#RolandMartinUnfiltered - No Charges In Jamaican Immigrant's Death, FL Police Chief Fired for Hiring Blacks

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

3.15.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: No Charges In Jamaican Immigrant's Death, FL Police Chief Fired for Hiring Blacks No charges will be filed for the death of a Jamaican immigrant killed while hunting with his white co-workers in Pennsylvania. The Venango County District Attorney says Peter Spencer's killing was justified due to self-defense under Pennsylvania's Stand Your Ground law. After about six months on the job, Fort Lauderdale's city manager fires the police chief over discrimination complaints. The complaint, he was hiring too many black people. The former police chief, Larry Scirotto is here tonight to explain why he wants his job back. With the stroke of a pen, Mississippi's becomes one of 14 states banning critical race theory. Race Forward will be launching a new initiative called H.E.A.L. Together, ready to counter attacks on Critical Race Theory. We'll talk to one of the organization's leaders to find out how they will undo what's been with something that has never been taught in grades K through 12. After a student was "auctioned off," a black North Carolina school superintendent implements an accountability plan for those students who discriminate or demean others. N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund is under new leadership as Sherilynn Ifill passes the touch to her replacement Janai S. Nelson. A white Maryland Democratic Party official resigns after questioning the electability of Black candidates in the state's governor's race. And in tonight's Marketplace segment, you'll meet two Shreveport, Louisiana sisters who are designing clothes for the everyday Black women. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bP Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Black power! Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Hey, Blake, I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I'm out. Thank you. I'm going to go. And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing

Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah All right, folks.

Today is Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. The story out of Pennsylvania, a Jamaican immigrant shot and killed four white men. Now the D.A. says no charges will be filed because it was self-defense. The family of Peter Spencer say this is absolutely wrong. We'll tell you what the D.A. had to say. Remember that Fort Lauderdale police chief who was fired because, frankly, he wanted to diversify the police force?

He joins us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered to talk about his firing and why he wants his job back. With the stroke of a pen, Mississippi becomes one of 14 states banning critical race theory theory even though it's not being taught. Race Forward will be launching a new initiative called Heal Together ready to counter attacks on critical race theory. We'll talk to one of the organization's leaders to find

out how they will undo what's being done all across the country. After a student was auctioned off, a black North Carolina school superintendent implements an accountability plan for those students who discriminate or demean others. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, they have a new leader today. We'll tell you who Sherilyn Ifill has passed the torch to.

Also, a white Maryland Democratic Party official resigns after questioning the electability of black candidates in the state's governor's race. And in tonight's Marketplace segment, you'll meet two Shreveport, Louisiana sisters who are designing clothes for the everyday black woman. And after today's show, I'm gonna show you the promo right now. I sit down and talk with the great Richard Roundtree,

the original chef. We talk about Gordon Parks showing him what it is he wanted for that part, and also how emotional it was for him to play the role, also talk about his family as well. Folks, it's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Marten, yeah

Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Marten now Marten Our time Alright folks, a few weeks ago we told you about the Fort Lauderdale police chief who got fired because he said, look, we need diversity in our police force. Larry Oscarito was in office for less than a year and was widely criticized for his approach to hiring and promotion.

Fort Lauderdale city officials believe he was unfairly focusing exclusively on minority candidates, thus leading to his removal from office. Well, he joins us right now. I'm glad to have you on the show, Chief. I'll still keep calling you Chief. So let's let's first of all, let's deal with this. We heard all kind of different stuff. They said that you saw a board and you saw the leadership of the police department, and it was virtually all white. Did you remark this has to change? We should look more like the police force, more like the community in Fort Lauderdale?

Absolutely. I talked about with clear intention that our department, more importantly, our executive leadership team should be reflective of the community we serve. And in this instance, 17 of the 19 people were white and one black male and one Latino male. And it was an observation of a moment in time. I never said anything about it being two. I just said it should be reflective of the organization we serve or the city we serve. It should also be reflective of the police department that we serve. And it just wasn't. And it was apparent. So it was an observation at a moment in time and then taken out of context, parsed in certain segments from other things I had said to create a narrative. One of the other things that the city has said is that you overlooked a particular officer who had been on the force for 20 years.

First of all, do police departments, when you're deciding who to promote, is it all based upon seniority or is it based upon who's the best person for the job? Well, it should be based on the best person for the job. The person that they're comparing the promotion to was a black male, a lieutenant with a master's degree, volunteered in the community from the neighborhood, was exceptional, came with letters of reference from not only the community, but his peers, his supervisors. And that was who I selected in relation to this person of 20 years, this 20 year veteran that was not selected. So I selected a candidate that was extremely qualified. Oh, and by the way, he happened to be a black man. So what were you really dealing with? Were you dealing with pushback from white officers who did not like the fact that you, as a police chief, were coming in and saying, look, we've got to look like our community. And you've,

and were you looking at hiring in a different way, not exclusively targeting minority candidates? You know, I, I was facing the old guard. These statements and comments were about over on the fifth day that I had arrived. So it was set in motion from almost the day that I got there. But I think there was a lot of resentment as it related to me being outspoken and intentional about diversity and inclusion, building an equitable organization that's reflective of the community we serve.

You know, Fort Lauderdale is a minority-majority city. The police department is 34% minority, and we just didn't have the— Wait, wait, wait. So Fort Lauderdale is a majority minority city, but the police department is 66% white? That is accurate. Got it. Right?

So I'm facing this challenge from the very beginning. But I won't apologize. I'm unapologetic about it. I, like other minority officers that have grown up in the police department, nobody wanted to be promoted as a less inferior candidate. We wanted to be promoted when our work and our effort has been exceptionally exceeded expectations. And that's what I did. I just didn't miss when I had the opportunity to promote a minority candidate. So when you were high, first of all, when you were being interviewed,

did you make this clear to the city manager what was important? Because I take it you did your research before taking the job. That is why the city manager seeked me out from the beginning, because in other interview processes, I had spoken specifically to the need and necessity for our profession to be diverse, for our profession to be reflective of the communities we serve, especially in urban cities. And in most urban cities, it's not. And when we talk about that intentionality, that was what was appealing to the city manager and was appealing to the community, was appealing to the commission to hire me, is that I didn't shy away from it.

I recognized it to be an issue. I recognized it to be a priority, and they made it a priority to and for me. It was the directive of my bosses. I followed the direction to a T until I actually did it, and then the expectation was met with, obviously, my departure. What you encountered, frankly, we've seen all across the country.

We see this in major police departments. Historically, they have been largely white, especially the leadership. And all of a sudden, someone comes in who's black or Latino, and then they begin to make changes, and you get these white cops who get in their feelings because, frankly, they believe the department, frankly, belongs to them. And this is also part of the issue,

even when communities are complaining about treatment because you have folks who don't look like the community saying, you don't represent us. Right, right. And I think what happens is in leadership roles, you know, you say you want to do these things, you need to do these things. It's recognized that our profession is deficient in that diversity. But then when leaders do make those hard, difficult decisions to fight the status quo, then we oftentimes our tenure is short lived because of that.

And I said this earlier and I'll say it again. If promoting diversity and inclusion is the hill I die on, I've done well by my profession, I've done well by this city, and I've done well by this department. What I don't understand is why did the city get scared? Why did the city manager freak out? I take it there are city council members who had no problem with your position because the city council has to ratify these decisions. Right. We work in a unique scenario here with the city commission.

The city manager has the ultimate authority over personnel decisions to include mine. And in that, he had the what I call an opinion opinion piece with author through the law department. And it was relative to five pages of hearsay, five pages of speculation, and not under oath, not transcribed. And they used that opinion piece as gospel to terminate me. And we had never gone, this case hadn't even gone to the EEOC yet for formal testimony. So the opinion piece by the investigator, who's had what I would suggest be compromised, was what they used for the basis of termination. So were you ever presented

with the results of this so-called internal investigation, were you offered an opportunity to respond to it? Or was it simply, here's a report, bottom line, you're out? The latter. I never had any due process in this matter. I read the report on a Tuesday afternoon. I met with the city attorney, the HR director, and the city manager on Thursday. It was terminated. I never got an opportunity to defend myself. The rationale was that we just can't defend this.

And obviously my rebuttal to that is you can't defend an opinion piece created by a compromised investigator that spent two and a half hours interviewing me but came up with six lines and of the six, five are factually inaccurate. They also said they're not going to pay you. That is true. So then I will, obviously I've retained legal counsel, and my legal team will work to assuring that I am fairly compensated for my time at Fort Lauderdale. Have you received any support from other police officials in other parts of the country?

I mean, look, I mean, they oust you. Your colleague, Art Acevedo, got ousted in Miami because he dared to challenge corruption there. I mean, I think probably put together, both of you didn't even hit a year. No, collectively, I think we worked in South Florida for 11 months. And yes, I was given, I mean, I've received great support, one from the community, our elected officials, from other law enforcement professionals,

from past chiefs that have worked in Fort Lauderdale and have encountered the same type of resistance when we're talking about diversity and inclusion. So I've felt very supported in the decisions that I make, which keeps me at peace for doing the right thing. And again, the fight just begins, to be quite honest. Is this also your firing? What signal do you think it sends to those black and brown police officers on the force? I would assume that since you got fired, you heard from them not at all happy that you've been ousted. Right. Well, Fort Lauderdale has the Black Police Officers Association, and they have come to my defense immediately. We've had it. We had and have a great relationship with the president and their executive board and their membership.

And I continue to reinforce to them that, listen, no matter what the narrative is from four unhappy, unqualified candidates, you were the best of the group. And that's why you were selected. It is a benefit that you are minority, but don't let them for a minute discredit your accomplishments because what you've done in this police department, it should be acknowledged. It should be recognized. And when you, and I hope the next chief, if it's not me, I hope the next chief takes on this next, this carries this torch on and challenge the status quo and don't allow a few old guard members to control this organization. It's a great police department with great officers and a great community, but there are people in power that will never allow it to grow. And until they're no longer

there, the organization will remain stagnant in that regard. Well, that is certainly one of the things that we've long said in police departments and fire departments, but not only that, in corporate America as well. And look, I'm writing a book that's going to drop in September called White Fear. And this is really what we're dealing with. We're dealing with white fear. They don't like it when black and brown folks get in positions of power, begin to make changes because it upsets the balance of power.

