#RolandMartinUnfiltered - P. Moses Charges Dropped, Miss. Voting Lawsuit, Toyota's PAC Money, CBS Discrimination Lawsuit

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

4.25.22 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: P. Moses Charges Dropped, Miss. Voting Lawsuit, Toyota's PAC Money, CBS Discrimination Lawsuit The Black Lives Matter activist unlawfully convicted of illegal voter registration in 2019 will not face another trial. Memphis prosecutors have dropped the charges. P. Moses and her attorney will join us tonight. A lawsuit claiming the new Mississippi voting districts to Supreme Court justices will deny Black voters an equal chance to participate in the political process.  One of the attorneys from the ACLU of Mississippi is here to explain. Last year, Toyota promised to stop making contributions to those republicans who refused to ratify the 2020 election.  Well, that didn't last long. The car company is back funding, as they said, "some members of Congress." She was a freelance reporter for the CBS Corporation.  She said the media company disregarded labor laws, and its pay practices disproportionately impacted women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ communities.  So Silva Harapetian filed a lawsuit on behalf of all CBS freelancers.  The trial will begin this week.  Silva will join us to talk about how it's been for her since filing the lawsuit.    is headed to federal court this week to face accusations of wage theft, a pay practice that disproportionately impacts women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ communities. I'll be talking to the remaining plaintiff in what started as a class-action lawsuit. A report says New York state has a racist system of imposing high fees on its citizens, particularly black ones.  A representative from the "No Price on Justice campaign" will drop by to talk about what's being done to eliminate the fines sending people to jail.   In tonight's Fit, Live, Win segment, he's lost over 200 pounds, and the social media influencer, Just A Dope Dad, is here to tell us how he did it. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. We'll be right back. media he makes sure that our stories are told thank you for being the voice of black america i love y'all all momentum we have now we have to keep this going the video looks phenomenal see this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like cnn you can't be black owned media and be skate it's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Today is Monday, April 25th, 2022. Roland Martin, Don Philips, broadcasting live from Las Vegas, where I'm attending the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. And yes, we're streaming live on the Black Star Network. On today's show, Attorney Ben Crump slams Will Fargo for their history of discrimination in an explosive news conference in Atlanta that we carried live on the Black Star Network.

We'll talk about that on today's show. We also talk with the Black Lives Matter activist out of Tennessee, Pamela Moses. Charters have been dropped against her. They tried to imprison her for several years for what they said was voting illegally. She didn't quite know. We'll talk with her and her attorney. Also, in Mississippi, a lawsuit claims that the state Supreme Court

are discriminating against black voters as a result of electing all Supreme Court justices at large. We will talk to one of the attorneys from the ACLU who has filed that particular lawsuit. Last year, Toyota promised they would not be making any donations to any Republicans who stood up for, who refused to ratify the 2020 election. So why is Toyota back to giving money to Republicans

who chose not to ratify the election? Yeah, we'll break it down. Also, she was a freelance reporter for CBS News Corporation. She said the media company was grossly underpaying folks, disregarded labor laws. She is in a lawsuit now that begins this week in Miami. We will talk with that reporter and break down the legal battle she's embroiled in for the last several years with CBS. Folks, a lot of stuff we've got to cover today on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the vibe And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for gigs He's rolling

It's on go, go, go, yo It's rolling, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and Martez. Martez. Pamela Moses would not be facing any charges in Shelby County, Tennessee. That's because prosecutors chose not to pursue charges against her. Remember, she was briefly jailed for voting illegally. She says, I didn't know that was even the case. The decision came down on Friday. She joins us right now with her attorney, Rodney Dink.

Glad to have both of them with us on Roland Martin and Filchard. Pamela, just share with folks how you feel that this legal battle that you have been embroiled in is now over, hopefully. It's not over. It's just beginning because this wasn't always about me. This was about the people in Memphis, Tennessee, who are disenfranchised systematically. And until that law that put me in this catch-22 is changed, I don't consider it to be over. I consider the battle to be over with the criminal charges. But I think that it's imperative that the law changes. And that's why my attorneys are going to be working really hard on our next court date to complete our brief to get the restoration of my rights back.

Because if you read the press release that the district attorney released, she said I was banned from permanently voting. And we do know that now to be the case. I didn't know that when I was charged with these crimes, but that is the law in Tennessee. And that is the unfortunate reality. And because of that unfortunate reality, my grandmother told me when I was a little girl, if you don't like the law, you change it. And so that's what we're going to be working on changing. And we're going to also be seeking, you know, hopefully some type of retribution for my poor dog, Victor, that was murdered as a result of my false imprisonment from these charges. You know, like people don't understand how much I suffered from this, even though I'm okay. I don't look like what I've been through, but I did

suffer a lot, and the loss of my dog, it kind of haunts me daily. So explain to folks who don't know what happened to your dog. Well, my dog, he was a security dog. I had him for companion. And like, because of the things I've been through, it's very difficult sometimes for me to wake up. And so my dog, he would wake me and my children up. He would protect me. And when I got arrested, my dog was taken to a place where we were paying, you know, $30 a day for him to be boarded. And somebody decided that he should be murdered and, or they called it put down because they considered him to be, uh, violent or vicious, but my dog was not vicious. He was just out of his element. He was a Rhodesian Ridgeback and had him for almost four years, you know.

And ever since I had him, he had been like a part of our family. And his name was Victor Edward Johnson Moses. And so I really that's what I was told what happened to him. But like we really haven't gotten to the bottom of it. But my dog was removed from my home with the intentions to be boarded somewhere. But the doctor who who who's not really a doctor, in my opinion, because my dog's doctor veterinarian said they don't put down innocent dogs, even if they, you know, try to bite somebody or something like that. They they they take them to the pound and none of that happened because it was my dog. They just said, kill it. Rodney, when Pamela talks about changing the law, walk people through that.

What law needs to be changed? Sure, Roland. So you have this archaic law in Tennessee that if someone is guilty or charged with either a misdemeanor or a felony, then their voting rights are taken away. Now, there are certain elements that you can do that you can restore your rights back, which is, you know, finish probation. You can pay all the fines that you may have if you're on child support or if you have to pay child support, you have to pay back child support and you have to be caught up. There's a lot of hoops that one has to jump through before they can get their voting rights back. But the issue is we want to

change the law to make it that it doesn't matter if you have a felony or if you have a misdemeanor that your rights should not be taken away. I mean, it should be consistent with all the other states in the U.S. right now. It's not consistent. It's very archaic. And so we want to try to move to change that, not just for Pamela to restore rights, but for also other individuals within Tennessee who aren't able to vote as a result of having a misdemeanor on their record. And Pam panel, the reality is Tennessee has been one of those states that's frankly been tightening their voting laws. Republicans have been doing their like Republicans have all across the country, making it more difficult for people to vote. This is absolutely voter suppression.

Yeah, well, my lawyer spoke about one side of the law in which we want to change. But in my case, it was the type of charge that I was charged with, which made me permanently disenfranchised. He's speaking about just generally, you know, if a person is convicted of a felony. But I was charged with tampering with evidence, with something which I did not do before this voting charge. And that particular charge in 2006, the legislator, the Republican legislators, they, with the Democratic legislators, had passed a law with the legislative intent to keep people who were in public office from committing crimes. They passed this law saying if you're convicted of

tampering with evidence, which is a crime against the government, that you could never vote ever again. Some people who rob people have more voting rights than I do based on the current law. But that particular charge was not intended for lay people, but this particular district attorney has applied that law to me, and I was just a regular citizen, even though that wasn't the legislative intent. So until that is changed, because it was entered into law in 2006, I will never be able to get my voting rights back. And we have a scheduled hearing with the circuit court judge here, who's going to look at the constitutionality of that. And based on the attorney general's,

you know, reasoning with the law, that will either be changed or not. If that is changed, then that will open a door for many people. Because if you get caught with weed and you try to hide it or eat it, according to Tennessee's law, you'll never be able to vote again. That's how serious they have made these voter suppression laws, that they've extended it to just specific things to target Black people or people who, you know, just poor people or people that might do something like that, get caught with weed. We know everybody likes weed. It's illegal in 26 states in America, except for Tennessee and wherever else.

The rest of the half of the country doesn't like it. But if you get caught hiding weed during a traffic stop and they charge you with tampering with evidence, you lose your right to vote forever. So, Rodney, what's that plan to make these, pursue these changes? So it's, the first thing is what we need to do is make sure that, you know, we can get Pamela's rights restored, right? There was no tampering with evidence in this case at all, at all. She didn't do anything.

She relied on the Department of Corrections to provide her with information that she ultimately relied on that led to her conviction of six years that has now been overturned and cases dismissed. But what that looks like is a lot of legislative change. We have to create new laws for Tennessee and hopefully other states that will follow suit. We have to put forth different briefs to show that this archaic law that exists now needs to change. And so it's not easy once you have to change the law. You have to get a percentage of Congress to go ahead and change that. But that's what we need to do in this situation so that others don't fall victim to what Pamela did in this situation. And like what she's talking about, when you have little issues or legal issues that one may run into, that according to Tennessee, that it's a felony, which, you know, some should not be felonies,

but that it's a felony, now forever you cannot vote. And that's what's happening to Pamela. She can no longer vote because they indicated that what she didn't do when she was relying on the Department of Corrections was this tampering of evidence. And so this has to change and that's going to change with some legislation. It's going to change with the lobbying. There's a lot of things they need to do to change this law in Tennessee. Well, as you know, you know, we keep the story going, keep the fight going here. And look, it's much needed. It is the battle across this country. We know what Republicans are trying to do. We know specifically how they're targeting black folks. And so we're going to be standing with you, Pamela and Rodney, in this effort to try to get these laws changes, which is also why I keep trying to explain to people that if you don't vote,

you can't change the policymakers who then change the laws. And so, Pamela, you know, on that point, could you just close this out by there's somebody who's watching right now. There's an African-American who's watching and they're saying, you know what? I just don't see what voting does. It doesn't I don't see that it's doing anything for black people. So, frankly, I'm really not interested in voting in November of 2022. I don't care who's running in 2024. I don't care who's running for school board. I'd rather just check out of the process. But you can't change the laws unless you change the people. So speak to that

person who is watching us right now, who is saying that. Well, I don't just want to speak to that person. I want to speak to everybody in Memphis, Tennessee. There is an election going on right now. November is not the most important election. That is the presidential election. But we have an opportunity here in Memphis to remove the person who did this to me. And I don't even care at this point who they pick. They could pick Mickey Mouse at this point. But we have an opportunity to do that. And whether you care about voting or not, people need to get out and vote in the primary and the general elections. Every dollar that is spent of our taxpayers, whether you're a convicted felon or not, our money is being spent on politicians to basically get a

blank check to do whatever they want. We, the people, are the checks and balances, and we need to check the politicians and the public servants who are in office. And we need to get out and vote. It's not just something I'm asking people to do. I'm begging. I lost my freedom. I lost my dog. I lost opportunities that I'll never get again. I lost time with my child. And if you care anything about the future of America, whether you're black, white, brown, red, tan, or gold, you need to vote. I wish I could vote. And you need to get out and vote. And if you vote, if you want to vote for somebody in the DA race, I would vote for Linda Harris. And whether she wins or not, I'm going to support whoever is running against her. And I just beg people to get out and vote now. If you

can't do it, if you're elderly, get an absentee ballot. They'll mail them to you. There's plenty of ways to vote if you don't want to go there because of COVID. Get an absentee ballot. That's proof that you voted. And I just thank you, Martin, I'm sorry, Roland Martin, for this opportunity to speak to the people. I thank you for being diligent and covering my case and allowing me to get freedom. You know, I haven't got justice yet because I'm working still to get the rights restored. And hopefully if I get my rights restored, this won't be the last you heard of Pamela Moses. I might run for mayor again. All right, then, Pamela, I appreciate it.

