#RolandMartinUnfiltered - NYPD investigates MKW's death; Opioid crisis hits Black America; Ten Black-owned newspapers unite

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

9.8.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland LIVE from Fisk University! NYPD investigates Michael K Williams' death; Opioid crisis hits Black America; Boost to Supplemental Security Income program would lift over 3.3M out of poverty; Corporations who donated money to Texas Republicans that supported the state's controversial abortion bill have been exposed; Ten Black-owned newspapers unite to create 'Word In Black'; CEEK founder and CEO talks NTFs#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CEEKCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. Check out the VR headsets and 4d headphones. Visit http://www.ceek.com and use the discount code RMVIP21Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, September 8th, 2021. Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Jubilee Hall here on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Coming up on today's show, NYPD investigating the death of actor Michael K. Williams. They want to know who sold him the deadly heroin that he apparently overdosed on on Sunday. Also, opioids continue to be a significant problem in this country. The U.S. Department of Health says it has become an urgent crisis in the black community. We'll talk about that on today's show. Also, a report from the Urban Institute on the Democrats' proposal to boost the Supplemental Income Security Income Program will lift 3.3 million people out of poverty and cut the poverty rate in half. Also, a lot of people are putting pressure on companies in Texas regarding their support of Republicans who voted for the anti-abortion bill. Also, 10 black-owned newspapers have joined together to form a digital website.

And we'll talk about with Mary Spiel, the founder of Seek.com, about NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Do you understand what that's all about? Well, she will offer an explanation. Folks, it's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, it's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah With some go-go-royale

Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know He's rolling, Martin

Martin In New York, the police are launching an investigation into the death of actor Michael K. Williams, who was found dead on Sunday in his Brooklyn apartment at the age of 54. They want to know who sold him the heroin that was found in the apartment. He died at his dining room table. The autopsy has yet to be performed on Williams, but they still want to know exactly what caused his untimely death.

And again, the NYPD, they want to find the drug dealer who sold William the drugs. Now, keep in mind, of course, he had a long history of substance abuse. He openly talked about it, and many thought that he had actually beaten it, was on the path to recovery. But that was not the case. Again, dying at the age of 54 on Sunday of apparently a heroin overdose, waiting for the autopsy results. The autopsy is yet to be conducted. Keep in mind, opioids continues to also be a significant problem in the black community, killing black folks at an alarming rate. According to researchers, opioid-related deaths in the black community have nearly tripled as their white counterparts are beginning to see a decline folks at an alarming rate. According to researchers, opioid-related deaths in the black community have nearly tripled as their white counterparts are beginning to see a decline in fatalities.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, opioid overdoses accounted for 6.6 out of every 100,000 deaths of African Americans. In 2019, it's now 17.1. Now, that's a huge, huge jump. While overdose deaths among whites took place at more than twice the rate as blacks as recently as 2015, currently the rates have closed. As of 2019, opioid-related deaths accounted for 19.1 deaths per 100,000 in the black community. Overall, nearly 5,000 more black people died of an opioid overdose in 2019 than they did in 2015. This continues to be a significant issue. Keep in mind, we talk about opioids. Originally, doctors were not prescribing African-Americans opioids because they feared black folks were trying to get high. That's why I said racism actually helped black folks in that

case. But we continue to see the opioid crisis and how it is taking the lives of more and more African-Americans every single day. Adrienne Alexander Allen is the author of My Parents Have a Drug Problem. And we'll be talking to her in just a second. I do want to bring in also my panel today, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Amisha Cross is a Democratic strategist, political commentator, and also Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship here in Nashville. Last name might be familiar to y'all. Every Thursday, you see his brother, Dr. Greg Carr, here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. So Jeff, glad to have you on the show. We're going to go to the author in just

a second, but let's talk about a combination of the death of Michael K. Williams, but also these opioid deaths. This is a significant issue, Amisha. And when you talk about, again, how you address it, initially, as I said, white folks are being prescribed opioids at a much higher rate than African-Americans. Doctors were saying, white doctors were saying, oh no, black people are trying to get high. Now all of a sudden we're seeing the impact. Not only that, once people are on these opioids, now you have drugs that are laced with fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than these opioids. And so we are seeing a significant problem. It was a major issue in the 2016 presidential campaign when all of a sudden

white folks were saying, let's not throw our folks in jail. Let's treat them a far cry. The crack cocaine ravaged black communities in the 1980s and 90s. You're absolutely right there, Roland. At the end of the day, we have seen such a varied response, such a disparate response when it comes to white America, particularly as it relates to opioids, because opioids were seen as the drug of white people, whereas crack cocaine was seen as the drug of black people. And we know that there are literally thousands of people that are still locked up based on addiction around crack.

Meanwhile, the immediate response from the government, from a lot of those who are in power at various levels and private sector organizations was that now we need to find treatment. We need to find prevention mechanisms, we need to make sure that we address the opioid crisis differently. And in large part, the only difference between the two of those crises was the color of the majority of people who were being affected. I think that when we talk about opioids, we also have to talk about the lead-in and how America got to where it is based on the fact that pharmaceutical companies in the 80s and 90s were basically giving out opioids as painkillers like candy to people and not really acknowledging the fact that long-term consequences of addiction were extremely known even by the pharmaceutical companies then, but they just ignored it. And many doctors knew it as well. So as you know, and as your audience probably knows, during the Derek Chauvin trial, we heard about George Floyd's issues with addictive properties related to

opioids because of a previous medication he had for a back injury. What we recognize is that once individuals are off of those medications, they will find something to help them to get that same type of pain cure-all. And typically, that is a street-level opioid drug. I think that we're seeing these levels increase in the African-American community because first and foremost, they become easily, those drugs have become more easily accessible. But in addition to that, the tracking mechanisms around them

are not as strong as the tracking mechanisms for, say, crack cocaine. What we've seen is that there has not been a heightened level of penalty or tracking of the actual drug dealers in cocaine. What we've seen is that there has not been a heightened level of penalty or tracking of the actual drug dealers in a way that we've seen for certain other drugs. And it's devastating because the national conversation leads Black people out of the opioid crisis, even though we know by the numbers and the statistics you spoke of at the top of your question that it matters to the Black community as well, and those numbers are only increasing.

And I wish we'd pay more attention and put a spotlight on it, not just when a celebrity dies from an opioid addiction, but also when our neighbors, our brothers, our sisters, our cousins, people that we know personally and have a personal connection to are battling these crises every day. Jeff, this is important because, again, you can see the difference in the attitude here. When I say that, you've had white folks now at these town halls who now all of a sudden have lots of compassion for people who are having drug issues, who have issues with opioids, many of them white. Same white folks did not have a lot of compassion for us. But now when we're seeing opioids exploding, now the question is, what does the black community

do? How do we now target with education and the impact? Because, again, this is not just affecting low to moderate income. This is affecting upper income folks as well who are losing their lives due to opioids. Sure, Roland. And again, man, it's great to be on. It's great to be on a great show with my brother. I hadn't seen you since the old days of the roundtable on NPR. So it's good to be on. Good to see you behind that Edward Havel painting of the Fist Jubilee Singers that centered Nashville as Music City. Not country music, but that music that was the soulful music of the Jubilee Singers.

To follow up with what Amicia was saying, it's about priority. And one of the first things we have to do is we have to de-stigmatize what drug use is. Drug use is not something that is simply limited to a person because of race or socioeconomic status. Drug use can become very easily, especially when we're talking about addiction, disease. I call it dis-ease because it's a space where there is not an ease in the spirit. As a longtime minister, as an interspiritual minister, some of the work that I do involves intervention. And it also involves transporting young people in particular to safe spaces. I would never break that ministerial curtain and expose any of the people that I've worked

with from around the country. But I will say this. Opioid abuse has been a huge problem, particularly in the white community, for a long time. They didn't treat it as if it was a stigma, as if someone was a crackhead or a pillhead. They treat it like a disease. I have been inside homes where a child has a room that is bigger in square footage than my house in a private jet. I have assisted in getting them to an intervention space where they can go and dry out for 30 days. Some of these spaces are hidden in mountains. Some of these spaces are in farms across the United States. And guess what? Some of them are $30,000 a month. Some of them are $30,000 a week. Celebrities, famous people from all over the world come to get treatment for this ease.

We can be very easy. We can quickly start to stigmatize this. And that's why it becomes hidden. We put this energy underground because we start calling people crackheads. We start calling people addicts. And we start saying, hey, don't let your cousin in the house because, you know, they're going to steal everything you got. Because of that, there is a stigma attached to it. The reality is addiction is a disease, and it could very easily happen to any one of us. We can go to the dentist and be prescribed hydrocodone. We can take one more pill than we absolutely need, and before long, we can be in the street. The weed that many people are smoking in this day and age, there are hybrid strains of marijuana that contain up to 40 percent more THC than the weed that many of us were around in the 80s and 90s.

So this is why we're starting to see this equalize in our community. than the weed that many of us were around in the 80s and 90s. So this is why we're starting to see this equalize in our community. And what we have to do is find ways to address the root causes of addiction and stop looking at it as if it is a stigma. White people have seen this for a long time, and that's why they created treatment. We have to be in a position to do the same. So, Scott, look, we talk about information coming to our community, the targeting, if you will, a campaign, an initiative. I mean, that's really going to have to be at play here to now deal. I mean, those opioid numbers are staggering to go from 6.6 to 17.1 per 100,000 in just four years. Yeah, I agree with you.

And they're keeping those numbers. And it's the numbers of African-Americans who are those numbers are going up. Let's be real honest. Drugs have always been part of America. There's a supply and demand. And black people and white people are part of that demand. But black people have always been overcounted and white people undercounted when it comes to the drug demand and the drug jurisdictions.

