subscription you're basically subscribing have more visibility on the platform um and that's what meta is doing with

this this program lauren so isaac um don't you think the subscription model at some point, and I'm talking to somebody who has a StreamYard platform, is going to wear everybody out? Because now everything is becoming subscription. Everything is becoming pay me every month, pay me something every month. And that's starting to get old real fast. That starts to add up, as you know. So, what do you think the breaking point of the subscription model business may be? I don't see that. I think that there's still a wide community of people that want to pay for content.

It just depends on what you're paying for. It depends on what you're subscribing for. Because when you subscribe to Netflix every month, you're paying $20, $30 a month to subscribe to every single piece of content that is on Netflix. And you might not watch 99% of it, right? But if you could subscribe to someone for $2.99 a month and get an entire network of content specifically from that person, then you would pay for that and get rid of Netflix. And so I think subscription fatigue is absolutely real. But I think as subscription-based services become more available and more widely known,

there will be niche communities that subscribe to specific things that actually people are more interested in. With media now and television, you're casting a wide net. A place like Disney Plus or Hulu or Netflix is casting a wide net, right, as opposed to narrowing down on the very, very finite group of individuals that are interested in horror films or comedy specials or, you know, documentaries. And so I think that's going to be something that's extremely important. And then with the advent of AI, I really feel like in real life content, which is called IRL, which we see a lot of the young streamers doing, is going to be the real television, which is reality.

Like, reality is going to be, you know, the most watched type of content, more so than pre-recorded, filmed, expensive content that people are putting out nowadays. Thanks. Well, their reality is, ugh, I don't even want to think about that. All right, Recy. I guess, can you talk a little bit about how undemocratic our information is becoming? I think people have this false sense of when they search for something, they are getting results based on the merit of the content that pops up as opposed to

algorithms starting to manipulate and throttle different websites or different content because of things like you mentioned, subscriptions, you know, paying for advertisements and things of that nature. Can you talk about the information and the awareness that needs to happen around that issue of social media? I think most users are really unaware that these platforms are in competition with them. Every single person that's on Instagram or Facebook, the app is working against you because you yourself are a network. Every single person that has a social media profile, television network. But you and you could consistently reach a million people, 10 million people, 100 million people. You could just charge for people to post content on your page and the platforms know that. So they actually suppress your content and squish it down.

And it forces the companies to do things like advertise with them. So this is just another way to continue to force advertisers to either do business directly with you for the visibility that they should already have. So for instance, so for instance, Recy, right, Beyonce has 319 million followers on Instagram. The top threshold

for any cable network is 100 million. With cord cutting, we're now seeing that. So basically, at its height, CNN was in 105, 110 million homes. That means that Beyonce, her Instagram page alone is three times bigger than CNN was at its height. But if Beyonce goes live right now, she will not have 319 million people watching her

because essentially they kept that sucker. Like you take Cardi B. One night Cardi B went live, and let me just see her followers. Cardi B has 167 million followers. She had almost 100,000 people on. That means that Cardi B was getting barely

1% of her following watching her live. So they ain't going to never let, if a Beyonce can hit 319 million people, she can make, that's more people than who watched the Super Bowl. Instagram ain't going to let her make that money. They going to make that money.

Greg. Thank you Roland and that kind of opens the door to my question asked out of ignorance but after years of watching you operate and after years of hearing your conversations with Roland and with all of

us and maybe this is again I'm asking out of ignorance, what do you see as the opportunity or opportunities for Black disruptors? Fanbase is free. Black Star Network is free. The idea that crowdsourcing financial support while the push that Roland has been doing now for quite some time to get those advertising dollars with some success

and then continuing to hold out the promise and expectation that that success will improve. But what are some of the opportunities for disruption? And, you know, like you said, what you said to Lauren about this fatigue, the subscription fatigue, you know, you know more about it. I just feel like maybe like Lauren perhaps feels if she asked the question at some point, people will get sick of this. But what opportunities are there for the models like fan base, like those who are disrupting? Can there be some black disruption in the midst of this kind of clawing at every penny people have for subscription basis? I say I say absolutely. I mean, I think infrastructure is what you're talking about, right?

And so for the most part, all these infrastructures, these tech companies are owned by people that are not black, right? So Roland has the Blackstar Network. He's built an infrastructure that's black-owned. Fanbase is a black-owned application, a black-owned social media platform, and the infrastructure is black-owned. Fanbase is a black-owned application, a black-owned social media platform, and the infrastructure is black-owned. The reason why that is important is typically because culture usually creates and modifies and shifts and guides technology in the way that it's headed. What makes things cool? What makes things awesome? What makes things, it sets the trends.