Robbie Diggs, I appreciate it. Keep up the good fight. Absolutely. Thank you, brother. Thank you for having me. All right, then. Appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, we're going to go to my panel right now. Julianne Malvolve, she, of course, is Dean College of Ethnic Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, and shortly will be joined by Dr. Amakongo Dabinga, professorial lecturer at the School of International Service, American University. The reason I wanted her to speak to that issue, Julian,

because this is a woman who lost her freedom for trying to vote. This is not a conversation we're having about freedom, freedom, freedom fighters singing in Parchman Prison. I did when you started. Now I can't before 1965. This is not any of that. This is literally this is literally someone who in 2021 2022 where they were talking about taking her freedom away this is the same as crystal mason uh in texas and so people who sit here and whine and complain and say this stuff doesn't matter that woman tried to vote and went to prison. Yep. For almost three months, it seems.

86 days. It's absurd. And the racism implicit is absurd. As she said, you have people, you know, thieves, all kinds of other things. They still get to vote. I can't hear her. But she doesn't get to vote.

So this is a systematic, we are back in post-reconstruction era. I mean, at a micro level, which will turn into macro if we let it go. So this is not just about her. And I appreciate her calm demeanor. I mourn with her. If she had a pet, I mean, I'm not a pet person, but when you have a dog, a pet that you're close to, that's devastating. So I've mourned with her for that and for the time she lost. As she said, this is time she'll never get back. But, Roland, if we go state to state, we see things like this

happening, especially in the South, but in other places as well. And what Joe Biden needs to do, President Biden needs to do, is he really needs to put voting rights on his priority list. He needs to do the same kind of arm twisting he does with everything else around voting rights. It's just ridiculous. As you say, this is 2022. This is absurd that this woman had to go through this and that more other people that you don't know about, you know, because Roland Martin can't cover everything, although I know he tries, But there are other people who are the very same predicament. This has to be an imperative that anybody who calls themselves an activist is basically involved in. You know, Jeff, again, I see these people and I get these people. They comment on Facebook and YouTube. I get their comments

on Twitter and Instagram. And I'm sitting here going, what just drives me crazy is these are the same people who say they want policy changes. And then they say, well, we keep voting and we ain't got nothing for it. We ain't got no tangibles. We haven't gotten any policies. We haven't gotten a black agenda. That could very well be a byproduct that we're not voting for the very people who can provide the things we say we want. And this is real simple.

Somebody else is going, somebody is going to win. Whether you've got an attitude or not, somebody is going to win. And here's Pamela Moses saying, I got my freedom, but I didn't get justice. And the only way Pamela is going to get justice is if we actually change the very laws that imprisoned her. Yes, indeed. I think you made it clear, Roland. I think it's particularly important that we point out a couple of things. Number one, for Sister Pamela Moses to be released from this space where she's been, as Dr. Malvo said, in for 80 plus days and to not have to face six years ahead of her for doing something that was absolutely not her fault,

that she was a victim of, that she's been activating against, is a cause for celebration. I want to pause and say that I'm very grateful that Sister Moses has been able to, with the help of Attorney Diggs, part the Red Sea, if you will, of every law that was unfairly put in place down the street from Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, and to emerge victorious. I also want to applaud her spirit because her spirit said this is not just me. We have more ahead of us. When we look at what happened to Sister Moses and people say, well, you know, 80 plus days, that's not bad. That's, you know, at least she got out after 86 days. Listen, buddy, I've been in jail for one night. I was in juvenile for a night and a half. That's all it took for me to say, I don't ever want to be in this space again. Jail is hell. Prison is hell.

And it's even more hell when you know that you didn't do anything wrong and you're being unfairly mistreated and unfairly imprisoned. This is something that has to take place on a reform space on a federal level. I'm excited for Sister Moses because especially on this show, I'm especially glad that some good news has come out of my home state for once. But as this good news emerges, she made the clear connection point between what happened to her, what could potentially happen to someone else, and how we can fix that, particularly in a city like Memphis, which is overwhelmingly African-American. In West Tennessee, people, y'all got an opportunity from Whitehaven to Orange Mound to South Haven to every single neighborhood in that city to absolutely make a change that will benefit people like Sister Moses and everyone who will come after her.

This is a moment where we identify very specifically political opportunities where we can make change immediately. Memphis, Tennessee is one of those, and it can become a model for what we can do in communities all over the world when we prioritize it, when we prioritize, rather, making sure that our people's freedom is first and foremost. I'm a Congo. You know, this this is a consistent thing. And we're going to talk in a second about how black folks are being disenfranchised in Mississippi. And look, I get the frustration of people. I get people who say enough hasn't happened. But checking out of the system simply is not an option. I mean, look, here's what we do know.

Right now, the Republican Party, they are running upwards of 20 people for secretaries of state across the country who believe and advance the big lie. You've got former Senator David Perdue running for governor in Georgia knowing damn well the election was fair. He opens the debate the other night saying the election was stolen. We now see the text messages from Marjorie Taylor Greene, where Republicans were saying that Donald Trump should impose martial law to keep Joe Biden out of the White House.

That's what we're dealing with. And the people don't get their head out of their asses. Black people, white people, Hispanic people, Asian people, Native American people, gay people, straight people, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic, Buddhist, atheist. Those thugs are going to win the House. They're going to win the house. They're going to win the Senate. They're going to win more state legislatures. And the things that we want to see are going to be harder. And all of you people out there, y'all, I see all the tweets and stuff. Oh, Roland, you done sold out for the Democratic Party. First of all, all y'all can kiss my ass.

Because here's what I know. I see the opposition. I see what they are trying to lock in for the next 100 years on the Congo. And I am not confused about the level of evil that these people are going to place on our cities, in our states, in our countries, if they are able to solidify power. One of the things that you just said, which is so powerful, is you ran the list of everybody, Black, white, Asian, Muslim, physical challenges, not whatever it is, because they always start with us first. And then once they realize they can get over with a couple of things, they come from everybody else. A couple of weeks ago on your show, you were talking about

situations where a woman who had a physical disability of some sort, she wasn't allowed to vote because she couldn't physically put her ballot in the ballot box, right? And because of these new laws, she couldn't get there, vote didn't count. And I remember her saying, now I see why this is such a problem. You guys, all of you, like you said, Roland, you all need to see that they're coming for all of us to do anything possible to maintain power. When we're talking about Sister Moses here, she's not in jail for, she wasn't in jail for voting, but for registering. But we got Mark Meadows, who was pulled off the roster in North Carolina for voter fraud,

and all of these other guys who have committed voter fraud, people who are part of Trump's cabinet who are still out there doing every single thing that they can do to work to maintain power and to face no repercussions, not even a financial repercussion. And so we see clearly every single day the hypocrisy and the double standard that exists when we have any type of discrepancy relating to voting versus these guys who have actually voted from their trailer parks, from their offices in D.C., from their state homes in Florida. This is the hustle. And if we it's literally now or never, Roland, we're going to start if these guys get into power, we're going to see constitutional conventions, man. They're going to rewrite the Constitution. And if people think you're joking,

if they think that I'm joking, and all of us who have been out there talking about this, you just wait and see. But we cannot wait right now. If we don't do it now, we'll lose it. I just finished my classes at American University today. And I told my students that in the 18, 19 years y'all have been alive, you all have lost more rights in the last 18, 19 years than the entire time that I've been alive, depending on the state that you come from. And by the time you go home for the summer, you're going to lose more. So what are you going to do after you leave classes? We're pontificating about all of this stuff. You're probably going to lose the right to vote if you

don't take action now. Like you said, Roland, it's now or never. They're getting over. We're seeing their pointed fingers at each other and not getting involved in doing what we need to do. It's not too late, but it's going to be too late if we don't start yesterday, man. That's it. And folks, this is real simple for me. If there is a Republican. Let me say it again. If there is a Republican that believes in the big lie, if there is a Republican that stands with Donald Trump, that person should lose in November. I do not care. If there is a Democrat and we agree on four out of 10 issues and as a Republican and we agree on zero out of 10 issues, that ain't even a debate for me.

I am warning all y'all right now. If Republicans control the House and the Senate in January, if they control more state legislatures, you are going to see some of the most pathetic and ridiculous things happen ever because that's the kind of people we're dealing with. I'm telling y'all don't play games here. I'm warning y'all don't play games because what they have in store is pure evil. Go to go to break. We come back. we're going to talk about a lawsuit out of Mississippi as dealing with the evil there. Remember, Mississippi changed its state constitution in 1890

because they said they were sick of black people winning. Not one black person elected statewide in Mississippiissippi since 1890 and black people are 40 of the state will tell you about this lawsuit next you're watching roland martin unfiltered broadcasting live from las vegas on the black star network back in a moment on the next get wealthy with me deborah owens amer America's Wealth Coach, Financial Literacy. Without it, wealth is just a pipe dream. And yet, half of our schools in this country don't even teach it to our kids. You're going to hear from a woman who's determined to change all that, not only here, but around the world. World of Money is the leading provider of immersive financial education

for children ages 7 to 18. We provide 120 online and classroom hours of financial education. That's right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. This week on The Black Table with me, Greg carr reparations is it finally time two of the country's foremost authorities on the subject will join me to try to answer that very question a powerful installment of the black table with me greg carr right here only on the black star network hello everyone i'm godf, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. And while he's doing unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble.

