#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Pamela Turner rally; Defense wants Arbery's criminal past presented in trial; GOP recasts Jan 6 riot

Episode Date: May 14, 2021

5.13.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Justice for Pamela Turner rally; Defense wants Ahmaud Arbery's criminal past presented in trial; GOP rep. recasts deadly Jan 6 riot as "a normal tourist trip"; Cop who shot Rayshard Brooks sued in federal court; trial of 3 ex-Mlps cops in George Floyd death won't happen until March 2022; Texas GOP increases taxes on residents who purchase travel services through Expedia/Hotwire; 1st GOP Black Republican woman elected to the Virginia General Assembly blasts critical race theory on Fox News; ​Colonial pipeline ransomware cyberattackSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chaston. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, to you by AAR there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, May 13th, 2021. I'm broadcasting live, Roland Martin Unfiltered, here in Baytown, Texas. We're on the second anniversary of the death of Pamela Turner, a black woman shot and killed by a Baytown police officer two years ago. A rally was held out here earlier today. Attorney Ben Crump, Attorney Monique Presley, also rappers Bun B, Trey The Truth, and others were out here raising awareness with the officer

who will soon go on trial in her death. We'll show you the latest of what took place today. Also on today's show in Georgia, attorneys for the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery, they want to bring up Arbery's past criminal record, which, of course, has nothing to do with him being shot. Also in Georgia, a man is suing the officer responsible for killing Rayshard Brooks for a million bucks.

We'll give you those details. In Minneapolis, the trial of three former police officers charged with aiding and abetting the death of George Floyd has been postponed until March 2022. trial of three former police officers charged with aiding and abetting the death of George Floyd. They has been postponed until March 2022. Also in Virginia, the nutcase Republican running for lieutenant governor. She calls critical race theory nonsense. Now, I would dare say crazy black Republicans are nonsense.

Also, we'll be joined on the show, folks, by Kathy Hughes. She is the founder and chair of Urban One. She'll be talking about the Urban One honors. And, folks, all of that and more. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered from Baytown, Texas. Let's go. He's got it.

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

It's rolling Roro, y'all It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin folks what you're watching is a live shot uh from baytown texas this is the apartment complex uh where two years ago uh pamela turner was gun down, was gunned down by a Baytown police officer as she was, of course, having a significant issue.

It was a case of schizophrenia where that police officer shot and killed her. Folks, of course, have been protesting here in Baytown for the last two years. That particular officer, a trial date is going to be set on May 25th, announcing when he is going to go to trial in the death of Pamela Turner. Folks, the video is shocking. It is stunning. I just want to give a trigger warning to anybody who has not seen the video. We're going to show it in a second. And you will see an unarmed black woman telling this police officer that she is pregnant.

He cannot control her. He then steps back, fires five shots, killing her immediately. Watch this. What the fuck? I'm walking. I'm actually walking to my house. I'm walking to my house. Watch this Pop the Why? Why? I'll break it! I'll break it! Folks, it is shocking and stunning every time we see that video.

The officer knew she was a mentally disturbed woman who was having a breakdown. That is how he chose to contain the situation. 42 years old, Pamela Turner shot dead today, two years ago, at this apartment complex that is across the street from us. The folks who were out here for the rally today, they wanted to, of course, honor her by raising attention. And in fact, at one point, you can go back to the end of the rally, Trade the Truth wanted to lead the people who assembled out here to the spot where she was shot and killed to say a prayer for her. But as you see the sign there, it says under new management, they made it perfectly clear that if anyone came on property, they would be arrested for trespassing. And they chose not to do so. Remember, more than a month ago, Ben Crump was on our show and Ben Crump said they were having this rally.

I told Ben Crump that we would be here to live stream this rally in support of him. That's exactly what we did. Here is a roundup of what took place earlier today, noon central, 1 p.m. eastern, here in Baytown, Texas, where that rally was held just to seek justice for Pamela Turner. We're within a rock stone where her mother was executed, Mary Antone. Right across the street. Vice President Maché, I mean literally, right across the street.

Yep. literally right across the street. On her back. Five times he shoots hitting her in the face, in the chest and in the stomach. And it's such a difficult thing. I just want to thank everybody that came out. You know, it's very hard to do this here today across from where my mother was murdered. But I got to do it. And I just thank everyone for the support because I need it. My family needs it. And I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to try to act like this is not hard,

like it don't hurt, like I could just come out here and do this. No, I can't. All day yesterday, I'm supposed to be celebrating, you know. I'm 24, guys. I'm 24. And this is, you know, this is what I gotta do for the rest of my life. And, you know, I'm coming to terms with it. I'm starting to be okay with it. Because no matter what, I know she would do it for me.

I just want to thank everybody that came out and supported us. Today marked the 24th month, 24 months since Pam was executed. It's really hard for me to stand here in this area because, not just because of the 24 months that's, you know, since she's been gone, but in 1993 when she graduated, that's where I was living in this apartment complex back here, and it was a different name, and that's where she lived. It was the first apartment that she lived in, and it was the first apartment that she lived in and it was the last apartment that she lived in. My Lord.

And it's very emotional and heartbreaking for me. As I said, there were a number of people who spoke earlier today, including Tamika Mallory, Until Freedom, Attorney Monique Presley, and others. Folks, let me know when we have a sound of them. It was, and, but not only that, you had the families of other African Americans who have died at the hands of police. Family members of Breonna Taylor were here. The father of Jacob Blake, he also spoke here today as well. He was very passionate, demanding and calling for Congress, especially President Joe Biden, to pass the George Floyd Justice Act.

One of George Floyd's brothers was also at this rally as well. And so it was, and that's one of the things that we have seen where the family members of individuals who have been impacted by violence. They've also spoken to the folks in our control room. If y'all could just pull up. So it's it's it's it's it's it's us. Now you can look, y'all can pull some stuff. And so just let me know when we have that. And so we're going to show some of that a little bit later. If y'all folks, if you actually want to see that particular rally, just simply go to our YouTube channel. We actually live streamed it earlier. It was on our YouTube channel. And so you can actually check that out. And so there were some issues out here that we connected to the

audio, but don't worry about it, folks. You still will be able to hear some of that. And so we want to be able to hear it, to bring attention, because there are so many cases like this, so many cases like this that doesn't get attention, that people don't even hear about. In fact, while we were out here, there were people who literally were walking up to us. One brother was talking about a case of police abuse at the hands of police. Another woman came up to tell me about officers tasing her son seven years ago. And the investigators, the medical examiner, ruled that his death was a homicide and still no justice. That's one of the things that often happens when we cover these rallies, where you'll

have family members who come out here and no one speaks for them. No one tells their story. In fact, the mother of Robbie Tolan was out here. Folks, y'all might remember that story. It happened in Bel Air, Texas. Bel Air is a city that's inside of the city of Houston. It is near the Galleria. Well, Robbie Tolan was a baseball player at Prairie View A&M University. He is the son of a former Major League Baseball player. Robbie Tolan and his friend were coming home, and as they were coming home, officers descended upon their home saying that the car was stolen. Tolan goes into the front door yelling and screaming for his parents. He was scared to death.

Officer ends up shooting him. Tolan, baseball career over. He was paralyzed at that particular point. Later he recovered, but baseball career is over. Ben Crump spoke out here earlier, and he said that was one of the few cases where it went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court ruled in the case of qualified immunity. And so his mother spoke and she said when they went through their ordeal, she said the community did not rally behind us in Baylor, Texas. And so what and so there are people out there and I hear this all the time from folks who will say, well, you know, this is this is, you know, black porn. I've always seen these shootings. But people need to understand, if you're out there critical of Ben Crump and critical of Tamika Mallory

and critical of the people who are bringing attention to these shootings, what you should be asking yourself is, if one of your family members was shot and killed, would you want the community coming to your aid? The people who have actually lost sons and daughters to police violence, they're in a fraternity and sorority nobody wants to be a member of. But what we do hear from them is important, as they say, that somebody is speaking up for them. That's one of the reasons why they had that rally out here earlier today. I want to bring in my panel right now, Recy Colbert, Black Women Views. We have Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department

of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Amisha Cross, she's political analyst and democratic strategist. Greg, I'll start with you to that particular point. When you look at this thing from a historical perspective, African-Americans who have been lynched. You've had black churches, pastors, community leaders raising attention, raising awareness. And there are a lot of people who today who criticize when they see settlements, when they see lawyers flying on private jets, not realizing that there are celebrities who've actually loaned those jets to allow these attorneys to be able to go from city to city with these various court cases.

The problem, Greg, is that there are so many cases. The problem is that Ben Crump is working on, at any given time, 20 and 30 different cases. And so it's always interesting to me to listen to the haters who cry about the people who are showing up at rallies, putting it on the front line, bringing attention to the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Akia Jones, Ayanna Jones, and so many others, and not realizing that if it wasn't for this attention, many folks wouldn't have no idea of who these folks are and justice would not be sought. That's right, Roland. This is a symptom, not the underlying cause. Unfortunately, we live in a society where celebrity and platform

are so deeply intertwined in this capitalist structure that it creates a situation where you have individuals who are trying to do good work, who are kind of magnified beyond that. I find it disgusting. In fact, the word today, one of the words we should always be thinking about is pressure. So there shouldn't be a Ben Crump. There should be lawyers. There should be an army of lawyers, local lawyers, regional lawyers, state-level lawyers, who win these incidents of hunting. And that's what it is. In a moment, you'll talk about Georgia with Ahmaud Arbery and what happened in Atlanta. These patirolers, these devils are hunting. And as they hunt, we should hunt back.

And in order to hunt back effectively, there should not be a, Ben Crump shouldn't have to get on anything. Tamika shouldn't have to get on anything and travel anywhere where they don't hit the ground, and there's an army of local people who have already organized, who are already there to meet them. And I'm glad you mentioned the Tolan case, Robbie Tolan, and of course his father Bobby. I'm just old enough to remember when Bobby Tolan was playing for the Cincinnati Reds in the early 70s.

You know, those pat-a-rollers, that pat-a-roller executioner was actually charged by the Harris County prosecutor, your home county down here in Texas, and a pat-a-roller favorable jury let him go. And so I guess what I'm saying is finally that the fact that we have these handful of individuals who are so readily identifiable really doesn't have much to do with them. It has everything to do with the fact

that all more people need to, and here's the second word, the first is pressure, because it's the external pressure that brings anything to bear. The second word is organize. You hear that, lawyers? You hear that, lawyers? You hear that, lawyers? You need to put Ben Crump out of a job. And guess who would be the most relieved person in the world

should he be relieved of crossing the country like that? I suspect his name might be Benjamin Crump. Mm-hmm. You know, on that particular point there, Amisha, one of the things that Reverend Dr. James Dixon said today, and again, if you look at this shot here, obviously it's an empty parking lot, but you had a couple hundred people out here, and there were very few people from Baytown, Texas, and he talked about what happens in a lot of these cities, how people have been so beaten down and frustrated

that it requires folks from outside to come in and help mobilize and organize. But to Greg's point, that's exactly what often happens, that it requires folks to come from other parts of the country to bring attention. But you should have the local organization, those things taking place. And not all cases, not all cases become national. And what people have to understand is even Trayvon Martin, people forget I was in the middle of that. People, national media didn't jump on that. We had to force them to do it.

I was at CNN and we were imploring them. We had to force them to do it. And it was social media. It was black media that was actually raising the attention before mainstream all of a sudden woke up. That's why we have to keep doing this. You're absolutely correct, Roland. I think that there has to be an understanding that mainstream media does not respond to cases of crimes against Black people, particularly when they're crimes that the police have committed.