And also it's about money. And then when you begin to lay out in terms of how the how how the future is changing, will be will be certainly the emerging minority is going to be a majority in 2043. The workforce is going to be going to be majority minority by 2039. And those who are in power don't like it. Yeah. And you know what? At the end of the day, I've got to be committed. There's got to be people in these leadership roles, especially in policing, that are committed to make that change. And in that commitment, that some of us will be sacrificed because of it. And at the end of the day, I'm okay with that. I can live with that outcome if I know I'm doing the right and just thing by our community, by our department,

by those officers that at times were overlooked and were plenty qualified, plenty competent, but weren't given the same opportunities that their contemporaries were. And that's the challenge that I face. That's a challenge that a lot of leaders face in policing today, especially if you're a minority leader. You can't just say it. You have to do it. Be a person of action. And we say while we're getting the job, but oftentimes we're not doing it once we get the job. Indeed.

And, Larris Guerrero, appreciate it. Keep us abreast of what happens in your case. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you guys. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. I'm going to go to my panel right now. Folks, Dr. Mustafa Santayegh Ali,

former senior advisor for environmental justice EPA, Kelly Bethea, communications strategist, and then we'll be joined by Demario Solomon-Simmons, civil rights attorney and founder of Justice for Greenwood. What you just heard right there, Mustafa, is, again, what we always talk about. Leaders are supposed to lead. But then you have those folks who whine and complain, upset, mad,

because they're changing the order. This is power. This is money. And that's what you saw right here. It most definitely is. You know, definitely you see the power dynamic playing out as we begin to rise, as we begin to have these positions where we can actually make the positive changes that folks are asking for. You know, looking at recommendations that activists and advocates and others are coming up with. And when you have a leader, you know, who's willing to try and begin to move the needle in the right direction, then, of course, they are removed from that position.

It's always really, you know, these dynamics that we have going on really put a spotlight on where we are as a country and how much further we still have to go. Kelly? No, I absolutely agree with Mustafa on this one. It's interesting how when minorities consider blackness or the ethnicity and race of their hires, it's considered discriminatory and biased and wrong. But when we have decades of history of white people doing the same thing for nefarious reasons,

that's okay just because it's upholding whiteness. So I applaud this former chief for doing what he did, because at the end of the day, your police department should reflect and look like those who are in the community. And when you have a majority white force with a majority minority and Black and Latinx community, that's where the disconnect comes in. That's where the miscommunication comes in. But more importantly, that's where the racial bias and excessive use of force comes in. So he was trying to combat that. That's why I applaud him. And the fact that he was fired for doing the right thing, he's in Florida. So I'm not surprised. Absolutely. All right, folks, some breaking

news coming out of the White House. The second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, has tested positive for COVID-19. This comes, of course, a couple of days after President Barack Obama, former President Barack Obama announced that he also had contracted COVID. And Vice President Kamala Harris, she has tested negative for COVID, but is pulling back on her schedule as a result of this positive COVID test by the vice president. And again, the White House announced this just moments ago that he had tested positive. In fact, it was about six hours ago or so that there were some photos released where Emhoff was actually at a community garden here in the nation's capital.

And so they were actually I'm sorry. Yeah, they were. He was actually doing some work in the in the garden at the Naval Observatory, the VP's house. And again, he has tested positive. As a result, Vice President Harris is not attending the equal pay event that is happening very soon at the White House. Earlier, she was with President Biden for a bill signing because, as. Look, I went through that experience. You can test negative, but really it's about four or five days afterwards where you have to keep getting tested. I remember when I came back from Hawaii, I went straight to Atlanta. My symptoms hit. It was on Monday. My symptoms hit on a Wednesday. Then I tested negative on a Thursday. Didn't test positive until that Saturday.

And so we'll certainly be monitoring the vice president. But this also goes to show whether it was President Barack Obama, whether it's Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, COVID is still with us. You can be in the most protected bubble you can think of, and that's the president and the vice president of the United States that can still be impacted by COVID. Absolutely. You know, with everything going on in the news right now between, you know, the Ukrainian-Russian war, what we just talked about, everything else, it feels like COVID as a headliner has been put to the back burner, frankly, not because it's not important, but because people are tired of hearing about it. And that's not

really a valid excuse to get rid of a headline. And things like this are proof that we still need to be talking about COVID. We still need to be talking about using precautions. I'm not saying, you know, mask mandates and all of this stuff, but keep it at the forefront of the American mind because frankly, we are so behind the ball on protecting ourselves

that any measure will help us combat this. So, you know, thoughts and prayers go out to the second gentleman. If I'm not mistaken, he is vaxxed and boosted. So, hopefully, that will be enough of a precaution for him to come out of this well and virtually unscathed, because that's the point of the medicine. That's the point of vaccines and boosters. So I hope he's well. I hope he gets better. And I hope that, you know, people use this headline as, you know, a wake-up call that we are not out of a pandemic yet. We are still very much in a pandemic. You can still catch COVID. It is not a winter disease. It is not something that just happens because you're

around a whole bunch of people. You can catch it and you can still suffer from it. Some people can still even die from it. So just keep that in mind and protect yourself as best you can. And to that point, Mustafa, I think people have to be reminded of this. I mean, look, I think in many ways folks have said, OK, let's just let our guard down. It's all good. We could just go back to normal. You have mask mandates that have been lifted. You see Kevin Durant blasting the New York mayor saying, get rid of these mandates while we still have them. You have people who are saying kids

shouldn't be wearing masks in schools. They're upset. You've got these Republican governors all over the place and all these people are chomping at the bit. You've got these Republican governors all over the place, and all these people are chomping at the bit. You've got these truckers from Canada whining about vaccine mandates. But we are witnessing that this is still real. It still impacts, and there are still repercussions when you get COVID. Even after you get COVID and you survive COVID, people are still monitoring their health because there still could be problems as a result. And so just so many people really don't understand that

we have to be cautious. We still have to look. You could sit here and say, I'm sick of mask all you want to. But I'm telling you right now, if you're around other people, especially large groups of people, you might want to protect yourself with a mask, also protecting your eyes, because COVID is still a real thing. Without a doubt. You know, we've got so many folks who want to deal in opinions instead of facts. You know, opinions can get you dead. Opinions can get you sick, especially if you're getting them from the wrong places. You know, the facts are there. The science, even though it evolves, has been very clear about how we can protect ourselves. And all you got to do is pay attention. I mean, China is shut down right now because of the outbreaks that are currently going on. All across Europe, Omicron BA.2, you know, was the one that was infecting folks recently.

And now it's here in this country. And folks are saying that many of the new sets of infections are actually coming from that. But you have ways of protecting yourself. By no means is it 100% protective, but it's the best things that we have. Wear your mask. It just makes sense. It doesn't take much to be able to do it. And a number of the other things that we've known now

for months upon months that help us to be protected, getting our vaccine, making sure that we're washing our hands. And like you said, what people don't do is protect their eyes as well. So if you want to continue to put your finger into the hornet's nest, you go ahead. And I guarantee you that the odds are that you might end up getting stung. But what we're still seeing, though, is that because there's been an outbreak in China, as we speak, China is building a 6,000-bed facility in a week as a result of this

new outbreak. Well, they're making the investments. I mean, so one, they could have done a better job, but that's for their government to make the choices of how they want to protect their people or not. But here in this country, we need to start making better decisions. You know, if we had done many of the basic steps, we could have avoided so much of loss of life. We could have also got to a point where we didn't have to shut down for these extended periods of time the way that we did,

but we made choices to have sort of, you know, these different places across the country that had different sets of regulations in place and all this other kind of stuff that makes no sense when you understand a public health pandemic. But you're going to make the investments one way or another. We should just start being much smarter in how we make the investments in a holistic strategy instead of a piecemeal strategy. And the point I made earlier, Kelly, for the people out there who say,

look, okay, this is really no big deal. Again, you look at the folks that he has been around. Again, the vice president, she was with the president today at a signing ceremony. For all these people, especially on Fox News and these right-wing people who mock Biden and Harris for still wearing a mask when they are around each other, hello, Exhibit 101. Exactly. And not to be ageist about this whatsoever, but President Biden is an elderly man. He is more susceptible to being immunocompromised than anyone else on his administration.

He just so happens to be the head of his administration. This is a concern. This is an urgent concern and something that needs to be taken seriously. So, yes, you're right. People around Biden need to be wearing masks. That is a liability if you don't. That is putting the president in danger if you're right. People around Biden need to be wearing masks. That is a liability if you don't. That is putting the president in danger if you don't. And it's something that is

so simple. We're not asking you to, you know, just roll over and die for the sake of the president. If anything, we are asking you to save your own life and in turn you are saving the president's life as well just by putting a piece of cloth over your face. Demario, you just joined us.

Go right ahead. Your thoughts. I did just join you. What are the thoughts? What are you talking about? Second gentleman, Doug Imhoff, tested positive for COVID. Oh, no. I didn't know that.

I mean, I heard about President or former President Barack Obama testing positive for COVID. So obviously, this is something real. I mean, for me, I just finished traveling to Iowa, being on a plane and going to a court hearing up there and definitely concerned about the continuation of this pandemic. So that's a wake-up call because we cannot get laxed on the mask. And I did have my mask on and everything.

So I hate to hear that. What type of symptoms is he having? They just simply announced that he had tested positive. Well, I'm hoping that his symptoms are light. We know that this is still a very serious situation. I'm hopeful. I'm sure he was vaccinated and boosted as I am. And I know many people are and some people are not.

But I think being I believe that it's the best way to go for my personal health at this particular time. I don't know if I'll be doing it in perpetuity, but I'm hoping that he gets over his this issue very, very quickly. Pull up this tweet, folks. Eugene Daniels of Politico had sent this out. This is from earlier today. This is a photo that was posted on the second gentleman's Twitter page where he was in the garden with a variety of photos. In fact, there were a couple of photos that he posted.