All right, folks. The battle for voting continues in this country, and it's taking place in courtrooms across America. And keep in mind who you vote for. That's the term of the judges. Well, that literally is the case in Mississippi. Various voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Mississippi Supreme Court district lines,

saying the newly drawn maps leaves out the black vote. The lawsuit claims the districts violate the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by diluting black voting strength. Mississippi's three Supreme Court districts are all majority white and they were last updated in 1987 over the objection of black legislators. Now, folks, 38 percent of Mississippi residents are black. Eight of the nine current justices are white and one is black. Only four black people have served as justices in the state of Mississippi history and never at the same time. Now, Mississippi, we're going to break this thing down with Jarvis George, who's executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi. Jarvis, glad to have you. I'm Roland Martin, I'm Phil Trick.

So explain to us, Jarvis, exactly how Supreme Court justices in Mississippi are elected. Yeah, and thank you all for having me on and for reaching out. This is a very important issue in our state, and like you were talking about before, voting is something that's no way of putting it, but it's under attack here, and our democracy is under attack in states like Mississippi and throughout the South. So this is an issue that isn't new because these district lines have not been redrawn since 1987. But to your question about how Supreme Court justices are elected in Mississippi, we elect three justices to each of the three Supreme Court districts. So those three justices serve each of the three Supreme Court districts. So those three justices serve

eight-year terms. So there's kind of like a staggering period where only two or three justices are up for election at a time. So our next real election for Supreme Court is 2024. But even with those three districts, we have only managed to have four black justices elected all since 1987. But the other thing about that is all of those four justices were first appointed by a governor. So the first justice, Reuben Anderson, was appointed in 1985. He left and was replaced by another black justice who was appointed by a governor. When that justice left, he was replaced by another black justice who was also appointed by a governor. And our current member, Justice Leslie King, he was appointed by a governor when the third member left. The third member, Judge Graves, was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

So when he left in the late 2000s, Justice King was appointed to the court. So what you see is not even the ability to elect a black justice in Mississippi without you first getting that basic okay from the governor or the state leadership because the districts are drawn in a way to prevent black voters from having a choice on who's on the court so and so explain these three districts um because uh it's so how's it breaking down uh where they disenfranchise black voters

so officially yeah i'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, one thing they do in these districts, like I said, have been in place since 1987. Before that, they were in place since the 1940s. So there wasn't that much of a change since the 40s to the 80s. You've only moved a couple of counties around. The biggest thing that is done to dilute the black voting strength is that the Mississippi Delta is split. It's half the Delta is in the northern district. The other half is in the central district or the first district. That's the district we're talking about. It could be majority black. And the district right now has a high black population,

but we've seen that it's not enough in most cases for a black candidate or a candidate that is the choice of majority of black voters to get elected. There are other issues within the district. How did the ACLU parse the data to come to that conclusion? About the elections? No, in terms of looking at the data to say there wasn't enough to elect someone of their choice. How did you go through that? What did the data reveal? Yeah.

The data reveals that our voting in Mississippi is very racially polarized. We had a Black woman that ran for the state Supreme Court in 2020. And based on the data that we saw in that election, 95 percent of white voters voted for the white candidate. And these are nonpartisan. Wow. So you're seeing a lot of racialized voting. And this is something that prevents someone like that candidate who was a sitting member of our Court of Appeals, highly qualified, but she lost that election because this district is, you know, the district could be changed and, you know, very easily to elect or not necessarily elect black candidates, but allow black voters to elect candidates.

But in this case, that's one of the clear examples of this district is how racially polarized people vote in that district. Wow. Questions from my panel. First, Omokongo, your question. First of all, thank you for this work and bringing it to attention. I got to admit, I was floored by the part where you said that the four Black judges that we had were appointed by the governor. And it really speaks to how deep the system works there. One of the things I'm wondering is that do you feel like with these types of lawsuits that we can actually put ourselves in positions where we can get long-term changes as it relates to how the redistricting works, or is this just going to be a one-time thing that is only going to be effective as we come up to 2024? For us, we're looking at a long-term strategy about having

better representation in our state. I think you start at the top and realize, as Roland mentioned, we have never had a Black person elected statewide in a state that's 40 percent black. We often see pictures like the one he showed of our state Supreme Court where you have state leadership. In that case, you at least have one black member. But a lot of times you see our state leaders in a picture and it's all white, usually all white males. What we want to start doing is starting with the Supreme Court, allow Mississippi voters, black kids growing up in Jackson or in the Delta to see that you can have representation on this court and that there's no limit on where you can get to in Mississippi. And that includes, you know, even being governor of Mississippi. But there's also some other systematic things that we need to take on beyond the Supreme Court. Our trial courts are heavily racialized as well.

We have 22 district attorneys in Mississippi based on circuit courts, circuit districts that are created by the legislature. Of those 22 district attorneys attorneys only five are black um and again this gets back to a state that is 40 percent black and we're not electing black um black candidates to represent us in our criminal justice system wow uh julianne first of all again i'd, like Om Congo, I'm very grateful for your work. I have Mississippi roots. I put out of so many schools that I ended up in high school in Moss Point, Mississippi. Thank you. That's a long story.

But anyway, and, you know, Nita Simone was not wrong when she said Mississippi G.D. in so many ways. The name that comes to my mind when I think about Mississippi in statewide elections is Mike Espy. And, you know, he didn't come as close as we like, but he came close enough. And the woman who he who defeated him, Cindy High Smith, wasn't a valid racist. She said she'd go to a hanging, i.e. a lynching. Mississippi having had so many lynchings, you're like, excuse me. And she is the sitting senator at the moment. What, where are the white allies of Black people in Mississippi? Obviously, if we're just 40% of the population, that's an overwhelming number compared to other states. But I mean, we can't get 11% of white people to go with us. What does it take to get white allies in Mississippi? That's a question folks have been talking about for the last, you know, I'm 40 years old, so my involvement in this is relatively new.

But, you know, there is. You can't help but look at the numbers and think that Mississippi's electoral outcome should be different, that this should be more of a purple state from the door. If you start off with a base of voters, black voters, that could form a coalition with white voters. But we have a history in our state where I think that the leadership in our state since the 1890s when that state constitution was created understood that there was a possibility of poor rural white voters forming a coalition with black voters to control the state and they have done a hell of a job making sure that white voters think first about race before thinking about policy and voting in mississippi but there's still that opportunity

to do that by organizing and talking to voters in our suburbs, our growing suburbs outside of the Memphis area, outside of Jackson, and also, you know, one of the things that we have ran up against, even in the Espy race, was, you know, a lot of Black voters thinking that it's not possible for us to win this race and being reluctant to get their hopes up or get involved. And, you know, if we can, you know, get past that, and I think one of these things is showing that we can have more people at the top of some of these positions like the state Supreme Court, we can get people to understand that this is not so far away, that there is reason to keep voting and keep organizing, because this, you know, even though it's been lost a couple of times in that two year span, we're talking about 60,000, 70,000 votes that we need to change.

And that's attainable, but it's going to take some more organizing and work to do it. Jeff? Yeah, Brother Jarvis, first and foremost, thanks for the work that you're continuing to do. I know it's a thankless job, but I know you're still doing it. And at 40 years old, you're right in the position that we need you to be in. You're young enough to have the energy to know what you're doing and old enough to be grown enough to do it well. So that battle in Mississippi has been one that we have all kept an eye on for years. We'd love to see what the attorney general thinks. And I know some news outlets reached out to him

today, but apparently in Mississippi, it's Confederate Memorial Day. So state offices are closed. That should tell you a lot right there. Here in Tennessee and Nashville particularly, there are moments where we have been able to benefit as Black people, as African-American voters from elections that are low turnout. So because they're low turnout, the Black vote, especially in spring elections, say May, is overweighted. And that's a strategic position that a lot of Blacks who have gotten into position here have taken to actually get there, taking advantage of low turnout. Is there a path forward for changing the legislature, for changing the laws that involves activating African-American voters so that they do not need those white allies during moments of low turnout? Yeah, so one of the things with our statewide elections, we have elections in off year.

So actually, we're going to have an election for governor and state legislature next year in 2023. Those elections are usually lower than the turnout in those elections are usually lower than the turnout in, say, a presidential election, and even lower when you get to midterm elections. So we're not expecting a high turnout in 2022, but we don't have any Senate races up. But in 2026, when our current senator is up for reelection, that's an opportunity to win because that turnout is not going to match what it is in a presidential election. A presidential election is going to drive the turnout in Mississippi, which is going to make it harder for Black folks to overcome those numbers when folks turn out for someone like Trump or whoever the candidate is in 2024. So you're exactly right. There is an opportunity for us in these years,

like 2023, 2026, to, you know, change the electorate and make the electorate more favorable to us by turning out in high numbers and coming out. And you don't want to say surprising, but if you come out and make the electorate what you want to be in those years, you could you could win those races. I think that's also the challenge that Mike Espy had in 2020, overcoming all of the folks that were coming out to vote for Trump, despite being, you know, running a great race, he had to overcome that. Got it. All right. Well, look, look, it's all a battle.

Keep it going. And the reality is, hopefully, we will see some changes in the court system there. But this is also, again, I keep talking about why voting matters. If Republicans have made, they've gutted the Voting Rights Act as a result of the conservatives on the Supreme Court, and so you're using the VRA as your legal basis for this, but when they gut it, that makes it even more difficult. So that's why voting for the president determines who gets to pick Supreme Court justices.

And so I just keep telling people that all of these things are linked together. We can't act like they're wholly separate. That's right. All right, Jarvis, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Thank you all.

All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. Toyota, Wells Fargo. Oh, we're discussing next. Toyota stopped giving money to Republicans who refused to certify the 2020 election. Oh, but they quietly started giving money back. Wells Fargo, attorney Ben Krupp is slamming them for the discriminatory practices saying they are preventing black opportunity.

We'll show you some of today's news conference which we stream live on the Black Star Network. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Las Vegas

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even more so if your child has a disability. We'll talk to parents and our expert panelists about the best way forward for your child to help you maintain your own sanity on a next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Blackstar Network. When did you know that this is what I want to do? I think right after high school.

Because in high school, I was in all the plays. Well, I was always funny. But I didn't know nobody would pay me for it, you know? And then I saw Eddie Murphy. This was like 84 when I saw Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy was the hottest thing in the whole wide world. Not just comedy, but anyway, he saved Saturday Night Live. If he hadn't started that, that show would be gone. He had done 48 hours, trading places,

his first Beverly Hills top, could wear the hell out of a red leather suit, and he wasn't but 23 years old. He was rich enough to pee cream, and he got all that telling jokes. I said, shit, I've been funny my whole life. I didn't know people give you money like that so i went and got some red fox albums i went down to my mama's basement where i was living anyway and i stood in that mirror and played them albums and them jokes until i could tell them like they were mad wow and that started

me doing jokes and then i went and did comedy in the street i was standing state street tell jokes and pass my hat and white folks would come up and just hand me money. And I liked it. Want me to do something crazy, but I don't know what to do. I'd rather just sit here. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered.