I'm a former prosecutor from New York. I can tell you the courts are filled with black people and brown people. They weren't filled with white people, but there's more white people in America than black people, and more white people do drugs than black people. It's just proportional. It's got to be. It's a very practical application. Not saying there's anything wrong, but I will tell you this, Roland, I was with Marion Barry when he got out of jail for smoking weed, right? And I remember he was running for mayor, and he went to the white part of war three and they really gave him a hard time.

I mean, they called him a crackhead and the media connotes crack with crime, which is why it was treated like a crime. And then obviously now the opioid crisis with white America. Now we've taught them that it's a health issue conveniently for them. But I remember Marion Barry's response was that my problems with alcohol and drugs is under the public spotlight. Your problem with alcohol and drugs and your family's problems with alcohol and drugs, it's just not on the public spotlight. You're no different than me. You have someone in your family or you are addicted to drugs or alcohol. So don't judge me if you will. And I got to tell you, he overcame that crowd of people that didn't look like him because he spoke from the heart. It is a national, it is an American problem.

And so this doesn't Democrat or Republican. It's got to be all of us in America. You reduce the demand, you put drug dealers out of business, the ones who are middlemen and the ones who are higher up. We just can't get rid of the demand. I want to go pull in my guest author, Adrian Alexander Allen. Adrian, glad to have you on the show. So obviously these are significant numbers.

So the question now is what is going to be the campaign to begin to teach and educate people about the dangers of opioids? How are we going to reach African-Americans on this issue? Roland, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. It all speaks to education, as we said. But one of the main issues with education is that we aren't educating the masses. When it comes to dealing with addiction, opioid use, abuse, and all types of drugs, we are dealing with the addict first and not the family.

We know that families are affected. We know that children are affected. So we need to do mass education when it comes to teaching people about the effects of opioid addiction. When it comes to these things, people act as if it doesn't matter, it doesn't happen. As you mentioned, you know, they created this opioid epidemic in 2017, when in the 80s and 90s, like you said, we weren't getting that same attention with crack and everything,

heroin that was affecting our communities. And you know, we see the characters that Michael K. Williams and others on a wire play. Those are real life individuals that each and every one of us have come in contact with. And so we need to start educating more about the effects and the youth that are affected by drugs, because this also we are missing a whole demographic of people. We aren't talking to the children who are growing up in these homes with addicted parents and addicted family members. We're talking to the addict, but we're not telling the children, listen, I know this is your life. This is what you were born into. But you need to learn that this does not have to be your reality going forward. And if we start touching these children, because as we see, each generation

has become more enamored with drug use and making drugs popular. And so we need to teach them that when you die from drug use or drug abuse, you can't come back. You see your friends pass away, like that should be a learning and a teachable moment for you to understand that drug use is real and that you need to be better

indicated and educated, excuse me, on the effects of drug use. This fentanyl that we're seeing now, when you see it, fentanyl, excuse me, is lethal in small doses. You touch it and you can die. You can overdose. You don't even have to ingest it. So we have to use more education when it comes to drugs and drug use. One of the issues that you also have to deal with is the racism that was initially in all of this, why doctors who are not prescribing African-Americans opioids. But we also, though, have to have a real federal drug policy that is not one focused on criminalization, but there's one that's focusing on treatment. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that for us, for me personally... Yeah, go ahead. Growing up in Baltimore, you know, we saw the methadone clinics. We saw, you know, quote-unquote junkies. We saw them using a drug to counter the effects of other drug use. And so when you use methadone, I've seen so many stories of children who die from overdosing from methadone, which was supposed to have been a treatment. And so we have to find other ways.

And it needs to be a full body treatment, right? Like it has to be emotional, mental, physical. It needs to be every aspect taken into consideration when it comes to treatment options for these people. So now, again, when we look at one of these reports and we saw so much attention that was being focused on the Republican presidential candidates, Trump talked about how he was going to fix the problem. You had Chris Christie talking about this thing as well. So, Adrian, now the question is, you know, are we going to see more public officials talking about this, providing the funding needed to ensure that we're creating the kind of public service campaigns targeting African-Americans, again, Black-specific programs

that we understand to reach our people on this very critical issue. You know, it's funny that you say that because we hear so much about Hunter Biden, right? You know, it's like they have made such a big deal about Hunter, but not about D.J. Jr., you know, D.T. Jr., excuse me. So I feel like they know that the programming is needed. We know that they know that the money and the funding is needed for African-American people. But will they do it?

I feel like they just aren't there yet. I feel like it's going to be us as a community to figure out those ways to get these grants, to get these funds, and to start these programs. Because if we leave it up to them, I honestly don't see it happening. All right, then. Look, we certainly appreciate you joining us again, folks.

The book is called My Parents Have a Drug Problem. The author, Adrienne Alexander Allen. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. All right, folks. We are going to now move on to this next story, which, you know, since we're in the South, we're in Tennessee, in Virginia, guess what? Another retreat, a final retreat for Robert E. Lee after decades of fights and legal wrangles and protest. Guess what? That massive statue of that white domestic traitor, that white supremacist, the man who fought to keep slavery going, Robert E. Lee, it is no longer up in the capital of Virginia. It was removed today, taken down after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the governor did have the authority,

the Richmond City Council could indeed move it out. And I must say, what a nice, rich sight, Jeff, to see that white supremacists losing again, taken away, and removed from that large pedestal there in Richmond, Virginia. Here in Tennessee, same thing happened with Nathan Bedford Forrest's bust in the state capitol. It's time for all of these white traders, these white terrorists, to lose their lofty status places in this country, Jeff. Yeah, indeed, man. I will add to the conversation, to your tribute, as we see this, the Wakanda forever T'Challa Muggs salute

as that hits the ground and hopefully turns over in some space where we may never see it again. Here in Nashville, Tennessee, at the state capitol, literally just down the street from where you are at Fisk University recently, the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the early figures in the Ku Klux Klan, one of the persons who put together the Fort Pillow massacre. We lined black soldiers up in the ground and shot them, exterminated them, took their lives. That bust of him was removed. It's been there for 30 years. It has been a symbol that white supremacists in this state have rallied around. It has been a symbol of honor and a symbol of pride. It's interesting that the governor of Virginia noted that,

and I quote, the public monuments reflect the story we choose to tell about who we are as a people. When it comes to monuments, particularly here in my home city of Nashville, Tennessee, I reflect on the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, and I think about all the protests that came about as a result of this bust, and I find myself in the middle, because with that bust, it was very clear

that the last 25 years of Republican gerrymandering and creating a state that, while it is really a moderate state, is now, in an electoral space overwhelmingly red. Nashville is an island of blue. Memphis is an island of blue in a state that is now controlled overwhelmingly by the Republicans. That bust was a symbol of white supremacy. It was rallied around. What concerns me now though, is that with all of the celebrations

around the monuments coming down, are we also not making sure that we focus on getting policy in place? When we look at the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest and all of the protests and all of the arrests that took place, the policies have not changed, not yet. What policies do we now have in Nashville, Tennessee, in the state of Tennessee, since the protests began? Well, now it's illegal to camp on the state grounds where the legislature is.

And if you camp there, you can be arrested. You can get a felony that can then strip you of the right to vote. Now, since the protests have been taking place, we passed, or can I say they've passed, legislation that makes open carry without a permit law. We've also passed a policy that now makes it so that if someone is protesting and walking in the street and you hit them, you will not be charged with murder. So the bust has disappeared. We now have the outward symbol that is no longer here, and yet the policies have dug in deeper. I think with these celebrations,

it's time for us to now move into a space where we focus on the statues coming down as a result of the policies being significantly changed. Even in Nashville, we celebrate that he has moved the bus, but the bus didn't go away here. I don't know what they're going to do with the statue there in Virginia. But here in Nashville, the bus has moved from the state capitol, where it had about 100,000 visitors a year, to the new state museum in a special new exhibit, where it has over 220,000 visitors a year. That new state museum in a special new exhibit where it has over 220,000 visitors a year. That puts it in perspective for us. So policy first, then the symbols coming down

as a representation of success in policy, that's the ideal that I think we should be working toward. I'll tell you what, Amisha, it has been quite hilarious to watch all these people whining and crying, leaving these voicemails, how, oh, this is unfair. They're taking our white history. Look, we know you have folks who have these white supremacist feelings. Oh, but this is not the case. Bottom line is every single Confederate monument that is up in this country, whether it is a statue, a bust, a painting, a plaque, all must come down. Fine, stick them in museums, but there should be no places of honor or glory for any of these white domestic terrorists. Absolutely agreed. I think that, well, first and foremost, we are the only country that erects, symbolizes, and gets excited, at least our white America does, about these symbols of terror, these symbols of basically trying to type of behavior happens, you take those things down.