You see him, like I said, in that particular photo. You see he's there smiling. Those photos were taken, were posted about six hours ago. And there were several photos that were taken. And so now, of course, contact tracing. You now have to factor in the other folks who were around the second gentleman, the other people around there who didn't have masks on. So even though they're outdoors in close proximity, now we know that he's tested positive for COVID. And so, you know, hopefully this is a wake-up call for a lot of people who understand why these things absolutely matter and why we must still be attentive and focused. All right, folks, we'll give you more news. And as I said, Vice President Kamala Harris will not be attending the Equal Pay event taking place at the White House. There could be some comments made by

President Joe Biden there. As a result, we'll monitor that to see if he did speak about this issue at that particular event. We're going to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the continuing fight over critical race theory. These white Republicans continue to pass laws banning

critical race theory when they actually have no idea what the hell it even is. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. ТРЕВОЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА I was in the telephone booth on 63rd and 3rd Avenue. Brought my coins in and dialed a number. Mr. Parks, this is Richard Roundtree. Oh, yes, yes. Well, you know, it looks like you got the number. Mr. Parks, this is Richard Roundtree. Oh, yes, yes. Well, you know, it looks like you got the role. I didn't know whether I'll go blind.

Oh, really? Okay, well, wait, wait, wait. You can't tell anyone. Can I tell my parents? Yes. And I'm walking around town, and my fellow actors and models are saying, hey, you know what? Tree, I think I might have gotten that role.

You hear this two or three different times. Right. Like, did he come? Well, wait a minute. Was I dreaming that? Or didn't Gordon calls me up? I called Gordon, and he minute, was I dreaming that? Then Gordon calls me up. I call Gordon, and he says, we're having the press announcing you are the chef.

I get in a limo, and I pull up and saw this. Oh, Lord. What we used to call, I'm shitting in high cotton. Yes, in high cotton, yes. I get out. And all the press is there, and actors. I walk in, and Gordon announces, yes, this is Richard Bountry, and he's going to play the character Shaft.

Magic. Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Welcome to Women's History Month celebration. We're honored to have what may well be the most inspiring event we've had at the White House so far.

I've often said that America's strength is not just the example of our power, but the power of our example. And I mean that. Look at, I was going to say, look at this stage, but that's enough, too. Look at the stage. But there's been a little change in the arrangement

of who's on the stage because of the First Lady's husband contracting COVID. But look at this room and what you see. Pardon? That's right. She's fine. It's me. That's not together.

The second lady, the first gentleman. How about that? Anyway, an incredible... Folks, that was President Joe Biden a few moments ago alerting the audience there about the positive COVID diagnosis of the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff. That's also why Vice President Kamala Harris is not at that particular event. Folks, on Monday, the governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves,

signed an anti-critical race theory bill. Mississippi becomes the 14th state to do so. Now, the Republican governor believes that Senate Bill 2113 is necessary to protect students. Listen to this, y'all. Hello. Governor Tate Reeves from Mississippi here, and I want to set the record straight about critical race theory

because the radical left and the media continue to spread misinformation on this critical issue. And while they may be okay lying to you, I believe you deserve the truth. Across this great country, we're seeing a full court press by a vocal minority of well-organized and well-funded activists who seek to tear down the unity that has helped make our country great. Students are being force-fed an unhealthy dose of progressive fundamentalism that runs counter to the principles of America's founding. Children are dragged to the front of the classroom and are coerced to declare themselves as oppressors, taught that they should feel guilty because of the color of their skin or that they are inherently

a victim because of their race. I know you'll agree with me. I can't waste any more time on that bullshit. Folks, Race Forward is an organization who is launching the first comprehensive campaign to counter attacks on critical race theory. It's called HEAL or Honest Education, Action and Leadership Together. Zakia Ansari, the Advocacy Director for Alliance for Equality Education. She joins us from Long Island,

New York. Glad to have you on the show. It's so funny to listen to one of the most inept governors in the country, Tate Reeves, talk about, oh, this is here to counter the misinformation when literally everything that came out of his mouth in that three and a half minute video, I wasn't going to play all that crap, was nothing but misinformation. I appreciate that. It was hard to actually listen and watch that myself. And thank you for having me on. As we know, it's across this country, there has been a wave of policies restricting what teachers can teach and the truth. So as he sits there and talk about what we're trying to do to this country, the truth was not, the country was not based on truth, right? And there's attack on those policies.

But there's also attack on the grassroots organizations, young people and parents and community members that have been fighting for the real attack. This is the real thing they're trying to attack. This is the CRT, culturally responsive teaching. That's really what they're trying to attack right now, right? And so it's really important for us to actually steep our conversation in facts, not fear, because these policies, as we see, will have already and will continue to have devastating impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. And the truth should be something that all of us want to know. All of us want to have taught in our classrooms. So HEAL is to bring

what together to actually do, highlight all those things and bring that conversation back to us. Let's really talk about the truth. Well, and I keep telling people this whole thing here, first of all, this all started because white folks lost their mind over the 1619 Project. They're angry with Black Lives Matter. They're angry that black folks are asserting themselves. They don't like the fact that we simply are not bowing down and kowtowing. And this is really about pushing the buttons of white people to get them angry to vote. Yes, period. And this is this moment we're in right now of all the things they're using, even our narratives of woke and all these other things, again, to steep things in fear. And anything steeped in fear for us, we already know those policies are going to be

damaging. And that's exactly what's happening now. This is an absolute attack on our democracy. It's an attack on LGBTQIA rights, which is why we see this person, and I refuse to call him a political figure, but Governor DeSantis in Florida passing do not, you know, you can't say, do not say gay bill. What are we coming to right now? And so there is a distraction of making us think that, as we saw with this Mississippi person, Governor, say that, you know, there's this small group of progressive folks who want to drag our children to the front of the classrooms. The reality is that teaching for communities and organizations like my own, I'm with the Alliance

for Quality Education, and other organizations have been pushing for culturally responsive education to happen in our classrooms. And I'll be quite honest, it's not happening. And so we wish that there was a deeper conversation around true history, that many of the incidents that we have been seeing, especially during Black History Month, we can go on and on. You probably had some of them on TV. We had one incident a few years ago where the teacher stepped on a child's back to say, now you know what it feels like to be a slave, right?

Or I just saw some documentation about a classroom where they had children drawing people picking cotton. Like these are not abstract. They're real things that are happening to our children in the classrooms. And because we choose not to talk about race, because we have not really taken on this uncomfortable conversation. Here we are now with someone and a small group of ultra white conservative folks, billion, who have forced this conversation down our throat, when the reality of what we want to talk about and what parents and community members want to talk about is how we ensure that we have culturally responsive education in our classrooms,

that our educators are getting implicit bias in trainings, that our educators are actually able to teach in classrooms the truth. And we are here as HEAL to make sure that we begin to have those conversations, because the reality is we are fighting back. People are winning these battles, even though these policies are being passed in certain states. So what is this campaign? What exactly are y'all going to do to counter this?

So HEAL Together is a national initiative. It's spearheaded by Race Forward with our partners at NYU Metro Center, Schott Foundation, and our organization, the Alliance for Quality Education. As you know, Race4 is a national nonprofit, and we're here to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. And so we have a huge launch that's happening, right? We're going to galvanize. We're going to have trainings. It's going to be fun. It's going to be exciting. And we're going to really talk about not only what's happening, but the truth and what we want to see. And that launch is on March 30th. And we want people to join. If you go to healtogether.org and sign up,

we want you there. Because what we know to combat that is actually to talk about the truth of what this really is, to combat the misinformation that's out there that allows people and some who are not even really quite sure, who are standing up at school board meetings saying, we don't want critical race theory. But when you ask them what it is, they don't know. And so how do we bring folks together across the country to actually have a conversation about this and talk about how important, how vital it is to talk about the truth and to ensure that every child sees themselves in a curriculum, that every teacher has access and capability to actually teach the truth and that book banning and all the things

that people are doing right now is an absolute attack on our democracy. Make no, um... That is real. That is not, uh, over... overstating anything. That is a reality, and we see it. It's about... It's connected to voting rights and what's happening there. It's connecting to our climate and denial of science.

It's connected to vaccine mandates. It's connected to vaccine mandates. It's connected to all the things. And they really tied this up in a cute little bow to attack public education. And we say, no, we won't stand for it. Questions from our panel. First off, Kelly.

Hi, thank you for coming on the show and explaining this position. For those who still do not know exactly what critical race theory is, like, the actual definition, um, could you explain that in-in layman's terms? Because I actually took the class critical race theory. It is a legal concept.

It is a course in law school. It is not what these, uh, radical right, um, bigots areots are proclaiming it to be. So in your own words, in layman's terms, please explain exactly what critical race theory is and what it's not specifically. What we're hearing in the media is not what it actually is. I really appreciate that question. You know, when I heard about it, too, I had never heard about it before either. And so in my brain, you talk about layman's terms, how I define it, it's pretty much what you said. It's a course that's taught in higher education. And it's pretty much sharing the truth about how

race plays a role in policy and lawmaking, period. That's a fact. And it's not about that we are trying to make folks feel bad, their children feel bad, or white people feel bad about, uh, the past, uh, at all. It's not about, um, uh, pushing forth, uh... the attack, like, they're pushing forth, uh, children who are LGBTQIA, pushing that on folks. It's not about, um, making sure teachers are pushing for the progressive conversation.

We wish, to be honest, we wish are pushing for the progressive conversation. We wish, to be honest, we wish that there were deep progressive conversations happening about revolution and what really, what it really looks like to be a progressive and all those things. We want that to be happening in schools. It is about making what the attack is about, making us fearful of anything. You know why they grabbed on? Let's talk. The reason they grabbed on to this is because it has race in it. Can we talk about that? It's in a climate post-Trump.

Well, really not post-Trump. But it's a climate after him. It is a continuation and a snowball effect of all that Trump laid ground on and all these other folks who are in Congress right now who are continuing this crazy narrative about anything that has to do with race is something we must squash.

We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to feel bad. We don't want, uh, you know, the tears and all of that to happen. Like, this is an absolute attack on, uh, culturally responsive teaching, this attack on public education, and this attack on our democracy.