And that only comes when we see this concerted effort amongst those on the ground to actually organize and get on social media and to raise a stink, to advocate in the communities, to march in the streets. Those are the type of things that get the national media attention. But there are dozens upon dozens of cases that will never get national media attention. And that does not make them any less important

or any less egregious. This one in particular hits home for me because as a kid who had a schizophrenic mother who ended up being incarcerated due to her mental illness, due to her mental health, it disturbs me that in over 80% of cases, when it comes to black people being arrested at the jail level before they even are convicted of a crime, in large part it is because of a mental illness. Our police forces across the country are not equipped to handle mental health issues. And to know that someone lost their life due to the sheer fact that they had a verifiable mental illness is a real problem. And I think that we need to recognize that this happens in silos across the country, in rural areas and urban areas where police officers pull their gun first and they ask questions later.

And if you're someone who is bipolar, if you're someone with schizophrenia, if you're someone who has anxiety disorders or anywhere on that spectrum, you are someone who has a target on your back. And it's frustrating because our system has yet to move beyond that point where mental illness is criminalized. And mental illness in many cases equals death. And I think that elevating this case to the importance that was needed two plus years ago when it actually happened in Texas is something that is extremely important. But we also have to recognize that within our system, there is not a real push to ensure that those who have mental health issues are actually taken care of, that they are not that those who have mental health issues are actually taken care of, that they are not criminalized for those mental health issues, that there are mental health

clinics and other areas that actually reach them and can help them through this process that doesn't treat them as if they are other, that doesn't treat them as if they are going to harm somebody else. What we know about mental health in this country is that in the majority of cases, they are more of a harm to themselves than they are anybody else ever. So I think that we really need to take into consideration how we treat the mentally ill across this country, particularly if that person who's suffering from mental illness looks like you or I. That's right. Rishi, one of the things that was talked about at the rally today, and Tamika Mallory and Monique talked about this, was the fact that in many cases when black women have been impacted at these shootings,

you don't get the same attention, if you will, as others. And it was important for a number of these brothers to come out here and to stand for justice for Pamela Turner, because oftentimes it is, you will see folks standing up when a black man is killed, but not necessarily the black woman. Absolutely. I mean, Malcolm X is the one who said the least protected woman in America is the Black woman. And I think it's important that we understand that Black women are victims of police brutality. It's not an oppression Olympics. It's not a competition. It's we all are vulnerable to this sort of excessive force and deadly force. And I think Amisha really hit the nail on the head when it comes to mental health. What's so disturbing in this situation is that we see over and over again

where you have white people who have come in contact with the police, and sometimes they're using force against the police, whether it's their fists or whether it's, you know, a weapon, and they come out of the situation alive. We have to make it such that police officers, look, you're the one who's trained for that. Okay, so they say Pamela Turner used the taser against him, but did you die? No. So how is a proportional response to a taser shooting somebody four times or multiple times. It's not a proportional response. Another thing, too, though, is a problem is the sense of urgency that these cops inject into these situations. If Pamela Turner had an outstanding warrant, and we've seen this in

other cases where there was an outstanding warrant supposedly, do you have to resolve it at that exact moment? If somebody, as Amisha said, is having a mental episode, you know where this person lives, they're not a flight risk, why can't you de-escalate the situation and return to the situation at another time? It's like they have to, as Dr. Carr put it, hunt, and they have to get their prey in that exact moment.

And there's no attempts whatsoever made to de-escalate, to return to the situation. The same thing happened with Rayshard Brooks that we're going to talk about later. So what if he took off running? He was unarmed, and you knew where the man lived. You knew where he was going. It wasn't a situation where you had to employ your weapon and kill. issue and a racism issue as well, where we, where, where cops are given license to try to, you know, resolve every single warrant or every single traffic stop, no matter the consequence, even if it results in death. But as far as black woman goes, yeah, we need everybody to show up to

black woman. That's why hashtag say her name became a thing because black women are not as, as not as cared for when they are the victims. Folks, as I said, this is a shot here of the apartment complex. We were we've been here since actually the last six hours or so. There was a rally that took place the last about two and a half hours in this parking lot. This is a collection of baseball fields in this parking lot here. And we are, that's, you can actually, but across the street, across the street is the parking lot. And so this is, excuse me, is the apartment complex where Pamela Turner was gunned down two years ago today.

Here is more of the rally that took place earlier today calling for justice for Pamela Turner. Thank you so much. Let's give Monique Presley, attorney Monique Presley, a round of applause. Y'all can do better than that. Y'all can do better than that. Yeah. So one of the things that I've learned early in life is that after someone has blessed the mic, you don't go and try to repeat everything that they already said. And so I won't stand here before you long attempting to repeat the awesome words and the knowledge that was dropped on us by attorney presley the one thing i know about this sister is that every time i hear her open her mouth i get educated i don't know if y'all listen to her on roland martin unfiltered on fox news channel on every outlet everywhere and on her own lives that she does. But she is

constantly educating black people. And I appreciate the fact that she shows up in places and spaces that are hard, they're tough, and seeks to represent us as black people. And certainly my other sister, this is my fighting queen. We in the trenches. We in the hood fighting. We outside ready to go and do whatever needs to be done. And that's my sister, Teslyn Figueroa. She is a fighting, fighting sister. Straight shot, no chaser. And here we are.

You know, we're beyond the point of being politically correct we passed that point that's over at least it's for me it's over i am not of the turn the other cheek generation i'm really not i'm gonna be honest with y'all and i know i need to grow up ben i know i need to work on myself i need to get therapy and all of those things. I understand that. Trust me. But I also have decided that I'm prepared to give my life for what I believe in. And sometimes that might not look too nice and clean to some folks, right? Because we're ready to step up and speak up. And right now, we're in a moment where truth is all that matters.

Telling the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may make you, no matter how much people may castigate you, you might be marginalized. Folks don't like us much, do they, Teslin? They don't like us. They don't like you much, do they? They don't like us much. And that's okay. That's all right. All right. That's what matters is that our people love us. And from New York City all the way to Baytown, Texas, we came to say that black women matter and that we will fight until we die on behalf of black women. If not us, who? Who else will stand up for us if we don't stand up for us?

And because people don't necessarily like us and because we're always running our mouths, we ruffle flat feathers. We do it all the time. And we're prepared to stand up to our own people who look like us, who are in positions of power, and they are sometimes the biggest obstacles to us getting what it is that we need. And so we will call them out and we will, of course, make sure ain't no white man, no white woman going to step to us in our communities and tell us a damn thing about who we are and how we should fight for our people. That's where we stand. So I'm happy to be here in Baytown today. but a virtual book tour that has me sitting in front of a computer all day long for my new book that was released just two days ago called State of Emergency. But regardless, I got up, got on the flight to come and stand with Chelsea

and Pam Turner's family because this matters. Just like we stood in Louisville, Kentucky with Breonna Taylor's family and Bianca Austin, her aunt, who has been fighting for her when nobody would say Breonna Taylor's name, is here. We know if they're here, we must be here. If Chelsea has to be here, I have to be here. If I have to be here, you have to be here. Because that's what this fight is all about. It's not us who.

And it's not now when. It is our responsibility to stand up for our own people, and that's what we intend to do. Is that right, y'all? All right, that's good, that's good. May 25th, we will be again standing with this family because there is a court date that will be happening. We can listen. When the police kill us, they show up for their officers regardless of whether they are right or wrong. They stand up for theirs. They show up for their colleagues.

They are present and they fight for their own. They don't care about whether or not, well, our communities aren't a monolith. You know, I don't know. I need to see the facts. Where's the rest of the video? You know, I heard that he was down there messing with them drugs. You know, she had a man and that man, he was too good. That's what we do to our own people. But when it's time to fight for police, they stand up for their own regardless of the story. They don't care about their records. They don't care about their past because they recognize that they are protecting

the blue. That's what they're there for and we ought to be protecting the black. We ought to be protecting the black. So they stand for theirs and we stand for ours and we will continue to do that. I want Bianca Austin, a woman who unfortunately has had to be out here on the front line. When I first heard about Breonna Taylor, the second thing, it was two things that I heard. The first was her mother, her name is Tamika. And I said, wow, how does she spell it? Because that's what Tamika's do. We want to know how you spell.

You remember I asked, how does she spell it? And they said she spells it T-A-M-I-K-A. That's how I spell mine. I said, okay, I'm on my way. I'm almost there. Me and her, we together. And now Tamika Palmer and I are good sisters. That's my girl.

We talked on the way here. Now we've transcended from just talking about Breonna Taylor to dealing with how we stand for justice for other families and other people. And again, that's my family. Let's give Tanika Palmer and the family of Breonna Taylor a hand. Let's do that. But the second thing I heard, I heard it from Ben Crump. I heard it from Attorney Lanita Baker, who is also a fighting sister, an attorney in Louisville, Kentucky, that need to know. She should be just like Ben, probably attorney general of this country. At one point, Ben Crump is already the black attorney general. We working on making him everybody's attorney general. Yeah, okay. We working on that. But the second thing that everyone said is that Breonna Taylor

has an aunt, an aunt who created all of the material that folks were beginning to see and that she had been fighting in the trenches for her niece and standing oftentimes alone. And there are a lot of people who want to claim that they were the ones that gave Breonna Taylor the type of spotlight that she needs. But the truth of the matter is that outside of a few organizations on the ground there in Louisville, it was because of Bianca Austin's work that Breonna Taylor's name is all over the world. And Until Freedom came in and supported Bianca's work, and we respect that and know. So every time they try to say, well, why did Until Freedom go to Louisville? We need you to come here. Bianca Austin said try to say, well, why did until freedom go to Louisville? We need

you to come here. Excuse me. Yes, we did. We absolutely needed it because we needed to make sure internationally that Breonna Taylor was known. So come on up. That's right. We have to make sure that we tell our own people the history so that you all can go and spread it as well. So let's hear from Bianca Austin, the aunt of Breonna Taylor. She said her name has now changed to Bre Taylor, Bre Taylor. It's Bre-way for me. Bianca. All right, folks, we're still here in Baytown, Texas.

When that rally was over, I had a chance to talk to Ben Crump about why they were here, why this was so important, and why we must continue to fight on behalf of black men and black women who are losing their lives to police violence. I have this Justice for Pam Turner rally. I told you Roland Martin was gonna be here, we're here. I can't tell you how much it meant you being here Roland Martin to say that Pam Turner life matters. So often black women don't get the attention Roland that brothers get.

So you being here brother, that was huge for Pam Turner's family. So this is, so bring folks up today in terms of where we are with this. This took place in May of 2019. May of 2019. This is the two-year anniversary today. And we have, ironically, Roland, the status conference for Pamela Turner's killer cop, Officer De La Cruz, is on May 25th, the same day that George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And so we have to, like we paid attention to George Floyd trial, we got to pay attention to Pam Turner trial.

So he was, so the Officer Cruz, he was, he was, he was indicted, not for murder, not for- Manslaughter. Not for manslaughter. He was charged with- for murder, not for manslaughter. He was charged with aggravated assault by a public official. But she's dead. She's dead. But that carries more sentencing time than manslaughter.

And it's a lesser standard. And I hope, I can't take their word for it, Roland, I hope they're trying to be strategic to make sure he's convicted. If he is convicted with that charge, it can go up to 25 years. Okay. All right. And so, but the date is going to be set, so the trial is not beginning on May 25th? The trial is not beginning on May 25th. It was set for trial, but they changed it to a status conference because of COVID-19.

So they told us that they are not asking for a continuum. They claim they are ready to go to trial now. So we expect in the next three months to get a trial date for our sister Pamela Turner. But in this case, he is a perfect example of what we keep talking about why you should be sending mental health professionals to the scene he was a clearly disturbed woman uh and the officer again uh he pulls his gun out and fires her it was just her i saw the video it was one of those things where he could step back and let me know when you're done yeah Yeah. He was in no intimate threat. I mean, she is on her back, Roland.

