#RolandMartinUnfiltered - No voter reforms in 2021, MI school strip searches 11yr old, Kim Potter Trial, Paying for College

Episode Date: December 11, 2021

12.10.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: No voter reforms in 2021, MI school strip searches 11yr old, Kim Potter Trial, Paying for CollegeThe Biden Administration promised to deliver on voting rights reform, well the 2021 Congressional session is about to end with no legislation passed. We'll find out from Movement for Black Lives how this could impact black voters in 2022.A Michigan school district is making headlines again for how black students are being treated. This time, an 11-year-old boy is stripped searched and put into a "holding cell" by a white teacher. Tonight, Xavier and his mother, Cheyenne Johnson, will tell us what happened and what, if anything, school officials are doing to ensure this never happens again.  Today Kimberly Potter's onetime supervisor testifies of the shooting's immediate aftermath when Potter shot Daunte Wright. He tells the jury how he exchanged guns with a highly distraught Potter to preserve evidence.We'll also look at a new report that says students are facing an increase in "hostile behaviors.The Supreme Court rules that Texas abortion providers can sue over the state's ban, but the justices allow the law to remain.In our Education Matters segment, you'll meet one lady whose mission is to ensure that students and families are well informed about financing a college education.Plus, find out how Roland Martin is pitching in to help college students in need of financial assistance. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Dunk it. Doggy bone it. Slam it. Wham it. Strawberry jam it. We upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. What's up, family? It's December 10th, 2021. I'm Ray Baker, holding it down while Roland is on vacation.

Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The Biden agenda proposed to promise, excuse me, to deliver on voting rights reform, but the 2020 congressional session is about to come to an end with no legislation passed. We'll find out from Movement for Black Lives how this could impact black voters in 2022. A Michigan school district is making headlines again for how black students are being treated. This time, an 11 year old boy is strip searched and put into a holding cell by a white teacher.

Tonight, Xavier and his mother, Cheyenne Johnson, will tell us what happened and what, if anything, school officials are doing to ensure this never happens again. Today, Kimberly Potter's one-time supervisor testifies of the shooting's immediate aftermath when Potter shot Daunte Wright. He tells the jury how he exchanged guns

with a highly distraught Potter to preserve evidence. And we'll also look at a new report that says students are facing an increase in hostile behaviors. And the Supreme Court rules that Texas abortion providers can sue over the state's new ban, but justices allow the law to remain in place. In our Education Matters segment,

you'll meet one lady whose mission is to ensure that students and families are well-informed about financing a college education. Plus, find out how Roland Martin is pitching in to help college students in need of financial assistance. Y'all know what time it is on a Friday. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, The fight for voting rights is more crucial as ever, as more and more folks work to enact more restrictive voting laws and new redistricting maps. And as the congressional session heads into recess, there seems to be no sign of any voting legislation being passed then. The Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Larry Hogan's veto of Maryland's congressional map.

However, the Republican governor says the veto override would not be the end of the process because the map will be challenged in court. Hogan challenged the map because he says it gives Democrats an unfair advantage. Meanwhile, in Georgia, a Republican elections board purges all of its black members. You heard that correctly, all of its black members. Experts believe this action is in response to claims of a rigged election made by the last president. Now, the Biden administration promised to get voting reforms passed, but not one piece

of voting legislation has made it to the president's desk during the 2021 session. Ashley Woodard Henderson from Movement for Black Lives joins us to talk about how Congress and the Biden administration have failed Black voters who will face obstacles in the 2022 election. Ashley, thank you so much for taking time to join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thanks so much for having me. It's good to be amongst family. Always, always. We know that the work that you do down at the Highlander Center and other places is so vital to

moving the United States, this place we call the United States, toward a place of justice. Speaking of the question of justice, however, democracy does not seem available to everyone, particularly if we are Black. How can we Black Americans, we citizens who are engaged in the

important matters of our society, find hope or optimism in participation in the Democratic project when those who claim to be our political allies in Capitol Hill don't seem to be going to bat for us? Yeah, I mean, I think this is a perfect opportunity to remind our people that we weren't voting for our saviors. We weren't voting just because we assumed that these people were going to swoop in with their blue or red capes on and save us and our democracy. What we know is that every little semblance

of democracy in this country has always come because we resisted all of the forms of oppression, all the systems of oppression that harmed us, and because we pushed for an envisioning of a way that we could be together where we could share our resources and share governing power.

And now is the time more than ever to put pressure on those elected officials who we literally put our lives on the line to vote for, so that we can control the conditions in which we are living through policy. And it's time for them to put up, right? It's time for them to put up. So the same energy that we brought last year, we have to continue to bring now. We need to be fighting against voter suppression. We need to be fighting for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We need to be fighting

for the freedom to vote. All of these things are really critical. And we need to be fighting on every single level of government, right? This is both about Biden's failure to show up and show out for the very people that got him elected, very literally black and brown bodies that were literally put on the line, standing in line for hours and hours and hours to ensure the conditions in which we now are that have ushered him into the opportunity

to actually restore voting rights to millions of people and defend the voting rights of the rest of us. This is his opportunity. It's Congress's opportunity, right, to step up and show out. But it's also our governors, our state legislatures, our municipal government's responsibility to make sure that we're doing everything in our power

to make voting more accessible, not less accessible, and that that is actually not a partisan issue. Everybody deserves to be able to vote. Yeah, now, Ashley, I'm putting myself in the position of my aunties, of my uncles, my cousins. And they look to me and say, OK, Ray, so you want me to go vote? I'm going to go vote. I voted last year in the presidential election. But, Ashley, you did a good job of laying out for us the various tiers of government, be it federal, state, and local, but those things work in concert

sometimes that those of us who may not always be following this every day may not be able to see how it works. So we elect Joe Biden. Folks tell us, get us a blue Senate and we'll have the land of milk and honey. And you already told us how that wasn't necessarily true. But nonetheless, the impetus of we did our part. How come they haven't done theirs? But some of the doing theirs is the work that's happening at the state level. Can you unpack for our viewers about how the work that's happening at the state level may be undermining some of the federal achievements in voting, at least, that Black folks thought they might have secured? I mean, absolutely. And I don't feel like, to be honest, anybody can understand it better than

Black people. Y'all know what it feels like when you hear the word states, right? Y'all know nationalist tendencies in governance positions, right, particularly in the governor's seat. And so I think it's really critical to pay attention to what's going on with states. But let me use my own state as an example, because I'm sure all of the places where you all live actually are not having these problems. Let me talk about the great state of Tennessee. And let me say this for all the Tennesseans that are watching, because I know y'all watch Uncle Roland's show. I love Tennessee. There's no place that I think is better. But I'm just going to use us as an example. In 1996, the state of Tennessee usher 10th highest ranking voter turnout in the country to the 50th. The only state that was worse than Tennessee was Texas. And that didn't happen because the federal government did everything in their power to take away our right to vote.

They might not have done as much as they should have to fight for us to be able to keep it and access the vote, to get us more early voting, to get more folks that have been disenfranchised the ability to go back and vote. Right. The folks who have had their rights stolen away from them, remembered and able to go back and make democratic decisions about governance for this country. How that happened was that by a thousand cuts. Right. Stopping voter election, being able to happen earlier in the year, stopping people from being able to vote without photo ID, right? Or making all these not even necessary complications happen around whether or not a college kid can use their student ID, which is state issues at a state school or their license, right? Making all of these things about voting by mail and all these

other things more and more complicated and confusing so that people like our grandmamas and aunties and uncles, our brothers and cousins have a harder time of being able to actually go and see their vote casted and counted, right? So it's interesting to me that the GOP will so consistently say that the reason that they are concerned about stealing the vote is because there's too much access to voting when actually what we're seeing is that people's ability to go and vote, to cast their own vote and say their voice in relationship to how this country should be governed, how their states, how their cities, their counties, their hollers, their hoods should be voted, is all actually being impacted by these many, many, many voter suppression laws.

And though people would say that's a Southern issue and not a national one, right? It's just these backwards Southern states that are actually seeing all these voter suppression laws. What we know since 2020 is that that's not the case. We've seen over 400 new anti-voting laws across 49 states, including places like Idaho and Kansas and Iowa, right? Like all of these places that are not in the U.S. geographic South that are also seeing these, I think, anti-Black, anti-Latinx, anti-Asian and Pacific Islander, anti-Indigenous, anti-voting bills

that are really just about keeping folks of color, young people, and working families from being able to go and cast their vote. Ashley, I love when you told us about the legislative officials in Tennessee saying there's too much voting. It reminds me of the words of a founding father, John Adams, talking about the excess of democracy. It seems as more things change, the more things stay the same. Now, so often, though, one of the critiques is, well, black

folks don't participate anyway. Black folks aren't trying to get involved and be an election supervisor or a county board judge. But in the incident we've seen in Georgia, those folks were on those official roles. They're serving in that capacity, and yet they're still being undermined because of that state law. Now, Georgia will likely be under the microscope of this program and others in 2022 with Ms. Abrams running for governor. But what is the impact of the ways that some of these state laws are now undermining local election boards, county election boards? And can you connect for our audience how that ultimately might affect a 2024 congressional, senatorial, or presidential campaign? And gubernatorial, to your point about our sister Stacey Abrams running. I mean, I think,

one, just to make the absurdity obvious. Right. This is in no small way a direct correlation to the fact that black people in Georgia have consistently been showing up and showing out and voting. They've been at the tip of the spear of a multiracial fight for democracy. Right. We also know that Asian and Pacific Islander vote increased in the last gubernatorial election. We know that Latinx votes increased in the last gubernatorial election. And so we know that this is a direct correlation, right, that Black and brown and indigenous and Asian-descended folks have actually showed up and showed out in relationship to democracy, regardless of what party they voted for.