I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. all right folks uh last year when a number of republicans stood with donald trump and did not want to certify the 2020 election a number of corporations all were feeling themselves announcing they were going to stop giving money to Republican Republicans who do so. But then they quietly started back. Toyota is one of those people. OK, folks at Popular Info are reporting that Toyota has secretly resumed its donation operations without sending out an official press release. Popular information claims the recipients of Toyota's March 2022 donations were members of Congress

who have demonstrated hostility to democracy before and after January 6th, including Indiana Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, Tennessee Congressman David Kustoff. We reached out to Toyota for an official statement, and here is what they share in response. After a pause of six months, during which time Toyota had extensive discussions with internal and external stakeholders, Toyota's employee pack, like others in the auto industry and nearly 800 companies and industry groups nationwide, has resumed contributing to some members of Congress.

We will not support those who, by their words and actions, create an atmosphere that incites violence. Toyota's employee pack will continue its long history of giving equally to Democrats and Republicans based on the best interests of our company, workforce, and the U.S. automotive industry. And last year, Toyota announced it would no longer donate to the 147 Republicans who objected to the certification of the Electoral College. The company was among many corporations that issued promises in response to the January 6th insurrection. Now, here's what Toyota said in July 2021. Toyota is committed to supporting and

promoting actions that further our democracy. Our company has longstanding relationships with members of Congress across the political spectrum, especially those representing our U.S. operations. Our bipartisan PAC equally supports Democrats and Republicans running for Congress. In fact, in 2021, the vast majority of the contributions went to Democrats and Republicans who supported the certification of the 2020 election. We understand that the PAC decision to support select members of Congress who contested the results troubles some stakeholders. We're actively listening to our stakeholders and at this time

we've decided to stop contributing to those members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election. Jeff, let's stop playing here. The fact of the matter is this here. Toyota is playing games with these statements. They're playing games. Okay? Sure. And the fact of the matter is, they sat there and said,

ah, we'll do this for a short term. Folks, then all of a sudden, when folks are not looking, we'll be back. Well, at least they were clear about it. You know, I used to do community organizing back in the day, and I would train neighborhood leaders on how to bring people together around issues. And whether you're following a grassroots model or a model by great organizers like Saul Alinsky,

who taught models that President Obama actually put into place in Chicago and surrounding areas for great success, all great minds who organize know one thing, that we all, as individuals, as groups, as organizations, as corporations, are motivated by one thing, self-interest. They said it in the statement that we saw. That's why after saying that they would not contribute to people who challenged the certification, We see that between 2021 and now, they quietly went back. Over $55,000 contributed to several dozen lawmakers who were part of the movement to not certify the election. People who are believing that stop the steal is real. When you connect these dots and you clearly see that they're going to go back

to what they do anyway, it's no accident that you have the issues that you had in a story that you have been covering in an ongoing way in Mason, Tennessee, and Stanton, Tennessee, and the West Tennessee areas where Ford is relocating. The trouble that Mason is having is with Republican lawmakers who have decided to take over the state's finances because they invested $500 million with Ford to make sure that they could have infrastructure in place. That means that they are voting as a Republican legislature in Ford's best interest. So what do you think Ford will turn around and do? When Toyota says we're going to support candidates on both sides of the aisles,

we're going to do this, they're doing this in their own self-interest. So they're going to make sure that they're voting for people who are going to contribute to putting in place infrastructure for their plants. We're going to make sure we're going to vote for candidates who are going to support incentives, tax incentives, and whatever we need for our company to be strong. In a capitalistic society, unfortunately, this is the kind of thing that happens. It was in their self-interest to be a part of the faux protest that was going on around the world when people were aghast at liberty and justice and freedom being challenged here in America. So at that point, it very much was in their self-interest

to join the crowd and to stand up and to get extra publicity for saying, we will not support candidates who supported this insurrection. But now that things have died down from their perspective, when they look at their bottom line, they have to now go back to the process of pay to play, which happens on both sides. But in this case, absolutely contradicts what popular.info does is important, Julian, because people need to know. We saw this in Texas. Republicans pass their anti-abortion laws. They pass their voter suppression laws. And you saw companies like AT&T, others, seeing their major contributions. They begin to say, oh, no, we're not looking at those issues, we're looking at other issues. But the bottom line is,

they literally are funding this system that is disenfranchising Americans. You know, Roland, predatory capitalism is a trick bag. A predatory capitalism is really about how politics and capitalism collide. That statement that you showed was very interestingly worded. I won't say carefully, but it was carefully worded, but very interesting. We give equally

to Democrats and Republicans. Well, Democrats and Republicans are not equal fools. I mean, you cannot, you can't find a Democrat who supported that nonsense on January 6th of 2021. But virtually, well, 140 some Republicans did. So giving equally means you're supporting the corrosion of the democratic system, but at the same time, which serves you, you're propping up the predatory capitalist system. So, you know, Brian McCarr, I appreciate the background about what's going on

in Tennessee and the investment piece. Because what do we always say? Follow the money. We follow the money. It's not Toyota's money. It's the money that the state legislatures and Congress has done to enable Toyota to do exploitation. And when they talk about the auto industry, what we have to look at in terms of auto industry, who employed what are they earning you know what's his name I'm not a huge fan but Henry Ford always said you have to pay people enough so they could buy the

product so he wanted people who work for Ford to be able to buy a Ford car so that that would that basically stimulated demand what Toyota is saying is that stimulating demand is more important than principle. But we knew this. This is not new information. So it's just really funny the way they put it out there. People clapped. Oh, yeah, they're woke. No, they're not woke. And woke doesn't matter. You can be as woke as you want to. Then you got to get out of bed. And when Toyota gets out of bed, they're going back to exploitation. They're going back to supporting vapid, evil Republicans. And when we look at what these people are doing, taking away voting rights, gerrymandering, attacking our schools, attacking our teachers, attacking our school boards, Toyota Motor Company, if they're supporting that kind of nonsense, we need to look at where we buy our cars.

I keep trying to explain to folk on the Congo, if you want to understand anything in America, what you have to do is follow the money. It is, man. Look, it is man look i think that uh you know what dr malvo said in the last point about buying the last car is uh really poignant because toyota i'm talking to y'all right now i'm a stakeholder my family siblings and i were even buying Toyotas for over 30 years. And I'm thinking of three of my siblings right now, as well as myself, Toyota sitting in the driveway. And I definitely have bought my last one. The letters were very interesting, Roland, because when you put them side by side, what you notice is that Toyota is now saying they're not going to contribute any

money to anybody who engages in violence or talks about supporting violence. Whereas in the first one that you put up from 2021, they said anybody who's contesting the election. So they are trying to be very slick with their language and very slick with it. And we need to really call them out because like Dr. Malvo was saying, this is not our equal thing that is going on. And I will add another thing that goes to Reverend Carr's point about the economic interest. Toyota is watching what's happening in Florida with DeSantis and Disney. They're watching what people like Kevin McCarthy are saying about companies like Verizon, who said that they will turn over phone records to support the January 6 investigations. And they don't want any of that smoke should the Republicans take over and win more seats in the 2022 midterm elections. And that's another thing. So they're trying to play

both sides of the aisle here. But we need to make sure that they stay on the right side of the aisle and continue to call them out. Once we get off tonight, I'm going online to other spaces and calling them out. I'm making sure my siblings won't watch tonight. You should be watching, though. I'll call them out as well, because now that they have been called out, we need to force them to get back to where they said they were before. Because this is not a situation. There's not middle ground here. There's not an either or here. There's not a both sides here. Going back to your segment two segments ago, this is about evil and people who want to steal our rights and take over this country.

And you can't be neutral in a situation like that. Indeed. All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening in new york after michael brown's death the department of justice investigation found the city of ferguson missouri had a racist system of imposing high fees on its citizens particularly those who are african-american well that same racist system is in new york state 34 new york counties are dependent upon fines and fees for revenue, just like Ferguson. Black folks are only 14 percent of the New York state population, but make up 38 percent of all arrests in 2018. Black folks are nearly two times more likely to receive a prison sentence than whites.

Late penalties get added for those who can't pay the initial fines and nonpayment can lead to jail time. Joining us now is Antonia Jeffrey. She's the director of Fines and Fees Justice Center, a member of the No Price on Justice campaign. She joins us from Albany, New York. You know, this is what we call the black tax, the black poor tax, where, frankly, black folks are targeted, targeted by police for for, you know, small little things, these fines. And then they know very well how they begin to add up. And as we said, this system throws them in jail. I mean, these folks are making millions off the backs of black people and other poor people. That's absolutely right. First of all, thank you so much for having me.

The New York's Ferguson problem report actually, disproportionately impacts low-income communities, and particularly Black communities all across the state of New York. There was this pattern of disproportionate policing in our communities where police officers were used as armed debt collectors to go solicit money from these fines and fees from these communities, unduly putting them in contact with law enforcement when they otherwise would not be. And this is so, again, people, folks think about all New York, New York. That's a that's a that's a blue state. They ain't got nothing to do when it comes to the money. Absolutely right. And I say this all the time, especially when I'm talking about

this report. New York is supposed to be this progressive beacon of light, but there's a lot of antiquated laws still on the book in the state of New York. If you go through the mandatory surcharge in its current iteration has been in place since the eighties. and it was issued at a time where federal funding to states had been decreased so states were looking for ways to raise revenue and the mandatory surcharge came up as a solution however it was not re-evaluated once the conditions changed once federal funding changed it was not re-evaluated. It steadily increased. And because Black communities are disproportionately ticketed, given citations, and arrested, they bear the brunt of all of the fines and fees in the community that goes towards raising revenue for the localities. It's not like these fees have all sorts of different types of names that suggest where they go. But New York does such a poor job of tracking it that we can't even tell if the money is going towards what it says it's going towards. For example, a conviction bears a fee for a DNA data bank fee, even if no DNA is collected as a part of that conviction. That fee is mandatory, but because there's such poor collection mechanisms,

we don't even see that the fee actually goes towards DNA data bank. It goes into the general fund, and then it goes right back into raising revenue for the localities. And it's ridiculous that it's happening on black and brown people's backs. What so what are y'all doing? This is, of course, the changing laws in Auburn, the state capital. Is it a matter of do you have to actually go to each one of these counties, each one of these cities? So it is a state law. The mandatory mandatory surcharge are a set of state fees.

What we see is that sometimes when a fee is assessed, say for a traffic ticket, they will go to court. The person who received the ticket will go to court and then it will be pleaded down to a lesser charge so that that money goes to the locality. So it's under the guise of public safety because that's why they're supposed to be getting these tickets. But really, it's just a form of regressive taxation. And because it's the black and brown communities that are disproportionately ticketed, that's where all the money is coming from. And you mentioned there are 34 localities across New York State that are as reliant or more reliant than Ferguson was at the time of Michael Brown's death. And that's important because Michael Brown might not have encountered the police at all if it weren't for police being used in this way for debt collection, for local revenue raising.