There is no importance. There is no viability. There is no structure around continuing to hoist and, in aberration, these types of figures. And I agree with what Dr. Carr, number two—actually, I don't know whether you're number two or number one—but what Dr. Carr said a minute ago, because I do think that we have to, before jumping the gun and getting too excited, jubilant and dancing in the streets, recognize that even though these monuments are coming down and it's been a long time coming, the attitudes, the policies, the structures around them that have inherently created a hotbed for structural racism to continue to not only supplant but grow across this country are very much alive and well. If we take down Nathan Bedford Forrest, if we take down Robert E. Lee, if we take down every single one of these across the country, we're still seeing these very strategic, very aligned and hateful policies that still keep

Black people behind. So on the one hand, I'm excited as well that we're seeing these ignorant things that have been erected for years finally come down. But on the other, I'm excited as well that we're seeing these ignorant things that have been erected for years finally come down. But on the other, I'm also really frustrated and agitated that black people continue to be treated as second-class citizens. And we're watching time after time more and more laws and policies get passed, particularly at the state level, that thwart the progress of black people across this country. So I think that this comes at a somewhat of a bittersweet tone because it seems like the more these statues come down, the greater push we see

of angry white people who are honestly getting their way when it comes to telling black people what they have for generations. Get back, stay black, know your place. And let's be clear, Scott, there's only one party that is fully, full-throated defending these white Confederate symbols, these white domestic terrorist symbols, the Republican Party. Well, that's true. They're nothing but racists and Republicans in the GOP, and then there's Donald Trump. But, you know, Roland, you know, the next phase of all of this, because I agree with your colleagues, and I've said this before, is that America is going to continue to have the race question and continue to have the race issue permeate its society, negative for black people,

not so negative for white people, until we have a race reconciliation dialogue about slavery. We've moved on from slavery. We've moved on from slavery. We moved on from the civil rights movement and Jim Crow, but had no resolution with our white brothers and sisters about it. They don't want to talk about it anymore. And many black people are afraid to engage in that discussion because they're embarrassed. But we've got to have those discussions because otherwise we just keep putting a Band-Aid on it and it's really not going away.

Even when we become the majority in this country in 2043 or 2045, the race issue will still be a problem. That's what the big GOP fight and white people believe in their white history is being taken from them, this issue of white privilege that they did not earn, but they believe by racial reckoning they're losing something by giving up their white privilege. This needs to be resolved. And we're only going to resolve it through race reconciliation discussions with all of us in this country. You have to be fearless about it. These are difficult discussions. But our leadership in this country, black, white, Democrat, Republican, are terrified of having it. But it's the only thing, at least the first big step to race reconciliation and resolution in this country. But we don't have the courage to have it. So we will continue to struggle with it.

All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, more of Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live here from Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Be right back. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them,

and they're complex, and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, several major corporations have been outed for their donations to Texas Republicans who voted for the anti-abortion bill that recently went into law.

The site, Popular Information, and Ultraviolet compiled a list of major donors who said they donated to lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. The monies are not a sign of support for particular bills. The following companies have donated more than $100,000. AT&T, Charter Communications, Berkshire Hathaway, Exelon, United Health Group, Union Pacific, Chevron, Charter Communications, Farmers Insurance. Now, the new bill in Texas bans abortions after six weeks, causing outrage from abortion advocates nationwide. So the question, Amisha, these companies say they support both sides, but

what do you make of people who say they're not going to be targeting companies as a result of their support of Texas Republicans? This is very similar to what we saw in Georgia as well. At the end of the day, Roland, I don't think that there is a both sides debate to when it comes to basically limiting women's right to choose. This is abortion is women's health. Abortion is health care. Abortion will always be health care. And watching this debate funnel its way down on some crazy right-wing religious mantra that we've heard for decades now I think is completely ridiculous.

What I do see with these corporations is that, by and large, they are being honest here. They have donated almost equally in some cases in states where there are Republican leaders as well as Democrat leaders across this country. They basically hedge their bets on who they can call at any given point in any given state to have a bill sponsored or passed that actually fits their bidding. So I think that we do have to keep that in mind as well. These organizations have supported as many liberal bills as they have Republican ones across the nation. So I think that it will be very difficult in some senses to

boycott things like Comcast, Comet, things like that, Exelon, and also not cause, and also on the one hand boycott it in Texas, but then look at the great progress that they've been able to create in terms of education or criminal justice reform in states like Illinois, my home state. The frustrating part is I think that we have to dig deeper, because when it comes to policy, there are a lot of private organizations, private corporations that basically deliver cash cows to both sides of the aisle whenever it benefits their billing. So I think that there's a lot deeper here. And the bigger frustration should be amongst those Republican legislators who have decided that this is the mantle they want to take up, that they want to push it this far, that they want to ignore and even in many ways push it further than we've seen conservatives push before historically in terms of limiting a woman's rights.

But largely, I think that this is a conversation that is beyond that of private sector corporations who this is what they do. This is what they've been doing. And honestly, they teeter their horn on both sides of the aisle here on various issues. So this is actually nothing new. Well, it's nothing new, but I must say this here, Scott Bolden, when it comes to activism. Bottom line is the way you want to get the top politicians attention is if you affect their money source. That's why this matters. Yeah, but most of those companies, Fortune 500 companies that can give that type of money, their lobbyists are lobbying them on business issues. They may or may not agree with the social justice issues of these individual state reps as well as federal reps. But they really are giving

this money for tax policies, business policies. And that's not a cop out in my commentary. It's just reality. And so I don't think you're going to be able to stop that type of money in politics and influence from folks. What you have to do is if you're big on social causes and you have a PAC and you are a socially liberal corporation of means, then you've got to outspend those who will give money to the sponsors for this Texas bill anti-abortion. You've got to outspend them. You've got to out-fundraise them. You can spend, you can chase those cartwheels or those windmills all you want, but in the end, money is still the mother's milk of politics. And you got to outspend them. And even then, it may not work

with these votes that they have coming up. They have tens of votes, hundreds of votes each session. And so it's a race against your opponents, not only to outspend them, but also to outlobby them. And so, I mean, I think it's a wash. It's a good idea, and certainly it's offensive at its core. But at the same time, there are thousands of issues these corporations are vying for at the state level and some life-changing issues on the business side. So you've got to outspend them. Otherwise, it's just the same old fight.

I don't necessarily agree with that, Jeff, primarily because if you look at apartheid, you look at divestment, you look at how critical that was and how it had a significant impact on changing politicians and public policy in order to be able to, because again, when you start talking, when you start messing with the money, and that's what I tell people all the time in America, when you start messing with the money, it's amazing how people then choose to begin to listen to you. Sure, sure. And you're absolutely right. When you hit, when you hit an entity, including America in its pocket, things are going to change. And we learned this in the 60s. But to go along with what Amisha was saying and to reinforce what Scott was saying, we have a different era now.

We're living in different times. So things are a little bit different. The area that you're standing in right now, right behind Jubilee Hall, if you walk out of the front door and take a right turn, you're going to hit a street called Jefferson. Jefferson Street was the historically black center of Nashville, Tennessee. Jimi Hendrix played on Jefferson Street. Ray Charles played on Jefferson Street. Many R&B artists came through this space and played in places like the era. On Jefferson Street alone, you have Tennessee State University, where I went to school. You have Fisk University, hello Fiskites, where my wife went to school. You have Meharry Medical College there. Then you have that entire strip that used to be a thriving business community

until the interstate came through in the 1960s and broke that community apart. There was a time when you could go out on Jefferson Street, rally three colleges together, get students like Diane Nash, C.T. Vivian, to go out and knock on doors. John Lewis at American Baptist College, 10 minutes up the street. They would rally neighbors.

They would rally people, march downtown. They would boycott. They would do what they needed to do because this was an all-inclusive community. Right now, you can come out of Jubilee Hall and take a left, and you're going to see white people jogging, throwing Frisbees with their dogs. Entire parts of the country have now changed and gentrified. Our housing patterns have made it so that it's tough for us to now stage the level of boycotts that we

could stage in the 60s when we had communities that were tight-knit. That's not to say that we cannot still operate from the space of hitting them in a pocket, but there has to be a consistent and comprehensive strategy going forward that also takes in mind how we pressure our politicians to hold their funders accountable, how we hold companies accountable, who they're funding, and the legislation that is there. Every single person, every single corporate entity, every single organization that's a nonprofit out there is operating from one principle, and that is self-interest. So they are funding politicians who are going to advance their self-interest. If we can find a way to bring our self-interest to the table and focus on cutting off the money on that end, that's a smart strategy. And you're

absolutely right there. But there are people who will say, you know what, I'm tired of AT&T. I saw that they just gave $291,000 to this cause in Texas. I'm gonna change my service. I'm gonna switch over to Cricket in Tennessee. Well, Cricket uses AT&T's network. I'm gonna change my healthcare from United Healthcare. United Healthcare has a number of subsidiaries, including a number of organizations

and a number of healtharies, including a number of organizations and a number of health plans that serve TennCare and Medicaid, the poorest of the poor, and allow them to have access. So really, how deep in the weeds are we willing to get when we're talking about choking the financial neck of America and actually making change. Again, money talks in this country. And so if you want to make a change, you always go after the money. All right, folks, let's talk about an initiative that 10 black newspapers are joining together with. It is called Word in Black. The whole purpose is for them to be able to bring all their stories together

to amplify the reporting of the black experience onto one particular platform. Joining us now is Sonsira Masai-Jowes, CEO of the Houston Defender, Janice Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer. Glad to have both of you on the show. The thing here is, and I'll put this out here, is this, frankly, Sonny, 20 years too late? It's been a lot of a lot of things that have been going on, obviously, in the black media space and, of course, with black newspapers. And so this particular initiative here, first of all, describe how to come about. But also, how do you now compete against other brands that are out there that have been in this digital space for the last two decades? Well, I think one of the biggest opportunities that we have is that we have a legacy.

We're legacy media. We have relationships. We're entrenched in the community, have been there for not just the last five, 10, 15 years, but more 50, 60, 90, 100. And so as a result, I think the relationship and the trust is already built in. And all we're doing now is building upon that with a digital platform. Denise, you know, obviously I was glad to see this, glad to hear it. Sorry, so we don't have Denise. So Sonny, obviously I was glad to see this, glad to hear it. Three of these ten papers I've actually run, and man, I wish a lot of these black newspapers

had listened to brothers like me a long time ago. And I think for a lot of people, the same thing. Black newspapers were going through what mainstream newspapers were going to. That is, we're so dependent upon that print model and was not seeing that train that was coming. And for a lot of people, they waited way too late.