And folks are scared of what that means, right? And when I say folks, I mean, particularly white electeds on the GOP that are trying to concentrate their wealth and their power, right? By stopping other folks from being able to vote and have a say in how this country and how these communities are governed. So I just want to make the absurdity of it obvious. If you feel like this is directly connected to the amount of Black turnout you've seen, that's in no small part true, right? And so what I would offer is that we've got folks like Nse Ufa and Helen Butler, LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, and so many other grassroots organizers on the ground in Georgia that are of that dirt, that are of that soil,

that grandmamas and grandpapas are there, that aunties and uncles are there, that are building grassroots movements from the bottom up to fight for democracy for all of us, right? And that they're doing it in a Black-led multiracial coalition of forces that I believe will win. The other thing that I want to say is that there are multi-tactical strategies that are being implemented to make sure that we actually see more accessibility for our folks to go and vote, whether that's the fight to make sure that formerly incarcerated people get their right to vote back, whether that's fighting to stop gerrymandering of lines so that we don't lose more so-called majority minority districts across the South and across this country, and then specifically thinking about some of the fight back that has been led by the Advancement Project and coalition with our local partners to file litigation to challenge like Georgia and Florida's anti-voting laws.

We've seen some victories in that by seeing judges actually not allow for the dismissal of their cases, which means we'll actually get a fair chance to fight. And what we will see is that ultimately all of these unlawful purging of the scrolls, all of these attempts to stop early voting, all of these attempts to stop people from being able to vote by mail, all the attempts to stop people from being able to vote by absentee ballot. And then what we're seeing around the criminalization of people's attempts to do get out the vote work in Black communities, the attempts that we're seeing to criminalize people for giving water in these already absurdly long lines that are keeping our people from being able to practice democracy in efficient ways.

All of those things that they're doing, we ultimately know will fail because we are building movements strong enough to contest it, right? And we're fighting to get the governance seats ourselves so that we don't actually have to fight with these people around our actual innate right to be able to vote. Right. And I appreciate the way that you brought in the judges in the judicial system, because while the language that we are taught is one of check and balance, far too often, unfortunately, we see one of cooperation and acquiescence. Now, before I let you get up, I want to acknowledge, though, that critics would point to a place like Maryland and say, well, if gerrymandering wrong is if partisan politics are wrong, if it's wrong for the goose, it's wrong for the gander.

How would you, as a voting rights advocate for democracy, how do you wrap your head around what we see happening in Maryland? Yeah, I mean, I think that people have the right to make these critiques. I think that what we are in is a practice of trying to share governance, to learn how people who disagree on some things can come together and actually see all of ourselves represented. Right. And I think that, quite frankly, the vast majority, what some of us would call the rising majority, those of us that are bending the moral streets and in the halls of justice and fighting over and over and over again in defense of Black lives are actually saying that enough is enough in regards to all of the many ways that the right wing is trying to exclude us from processes

that we know we should be in. And just because they have the governance power, does that mean that they should be able to break laws and manipulate lines and bust up minority and majority districts for the sake of their own concentration of wealth and power. That's what essentially the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives is said is that we actually have the ability if we come together across our differences, across our sectors, across the geographies that we live in, across the different sectors that we might work in, across the different identities and issues that we embody, that

what we can do is actually build a Black-led multiracial democracy that is good where everybody has what they need, so there's no harm in the first place. And what we need to do is if we really believe in liberty and justice for all people, we actually have to get this practice of democratic governance right. And so shout out to all of the other folks that are doing this sort of advocacy work, this sort of voting rights and ending voter suppression work, but also for all the incredible people that are building alternatives to the governance structures that we've inherited. We shouldn't be in a situation where we're having to redraw lines all the time or just trust the state to be able to count the numbers so we even

know how many of us are eligible in the first place. We also need to be building an alternative to this kind of structure that we inherited that was rooted in the first place in anti-blackness and white supremacy and patriarchal violence that wasn't intended for us in the first place. And I think that Movement for Black Lives is figuring out how to do both, tearing down what doesn't work for our people and building the alternative. Right. Absolutely. Ashley, I got to let you go. But before I do, I want you folks to know, I want you to tell folks where they can find you, where they can follow you, where they can support the work that you're doing. And let me personally say, Ashley didn't ask, her work goes beyond merely the work that we may see around electoral participation,

democracy, and voting. The work that the folks at the Highlander Center do have been pivotal and instrumental to making right this settler colonial project, as Gerald Horne calls, called the United States for as long as they've been in existence. So Ashley, please tell folks how they can find, follow, and support. Absolutely. So if you want more information about the Highlander Research and Education Center, we'll be 90 years old next year. You can just go to highlandercenter.org or search Highlander Center on all social media. And be sure to follow the Movement for Black Lives. You can text POWER to 90975, or you can go to our website, m4bl.org. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Thank you so much for taking time for us. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's time to pivot and bring in our panel. And we're going to go to our guests, our panelists, Michael N. Hopetap, the host of the African History Network, Kelly Bethea, J.D., communication strategist, and Matt Manning, civil rights attorney, who decided to use the right sleeve of my sweatshirt as his background for his attire. Michael, I want to start with you. We heard a little bit of our conversation that we had around voting rights.

Now, and actually can't close with a very important point that I think is something that I want our viewers to be able to consistently take away. Why is it that we feel every four years is the, quote, biggest election of our lives? And if every four years is the biggest election of our lives, what does that tell us about the system we're existing under? Well, Ray, look, it's good to have you on. And we got three brothers with red, black, and green representing also. So what we have to understand, and I really appreciate the comments from Ashley, we have to understand that politics is the legal distribution of scarce wealth, power, and resources, and the writing of laws, statutes, ordinances, amendments, and treaties, their adoption, interpretation, and enforcement.

Every four years, it becomes more dire. One of the things that caused it to become more dire was Shelby County v. Holder, U.S. Supreme Court case of 2013, which gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. But that was a backlash to the 2012 presidential election, where a record percentage of African Americans registered to vote actually voted, and that scared the hell out of white people. so they attacked us in the courts. And because of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act being gutted, which dealt with the preclearance,

when the 2016 presidential election took place, there were 868 fewer polling places, because a lot of those states passed new voter ID laws, things like this, and they shut down a lot of polling places. A lot of those polling places they shut down were in communities that had a high percentage of African-Americans and Latinos, et cetera. Today, there's 1,700 fewer polling places.

So what we understand is the white nationalist GOP party, they're playing the long game. They're playing the game. In 2016, they said this is the one Trump was running. They said this is about the Supreme Court getting conservative Supreme Court justices and flipping the Supreme Court and overturning Roe versus Wade. And they said this is about the Supreme Court, getting conservative Supreme Court justices and flipping the Supreme Court and overturning Roe versus Wade, and they said this is about the federal bench as well. So what we're looking at here, brother, this is a continuation of the Civil War. This is a continuation of the insurrection of the Civil War, and then after Reconstruction,

when those southern Confederate states took back control of the state legislatures, rewrote their state constitutions, and imposed poll taxes and literacy tests to suppress the African-American votes. Even in states where we're the majority population, like South Carolina, Mississippi, this is what's taking place right now. So we have to understand that history and fight back and vote all of these traitors out of office. Now, Kelly, we heard that Michael tell us that the GOP is playing the long game, but if the Democrats are playing the short game, they're playing it poorly because all this calendar year,

we have not seen the necessary movement to protect and ensure voting rights for black folks, for indigenous folks. As Ashley said, for others, I think we may have lost. Kelly, I'll turn that question over to Matt for a second. Matt, I will start with you. What are Democrats doing? If GOP is going to play the long game, Matt, then at least the Democrats should be able to win the short game, shouldn't they? They should be able to win the short game, Ray. But what the Democrats are doing is playing for likes. The Republicans are playing for keeps. And Brother Imhotep said exactly what I was thinking, which is we're seeing a manifestation of what they told us they were going to do. And the problem with the Democrats and the problem with those of us who tend to vote Democrat is every four years we buy, you know,

what they tell us about what they're going to do for us. Then we get sold on that and then they get into office and they say, sorry, not right now or not like we told you it was going to be. So what it becomes is a matter of not only holding them accountable, but letting them know, hey, if you're not going to do it, then we'll find somebody who will. I don't know what they're doing with the short game. I know that one of the articles I read said that there was a meeting with Vice President Harris, and people who attended were very disappointed by the substance and the lack of, I guess, really a push to make these voting rights bills happen in Congress. So what we frankly have to do, as Ms. Woodard alluded to, is we need to make sure that we hold them accountable and that we make it clear we will vote you out if you're not going to do what you said you're going to do. And that's the problem. We get into the same cycle every four years. We get promised things. They don't come to fruition. And then we continue

asking, why didn't we get what they said they were going to give us? Kelly, Matt just said that we will vote you out if you don't do what you say we're going to do. Democrats might say that. Republicans actually follow through with that. David Perdue in Georgia is going to primary Brian Kemp. Both of those folks are folks who appreciate and agree with the policies of Donald Trump, yet they are willing to go head up against each other. But when Democrats do such a thing, they are chastised and spoken down to. We know that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, for example, did not endorse troops like Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts and things of that nature.

So what then is there for Democrats to do, at least on the federal level, when it comes to this kind of gamesmanship and politics that actually has material consequences to our lives? Kelly, I'm sorry. Kelly, I was just alluding to you. Go ahead. So, like I've said on this show numerous amount of times, um,

and the panelists have echoed the same sentiments, it's Republicans know how to get things done. Democrats like to talk about how things should be done. And what's happening right now, as with every election cycle, like we said, it's always like it's coming down to the wire. It's always the 11th hour and 59th minute for everybody to get up and actually do something. And frankly, I am tired of the Black vote specifically being weaponized and tokened for the sake of the Democratic Party. Biden is in office right now because of Black votes.