And so the No Price on Justice Coalition has a bill that we've introduced and that we've been advocating for that would eliminate the mandatory surcharge, which are these fees that are collected. And it would also stop the practice of incarcerating people for failure to pay fines and fees. Debtor's prisons has long been thought of to be eliminated. It's something that's so archaic. But there are mechanisms within the law that still allow people to be jailed for failure to pay a fine for something that is a poverty-related issue. Even down to very recently, one of our partners represents a client who was jailed at Rikers in the height of the humanitarian crisis

for inability to pay a traffic ticket. That can upend people's lives, especially in lower-income communities. And it's not just in New York City. It's in all of the major cities across the state, in Buffalo, in Rochester, in Albany, in Syracuse, in the Hudson Valley. There are pockets of black and brown communities that are being disproportionately targeted and ticketed and buckled down with these fees. All right, then, look, the battle continues uh there's so many fights that we have and so

uh we got to fight them on all fronts and we certainly appreciate the work that y'all are doing there uh in new york state thanks a lot thanks for having me all right folks going to break we come back we're going to talk about uh a lawsuit against cbs lawsuit says they're grossly underpaying people and it impacts a lot of black people and other minorities. Also, attorney Ben Crump going after Wells Fargo saying they are denying black people opportunities to be able to build wealth because of their discriminatory practices. We'll show you some of that news conference and discuss with our panel as well. Folks, a lot of stuff we're covering here.

It's Roland Martin of the Filters coming to you live from Las Vegas, site of the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. I'll be back on the Black Star Network in just a moment. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Financial Literacy. Without it, wealth is just a pipe dream. And yet, half of our schools in this country don't even teach it to our kids. You're going to hear from a woman who's determined to change all that. Not only here, but around the world.

World of Money is the leading provider of immersive financial education for children ages 7 to 18. We provide 120 online and classroom hours of financial education. That's right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. This week on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Reparations. Is it finally time? Two of the country's foremost authorities on the subject will join me to try to answer that very question. A powerful installment of The Black Table with me, Greg Carr, right here, only on the Black Star Network. This is Judge Matthews.

What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wiles, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. 24 year old Felicia Marie Johnson was last seen in Houston on April 15th. Felicia is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 150 pounds, with long black hair and has brown eyes. She has a large butterfly tattoo with two roses on her right shoulder. Anyone with information on Felicia Marie Johnson's disappearance should call HPD, the Houston Police Department's Missing Persons Division at 832-394-1840. That's 832-394-1840. All right, folks. But when you're watching the news, whether it's a local newscast or a national newscast and you're tuning into abc nbc or cbs and you're looking at these reporters you might actually think that you're looking at a full-time

reporter it's not always the case you're often looking at people who are being paid a day rate for their job. It is not a significant day rate. There's a class action lawsuit, class action, labor law and sexual discrimination and age discrimination lawsuit that is happening right now against CBS Broadcasting Corporation. They will go to trial this week. My next guest filed a lawsuit. Silva Harapetian, she filed this lawsuit, folks, because she worked as a freelance reporter and producer

for the CBS-owned and operated station in Miami. When she complained about her pay, the work culture, discrimination, harassment, and safety, she said they stopped hiring her. They stopped giving her work. This has been a long battle and it involves some serious allegations against CBS Broadcasting. Silva joins us right now. Glad to have you here. So for people who don't quite understand our business, again, they think, oh, I'm watching Silva. I'm seeing her every day on this station in Miami at CBS. She's hit the big time.

Not everybody that they're seeing is actually a full-time worker. Yes. And that is partially the problem because freelance workers are being hired in place of full-time employees. And the reason that's a lucrative thing to do for CBS and or any other corporation is because freelancers are paid at a day rate and they are paid significantly less than their counterparts who are full-time. Not to mention the fact that CBS, who hired freelancers, including me, also did not give us any of the benefits that come with working as a full-time employee. That means there's no overtime. That means there is no pay days off.

That means there is no health coverage. That means that if I'm sick and I can't work, that means I'm not getting paid. So in addition to paying freelancers a fraction of what full-time employees are paid, we also don't get the benefits. We do the exact same job. We show up exactly the same way.

We are scheduled exactly the same way. In fact, freelancers were actually in CVS forced to request time off, right? Which means we were also forced to work holidays because full-time employees wanted those days off. And we cover breaking news and risk our lives exactly the same way, but we are paid significantly differently. And in this particular case, it's about unpaid wages. When we work, we expect to be paid. And when we work

hours and we are not paid for those hours, that is called wage theft. And we don't hear about wage theft very often because we associate wage theft with day laborers and undocumented workers and immigrants. But wage theft actually takes on many forms. It can either be someone not getting paid overtime. It could be someone not being paid for their benefits. It could be an employee being misclassified as an independent contractor. It can be someone being paid less than a minimum wage. All of these things that add up to an employer not compensating an employee. And did you know, Roland, that according to the Economic Policy Institute, $50 billion, that's billion with a B, is stolen from American workers every single year. This kind of pay practice is responsible for homelessness. It is responsible for families

not being able to put food on the table. It is responsible for families not being able to put food on the table. It is responsible for people not being able to afford necessities. I was one of those people. I am in people's living rooms every day talking about how to stay safe in times of hurricane, how to get the latest information when there's breaking news. But I couldn't afford a car. I had to ride my scooter to work. And here's the thing. I am one face and I am one voice, but I represent hundreds of people, current and former employees,

who have told me in private and in confidence that this is something that they have experienced. Many are traumatized and afraid and terrorized about coming forward. These are reporters and producers. People work in newsrooms across the country who are experiencing the exact same thing. This is a systemic issue that these corporations have mastered in keeping us in check and in quiet. And the irony of all of this is that I was hired as a journalist to ask questions. I was hired as a journalist to hold other businesses and other people accountable when they skirted the law or broke the law. I was hired to be the voice for

people who are suffering from injustice. Yet somehow I lost opportunity. I have not worked since I filed this claim for four years. So you have not worked for four years. Yeah. How long, how long were you, how long were you a freelancer? Because typically, typically of a lot of places, you know, somebody works as a freelancer, and they show, you know, they do some good work. Typically, a company says, we're going to bring you on full time. Yeah. How long were you a freelancer?

Seven years off and on. There are people who are currently. Seven years. Seven years. Seven years. There are people who are currently working in places like Los Angeles, in Miami, in New York, in Sacramento, in Philadelphia, who have been in freelance positions for years. Freelance is supposed to be temporary. But when you were able to save that kind of money, you keep the labor costs low, and you keep stock prices high, and people are able to collect their dividends, very few people ask questions about the people who are actually doing the job. And everyone is. So you so you are. So you so you're asserting. So you are asserting that CBS Corporation is using a massive system to to only employ or largely to employ a large number of freelancers to undercut having to pay them real wages, and this contributes to the bottom line of CBS. And just so everybody can understand, CBS, of course, is owned by Viacom, so it's ViacomCBS.

And when all these people talk about, oh, ViacomCBS is one of the small companies, that's how people try to refer to them. But, you know, we're talking about a company, stock price, Paramount's global class B stock on NASDAQ closed at $31.20. It is up. But we're talking about a company that's worth billions. Right. And I have been, I myself have been fighting a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate. It has been a David versus Goliath kind of fight. And we are going to court on Thursday because most of these cases, you know, the law also is not written for the

worker. It is written for the employer. A lot of cases are either thrown out or cases are settled in behind closed doors with employees forced to sign confidentiality and non-disparagement agreements. And when that happens, the employer gets to also include in that document that they deny all claims. I think it's about time that a jury of my peers is able to see the facts for what they are and is able to say what is really happening. When you take the law and conveniently interpret it in a way that allows you to steal from your workers, which is what happened to me, and refuse to pay overtime and hours that work, that we worked, somebody has to be held accountable.

And something needs to change. I actually like your guest earlier who said, if you don't like the law, change it. Perhaps it's time we change things. We looked at these labor laws and asked questions. When is enough enough? This is not just a problem within an organization. It's also a problem within the industry. And it's also a systemic problem within the law that essentially does not work for the employee. I'm going to ask you this question before I take it over to my panel to ask questions. You said you haven't worked in four years. I'm sure you've had friends and family and former co-workers, maybe even lawyers say, Silver, look, settle this. Just take whatever they give you and just move on with your life. Why have you been so insistent on wanting this to move forward and go to trial?

Roland, I remember growing up in Iran, and I remember witnessing the Iranian revolution. And I remember hearing stories of journalists being kidnapped and journalists being jailed and journalists being beheaded. And I remember watching the news with my family, and I remember seeing men mutilate bodies of female mannequins and sawing off their heads. And I remember seeing images of disfigured women who had had acid thrown on their bodies. And these were images that were used to keep people within that patriarchal oppressed society in check. My mother told me that those images were used to show what would happen if you didn't follow the rules. That's the society I come from.

In this country, I've had an opportunity to be a journalist. I've had an opportunity to tell the truth. I take the work and what it's about and freedom of speech very seriously because I have experienced in my life what happens when those things are compromised? And here we are as a journalist. I am hired to tell the truth. I am hired to ask questions. I am hired to do the work. Yet, somehow the truth in this case is conditional. I have not wanted anything other than to get back to work. I wanted to clear my name. I wanted them to hold themselves accountable and acknowledge what's been done. We haven't talked about the people that were fired for putting these types of systems and pay practices in check and at work within CBS. CBS itself fired those people

and multiple executives because of allegations of pay practices and discrimination? What about the people like me, hundreds of us, whose careers were stunted, whose lives were ruined, whose dreams were completely shattered because of those pay practices? What about us? What happens to us? Where is the accountability? Where is the acknowledgement? We have been impacted severely. And while I am the only one who is speaking out because I have a vested interest, I have a different perspective about what it means to tell the truth, about what it means to have the opportunity to have freedom of speech. But there is daily that I receive calls from people who call and privately cry on my shoulders about how this has impacted them. And while legally there may be nothing that they may receive, but an acknowledgement and telling the truth and doing the right thing is going to mean

everything to everyone. So, yeah, I could take the money, but I'm not willing to sign on a dotted line that says they get to deny all of the charges because they have said in documents, their executives have said, we have hired freelance workers at all of our 28 owned and operated stations for decades, and we have paid them a flat rate that is based on an eight-hour workday. I don't know about you, Roland, but I have never worked an eight-hour in the news department, in a newsroom. And we did so because it was administratively more convenient. That's been admitted already. Indeed.