And now they're trying to play a serious game of catch-up. Well, and you could call it catch-up, but you could also say that the technology today, Roland, is much cheaper, much more efficient, much more effective and reaches a much broader audience than it did back in the day. At that time, I think it would have been nice for us to have jumped on the train. But I think to a certain degree, it could have been premature because with social media's introduction into the digital world, it's changed the landscape.

And then you have all these different new platforms that are also creating new opportunities to access different parts of our community. One of the things that I have heard for the longest from so many people is, oh, we can't afford this. We can't afford this. It's too much. It's too difficult. But the reality is, I think what COVID did was, frankly, COVID forced a lot of people to stop making excuses. I was having a conversation today with the president of Fisk University. We're talking about how there were a lot of HBCUs that were against online education. Well, guess what?

COVID hit. They had no choice but to deal with the online because that's the only way they could actually continue teaching. Black churches, same thing. A lot of black churches, oh, they didn't want to hear about having a church online. Well, guess what? They now have to deal with it. And so have you also seen this take place where other black papers now have to understand you've got no choice. You're now you're not black newspapers. You are black media companies.

You've got to be you've got to be digital. Necessity demands intervention and sometimes innovation. And I think what has happened, as you said, not just to the newspaper industry or to the media industry, but to industries across the board who have now transitioned, who have sped up. I mean, I felt as though when COVID hit, I went into warp speed to make the transition. We were already in line to make the transition, but the speed and the demand to make it enhanced tremendously. And so as a result, once we made that crossover, the opportunities to make new revenues, to access new customers, all opened up, not to mention the opportunities to also secure grant monies and other types of revenue,

like reader revenue and different components the resources to make this happen. And with this particular site, will it be just just printed stories? Are you also talking about video, audio, things like those lines? I think the site, the plan, as far as the expectations, is to build upon the content that we have, not locking into print, but more content and how we package that content, as you said, will vary, whether it's in podcast or video or actual articles, photo galleries. I think you're going to see a mixture of different mediums that we use to actually communicate the message. Let's see, got questions from our panelists. First off, Amisha, what is your question for Saucere Masai-Giles of the Asian Defender? Absolutely. First of all, thanks for being here. We obviously know the importance of black media and the segmentation that has happened across the board.

Being a Chicagoan, I watched with sadness as Jet basically fell because of the lack of integration into the social media space and into the digital space. To what ends has the work that you've done or looking towards the future actually helped to move some of these very, you know, legacy-based black media into this new era and, you know, created an audience for them in particular? Because a lot are still, you know, kind of struggling in terms of how to envelope themselves in the digital media space. space? I think the uniqueness of the 10 publishers is that these are very progressive publishers who have had a business acumen, who are mostly in major urban areas and have joined forces to create this collective that is going to not only help us be able to tap into resources and cut some costs, but at the same time be able to be more of a force because there is more resonance or more power in the collective than it is individually. We're also joined by, first of all, my next question is going to go to Jeff, but I also want to bring in to this conversation here,

Denise Barnes, who's the publisher of the Washington Informer. And so before I go to Jeff, I'll ask Denise this question. Denise, I posed the same question to Sonia just a little bit earlier, and that is, you're no longer black newspapers. You're black media companies. We're now moving. I mean, look at the New York Times. They don't call themselves a newspaper. The Washington Post, the exact same thing.

And so we're living in this digital space. That is what is driving so much of this. And are other black newspapers now truly understanding and getting the message now? And if you do not have a strong, vibrant digital property, you're not going to be able to survive in the 21st century. Yeah, I want to say, and I really love your shirt there, Roland, because with your background, what you're wearing, I just want to say to that statement, hallelujah. Because yeah, I think a lot of our black publications are very, very focused now on understanding this evolution or revolution that we are involved in.

And I think they're getting it. It's still slow. You have to understand, you know, this transition into the digital space is not cheap. And it comes with the skills that many of our publishers don't have. So that fear still exists. But the point is that those of us, and I think Sunny said it really well, that the collaboration is what helps each one of us to reach one of us, to bring each other forward. And so it makes the, we're not afraid of talking to each other about what we don't know and to help each other with what we do know. So collaboration is the key and it's the force

that is bringing us into the digital age. Question, Jeff, for Denise and Sonny. Go. Sure. And Sister Barnes, Sister Messiah. I love the name, Messiah Giles. Powerful. I speak things into existence, and I'm very, very, very focused on that.

The law of attraction is real. So you are absolutely being a part of some messianic energy that is needed in this space today, especially from black media. And Brother Roland knows, having worked at the Chicago Defender, I know having run a newspaper called The Third Eye here in Nashville in the 1990s. I know from being positioned now at the Infinity Center, three doors down the street from the home of Rosetta Miller Perry, the publisher of the Tennessee Tribune, a long time newspaper here in Nashville, the challenges that you face, the challenges that we all face

in trying to tell our stories. One of the biggest challenges that pits us in this kind of difficult conversation, and that is how do you pay for it? How do you make sure that you can have the life that major mainstream media organizations have when you're in a space where you have to pay for digital content? You have to pay for writers. You ideally want to pay salaries for good people who go out there. And many times you have to lean on mainstream companies to provide those resources. How do you deal with that going forward, balancing out, needing financial support, and wanting to get to a place where we can truly be independent? Denise, you want to take that or you want me to go ahead and start?

I'll start off because I think Sunny said it. We have looked at different revenue streams. We have always been supported on, dependent upon ad dollars. And I don't want to say that we aren't still dependent upon ad dollars. Ad revenue is what makes the car run. But at the same time, we have also found that there are other sources of revenue out there that help us. And that revenue sometimes comes in the form of grants, which allow us to hire and pay

for staff in specialized areas that we heretofore hadn't been able to afford. And then also reader revenue. I mean, now we don't have to be a nonprofit organization per se in our individual publications for people who once subscribed to a newspaper in print to continue to subscribe to us on a digital platform. And every person that gives $1, $2, I mean, it's up to you how much

you want to give, you know, to support black journalism. And it's been sort of a phenomenal experience to see how our community supports us in the work that we do. And they want to see us to continue to survive. I really think, Jeff, to your question, though, the business model of today's media has changed tremendously. From now looking at, as Denise said, reader revenue, events, grants, philanthropic support of journalism, newsletters. You have a gamut of different products now that bring in revenue that no longer are dependent upon that print ad. And so as a result, that has opened the door of opportunity for generating revenue

for Black media today. Next question goes to Scott Bolden. Scott? Let me just say hello to my NMPA colleagues. Congratulations on the Black Word. My question is, this is an awesome platform and a way to get around not only the cost, but the mindset of so many of our community-based, Black-based newspapers. Do you see other similar partnerships coming together with other Black community-based newspapers,

or even the 10 papers in the Black Word expanding, if you will, if this model is really the answer that both of you all talked about in your comments earlier? I think when Word in Black was originally founded, and understand that we are just getting to a year old, so this is relatively new. But when you consider what's been accomplished, our expectation is to be able to grow and to invite others in. But first, we have to get our own foundation strong enough to be able to stand on its own feet before we can enter into any kinds of agreements to welcome others into the fold. I just want to add to Scott that, you know, as my daddy used to say, there's nothing new under the sun.

And this is an interesting. He said it with force, too. But, you know, I mean, this collaboration is what brought those publishers together many years ago when they established the National Newspaper Publishers Association. It was a similar reason for bringing black newspaper publishers together. And even in regions or in cities across the country, there are black newspaper publishers that still collaborate. They always have done that. I mean, and so this is not a new, what makes this new are the platforms that we're now, I mean, as Roland asked, you know, we understand that,

and have adopted the fact that we are looking at digital first. And so that's what makes this new. But otherwise, collaboration has always existed among the black press. I think the other thing that makes the business model different is that the association or NNPA is a trade association versus this being a business operation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I can see many of the members at NPA looking at this model, asking lots of questions about it, and then possibly forming even a different joint venture to try to make this thing work.

Because as you all know, we've talked about this for years, but the affordability, and in some cases, the mindset, you had uneven interests in it. And so this is really powerful for me as someone who's been supporting and active in the NMPA for several years. I think it's a landmark piece, and I think it will spur other joint ventures or collaboration efforts, given the multiplicity of social media platforms that are out there right now, as you said, Sonny. So congratulations. Let's make it work. What you also obviously are dealing with, you're also dealing with the reality you've got to compete with content, and that is you don't have any daily black newspapers you're doing

weeklies and so when you talk about aggregating content together you can certainly drive more content when you have to show papers who combining their resources and so that's that's certainly what what is important and again we're also seeing the the shift if you will, the dollars that are moving from your traditional television linear, radio linear, traditional display and print moving to the digital side as well. But where, and this is the key, and I'll ask both of you this, last question for you, is having a site is one thing one thing for us having an app is one thing but also it's building the scale because now when you start talking about to those advertisers they're going

to want to see metrics same thing of course which is a lot different when you talk about readership and circulation and so what is what is the marketing plan if you will to be able to to expand that footprint to build capacity to build capacity, to build a skill, to build those numbers and the metrics to satisfy those advertisers? I think the analytics are going to play a major role because that's what clients want today. And with digital, it's much easier to track the analytics than it was before with newsprint. I think that the direction and the marketing of Word in Black right now is to use initially the newsletter product to push the information out to those. And by the way, we welcome people to go to

wordinblack.com and please sign up for that newsletter to actually experience the word in black and also if possible support the word in black with a donation because part of that marketing you talked about roland involves pushing the information out and delivering the information to people in their email boxes or to be able to get their support to donate those calls that we put together as a collaborative. And I would just add, I think, I'm glad Sonny got a chance to do the pitch for us, because that's really important. I mean, it supports us.