Harris is vice president right now because of Black votes. And the fact that we have galvanized for years for something of this magnitude to happen, and we are not getting our ROI in tenfold, that's a problem, not just for this election cycle, but for the party as a whole. So the solution really is to vote those people out who keep reneging on their promises. But at the same time, the other end of that is the fact that the Democrats aren't even mentoring and I can't even think of the word, but basically, like, raising another Democratic leader

such that in the case that people in the party right now aren't doing their job, there's no person right now or people, rather, to take up that mantle. So it's a problem on several accounts. Let me push back and just ask this when you say that.

Is it because that they don't, they, the Democrats, one, you say they don't deliver on things. I imagine many Democrats on Capitol Hill would point to the infrastructure bill and would point to Build Back Better as them having put deliverables in front of us. They would point to the stimulus checks that first came out when at the early portion of President Biden's administration, and they would say that as a deliverable. Where do you stand on talking about whether or not that is delivering on something? That might be a deliverable, but that was not the deliverable that was promised. They got into office not because of infrastructure, but because of voting rights.

They got into office because they said they were going to preserve things that were being dismantled by the Trump administration, and they haven't been doing that. Infrastructure had to get passed regardless. A stimulus check had to get done regardless. We're in the middle of a global pandemic. Nobody was working. And frankly, the Republicans did that on their end anyway. So for the Democrats not to do that, that would be in the slap of the face to everybody. So it's not that I'm saying that absolutely nothing has been delivered, but the things that they said they were going to deliver, the things that they said that we basically trusted and actually were banking on, because we weren't banking on infrastructure. We were banking on voting rights. We were banking

on making sure that our civil liberties are preserved and increased, not decreased and stagnant. I'm going to leave that conversation with our panel there for a second because that was vital and there's so much more to come back to on that. However, coming up, a Michigan school district headlines earlier this year when a school staffer cut the hair of a biracial child. Now, they made headlines during that. Now, that same school district is now being accused of strip searching an 11-year-old boy and putting him in solitary confinement. Stay with us.

Xavier and his mother Cheyenne will be with us after the break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming on the Black Star Network. We will be right back. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going i'm chris at michelle hi i'm chaley rose and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Aaliyah Scott was last seen in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Wednesday, December 8th. The 15-year-old is 5 feet 6 inches tall,

weighing 120 pounds, and has brown eyes and black box braids. Aaliyah has a nose piercing and was last seen wearing dark-colored ripped jeans and a light-colored hoodie. If anyone has information concerning the whereabouts of Aaliyah Scott, please call the Fayetteville, North Carolina, Police Department at 910-433-1851.

Now, onto news from Michigan. A Michigan mother is seeking answers and help after her 11-year-old son was strip searched and placed in a holding cell at school by a teacher. Now, Cheyenne Johnson says her son Xavier was isolated in a windowless room with no desk, chair, schoolwork, or adult supervision. School staff used a rubber doorstop to prevent the 11-year-old from freeing himself. The child was detained after being in a minor altercation with another student. Xavier and his mother Cheyenne Johnson join me now and we have Christine Laster, the Director of Policy and Legislation

of the National Parents Union from Michigan. Everyone, thank you so much for taking time to join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network. Cheyenne, I'm gonna start with you. This is such a traumatizing thing to hear about, but I would like for our audience to hear from you specifically about what you felt, thought, and understood a traumatizing thing to hear about, but I would like for our audience to hear from you specifically

about what you felt, thought, and understood when you first got the call that this had happened to your son. Um, when Xavier texted me and sent me the video, my heart instantly sank. My stomach started to turn. Um, I really was in disbelief. Like, is this real? Is this really where they put my kid? And my next question to him was, where's your desk? Where's the teacher? Where's your homework?

And the first time you found out about it was through Xavier communicating it himself. It wasn't through school personnel or district personnel? Exactly. And what type of back and forth did you have with him when you first, when he first sent you that video and that text? Um, he sent me the video and the text. I stayed texting him until I arrived at the school.

Um, I made a couple of phone calls stayed texting him until I arrived at the school. I made a couple of phone calls before I arrived at the school. One to his pediatrician. I had called my mother to come and get me because as any normal mother, I was super infuriated that my child was being treated like this. Now, Xavier, when they put you in the room

and you had this experience to look around, there's no work, there's no desk, there's no chair, and you're just being isolated, how did you feel in that moment? I was scared. I couldn't breathe, and I wanted my mom. It's not fair. I always get in trouble, and nobody else ever does.

No, I don't feel safe. I'm scared. The things they did to me keep replaying in my mind. I cry most days over this. It sounds awful to hear. And our thoughts are with you, Xavier. We hope that we can move past this. I want to pivot to you, Christina, because from a policy and legislation perspective, what what's at your disposal to attend to this type of issue? So Xavier, outside of being a protected student under federal protections, he's also a student with disabilities with an IEP, an individual education plan. And they were supposed to have service and support, so they violated their own policies and federal rules and laws.

Plus, there is a set of Michigan compiled laws that speak specifically regarding seclusion that they violated. Even the time frame of which even under emergency situations, you were to seclude and the notice and all of those things. So we will be pursuing a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and the Department of Justice to do an independent investigation, a real one, not like the one that the Mount Pleasant Public Schools claim to do. And then to hold accountability. There's federal dollars that are spent in schools and they cannot do this type of stuff. It's unlawful and inhumane. So I was just going to ask you about that, Christina. When you say hold accountability, what are some of the outcomes that your organization is looking for as accountability?

Is it to withhold those federal dollars? Yes. What really needs to happen is a top down firing of some of the bad actors in Mount Pleasant public schools. This is not an isolated incident. We saw these types of practices with Journey Hoffmeier when they cut her hair at school, where there's this projecting and lack of reflecting, right? They tend to blame the parents or somehow the students and then claim that they neutrally do independent investigations on themselves. I don't expect to see justice without an external intervention

because the Mount Pleasant Public Schools has shown themselves to be, you know, basically biased when it comes to holding themselves accountable. Cheyenne, I want when it comes to holding themselves accountable. Cheyenne, I want to come back to you. Did you feel like Xavier was being targeted? I have for four years now. Like, this isn't the first incident that's happened.

This has been going on for a while, and this is it. This is what set me off. I'm completely done with the games of sweeping it under the rug. I'm tired of having to basically help my child cope because he can't go to school without being racially profiled or having other children call him racial slurs. Xavier, I want to ask you a question. And I know so much of this has been sad and heavy, but we want to uplift and highlight your humanity. What is your favorite thing to do when you go to school? If there's none of the problems that your mom talked about, if everything's going well, what part of school do you like the most? Math and talking to friends and going to recess and just to be free with other people instead of being targeted or in trouble. I want to learn or have fun.

And so how do you then feel when you don't have the opportunity to go and do math, which you like and enjoy, or hung out with your friends or play at recess? How does it feel then when they've taken that opportunity from you?

I feel sad and questions because what did I do? I don't know what I did. Hmm, hmm. Christina, I hear this, and I imagine all of us who hear this are heartbroken, both in the theoretical sense about the rules not being applied,

but in the literal sense of the implications of what this means for Xavier, how he'll move through and think about educational systems and spaces. But you've documented, Christina, that this happens in this school district. We did not see justice the first time we tried to appeal for this. And there was a community of those calling for justice. Is there any reason to be optimistic now that there's an external, that there will be external pressure to deliver

real accountability? Well, if we're looking for hope to change hearts, then I don't seem optimistic about that. But I am optimistic about legislating justice. So we can't legislate heart change, but we can definitely pursue and legislate justice, and we will pursue by all means. In the meantime, I am advising all the parents who have experienced this or similar harm in the Mount Pleasant Public Schools to please reach out to the National Parents Union. We have a form where you can anonymously, or if you want to share your story, let us know, because we do know that this is a particular pernicious pathological issue in Mount Pleasant Public Schools. Now, Christina, another thing I want to draw our viewers' attention to is this isn't the

South, right? We so often talk about, and I don't know if you had opportunity to listen to some of our earlier guests, but she was talking about how some of the more nefarious political gamesmanship we see are in parts of what we call geographically Southern U.S. Michigan's not Southern U.S., but yet we're still seeing some of that predatory behavior that has harmful effects. What is it that you want our viewers to take away about the experiences of Black and brown children across the nation? You know, this is similar to the experiences that our grandparents faced with the White Citizens Councils, right? I mean, people need to be able to recognize what is happening and be willing to pursue justice, stand up and fight back. Our children, we have to

protect our children. They're our most prized possessions. And so I never advise any parents to leave their children in a school where there is harm. But at the same time, we need to be advocating for those children that don't have access to another place to go. Where are the children supposed to go? You know, it's really interesting how Xavier was getting in trouble for all of the issues of being called out of his name. He was punched in the privates, in the bathroom by white students, and none of them faced any penalty. But then he can be falsely imprisoned based on accusations from the same students that don't like him. You know, and what is that conditioning our children to think about themselves? That type of isolation and confinement is conditioning him for the school to prison pipeline. Very clear. We need to be in hot pursuit of justice with what's happening to our children all across this nation.

Hang tight for a second, guys. I got a panel I want to bring in. Kelly Bethea, Matt Manning, and Michael Imhotep. Michael, you have a question. I want you to offer your question to our guest here. All right. Well, thanks, Ray. Look, I want to thank everybody for coming on, Xavier, Cheyenne, and Christina. I saw the interview you did yesterday. And the question I have, I remember, Christina, you saying that an investigation was done. The Mount Pleasant School did an investigation, and they said that they found that the allegations were not true or something to that effect. And what I'm trying to find out, Xavier filmed himself inside the room, okay, and we saw that video. So are they saying that he made all this stuff up or like what exactly are they saying was not founded? And was and did somebody say that he had a gun on him? Apparently he did not. But did somebody make an allegation also that he had a gun on him?