I'm gonna keep saying that, um, because I think it's important for everyone to get a... to understand how deeply this is and the things that they're doing. But we must tell the truth in the midst of them trying to churn out misinformation. Demario. Yeah, we appreciate your work. A couple of things I think is important.

Number one, he talked about the governor of Mississippi, the founding principles of America, which in this order were slavery, genocide, misogyny, and land theft. That was the founding principles of America, period. And then I think, I know you said it's an attack on our democracy, but I submit that we do not have a democracy, because particularly for Black people, because a democracy requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate without restrictions on their right to vote and be able to speak their voice. We have not and never have had that in America. So this is an attack on us people. I think you said it best. The fact that they utilize this because it has race in it. This is an attack on black people, black history, and Black progress.

So I appreciate your work. I want to know, I'm here in Oklahoma. Are you guys active? My co-counsel is actually leading the case that filed here with the ACLU here in Oklahoma. But I want to know if you guys are doing any work here in Oklahoma. If you are not, I want to invite you in

and make sure we connect after this segment. Well, I would love to connect. I feel like we might have a connection in Oklahoma, but let's talk about that. We will, you know, we have been looking at places and engaging with organizations that have been doing this work in combat. And normally, you know, we would be in more urban spaces, but guess what? This is impacting suburbia, rural, and urban communities. And we have to literally all come together on this conversation. Because if we don't, then we allow a small group. And it is a tiny group, but they're loud and mighty, right? Like, they got a churning machine, like a Fox News and some of these other governors that are just

churning and just loud for no reason, right? And we have to really not beat them back by being louder, but really being strategic. School board elections, right? These things are happening and people are getting on. And also, again, I want to reiterate that even in the midst of all these things happening, there are strong victories. There are young people around these book bannings who have pulled together and said, you know what? You want to ban a book? We want to read the book. And so they brought young people together to actually read the books. And so it's important to be able to engage our young people, which they are fighting back against this.

Community members are organizing themselves together. And we have to fight back because they actually are putting bounties on teachers in classrooms, right? Moms of Liberty is like, we'll pay you $500 if you can tell us, and you know, you have a child in the classroom. If you can tell us if a teacher is teaching critical

race theory. Excuse me? Mustafa. Where do you know this money? Mustafa. Sister Ansari, it's good to see you. The question is, does the Department of Education and some of these other educational

associations have a role to play in addressing the misinformation and disinformation that folks have created around critical race theory? Absolutely. I think we all have a role to play. Definitely. What I believe is that there's not enough. While it seems like there's more people learning about it, it's really important. Not enough people know. Not enough of our folks, not enough folks around the country. Hence, HEAL is important, right? Are we fighting back? But we need to hold the education department actually accountable for this. Right. Where is the comment? Where are the memos to states that teaching the truth is important? Because these folks want if they get their way, the insurrection that we call an insurrection on January 6th will not be in any textbooks. It will be exactly how they are defining it right now. It was a day in the park and they had a good day in D.C., right? That's how deep this is going. So, yes, we all have a role. And that's why on March 30th, we need folks to join us and have a conversation, be inspired.

What we know is that there is so much news. We can't keep track of all the things that are happening, right? But we need to keep track of this. But we also need to be inspired to be able to get up. Why do I need why would I get up the next day to fight for shifting what's happening in this particular issue? If we have other issues, I can't feed my kids. You know, poverty is rampant. Climate change and all these things. We have to inspire folks to understand that they're not by themselves when they're fighting the battle and that they need to be engaged in this struggle. It is all connected. And I think when we can make that case for folks that this is not a one-off, this is an and both, then people will be able to get up the next morning and be like, all right, I'm good. I'm going to connect to HEAL. I'm going to get out there and do this. I'm going to call my governor or whatever the step needs to happen. But that's why HEAL is coming together on our launch on March 30th to actually bring folks together.

Absolutely, the state, the country plays a role and the education department plays a role in being vocal against what's actually happening around teaching the truth and the attacks on educators. And actually, community groups and young people have been fighting for many, many years, like our organization, for culturally responsive education. All right. Zakiya Ansari, the Advocacy Director for Alliance for Quality Education. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. All right, folks.

We come back. Black and Missing also. Do you know who's also has a brain that's missing? Hershel Walker. Wait till I show y'all what this fool said about evolution. I swear. I mean, I know Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is praying Hershey Walker gets elected so Tommy is not the dumbest United State Senator.

You're watching Roland Martin, Under Filter, right here on the Blackstar Network. I'm sorry. On the next A Balanced Life, as we grind down to the end of another long winter, it's easy to slip out of balance and into the foggy doldrums. On the next A Balanced Life, ways to push through the gray days until the warm days of spring arrive. Join me, Dr. Jackie, on A Balanced Life on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Star Network. All right, folks.

Tavoris Jones has been missing since January 5th from Alton, Illinois. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Tavoris Jones should please call the Alton Police Department, Alton, Illinois Police Department at 618-463-3505, 618-463-3505. All right, y'all. Hershel Walker is running for the United States Senate in Georgia. And if he wins a Republican nomination, he's going to be facing Senator Raphael Warnock. So here's the whole deal, folks.

So, oh, we have showed y'all on many occasions how utterly ridiculous Herschel Walker is. We've showed y'all that right listen to Herschel talk to at a church event about evolution here that means somebody up there had to say let there be light that the earth started and then he had to put someone there on earth I remember Adam was there remember Adam came there then Eve came so somebody had to put someone there on earth. Remember, Adam was there. Remember, Adam came there. Then Eve came. So somebody had to start it out. So that means there had to be a God.

Because it didn't just some bomb blew up and it started out. And then I'll tell you something else I heard. Now think about this. Because at one time, science said man came from AIDS. Did it not? That's when you go to the science. Every time I read or hear that, I think to myself, you just didn't read the same Bible I did.

Well, this is what's interesting, though. If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it. You know, now you're getting too smart for us. No, no, no, no. Think about this. We have an evolution that is we've gotten so intelligent that if that is true, why are there still apes?

And then the conception of a baby. Let tell you science can't do that they still trying to do it come on but it can't because they're happy a guy Mustafa I saw something earlier where somebody said dogs evolved from wolves and we still got wolves. This boy is dumb. He is, Mustafa, he is absolutely dumb. You know, they love for us to tap dance and Bojangle. And they will prop us up. And when I talk about them, we know which party I'm talking about.

They love that. And, you know, I wanna, one, I hope that it gets helpful what I'm talking about. They love that. And, you know, I want to, one, I hope that he gets help for what I'm about to say, but he has said that he suffers from mental health challenges in the past. So I hope that he gets whatever help he needs to be able to address that, because that's significant. But at the same time, Georgia, what are you doing? How could you possibly put an individual like this up for one of your highest office with just incredible amounts of responsibility? When you do that, you embarrass Georgia. So we got to take this stuff more serious. I know we

joke around and we're like, you know, what is this man talking about? Because evidently he didn't spend any time in some of the basic classes that are necessary, I would assume, for you to go and play ball at the college that he did. But, you know, it's still scary. And here's the other part that's scary, is that this is the best that the GOP has in Georgia

to run against Reverend Warnock, Senator Warnock. So if that's all you got, then that explains why your policies are so weak. And that explains the previous conversation we had around critical race theory and a number of other things, because you have no substance. You see, his conversation has no substance. It's full of silliness.

It's full of mistruths and a number of other things. That can be dangerous. But the real danger is that there is no substance in what these folks continue to push forward, and that's why they prop up individuals like our brother Herschel, and that he is an individual who could very easily be elected. And we already know we have a number of problems in our country,

and that we literally need to have the best people trying their hardest to actually get us to where we need to be. But Kelly, here's the deal, though. He's so dumb, what he said, it's a whole bunch of folks on the right in Georgia going, yep, that's sound about right, Herschel. You sound that you right, Herschel. I agree with you.

So he playing to the dumb, I always say playing to the cheap seats. He playing to the dumb seats. You know, ignorance is a hell of a drug. And it is unfortunate that this black man has fallen subject to white gays substantiated by the very people who would not give two craps about him if he were not in this party. It is unfortunate. From an empathy standpoint, I am actually concerned considering that he was a former football player. He had a relatively extensive career in two football leagues, if I'm not mistaken. And that can account for concussions and brain injuries that he doesn't know about, because the way in which he speaks, the cadence in which he speaks indicates that something could very well be

wrong with him. Like Mustafa said, he himself has admitted to mental health issues, but it looks like it could be something deeper there. And that is where my concern lies, not necessarily in his politics. We already know that's a crock of crap, you know, but his health is my concern. And if your health is in jeopardy as you are running for Senate, God forbid he wins and he has to actually help draft legislation and endorse legislation. And from the looks of this videos

and videos in the past, he does not understand legislation or the logic behind it or, you know, the rationale to promote it to promote it, he will be representing an entire state that has a slew of issues that he frankly does not understand. That is where my concern lies when I see tapes like this. Is it funny? Sure, if you look at its surface level. But the deeper meaning behind this is that he very well might not be mentally fit for office. And yet, because of this age of misinformation and just people wanting to be in their own echo chamber,

we're going to ignore something like this. And the state of Georgia could be in jeopardy because of it. Demarro, the thing here, again, it's interesting. When you talk to a lot of folks on the right, I mean, they really celebrate dumb. I mean, Louie Gohmert in the House, dumb. Matt Gaetz, dumb. Marsha Blackburn

from Tennessee on the Senate side dumb as hell Tommy Tuberville is absolutely the dumbest son of a bitch in the U.S. Senate I mean dumb and so Hershel Walker is just falling

in line with more dumb people on the right. I think we're missing the real point here. Politics at the end of the day is who gets what, when, where, and how. And those people that are in power, they want Herschel Walker because he meets two qualifications. Number one, he believes 100% in white supremacy. Number two, he will be easily controlled. They don't give a dang of how smart he is If he's sick, anything

We all understand that when it really comes down to it He's not going to be writing any bills It's going to be the lobbyists and the powerful people That put him in place That's why they have him in place They don't care about anything else about Hershel Walker We can talk about how he sounds like he has a concussion Right now as we speak

The reality is As long as he adheres to white supremacy and he's easily controlled, that's who they want in the U.S. Congress. That's who the powerful corporations want. That's who the white supremacists want. That's who Mitch McConnell wants, someone he can control. So my hope is that Brother Raphael Warnock

has tremendous support. He gets the type of financial support, and he gets his base out to be able to beat back this particular Hershel Walker because he has a very good chance of being successful. He's a football player who believes in white supremacy and easily controlled. It's a dangerous

situation for all of us who believe in truth, justice, and equity. Look, I agree, but I just want folk to understand how stupid is stupid and is on display in the Georgia race. All right, folks, let's now go to Tennessee where the promoters of the Southern Heritage Classic, they are suing the SWAC Conference, Jackson State University, and head football coach Deion Sanders

as a result of Jackson State pulling out of that annual football game. Summit Management Corporation, the organizers of the Southern Heritage Classic, they are suing them for breach of contract. Of course, Deion Sanders and Jackson State announced they would not participate in the Southern Heritage Classic this fall due to a scheduling conflict. They later came out and said they will play this fall fall but will not play there in 2023 and 2024. JSU will play a particular game in Birmingham in the SWAC Classic.