And when you get there, you'll get a chance to see all the individual newspapers. But you know, Roland, you have really set the example in a lot of ways of what are the things that we as publishers should have been doing and are beginning to do now. Social media is also key. You know, all of us have our social media platforms. We're pushing out Word in Black. We're pushing out our own content as well on our platforms and also pushing out each other's content on social media. It's interesting to me and we're fighting the challenge right now of getting that, what is it, that blue checkmark on some of our platforms like Instagram. It's my understanding that there are no black media, maybe your program or your platforms are rolling, but there are no black newspapers that have achieved the level of being able to get that blue check mark. And we're trying to figure out, you know, what is it that's keeping

us on the outside as opposed to getting in. So, you know, we have our challenges and we're learning it along the way. But, you know, this collaboration is making us bigger challenges, and we're learning it along the way. But this collaboration is making us bigger and stronger, and we're understanding and having to bring people into our operations who know how to capture those analytics and put them in a form that our sponsors and advertisers can accept. That's can accept, you know, that's the issue, can accept as valuable proof of our own value. So it's a challenge, but, you know, thanks to Word in Black, I think we're breaking down some of those walls. All right, then, Denise Barnes, Senator Messiah Giles, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. The site is called wordandblack.com.

Thanks a bunch, folks. Hey, Rob, good luck on your show. I'm looking forward to the TV station. Power to you, brother. Once again, you're stepping out courageously, taking on a new venture and showing people that there is opportunity as you go to the next level. Congratulations on that.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks a lot. Folks, the reason this was a timely conversation, because literally my first lecture today here at Fisk University dealt with the issue of the past, present and future of black owned media. And the thing that I said is that we are moving towards a serious, serious issue, if you will, Jeff, Amisha, and Scott, because what you're seeing is you are seeing people who've always understood the power and the importance of black folks with black targeted media. Of course, you talk about BET, ViacomCBS, you talk about, of course, with iHeartRadio launching Black Information Network. When you look at these other sites, Refinery29 was purchased by Vice.

They have a black female vertical targeting them. We can go on and on and on. But the thing that I said is that, look, black-owned media has to be able to own our space, control the narrative, control the voice. Otherwise, we're going to be asking somebody else permission to tell our story. And Jeff, that is very, very dangerous. It's very dangerous because when you have to ask someone else to tell your story, they are then determining whether or not the story even gets told. And then they assign who tells the story and how the story is told. And so one of the things that I said to the students that

were assembled here, I said, you have to understand where you move your eyeballs, the money follows. And so they also have to be cognizant of these things as well, because it's people is very easy for people to get caught up and they say, well, you know, sure. You know, yeah, you got black media out there. But the bottom line is, if your eyeballs are on MSNBC, on CNN, they're not on Roland Martin unfiltered. If your eyeballs are on Complex and not on Black Star Network. But what's going to happen is those same companies are going to use the metrics against us and say, our balls are over there, not with you. Our money is going over there. Exactly. And this is a, there's a long history in this. We see this happening in industry. We see it happening in social media. When we make a platform popular, those who have the capacity and the resources to actually build out that

model, they immediately jump on it. Right? What we're seeing in Nashville is something similar on a church level. We're seeing black empowerment. We're seeing our music now taking off in a number of ways. Large white evangelical organizations, including the Southern Baptist Church, in a way that many people would never think about, are now starting to plant churches in black neighborhoods. And they're starting to, they will come in and they will pay black pastors and scholars in residence

tons of money to come into black neighborhoods and to draw people in with the kind of talk, with the kind of walk, with the kind of look that is now becoming popular in the industry, so to speak. But there's little to no freedom there because these are not independent organizations. The minute that organization gets too big or too black, the resources can be withdrawn. It's the same with media. This is why it's important that what you've done with Roland Martin Unfiltered, what you're doing with Black Star, what we're seeing with Black World, we're seeing independent organizations moving forward and saying, we are going to tell our own story. As you probably know, because my brother tells a

million stories from our personal upbringing, but I had a granddaddy on my mom's side, and he was fiercely independent. And I don't know if city folk know what a lighter is, but a lighter is the middle of a pine tree. And it's got all the sap in it, and it's something they use for kindling. Well, my grandfather, who worked at the railroad when he was 13 years old, was told when he was a grown man that he had to move his entire family from his land in Alabama. He said, no, I'm not going to do that because I am independent. They said, we'll take your job from you. He said, I will shoot horses. I will fix engines if I need to. I will fix wagons and grow my own food. His saying was, and I'm not going to defile the airwaves with his

bright language, but he said, I will walk these back roads naked and eat feces from a flat lighter spoon before I allow a white man to tell me what to do. That fierce independence is the same spirit that you saw in an Ida B. Wells. It's the same spirit that you saw in independent black media. It is a powerful vibration that draws people to it because it is authentic and it is real. It's the same energy that you're drawing with the work that you're doing in a space that many people thought would fail because you didn't have the big monster of CNN behind you anymore. At this crossroads, at this intersection, it's important that we continue to jump on that, to continue to funnel that authenticity into self-empowerment. Because as you said, if not, we will see what is happening

now. Major white organizations seeing the attention that is now coming from smart, intelligent, brilliant, funny, creative black media. And they say, how can we mimic this? We as viewers, those of you who are viewing this program, do not take the bait, because when you do take the bait, you end up harming independent black media. And we're not going to do it this time around and that's why uh again it's it it is a it is a a state of consciousness amicia and a mindfulness um i look at you look at the app clubhouse debuted last year zoom to about a four billion hour valuation black folks made that possible. Yet Isaac Hayes III has launched an app called Fanbase, which actually allows for content creators to actually get paid from their fans.

And it has been steadily building, but it's not going that way. Do they have audio rooms in this clubhouse? Yep. Can you post photos and videos like Instagram? Yep. Black-owned. Yet what happens is we have a fundamental problem, and when I say a state of mind, it's a fundamental problem because whether people want to admit it or not, there's a problem with white validation in the minds of black people. There's a problem when you have black folks who have this belief, well, you know what, that's not the same quality, so therefore it's different.

Well, guess what? There were early bugs in Twitter and Facebook like any other app. Those things happen. And so I have long said that there has to be a massive reprogramming of black America when it comes to understanding why our media matters and why our voices matter. Because if we don't, we will be in a situation, and we're seeing it right now. We're seeing it right now. You saw it in New York where you had these black radio stations that were owned by Percy Sutton's company. Then he dies.

Family loses control of these stations. They sell it. Boom. They flip the formats to a sports talk radio. And black people are like, oh my god, what'd you do to our station? No. It's not our station, because they now own them. Exactly.

I think that part of this is a mesmerization that black people often have with things that are not owned by us, sometimes a confusion, because it says black in the title or they may have some black programming, that the assumption is that, well, black people basically designed this from the ground up and this is the fruits of that labor, when in many cases we see a lot of white-owned media organizations putting black faces on

their white material. And we know that the stories are told from a different lens. We know that the clearance to even tell certain stories goes through various levers that change how that story is actually even viewed by our audiences. With that being said, I think that for individuals like you, Roland, who have been talking about this for such a long time, and kudos to you for doing it, even during your time at CNN and working with other media, you have always been someone who's been on the forefront when it comes to Black-owned media and ensuring that your voice was heard there and that you were

elevating them in that sense, and also talking about your own personal start. I think that oftentimes when we see Black people who have taken off at places like MSN, like CNN, like our ABCs, NBCs, and what have you, even if they got started in local black media or black media specifically in some of our major cities, the minute that they get signed to a large cable news outlet, they forget all about this black media that actually helped to create them and make them who they are. I think that at this point, the understanding has to be that there are so many creators in our community who are really driving the conversation when it comes to news, when it comes to politics, when it comes to social entrepreneurship and engagement. And a lot of those stories are literally being swiped by some

of our major media. And we're seeing it on a regular basis. It's not just with those kids who are creating TikTok dances and then seeing it repurposed by white folks. We're also seeing a lot of black media be repurposed by white organizations. And're also seeing a lot of black media be repurposed by white organizations. And I think that now is the time to really lean in on and understand not only the importance of black media and black voices, but also the investment that has to be made in black media for it to actually be able to exist at a time where we see just so many threats to the black community and where race and policy are intersecting. We need those independent black voices because they're going to tell the truth. They don't, they are not beholden

to a corporate structure that doesn't allow them to be real and to be authentically black. They also have the opportunity to elevate stories and situations that otherwise would not be heard. And I think that these are all extremely vital processes in ensuring that we have a very vibrant black media, but also acknowledging the fact that like your guest spoke of earlier, a lot of this comes down to AFI, a lot of this comes down to money. And we need to be able to have a robust funding structure so that black media survives. You know, Scott, last point on this. You know, the thing, again, when we talk about how we reach, and I saw just a comment, somebody was like, well, you know, so-and-so needs a better marketing team.