Let's go to a question from a panel. Julianne Malbeau. Julianne, your question. Sister, I have to tell you, you are my shero. I'm a labor economist by background, and some of the words you're using are words that are not often used in the same sentence with professional people, like wage theft. You usually think of someone with wage theft that they're working on in the assembly line or that they're at one of the big box stores or something like that. You don't think of it as professional people who've been highly trained, who have degrees, who have

put their time in. So the word wage theft needs to be used a lot more often. First of all, I want to thank you for bringing that up. The second thing that's really important about what you said is about confidential settlements, because if there's no record, then there's no precedent. If people sign an agreement and say, I'm going to give you six figures, just go away, but you can't tell anybody, then there's a patented practice of discrimination, but you can't document it. And this happens far too often in corporate America. There are piles and piles of people who, I won't say the easy way out, because many of them, like you, you haven't worked in four years. Many have not worked in several years. And they get down to, I don't know your circumstances, but they get down to their kids

need tuition. Their spouse is about to leave them. them they're like let me take the money and run um so you have enormous determination but what tree i know you talked about the band i shuddered when you talked about the beheading etc uh in the iranian case but it has to be something more than that what is that inside you that once makes you want to fight this, you're like an ant fighting an elephant. An ant might win, but why, ant, are you so determined? Because your determination shines through you. And I'm just, I'm really proud of you. I don't know you, but I'm proud of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. You know, what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong. And we know the legal system doesn't always function that way. And I have been willing and open to consider other creative methods of settling this case. Because essentially what I really want is to have my career back, to have my life back.

I didn't do anything wrong. I showed up every day and I worked and I did a really great job. In fact, if I didn't do a great job, why did they hold on to me for seven years? And the other thing is what's taken for me to get to this point in my career is very different than anyone else. I came to this country when I was 12 years old. I did not speak a word of English. I've had to teach myself English as a high school sophomore and then have had to figure out the system of how I would be able to go to college. I went to college using dictionaries and wrote papers with tutors. And it has been an incredibly difficult road for me to climb the ladder.

And I have done every job in a newsroom. I have worked in small markets. I have moved all over the country. The level of personal sacrifice that I have made is beyond what anyone who is from this country and has grown up in this country is about. And also, as I'm talking about this, I'm also thinking about my parents. My parents sacrificed everything and escaped the country during war to give us an opportunity for a better life. And I took that very seriously. And I took it as my responsibility to do the right thing and to be the voice that my peers and my cousins and other people I knew back home could not be.

And who would I be as a journalist if I didn't speak out? Who would I be as a journalist if I didn't stand up? And who would I be as a person if I didn't honor the sacrifice that my parents have made? They left everything behind. We left the country with what we could carry and started all over again. This is about me following the steps necessary to have the American dream and then finally feeling like I had arrived and then having it all ripped away because somehow that is conditional, depending on what you say and how you say it and who you say it to? That wasn't the answer. Um, Okongo, your question.

Okongo, your question. Yes, this is deep. As a professor, you know, I hear, we have conversations with professors across the country about issues relating to different, you know, tenured professors versus assistant professors versus adjuncts versus professorial lecturers and how it is like a discrepancy there. But at least in those cases across the country, the professors at least have some benefits like employee benefits, even if it's like like nine months worth of benefits. You're talking about not even having that in your situation

and you and your colleagues. The question I have for you is that since we can't obviously join the lawsuits, and then you also said you have a lot of journalists out there who are scared of speaking up for fear of any type of reprisals, not getting hired or maybe getting fired. What can we do to support you all? Are there GoFundMe campaigns? Are there campaigns that are pressure we can put on networks who are found to do these types of things? Because I can't think that there are people out there who are watching you all every day who will find out about this story and not want to do something to support you all because we watch for y'all, not the ownership. What can we do? Yeah, I mean, and Roland can break this down better than I can, but the reality is the

public can speak up because essentially the work we do determines the rate of the advertising minutes, right, that are sold within their programming. And then advertisers are buying the time to then entice the viewer to buy the product. But I wonder if these advertisers know how the employees are being treated. And if they did, what would they do about it? Especially when you look at some of the things that we've discovered during the course of this case, which is, you know, we've discovered that freelancers that were hired in place of full-time employees were mostly minorities, were women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community, they were disproportionately paid less and had fewer opportunities than anyone else. So when I continue to ask for a full-time job, by the way, I was paid $210 a day. I continue to act, to be asked, to be made full time, and I was told by a female news director that the job isn't available to you, it now makes sense what that meant. So I think it's time that we publicly spoke out about the

way people are paid, the way people are treated, about accountability, about—and thank you for the GoFundMe page. I mean, I suspect I will have significant attorney's fees, but the reality of the matter is that something needs to change within the law as well, because the law is skewed to protect the employer, not the employee. They have dismantled claims in my case using statute of limitation and legal jargon, which I don't really understand. And they've taken apart, they've surgically taken apart specific parts of my case because of all of these hindrances that are in the law that do not benefit the worker in any kind of way. Jeff? Yes, first and foremost, Silva, thanks again for your struggle. I want to assure you on behalf of everybody watching that your struggle is not going to be in vain.

You've been through too much. And as Steve Jobs said, we can't connect the dots going forward. We can only connect the dots going backward. I'm going to pause. I don't know if Roland will get mad at me for saying this right now, but if you're watching this right now, you should hit the like button. You should share this because this is a very real conversation, and I'm going to be really transparent right here. Last 30 years of my life, I primarily made my living as a 1099 employee. That means I'm a freelancer. That means that if I don't create, if I don't conceive of things, if I don't go out there

every single day and find a way to make it happen, I just don't eat of things, if I don't go out there every single day and find a way to make it happen, I just don't eat. So I'm uniquely sensitive to people who are hired to be day wage workers. People may look at you and they say, oh, Sylvia, she's got it going on. She's articulate. She's on television. She's got everything going. $210 a day. Let me give you all some perspective before I ask Sylvia your question. $210 a day sounds like a lot if you're making $15 an hour, but when you're a freelance employee, commercials that you see people shooting, where people are loading trucks and putting up harnesses and doing grip work, when you see the movies and they say, this is a grip job, that grip job, you can get a grip job at $375 a day, and you're not doing the investigative work that an employer is putting

on. You're just carrying stuff from point A to point B. CBS is a major international corporation. They've settled lawsuits for millions of dollars. Their stock price is healthy. When you talk about CBS, you're talking about Viacom. You're talking about MTV. You're talking about Showtime. You're talking about major networks. Sylvia, you're going to win this struggle, but I want you to give people an understanding who may say very rude things to you of what life is like for you now by answering this one question. What do you say to people who say, well, you're on TV, so you should be satisfied with just getting good exposure there? Well, I will say that that is exactly what we've been conditioned to believe within the industry to then accept

the realities of working for free, right? We have been told that you go to a small market and you do extra work and you go above and beyond to hone your craft. And this is what you must do in order to climb the ladder, which is fine. I did that willingly. I worked, you know, 10 hours a day when I worked in Oklahoma and Texas and Detroit and, you know, 10 hours a day. And then I would, I would stay behind and I would do more work and I would study other people. And I would, I was honing my skills, but there comes a point in your career where you have come to a point where you have paid your dues, where you have the skills to now work in a large market and you are able to get a job in a large market. But then somehow when you do that, you realize what they said was not really true. In Florida, we have the saying that we're permalance, we're permanent

workers with freelance pay, and they pay us in sunshine. So if you want to work in Florida, you know what? This is just part of the deal. But why does it have to be part of the deal? When I can't figure out how to make ends meet, when I don't have a, I couldn't afford my car. I had to take on a roommate. $210 seems like a lot, but it also means that I have to pay for my own health insurance. And it also means that I have to save for the day that I might be sick, or I might need medical attention, or for the day that I might need to take a week off to

go see my sister when she's having a baby, or be able to buy a ticket to fly home to see family. All of these things matter, and they significant and they impact our lives economically. They impact our ability to build and create generational wealth. They impact the legacy that we're able to have for our families. This is a big deal. And the impact for me personally, and I'm going to be vulnerable for a minute here, you know, economically, it's been devastating. I've had to move back to my parents' house. And the reality is the emotional and the psychological toll is worse because trying to figure out how to make sense of a circumstance when I didn't do anything wrong, yet I'm being punished. And the last 23 years of my life, of my life's work seems to just evaporate it. And people ask, what can you do? Well, your support means a lot.

Speaking out means a lot. Showing up means a lot. And quite frankly, at times, I felt like I'm in this fight all by myself. Last question for you. I say this all the time. Media doesn't always like to cover media. And so now that you're on the other side of the news story, have you been surprised and shocked at how many so-called media reporters have been ignoring your story and ignoring this case going to trial this week? Yeah, I think I have to say I was shocked and surprised at how many people privately shared their stories with me, but did not want to

publicly put their name on the document to join the class action, even though some of these people work still to this day, continue to work 30 hours overtime a week and still are not getting paid. They are afraid of the consequences. They're afraid of being blacklisted. They're afraid of not having a job. They've got families to feed. And I understand that. But the reality is the more we don't speak out, the more this gets perpetuated. And I can't help but draw a parallel from my lived experience in an oppressed society to what I've experienced in this particular case, both of which is all about protecting the patriarchal systemic culture and both of which essentially perpetuate discrimination, inequality, violence against women and minorities, and economic oppression. So the question is, we have to take a hard look at ourselves, whether you are a viewer, whether you are in the media, whether you are an executive, and we have to ask ourselves,

what are we going to do about this? What are we going to do about this? Trial starts Thursday in Miami? Yes. All right. Silva, good luck. Certainly keep us abreast of what happens with this case. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk Will Spargo. Attorney Ben Crump is going after them. He said they're limiting black opportunities. In our Fit Live Win segment, a brother lost 200 pounds, and he's an evangelist to help other folks, especially men, drop that weight. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Start Network.

YouTube folks and Facebook folks, hit the Like button. Hit the Share button. We should have more than 1,000 likes by now. Hit that button, y'all. That's what we got to do. Make this thing pop. I'll be back in a moment. I'm Dr. Jackie, and on a next A Balanced Life, it takes a village to raise a child,

and truer words have never been spoken. If you're raising a child, you know that it's a blessed challenge like no other, even more so if your child has a disability. We'll talk to parents and our expert panelists about the best way forward for your child to help you maintain your own sanity on a next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network.

We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not, from politics to music and entertainment. It's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Qubit, the maker of the Qubit Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, a couple of stories today dealing with Wells Fargo. Lawyers for Wells Fargo Bank do not want a black judge to preside over its racial discrimination case and demanded her recusal. Judge Candace Westmore, she's the only black woman judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, has been removed from the class action lawsuit alleging Wells Fargo discriminates against black homeowners wanting to refinance. Yeah, folks, that actually happened.