Now, the Southern Heritage Classic organizers believe the SWAC intentionally interfered with Jackson State's previous commitments. In 2019, Jackson State University signed a five-year deal with Summit Management Corporation. The management company is asking for $1.8 million a year for the next two years from Jackson State. And they also are asking for several million dollars from the SWAT. Now, of course, the game is supposed to be going from 2019 through 2024.

And as I said, JSU said they will play it in 2022, not play the game in 2023 as well as in 2024. One of the things that Deion Sanders said is that Jackson State only received $350,000 to play in the game. And after the cost of buses and hotels for the players, administrators in the band. Ain't no money left over. Now, here's what's really interesting. The promoters, DeMario, are asking Jackson State to pay $1.8 million in 2023 and 2024 for pulling out. So it begs the question, why would they be asking Jackson State for $1.8 million? But according to Deion, JSU is only being paid $350,000 from the promoters. JSU, Deion has been saying, why do we need a middleman? Why do we need promoters making more money than the schools

when we're the ones bringing the fans for the game? Man, I so appreciate Deion Sanders. He was one of my favorite players growing up and seeing what he's doing for black colleges and for black people's mentality. He's saying we have a product that we own and we should be getting the highest possible bidding like any other Division I or Division I-A football program.

I think Deion Sanders is absolutely correct here. It's the same argument, I think, when we're talking about the Oscars and all these other white organizations that we want to make sure we're a part of instead of just creating our own power base and being able to call our own number. That's what Deion Sanders is saying here. He's saying, look, this is a bad business deal for us. We're not making any money.

We are a brand. We can have 60,000 people show up because we are JSU. Now, to your question, Roland, why they're probably suing for 1.8 million, they're suing for that because of lost profits. I mean, I'm sure that they, this company, I haven't seen the contracts, but I'm sure this company makes a very strong profit. If they're only paying $350,000 per team, they may be bringing in three or four million dollars at the end of the day of this particular weekend.

And that's what they're talking about. They're saying we're losing our profits. And this was something that the other side had an opportunity to review the contract. And they signed on. I haven't seen the contract. This may be something that's protracted. Or another avenue is for it to just settle. Jackson State, pay the money, then go on and make deals

with other big schools like Texas A&M. Go down and beat your Aggies and get $4 or $5 million for that. Let me school you newbies into the Southeastern Conference. Folks like OU in Texas.

Let me educate you before I go to Mustafa on this one. First and foremost, the SEC doesn't allow those games anymore. You got to play more SEC games. And so when Texas get their ass whooped in the SEC and when the Aggies beat up on OU as well, y'all going to learn what the new rules are because this is no longer the Big 12, DeMario. So nice, cute little try, but those homecoming games no longer exist because they have an impact on the rankings, and you got to play more SEC schools. But we will welcome the Whoop Y'all Ass in the SEC.

Now, Mustafa, let me go to you, because clearly DeMario don't know what he talking about. And so here's the deal that you have here when you talk about these classics. What Dion is saying, and this is what people don't understand, historically many of these HBCUs have foregone home games, and they played in these classics. Well, part of the thing that DeMario said is that we saw this year,

they had some 54,000 or 55,000 fans who were in the stands in Jackson. So you're playing a game in Memphis where you're being paid to play in it, but you're bringing the fans. You're bringing the fans, the teams, and the games. So without you, there's no game. In fact, in the lawsuit, Mustafa, Summit said that they don't have enough time to find a replacement team that would bring as many fans to the game as Jackson State. Okay, but if they're going to play in the game in 2022,

you got a whole year to find a replacement. So this is a very interesting battle here because what we're talking about here are these HBCUs saying, wait a minute, we can make more money ourselves versus promoters making money from these games. I've heard the exact same thing of Prairie View and Grambling. They play in the State Fair Classic, but they don't actually make the lion's share of Prairie View and Grambling. They play in the State Fair Classic,

but they don't actually make the lion's share of the money. The promoter does. It's all about power and resources. And, you know, folks are understanding their wealth. Jamar talked a little bit about that, and I think that that's a big part of it, that folks are no longer willing to be a part of or work for sharecropper wages, if you could say it that way.

You know, folks are now understanding that they can pretty much demand what they're worth and that they can also begin to negotiate and frame out a different direction that actually brings the types of resources that they should be garnering. So I'm all for that. You know, we done tap danced long enough.

We have been underpaid long enough. And now, you know, there has to be a new paradigm moving forward. So, you know, I support our brother Dion, and I support all those who are now, you know, actually doing what they can to change, you know, this overall set of dynamics that have literally, you know, kept resources out of many of our historically black colleges and universities.

One of the things, Kelly, that again, look, I'm a Texas A&M graduate, and we make tremendous amounts of money on home games. Well, what you see with a lot of these major HBCUs, they don't have home games. So they literally are playing in these classics. If you play, let's say, 14 games, you have seven away games, seven home games. Well, the way some of these things are, they play in so many classics,

they only plan maybe one or two or three games at home. Well, if you're building your brand and you're trying to get people to come to your games, you're in a sense giving away money by going off to play in classics. Now, again, if you can't draw that number of people to your small town, that's a whole different conversation. But we've seen already how Jackson State

drew 50-plus thousand people to their final game. Dion's thinking is, wait a minute, if we have more of our home games on campus, we could be making that money. That money is going into the Jackson, Mississippi economy versus going into the Memphis, Tennessee economy. That impacts the state. And remember, Jackson State is a state institution.

If you become an economic engine for the state, when you go to the state seeking more money to fund your university, you can say, hey, JSU is bringing X amount of millions into the city every year during football season. We should be getting more money from the state. And so, now granted, in this case, they're creating this SWAC Classic that will be taking place in Birmingham. But again, that's a situation where JSU is a SWAC school, SWAC game, taking place where the conference is controlling the game versus the Southern Heritage Classic where an independent promoter is actually controlling the lion's share Southern Heritage Classic, where an independent promoter is actually

controlling the lion's share of the profits for that. Understood. From my perspective on this, because I am not a college football fanatic, I do not watch it often, so this is all news to me. But from what I've heard in this discussion, it appears as though white people still consider investing in HBCUs a risk, period. So the reason why they are so gung-ho about JSU doing what they want them to do is because, on one end, they don't believe that HBCUs can stand on their own without their help. That's one. But also, the fact that they have control of this HBCU

within this conference, within these classics, as you say, they are making, frankly, it appears that they're making the HBCU work twice as hard and get less than half the effort. Well, first of all, these are not white. The promoters of the Southern Heritage Classic, they're black. So they're making the HBCU work twice as hard and get less than half the effort. Well, first of all, these are not white. The promoters of the Southern Heritage Classic, they're black. So they're not white. And that's even worse. But again, so this is a promoter that puts on this game.

They have a lot of things that's happening around the game. It's a major event in Memphis. Attracts thousands of people, significant amounts of money. When Jackson State pulled out, Tennessee State's president, Dr. Glenda Glover, said, hey, this is going to impact, cause a big loss to lots of local businesses. Jackson State said, our concern is not Memphis or Tennessee. Our concern is Jackson State. And that makes sense, too. Again, it still appears as though they feel like HBCUs are a risk to invest. So what Sanders is doing, he's taking into consideration the needs of his school first. And frankly, I don't see why anyone has a problem with that mentality, because at the

end of the day, like you said, the money needs to go to the school, not to another jurisdiction that they have no control over and certainly won't reap the benefits from. Well, this is gonna be obviously played out here. Also, the depositions are gonna be real interesting as well. And so it's gonna be, see, Demario, go ahead. I just wanna say on the other side of this, we can see how powerful these white college towns, how much money they make when they bring in,

in all seriousness, Roland, you talked about A&M. When 100,000 people come into College Station, 100,000 people come into Norman, 100,000 people go into Iowa City or Lincoln, Nebraska, based upon the labor of black players bringing millions and millions of dollars. Everybody eats. The school eats. The coaches eat. The small businesses eat. The people parking lot, you know, using their cars, making hundreds of dollars a week.

I mean, each game for people to park about a stadium. That is the economy of college athletics. And I'm glad to see that at least one HBCU is trying to bring that back to Jackson City, Jackson, uh, Jackson, Mississippi, which is a black city with a black mayor, and they need that economic engine to pump up that particular city and that school. So I just wanted to make that point. Well, I-I just think one of the things that,

um, uh, you're about to see happen, and, um... And let me say this so people can understand. I think now I've been at 65 of the nation's 103 HBCUs. And I'll say this very clearly. I really believe that HBCUs are drastically, drastically losing out on lots of money in terms of their intellectual property, in terms of content. So let me say that. In terms of content. There was a deal that was announced today. Byron Allen is his app, HBCU Go, is going to be showing upwards

of 2,200 SWAC games. And so the deal was struck between the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Byron Allen's Allen Media. Terms of the deal were not announced. Western Athletic Conference and Byron Allen's Allen Media. Terms of a deal were not announced, but I need people to understand even when you hear one of those deals. So let's just say it's a million-dollar deal. Let's just say the SWAC is going to get a million dollars a year for their content.