That costs money. See, it's amazing to me, it's amazing to me when I have these conversations with people, when I'm trying to explain to them the business of the business. So I have people tell me, man, you to them the business of the business. So I have people tell me, man, you should have ads running. I agree. Where's the money coming from? How are you going to pay for it? The reality is if you're not getting the advertising dollars, you can't grow your brand. If you can't grow your brand,

then you can't build capacity. If you can't grow your brand and build capacity, then you can't hit the metrics they're asking for. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's the thing that people don't seem to understand. And it is as if, again, as somebody like me who I've been in this business because I was 14 years old, only thing I've done for the last 38 years. So I say the simpletons do understand

there are things that we cannot do by virtue of not having those resources. And again, if folks then send their eyeballs elsewhere, what's then going to happen is that those other companies are going to benefit from that. So when folks are retweeting stories from mainstream media, all they're doing is increasing the value of those mainstream media outlets as opposed to who gets a level of attention. I mean, I give you a perfect example. We have been sending out, we launched Black Star Network last week, sent the press release out. The publicists have been reaching out. Mainstream media will not cover this, will not cover it. But I've seen on media, perfect example. I've now seen back-to-back days of them

posting something on Megyn Kelly's podcast that hasn't been in and around as long as RollerMart unfiltered, but they will never cover what we do, but then you'll see it there. And so not only do you not, cannot afford the marketing, you don't even get the free pieces because guess what? They're controlling who they write stories about. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, it's a big ass problem, but, you know, we can solve that problem. There are lots of different social media product. That's one thing. But black people are the biggest consumers in this country. Or one of the biggest.

We spend $3 billion. I saw a report that said black America spends $3 billion a year on stuff. They're consumers. They're not even saving, right? You put a portion of that $3 billion towards Blackstar. You put a portion of that $3 billion towards Blackstar. You put a portion of that $3 billion in supporting Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now you got the revenue, right? Because what happens otherwise is that the majority companies, they let us, the black media

companies, compete for crumbs then, right? Look at the government. Government spends about 5% on black media and they have a billion dollar budget. You talk about it all the time. You want to compete for crumbs, but you want to give the majority of media companies the marketing contract for coronavirus and they throw a couple of dollars at black media. And now you've got black people who don't want to get vaccinated because you don't have an outreach program, one that you put together, that they rejected. And so now you have the black community suffering and going through all of these stories about not trusting the source and what have you, and then you've got 50% of America vaccinated. It has ramifications beyond just support black media. But again, three billion dollars. We don't have a black news program on cable or on any of the networks. And our Hispanic

brothers and sisters, I think, have three networks that they have morning news programs on. And so the juxtaposition is just is rooted in hypocrisy. Right. We got three billion, but we don't invest in ourselves. You've got people calling you and texting you and doing social media to you about what you ain't got no real show because you ain't on the network or you ain't on cable. But you're a trailblazer in social media and this digital platform, which is really, to be honest with you, the next big thing. It's the big thing now, and you're going to see more of these programs coming your way. And so black people got to be educated, but they got to be committed to their communities and committed to black people because nobody's going to save us but us for us.

And that's not changing, whether it's 2021 or 1970. And just we got to be enlightened and see the picture and see the journey and see the pathway, don't we? Our people as a collective have got to see it and say we can do this. We don't have to rely on majority white media. We don't have to rely on anybody that doesn't look like us if we got three billion to spend. That's a bottom line proposition, and it never stops being that. Absolutely, folks. If you want to support what we do here, Roller Martin Unfiltered, please join our Bring the Funk fan club, where every dollar you give goes to support

this show. You can do so by via Cash App, dollar sign RMUnfiltered, PayPal.me, forward slash RMartinUnfiltered, Venmo.com, forward slash RMUnfiltered. And then, of course, Zelle is rolling at rollingmartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. And even though these other media reporters have ignored this, you can also download our app, Black Star Network. We are available on Apple phones, Android phones, but also Apple TV, Amazon TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku, Samsung, Xbox as well.

Folks, all those particular platforms we'll be announcing in the coming weeks, additional shows that we're going to have on the network as well. You can see my exclusive interview with civil rights attorney Fred Gray, of course, who was the lawyer for Rosa Parks, Claudia Colvin, Dr. King, and so many others. And so here's the piece, folks. You're not gonna be able to see that interview. I'm purposely not streaming it on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. You can only see that interview on Black Star Network.

I've heard people talk about why Claudia Colvin, why she did not, her story did not become the major story. Instead, it was Rosa Parks. Well, Fred Gray explains that. He was the attorney for Claudia as well as Rosa Parks. So download Black Star Network. Again, all those different platforms. And so we've had thousands so far.

Our target goal, folks, by December 1st, we're going to have 50,000 downloads. And so let's hit that goal. Y'all are watching this show. You've got people watching us on YouTube right now. You can watch the show on Black Star Network as well. And so, again, we've got some other great things that are coming, some other exclusive content. And so you definitely want to check that out. All right. Going to break. We come back to talk about NFTs, cryptocurrency with Mary Spio, the founder of Seek.com, a black virtual reality

company right here on Roland Martin Unftered, in just a moment.. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You've got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. . I do feel like in this generation we've got to do more around being intentional

and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. Ortil's murder.

We saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. I'm Bill Duke.

This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. all right folks uh tech talk segment sponsored by seek.com virtual reality company founded by mary spiel uh mary jones joins us right now. Mary, glad to have you back on the show. All right. We keep hearing about these NFTs and cryptocurrency. All right. Let's first of all, let's start with NFTs. What the hell is an NFT? So an NFT is, you know, the word means a non-fungible token. Basically, all it is is something that's irreplaceable but it's a digital version of it and so people are selling digital art that they're tracking on the blockchain

which means that you can't change any of the characteristics of it and that you really um when you buy that piece of art you have the digital proof because the blockchain is a whole bunch of people that validate that and that's basically what it is. It's just digital art. It's just rare goods. And it's all the craze now because, you know, of the ability to track it. All right. So, okay. So perfect example. This is this painting here. This is a valuable, valuable piece of art. And this is the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Was it sitting in the Queen's Court?

Is that what it is? Queen Victoria's Court. Okay. So, I mean, again, folks would love to get their hands on this. And so how would this work for NFT? So how would that actually work? So the way they're doing physical art now, like some people would take a picture of the physical art,

they'll put it online, and then they'll burn the only copy that they have of the real thing. So now it becomes available in the digital world and you can sell it and then, you know, you can just continue to sell it, but you really can track that this is the only copy that you have of that digital art. And that's basically what it is. OK, so and we're seeing people sell stuff and, you know, as NFTs and could it be anything? Because I mean, so here's the thing with art. I mean, so we actually buy art. I mean, so, you know, this is an art piece and then it's framed and things along those lines.

And so how do you know it's the only digital item? How do you know that? So if you have that particular version and you put it on an NFT platform, which we have our own NFT platform that's coming with a lot of artists, musicians that are going to put their stuff on there. So when you put it on there,

the blockchain is controlled not by one person. That's why they say it's decentralized. So you've got a ton of people that are actually verifying in a digital ledger that this is the only copy. So in order to verify it, all these unrelated computers, all these independent computers have to verify that that's the only piece of, you know, that's the original piece. So if somebody else puts something out there and tells you that that's that piece, they're not going to be able to get all those different computers that are out there on the blockchain to verify it. So, you know, that it's, you know, it's not the real one.

OK, so. All right. So those are NFTs. All right, now let's talk about cryptocurrencies. I've got people hitting me up saying, Roland, you should be accepting crypto for your Bring the Funk fan club. Why? Real money is real money, okay? People who give, people who give to this show, I can take that money and go buy that camera, that monitor, those lights, pay for airline tickets, hotel room. Why in the hell should I be accepting cryptocurrency for the Bring the Funk fan club, Roller Mart Unfiltered or Black Star Network?

So basically, some people will be able to pay you cash, but some people also are sitting on a lot of cryptocurrencies. So, for example, you know, everybody knows about Bitcoin. There are people that are sitting on a lot of cryptocurrencies. So, for example, you know, everybody knows about Bitcoin. There are people that bought Bitcoin when it was 10 cents. And today is, you know, over $40,000 per coin. There is Ethereum. There are people who bought it when it was 10 cents. So you may have people in your audience that have either Bitcoin or some kind of token, maybe they even have a Z coin, you know, that they'll be able to contribute to you. And you can very easily convert that to cash whenever you want to. But the advantage of the cryptocurrency is the fact that it has a stored value. So maybe when you receive it, it was 10 cents. But today might be 40,000 or, you know, $60,000, as in the case of, the case of things like Bitcoin. All right. So, okay. So I know we got questions from our panel. I want to start with

Amisha first. Amisha, what are your questions for Mayor Spiel about NFTs or cryptocurrency? Absolutely. So before this show, honestly, Roland and you, ma'am, I didn't know what an NFT was. But for cryptocurrency specifically, honestly, Roland and you, ma'am, I didn't know what an NFT was. But for cryptocurrency specifically, we're seeing more millennials as well as the next generation beyond millennials really jump on crypto, specifically with the offshoot like Dogecoin and things like that.