He could have. On the ground. Yeah. He could have created distance. He could have gave a verbal command. He could have got behind a car to set up a perimeter. He could have called for backup. He could have did anything except shoot this black woman, who he knew was unarmed, in her face, in her her chest and in her stomach killing her

like worse than a dog well this is also why I just wouldn't have communities out here coming out so this report as well because you heard what Robbie told his mother said you know when I remember that case I had them on the town during the morning show and and you didn't you didn't have folks who were rallying. That's what's also important for the community to understand. And also having these families here because unfortunately they are members of a fraternity sorority nobody wants to be a part of, to have them showing their support as well. Yeah, it really matters, Roland.

And I know people don't understand completely what it means when Roland Martin goes to Elizabeth City, North Carolina for Andrew Brown. Or you come to Lamarck, Texas for Joshua Feast. Or you come to Baytown, Texas for Pamela Turner. Because a lot of times, mainstream media don't cover our cases until we start covering our cases with social media. It was the same thing with Trayvon. You remember, you were one of the first interviews. It was just college students on social media.

And then when we start making it important, then the mainstream media jump on the bandwagon. So thank you for never jumping on the bandwagon. No, no, no. We're leading the way. That's right. We don't jump on the bandwagon. So thank you for never jumping on the bandwagon. We're leading the way. That's right. We don't jump on the bandwagon. From the bottom of my heart for Andrew, for Joshua's family and for Pam Turner. I appreciate it. We'll steal the case. All right. I appreciate it, baby. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. So as I said, on May 25th, on May 25th, they will go to court where they will announce what is going to be the trial date for the officer, Della Cruz, who shot and killed Pamela Turner. And as you heard, as Ben Crump said there, and Greg, I want to go to you here.

This is and I need everybody who's listening to me right now. Now, you heard Ben Crump say, although it sounds like the officer is going to be tried for a lesser crime, if convicted, it actually carries more time than if it was murder or manslaughter. Why am I saying that? Because what happens a lot of these times, Greg, folks will start protesting, dying for murder, murder, murder, murder. And these are folk who don't understand the law. And so I've had times where being corrupt and lawyers have been saying to the community, yo, I need y'all to pipe down and chill because you're actually arguing for a higher standard for them to get convicted. They could get convicted on a lower charge, but actually serve more jail time.

And so for the folk who are out there who are jailhouse lawyers or wannabes, this is why you've got to listen to the attorneys and not just jump out there yelling for somebody to get indicted for murder when you don't know how the law works. Yeah, that's true, Roland. It's one of the reasons why, I'm sorry, the sun is shining in my face a little bit. That's one of the reasons why I think it's very important for us to understand that there are a lot of moving parts in any struggle. The courtroom dimension of a struggle requires our best legal minds and requires those legal minds to be in conversation

with every other piece of the struggle, whether it be community organizers, whether it be folk getting together on a national and international level, to understand that you have to know not only what charges you want to bring, but no charges in the abstract. You've got to know if you're trying to put pressure on a prosecutor in a locality, what the context is, what the jury pool is. You have to understand, you know, who the judges are on the bench. And yes, it may carry ultimately a larger potential sentence.

But if there's no mandatory requirement for a judge, that is if and which, if the jury convicts, which is why you have some decisions to make, perhaps charge on a lesser charge, hoping to give the jury options. All these things are moving together. Finally, for those of us who are involved in and I agree with with with Ben Crump there as it relates to the role that you play. For those who are involved in mass media, understand something right now, because as we're sitting here having this conversation, Israel just sent its army into Gaza Strip. And meanwhile, mass commercial news media, who is beholden to that whole mafia that holds up that apartheid situation over there, is making the false equivalency of rockets versus airstrikes. I'm saying that to say this, the way you get around that, the way you organize, the way you build momentum is to take the temperature of this dialogue down, which means

stop looking at mass commercial entertainment media, who's really trying to play a shirts and skins game and keep their ad buy up, and tune into the platform that you are building, which allows us then to explain to folk that part of the role that those of us who are not lawyers, who are not in politics, who are not mass-level organizers, part of the role we have is to make sure that we support with the resources, that we surround the folks who are on the front line in those ways with resources, and then trust them to advocate on us as we play the other role we have, which is to organize to put pressure on these folks. There's a lot of moving parts.

It's not as simple as people try to make it out to be. Well, and that's one of the reasons why I must say, Recy, I love our people because when we were here, I had a brother who he wanted me to know. He came up to me, Reesey, with a photocopy of his Bring the Funk check and handed it to me. And then literally handed me out of here. And then two other brothers just walked up and just put the cash in my hand. They were like, we ain't mailing nothing.

They were like, we're going to support on the spot. And so I certainly appreciate folks for their support. But, again, when we talk about why the lawyers matter, to hear Ben Crump describe that, because we were in Dallas, and the folks we were at, there was an event in a church and people were people were jumping on the D.A. who was there at the time was a black Republican woman who was jumping on her about indicting Amber Geiger for murder. I remember when we being put me to a side, he said, I wish the folk here would listen to us before they start saying stuff. He said what they don't realize is the moment an officer is convicted, then that actually removes the liability of the city.

He said that will have a negative impact on the settlement that goes to the family. Have y'all heard an announced settlement for the Botham Jean family in his shooting death? You have not. There's a reason why. And so for the people, again, who don't understand what lawyers do, there were people recently who were saying, well, this settlement with the George Floyd family was about to influence the jury. What they didn't realize is the greatest leverage for a family to reach a financial settlement is before there is a trial.

Right. You've got to listen to the lawyers they they do this stuff for a reason absolutely and i've seen people criticize benjamin crumb for instance and say that he never gets a conviction well he's a civil rights attorney not a you know a defense attorney or prosecutor but to your point i mean this discussion reminds me of the laquan mcdonald and jason van dyke case as talking about how you charge somebody and thinking about the sentences, Jason Van Dyke was convicted of 16 counts, including second degree murder. And even with that amount, that multitude of charges that he was convicted with,

he was only sentenced to 81 months, which is just shy of seven years. And so it's not just about what you're charged with. It's about the sentencing requirements. As Dr. Carr said, sometimes there are not minimum sentencing requirements. So even a charge like murder doesn't carry the same sentence once it's in the judge's hands. And so we really do need to focus on results. What is the end result that we're trying to see from this situation? What does justice, as much justice as you can get from the fact that you cannot bring that loved one back, look like?

And what is the strategy behind it that's going to bring some sort of comfort and consolation to the family, as well as remove a murderer, an executioner from the streets? And so, sometimes as Black people, we do get so caught up on the rhetoric. We get so caught up on what we feel like are these moral victories, and what it says

to charge somebody with murder, and we kind of lose sight of the strategy. And that was one of the things that Marilyn Mosby was criticized for in Baltimore. And I thought she showed incredible courage in how she charged those officers and the Freddie... who killed Freddie Gray, but she was accused of overchar charged those officers and the Freddie who killed Freddie Gray. But she was accused of overcharging them. And the standard was just too high.

So she was not able to get any convictions. And so we do have to be strategic. I think it does make sense to let the lawyers really try to lead the strategy, that the families lead the strategy and let the families decide what what justice looks like for them and their families. And I saw Dr. Carr kind of winced a little bit about the civil settlement kind of interfering with the criminal conviction, interfering with the civil settlement. But I'm not saying that you disagree with me on this point, Dr. Carr, but I will say I would defer to the family in terms of what they feel most comfortable with for their own loved ones. As far as for society, we need those convictions. We need to send a message that you is not open season on Black people. But I do think that Benjamin Crump has shown that there is a way to be strategic. And in the George Floyd case, he his family was able to get

the settlement. And then, you know, the officer was convicted as well, and it did not interfere in any kind of way. Well, Amisha, I only brought that up, I only brought that up because I've talked to a lot of attorneys in these cases, and I've asked those questions. Hey, how do you deal with the timing? How do you deal with that in terms of settlements? When do you make those moves? And what they've said is they say what they say, what the public has to understand is that legal settlements in these cases are strategic. And it's that we have and we have to understand when the right pressures apply, what's going on. And so that was one of the things.

And here's the piece. The settlement in the George Floyd case was one of the largest settlements ever in one of these shootings. There is a reason. And so that's just what I just try to explain to people, again, who don't know, understand there is strategy behind a lot of these decisions. Misha, go ahead. Yeah, you're absolutely right here, Roland. I feel like there are so many social media attorneys who've used Facebook and Twitter as their mouthpiece as we continue to see the growing number of cases like this that have been televised. And, you know, they're basically just shouting

out opinions. Everybody wants the highest charge given and doesn't really recognize the burden of proof that it takes to actually see that come to fruition down the road. But I also think that there is a contingency that, quite frankly, just doesn't understand the process but talks about it anyway. So we have to lead the lawyering to the actual lawyers, the people who went to law school, the folks who have passed the bar, the folks who are actually fighting on behalf of these families. But beyond that, we also have to understand that, like you pointed out a minute ago, depending on the state that you're in, there are very stark differences between the time that you could possibly serve for a crime at its highest level versus some of these other charges that may be there. And we have to be mindful that the burden of proof largely increases the higher the charge. So I definitely think that it makes a difference to understand just how this all works, but also the settlement aspect.

Because in the majority of these cases, even if a police officer walks off, which is what happens in 99%, and I say that not as an exaggeration. In 99% of cases where a police officer is charged in a fatality, they end up walking. Their only relief that can possibly happen in the majority of these family situations where they're left putting the pieces back together is a settlement. And to do anything that would diminish that for them, a settlement, no matter what the size, is not going to bring back somebody who was abused and, you know, fatally murdered by a by a police officer. But it does matter. And I think that anything that goes against or could diminish that for a family is not something that we should be standing for. There should be more of an understanding in the in the African-American community specifically about how these trials work, but also how the

settlement process works. Because quite frankly, I think that in many cases, just as Recy brought up earlier, they see it as, well, Benjamin Crump lost this or he lost that. And they're not really recognizing first and foremost that he's not on the defense team. This is not his job. But on top of all of that, when we're talking about these settlements, for many families, that is the essential win. Again, nothing brings back their family. But in 99 percent of cases, these officers will walk. And if an officer is going to walk, because we haven't reached in America the point at which black lives are treated as white lives when it comes to murder, detriment, and all types of chaos that happens, then what do we get from this? And I think that the settlement process historically has been one that we've seen happen in city after city. But again, depending on who it is, we see these

stark variances between how much is given to families. And in large part, that is due to people kind of jumping the gun when it comes to some of these charges. So I'm glad that Benjamin Crump elevated that because it's a very important thing to know. Well, and again, and I just want folks to remember, I just want people to remember when we talk about settlements, we didn't lose a family member. We're not the ones who are taking care of somebody's children. And so I am very sensitive, Greg, Recy, and Amisha, to the community. And people say we want justice. Jacob Blake's dad and Robbie Toland's mom and Gwen Carr, Eric Garner's mother and Sandra Bland's mom and John Crawford III's dad, the reality is this. I think the public, the people out there who comment, need to remember they buried a loved one.

They're now in a lot of cases having to take care of grandchildren because somebody was killed at the hands of police. And so I'm very sensitive when people have issues with settlements because we're not the ones who have to take care of families once somebody's gone. I do want to talk about this here in Georgia where, and we see this all the time, where the attorneys representing the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery now want to include his criminal history in his trial. The legal team of Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Rod A. Bryan insists that Aubrey should be held accountable for the theft crimes he committed and, quote, his angry and aggressive physical and verbal behavior. Now keep in mind, Ahmaud Aubrey was never detained for theft.

That was never proven. Prosecutors have strongly objected to including these details as evidence because they did not know the incidents when they pursued and killed Arbery. The McMichaels continued to argue that Arbery was a burglar suspect who had been stealing items from the neighborhood. They also claim they shot him in self-defense after he, quote, attacked them, although he ran in the opposite direction. Of course, they have pleaded not guilty in a federal court on hate crimes charges. Their state murder trial will take place on October 18th.