Okay? So the SWAC has 12, 14 schools. Guys, let me know. I just want y'all to understand, and again, I don't want y'all to get focused on the million. I want you to understand what it comes down to per school, okay? When you say, let's see, how many schools in the per school, okay? When you say, let's see, how many schools in the SWAC, okay?

So you got 12 schools, okay. So let's just say it's a million dollar deal. Let's say the conference gets 250,000, the conference gets 250,000 of the million dollars. Okay? Well, that leaves you with $750,000. Well, $750,000 divided by 12 comes out will receive $62,500 in that deal. Now, I haven't seen the deal, the contract with Allen Media,

but the question is, does the SWAC get to actually sell their own advertising? Or does Allen Media do all the advertising? So, yeah, that's $62,500 per school. Okay, so let's say, remember, I said there are 2,200 different games as part of the deal. Okay, so there's 12 schools. So let's just say, okay, that's 183 per, 183 games per school.

So that's baseball, softball, it's all different sports. Okay, all right. So $62,500 divided by 183 comes out at $341 per game. Now, again, I'm just throwing this out, and it's not criticizing the deal that Byron Allen did, but I'm putting it out there because I want us to understand, oh, it's a million-dollar deal. Yeah, but it's 12 schools. Do the math. Last year was a down year economically for the SEC.

My alma mater, Texas A&M, and all the other SEC schools, which are located in the exact same region of the country as the SWAC, receive $55 million each. What did I just say? They receive $55 million each as a result of the SEC contracts. It's TV, merchandising, all the different things that go along with it, but largely driven by TV.

So what I'm saying is every HBCU should be looking at content totally different. Because let's say, so Grambling. Grambling has done a deal with Urban Edge Networks. They handle sales for us. Where they actually have their own channel on Urban Edge Networks.

Okay? Their own channel. Where they're going to place their content on there. So what if Grambling decided to say, all right, we're going to charge our fan base 10 bucks a month to access all of the Grambling content? Y'all remember when the University of Texas launched their own cable channel with ESPN, which was a $300 million deal. So if Grambling said, we're going to launch our own channel, and let's just say 10,000 Grambling fans agree to spend,

I'm going to lower it, $7 a month. Y'all, that's $70,000 per month. If the conference did a $1 million deal with the company and the school gets $62,500, they can make 70 grand per month. 70,000 times 12 comes out to be $840,000. So, and I'm saying that to everybody because what is needed is a greater level of sophistication

from our outlets because here's what is happening and I need everybody who's listening to me to understand something. It's happening and we're seeing it. We literally are having white companies strike deals with black conferences where the schools are not reaping the benefits. The licensing deals, the content deals. You've got HBCUs right now who are excited

that their games are on ESPN 2, 3, and 4, and they're showing them for free. Well, I'm sorry. What's the point of showing a game on ESPN for free just so you can say we were on ESPN 4? We were on the ESPN app for free? I told y'all, listen, how many of y'all watched the Florida A&M Jackson State game? And it was televised. Man, what's going on?

They didn't show halftime. Because they ain't trying to show halftime. But if you control your own content, you can show halftime. In fact, if you control your own content, you can go get you a sponsor for the halftime show when you stream it on your own. See, what I'm saying is I need, and y'all been hearing me say this,

black America needs a significant reprogramming right now. Every HBCU president, listen to me clearly, every HBCU president, DeMario, Kelly, and Mustafa, every HBCU board of trustees, every HBCU athletic director should be studying all of the content deals and should be asking themselves, how much are we getting from these deals

and could we strike a better deal? What they should be doing is tapping into the black expertise that exists out here of people who understand content, who understand content, who understand the media business, because I'm gonna be real honest, there are a lot of people at our HBCUs right now who know nothing about television, nothing about media,

nothing about the cost of production, nothing about advertising, nothing about marketing, and so they are going into negotiations and they're at a disadvantage because you know what happens? Folks dangle a few dollars in front, and they grab it without realizing, yeah, oh, man, we made zero last year. Every HBCU athletic director And president and board should be saying How much did we make on that deal last year? If the answer is zero Y'all might want to do a new deal And if y'all have a deal right now

And you ain't making no money What you should be doing Is looking at how can we get out of that bad deal and going to strike a much better deal. And Roland, I think that's why the beauty

of what Deion Sanders is doing. I don't know about the specific contract once again, but he's putting the public pressure out there. So we're having this conversation and saying, well, why should Jackson State be in a deal where they don't make any money or they go into black? Why shouldn't they be trying to maximize their own content?

You're exactly right, Roland, and I'm just glad we're having this conversation because there are some things that we control within our own community that we can better leverage to benefit our community and not give things away. I love what Mustafa stated. I wrote it down.

Sharecropper wages. Yeah. My grandmother was a sharecropper, right? They moved around from farm to farm in the 20s and the 30s, barely surviving, but working harder, harder, harder each year, but barely surviving. And that's what we're seeing with these HBCU-type deals that you're talking about,

and they're being dangled out with, say, a million dollars, but it comes to $60,000. This is a very important conversation, Roland, not only for HBCUs, but for our entire Black community that we pay attention to those things we can't control. The racism, anti-Black, white supremacy that we fight each and every day, we're going to continue to fight that.

But there are some things we can't control if we get with the right professionals who have the right skill sets, credentials, and experience. Not just because you're an educator or a pastor or you're a community leader. That's not good enough. You need to be someone that understands finance,

insurance, marketing, law, and like you said, media, leading those particular discussions and negotiations. The thing that, again, that troubles me, and I've, like I said, y'all, I've visited a lot of places. And Mustafa, Kelly, and Demario, when I visit these places, again, I mean, my eyes are open. So I'm just going to say,

and I'm just going to put this out there. And see, I know what I'm about to say right now is about to really tick off some folk, but you know what? They'll get over it. So if I want to tailgate at the Texas A&M football game. Now, mind y'all, our stadium seats 102,500 people.

It's the largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference. Okay? If I want to tailgate in the parking lot, the massive parking lot across the street from Kyle Field, next to the stadium, all those spaces, there literally is a company that I have to call that says, Roland, what would you like? A 10 by 10 tent?

A 10 by 15 tent? We will charge you for the space. Oh, if you would like for your event to be catered, we provide this. If you want this, we provide this. Now, I know somebody right now about to get real upset with me, but y'all gonna get over it. How many people

go to HBCU football games and tailgate in the parking lot for free? Don't go to the game. Don't buy any tickets. Spend no money, but they kick at the tailgate and the schools earn nothing.

I can tell you what the Houston Texans did and the Cowboys do and the NFL teams. They'll say, oh, it's all good. Y'all want to come to the tailgate, not come to the game? Y'all got to pay to come tailgate. Now, I know right now, Mustafa, it's some black folks sitting there going, damn, dog, why you sitting there messing our good thing up?

Man, we ain't got to pay. But the point is, the school is making no money and you are tailgating and some black folks are selling stuff off the back of the game and the school ain't making nothing. If you the school,

shut it down. You should say if you're going to tailgate, hey, and you're not going to the game, you got to pay a fee to tailgate, hey, and you're not going to the game, you've got to pay a fee to tailgate because that's how we make money at the school. Y'all, it's called business. And it's a way to give back to your institution as well and make sure that it has a stronger infrastructure underneath of it. Infrastructure doesn't exist without resources.

And then when we see our colleges, you know, closing down, we're like, oh, well, it was mismanagement or it was this or that. No, it's because in many instances, folks are not making sure that they are finding ways to give back financially. So it just makes sense. You know, I can list a whole bunch of white colleges

that charge individuals to be able to have those spaces, just like a number of the pro teams do now. Many of the other schools are doing the same thing. So if we truly care about our institutions, then we have to find ways to be able to support them. And this is one way that you can do it, so you can still have fun and you can socialize

and at the same time, you can support your institution. And I got somebody right now, Kelly, why compare NFL teams to HBCUs? I'm not. You're not paying attention. Some other person, Roland, that ain't it. You should be sitting here.

That's not a good idea. Because there's a whole bunch of folks freeloading. And I'm telling you, we know what the deal is. When it comes, y'all know, HBCU homecoming. It's a whole bunch of folk roll up freeloading. Let me tell y'all what the sororities do. You can't roll up at the convention and then not register, but then

you want to go shop where all the vendors are in the convention center? No, no, no, no. You got to show your registration badge. If you a Delta, you can't say, all right, the convention's going to be in Houston. We're going to right, the convention going to be in Houston. We going to go and we going to get a hotel room. We going to hit some of the parties. We ain't going to register because it costs too much.

And then we going to try to get in where the vendors are to buy some Delta gear, buy some AKA gear. No. They at the door. I need to see your registration. Yeah. You can't walk in.

All I'm saying is what has to happen, what has to happen here is that many of our HBCUs are going to have to maximize their content, their events in a different way. And that is begin to realize that you have something that is marketable, that is of value, and that folk got to pay for.

And there are a lot of folk, Kelly, who are freeloading off of HBCUs and I ain't talking black folks only. It's some white folks that have entered into awful marketing deals for the HBCUs. Now the company's getting paid, but the HBCU's getting screwed. There's some bad content deals,

some bad marketing deals, and I'm telling you, every HBCU president, listen to me clearly, should be saying, I need to see all of the contracts and I need to see what do we own? What intellectual property have we given up? What do we control? How much are we getting for this? Because if we're earning nothing, no, y'all ain't getting our game for free. And if ESPN

is showing HBCU games for free, stop with the white validation of saying, we're on ESPN. When you're on ESPN4 and ain't nobody watching, take your games off and place it somewhere where you can actually get paid.

Kelly, go ahead. Kelly, then Demario. I absolutely agree with you. Everything that you just said, ironically, I believe that my alma mater, Bowie State University, is doing. I can't remember the last time I saw them on ESPN for that very reason. But also, the last homecoming that I went to that was on campus,

obviously because of COVID, you did have to pay in order to tailgate in the parking lot. Obviously, some people tried to do a workaround around that. But the fact of the matter is that the notion of giving back to your alma mater and making sure that it sustains the test of time and that the legacy is preserved and thriving, that includes monetary things. That includes giving back monetarily. You can't just give back your time. Memories do not pay the bills.