But then on the back end, who actually has ownership of that? So my design, Roland's design, in building these platforms is that we can also be guides, but also protect our culture in a way that it's not exploited. There you go. When advertising is at play, right?

And I say this all the time, with a platform like TikTok, right? TikTok wants very, very famous white creators on their platform, because I always say, unfortunately, things built by black people are perceived to be only for black people, but things built by white people are perceived to be for all people. So if I'm dunking coffee, do I want a young 20-something-year-old white girl to be the face of our brand or a young 20-something-year-old black girl to be the face of our brand or a young 20-something-year-old black

girl. You want the white girl because the white girl appeals to white people, black people, Asian people, Latino people, all races, right? But if you have a black girl, then most people, white people might opt out of that advertisement. Other races might opt out of that advertisement because of the girl is black. So we see black culture being appropriated, but then suppressed so that it can't thrive in the same way. So a platform like Fanbase is not going to allow that to happen. Number one, we don't run off advertising. And two, I want to give everybody a voice. So I want to make sure that people understand that Fanbase is not black only, but the fact that I'm a black founder, it just means that I understand the inequity that exists, and there will always be a conversation,

and always be a way that all voices are heard. No matter what race you are, because we're not basing it on trying to suppress people's content to make money. It's a community and I'm into community building. And so that's really the most important part about this is building a new community for people to be a part of. And I'll say this here. A perfect example, I saw the news today, go to my iPad, where Tubi, they're launching something called Stubios to fund and stream fan green-lit creative projects. They tapped Issa Rae to mentor aspiring filmmakers. And again, here's a perfect example. Issa Rae, significant brand, and she has a fan base, but guess what? Tubi wants to bring her on, cutting a check,

to drive their value up, but guess what? She doesn't own Tubi. The Fox Corporation owns Tubi. And so what we're talking about here, even when you look at your question, Greg, and I look at the work that Lauren does, what she's doing with her newsletter, the work that Reese is doing as well,

and what you're doing with Karen Hunter and with us with the Black Table on Black Star Network, this is really the hardest thing. This is the hardest thing. And that is to get black people to decide do I want to make

black people rich or do I want to be so associated with white folks that I have white validation? See, we just got to put it on the table. We got to put it on the table because there are black celebrities with massive following. And I know this because Isaac and I talk.

He's had the numerous conversations. And they are on other social platforms making nothing. But if you say, here's an equity stake, you can come here and make millions. Yeah, but you're not them. Am I lying, Isaac? and make millions, yeah, but you're not them.

Am I lying, Isaac? I don't think you're lying, but I think we also have to understand, I say this all the time, you know, if people like you, Roland, there are black people in this country that understand that they are not minorities by their energy or their effort or their creativity. And so for me, I'm a person that's never felt like a minority living in Atlanta.

What I mean is when you grow up understanding that white supremacy runs everything and that you have to fight your way through that, I don't fault the paths that Oprah and Jay-Z take. I don't fight the path that, you know, I don't, I understand why because that's the only thing that they know. They don't, I mean, we're getting to the point now where you should know. I mean, you're out there, Roland, I'm out there. We should know that we can actually invest in these startups and scale these things to 100, 200, $300 billion companies if we want to, but we have to get past that point. But I think that's hard to tell people to not kind of like stop fighting, right? All you have, if there's no villain,

then the battle is over. And what do I have to fight? And a lot of people want to be able to fight through white supremacy to gain acceptance. But I've never felt like I had to. So I never did. So that's why I operate the way that I operate with fan base.

So that's where we are. So Isaac, first of all, give us an update on your crowdfund. Everybody, I need you guys, everybody who's watching right now, go to startengine.com slash fanbase. It's on my shirt, if you can see it. And invest in fanbase and get equity. We're raising $17 million.

Drop low a third, please. A million dollars raised. And there's goals to this. There's like a five-year plan, I mean, a three-year plan to this. But our first milestone is the $2.5 million mark that we want people to invest in. And the minimum to invest in Fanbase is $399. And you actually get equity shares, stock. This is not GoFundMe.

This is not, you know, Kickstarter. This is actual stock options and it's also not a fake hemp farm uh because you you actually have a platform an office employees uh and actual revenue i'm sorry go ahead i had to go i had to go through the sec multiple times all of our financials are available online um we actually got a non-review from the sec which is a good thing they they trusted our our paperwork and all of our due diligence on our company so well that they had no objection with us going ahead and launching this $17 million round. It's significant because I'm very confident that I'm going to scale Fanbase to a $100 billion company. And right now, we're valued at $160 million. We've gone from $20

to $50 to $85 to a $160 million company. And I want to continue to do that and build the first of its kind black-owned social media platform that can be a successor to a TikTok or an Instagram. All these platforms aren't going to last forever. Facebook is not going to last forever. Instagram is not going to last forever. There will always be new platforms that emerge that young people in other cultures migrate to to build communities. So I tell you, before you do that, absolutely download Fanbase. Use it. Come on board. Make a profile. It's free to download, free to use.