Obviously, he wasn't too much of a threat if he was able to get his phone into the room. Right. And so what you're you're asking is what we're also considering. How do we how are we able to view evidence when they keep denying our Freedom of Information Act rights? How are we able to see the evidence that proves that the allegations were even made in the first place and that there was an investigation on that? We're asking the same people who hold and pride themselves to now turn and challenge themselves to tell the truth. We're asking the same people who are perpetuating this harm and discrimination on our students to now hold themselves accountable. I just don't see that happening. The investigation, if they did conduct one, would be biased and botched again like it was in the Hoffmeyer situation because they haven't reached out to the family or the medical expertise of

team that he has in his life because of his disabilities. Cheyenne, I want to close with you. What is it ultimately that you would like for Xavier and his education career moving forward? If we were in the world where the school district did abide by the laws and rules that were on the book, what ultimately would you like for Xavier? I just want my child to receive an education. Like, the education that is offered to every other child in America, or I'm sorry every white child in America because my my child is being robbed of his education I just want him to be able to go to school and not be called names I don't want to get a horrifying text message of a video of him sitting in a room and I don't want him to come

home from school crying because kids have been mean to him all day and now it's to the point where he hates the way he looks he hates the color of his skin he doesn't want to be around anymore or to tell me that he doesn't even want to be alive. Like, just for a parent to hear that, it's horrible. And I want better for my kid. Kelly, you had a question? I did. So, considering that this was done on school grounds and teachers, by and large, are considered agents of the state

when they do warrantless searches. How is this not unconstitutional on the federal level as well as the state level, considering that not only was he searched, he was strip searched, and it was a warrantless search? and the bar to meet the standard of the strict scrutiny necessary to meet the standard of searching a child in this fashion just simply wasn't met by the way the accounts have been said here. How are you guys navigating that? Christina, would you be kind enough to take that for us, please? Yes, of course we're going to be pursuing legal action at the same time, recognizing that they violated MCL 380.1307, right? The Michigan compiled laws with regards to seclusion and a whole bunch of idea and fate rules and rights.

You know, basically what they did to him was unlawful, inhumane, unconstitutional. But we just have to pursue in the courts. Because when we're calling to say we want to file a police report, we want to file a report on this agency or this school or this teacher, this particular part of Michigan and the Department of Michigan has not been willing to hold them accountable for their actions and their violations. And so, you know, the only thing, recourse that we do have is to, of course, secure safety and security of the child and their education, but seek remedy in the courts. And that's what we will do. And Matt, before we get out of here, I want to offer you a space to ask a question.

Sure. My question, and first, let me commend you, Cheyenne and Xavier, for being here standing up for yourselves, because I get so many calls about cases like this where people unfortunately don't take such action. Nonetheless, has the school told you how often they use this room to seclude students that are suspected of such action? Because it stands to reason that they're employing one policy with Black and Indigenous and Brown students that they're not using with other students. Have they given you all that information on how frequently they're using this room? They have given us no information. Can I speak to that? We have put in several requests, right?

Part of that was the Freedom of Information Act open and public records request that we asked for. We asked for incident reports that we asked for. We asked for incident reports. We asked for days. We've been asking for information that they have just refused to turn over. Christine Lassiter, thank you so much for your time. Cheyenne, Xavier, we're so sorry that this is the way that we have to engage you and that we come across meeting you. But we are grateful that we can be the vehicle that you all are using to get this story out into the public. Christina, how can folks amplify this story? How can they ensure that there's enough pressure on the specific school district to attend to this issue? I would ask that people would email the U.S. Department of Education or contact the U.S.

Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the Michigan Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and ask the legislators in Michigan to hold accountability behind what's happening in Mount Pleasant. Like I said, this is not an isolated incident. The superintendent, Jennifer Vergler, definitely is careless and callous with regards to these actions. And she needs to be fired and they need to bring someone in that is willing to set the district in a right trajectory and the right path for all students to learn freely. Guys, we are so sorry that this is how we meet, but we are grateful that we're able to be this vehicle. You guys have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for your time. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back after this break. You're watching right here on the Black Star Network. I'll deny it.

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You dig? 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. In Minnesota, a former supervisor of Kim Potter tells the jury what happened immediately after Kim Potter pulled the trigger on what she thought was her taser.

Sergeant Michael Johnson says he was holding Dante's right arm with both hands in the moments before he was shot. During his testimony, Johnson detailed the events immediately after Potter shot Wright. With Miss Potter's firearm. Yes. And can you explain to the jurors what you did? Due to her mental state of not knowing what she might do, I knew that her firearm was a piece of evidence at that time. So I removed her firearm and put it in my holster and put my gun in her holster just so that that evidence was preserved. And then was that all captured by a body camera as well? Yes.

And, Your Honor, we would offer at this time Exhibit 65. Okay. The objection is self-enrolled. I'll allow you to play the video. Exhibit 65 will be admitted into evidence. Thank you, Your Honor. Stay right here. Stay right here, okay? Kim, I'm going to take this, but give you mine, okay? No, that's not happening, Kim. I'm giving you my gun, okay?

I'm just going to hold on yours. All right? I don't know what happened. Kim? We'll get it all figured out, okay? I don't know. I don't know what happened. Okay, Kim, sit down.

I don't know what happened. Okay, I got it. Okay. I don't know what happened. Okay, I guess. Okay. I don't know. Can you come over and sit by Lucky? Yeah. All right. Incidentally, Major Johnson, were you wearing a taser that day?

Yes. And during this time period that we just saw, you know, immediately after the incident, did you check Potter and Lucky for injuries? Yes. And did you see any injuries? Now, Potter is charged with first and second degree injuries. Yes. And did you see any injuries? Now, Potter is charged with first and second degree manslaughter charges, but I want to come to our brilliant panel of so many attorneys we have here. Kelly, let me ask you, just point blank, period. Tell us and explain the difference between what is legal and what is right. Because so often in these conversations of police violence,

people will respond with, well, it's within the legality that an officer's allowed to do X, Y, or Z. But those of us who understand what justice is can intrinsically feel when, as my grandma used to say, something ain't right. What's the difference there? That's a very loaded question. With this, in this particular case, what is right should be what is legal, meaning what she did wasn't necessarily legal.

Not necessarily in the killing part, but she did not equip herself properly if she is reaching for a taser and it's not in the right spot right um what is right was was for her to basically you know take a breath and and make sure that what she had in her hand was the proper um tool to do what she needed to do i don't think that's what she was doing here, and therefore that's not right. Um, obviously she killed someone, so that's not legal, but what's the difference between right and legal?

So many things. Legalities have been rooted in whiteness and white supremacy for so long, you could argue that nothing legal is right. But in the sense that, you know, we have now diversified our population and have tried to change laws so that they are more just and fair,

there are some laws out there that are right. But to answer your question, there's not a really clear answer. Matt, if I go outside and I accidentally reach for my gun when I intended to reach for my stun gun and I shoot someone, while I may not have intended to murder them and kill them, I did do that. And by and large, I would face some consequences for that. How come it seems to be so unique or difficult to get police officers to face consequences, even if it is happening to be a mistake?

Because the criminal justice system doesn't treat a police officer defendant as a defendant. They treat them as a police officer defendant, meaning that they get the benefit of the conduct or the propriety of their conduct being looked at in the context of them as a police officer rather than Ray Baker or Matt Manning walking down the street and whether I do something that's legal under the laws in the state of Texas or otherwise, if that makes sense. So the fact is you're really fighting against the fact that police officers are given a benefit of the doubt that other citizens are not, even in the context of a criminal prosecution, which is what makes a case like this so difficult to prosecute. I suspect the prosecutors are proceeding really under like a reckless list net standard rather than an intentional or a knowing standard because they have to basically articulate she doesn't get a pass if she pulls her gun rather than her taser

if she is imbued with the authority to not only carry a gun, but is inherently also required to have the discretion to know the difference between the two. But the reality is the 12 people are looking at her as a police officer rather than as an average citizen. And that's really the mountain that always has to be climbed in the criminal prosecution of a police officer type case. Michael, let's zoom out for a second. 30,000 foot view. For so many of our viewers here, we're frustrated because whatever the particulars of a known incident might be, the outcomes seem the same. White officers shooting black citizens, right? And so what is the takeaway that black folk can feel or that we should begin to be thinking about as we look at this in a broad scheme? Because we've had our attorneys on the panel who have documented and outlined the legality and questions of nuance and specificity.

But is there any broad takeaway that we can collectively think about how we're being engaged by law enforcement? Well, there are a few things here. And just very quickly here, looking at the – I saw some of the testimony today, but actually looking at the video that you just showed again, while Officer Kim Potter appeared that her handgun was on the right side of her body. From my understanding, her taser was on the left side of her body. So when she drew her handgun and said taser, taser, taser three times, yes, there's negligence, but your taser was on the other side of your body. So she still needs to be held accountable. But things that we could take away. Well, first of all, in this area of Minnesota, there was a ordinance or there was a policy because this was this took place during a time when there was a some type of shutdown or slowdown when it came to the Department of Motor Vehicles and people being able to get their tags renewed and things like this. So there was a policy amongst the police department not to pull people over for expired tags,

et cetera, okay? He was pulled over for expired tags. And then this thing escalates, okay? Another thing is proper police procedure, because I talked to some police officers and people in the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, things like this. When you arrest somebody, okay, you don't arrest them in the well of the car like that. You walk them around to the back of the car, you close the door and arrest them. Okay?

And so Kim Potter was a training officer. And there were so many things wrong here with the way everything happened. I don't think anybody's going to say, yeah, he should have ran. You know that. But the police are the ones with the training, and she had 26 years of training. She had more training than Daunte Wright had been on the earth.

Okay? So this also deals with holding police officers accountable, and this deals with having the right people as police officers, and not having these stops for frivolous things as well, okay, especially during a period of time where you had a policy that you don't pull people over for expired tags because there was a backlog of, there was a slowdown or shutdown or something

of the Department of Motor Vehicles. So there are a number of different things here. And then other people will say, you know, the George Floyd justice and policing act as well, which is, which is, which is something at federal level, police reform at federal level. But lastly, it's important for, I think for people to understand also because this escapes these conversations.