Nostalgia does not pay the bills. Money does. So I believe that my alma mater is doing a really good job of that. And there are others as well who I'm sure are in lockstep with that logic. But you're absolutely right. We cannot continue to take HBCUs for granted when it comes to the history of them and how we feel on a nostalgic level, HBCUs, like everything else in this capitalist society, is a business. And in order for a business to run efficiently, you're going to need money. You're going to need endorsements that are backed by money. Money makes the world go round so long as this is a capitalist society. So HBCUs are not exempt from that rule. So just keep that in mind when you are talking about how do we preserve our legacies? How do we keep HBCUs around? And when you hear numbers being thrown around like $27 billion or amongst, you know, at the very least five HBCUs for whatever pot of money that's coming from. That's not a lot of money at the end of the day. How else are they going to get funding?

They get it from us, the alum. They get it from the community. They get it through advertising, like you said. So keep all of that in mind and let's not act like they're selling out when you see these major deals going on. First of all, I'll make a final point. Demario, you want to make a point? Go ahead. I just want to say that this whole discussion, again,

about intellectual property is so important to our community, even outside the HBCU framework. Our stories and our narratives are powerful and they are worth something. We give so much away on social media. We give so much away in the media. I mean, anytime, even when there's a tragedy, like when my clients or someone's loved one

is shot and killed or brutalized by the police and we run to the media because we want to get attention to it, that's good. But then you're giving away so much of that intellectual property that you can utilize later in another way that could be better for your family and your community. So I just appreciate the discussion about intellectual property and how we need to protect it for ourselves, for our own benefit. And as Sister Kelly just stated, we are a capitalist society unfortunately,

but that's the society we live in. So therefore, we must do what capitalists do and we must be able to fulfill our businesses and make sure that they're moving forward in our organizations and they need money until this society's system changes. So let me, here's my final thoughts, my final thoughts on this.

Somebody here says, Roland, you are ignoring the potential impact of being on ESPN on the applications for admission. No, you the fool. Here's why you the fool for that particular comment. You the fool for that comment because here's the first question that I'm going to ask if my game is on ESPN4. How many people were watching? That's the first question. How many people were watching?

Second, my game is content. It's content. So why am I giving it away for free? And see, here's something else that a lot of y'all get caught up on because y'all don't understand basic numbers. Okay, you showing your game for free on ESPN. Very few folk are watching. And again, it ain't on ESPN 1 or 2 or 3. It's really on the ESPN Plus app that you got to pay monthly a fee for. So largely, your fan base is not accessing it.

What ESPN is trying to get you to do is to get their app to watch your games. Well, here's the deal. You can have your own channel. HBCU League Pass. So let me unpack this. Now, I love this person. Roland, how very elitist of you. See, for the fool who said that I'm elitist, let me explain something to you.

What you don't understand is the average, this right here, is the percent of giving a Florida A&M alumni. Maybe you can't see this. Five percent. That's the average giving at Florida A&M, the alumni. Used to be around three, 4% at Howard, went up to nine and maybe around 12. Claflin out of South Carolina has the highest percentage of alumni giving at an HBCU and it exceeds 50%.

So that means if you're HBCU, you should be thinking the same way OU in Texas is in A&M. These are revenue generating sports. Revenue generating sports does not mean free tickets. Revenue generating sports doesn't mean free content. Revenue generating sports doesn't mean free marketing. Revenue generating sports doesn't mean you get to walk in here, give us $500, and then you get free reign

and we don't get nothing. No, that ain't how that works. What I'm talking about is there has to be a paradigm shift. And so y'all need to watch this lawsuit between the promoter of the Southern Heritage Classic and JSU. And you need to watch what certain HBCUs are doing, especially those with significant brands such as Grambling, Florida A&M, Jackson State, Howard, Morehouse, Morgan State, Hampton, Texas Southern University, Tennessee State. know a damn thing about media or television or streaming or marketing, take the power out of their hands and you need to go find you some black people with experience in this space so y'all don't get screwed out of the money.

Because Mustafa is right. There are a whole bunch of HBCUs right now operating as sharecroppers where y'all are tilling the soil and somebody else is benefiting financially off of what you till in that soil. Gotta go to break, become black. Our marketplace segment where we'll talk with a couple of sisters

who started a clothing line. Y'all, we talk money on this show. Because I'm sick and tired of black people surviving. It's time for black people to thrive. I'm tired of talking about what we don't have and what we need. And guess what? And y'all can post this, all y'all ADOS, FBA, B1 people. We ain't waiting for Congress to pass no damn reparations bill.

We ain't waiting. We going to talk the money right now. So while folk are fighting reparations, good. They should be. But we ain't waiting on the folk at Capitol Hill to decide on that. Because guess what? You might be waiting 50 or another 100 years. Well, hell, none of us going to be here

in 100 years. So what the hell can we get while we're here? Download our app, Black Star Network app. Black owned, black funded, black operated. All platforms, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Samsung TV, Xbox, Amazon Fire. Thank you very much. There's a graphic. Again, all, here are the ways to do so. Cash, checks, and money orders,

P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037, Cash Chapters, dollar sign RM unfiltered, PayPals are Martin unfiltered, Venmo is RM unfiltered, and Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. We'll be right back. Norge, Norge Субтитры подогнал «Симон» Don't you think it's time to get wealthy? I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show on the Black Star Network focuses on the things your financial advisor or bank isn't telling you. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Amber Stevens-West.

Yo, what up, y'all? This is Jay Ellis, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, every Tuesday we focus on black-owned businesses, an opportunity to shine a spotlight on what they do, what they're involved in, and give you an opportunity to realize the great things that folks are doing out there. And so this week, we're talking to a couple sisters who decided to say, you know what? Why are we running around getting everybody, buying everybody else stuff? How about if we decide to do

our own clothing line? Yeah, good idea. And so here's some of the wares that they have. And look, we all wear clothes now. Man, every single one of us, we're wearing stuff. But too many of us are wearing other folks' stuff, making other folks rich.

They're both from Louisiana. They share a passion for fashion and the love for the black community. And they have designed an athleisure clothing line that screams black is beautiful, okay? A Jolie Noir or Pretty Black was created by Kim and Keandra Lockett, who want to empower Black women

by changing how they view themselves. Lockett sisters, join us now from Atlanta. Hey, folks, what up? Hi! Alright, so okay, so y'all started this clothing line and, okay, so is athleisure, is that what it is?

Actually, it's essential wear. Okay, essential wear. Okay, essential wear. What's essential wear? Because, hell, look, you got to wear clothes everywhere you go, so that's essentially wear. Right, so it's everything that you need to build a basic wardrobe. So you always need T-shirts, you always need joggers

or leggings of some sort, just to be comfortable in, something quick to throw on that you can go anywhere in. All right, so what makes y'all's stuff different from, of course, when people walk into a Walmart or they walk into some other store or a Target or a Kohl's to buy something? Well, we design with us in mind, with people who look just like us, and we have an extensive size range. We go all the way up to a 6X.

So you go all the way up to 6X, got it? All right, so what are we talking about? We're talking about, I mean, we see right here, we're looking at hoodies and crew necks. And so what else you got? Well, we have dad caps, T-shirts, and graphic tees that show beautiful blackness. You know, black women sometimes are down

at the bottom of everything and we just wanted to make sure that we were known, seen and validated. Now people always, this always comes up. So folks wanna know, where do you produce your clothes? We produce our stuff right here in the U.S. Really? So you manufacture in the United States? Right.

Really? Mm-hmm. Where? At Printful. So we partnered with Printful, and that is how we get our products made. All right, then. I got questions for the panel. I'll start with Kelly.

Kelly? Hi. I've seen your clothes clothes and I love them. Any plans on expanding the line into things like, you know, athletes or dresses, you know, like a sweatshirt dress of some type. I don't think I've seen something like that. What is your vision long-term beyond what we've seen, which is incredible for your your brand and and the

fashion that you guys design yeah yep so we do have flan six fans uh our goal is to be in every part of a woman and even some men's wardrobe um because we do have a unisex collection we've curated a section for men because we had a large population of men wanting to support us. But yeah, we do plan on having every area of the closet covered. Oh, one more thing really quickly. For those interested in modeling for you, what would they have to do? Because I've seen people on your site who run the gambit of sizes, and I think that's really cool as well. You don't see that a whole lot.

They got to buy something first. No, okay. Y'all go ahead. Go ahead. It's funny because we get that question often, especially since things hit the air with Target. It behooves everybody to please sign up for our email list because we do have a program for brand ambassadors

that we have on pause, but we're about to, you know, bring that back out. And so if you sign up for our mailing list on the website, www.joliexnoir.com, you'll be able to find out when's the next launch of that, updates and all of that for it. Yeah. But the notion is correct. If you shop for us, you are automatically a model. So yes, sir. Mr. Rowling, you're right. There you go. There you go. If you buy something, post it on Instagram.

You modeling. All right. Somebody asked this question. They said these specialized clothing lines, they said they're too expensive. And so what do your products cost? Our products, we have a range of $24 to $90. So we do try to have something that everybody could have at least a piece of it. But you have to remember with a small business like ours, especially when you're starting, it's expensive to run the business.

And so in order for us to make money, to be able to have expansion and have lower production costs, we have to charge more. So it just comes with business. So let me, before I go to Mustafa and to Mario, so let me just take a point of personal privilege on that one. I need the people who say that stuff. And look, I get it. It's somebody's individual money and they want to buy things cost effective.

But I need you to understand something. When you have massive companies and massive stores, they're buying at scale. So what happens is they're buying in bulk. They actually can spend stuff and not make money on certain lines to draw you in to make money on other things. And so, here's the deal. We can't sit here and talk about

how we build black businesses, but then we want a black business to give you the same cost of something as a Walmart when their slogan literally is cheaper, cheaper, cheaper prices. OK, so we got to understand that. OK. And so I get folk who are looking to manage their budget. But we have to, again, understand what we are dealing with.