Today in Atlanta, Attorney Ben Crump held a news conference with several plaintiffs from the case where he also blasted Wells Fargo for their treatment of African-Americans, saying that they are denying black folks the opportunity to be able to build and grow wealth. Seems like the only common denominator was the color of the African scan, Suzanne. And so, I tell you, Wells Fargo is one of the biggest banks in the country. It is believed that they're the largest homeowner lender in America. Their corporate practices determine the financial health and opportunities and lack of for millions of black Americans. Wells Fargo says its mission is helping customers succeed financially, but, Attorney Shear, they are not helping black Americans succeed financially when they engage in a pattern and practice of corporate behavior

that denies financial opportunities to black customers and charges them more for the same services that they charge white customers for. Wells Fargo, I did what I was supposed to do. For over a decade, we have paid our mortgage. During the pandemic, we took income losses. As a result, we used the federal government's CARES Act monies to take a forbearance for 12 months. I talked to Wells Fargo quarterly when they ensured that we were still engaging in the forbearance. I spoke to them every three months.

My husband and I banked with Wells Fargo. We didn't have to send a check that was lost in the mail. We did not have to go by and take cash. No, we take our money and transfer directly from our checking to our mortgage. Yet, on March 21st of this year, and again on March 22nd, two process servers came to our home to say, Miss Simmons, we're so sorry, but we are foreclosed. We're sending notice that Wells Fargo is foreclosing on your home. Wells Fargo has been hit with discrimination claims for a very, very long time. The NAACP sued them in 2011. And then, of course, they settled that with them.

They've been hit a lot by Senator Elizabeth Warren on Capitol Hill. This has gone on and on and on. Julianne, Bloomberg dropped the study, the analysis that showed that when it came to refinancing mortgages during COVID, that Wells Fargo approved 72 percent of white applicants and only 47 percent of black applicants. You know, Roland, those numbers absolutely reflect our home ownership. About 70 percent of white people own their homes compared to fewer than 50 percent, somewhere between 46, 45 percent of African Americans. The discrimination in lending is so pronounced that you end up with that gap. And the discrimination in lending then now has extended to the refi. The situation this sister is in, when she says she's sending her money

from her checking account to her mortgage payment, they know she has the money. So why won't they refinance? The answer, because they make more money, not refinancing, than they make by refinancing. But it is very puzzling to me. No, it's not that puzzling. The puzzling part is that what is Wells going to do with her

home if she foreclosed on it? Because banks are not supposed to be in the real estate business. They're supposed to be in the banking business. But the flip side of it is that when it comes to- No, no, no, no. They're in the real estate business because they're selling those homes to these private equity companies. And that's why it's a whole bunch of people can't even buy homes today because all of these private equity people are forced that's why a whole bunch of people can't even buy homes today because all of these private equity people are forced to be renters and not homeowners. Exactly. Well, you're absolutely right.

I mean, they flip them like that. They're not trying to be owners. They're just trying to be profit-takers. Again, we go back to my favorite term, predatory capitalism. But what is really bothersome about this is it visits black people so frequently. And, you know, I have to have a quick conversation with people about the wealth gap. And there's so many aspects to this. There's a group called Black Homes Matter in Prince George's County that talks about inequality in appraisals, how in the two houses right next to a black person owns white person owns white house valued at fifty five thousand dollars more than the black home built by the same builder.

Only difference, black folks might have, you know, a little black art on the wall. But in any case, the question I've been raising to people is why? Why does this happen? And a psychologist friend of mine said, if you look at enslavement, enslavement allowed people to think that we were less than. And since enslavement, they continue to treat us as if we're less than, that we're not human beings. And that's what this is. If you are in the banking business, give the sister a refi. She says she can pay it.

Let her have it. Wells Fargo needs to be sued, and I'm glad that Ben Crump is on it, because I don't know a more tenacious attorney than Ben Crump. So Wells is going to do right if Ben Crump is in the room. This is the thing that we keep talking about on the Congo on this show.

You have to, where's the money? And what is happening here is African AmericansAmericans are being impacted. And what I don't give a shit about, I don't care what money Wells Fargo is giving to black civil rights organizations, because what they are giving to black civil rights groups pales in comparison to the millions or the billions that they have taken from black people. I don't get it, Roland, man. I thought that Wells Fargo had learned its lesson. When you talked about 2011, 2012, these other situations that have come up, they keep finding ways to put themselves in the news. And you're absolutely right. This goes back to your other segments

when you were talking about money in advertising and the money that can be going directly to us, Wells Fargo has a history and a pattern. And unlike the situation with Toyota, where we can make the long-term decision that when my car is done, I'm not going to buy another Toyota four or five, 10 years from now, whatever, this is something that we as a community, we can make an impact on right now. There are some of us who have the ability to go into Wells Fargo tomorrow if we have an account and say, I want to close it all There are some of us who have the ability to go into Wells Fargo tomorrow if we have an account and say, I want to close it all up. Some of us may have to take a little longer or do other things. We got online banks now, resurgence of black banks now. There's no reason for us to continue to keep our money there when they continue to do things like this to us.

Look, I have a business. My wife runs a business with our yoga studios. I have my consulting and leadership training. We are not going to Wells Fargo for any loan applications or any loan programs. Also look into another to move to another area as well. Not going to talk to them about any mortgage things, because those are the decisions that we've decided to make as a family. We can't have them supporting a little thing in a community affair or something on MLK Day and all of that other type of stuff. You're where's the money segment rolling when you were talking about everything post George Floyd, where all these companies committed billions of dollars and maybe we've gotten like two, three, four or five million to actually come out of these bank,

these organizations coffers. Wells Fargo is a hypocrite. Wells Fargo is not about that life of helping black people better their lives as it relates to long, sustaining actions, lack home ownership. And we need to do everything we can to remove our money from there in droves because there are other people out there who will benefit from what we are trying to do as a community. And to not do that is backwards thinking and is almost as bad as everything that's going on with these electoral politics and our non-engagement. Some of us are non-engagement there. We need to get directly engaged in making sure Wells Fargo respects black dollars, period, bottom line. Jeff? We got a lot of issues circling around this. There are a lot of comments that are floating out in the now metaverse. And Wells Fargo has been in the news, frankly speaking, a number of times.

The $3 billion settlement happened with the post the housing bubble breaking down. The 2012 Justice Department, one hundred eighty million dollar settlement. It's cast a shadow upon Wells Fargo. I personally know some people who are bankers and high ranking officials at Wells Fargo, really good hearted people, solid people. Roland, you know, some people, too. When we're talking about this beast, we're talking about a systemic problem here. This is a conversation that we must have. And I think a space like this would be a great conversation to have if we could get people to come out and have that conversation, because we have to have a responsible conversation, not only about what is being given, but what has been taken away, as you said. When I look at this press conference, and I was able to watch most of the press conference, I think there will be something

different that comes out of this new movement against Wells Fargo. When you heard the sister talking about paying on time, it's not just a random person. That sister, I believe her last name was Simmons, I think she and her husband have six kids. And he is a coach for Florida A&M University. The sister, Shanta Fanning, who came on and talked, she's the lady in the blue who's standing behind Attorney Klump right there to the right, to the viewer's right. a heartbreaking, heartbreaking story about needing to fix some mold in her house and wanting to pull some equity out and how her house was valued at $249,000 in Nashville. First off, I don't know how you had a house that valued that low in this rising market, but still $249,000 is substantial if you only owe $25,000 on the house and you want to pull out $15,000,

but they want to put you on a 30-year refinance for that $15,000 and you're already a grandmother at a 4% percentage rate when you have good enough credit, have never missed a payment, and can very well expect to receive prime or subprime in terms of your interest rate for the long term. Being able to pull people to a conference like that, inviting them to be a part of the class, tying it together with Eric Adams' recent move on behalf of the city of New York to not invest new money on the eve of a SEIU union vote that would vote to take action against and to possibly even join this class or at least influence this class. It's all important to invoke the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, as Ben Crump did today at the press

conference. Tying it all together equals a larger settlement for those who are in the plaintiff class. Will that solve the problem for the long term? I don't think it will, because you have an organization whose pockets are so deep that they can outlaw and outlast these many eruptions. My suggestion to people, as we are looking at this from both ends, we're looking at how do we bring Wells Fargo to the table and other large institutions to the table to be more accountable to us, is also to go out and find a local bank, to find a local institution that recognizes you, that knows who you are, that will support you, that will support you in what you're trying to do with your financial goals and rest your money there until we can resolve the rest of this. Folks, here's a statement from Wells Fargo.

We are deeply disturbed by allegations of discrimination that we believe do not stand up to scrutiny. We are confident that we follow relevant government-sponsored enterprise guidelines in our decision-making, that our underwriting practices are consistently applied regardless of a customer's race or ethnicity. These unfounded attacks on Wells Fargo stand in stark contrast to the company's significant and long-term commitment to closing the minority home ownership gap. In 2020, Wells Fargo was the largest bank lender for home mortgages to Black families, and this is consistent with our performance of the last decade, 2011-2020, in which the company helped as many black families purchase homes as the next three largest bank lenders combined. In addition, Wells Fargo helped more black homeowners refinance their mortgage in 2020 than any other bank.

The 83% increase in the company's refinance loans to black homeowners in 2020 compared with 2019 also was by far the biggest gain among the largest banks in 2021. 83% increase in the company's refinance loans to black homeowners in 2020 compared with 2019. Also was by far the biggest gain among the largest banks in 2021. Wells Fargo increased that total by 106% compared to 2020. All right, folks, time for talk up with my next guest. Terry Hart joins us from Dallas, Texas, folks, let's talk with my next guest, Terry Hart. Join us from Dallas, Texas, folks. Father of three, he dropped 200 pounds, been chronicling his weight loss. And again, first of all, he he's lost a couple of times. OK, because the second time was more than 400 pounds when he decided he needed to make a lifestyle change for his family.

Wow. Terry, let's let's talk about that. So what, you've been up and down, but what really caused you to say, you know what, this is it right here? I wanted to be alive. I tell you, you just mentioned it. I have three children. I have a wife. I was talking to one of my buddies one time, and he said, Terry, I don't want you to die. Hearing those words were life-changing words for me, and I never related weight to dying.

So hearing that for me was huge. And at that moment, I said, it's time to change my life because I got people to live for. What was your highest weight? What was your highest? Highest recorded was 430 pounds, but I've probably been anywhere between 430 and almost 470. I'm at my highest. How old are you? I'm 36 years old. Wow. Yes, sir. So when did you start? First of all, when your friend told you that.