The majority of control over policing is at the state and local level, not federal level because the state's rights 10th amendment at the state and local level, not federal level, because the state's rights, 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states rights. So it's a number of different things that come together here. Yeah, yeah. That's a great point that you laid out, Michael, when you demonstrated the fact that this control is often state and local.

And even the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is an attempt to try to attend to some of that control. And yet we see how it's been held up to the point we had earlier in the conversation. That's Kelly's point about not delivering on the things folks want to be delivering. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Keep in mind that the Affordable Health Care Act

took 18 months to get passed. Hang tight for one second, because I got another story I want us to get to. A California woman faces criminal charges after telling her daughter to attack, get that, attack, another girl during a basketball game. Take a look at this. Look at them!

She failed. She failed. Oh! Oh, my goodness. This isn't the first time that Latira Shanti Hunt encouraged her daughter to get one of her opponents. Hunt is now facing battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor charges. If convicted, she is looking at a maximum sentence of one year in jail. Michael, when you see something like that, the violence is abhorrent and the violence at such a young age is abhorrent, but also we're seeing that that violence is being coaxed and

off camera. We're likely to see that that violence is likely being rewarded in different ways at home. What is your takeaway when you see that? Well, you know, I saw this story from, uh, ABC Channel 7, um, and the-the mother is being charged because the allegation is, from this story, and I actually watched the video, the allegation is, is that the mother told the daughter... When you go back and watch the full thing,

uh, it looks like maybe the, uh... It looks like maybe the daughter tripped over the other player, okay, and fell down. They both fall down. So the allegation from the prosecutor is that the mother told her daughter something to the effect of you better hit her for doing that. Then she hauls off and hits the girl and knocks her down. Okay, so now the mother is being charged. So I had to go watch the video a few times. I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. But, you know, so I don't know how often parents are charged for something like this as well. I don't know. So maybe the attorneys can speak on that. But this is a crazy case here. Yeah, Matt, I'm curious about what you see,

because listen, there's no good heroes here. There's no good guy. There's no way to spin this that says this ought to be the one this one way. If what we're seeing and this is an important caveat, and unfortunately, too many of our partners in mainstream, or as Dr. Greg Carr from Howard University would call it, Eurocentric media, would say, they don't do the necessary diligence to acknowledge that perhaps we don't have all the information. But if indeed what we are seeing is the full story as it appears, is there anything here that says that this mother shouldn't be charged? I don't think so, Ray.

I struggled with this one when I watched this video because I think the problem here really is Ms. Hunt has a special relationship by virtue of the fact that she's this young girl's mother, right? So you see she instructed her and she immediately followed the instruction. As a little bit of a nerd as it comes to the legal stuff, I actually think this is a brilliant way to charge it. I looked at the charges and I think they will stick. And unfortunately, I don't think there's a way not to charge her in this case because the young woman

got up and it looks like the play might've continued, but for her mother saying you need to hit her for doing that. Now, the caveat to that is my understanding is there has been violence at other games before. So that propensity is something that probably needs to be addressed by the officials and the people on the team anyway. But it's such an instantaneous response here that unfortunately, I don't think the prosecutors can refrain from charging her. I think the charges will stick

and I think it'll be an easy case for them to make. The battery charge may be a little harder. A jury may say, the girl chose to do the punching, mom didn't actually do the punching. But under an accessory theory or a combination theory, I wouldn't have any problem putting this in front of a jury. And I think it's appropriate under the video that we've just seen. Kelly, I want to also pivot to think about this young girl. This young girl now has to experience whatever interaction with the criminal justice system because of by virtue of her mother in one way or another. What does this foretend for that young woman's future, given

her now early interaction with the criminal justice system and the myriad of ways that we know that the criminal justice system does not attend to the needs of Black people, particularly Black girls? I mean, this is a very tough case in that regard because you empathize for those very reasons,

right? But at the same time, I can't help but think of what just happened, what, a week ago or two weeks ago in Michigan regarding the young man who killed those four students in the school shooting. So the parents in that case are also charged. Similarly to the mother in this case. And my thing is, you... at some point, you do, uh, have agency over your own body. That is when you are an adult, right?

When you turn 18 or 21, depending on the situation. These children, um, as... even though they are old enough to understand right and wrong, they are still under the agency, so to speak, of their parent. So even though I empathize with this young girl, and she does know the difference between right or wrong, had her mother not said anything, I don't think it would have escalated to that point.

Because when you look at the video, it looks like a foul. I'm not a basketball person, but it looks like it was a foul of some sort. And she was walking away. And she circles back, I guess that's when the mother said something, to sucker punch the opposing team member. So when you see it that way,

yes, she knows it's wrong. Yes, she's a child, but at the same time, um, she's still under the influence of her mother, so much so that the mother is charged herself. So, again, when it comes to the justice system as a whole, um, thoughts and prayers to this young woman, because, again, we do know that there's very little mercy on the side of the law that impacts Black young men and women. But at the same time, it gets complicated because of that dynamic between mother and child or parent and child. It's fascinating that you leave us there and you leave us with that thought

because particularly considering what Matt told us when we were talking about law enforcement, law enforcement often gets to say, I was just doing what I was told. This young lady, she may not. We're going to take another break. You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network.

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You are watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really. It's Roland Martin. On the heels of the Oxford High School mass shooting in Michigan, a new study by the Government Office of Accountability found increase in school violence during the Trump administration. Now, data from the 2015 school year, from 2015 to 2018 specifically tells us there was a 97% increase in attacks with weapons, hate crimes grew by 81%, and sexual assaults rose by 17%.

Now according to Everytown Research and Policy, there have been 149 gun shootings in schools this year alone, leaving 32 dead and 94 injured. From Baltimore, Maryland, joining us is Kalila Harris from the Center for American Progress, Managing Director for K-12 Education Policy. Kalila, thank you so much for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thanks for having me. Now, it's so easy to blame Donald Trump for all of the bad things happening in the United States, and quite honestly, I'm satisfied doing that and having us all go home. But beyond that, what is it that's happening in our educational climate that is leading to an uptick,

if it is indeed an uptick, in the violence that we're seeing in school settings? I think it's fair to say that it's an uptick. And I think it's also fair to blame Donald Trump. What we know is that family members are a part of the community, just as we saw in Michigan, that the parents of that young man in some ways were complicit in his behavior. And, you know, the broader society reflects what's happening in schools and schools reflect what's happening in the broader society. And since the Trump administration, the increase in vitriol, incidences like Charlottesville, all the way through to the January 6th insurrection, those people have children and they go to school every day with the belief systems in their

households. So it's not a surprise at all. You talk about that households and communities represent schools, schools represent communities. It seems there's a national language of violence. We know that if nothing else, look at all of the money that we try to fight for, for everything from healthcare to mental health and elder care, but we have tons of money for defense, violence. So is it, could it perhaps just be a byproduct

of we are a violent society of violent people? And so we shouldn't expect anything different from our children. First of all, we should expect something different from our children. It is certainly the case that if they're exposed to violence or if violence is glorified, particularly from the highest office in our nation, that children are going to get a message. It's OK to attack one another to resolve their differences. But, you know, I'm a member of Gen X. You know, we say things like, you know, the kids today, they're ready to pull a gun when back in the day we would shoot the fair one, right? We would be willing to have a fistfight and the beef and be done with it. But, you know, there are a lot of things that are happening to young people today

that weren't happening when I was growing up, whether it be the back-to-back recessions, the pandemic, the, frankly, kickback from the Obama administration. We saw a number of people feeling like they wanted to, quote-unquote, take their country back. And again, those messages filter down to the children. But I do think we are seeing a level of violence that is unacceptable in our schools.

And we also know that that can then translate into school hardening, where typically children who are Black and Indigenous and other Black people of color end up in situations where they are now over police or law enforcement is flooding their schools, yet there's not evidence that those particular communities are where we're seeing mass shootings or this heightened level of violence. So we want to be mindful of what's happening there because the children should not be expected to just, you know, fight it out in the schoolhouse. That should be a safe space for them to come to get their learning. I was just going to ask you that. We've seen reports that say there's teen suicide attempts during the pandemic have gone up 4% for boys, 50% for young women. Is there anything that we can see or pull from the data that may tell us what's happening

unique to perhaps sexual identity or gender, perhaps unique to race or ethnicity, to culture, to religion? Anything about the ways that violence are affecting particular groups differently? It really is hard to pull that out. But right now, the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to do another civil rights data collection. And what we saw during the Obama administration was a lot of focus on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, providing guidance for districts to address bullying. But then in the Trump administration, we saw a lot of that being backpedaled. And there were fewer reports to the Office for Civil Rights asking for enforcement of children's civil rights, whether it be through Title IX for our trans students or any of the other civil

rights that our students have access to. So, you know, when we see increased violence, it is very difficult to do a good comparison because we don't have good data during that time. What we will have is a new data collection that will allow us to look in and see what type of bullying is happening. There may be a collection of more data about faith-based discrimination. And, you know, we know during the pandemic and at the very beginning, we had a lot of anti-Asian hate. There's this perpetual disrespect for Muslim communities or brown people who some people perceive to be Muslims. So we'll be able to take a look at that and really do some intervention as we have a new administration

that seems more amenable to protecting the civil rights of children, particularly under Katherine Lehman's leadership, who was in office during the Obama administration as well, trying to drive that change around school discipline and anti-bullying. I appreciate you pointing to the various Department of Education

because with respect to Secretary Duncan, we'll put him to the side for a second. We know this with Secretary John King and with Secretary Miguel Cardona, that there are folks who come from some of these communities that are more attuned and attentive to it, and they're now collecting the data. But how difficult is it? Because this data and investigation you're alluding to does take time to let it happen and then to do studies and then to aggregate it and pull out the information. But if each successive secretary is not as focused on the data as the one prior to them were, does that undermine and interrupt? And if so, we're not able to then make the necessary changes for our young people that it seems to make. Is that a