Also in Georgia, a man is suing the officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks. That officer, of course, is Garrett Rolfe. Now, Charles Johnson is seeking a million dollars. Johnson was stopped by Officer Garrett Rolfe for a DUI Johnson is seeking a million dollars. Johnson was stopped by Officer Garrett Rolfe for a DUI just a month before Brooke's death. The suit claims during the stop, Rolfe broke Johnson's collarbone among inflicting other minor injuries, causing him to undergo two surgeries to repair his shoulder and lose more than $200,000 in income and medical expenses. Johnson says he did not do anything that would cause Roth to use force against him.

Roth claimed that Johnson was resisting arrest. Body cam and dash cam videos, quote, are not available for release at this time, pending an open investigation and litigation, according to the Atlanta Police Department. Remember, Roth was fired after the death of Brooks in May of last year, but was reinstated this month due to the city not properly following protocols uh protecting officers from being fired uh also folks uh in minneapolis the trial for the three cops who were involved in the death of george floyd uh that trial will be moved to march of 2022 the reason for things to cool off when it comes to all the attention surrounding the

conviction of derrick Chauvin, which I don't understand why you're saying cool things off. He's going to go to court in June, Reesey, to be sentenced. The trial was supposed to start in August with the other three officers. Now they moved to March 2022. I mean, Jesus, we still see how cops get the benefit of the doubt, because I take it if any one of us did something, they would be waiting for things to cool off. Right. And I mean, this is why you have to have a rally on the anniversary of a death, because what they try to do is they try to drag it out.

They try to help people forget the hope that people go home and move on to the next police shooting or move on to the next controversy or whatever the situation may be. And I don't think that they're going to be able to wait this out. As far as cooling it off, what the hell is that supposed to fucking mean? That is ridiculous. You don't cool off because at the end of the day,

you cannot bring George Floyd back. It's not going to be any less tragic and it's not going to be any less of a big deal and a big story in March of 2022. And so all they're doing is just dragging this out, and it's just not going to go away. And I wish that they would not do that because, unfortunately, they are prolonging the amount of time

that George Floyd's family gets to have justice and gets to have closure. They're never going to have the closure in terms of their grieving process, but at least the closure in terms of the criminal justice system process. And so that is so unfair to the family. And this just is how they just continue to just rig the game against victims of police brutality. Also, the judge, you have a federal trial. And so the judge said that before jury selection begins with the state trial of these cops, he wants the federal trial to move forward

first. You have all of this back and forth, bottom line, Amisha, it's about seeking justice. Folks want them go to trial so they can also be dealt with for the death of George Floyd. No, you're absolutely right here. I think that there is a fever pitch amongst those who were in the streets for an exorbitant amount of time last year. Let's not forget that the George Floyd protests were the longest-standing civil rights protests that America has ever seen. And I think that on the back end of that,

we've seen so many Republican states push these laws, these bills that they have initially described, basically to end black people fighting for civil rights and justice in the streets. And I think that that comes into play when we're talking about these other officers facing the music as well. Because many people honestly felt like after Derek Chauvin had his day in court and after he was found guilty on all three charges, that this was done. And there are a lot of white Americans who just want to close the book on this, say, OK, black folks, you got what you wanted. You got somebody who got tagged. Now let's all move on. It shows that justice can be served. It shows that a jury can actually stand in your favor. It shows that America is not racist. Let's move on. We saw a video. It was bad. Derek Chauvin got tried. He got convicted. Let's live to see another day and keep it moving.

That is not what we are doing here because there were other culpable people there. These officers are culpable for not taking any types of efforts to stop Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd. These are officers who were also problematic, and these are officers who also ignored the oath that they took when they became police officers. So, yes, they should be held accountable. But to Risi's point again, I think that there is such a denial when it comes to the fact that they are some people who need to be held culpable. But there is also ignorance, I think, to the fact that they assume that just because Derek Chauvin, you know, he's gotten his trial over here, right now we can move on. We can prolong this for as long as possible. And hopefully people will stop talking about it. Hopefully, you know, there'll be more trials. There'll be more, there'll be more issues that

arise between now and whenever they set this trial forward that we don't have to think about it anymore. And I think that that's a problem because it shows just how many, just how many people within this, within this legal system, within the police department itself, as well as those who just ignore the fact that police brutality continues to happen. It shows just how much they really do not value black lives and the fact that they are willing to hide their hands when it comes to others who definitely deserve to have their day in court as well. They're just hoping that we will continue to, that we will not talk, that we will not protest, that we will not hashtag, and that they can go on with their days as if nothing ever happened. And Greg, on the Ahmaud Arbery case,

I mean, to see the attorney still playing these games about Ahmaud Arbery, so you want to continue to assert that he was stealing stuff. You got no proof. You got nothing. Just because you're claiming it don't mean it's true. Well, I mean, there is something that they could introduce in this process that might be able to create a pathway for them to admit his prior behavior. And by the way, we know that that's the playbook generally. These are subhuman animals who are out here,

and we were basically protecting humanity from these black animals. And so always trying to admit this prior stuff. But there is one possible pathway. It might require, you know, delving into the background of the father and son to demonstrate that somehow inbreeding might actually create a form of ESP. So that they might actually be able to know what was in the brain of Ahmaud Arbery at the time. Now, if they're willing to admit that and bring that in, perhaps they can get the prior

record in. But in all seriousness, shout out to the hillbillies of Georgia. Your cousin, Peter Cahill, the judge in Minneapolis, finally found a point of entry for exercising his own white nationalism by kicking the can down the road to 2022, trying to intervene on behalf of law enforcement. And I think it's important for us to understand that this isn't a country. It's not a nation. You understand? There are too many different moving parts. And I think one of the things we have to be better at as we organize, as we connect, as we communicate, is developing some centers, some nerve centers. It would be nice if one of the HBCUs would do it, but I don't really think that at this stage they're really in the frame of mind to do with any of them, so that we can begin to think more deeply about how these parts affect each other.

Every settlement, for example, the $27 million settlement in Minneapolis, which Chauvin's attorney tried to get Cahill to intervene, and he did intervene long enough to poll the jurors, but then that's preserved now for appeal. They're going to use that to appeal to get the verdict overturned. They probably won't succeed, but that's not really where I'm going with this. What I'm saying is that folk have to understand that every dollar that a city or municipality gives to a family is probably going to show up in a cut of social services so that that, in fact, and there is no right or wrong answer in this,

but what I'm saying is that we have to understand how all these pieces move together. So as we, as folks lose family members and are thrust into this spotlight that nobody wants, if we don't want this thing to unfold the way it's unfolding, then we need to put resources in the hands of those families. We need to be able to bump that up. The case you covered the other

day in Virginia with the sister who got stopped by Virginia straight troopers. There's even a consequence of legalizing recreational use of marijuana. What does that mean? That means the cops now are saying, okay, here's another way for us to perhaps generate revenue by trying to figure out ways to...

And you know this is what the police do all the time, because they are hunting. If you're a cop, you're part of a hunting group. You're all hunting. This whole technique of riding up on the back of somebody and hitting the lights, and then if they don't act right, that's your excuse to pull them over. Now you're trying to smell. Are you smoking weed? You hit them with a bunch of tickets, and then you hope that they don't contest and show up. That's a couple more dollars in the coffer.

And then when you shoot somebody in your hunt and they settle with the little municipality, you take that out of public services. You take that out of all kind of other stuff other than police. And then you pass a law like you're doing in Texas to say any municipality that tries to cut the budget of the police, we're going to say we are going to punish you. All of these things work together. And until we get some sentence for folks to have deep conversations about how these things work very specifically, we caught up like people running into brick walls. We don't understand anything. And then we sit back, which is why I don't have a whole lot of hope about the American Negro surviving.

But we fight not because we're going to survive. We fight because the alternative is to just sit down and take the L. And we simply can't do that. But understand their team is organized. They organize around whiteness. So shout out to those inbred brothers down there with ESP in Georgia and their cousin, Peter Cahill, because they all on Team White and Team White going to be whipping ass until we decide to get their hands up off us. Damn. All right, folks, we uh we gotta go to a break we're here in baytown texas when we come back uh we'll talk with the founder of radio one now urban one about this year's urban one honors honoring uh sisters who have been on the front lines not just in politics but also in social justice we'll chat with Kathy Hughes.

That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, again, broadcasting live here in Baytown, Texas, demanding justice for Pamela Turner. We'll be back in a moment. Are you trying to say that as of January 20th, that President Trump will be president? That depends on what happens on Wednesday. President Trump won this election. Do you think the election was stolen? Absolutely. At this point, we do not know who has prevailed in the election.

This fraud was systemic, and I dare say it was effective. This is a contested election. President Trump won by a landslide. I'll pull them this way! This is a contested election. President Trump won by a landslide. The outcome of our presidential election is seized from the hands of voters. We have to make sure that they look into what has been the theft of this presidential election. Joe Biden lost and President Trump won. Whatever happens to President Trump, he is still the elected president.

I would love to see this election overturned. No one believes that this guy got 80 million votes. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't look right. No ragtime group of liberal activists will be allowed to steal this election. The president wasn't defeated by huge numbers. In fact, he may not have been defeated at all. Over the next 10 days, we get to see the ballots that are fraudulent. And if we're wrong, we will be made fools of. Black women are fierce, brilliant, courageous, dope. Black women are making a difference, making history, and changing the world. I think about all of the black women who have showed up to fight for justice.

We are starting to finally accept all the skills and talents a woman can bring to the table. Urban One, thank you. This one is so special. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And... Well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered.

All right, fellas, welcome back to Roller Mark Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Baytown, Texas, where we were covering the rally earlier today for Pamela Turner, who was killed at this apartment complex two years ago today. And so if you want to see the results of the rally, it's on our YouTube channel. You can check that out when we are done. All right, folks, at this rally, at this rally, both Monique Presley as well as Tamika Mallory, they talked about black women and the role that they have been playing, organizing marching all across uh this country uh and not just uh in that particular area but also them uh leading areas such as media

business and politics and so this year's urban one honors airing on tv1 and cleo tv is focused specifically on black women uh i had the opportunity to co-host that with Erica Campbell, and I was asked to do so by Kathy Hughes, founder of Radio One, which is now known as Urban One, and she joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered, making her debut on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Ms. Hughes, glad to see you. How you doing? I'm doing great. Sorry that you all are down in Texas because this is my debut on your show. Love it. Watch it frequently. And just so, so thankful

that you were willing to host Urban One Honors with Erica Campbell. You did a great job, bro. And I want everyone to know that you saved the day. You rewrote the script. You directed. You did everything. You rewrote the script. You directed. You did everything.

And I thank you for that. I didn't do all that, y'all. But we did. We're not going to go out and have some dancing now. You know, being an alpha, you know, got to have a look. I got to have some dancing. And yet, Ricky Smiley, I know you jealous. But it's all good. But let's talk about why focus specifically this year just on black women and the role that they played in so many areas.

Roland, I've been frustrated for a long time how inaccurately black women are portrayed in movies, in the media, in music. And so many of our young women think that to be successful, they need to look a certain way. They must be a certain size. They concentrate on lashes and nails and weaves more than they concentrate on how to really make a difference in our community. So I wanted to show them some highly successful, highly accomplished black women who also look good, could afford those handbags that are so popular with young people, but more importantly, accept the responsibility for doing something that moves the needle for the progress of black people. Well, the thing that's important, I think, for me,

when it comes to Urban War Honors, just like when the Trumpet Awards is, it's not about entertainment. Look, I tell people all the time, I got nothing against entertainment. I watch it. I love it. But I do believe that we as African Americans, I dare say, are singing and laughing ourselves to death. And I think this generation of black folks need to see black people who are doctors, who are CEOs, who are politicians, who are activists, who are in in these roles that are not accustomed to to because that also represents the African diaspora.