But invest. And that minimum is $399. You get 60 shares at $6.65 a share. And I think it's an excellent opportunity for people to get on the cap table of a company that's continuing to scale and grow. We almost have 700,000 users. We're in 190 countries on iOS and Android. We've got some really cool functionality launching,

especially next week. We've got a whole new version of live launching. So you won't be suppressed. So when you go live, you go live to everybody that has fan base. It won't be capped by your following. So it doesn't matter who's on fan base. They'll be able to see your live,

not based off your following. It'll be open to anybody. So if you want to DJ, if you want to do makeup, if you want to talk, have conversations or whatever, that's something that we'll be able to do. And because we've reached this $1 million threshold, we'll be able to add RTMP streaming to the platform. So Roland, your show will be able to be streamed on Fanbase coming soon because now we've reached that threshold. So now the Black Star Network and Roland Martin and Filzer can also be streamed live on fan base.

And so I'm excited about that. And that's what investing does. It allows us to continue to build the company and scale the company. So go to startengine.com slash fan base to invest. And I am excited about that because we stream right now on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, sometimes on Instagram, obviously on YouTube as well, and is reaching folks across the platform. So we definitely want to reach the fan base community.

Isaac, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, I know we went over time, but we had some wild stories today. Let me thank Reesey. Let me thank Greg. Let me thank Lauren. We're going to stay on top of this NAACP suspension stuff. I got people texting me, tweeting me, saying it happened to me too. We certainly want to get some better information from the NAACP because that statement simply was not good enough what they sent to us. And also, Florida A&M, I don't know what the hell y'all got going on,

but y'all got more questions than answers for the public. And, again, I'm from Texas, and ain't nobody hurting this Gregory Jarami dude. So I don't know what's going on there. All right, y'all, that's it. Again, Reese, Greg, Lauren, thank you so very much. I appreciate it. Glad to have y'all.

Lauren, how you got Lauren signed off? How she keep coming on with that Virginia Tech hat? When she going to wear a Virginia State hat? And speaking of that, y'all. Lauren, how you got Lauren signed off? How she keep coming on with that Virginia Tech hat? When she gonna wear a Virginia State hat? And speaking of that, y'all need to keep tweeting to tell Trump to keep his punk ass in Biden to agree to the debate. Because Virginia State University is the first HBCU ever to get an invitation to host a presidential debate. And so Trump and Biden, if they're going to do, and there's three debates they're going to do. If they're going to do one, damn sure do that one at Virginia State.

And so I need y'all out there on social media pushing that out there, saying you want to see that presidential debate happen on the campus of Virginia State University. And so y'all stay with my alpha brother, who's the president down there. That's it, folks. I certainly appreciate it. Again, Greg, Reese, and Lauren, thanks a lot. Folks, we got to go. I'm going to see y'all tomorrow.

My niece graduates from Howard University tomorrow. She gets her master's degree. It's at 6 p.m. I actually got to host the show. All my family's going to be there, but I was the one last year, so I'm good. But, you know, I will be in the studio. But, Faith, congratulations on your master's degree in architecture from Howard University.

She gets that degree tomorrow at 6 p.m. All right, folks, don't forget, support us in what we do. I had somebody send me this. I'm going to put it on Twitter. Man, you need to send your anchors out covering these stories around the country. I said, baby, that costs money. I love people who tell me how we need to be covering news. And my automatic answer is, do you give?

So it's real easy to say what we should be doing, but if you ain't no donor, well, I'm sorry. So, again, join our Bring the Fuck fan club. Send your checking money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-7-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM unfiltered. PayPal, R.C. smart TV be sure to get a copy of my book white fear how the browning of America's making white folks lose their minds available at bookstores nationwide get your audio version on audible and we have sold out of copies of the first now here's what I'm doing I'm checking with my brother y'all I got books all over

the place so I'm checking with my brother to make sure I ain't left none in his house I just moved so I'm going through all the boxes make sure you ain't got a stash you know where but we are completely sold out. A lot of y'all been emailing and calling. Yo, I'm personally autographing each book. Y'all, that ain't easy. So I could easily get it tomorrow. Because I got to sign each one. So please be patient. I shipped off 140 books the other day. I just finished signing 60 before I came to the show today. My goal is to go home and knock out 200 tonight. So I'm on it, but just be patient, please.

All right? So, folks, we will see you all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Ha! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. I thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-ownedwned Media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? 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 star-stud in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.