fair read on that or am I misreading? That is fair and elections matter. And so the reason that we're going to have a little bit of difficulty in the next data collection is because the previous administration, Secretary DeVos, was not prioritizing that data collection and frankly dismantled the Office for Civil Rights. And there weren't enough people to investigate those cases. So two things need to happen. There needs to be guidance that is immediate about anti-bullying and about the epidemic of violence in our schools, but we must have a civil rights data collection so that we can do some comparative analysis with the data that

you're talking about over time and really attack the issue and not just make up haphazard policies. But we want to make sure that the policies are targeting the issues and that we make sure that there is funding flowing to schools to support social-emotional learning, increased numbers of school counselors and mental health therapists, but also the communities around the schools cannot be absolved from responsibility and also require high levels of support. In the American Rescue Plan, dollars have gone to school districts to support some of that increased mental health access, but we have to do a whole lot more. And access to public health is, public health care, excuse me, is also a critical component here. So all of those things

go together to make sure our children are going to schools where they should not expect violence, where they should not expect stabbings. They should not expect someone to pull out a gun that their parents gave them a week before and just shoot the first people that they see. That really should not be indicative of the country we live in. But unfortunately, it has been, whether it be Sandy Hook or Marjory Stoneman Douglas. You know, we thought those things would result in greater policies that support our children. And unfortunately, it hasn't. People use that to want to increase budgets

around policing and law enforcement instead of budgets around providing quality mental health and quality school environments. What do you say, Ms. Harris, to those critics who would just oversimplify this and say perhaps our kids are just too soft, they don't know how to deal with the realities of life, and they turn to violence as an answer, and that's their fault. They need to have a more difficult or stronger constitution to be able to persevere through these things without affecting harm on their classmates.

That is really an elementary way to describe the issue. Our children are brilliant. They're dealing with things that we had not had to deal with. Um, you know, we have the internet, and we have bullying that's easier to go under the wire and can be much more intensified. Um, we also know that, to your earlier point, the Office for Civil Rights takes a process, right, in order to enforce those policies and to investigate a claim.

But we also know that the data shows when reports of racism and race-based hate crimes, hate crimes related to sexual orientation, that they happen over and over and over before a claim is made. And that is a part of the problem. So we really need to drill down to state-level offices, to district-level offices, and hold them accountable for making sure that our children are being engaged around how to be more resilient, how to problem solve, how to participate in restorative practice, and not just connected to any jargon, but really develop relationships with our children. And we know that with the pandemic, there was a break in that kind in their communities, to be able to support them. And sometimes that's the bus driver. Sometimes that's the custodian. Sometimes it's the office manager. And we cannot negate that. So we want to make sure that we are providing these holistic

spaces with resources so children can work through the myriad of issues that they're facing today that we frankly did not. And there are also many more guns on the street than there were when I was younger. And that is another issue. So all of those things have to come together. Ms. Harris, we're gonna get out of here, but folks who might have found what you said so insightful and enlightening,

and they wanna hear what you have to say more often, how can they find, follow, tweet, talk to any of the things that you talk to us with? Absolutely, I am at Ed2BeFree, E-D, the number two, and BeFree on every social media outlet, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can find me there, and I'm happy to continue the discussion. And Ms. Harris, on a personal note, you and I both are in solidarity with our friends at the Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. So shout out to our guy Davon Love and Adam and Lawrence and the whole team over there.

Those are all my folks back home in West Baltimore. Ms. Harris, thank you for your time. Thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Alright, take care. Now, it's that time of year again and scammers are in full force. Before you do your last minute shopping, I know you're going to have to go do it, there are some tips that we

have for you. But first, a quick break from our partner at Amazon. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Are the stars of tonight? Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. Blackstar 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. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I do. I do.

I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do.

I do. I do. I do. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Stay woke. Around this time of year, online shopping activity increases as people prepare for the holiday season. It's projected that consumers will spend between $210 and $218 billion with a B on e-commerce sales. The increase in online activity also adds risk to online predators and scammers. Joining us now to give us more information on protecting our wallets and our identities during this season is Anthony Hendrix, Director and Chair of the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Practice Group at Crow and Dunleavy.

Anthony, thank you so much for taking time to join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I am so happy to be here, Ray. And as you mentioned, I am a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. And so this conversation that we're going to have is just should not be considered legal advice. Instead, it's just a conversation between two friends with a couple of thousand people watching as we discuss. Spoken like a man who's been told before. Well, my lawyer said, and you're not anybody's lawyer. Anthony, tell us, give us a big overview for a second. This happens to be the most wonderful time of the year. It's also the most consumerist time of the year. And as technology has changed, we don't have to go into stores in the same way that we used to.

We can sit in the comforts of our home and purchase things. But that also opens us up to some liabilities. Explain what those might be. Sure. This is a great time of the year, a great holiday season. Multiple holidays are celebrated. And because of this, we are shopping and we're doing a lot of our shopping online. And so the 10 biggest shopping days occurred during this time period. But it's also a time for our cyber criminals and cyber scammers to try to take advantage of us.

And a lot of times they do this by tricking us into visiting websites that may pretend to be reputable websites, but it's actually a website created by criminals. And they try to get us to provide our contact information. They try to get us to buy things that will never show up just so they can get our credit card information. Now, everybody seems to think that Black Friday is the big shopping day. Even now, there's language around something Cyber Monday or something to the effect. But if I'm not mistaken, the biggest shopping days are actually in December. When are those? Yeah, so Black Friday is the biggest shopping day. But when you look at the top 10 shopping days of the year, eight of

those are in December. And those are the days that we would probably expect, which would be the Saturday before Christmas, that Thursday before Christmas for our late shoppers, and then after Christmas, Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, and then that Saturday following Christmas where people go and return and buy other things or use the money that they may have gotten for the holiday to make purchases. So you talked about the fake websites, but what are some, are there any other ways that the scammers out here will try to get our identities, our money,

and just take advantage of us? Sure. Along with these fake websites, they'll also focus on how people want to be generous during this time. And so you may get phone calls, you may get pieces of mail from people who are pretending to be fake charities to get you to donate money to them. And it's not going to a good cause, it's going to our criminals to line their pockets. And so if I've been a victim of this scamming or phishing or any of these other exploitations, what then can I do or should I do?

So there are a number of things that you can do. But I think the first thing you need to do is to forgive yourself. Be easy on yourself because these criminals are getting better and better. And there are a lot of people who are well equipped in cybersecurity know-how that also fall victim. So the first thing you do is give yourself a little bit of grace. And so now we need to start doing things to help us solve this problem.

So one thing that I would focus on is calling our credit card company. It's important that when you're doing this holiday shopping to try to use your credit card because it gives you an added layer of protection. And so if money is going to be spent, it's not coming out of your bank account. It's coming out of your credit card.

And you can call your credit card company, explain that you were a victim of fraud, and then ask for a new credit card, and then go through and cancel the purchases or dispute the charges and go through that process. The next thing you probably want to do is to take a moment, and I know this sounds counterintuitive, but take a moment, pull out a piece of paper and a pen, and start writing down every piece of information that you have potentially given these criminals.

And knowing the type of information that you've given kind of tells you what you should be doing next. Did you give your social security number? Did you give your birth date? Did you give your credit card information or your bank account information? And so that kind of gives you a guidepost of what you should be doing. The third thing that I suggest is to talk to law enforcement, talk to your local police department, talk to the FBI, or maybe even report it to your state attorney general. And so you're doing this for two reasons. You're doing this, one, to help

yourself, to get someone to start to investigate and try to help you solve your problem. But you're also doing this for other people so that law enforcement kind of knows what types of trends and scams that are happening during this season. It helps them with their future investigations, and it also helps them create advisories. The FBI does a wonderful job of creating advisories about cyber scams that people should be aware of. And so they send those out based on feedback that they get when people report crimes to them. Along with that, you also want to work on your credit. You want to talk to the credit bureaus and either place a freeze on your credits or you can set up an alert so that if anyone submits an application for credit,

they have to call you first on your phone and get a confirmation from you that, yes, I authorize this. And then finally, what you should do is to start creating a better cybersecurity habit so it doesn't happen again to you. And so some habits that you can start creating is creating strong passwords that are different for every site. Another habit that you can do is taking email safety seriously. And that just means taking a moment and looking at emails that you receive to make sure that they're coming from the person that you think it is.

And then to make sure that the links that are sent to you are actually links to reputable sites. Or maybe it's just information that you can find yourself without even clicking the link. Yeah, we don't want to end up to be. I remember there was some time there was like a pipeline hacking that caused everything to freeze for some time ago, forgive the vagaries. But the one takeaway from that story I remember was that a person clicked on an advertisement for an attractive woman showing her breast. And that shut down all the oil through much of mid-Atlantic United States. So we don't want to be there.

Now, Anthony, now here's something that I found interesting that so many people probably had their own questions about. Vice President Kamala Harris was uncomfortable using Bluetooth settings on her smartphone because of the security risks that are associated with this. When I first heard about this story, it triggered the idea of thinking about President Barack Obama when he first was elected and his willingness or want to use his Blackberry. But so many folks were saying that that sensitive information that could easily be compromised and should not do it. So first, can you give us a bit of an overview about why Vice President Harris may not want to use Bluetooth because of the sensitivity of the information? Sure. What the vice president is doing is something that's very appropriate and something that I tell all of my clients to do, which is understand the type of risk that you have. As the vice president, she has access to all types of important and classified information. And so she wants to do she wants to take this seriously and make sure that she doesn't expose herself and our country's secrets to vulnerabilities related to Bluetooth.

And so there are some vulnerabilities to Bluetooth, but it takes a high level of cyber capability of computer capability to exploit these vulnerabilities. And so it would only be sophisticated hackers, and those would be the type of people who would go after the vice president. So I have Bluetooth on my phone. I love putting on a good podcast, putting on my favorite album, starting to cook. Should I now be leery about using my Bluetooth setting?