And it shows really no signs of stopping. What do you think is attracting particularly younger investors to it? And what would you say about the conversation that now is leading that anybody can basically be an investor? And that's how we're seeing this new wave of cryptocurrency really take off amongst populations that, generally speaking, didn't really have too much of a voice when it came to finance, specifically Wall Street level finance. I think the reason why we're seeing a lot of millennials and younger people buy cryptocurrencies is because in their lifetime they're seeing what can happen. So for example, there are some people that bought Bitcoin or bought Dogecoin or even Seek. We have our own token. Some people that have purchased some of these cryptocurrencies, and what's happened is

they wake up and overnight they go to sleep maybe with $9,000 in there, and they wake up and it's, you know, a million dollars, or they wake up and it's some ridiculous number. So they have seen it for themselves. They have friends that have experienced it. And so they're believers in it, and they have full control of their money as well. It's kind of like email. And it's the currency that we're going to see with the Web 3.0, which is what's coming. So, for example, before with emails, if you wanted to send a letter, you had to write a physical letter, take it to the post office. It's the same. Now, if you want to withdraw your money, you have to go to the bank or, you know, use an ATM or

credit card. But with cryptocurrencies, you can just instantly withdraw money, you have to go to the bank or, you know, use an ATM or a credit card. But with cryptocurrencies, you can just instantly withdraw it without you. And you can send it back and forth the same way that you send emails. And so for their generation that grew up with video games and, you know, all of this, this is what's next for them. And they don't want to miss the boat. All right. Next up is A. Scott Bolden. Hey, good evening. My daughter, my daughters who are 26 years old have finally got me to invest in Eurythium. Is that it? Yeah, Ethereum. Yeah. Okay. And I've put thousands of dollars, not a lot, but thousands of dollars into it. And I go to it every couple of days.

And yesterday it was down by like 15%. And now it's up by about 5% today. That's kind of fun. But, you know, the debate about cryptocurrency used to be whether it was real or fake or going to fail. You don't hear those debates anymore. At least I haven't. And so can you comment on whether this cryptocurrency is for real or are we still waiting to see whether it's going to fail or whether it's going to make all of us rich. I mean, it's for real. It's for real. You know, a country like Ecuador just announced that they're going to base Bitcoin as their legal tender. And then also there are some

applications or some coins that have a real value in the real world. So those are things that are, for example, with the C coin, we use that to track every single time there is a viewership on, you know, in the metaverse. There is a viewership whether it's on our app or on other different apps. So for stuff like that where you've got people demanding that they know when their content is being consumed, that's a coin that people have to use in order to distribute content. Ethereum is the same way. You have some contracts. Got you. But what's backing up Eurythium or crypto coins?

What's backing it up? The American dollar isn't backed up by gold, of course, but it's backed up by the belief in the dollar bill that it won't fail because it's the currency of the United States of America. What's backing up crypto coins or erythium? So what's backing, for example, Ethereum is the people. The people, because people are using it. They're using it, you know, for smart contracts. So with smart contracts, for example, if I say to you, we're going to, you know, have an agreement where for every single time that, you know, let's say every single time that you stream a piece of content, I'm going to pay you one seek. In the past, we would get a, you know, an attorney to draft an agreement. But with a smart contract,

what happens is I tie your wallet to the technology. And then whenever the stream happens automatically, that money gets deposited. And the foundation for that smart contract is Ethereum. And everybody is using our contract now. It's like the new internet. So the fact that so many people are using it, and every time it gets used, people have to verify it. So there's money exchanging hands and there's a cost that goes into it. So that's really the use of the technology. The utility is what's driving it. And it's what's most widely, you know, adopted now for the Web 3.0. Will it ever be regulated, Jeff? They're trying to. I think there's a lot of effort, you know, to regulate cryptocurrencies. But because it's a utility, it's sort of like

email, right? It's like saying that, you know, in order for you to use email, you have to pay this or you have to pay that. But that's basically what it is. It's the foundation of the next generation of the web. So there are some aspects that will be regulated, but there are other aspects that, because it's just a utility, you can't really regulate, because it's a technology.

So it sounds as- All right, Jeff, your question for Mayor Spiel. Sure, absolutely. Salute to you, sister, for making this accessible to everybody. I am a father, I may have mentioned, of five. My wife and I have five children. I'm from the hip-hop generation, original hip-hop generation. I think I get classified as Generation

X. I've got a 26-year-old who is classified in that millennial space. And then my 19, 15, 12, and 10-year-olds are either in Gen Z or whatever comes after Gen Z. And one of the things that I've learned is that you have to give way to innovation. Just like in the past, we had a belief, as Brother Scott outlined, we had a belief in the power of the dollar. It sounds as if the belief in the cryptocurrency space is a belief in the blockchain and the trust of the people to be consistent and to make those decisions. Let me ask you two quick questions on that, because I want us to understand as people

in that hip hop generation, Gen X, who need to make the change. We've already made the change here. We're in the digital space speaking to webcams. Ten years ago, you could have told us that, and we said, nah, we're not going to do forever, of course. When it came out, they went to, deliberately went to Rotten Tomatoes and gave it poor ratings so that it would not be 100% rated well. Is there room in the crypto space, when we're talking about the blockchain, for people to affirm the value of, say, that piece of art? Is there room for people with ill intent to devalue it as well? You know, a lot of what's happening now, and that's a very good point, a lot of what's

happening now is what's called a proof of stake, which means, so there are instances where in order for you to vote, you have to put your money against that. So let's say you purchase some coins and every single time you cast a vote, you cast a vote with the coin. So unless you're really, really, really determined to spend a bunch of money to really push down that art or to push down that technology, it becomes much, much more difficult.

And because so many people at the early stages are buying all these different coins that are the foundation for things like voting on, you know, who likes the movie and who doesn't. So let's say, you know, your daughter has the Rotten Tomatoes token. She's going to be the one that will be able to vote and other people that have that Rotten Tomato.

So it's not just going to be someone that just sitting there clicking the button over and over and over because they have nothing to stake on it, which is why a lot of people have more faith in using the blockchain for things such as voting. Awesome. Now, that makes a lot of sense. So finally, when we talk about the process of conversion to cash in real terms, real simple or easy terms, because we hear, well, if you need a camera, you need a monitor, you need a switcher, you need a high-speed internet, you can convert the Bitcoin to cash. What's the process of conversion to cash? Do you need a point of sale, a person who can accept Bitcoin? How do you say, I've got tons of Bitcoin, how do I actually cash that out in American dollars?

There are so many exchanges. So a site like Binance, it's an exchange. When you go to that exchange, what happens is you can create a wallet there. And so when people are sending you Bitcoin, it goes into it. You can tie your bank account to that. And what happens is anytime you want to move it from being a cryptocurrency to cash, you just click a button and it moves from here to there and your money is in your hand. Is that simple? So you just sign up for an exchange. Coinbase is another one. And some of these exchanges today are buying real banks. Some of these banks that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, because of the amount of money that's moving through these exchanges, a lot of them are, I mean, just running circles around the traditional banks. Sounds like something we all need to get ahead of and we need to be a part of, because it seems as if the technology is becoming a great equalizer in this space. It is. All right, folks. Mary, for folks, more information, where can they reach you?

Seek.com and they can definitely, you know, reach me on Seek.com. I'm on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. And, you know, yeah, Seek.com for sure. Make sure they pick up the headphone while they're there. Yeah, folks, of course, you can get the get the headphones there as well as the virtual reality headset. Just use the promo code RMVIP21, RMVIP21. We're a portion of that. It comes back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of course, we believe in supporting black-owned businesses.

And then there's reciprocity there as well. Mary, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, folks. So one of the reasons why this conversation is important is because I think we have to expand the knowledge base and horizons of our people. We don't we can't just talk every single day about cops who kill black folks, talk about voting rights, things on those lines, because African-Americans, we are a well-rounded people we can we do many things we're in business and technology in an environment and on all those

different things and so that's one of the reasons why we have our tech talk segments but we have our marketplace segment which airs on Tuesday education matters which airs on Fridays our fit live win segment which airs on Monday as well all of those things are important because they truly represent african-americans who we are as a people and so that's why we want you to support on Monday as well. All of those things are important because they truly represent African Americans, who we are as a people. And so that's why we want you to support what we do. And as I said, you can join our Bring the Funk Fan Club. Our goal, of course, is to get folks to give an average of 50 bucks each. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. You can support us in a variety

of ways. Of course, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal is rmartinunfiltered, Venmo is rmunfiltered, Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com, roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. If you go to the app, download the app, Black Star Network, you can actually also join the fan club right there on the app as well. And so we launched the app on Saturday, the third anniversary of this show. And so we certainly want to thank all of you. I get the alerts every time one of y'all download the app. And so trust me, it's been going off a lot during the show.

And the thing here is this here, and it's pretty interesting, Jeff, Scott, and Amisha. And Amisha, I'll start with you. You know, we reached out, as I said earlier, we reached out to every single one of these media outlets, even the sites that cover media. And it's amazing how they won't do anything on any of the things that we've done, the success that we've had in our first three years, launch a Black Star Network. And when I and people and I had people hit me up and like, oh, my God, has to be frustrating. I'm like, no, that's just the reality of being black. And so this is why, as we talked about with the black black newspapers, what they're

doing. This is why we as African- have to have formal respect for our own platforms that are trying to inform us and enlighten us than what we're doing, because we cannot count on somebody else being there for us. We got to be able to do it for ourselves. And that's why having these type of segments, because guess what? Other people may not have Mary Spiel on talking about Seek.com. But this is a black owned virtual reality company. And so I keep telling people it's sort of like black restaurants. Guess what? Black folks can do more than sold food and fried chicken. Exactly. No, absolutely. And I think that, Roland, because you have been such an archetype and so smart and strategic, specifically

when it comes to the advancements of social media and getting in that space on the ground running when it came to developing your own, making sure that you understood how the algorithms work, being able to pull from such diverse audiences, but also to get those individuals who look like us, who are in our community, who are doing great things on multiple fronts, from entrepreneurship to technology to the sciences to education, you name it, you've been there and you've featured those individuals. I don't think that we're, and I assume that it is frustrating. It would be frustrating for me. I don't think that that level of support is going to come or that level of press releases or national attention around just how groundbreaking this is because we've seen time and time again the difficulties of even cable

news networks trying to jump into the digital space. We know this because of the millions of flops of places like Fox Nation. We know this because of the emphasis that CNN is right now putting on expanding into this space, expanding into the streaming space. We know that that is the wave of the future when it comes to, and the future is now, when it comes to news and media. And you were there long before anybody else was and have worked through the kinks, have showcased that this is possible, have showcased that you can build an audience, that you could sustain. And I think that that's one of the blind spots of national media and even some of these media-focused groups that actually publish stories about media because they're not giving the attention to something that has meant

so much to so many people and has actually laid the groundwork and designed the map for a lot of the cable news networks that are now finally deciding to invest in and seeing the importance of the streaming platforms. You know, the thing is, Jeff is interesting. Yesterday, I got a call from Fred Gray and he sent me an email. I called him back and he said, first of all, he said, we saw the interview on your new network. And he said, I got to say, out of all the interviews I've ever done, he said that was the most comprehensive and best interview done. And I was like, look, I just teed it up. You answer.