It represents all that we are. We can do more than sing and dance. Absolutely. Or play ball. It's either sports or music to most young people because they don't see examples of high achievement, black excellence. And this all started with me deciding that I needed to do something to celebrate

the legacy of my mother and the international sweethearts of rhythm. And tell them, Roland, our music for this show is absolutely the best. Tim Burst worked for over a decade. He did all of Beyonce's music and all of her concerts, all of her stage performances. She took my mother's music from the 1930s and 40s and rearranged it into a contemporary presentation. It is absolutely hot and just incredibly fabulous. Because what bothered me is my mother lived all those years, all those decades without any type of recognition when she died. Over 140 news outlets covered her death. COVID took my mother. And because of the connection between COVID and the fact that she was an entertainer, all of a sudden they start telling her story. But out of those 18 women, only one is still alive. And I thought to myself, my goodness, why couldn't they have told the story

of the international three hearts of rhythm that Earl Father Hines called the very first freedom writers in the civil rights movement in this country while some of them were still alive? And then it dawned upon me, I've got a vehicle where I can tell the stories of success while these women are still alive, still actively involved. And I didn't want to miss this opportunity because historically, our honors has been an award show. It's been entertainment-based. Well, not this year. It's action and activity based instead. And that's why you were chosen. That's why you were asked to host. Because nobody knows more about what's going on in the black community than Roland Martin. I said that to you when I called and asked you, would you accept the hosting responsibility?

Nobody. You are like a walking encyclopedia on everything that's going on in the African-American community. And that was very important for me to have someone who not only could do a good job posting, but was knowledgeable. I mean, you shared stories with us that weren't even in the script. Well, I did a whole bunch of paying attention uh to uh my alpha brother and your good friend dick gregory uh and i was my mom mom and daddy made it clear uh you better read a whole bunch of books as much as you can and so uh that's that's why that's important and i certainly appreciate that uh because it it it again i go back to i go back to what this year's emphasis is, and that's why I also quickly said yes, because when we tell our story, when we are able to highlight these folks who are doing these amazing things,

I just think for the next generation, they're able to say, wait a minute, we can do way more than what we think about. When I see black people in private equity, when I see black people as scientists and doing, I mean, we talk about a COVID vaccine and you've got this sister who played a huge role in making that happen. I mean, those and then, of course, you got this doctor in Philadelphia, who one of the honorees who's out there with the mobile clinics and getting black folks tested for COVID trying to save lives. I mean, that's why we do what we do. And you, of course, the one coined the phrase information is power. And if we don't have the information, in many ways, we're powerless. Absolutely. I mean, this sister in Philadelphia paid for these tests because many of the people that she was testing were uninsured. So she paid

for it. She didn't know about the CARES Act being passed. She didn't even know that. She told the lab, test them, give me the results and bill me for the results. I mean, the things that Black women have done since the very beginning, I mean, Nicole Hannah-Jones. I thought that Dick Grayson and I were pretty well informed with our morning show. I did not know about 1619. I had no idea that a year before the Mayflower landed with the Pilgrims, that the slaves were, okay, the Africans were brought over enslaved to prepare the land for the white folks that were coming. The Mayflower had not even sailed when these Africans, enslaved Africans, were brought here to the shores of America. So it wasn't the Mayflower that first brought people to the shores of America. It was the white lion. That was the name of the selling vessel. And Nicole deserves a Pulitzer because a lot of people, I've asked so many people since I learned about her work.

You know what 1619 is? And they're like, no, what's 1619? I said, the arrival. Oh, no, that's not the right date. That's not the right date. They came after the Mayflower. And I said, no, they came before the Mayflower. I said, no, they came before the Mayflower. This sister, these women that we're going to be honoring that evening are so important. And then, Roland, you know that our lead-in is going to be this special with DMX that we did that he asked us to do three weeks before he died.

And we're doing it in two parts. First, Sunday night is the lead in to Urban One Honors. But then the second part at eight will be DMX. And then Monday night at 10 o'clock, the second part of the interview with DMX featuring his mother, his ex-wife and hopefully several of his 17 children. Let's go to questions from my panelists on the black women. So we're going to start with black women views on Twitter. Recy, Recy, your question for Kathy Hughes. Not a question so much as a comment.

I definitely want to thank you for choosing to highlight black women and leadership in particular this time. The reason why I'm on Roland Martin Unfiltered is because part of my charge was really combating the marginalization and erasure of now Vice President Kamala Harris. I hope I should have an honoree, but I hope that she gets a vignette or something during this workshop. She's the opening. She's the opening. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. No, she's the very first. She's up to bat first. She is the most powerful Black woman in America. She's up first. The most powerful woman of all time. Woman, period.

Yes, excuse me, correction. Exactly. The most powerful woman of all time is up first. And then it's Angela Davis right after her. Okay, okay. Power to the people. I just wanted to make that comment because I have to, if black woman in leadership is mentioned, I have to make sure if nothing else happens that Vice President Kamala Harris

is mentioned. So thank you again. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're so honored that she took the time to be with us. And in fact, I have to go early in the morning to the studio to do a pickup because our VOG Deanna Williams is not available tomorrow and

the Vice President's taping is only taking place late tonight. So we'll get it in the morning. She will lead the parade. That's wonderful. Thank you. And thank you for doing what you're doing because it bothers me still to hear newscasters on Fox

mispronouncing her name and referring to her like she's their next-door neighbor. Kamala Harris, like, they know her, okay? And you're right, the most powerful woman. I will stop saying most powerful Black woman. The most powerful woman in the United States of America deserves to be respected. Thank you.

Thank you. Recy can say she know her because, you know, don't everybody get a phone call from the vice president when she announced she pregnant and then when she had a baby. So Recy is almost a member of the family. Thank you. Yeah. So Recy is almost a member of the family. Thank you. Yeah. So Recy almost a member of the Harris family. So that's how she rolled. Amisha, your question for Kathy Hughes.

Well, first off, I wanted to thank you for all the work that you have done, not only recently, but over decades at this point. I think my question lies in why this year, when it came to changing what the honors actually look like, because we see so many award shows that quite frankly, award shows and different things now that, you know, everything is basically virtual that honor black women athletes that honor black women entertainers. Why was your move so important to honor people who have done so much in terms of civic engagement, in terms of pushing

legislation that matters, in terms of being the voice for the voiceless. I think that those women are oftentimes, you know, left to the relics of history if they're ever brought up at all, but they're not necessarily honored and definitely not honored while they're still living and breathing amongst us. So kudos to you for that. I think it's amazing. But I am wondering at this point in history, what was the pivotal moment for you? Why did you decide that now was the time to elevate these? The death of my mother to COVID. When the New York Times, New York Magazine, LA Times, CNN, MSNBC, I appreciated the coverage. Over 140 major news outlets covered it. But I cannot tell you how difficult those interviews were for me

and how bitter, quite frankly, I was that here's her highly accomplished orchestra of 18 accomplished musicians because they were women. They were left on the curb. And so I really came to the conclusion that I was criticizing a process that had affected my family directly that I had the ability to do something about. And so I knew that we were going to do Urban One Honors. And I'm like, well, I'm going to change the direction because how can I be critical of the fact that no one gave women because they were black primarily and because they were women the credit that they were justly Jews when I wasn't doing it? So it's kind of like, if not me, then who? And that's why I changed it.

I mean, the interviews that I did, I mean, as recent as the Grammy, she was on the In Memories scroll. Now, you know, just burst out crying once again. So much emphasis on her life now that she's gone. There's only one member of the band still alive out of 18 women in the band. None of them got to see that finally America, you know, said the job well done. And these women fought sexism and racism throughout the South, went to Germany. And the minute the war was over, they were left on the curb. All the men came back. The men weren't available to, you know, populate the bands, the orchestra, because they had to go to war.

As soon as they came back, the women were left on the corner. And, I mean, for years I asked people, have you ever heard of the Sweethearts of Rhythm? They're like, no, what's that? Even Kim Burst told me that as much as she has studied music and musicians, she had no idea. This sister had major surgery three weeks before we had to take her and the KB Players, all women's bands.

She told me she had to come in there on a stretcher. She said when she realized how this void had been created and these women had done so much, not just in music, but also in civil rights, fighting sexism and racism and still succeeding and had been forgotten. He said, oh, no, I was determined. And Roland, I tell you, this sister is unbelievably gifted and talented. The music for the show is the best, I think, presentation of any show I've ever seen with a major house band. And it's all women. Young women, too.

Well, you talk about history. The last person to ask a question will be Dr. Greg Carr. As you see with a stack of books behind him, he knows a little bit something about history. Dr. Carr, before you ask me a question, I got a question for you. Why wouldn't Howard University assemble that think tank that you were talking about so that we could connect all those dots? You're right. There needs to be a university, HBCU needs to sponsor a think tank to help us do a deep dive into how do these, all of these, because we get bits and pieces, but there's no effort to bring it all together so that we actually understand what's taking place.

Why wouldn't Howard University do that? Sister Hughes, I will say this as delicately as I can put it, and you have been working and building black institutions for a very long time, including lending your name and commingling it with the name of John H. Johnson on the School of Communications at Howard University. I think we both know that the distance between how we portray Black excellence and how we actually achieve Black excellence is still too uncomfortably large.

We've got to close that gap. We can't just say we're being excellent. You know better than anybody in this conversation. And as you say, that's why you went and got rolling. You've got to put the work in. I know we can do it, but perhaps with you saying that, I think we might actually close that gap a little bit. We should definitely have an extended conversation around that. I would be happy to, and I would be happy to lend my support to that. Back in my early days before even moving to Washington, D.C., I was very active with Nathan and his wife in California and the think tank. And so I came to that era.

Yes. So think tanks are critical to understanding and disseminating the information to the masses. So I'd be more than happy to have the conversation with you, but I would also be more than happy to petition Howard University to be that institution to call our Black intelligentsia together and let's really start connecting the dots for the masses. If we can't connect it for ourselves, how can we expect our masses to understand what's going on? Because I'm confused. Sister Hughes, you just

spoke to my heart. The great Nathan and Julia Hare, you know, of course, that one of the reasons Howard let Nathan Hare go, which is why San Francisco State says it has the first Black Studies program in the country, one of the reasons they let him go is because they accused him of spreading Black Studies at Howard. So this brings it full circle. Please, let's

talk. We could definitely do that. But I really, I don't want to, I know we're against the clock. I really want you, and you began to do it with Amisha. Could you talk a little about the great Helen Jones Woods? I mean, Malcolm X's birthday is next Wednesday,

and I know you got Omaha roots. And then as an educator, one of these books I have around here is one of the books by the great Lawrence Clifton Jones. Help the people who don't know, who may just know you as you emerged at W.L. and Institution Builder and then Radio 1 and now the whole network. Help them understand a little bit about your roots and how your mother plays in that, because that is a remarkable story. Thank you. You know, it's so interesting because Ancestry.com came to us with an idea for Black History Month.

And it was for a 20-year-old, a 40-year-old, a 60-year-old. My staff submitted my name while I was a little out of the age group. And my staff insisted. They said, no, research her. Turns out that my great-great-grandmother, my great-great-great-grandmother, three greats on my mother's side, was a slave. She freed all 11 of her children, escaped from Kentucky to Iowa, then raised the money. Charlotta Piles is her name, raised the money, went back and purchased the freedom of her two sons-in-law because she didn't want her grandchildren being reared without them. Frederick Douglass wrote poems to her and published them in the

Frederick Douglass Journal. She was a running mate of Harriet Tubman. There are letters that they have found where people were telling, written to Harriet Tubman saying, what you and Carlotta are doing is changing, okay, America. And so I said, oh my goodness, I had no idea. Okay. My mother said, I know about my grandfather, Dr. Lawrence P. Jones and Piney Woods School, which is still open. I had no idea that my great, great, great, great grandmother was an abolitionist. She spoke all over. She spoke in New York. She raised $1,500 twice to go back and spend $3,000 freeing the two men who had married her two daughters, so that her grandchildren would not be raised without them. And in Iowa, she's like a major

figure. They teach about her in the schools. I had no idea that this was my mother's great-great-grandmother. And my grandfather started Piney Woods School in 1909. We're still alive and well. In fact, now I'm trying to raise money because a tornado hit the school last week going through Mississippi, took down two buildings and knocked out all the windows in our dormitory. But we still have 150 kids that we board and educate. 100% of them go to college each year. And we have produced some of the biggest names in politics, medicine, and others. We take children who are economically deprived,

and we provide them education, housing, and love free of charge. We don't have any government support. We do all this with contributions, and we've been doing it now for 116 years. So it's kind of like I understood myself a little better when I learned about my great-great-great-grandmother, Charlotta Powell. Thank you. Thank you, Sister Kathy. In fact, I'm looking at my copy of Outside In, The History of Blacks in Iowa. Now I've got to go look her up tonight. Thank you for the homework. Charlotta Powell.