No, no, I wouldn't worry about it. What I would do is that when you're not using your Bluetooth, when you're not connected to something, to just turn off your Bluetooth. But again, the risk related to Bluetooth is very small. It takes super sophisticated technical skills to exploit it. And so those people aren't likely to go after me or to go after you. But if you are worried about Bluetooth, then just make sure to just turn it off when you're not listening to your favorite podcast. You can tell all the lawyers in our panel, because I'm going to bring our panel in here as well. We have Matt Manning, a civil rights attorney. We have Kelly Bethea.

We have Michael M. Hotep. And what you could tell our lawyers, especially the male lawyers, because they're very well suited. You know, lawyers don't go anywhere without their proper suits and neck and tie on. Matt, do you have anything for Anthony around the question of cybersecurity? Is there anything in your travels, maybe in your work that maybe has popped up that just brought some curiosity as that you would like to have Anthony share with our audience today? I do. And first, I want to commend you for that proviso. I appreciate that because I have to do the same thing when I'm talking to folks. But my question for you, Anthony, is actually about the connectivity of other devices besides our phone. So right now,

we're in AirPods. I've got an Apple Watch. A lot of people have things that are connected to phones. What kind of issues do we have as it relates to security, just environmentally with some of those other peripheral devices that we use? Are there any things that we need to do in your estimation to make sure we're safe when we're out physically shopping and using things like an Apple Watch or other devices? Sure. The one important thing that people should do is to always update your device with the newest software. So a lot of times people will get these messages that say, hey, we're going to update in the next five minutes, and people hit snooze and don't do that.

And a lot of times they don't spell it out, what these patches do, but they are actually protecting us from vulnerabilities. There was a recent study that looked at the exploits that were used to cause a ransomware attack, and they found that a lot of these exploits are old vulnerabilities that companies provided patches for that people just simply didn't patch and so that's one of the important things that you can do is to accept and update your software on all of your connected devices and we're going to grill you again anthony because kelly's also an attorney, or at least has her JD.

So we want to offer opportunity. Kelly, you have anything for Anthony? I do. So, sorry if I missed this part of your comments, but I wanted, I am curious. So during the holidays, especially now with COVID, there's a lot of online shopping, such as you said, but as opposed to, you know, opening up an email and getting scammed especially now with COVID, there's a lot of online shopping, such as you said.

But as opposed to opening up an email and getting scammed and hacked and the like, people will go onto a website that they think is an online store and get hacked or get their money taken out of, robbed, cyber robbed, however you say that. So I guess my question is, to avoid that from happening, I know there are sites out there that will tell you what site is fake and what's real. Do you have any recommendations, just generally, because I know that you were not giving legal advice, any recommendations for sites that we can use to basically screen for those fake ones when we do our online shopping? So I don't have a website that you can use to screen for this, but one thing that I found that's

very, very useful is to get a password manager. And so a password manager is simply a piece of software that allows you to store your passwords in one single place. And the great thing about a password manager is that it remembers the website where they need to put the password at. So if you go to a website that looks like it's Netflix or looks like it's Walmart, and you go in to try to put in your password using your password manager.

A number of them won't let you put in that information because it's actually not that website. It's actually a different website. And so that's one way of having a stopgap in there to help you. Now, Michael, I want to give you an opportunity to ask Anthony a question as well. And, you know, I'm joking earlier about all these lawyers that have been here. But I think Anthony might get the best questions from those of us who aren't lawyers, but those of us who actually ask questions for a living. So, Michael, what do you have? All right.

Well, Anthony, thanks for this great information. And I printed out this security tip sheet as well. So very quickly here, what are some good antivirus packages that you may recommend for the computer? I know you're not giving legal advice, but maybe computer advice. What are some good antivirus packages you recommend? And other thing with the smart TVs, a lot of people are going to buy smart TVs this Christmas, right? Is there a risk of smart TVs being hacked because now they have all the apps on them for Facebook and Netflix and things like this? You have your password, credit card information attached in those different apps as well. So is there a risk of the smart TVs being hacked? Sure. Let's first start

with the antivirus software recommendation. And so I try to be vendor neutral. And so what I say is it's important to have a antivirus. And so there are so many options there and you can go through and you can look and you can find the one that matches your price point and matches the features that you want. But it's just important to have one. When it comes to our smart devices like smart TVs or maybe you have Siri and Alexa enabled devices at home, it's important to understand that these devices are collecting information. And so you need to be informed about what information they're collecting and then a lot of times these devices come with

pre-installed standard passwords they come with a just a set password and all of them have the same set password and everyone just forgets to change that pre-installed password to something specific just for you. And so by doing that, it now becomes harder for people to access your smart device because you're no longer using that pre-installed basic password. Now you have something that is a strong password that you can memorize and is not a repeated password of some of the other passwords that you have. All right. Thank you.

Anthony, this has been such great information. How can folks find or follow you? How can they get more information about you? Sure. You can visit my website, anthonyjhendricks.com. You can also listen to my podcast, Nothing About You Says Computer Technology, available where all fine podcasts are. And for those who might not get it, Nothing About You Says Computer Technology is a specific reference, a direct homage to what?

Uh, Kings of Comedy, Steve Harvey, uh, telling a heckling fan, uh, that I know we're not supposed to say this about other black people, but Nothing About You says computer or school. Boogie, boogie, I know we ain't supposed to say this about one another here, but nothing about you say computer school. So if you start the typing on your podcast device while you're cooking, your Bluetooth can also hack you while you're listening to Anthony's podcast.

Just joking. Anthony, we recognize it's just not legal advice. So we thank you so much for the time you spent. We thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Thank you so much for having me. Stay tuned. We're going to come back with more right after this. We'll have another break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok Nå er vi på Norske Norske. I'm going to go get some water. Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier.

Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Hey, I'm Cupid, the maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin

unfiltered. The Supreme Court is allowing Texas abortion providers to change, challenge the state's restrictive six weeks ban law without having the repeal itself. Now, in an eight to one ruling, the court will allow individuals to sue abortion providers and clinics, but not Texas state law officials. Abortion advocates plan to continue to fight the fetal heartbeat law in court. We want to go to our panel on this. Kelly, I'm going to start with you.

Here we go again. Men, more often than not, getting in women's business. Is there any way around this? Is there any way toward a more just? And I keep coming back to you with this justice question, so my apologies for putting you there. But is there any way we get to finally a place that this is just? Because the Supreme Court seems to be trying to split the baby here. No pun intended. Well,

I didn't see it so much of splitting the baby type ruling so much as it was a washing their hands clean of the issue type ruling. They are trying to distance themselves from the controversy. That's what it felt

like to me. Because it felt more like a remand to back themselves from the controversy. That's what it felt like to me, because it felt more like a remand to back down to the lower courts and putting the ball in their court, as opposed to, frankly, the Supreme Court doing their job and making a decision as to whether Roe v. Wade is still good law. It is still good law, because, frankly, in a nutshell, it's basically saying, mind your business, let women do what they want with their bodies within reason. And the fact that Texas doesn't understand that, the fact that Louisiana doesn't understand that, the fact that Mississippi and other states in the Bible Belt simply do not understand the fact that women are people who can control what they do with their bodies and they should be able to control when they want to build a family, it is just beyond me that we are still so draconian

in our thinking that women cannot do that. Um, there is another case coming up in the Supreme Court, if I'm not mistaken, um, regarding this issue. So that might also be another reason as to why the Supreme Court ruled in this way, because the case that is coming up will actually be more of a pointed question as to whether Roe v. Wade is still good law. But to your point regarding justice in this issue, the only justice that I see here, if it were to come to pass, would be for women to have agency over themselves.

So as far as I'm concerned right now, there is no justice in this situation. Most people on the Beltway DC television talk shows theorize about Texas law. We at Roland Martin Unfiltered talk to Texas attorneys. Matt Manning, what's going on in Texas and how do we address, what can we read from the Supreme Court decision about how this will then play out in the lower courts? Because if I'm not mistaken, the Supreme Court just enables those folks to take suit in lower courts,

but this reads as though it's just going to kick back up to the Supreme Court eventually. Yeah, everything is bigger in Texas, including our idiocy. And it's just, I'm embarrassed that we're dealing with this on a national scale. Just, I think, two days ago, a Texas state Supreme Court justice, or rather a district judge,

determined that the law is unconstitutional because people who haven't even been harmed by the law can bring lawsuits. So, I think the Supreme Court, I think Kelly was spot on. Supreme Court is punting a little bit on the issue, but it really makes no sense because we've got like a national schizophrenia as it relates to this. And the reality is most people are not in objection to abortion rights. So this is really an attack on women. It's an attack on democracy. And it's one that we're going to see play out because people don't have the fortitude

to say you already have an enshrined constitutional right to get an abortion and we're not going to undermine it with these myriad of attacks on it that really make no sense. I mean, the idea that the state of Texas would make bounty hunters out of zealots and other weirdos who decide that they want to sue people who might have facilitated an abortion is just absurd. It's really kind of legal genius if you think about it, because they decided to go that route. But the lower courts are going to continue to deal with this until the Supreme Court has the fortitude to say we're not going to gut Roe and we're not going to gut, you know, Planned Parenthood versus Casey. It's got to be that simple. Michael, is there anything you've heard you want to respond to?

Well, you know, I've been following this some, and Chief Justice John Roberts put out an opinion today that basically saying that the court, the Supreme Court, risks losing its own authority if it allows states to circumvent the courts, as Texas did with its near total abortion ban. This is just an example of how elections have consequences. And if we step back and take a look here, in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was running, she wasn't the best candidate. She was a hell of a lot better than Trump. But a lot of people thought it was about one person versus another person, as opposed to consequences, Supreme Court nominations, federal judgeships.