He's like, no. He said, you asked the right questions. But the thing is this here. Here is a black man. Here is a civil rights attorney that a lot of people have no idea about. And this is why our platforms matter, when we can tell that story and they're not going to give them the attention. You know, we just finished doing a series of interviews in L.A. that we're preparing, talking to Richard Lawson, Glenn Turman, Jack A., the director, Bill Duke, Mario Van Peebles,

Michael Collier, Jeffrey Osborne, these in-depth conversations. And again, you're not going to see that level of attention. Last night, our Michael K. Williams tribute that was almost an hour and a half. Guess what? On mainstream, yeah, they'll do something. It'll be small, but it won't be as extensive as that. And I just keep saying to our people, look, don't fall for that shiny object where, oh, they're wonderful and great. And it's like, oh, my goodness, CNN, MSNBC and Fox and ABC and NBC and CBS and Bravo and all of that, because you know what? When it's time for

those critical issues, they're not going to be there and truly be there for us. No, they're not, nor should we expect them to. Anytime we look at the history of our sojourn in this country, we recognize that we create, we innovate, they co-opt and maximize. It's the history of the country. That's just the way it goes. And, you know, when we talk about expectations, there's an old saying that in life, you get what you inspect and not what you expect. So you are, in essence, this program is, in proof and in theory, a voice crying in the wilderness. Robert Frost. Two paths diverged in the woods,

and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made the entire difference. When we put ourselves in proximity to whiteness, mainstream media, individuals who've never had our best interests at heart, but would use us for labor, intellectual labor, moral labor, creative labor to maximize their profits. One of the scriptures that I turn to is the gospel according to Ice Cube in Death Certificate. Quote, here's what they think about you. End quote. When we have those

awakening moments, it hurts because the expectation is that we would have been folded into the society in a little bit better way. When we inspect the way things work, we can find ways to innovate and to create, especially now. When you create a new path, it's going to be lonely. So I'm saying this to you as much as I'm saying it to Scott, as much as I'm saying it to Amisha, as much as I'm saying it to the founders of Seek.com and Black World. This is our unique time right now. Yes, we will feel by ourselves. Yes, we will be looked at as if we are strange. Yes, we may be hated like Dr. King was hated when he was walking the earth. Yes, we may be hated and ignored, like Malcolm X, like Harriet Tubman. Really, when people are innovating, the number one way you know you're

doing something important is that people think you're crazy and they don't want to get on your bandwagon. When you turn the tide, however, everyone else will follow. So the work that is being done right now by the innovators in this world is creating the shoulders that the next generation is going to appreciate. We don't see it in the short term, but as Ayufo Baro and Nelly reminds us, when you plant one seed, you can plant 30 seeds.

If only one of them sprouts, the fruit that comes from that plant is immeasurable. So you've got to plant anyway. So I will end my comments with a great pitch for you because I know the value of reminding people. This thing does not work until we put our money where our mouths are. So when we subscribe to this new platform, when we inform people through Blackstar and we turn our eyes here and keep them here, we will reach the space where we have the capacity to find, discover the next generation, to empower them, and to create general wealth, not generational

wealth, not just in finance, but in culture, in history, and in independence. And this is the work. And the thing here, Scott, that I keep saying, guess what? All of these streaming platforms, they want those black eyeballs. Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, BET+, Prime Video. They, black people, and this is the thing, African- Americans watch TV more than any

other group. Second place, not even close to us. So all of these companies are making billions of dollars because of our eyeballs. What I am saying to black people, take your eyeballs and support black

content. Support Quayle TV. If you have a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu, be a subscriber to Quayle TV, where they have documentaries and shows and things along those lines. You got to remember, before Issa Rae was on HBO, she was doing web episodes on YouTube. She was building it that way. And so this is what Oscar Michaud did. This is what Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, this is what they did. And in fact, what people have to remember, and when y'all see my Mario Van Peebles interview,

he talks about it, that Sweetback's Badass Song was so successful as an independent, Hollywood said, mm-mm, we ain't letting your ass make another movie. That's what I think we have to understand. And so all these media writers out here, there's a reason why they're not writing stories on the Launch a Black Star Network,

because they say, no, we're trying to lock y'all out because we don't really want to see independent, black-owned media grow and thrive, which is why our customer base in the 21st century, and I literally told the students at Fisk this, if it wasn't for black people, the Chicago Defender would not have been the newspaper that it was. It was black folks who subscribed, who read it, the same thing with the Pittsburgh Courier. But you can't have black folks today demand that black-owned media be large, be credible, have capacity if we don't consume it, Scott. Yeah, and it's brainwashing.

They also brainwash our people, too, thinking that, you know, the ice is colder. So if it's not seen in MSNBC, I can't watch Roland Martin unfiltered. But again, as I've said, black people have got to support each other. That $3 billion could go to you and every other black media company and black newspapers and empower them. And by the way, Van Peebles made that movie

because they wouldn't give him the money to make the movie, so he did it on his own. Spike Lee made his own movies early on on a video camera basically. He didn't have a budget to make the first one. She's got to have it. I mean, listen,

entrepreneurship has always been a freedom fighter and a path to freedom for people who Hollywood and the majority organizations and companies simply would not hire or invest in. That's okay. That's okay. We've got a fan club that helps support and underwrite Roland Martin unfiltered. How many people would have thought of that, if you will, on top of getting your sponsors? You've got to be creative if you're an entrepreneur. But we need black people to support black entrepreneurs, to buy black, to choose black, to be black. And until we get that $3 billion focused on black people in everything they do in their life, we're going to

always be competing for those eyeballs because the majority media companies are going to have more money, more time, more access, more technology to try to get those eyeballs on their content or their black content versus our own entrepreneurship content. And so, you know, the struggle continues. Well, it continues. We're going to put the work in. So again, folks, if you if you have not downloaded the app, download Blackstar Network right now. Again, we're building this up. You know, our goal, we want to have, obviously, we want to hit a million, two million downloads, build that even larger. And that's really what the game is.

The question that we're going to get asked from advertisers and others, how many downloads, how many viewers? And so that's why you should get it. You can, of course, download the app right to your Apple phone, Android phone, or your Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku, Samsung, as well as Xbox. Real simple. I've already done it on all my Samsung TVs, done it on Roku, done it on Apple TV as well, done it on both of my iPhones. And so it's not hard at all. Also, we purposely made this free. We're not charging you a subscription for the app because we wanted to ensure that you had access to the content. And so we got the Fred Gray interview up right now.

When we finish our 10-part series on the year of return to Ghana, that's going to be only on the app as well. And then, of course, we look forward to some announcements coming forth in the very near future. Dr. Carr, Jeff Carr, we appreciate you being on the show. Amisha, Scott, thank you as well. Folks, I want to thank you as well. The last couple of days beginning, of course, today with the first lecture as a scholar in Residence, the Revis Mitchell, what do y'all call it, the Distinguished, it's like this long title that would take up two sides of a business card. And so, but I'm certainly glad, I want to thank the students for helping me, and y'all

understand, I've been putting them through the paces. They like, damn, you mean, they're like, you mean, I'm like, I ain't mean, what, what y'all over here, what been putting them through the paces. They like, damn, you mean. They like, you mean. I'm like, I ain't mean what? What y'all over here, what? I'm getting ready. No. Do it. They trying to actually get on camera.

No, y'all haven't earned that shot yet. No, see. Y'all were a little slow setting everything up. So, no, okay. You got to do this faster, then I'll put y'all on camera next time. Okay? Okay. Yeah, I thought so.

See? So, yeah, I made it clear. I'm going to put them on camera next time. Okay? Yeah, I thought so. See, so yeah, I made it clear. I'm going to put them through the paces, and they're going to get treated just like the staff. And they were like, man, you know, you kind of like, you know, you're too hard. Deal with it. So that's how we roll. And so they are going to be helping us out.

And so we'll be here again next month. And then actually the next three months, giving a lecture. And I'll be doing some other things on campus as well. And so certainly shout out to President Newkirk, the provost, everybody involved in helping us out. So folks, that's it. I'll be back in studio tomorrow.

And we are that close, y'all, that close. I cannot wait to show y'all. We are that close to finishing out our new studios in Washington washington dc uh we are installing uh our new set piece tomorrow y'all gonna be blown away when y'all actually see it uh and getting your dollars and making that possible so it means some phenomenal stuff we're doing and so i am hopeful i am hopeful to be able to unveil our new studio, fully designed, fully lit early next week.

And so I can't wait. All right, folks, that's it. Please, again, download the app Black Star Network, curated by Roland S. Martin. Be sure to support us. I bring the Funk Fan Club as well. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

This is an iHeart Podcast.