Yes, ma'am. I got it. Please call me so I would be happy to champion this think tank. I mean, what Nathan and Judith did was so instrumental in how I see my responsibility to the African-American community. Way before Dick Gregory and I, you know, worked together on my morning show, it was those think tanks. And I've wondered why over the years we have not been having them? Because also I tell young people all the time,

the movement always was triggered in a university setting. And it wasn't just in black universities. It also was in Kent State. I mean, so much of the progress was because what we started in black universities was spilling over into white universities, and white folks weren't going to have their children gunned down by the police on a college campus. They weren't going to tolerate certain things. And that helped move our needle on what we were trying to get done.

But it all started with an intellectual exchange that no longer exists in Black America other than for shows like Roland where Black intelligentsia as well as the community can come on and discuss and explore things. But we need more than just one Roland Martin and one unfiltered. We need a university to really, really, really dive deep into this. You are so correct. Thank you. So I'll help. That leads me.

Well, first of all, what I'll do is I will connect y'all to a text message. Y'all can hook that up. That's not a problem. Kevin, I got to ask you this here because it is something that has, I've literally said this in speeches for the last 30 years, and as somebody who has studied black media historically, first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, March 16th, 1827, they wrote, we wish to plead our own cause, too long have others spoken for us.

There's so much emphasis, ad ad dollars going to black targeted media not black owned and I've said to people and people have told me they're like Roland you're too fatalist and I said no I have a genuine concern that if we see black owned media fewer black owned radio

stations fewer black owned TV stations we see fewer African Americans owning digital properties as well, that we're going to be asking somebody else to tell our story. And I say that is the worst thing in the world 30, 40 years from now. We're going to have to ask somebody else, please, please, baby, please, can y'all please cover us and tell our story and just speak to, again, for folks who don't know how vital it is to have Black-owned media, not Black-targeted media. It's when you have to be in charge of your own information, because if not, it goes through

the filter of another culture's perception and experience. And what Frederick Devis, Ida B. Wells, what our ancestors understood is we should not expect for another culture to sing our praises, to tell our story, because they have their own stories. It's our responsibility. But what has happened over the years, when I started out with one little weak signal AM radio station in Washington, D.C., never could I have imagined that I would have ended up being the largest.

The reason primarily is because all those who came before me got down, got bought out, went away. They weren't able to prevail because one of the problems, one of the threats that black-owned media represents is that because we are in charge of our own distribution of information, that the truth will be told. So consequently, they chop us off at the knees. Right now, the big controversy is about these corporations that are not spending anywhere near the percentage of revenue with Black-owned businesses that is even comparable, even close to the amount of money

that we spend to buy their products and services. But Roland, I have to honestly say that part of the problem has to do with the black consumer. We have allowed ourselves to use our dollars for other people's benefit. It's like now we're finally understanding that how powerful our vote is. So when you have Black people who are bragging about loving empire and at the same time saying that they hate Fox News and not realizing that it's one bank account

controlling both the news and, okay, the programming, again, I got to go back to this think tank. We've got to help our consumers understand the power of our dollars. We have teenagers walking around with $2,000 and bags that have no idea that they, in fact, are financing their own suppression. They don't realize that we as consumers are using our dollars to enslave our own selves over and over and over again. What you said on Urban One Honors,

it's just not about slavery. It's about Jim Crow. It's about, okay, the fact that we have been tricked into thinking that the white man's ice is cold. And it's very, very difficult to get black consumers to understand that we create the entire economic system of America with humble. If we just did, you know, the famous play,

A Day of Absence. If we just did One Day of Absence and every black person in this country refused to spend $1, oh, we'd get a lot of progress made because this country could not survive with even a 24 hour short period of us being absent from the economic. But we aren't taught that. We don't understand it. I want to show you this. I love my social media followers because they send me stuff that I don't necessarily know about. Y'all, pull this up.

Kathy, this was an advertisement that ran in Ebony and Jet in 1970. John H. Johnson published this, and it was targeted companies. He talked about the opinion leaders, and then he states in here, he states in here that Ebony is, this is what he says. I'm just going to read it. Y'all, leave the ad up. And I love this when he says, Black people you see have come a long way since the good old days.

Their opinions are being heard and felt, and for responsible Black opinion leaders in America, there is one must magazine, Ebony. Ebony tells them which Nixon policies affect them most and how. Ebony tells them what Mayor Stokes and the 47 other black mayors are doing. Ebony tells them about black law enforcement officials you never heard of, and black artists, inventors, businessmen, and student leaders you never heard of, and black writers. There are now so many, we launched the Ebony Book Club last fall, the first of its kind, which explains why nearly 5 million urban blacks look forward to Ebony each month

and why over 80% of them never look at Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, or the Reader's Digest. And remember, these millions influence other millions. So what Ebony readers think about your product or company is what the black community at large will eventually think. So now that you know what's what and who's who, shouldn't we get together? Just say when. And then he lists the phone numbers of his advertising people to call, that was 1970. And when the General Motors says, oh, we're going from one to 2% this year.

When Group M announces, hey, by next year, we're gonna spend 2% with Black-owned media. When another agency said,'re going to spend two percent i'm sitting here thinking this was 1970 and that was a reason ebony went to bankruptcy there's a reason so many african-americans you used to go to the radio conferences no longer in business because the reality is we're being is economic apartheid that is existing and And that's why. And the reality is we would have a black CNN if we were getting the billion-dollar profit CNN is getting or the billion-and-a-half-dollar profit Fox News gets. Absolutely. And, Roland, the points that you've been making on this,

I agree with you. Many years ago, I organized a demonstration called the Take It Back campaign against the Washington Post. And Catherine Graham was in China when it took place. And Ben Bradley and her son, Don, were feeding her information about how terrible it was. Well, when she came back to America, she said that she understood my righteous indignation, but she did not like the tactics that I used to bring it to her attention. I'm kind of in that same position with you. What you've been saying about General Motors is not incorrect because I am not retarded. I know how to count. I would need to know 2% of what? Is it 2% of a billion dollars? Is it 2% of a hundred million dollars okay all right okay i know exactly what you're saying and i

agree okay i disagree that you're not returning my son's phone calls he's been trying to reach you because he was like roland never gave me the opportunity to participate in this okay so one of the things i call him back but but you gotta let let him know. He called me last year about a deal. I hit him back, and he ain't hit me back for 14 months. So I'll call him. Tell him I'm going to call him and show him. Okay, well, you two need to get together because one of the things that we have to really have to do as a people, we've got to learn to disagree with each other without getting disagreeable with each other

because we're all fighting the same battle. We're all there are no exceptions, OK, to to this war that's being waged against us. And I could not agree more. You know, just telling me and I know that I'm 12 percent of your sales that you're going to tell me you're going to go to the floor and then from four to eight in five years to get that accomplished. But I don't have any idea what you're taking the percentage of. And I'm being told now because I've raised this question. Someone said to me that I sounded like Roland Martin. I said, what he's saying is common sense. How are you going to give me a percentage of something that I don't know what you're giving me a percentage of? I'm not a child, okay? I'm a great-grandmother. I've run a company for 41 years. I can read,

write, and count, okay? I'm the new Negro, okay? Okay, like I said, we've been educating folks since my great-great-great-grandmother, okay? I have a school. And and so these issues we just have to learn again and i think that it's think tank and and the good doctor i think will agree with me it helped to really calm the waters between like martin and malcolm it really brought people together to think and put emotion aside we're to that point now in the history of these. There's a full scale war. There is genocide going on against us. And for us to be worrying about, you know, how we look and, you know, what we've done, what our celebrity status is, that's all a distraction from the real issue of liberation.

And so I think that we have to find a way to work with each other and, hey, we're human. We're not gonna always agree, but we must learn to disagree without having to be disagreeable with each other. I love you, Roland. I don't think anybody in America, and I thank the sister for correcting me. I'm gonna stop using the term black.

Okay? You're the smartest man I know. Okay? You're the most committed man I know. I don't know when you sleep. I'm going to have to double check and make sure you aren't a government clone or something because I don't know how you could be everywhere at the same time. They must have given you some robotic

parts or something. But that's the reason I asked you to host my show because I'm a big, big, big admirer of your intellect. I'm a big admirer of your knowledge, your expertise, but most importantly, I'm a big admirer of your commitment to black people. That's foremost, the most important thing to me is that even when I don't disagree with you, I know that it's for black people that you say and do what you do. And I mean that quite respectfully and quite sincerely. And I appreciate that.

And I've said this here, and I really need people, everybody who's watching to listen to what I'm about to say. And that is this here. If you want to understand why black owned matters. TV One was launched. Kathy Hughes, Alfred Liggins, they hired Jonathan Rogers to be the first CEO. Jonathan says, Roland, your voice is important. I'm going to have you on the network. He called me literally when they signed the deal.

It wasn't even a name. It wasn't even known as TV One. And all these people, I travel around the country, Kathy, and people say, oh, my God, I loved when you were the deal. It wasn't even a name. It wasn't even known as TV One. And all these people, I travel around the country, Kathy, and people say, oh, my God, I loved when you were on CNN. And I remind everybody, I was paid for my opinion by TV One before CNN. CNN asked me to leave TV One. They asked me to leave the Tom Joyner morning show. And I told them no. I said, they paid

me before y'all did. And I'll never forget, on election night 2008, huge night, I told them, I said, I have to step away to do TV One two or three times. And one of the white executives said to me, what are you doing?

We're in 200 countries. We're CNN. I said, but y'all ain't better than TV one. Wow. And I stepped off that set and did it. And I need and I need people to understand that because you because you said earlier about white ice being colder. I made it clear to them CNN was not better than TV One for me. They were bigger. They were not better. And I did not give them the validation where I say, oh, I've made it. I've arrived because I'm on CNN, so I'm just going to let the little black network go.

No. And that was important. And so without TV One being created, no, actually, let me And that was important. And so without TV one being created now, actually, let me let me let me let me let me properly unspool this. Without Jonathan Rogers being hired to run TV one without TV one being created, which means that without Radio One being created without you by getting W.O.OL, none of those things happen. So this show is a continuum in black owned media and all of those things are part of it. And so we have to understand they don't work opposite of one another. It's part of the continuum of black owned media since that first black newspaper in 1827. Final thoughts about this week.

Final thoughts. Well, number one, please, Sunday night is a very important night for black America. Please join us on TV1 and Clio TV. So, Roland, now that you and I have exchanged these niceties, does that mean I'll be invited back? Maybe I can qualify to be on one of the panels. Yeah. Hey, all you got to do is tell me when you get one on the panel. Now, it get a little hot up in here. So, you know, but hey, you just let me know when you want to join the panel. In fact, Erica Savage Wilson, who's a regular panelist on Thursday.