We're talking about what stuff costs compared to you cannot compare what they're doing to, frankly, a major department store where they've got hundreds of stores across the country. And when they go out and buy, they're buying millions of dollars in product and they can afford to sell it at a lower price. That's why Amazon put all the bookstores out of business, y'all, because they were selling books for $9.99 and the bookstore was selling them for $19.99. And even Barnes & Noble couldn't compete with Amazon

because Amazon was like, yo, we'll lose money on these books for five years, and we're going to drive y'all asses out of business. So just understand that. Mustafa. I think your brand, you know, your clothes are so dope, so thank you for that. And I really enjoy the color palette that you have also,

so I'm curious, how do you make decisions So thank you for that. And I really enjoy the color palette that you have also. So I'm curious, how do you make decisions about whether it be new colors that are being introduced into the brand? Do you reach out? Do folks ask you about that? Or is it just because you all have such an eye for fashion that you know what folks are looking for? Yes. So with our nudes collection, which is where most of our solids have spanned out from, we always had a desire, because as being brown-skinned people, Black people, you know, it's always difficult in fashion

to find nudes or to find brown tones. They don't think that there's a market for it. So we wanted to, again, fill in that gap because we know that Black people love browns. You know, we love things that complement our skin tones. We should have that too. So, yeah, that is really what it comes from. And it's just anything that we feel like will complement a multitude of, because, you know, we're so many different colors and shades.

So something that will, if it will go with our shades and you know, compliment us, then that's how it gets on our site. Well, I don't see no black and gold. So we got a problem with that. So I'm just, I'm just saying, I mean, I don't, I don't, huh? We gonna hook you up.

Yeah, that, that, that, that'll work. Now I don't give a damn about no purple and gold. So let's just be real clear. Black and gold, black and gold. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'll work there. But trust me, y'all need to waste no money because the folk who wear purple and gold cannot afford y'all products.

I just wanna let y'all know that. Oh my God. Demario, that's right. You one of them Omegas. So you go ahead and ask your broke question. Well, that was a preemptive strike. No, no, no. See, no.

Your ass started it by trying to talk about Texas A&M and playing the game. See, you should learn to be quiet because I was going to come back. But go ahead with your broke purple and gold self. Go on. Oh, my God. Hey, you should learn to be quiet because I was going to come back. But go ahead with your broke purple and gold self. Go on. Hey, you know what? Listen, I just, I mean, you two really are wonderful. As Mustafa said, your clothes are dope. I'm just going to put a shameless plug in.

You know, I represent the three living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Two of those are two women. They're both 107 years old. One of them is going to turn 108 years old on May 8th, 2021, 2022. And when you start your brand ambassador program, I'm asking, can these two women, these two living survivors of the massacre, 107, 108 year old, I would love for you to consider them to be a brand ambassador of your beautiful clothing. I think it would be a win-win scenario for you and for them. So that's my plug.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to connect with you, and I'm glad that you didn't allow Roland and his slanderous, slanderous, slander cause you to look at me in the wrong way. Because it sounds like when he said purple and gold, I saw your eyes light up. I actually believe you have some positive experiences. No, no. Their eyes lit up. Their eyes went, oh

hell no. I saw how smiley they got. No, they didn't. They went. Am I lying? No, this is their look. The look was like, oh, hell no. No, no. You don't know because you don't know

how Omegas make people feel. I know that look. Actually, we do. Y'all strike terror in the hearts of people. Yes. I know what I saw. I know what I saw. They haven't said it's wrong,

so I'm going to take it for what it is. Yeah, yeah. That's all you can take because you ain't getting nothing else. You ain't getting nothing else. I'll connect with you guys on your product. It's amazing. And we're actually going to be in Atlanta, I think, in October for our National Oil History tour of Black Wall Street descendants.

And so definitely want to connect with you so we can keep that relationship going, despite what Roland has to say. Yes. Well, first of all, you know, again, we'll be happy to help out the less fortunate youth groups out there. Like your fraternity, like your little group. You remember, Mustafa was also an alpha man, just like I am. So we'll have mercy

on you youth groups. Well, I understand. You know, I'm used to these odds. Two alphas for every Omega. That's what it is. Yeah, because nobody takes two of y'all to even handle one of us. Yeah, because, you know, typically y'all flunk out after you pledge because, you know, you're on Scopro.

So, therefore, that's why you have two of us because we actually graduated. Because, you know, as we always said, we hit our chant, we party all night, we stay up late, but most of all, alphas graduate. Y'all can't say that chant. All right, tell us where people can go for y'all wear. Don't start tomorrow, y'all. Don't start. I'm going to wear your ass out. Again,

Jolie Noir, tell us, tell everybody, lock your sister's tail, where folks can go. Okay, well, please go and shop on our website, www.joliexnoir.com and please follow us on our apparel page. That's Jolie X Noir Apparel.

All right. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank y'all. All right. Have a good one. See, Demario, you don't want none of that. I'll hit you with that.

See, you don't want that, Demario. You don't want that because you know you're going to throw your damn back out or something like that. You know it. You try to hit an Omega spin, you'll be like, oh, dang, I pulled a muscle in my back.

Yeah. You know, it's your show, man. You the host, I'll let you talk. Demario, you know. Demario. Let me hear your theme. Demario, you know we had to hit that. See, right there.

See that, that right there. I enjoyed that. Demario, that A step strikes terror in the hearts of every Omega. When they see that come, y'all are like, oh, damn, here they come. See? I know that Mustafa has not said anything about that. Because he knows.

Did you say strike terror in the heart of Omega? Man, y'all don't want none of that. Are you serious? DeMario, you know it's rough when you can step and graduate. Y'all can't do both. You said strike terror in the heart of Omega? Y'all know? Oh, my God.

Y'all know? We can't all just get along? Hell no. That's not possible. Hell no. No. Let's roll it, man. I can get along, but he said strike.

Boy, y'all know when y'all see Black and Old Gold come, y'all like, damn, here they come. We might as well go in the hide. Man, you don't... DeMario, you don't want none of this. Oh, my God. DeMario, you don't want none of this. All right, it's your show, man.

DeMario, y'all couldn't even be original. Y'all took one of our colors as your color. Y'all couldn't even be original. Y'all took one of our colors as your color. Y'all couldn't even be original. Well, you know, they tell me that, oh, Jesus wore purple and gold. That's what they tell me, so I don't know. No, first of all, Jesus wasn't alpha. Maybe they were inspired by that. Jesus wasn't alpha.

What? He's alpha? Why'd y'all bring Jesus' name into this? Because Jesus wasn't alpha. No, no, Magus are afraid of alpha and Jesus is alpha. Hey, man, look. Mustafa, get your dude. Look, what does Genesis say?

In the beginning, that was alpha. That's Genesis. You know it. Most folk ain't read Revelations. They just start. They ain't never get to the end. This is not my thing. Mustafa, get your guy.

Mustafa and I have removed ourselves. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Don't be speaking for that alpha. Mustafa, go ahead. No, I'm good. You know, we covering the important issues. Right. You know, we gotta let Demario know.

It's all good. Your boy wouldn't, your frat brother wouldn't even bump for you. He said, no, we good. You talking that foolishness. No, no, no, no. I'm not going to get involved in that foolishness. No, no, first of all, now, you know, y'all the king of foolishness. So let's go ahead.

Let's go ahead and just, let's go ahead and relax yourself. Just calm yourself down. All right. Let me close out with this right here. Because, you know, I don't want to have to sit here and hurt Lil' Mega's feelings any further. I'm already here late. I got to get out of here. I was supposed to get out of here at 7.

You keeping me all here late. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You got to go check in with your probation officer. Go on right here and tell your P.O. what's up. Oh, my God! No, son, you don't remember. Remember tomorrow? Right here.

Alpha's your daddy. All right, y'all. We're going to close with this story here, folks. I got a memoriam. The first black man to ever be a referee in the NFL has passed away. Johnny Greer spent most of his adult life working as an official, beginning to work in high school games, shortly after graduating high school

and working in college games for several years. NFL hired him as a field judge in 1981. In 1988, he was promoted to referee. And let me be clear, Johnny Greer was not the first NFL official. He was the first NFL referee, black referee. That is the lead, so the one who's talking on TV, yeah, that's a referee. Johnny Greer, of course, passed away at 74.

And before the NFL, again, was very much involved in HBCU sports. In fact, I had gotten a notice from the folks in the MEAC, if I believe. I'm sorry, the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials notified me of his passing. Again, he was supervisor of officials for the MEAC conference, and then he left there and went on to work in the NFL. Johnny Greer passed away at the age of 74. Tomorrow, folks, we're going to talk about the case out of Pennsylvania.

The Jamaican immigrant who was shot and killed, the DA held a news conference today saying that it was self-defense. That he just grabbed an AK-47 and just started shooting around the place. So, four white dudes with guns. Self-defense against one black guy. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, shout out, folks, today to Janae Nelson. Today's her first day as head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Of course, Sherilyn Ifill retired. This is the first time in history at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund where they've actually transferred from a female leader to a female leader.

So certainly congratulations to Sherrilyn Ifill on her retirement and to Jenae Nelson on her taking over. Folks, that is it for us. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Demario, thanks a bunch. Kelly, thanks a bunch. Mustafa, I appreciate it as well.

Y'all see that gold shirt and black hat. And so thanks for all of you for watching as well. Don't forget, folks, if y'all want to support us in what we do, please do so. Download our Black Star Network app. Tell all your friends, family, frat brothers, and all of them, sorry, DeMario, your frat brothers all got flip phones or they can't get the app. But go to Apple Phone, Android Phone, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox One,

Samsung Smart TV. And of course, you can also support us financially, folks. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing $50 each, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037. Cash, Shappers, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is rolling at rollinglessmartin.com. Rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com.

Coming up next, folks, Shaft, Richard Roundtree. Our great, amazing conversation on Rolling with Roland. Yo, you don't want to miss that conversation, folks. It's phenomenal. No, that's going to be tomorrow. Today's Tuesday. It's going to drop tomorrow. So it's going to drop tomorrow.

So you don't want to miss the conversation, y'all. It really is an amazing conversation. Richard Roundtree is a bad brother, and so I think y'all are going to really enjoy it. All right. I'm going to see y'all tomorrow. Holla!