Trump got 225 federal judges confirmed, okay, pushed through the Senate. He got three Supreme Court justices confirmed, pushed through the Senate. And now we see this 6-3 conservative court, which was the plan coming from the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. So a lot of people weren't enamored. You had some Republicans who voted for Trump, not because they loved him, but because they used him as a tool and they saw that the means justified the end, or the end justified the means.

They used him as a tool to get the Supreme Court justices and get the federal bench, the conservative federal justice conference. So when we look at candidates, when we look at politicians, we have to look at them as tools also and understand how to use them to achieve our goals as opposed to getting so caught up on trying to find a perfect candidate or personality, things of this nature. Thank you for leaving us with that word

about the importance of federal judgeships. We appreciate for leaving us with that word about the importance of federal judgments. We appreciate that. I'm going to leave the conversation right there. We're going to take a break, but when we come back, our Education Matters segment is coming up after the break. Today, not sure how you're going to pay for college or your college education of your child? Well, we have someone who will let you in on all of the financial tricks to get the most dollars for your education. And speaking of money and education, we'll tell you who Uncle Ro is partnering with to help students attending HBCUs pay for their education. This is Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. We'll be right back. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon.

So now she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Are you a student or a parent worried about how you will be able to afford college or for your young person? There's a good reason to be worried.

The price of college education has tripled in the past 20 years. Now, that's according to the Education Data Initiative. The average cost of college is over $35,000 per year. Here to help us understand the various higher education options students have and how to pay for them is Jessica Brown, author of How to Pay for College When You're Broke. Jessica, thank you so much for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you for having me. Jessica, I just want to ask the very simple question. How do you pay for college when you're broke? It's simple. Anyone can pay for college when they're broke.

Annually, over $100 million in scholarship money goes unclaimed. So it is imperative to your financial freedom post-graduation that you begin to search for this money. Additionally, not procrastinate. Annually, the FAFSA comes out on October 1st. And sometimes a lot of people wait until the last minute to fill out this application. However, the longer you wait, the longer it's going to take for you to understand exactly how much you have to pay for college. And financial aid is first come, first serve. So you want to find the scholarship money and you don't want to procrastinate. So not procrastinating seems like a key point right here. But once I do and I move quickly into FAFSA, besides just filling out the FAFSA, what are some other things and tips I need to keep an eye on? Well, some other tips is one, you want to begin to look at institutions'

cost of attendance to see if this is something that you can afford over the course of the matriculation of the program that you choose. Of course, you know, everyone wants to go to their dream school. However, can you afford it? So it's going to be really important for you to make a detailed list of these schools' cost of attendance to see exactly how much you may potentially can afford as an out-of-pocket expense. Additionally, following up with these institutions' financial aid offices, looking at their institutions' website to see if your GPA qualifies you to receive institutional scholarships, doing a national search. If your parents are working, following up with their human resources department to see if there's any funding for

dependent children to go to college. If you have internships, making sure that some of those internships come with scholarships or local organizations. I'm a member of Delta Sigma Theta, and I know that there's different chapters across the United States that provide scholarships to students. So making sure you tap into your local resources as well. Now, one of the things people often tend to not acknowledge is those parents, and I believe it's just parents, but you can let us know if it's siblings or grandparents or what else, who might work for a university, they're able to then get tuition remission. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. However, institutions, it depends on how long your longevity has been. Some institutions, let's say if your grandparents

or parent just started the job, you may be able to qualify this year for remission of tuition. But for some other institutions, it may be a couple years that they have to work for that institution. So it is so important that if you choose to do remission of tuition, that you follow up with the Human Resources Department or Financial Aid Department to see when the eligibility for remission of tuition will kick in. Now, the thing that all of us know about and the big elephant that's sitting in the corner of this room right now is the L word, loans. What is your takeaway or what is your suggestion around how applicants for college and parents engage loans? Well, you know, student loans, of course, nobody wants to have student loans, right? Because nobody wants to pay anybody back. However, sometimes people really need student loans in order to

bridge the gap and cover their expenses for an education. So if you do choose to borrow student loans, making sure that you borrow what you need and not what you want. Many times we overborrow student loans and we get these really big refunds, but we forget that this is money that also has to be repaid back if we do or do not graduate. So it is important before taking out a student loan to exhaust all the free resources out there. And if you are going to take out a loan, use the loan stimulator tool on the Internet so you can kind of calculate what your potential payments may be if you do borrow student loans. Now, there's a difference between the types of scholarships that students can get as well. One of the things I know,

so many students think you either shoot a really good jump shot or you get all A's, but there are tons of hyper-specific for particular education programs that you may go in. There may be specific to whether your identity or demographic. And what are some ways that folks can go and explore and look for those types of scholarships? Yes, so of course academic scholarships. First, you want to start at the institution that you would like to go to. Look at those institutions' requirements for academic scholarship eligibility.

If you do have a great jump shot and you're an athlete, following up with the athletics department at these different institutions to see what scholarships may be available. However, there are so many other scholarships out here that don't require much of anything. You can wear glasses, be left-handed, be interested in the arts. Maybe it's a drawing contest. So doing some of those national searches. I know many different national organizations give out scholarships. Many times it's not based off of academic standing. It may be based off of financial need, or it just may be based off of how stellar of a student you are outside of the classroom, letting your extracurricular activities speak for yourself. Additionally, one of my favorite apps

that I love to use and I recommend is Scholly, S-C-H-O-L-L-Y. Makes the scholarship search very easy to handle. You go in the app and you can check off all the filters that apply and questions that apply to you and it'll come up with scholarships that are based off of who you are. Now, I got to confess, I'm going to let you go on this question, but I got to confess about my own weaknesses. I am a copy and paste king. If I am someone who's applying for several scholarships, what is your advice about using the same essay that we use for one scholarship to now come over to another place? As long as it's fitting the requirements and answering the question, of course, copy and paste, right? But you have so many scholarships that sometimes it's just submitting

your name or just tell us in 140 characters, maybe something about you. So it's not necessarily all the time you have to use the same essay, but there are going to be some times that you do have to do different essays. And if you want to go to college and be financially free right now, all we have is time on our hands. So you want to put in the work now to make sure that on the back end that you are able to enjoy all of life's luxuries without being buried in student loan debt. Or without making sure that your parents are buried because just as your point, they will come and get your parents if your parents have taken out that loan money. This was just a quick drive by, but it was such

valuable information. If folks want to get more of your information, get more access to you on a social media platform or website, please let them know how they can do that. Yes, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at CollegeGirl, G-U-R-L-J-B, because the girl is spelled with a U. My website is CollegeGirl.com. Also, my nonprofit website is CollegeGirlFoundation.org. And my books, How to Pay for College When You're Broke and children's book, College Girls First College Tour, is available on Amazon. Thank you so much for your time and joining us here on Rolling White and Unfiltered.

Thank you for having me. Oh, our brother Uncle Roland is going to make some students from an HBCU very happy. In celebration of the 115th anniversary of the oldest collegiate black Greek letter organization. Something about an alpha or phi alpha or something like that. I don't know. Nah. In celebration of alpha phi alphas 115 years, Roland partnered with McDonald's USA to offer seven

$15,000 scholarships. $15,000. The scholarship application will open in January for college juniors or seniors attending an HBCU and Thurgood Marshall College Fund member institution. In addition

to the scholarship funds, recipients will also have the opportunity to engage with McDonald's executives working within their respective fields of study. How about that? Let me go back to my panel one more time before we get fields of study. How about that? Let me go back to my panel one more time before we get out of here.

Brother Imhotep, we're going to go ahead and allow these folks, the alphas, a moment to be good and be thankful because this is really, really impressive work. Seven different $15,000 scholarships go a long way, and we appreciate that our Uncle Roland is donating back to our HBCUs. Quickly, quickly, what are your

thoughts on that? You know, this is something fantastic. So a lot of times, you know, fraternities and sororities get criticized, but people should do things like watch this show to find out what they're doing. Read WatchTheYard.com. There's a lot of good that they do.

So this is fantastic. Congratulations to the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha, Paternity Incorporated. And we know they just commemorated their founding, their anniversary as well. So this is something really good. Absolutely. The Jewels would be proud.

Kelly, your thoughts? I always am a proponent of anyone who is trying to attend an HBCU get all the help they can get. Kudos to Roland and McDonald and everyone involved for providing students who desire to go to these excellent institutions of higher learning, providing them with what they need in order to do that and to get the degrees that they desire out of these institutions. It just makes me happy. It makes my heart all warm and fuzzy, given everything that's happened this week in the news. So again, kudos to everyone involved. And Matt, I'm going to give you the final word only because the background, as I said at the opening of the show, matches the sleeves of my shirt. Well, I was hoping you would tell the people that you're my good brother from our Howard University days. But what I would say is this is a wonderful program.

And I would challenge everyone out there, if you know a junior or a senior at an HBCU, make sure they know about this scholarship. Because as a sister was just saying, there's so much money out there that people don't know about. So first, thanks, Uncle Roro, for doing this. And if you're hearing about this program, please make sure if you know someone who'd be eligible that you encourage them to apply. Matt telling all the family secrets, Matt Manning and our freshman year dorm mates. We lived in the same dorm that no longer exists. George Washington Carver Hall. That's my brother right there. Howard University. All right, Matt. Thank you for telling all my business. Next time I'm hosting, we're going to make sure you don't get to be here. But no, thank you to Michael. Thank you to Kelly. Thank you to Matt. And thank you to all of our guests we've had here today. We appreciate all

of the folks who have joined us today. And we appreciate all of you for listening with us, learning with us, and engaging with us, especially you folks in the chat. I know y'all go back and forth. It's a whole community of folks. And I love every time I'm here to see how y'all get down in the chat. And so thank you to all the production team that made this such a smooth sailing. I hope that everybody had a good time surviving this week. We did it, y'all. It's Friday. Enjoy the weekend. And in parting, let us remember the words of the Yoruba proverb, that if we stand tall, it's because we stand on the backs of those who came before us. Good night.