Erica had a car accident and she's really going to be out for a year. We're praying for her. And so if you want to come back and sit on this panel with Reese and Greg, come on, we bring the funk. All right, absolutely. I love you. I appreciate you. And I am so thankful to God that you exist and that you do what you do

because, as I said, first and foremost, what I love most about you is your commitment to your people. And the fact that as old folks used to say, you don't take no tea for the fever. It don't matter who it is. You hold us accountable. And that's, okay, admirable. That's so important. We have to be unafraid. We have to be brave. We have to be truthful. And we have to be unafraid. We have to be brave. We have to be truthful. And we have to be knowledgeable. You're all of that, Roland. And I thank you and your panelists for helping me promote not only the DMX interview, but also Urban One Honors this year.

And I look forward to you hooking me up with the chairman of African American Studies for Howard University so that he and I can help get Howard University on the right track. All right. Well, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you for all that you've done. We appreciate all of your hard work over the years. You certainly have done a lot for black folks, a lot of African Americans who in media

owe their careers to what you launched. And so we appreciate it. Urban One honors this Sunday, 9 p.m. Eastern, TV1 and Clio TV. We will be watching. I'll be live tweeting. Give it up, folks, for the great Kathy Hughes. Kathy, thank you so very much. And I'm going to hold you to it, have you back on the panel now.

So when a brother hits you, don't talk about how busy. Because we're going to bring it. All right. I'll look forward to it. Thank you. And're going to bring it. All right. I'll look forward to it. Thank you. And thank all of you all. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. All right, y'all. We come back to the show. I said we come back. Netflix has a show starring Mike Epps as well as Wanda Sykes. I'm going to show you my interview with them. And I was in Houston yesterday handing out two $1,000 scholarships at my high school, Jack Yates High School.

We're going to show you some of that as well. All of that, Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Baytown, Texas. We'll be back in a moment. Shortly after 9-11, America and its allies went to war in Afghanistan to defeat a terrorist stronghold. We accomplished that mission years ago. Trillions of dollars lost, over 2,000 Americans dead, countless Afghans dead. It's time to get out. Many presidents have tried to end the war in Afghanistan, but President Biden is actually going to do it. And by 9-11, over 20 years after the war was started, the last American soldier will depart

and America's longest war will be over. Promise made, promise kept. This is the year of the woman. We are here. We are capable. My optimism for our future has never been greater than now. Black women are making a difference, making history, and changing the world.

Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Me? Yeah. No me?

Need no intro? I could text two or three of y'all. I was like, why didn't you text me that you was going to be on? No, well, you don't have to be a little surprised. I can't text Mike because, you know, he changed his cell phone like we changed cups of water. Mike run away from bill collectors, but it's all good. You're right. Hey, man, you looking good, man. You must be on that keto

diet, boy. No, I'm not on the keto diet. I'm on the negro diet. That's the one I bought. Glad to see all three of y'all. We don't have much time, but we can set up a separate interview on my show because I own it and I ain't got to ask nobody. So let's get right to this thing.

My dad worked for Amtrak. Mom did insurance claims. Neither one ever went to college. So I identify with a daddy, blue collar, trying to take care of his family. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's what that, you know, I got fortunate enough and lucky enough and blessed enough to hook up with Wanda Sykes,

who was able to bring her comedic talent and bring her writing and bring her skills of, you know, Wanda wrote for Roseanne and all that. So for me, I'm just a ghetto guy, man, trying to tell some jokes. Her and Kim is about to take my stock all the way up now.

Well, Wanda, luckily my daddy did not have to deal with any Indian sister-in-laws. But you are a wee bit extra on the brother. my daddy did not have to deal with any of his sister-in-laws. But you are a wee bit extra on the brother. Hey, you know what? It's like

Lucretia has to stay on Benny to make sure Benny does right by her sister because Lucretia will, she will kill somebody for her sister. So, you know, she's just trying to make everybody do right. Right. That's her own way of staying on message. That's right.

You know, one of the things, Kim, that is always vital, something that obviously I believe in with Black-owned media matters, but also the importance of showing the Black family dynamic. Now, look, white folks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, look, everybody, there are some similarities. Black families, a little bit different in terms of how we roll.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's one thing I love about this show, Roland, is that you do have all the touch points that everybody can relate to. You have the complex issues of family life and family dynamics that everyone can relate to. It's just, we all relate differently. And so yes, black folks, how we relate intermingling with our family mess can be its own unique love affair with life itself. And I feel like that's what Wanda and Regina,

our amazing writers room, Mike, that they really all capture that so well and really find a great balance with all of the spices and flavors. Mike said earlier, this show is like a gumbo. And so you've got a lot of ingredients that make everybody go, I can't get enough of this. I wanna watch some more.

I know this character. That character is me. Wanda, Mike talked about the writing, but were there times when you said, man, boy, just let it rip. Just take it, and we just going to keep rolling and see where you're going with it. Or did you say, stick to the script?

Oh, come on now. I mean, to make this thing work, Mike, you know, we need Mike to bring that Mike into this character. You know, like, Mike knows Benny. So, and that's why he's such a good actor, you know, on the show. And so, you know, sometimes writing,

we would be in the room and we'd get stuck. And I was like, this doesn't feel like, you know, I would call Mike or text Mike and say, hey, man, here's the situation. What do you think Benny would do? How would he respond? Because that's the one thing that we have to do is protect, you know, we can have a lot of fun and it's, you know,

and this falls out funny, but we also have to protect the character, keep it authentic because that's the only, because, you know, like you said, black folks are different. Our audience, they'll see right through this, you know? And that's why we have to make sure it's like on point and real and

I think we're reaching that goal. We're doing it. Mike, she said Mike knows Benny. No, you are Benny, just with money. Just with money it. Mike, she said Mike knows Benny. No, you are Benny, just with money. Just with money. Come on, bro. I love you, boy. I love you. I love you.

You're so silly, man. We gotta bring him on the show, man. We gotta bring him as a character. When we first met, we were talking about the thing. I said, well, Mike, if we're gonna have you winning, you know it's gotta be messy.. We got to have some mess. So it's got to be a little messy. Well, I used to say, just be you in this piece right here.

Just be yourself. Just be you. Just be you, messy, and doing your thing. Well, it is certainly a potent combination with the three of you. I've always enjoyed the work. And I think the audience certainly will as well. So it's always great to chat with you all. Keep doing well. And Mike, text me.

My number ain't changed, so I don't have Bill Collector. So, you know, I don't know what your number is now, you know, but I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Keep doing them little dances. Keep doing them glasses, man, with them outfits on, man. He a fool on that. My legs work. I'm gonna

use it. All right, folks. I appreciate it. Love y'all. Y'all take care. Love you, too. Peace. Oh, the Upshaws, Wanda Sykes, Mike Epps, as well as Kim Fields.

Y'all can check that out right now streaming on Netflix. Folks, I am back home. Baytown was only about 30 minutes, not even 30 minutes from Houston. And yesterday I was at my alma mater, Jack Yates High School, presenting a couple of thousand dollar scholarships to two deserving students. And here is some of that presentation. First the school communications scholarship winner is Deon Nicole Odom. Alright, you the senior class president? Okay, you got to be a little bit more excited. Let me explain. When you get money,

you're like real girl. Come on. First, we're going to hand you the small one. We're going to hand you the small one first. Wear the big check. You stand right here.

You stand right here. First, I would like to thank the opportunity and Mr. Roland Martin and my mom and Mr. Brown for bringing it out to me and Mr. Judy. Thank you again. In August, I plan to attend Prevue A&M University. Our next scholarship winner, Yates Dutton. It was, like I said, there were several great interviews. She really jumped out with her passion and excitement. And so I want to present this.

She almost messed up. She almost messed up when she told me where she was going to college. Luckily, she said the University of Texas at Arlington. She said University of Texas at Austin. She was immediately disqualified. State of the Island, Texas A&M graduate. The winner is Kiiera McGee.

Hi, my name is Kiera McGee. I'm ecstatic to get this because, you know, who doesn't like money? Yeah, I'm going to Arlington when I go to college in August, and this is going to be a big help. Some people might be like, it's only $1,000. That $1,000 will help me pay for my lunch, my meal, everything else. Thank you so much, and my meal and everything else. So, thank you so much and I appreciate all of you. Thank you. The future journalist. You stabbed the microphone.

She's trying to come to the school communication. She grabbed the microphone. Again, we want to thank everybody for coming out. It was great to do this. We created this again to pick two students every single year. I hope all the students that did not apply realize, dang, I messed up a grand. And so you get an opportunity, of course, to apply next year. Those of you who are juniors can apply next year for the scholarship.

We'll go through the exact same process. And so we're looking forward to it. Councilwoman, you got something to say? Just a minute. Well, good afternoon. I am Carolyn Evans-Shabazz. I am the proud council member for District D, the District of Destination. I'm the only elected here, so I don't have to elbow anybody that is going to be elected. But anyway, I am so very honored, as I said. They've been working on this since November. I got six this morning.

And so, you know, I'm kind of behind eight balls, but I'm very glad to be here. I'm always proud to stand in Lion Country with wonderful, wonderful graduates. Those that just graduated and those that previously graduated. I was actually raised in the halls at Jack Yates, the other building. My dad was the basketball coach at Yates for many years, Coach Doc Evans.

And so I literally was raised in these halls. And so I've always had a great love for Jack Yates and certainly Red. You know, my shirt for the city is Red. But more importantly, okay, he is just awesome. And just, there's no more you can really say about that. And, of course, I can say I'm the best council member in the world. But certainly, thank you so very much. You make us so supremely proud.

You know, when your name comes up, we know that, first of all, that's going to be honest, truthful, integrity in the building. And so thank you so very much for what you're doing for the students here. Congresswoman Roland Martin, we got you the phone up to the microphone, and we live streaming. Go. Well, what can I say when Roland Martin comes to the historic 18th Congressional District and brings his own life story and legacy i can applaud and look where he is at his alma mater jack gates and mighty lions to our principal principal

gilroy to dr latham i am so pleased although i'm in washington to celebrate jack gates and jack gates students but the jack gates legacy that includes roland martin he is a real treasure he provides the truth he is a truthful person he is a real treasure. He provides the truth. He is a truthful person. He is a man that is recognized from the White House to the Capitol and beyond. And I simply wanted to thank him for his strength, for his voice, and for his information. To those of you who are Jack Gates students, he has a powerful presence. He's a storyteller that tells our story and tells it right.

And so the story that you're now living is a story of your future. I wish you the very best. And congratulations to this outstanding group of recipients of the Roland Martin Scholarship. Sorry I'm not there, but I wanted you to hear my voice. Jack Yates, you are the 18th Congressional District. You're the best. Congratulations to all of you, Roland. Thank you so very much for all you do. boys decades you are the 18th congressional district you're the best congratulations to all of you roland thank you so very much for all you do matt principal again for the leadership

you give and dr layton thank you for where hisd has been and now where it's going great success thank you all god bless all of you god bless the united states of america all right again shout out to uh principalory and Superintendent Renita Lathan, of course, who is headed to Missouri. Thank you so very much. The point that is important here, and this is the final comment for each one of my panelists, and, Amisha, I'll start with you, is this is what happens when we demand our fair share. When we are able to increase resources that go to black-owned companies, then we are able to then take those same resources

and not only provide opportunities for our families, but also for other folks as well. The reason black folks aren't able to give more is because we're getting less as workers. When you got somebody white with a high school diploma who's making more than a black person with a college degree, we've got more debt. When our black businesses are not getting fair share as well, there is a reason you have a wealth gap. And it's because we're getting 1 and 2 percent in our fair share. That's why we're doing this fight on the media side for for that what we just saw right there the ability to be able to give back roland that was pitch perfect we not only have a wealth gap we also have a humanitarian effort

and relief gap and it's not because black people don't want to give it's because we have not received our fair share in this economy not only for work but also when it comes to black media as you spoke of and i and i know several, thank you for being out in the forefront of this for years now. You're not new to this. You are true to it. And you have been pushing and talking about it for so long, trying to get people on board, trying to not only help our community understand why it's important, but also to hold the feet to the fire of these private corporations that have the dollars, but consistently spend them on places that aren't black media. I think that it makes a real difference.