So how long ago was that? You got it. So that was in the summer of 2019. We were going out to lunch, and I must have ate and looked like it was my last bite or something because he looked over and he said, man, I don't want you to die. But he followed up those words that summer and said, but I want to work out with you. So it was that summer of 2019. He committed to say, hey, look, man, I care about you, but I'm not just going to tell you you need to lose weight. I'm going to show you and I'm going to help you out.

So my buddy Gavin at the time, he committed and we started going instead of going to eat for lunch, we started going to the gym and working out together. He encouraged me. He lifted me up, continued to push me. And then I had my family as my why in the background and say, look, I want to live. I want to survive. So it was that summer that I completely changed my lifestyle. I started doing some treadmill workouts where I was doing treadmill on incline. Then we slowly started incorporating some weights in there. I did the elliptical, as you see here. But ultimately, it was just trying to find ways to stay active and stay active consistently. I had yo-yo diet my whole life.

I lost weight. I gained weight. But this time was different. This time, it was I wanted to live. I wanted to stay alive. And I knew that I had to make some changes that would be long-term. But was it the working out or was it the changing of your diet? And how did you change your diet? How did you change your diet?

What did you stop eating? What did you cut out? Absolutely. I think it's a lifestyle change. You got to completely change, you know, everything you're doing. I do a lot of high protein. So I cut out a lot of heavy carbs. I don't do breads and pastas.

I have them occasionally, but I truly try to stay away from them because they sit on it. They create, you know, sugar, which creates fat. So for me, it was trying to find the right foods that I could eat, but never feel like I was on a diet. In the working out, I made sure that I worked out at least an hour a day for myself. In the beginning, it was hard, but I told myself I got to keep pushing through. So I continued to work out every day, even when I didn't feel like it. And that was having the support of my friend, but also me knowing that I needed to change my lifestyle. So I did that consistently over that summer. I went to a doctor, got checked out, did a full scan.

They looked at me and gave me some tips on what to eat, what not to eat. And I stuck with the diet. I mean, when I say I took away the heavy carbs, a lot of the sugars, I strictly, you know, drank water and drank a lot of water to stay hydrated. That was important. So there was a number of different pieces in this process to help change my life. But I tell you, it was changing my entire life, not just one thing, not just working out, not just eating. It's a mix of multiple things that you have to do in order to truly change your life. And it was important to me to do that.

Questions from my panel. I'll start with you, Jeff. Yeah. First off, brother, man, congratulations. Just I know this journey is something else, man. I think when people see those pictures of before and after it can be somewhat shocking, but I think it's most important when you're talking about the person on the left, the person on the right. I won't rib you for the jacket because I know Brother Roland and I might say you would have gotten some black and gold in there,

but when you see a picture on the left, you're right. Yeah, yeah. I try my best. I try to overlook that. I try to overlook that. Go ahead. We see beyond the colors, man, to see the true human being there. But we recognize that even in a picture of before and after, that brother on the left and that brother on the right have the exact same size heart.

So the heart is going to, you know, you have rescued your heart for the long term. And I congratulate you on that for health, because health needs to be at the top of the list for Black folks and how we move in the world. Let me ask you, how has your lifestyle change benefited your family and children as they go forward for their health? Oh, great question. I'll tell you what, man, I didn't realize us as a people, we do a lot of socialized eating, right? Everything is happy birthday, we're going to eat.

Congratulations, you got it. Let's go eat. And while we enjoy those occasions, I try to make eating more of a thing in our household. We eat to survive, not eat just for fun, not eat just because we're bored. I was the type that after I ate dinner, I got to have a dessert. Well, I was training my kids to do the same things, right? So once I changed my ways, I would tell you I have an eight, a six, and a three-year-old. The six and the three-year-old were a lot easier

to change because daddy's eating it, we're going to eat it. The eight-year-old, she was a little bit more, she had been used to eating the fast food and some of the things that she did. So when I started changing things, it was hard for her. But I tried to make sure I explained my journey, explained what I was doing, and then talked about the foods that we were eating and why they were important. So that way I was educating my kids while at the same time making sure that they knew what they were putting in their body. So that way that they could be healthier, you know, in the days, months, years to come.

Awesome. Julianne. So you mentioned that you had daughters or a daughter. Yes, we did. What do you tell her about what she should look for in a brother in terms of his health. How do you model for her? You model for her what you've done with your health. What do you tell her about health for her friends and associates and eventually her spouse or significant other?

You got it. I think the most important thing is just educating our children. And I'm not to say that my parents didn't educate me, right? But I would say knowledge is power. So the more that I gain by going through my journey, I talked to nutritionists, learning more about nutrition, I can now relate that to my children. So then they know it, right? So then as they're eating certain things, they now can explain why they're eating it, the benefits of certain fruits and vegetables. So that way they can share with the people that they're around.

I would tell you, I'm big on never forcing people because I struggled my whole life. So I never want to force it upon anybody. And I tell my kids the same thing, right? You can't force it upon people. But what you can do is you use your own actions. You do what you're supposed to be doing. And eventually the people around you will pick it up. Just like me, when I changed my ways, I didn't say, hey, family, you guys got to do it, right?

But they saw what I was doing. They saw that it was making me healthier. It was making me happier. It was giving me more energy. And then when they saw that, then it made them want to change their lifestyle too. So I think it's just leading by example, but also being knowledgeable.

And if they do that, they'll help all the people around them moving forward. Mama Congo. Congratulations on not just being an example for your family, but just the community in general online and everything that you're doing. It's just really amazing. Yeah, no doubt. And phenomenal. The question I have for you is you said that your diet weight, you know, until you got to this point where you're at now, it's been like an up and down seesaw.

So what advice do you give for people who experience setbacks? Because some people say, I'm going to lose this 20, I'm going to lose this. If something happens, they don't meet your deadline and they're going right back to eating or something happens in their family, they become stress eaters. What advice do you give for people when they hit those setbacks? First thing I say is allow yourself grace, right? We're human, so we're going to make mistakes. Even being in my journey, there's times where I make mistakes and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to give in and I'm going to eat something I probably know I shouldn't. So allow yourself grace, but don't stay in those moments, right?

When you mess up or you fall short, please don't stay in those moments. You've got to remember your why. Why is it important for you to drop the weight? Is it to live long? Is it to be around for your family? Is it because you have certain health conditions? Always remember that in the back of your mind and use that as your motivation to keep pushing forward. Again, it is not an overnight process. And as you mentioned, diet. When I changed my life, I had to realize what I'm on is not a diet. It is a lifestyle

change. It is me saying, I want to live. I want to be around for a long time. So I highly encourage people, don't look at the short term. Look at the long term. You're not going to lose the weight overnight. It's going to take time. It's going to take consistency. It's going to take you making changes and really maybe doing some things that you don't love or enjoy. But I promise you the benefits, the energy, the life that you'll be able to live as you lose the weight, as you continue to be healthy, will outweigh anything that you go through. Well, I'll tell you, we were at this convention, and I'm at the hotel, I'm at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Yes, sir. And my guy's like, hey, man, we're taking the cab back. I was like, no, man, we'll go ahead and walk. And, man, look look we walk as much around this convention I literally have already hit 10,000 steps you talk about

but the thing that you said is it is important that is to keep moving as I can tell you when I probably about a few months ago I dropped about 13 to 15 pounds. But the key in watching that was the body moving. I'm tracking it on my iWatch.

But you can easily tell those days when you're not moving, when you're under 5,000 steps and your body movement isn't there, that's when, of course, you're more susceptible to also. So, yeah, body movement is critically important. And there's simple things you can do, too. I mean, I would tell you one of the things I started doing was going to the furthest restroom. Right. If if you know there's a restroom close, go to the furthest one, take the steps and go to the one upstairs. There's little things that you can do as you're going to the grocery store, park at the furthest parking spot. You don't always have to be in the gym. Yes, that's important. But I would tell you, like you mentioned, taking a walk back, taking a walk to go grab your mail, taking a walk around your neighborhood.

There are so many things that we can do with the world being our gym that we just, if we stay active, we stay moving, the weight will eventually come off if you're burning more calories than you're intaking, as simple as that. But being active and moving is highly important. All right, then. Terry, I appreciate it, man. Tell people how they can follow you on your journey. I appreciate you. Thank you guys for having me.

If you want to reach out or follow my journey, I share it at Just A Dope Dad on Instagram and TikTok. I try to just inspire people to start. I get DMs all the time when people ask me questions. Please feel free to reach out to me. God allowed me to go through this so that way I could use my journey and my purpose to help inspire other people. So I'm rooting for you all. If anybody ever needs anything, please reach out to me.

I want to see us all win. All right, then. Doc, I certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much, Terry. Terry Hart, thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then. Folks, last item before we got to go.

I know we're running late today. Sad news. I was actually here today when I got a text from my family that my Uncle Roy Lewis passed away. He was 91 years old. I think y'all should have the photo there so y'all can go ahead and show it. He was a businessman

in Houston. He was my grandmother's brother. He is the last surviving sibling of my maternal grandmother. Businessman in Houston serving the United States Marines. Absolutely hilarious. I posted a photo a couple of years ago when they had a drive-by birthday party for him when he turned 90. And then I posted a photo. So, guys, if y'all pull that photo up and group me, y'all should go and show it. And so he still was rocking his U.S. Marines uniform.

And so he would have turned 92 years old in July. And so Uncle Roy certainly lived a very fruitful life. And so our family will definitely miss him. But he has now been reunited with all of his brothers and sisters. And so he was the last surviving uncle or aunt of my mom. And so certainly thoughts and prayers go out to our entire family. Folks, that is it. Jeff, I'm a Congo. Juliana, I sort of appreciate y'all hanging with us today. A lot of things happening here in Vegas. Trust me,

I'm walking the floor looking at, this is sort of, this convention is like being in a toy store for me, all the gadgets and stuff they got here, cameras and lights and all kind of stuff. And so we are here, folks. I am here going to the exhibit floor every day looking for different things that can improve what we do with this show, can improve how we bring in guests, our video playback, all of those different things. And y'all make that possible in supporting us. And so thank everybody, of course, who joined our Bring the Funk fan club. First, download the app. Again, we want to hit 50 50000 downloads by May 1st.

Tell everybody, you know, download to their Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox and Samsung Smart TV. And of course, please join our bring the funk fan club. Every dollar, every dollar goes support this show. And you can see your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app is dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Folks, that's it. I'll see you tomorrow right here from Las Vegas.

Site of the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. Thank you so very much. And until then, and of course, today's also the 75th birthday of my dad. It's actually officially today. We celebrated. Took him out to dinner and the whole family on Saturday. So we had a great time. And so again, so the family celebrated with him. So dad, happy birthday. Happy 75th birthday. Folks, that's a bunch. I'll see y'all tomorrow.

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