We saw that, and I was very grateful to see that vignette of you and the scholarship money that was given. That means something. That can change the lives of young people completely. And I think that when we think about our community and how much education means to our community specifically as a gateway to access, as a gateway to opportunity, we have to recognize that when it comes to, when it comes to Black media, when it comes to investment in ourselves, when it comes to getting our fair share economically, that is one step in a future of progress that can go a really long way. So thank you for all of your efforts and the work that you've done here, but also to any Black people who are listening, we all have to continue in this fight because

it is a long road to equity. It's a long road to equality. And there's a lot of money on the table that we quite frankly are not getting, even though we are investing. And Reesey, we got to have black folks stop, stop being afraid to make a damn demand. A brother who follows us, he just sent me this text. He said, I don't even like 2% milk. I sure don't like 2% from major corporations. Absolutely. You know, a closed mouth don't get fed, and a scared money don't make money.

So those are two things that we all repeat. But then when somebody starts asking or making demands, we get all gunshot. We get all shook. You're not the one making the damn demands. So what you scared about? You scared about somebody else demanding something that you're going to benefit from? It doesn't make sense.

You know, I completely respect about being, disagreeing without being disagreeable. But as you also say sometimes um roland agitate agitate agitate and sometimes being agreeable don't really get the job done i happen to know that the way i go about things sometimes and so you know listen at the end of the day nobody is going to hand out anything to us a lot of times now we're starting to see people hold up black people as well y'all do right by black people what about us uh-uh of all, that's not the case. Second of all, anything we get, it's because we fight tooth and nail for it. And the one other thing I do want to say is, again, I brought this

point up a month ago or however many shows ago, we have to look to support organizations, whether it's companies, whether it's philanthropic organizations, whether it's community organizations, that are pouring back into our communities. It's not always going to be the names that people recognize. That's why you have a Black Lives Matter, no shade to them, that raised $100 million, and people are like,

where is the money going? Well, y'all are the ones who gave them $100 million. Why don't you give to shows like Roland Martin and Thoter? Give to your local organizations, give to somebody's cash app. Maybe they're taking their money and they're buying lunches for homeless people and handing them out without cameras around. There are so many ways that we can contribute without always trying to contribute to what's most popular, what has the biggest name. We want to, we need to contribute to what's having an actual impact. This show has an impact in not only informing people, but it has an impact on

empowering people. And what you did for those kids is, well, I shouldn't say kids, but for those students is very important. And that wouldn't happen if you just sat back meek and mild mannered and didn't rock the boat a little bit. So we support you, Roland, and your agitate, agitate, agitate. And we also support you when you are hobnobbing and you're, you know, sometimes you can bait people a little bit more, well, honey, than vinegar. And whichever tactic you want to go about it,

we got your back. Oh, but one other thing I did want to say. I don't want to put you on the spot. Uh-oh. I don't want to put you on the spot, but I do see in the comment some people were asking about a GoFundMe for Erica, and I don't believe she has anything like that. And I know she's a prideful, strong Black woman,

but maybe if we could get her cash app and allow people to just, if they want to contribute $5, you know, so that she can get some Uber Eats or something. I think that the Roland Martin viewers, we all love you and we all miss you, Erica. And I think a lot of people would really be willing to just as a show of support and show of our love for Erica. And we wish you a speedy recovery

in everything that you're doing. And it's not you asking, it's me saying, hey, let's show our love for Erica and really send her our support. Yes, yes, absolutely. And I just sent her the text and asked her and let's see if she respond to it. So, yeah, but you're right. You know, Erica, she's a strong sister, but even strong folk also need love and support as well. Greg, you're going to get the final comment here. I hear Reese's point,

but the reality is I was born with vinegar. I pissed vinegar. I spit vinegar. And so the only honey that exists in my house is the honey that's in the cabinet. And yeah, I know Reese didn't bring up vinegar in honey because Reese's shop at the same store I do

and not now one of us buy honey. I said either way. No, in my defense, I said either way, Roland. Oh, I know you said either way, but Reese, you ain't never purchased no honey. I know. We're here. We're here.

Now, see, girl, you say that, but she just gave birth to a little bit of honey. So you got to make sure that baby girl. No, no. She gave birth to honey. She might call her husband honey, but everything else, Reese is spitting vinegar and fire. Lord have mercy. Hey, I can't say nothing about that, man. Hey, I'm going to keep this short and sweet rolling.

First of all, brother, we all know that individuals don't beat institutions. So no matter how powerful, how smart, how brilliant we are, we rely on each other. And I'm glad you said that, Reese. Yeah, let's put that together. Like I say, Erica would never ask, but we put our little rely on each other. And I'm glad you said that, Recy. Yeah, let's put that together. Like I say, Erica would never ask, but we put our little thing together on that and leave it to the black women to do that

because you know the power of network more than anyone. Roland, when I saw those two students get their money, it took me back almost, I guess it's been 30 years. No, actually 40 years. My God, what am I saying? It was 1983.

I won an oratorical contest in Middle Tennessee. It was the Stones River Missionary Baptist Association, affiliated with the National Baptist Convention. And I went to the meeting, and they presented me with a check for $100. Now, I put that check on some books when I enrolled that fall at Tennessee State University. And it wasn't what that young sister said a minute ago was very important. She said, oh, you know, people say it's just $1,000.

I said, no, that'll pay for my meals and people co-signing. Let me tell you, it's not even a dollar amount. What it is is the investment of the community. When you give a young person any amount of money in front of the community, Councilwoman

Evan Shabazz, of course, talked about her father. She had mentioned her grandfather, who was the first, wait, great-grandfather, I think it was, the first presidentazz, of course, talked about her father. She didn't mention her grandfather, who was the first, wait, great-grandfather, I think, was the first president of Prairie View, Prairie View A&M. The young people realized, you just invested in me. So that means when she's up in the middle of the night studying and gets tired, you know what she's going to remember? She's going to remember you standing there and all them people standing there, and she's going to say, you know what, I can't let those people down.

It transformed. Here I am, 56 years old. I was 18 years old when they put that check in my hand and I still operate on the premise that I cannot let those people down. That money isn't just money. That money means the community has an expectation of you. Brother, I cannot overstate how important that moment was. They will not only never forget that, that could be the moment they look back on years

from now when we finally win this war and say, this was the moment I joined the Army. I'm telling you, brother, thank you for that. Well, I certainly appreciate it. And the reality is, I got to thank our viewers. Y'all made it possible. We had an absolutely amazing 2020, what we're building here. And we'll continue to do so. Kathy Hughes is right.

I am raising lots of hell. I've been meeting with advertisers all this week, and I made it perfectly clear. That scene from Malcolm X, I am not satisfied. I will not accept press releases. I will not accept statements until I see the flowing of checks being deposited, signing contracts with black-owned media. Then I'm going to keep giving folk hell and keep raising hell. That ain't changing. As long as there's breath in my body, that is going to happen. Because the reality reality is this just like we're out here uh demanding justice for uh pamela turner just like we were in elizabeth city demanding justice for uh andrew brown jr uh

and you know we are out out here trying to do the work now it's a whole bunch of folk out there calling themselves new black medium and all they do is sit at home in the basement and talk that's all they do they don't call nobody they don't cover nothing uh they don't do nothing but just run their mouths and a bunch of folk love sitting here as man so-and-so talking about you so-and-so roasting you i said yeah but they're not on the front lines okay they can see when when robbie told his mama came off that stage she said where's roland i need to give him a hug because see i had them on tom jordan so see like charlie wilson said charlie wilson said he knew school and old school y'all i said i'm old media and new media that's what happens when you're a journalist that's what happens when you're committed

the reason we're fighting so hard on this money front, y'all, because we're trying to change this game. Kathy Hughes is in her 70s. She talked about her mother passing last year. I'm 52 years old. The reality is all of us have an expiration date. I know we hate to think about that. But the reality is this here. There should not be a brother or a sister 30, 40, 50 years from now fighting the exact same battle with corporate America as we fight right now.

30, 40, 50 years from now, they should not be talking about getting 1% or 2%. And what Kathy Hughes said is important, is that we need y'all to stand with us. We need y'all to sit here and say, man, keep going. I got some loud mouth folk who talk about, man, stop begging a white man. Stop begging a white man. Why y'all asking the white man? Because the reality is we are spending money on products. We're sitting here. We're sitting here using our buying goods and services. So why should we not demand fair share? Why should we not demand that our media institutions are receiving their fair share?

Kathy and Greg talked about that think tank. Y'all, when you connect the dots, when you connect the dots, when black media gets its fair share, when black law firms get their fair share, when black engineering firms get their fair share, when black design companies, when black interior decorators, when black accounting firms, we can go every single industry. When that begins to happen, then those resources then begin to fund those black families. Then we are able to, yes, create scholarship funds. Then we're able to give to the NAACP, to the National Urban League, to Black Voters Matter, to Black Lives Matter. Then we're able to give to HBCUs.

Then we're able to support our institutions. That's called community building. The problem that we have right now in black America, we have a severe lack of investment because there has been a severe lack of investment in black communities. Economic apartheid has been practiced against us since we first got here. Yes, sir. And so you have folk who are out there

and you have people who will say, well, man, why aren't you making the same fight for reparations? Y'all, how you going to come to me talking reparations but then you critical of voting? Who going to vote on the reparations but then you critical of voting who gonna vote on the reparations so what i am arguing see see some of y'all some of y'all out there who watch y'all miss that how you gonna complain and hate on folk who are in office and then say, well, they ain't supporting H.R. 40, so they got to go. But then you the same one say don't vote.

Well, hell, ain't nobody going to go if you don't vote. So what I'm trying to get folk to understand is when we are fighting for the resources y'all can call that reparations if y'all want to you can call it fair share you can call it what king called it on april 3rd 1968 when he spoke of economic reciprocity when he said when he turned around and said jesse what did you call it we gonna redistribute the pain so So I understand what Kathy Hughes had to say. I understand. And I understand Reese's point about honey and vinegar. I totally agree. But King said we've got to redistribute the pain, which means

that if folk are not spending money with us, we have to cause them some pain. So if that means taking out full page ads and calling out the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, and I'm participating tomorrow in a black media, no, they call it diverse media summit. I done told General Motors, you better call it black owned media. I participated in one of the last two days with Byron Allen. I met today with a company. I met with three companies earlier this week. But let me explain something, y'all. I've had meetings. I have not seen direct

deposits. So until I see direct deposits, and I ain't talking small direct deposits. Let me go church on y'all. I don't want to hear change rattling in the box. I need to hear the rustling of paper. And so what I'm talking about, y'all, are not four-figure deals, not five-figure deals, not six-figure deals. I'm talking seven-figure deals.

I'm talking eight-figure deals. And for the black people who are listening to me who are unfamiliar with seven- and eight-figure deals, that ain't my problem. Because my grandmama had a business. My grandfather had a business. My mama had a business. My aunt Lurdie had a business. My uncle Larry had a business. My uncle Warren had a business.

I can do the roll call. So it's black entrepreneurs all in my family. So excuse me if I'm accustomed to not asking for small money. When black people stop asking for small money, then we will get big money. And when we stop asking for small money, we will get big respect. But this ain't changing if we've got a generation of people who are satisfied with small money. I'm not satisfied with 1%. I'm not satisfied with 2%. I will tolerate 5% right now, but that number damn sure better go to 6 to 7 to

8 to 9 to 10 to 11 to 12 or 13 to 14 or 15. And if we are actually contributing more to your market share. I want to see a little bit higher. And so some of y'all out there might be a little afraid. Some of y'all may not like my tactics. Some of y'all may say I'm too tough. I call folk out too early. But let me be real clear. Like Frank Lucas said in American Gangster american gangster i'm gonna get that money we gonna get that money and i'm not fighting just for me i'm fighting for all black on media we gonna get that money because when we get that money, you get that money.

And that's what it's all about. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do, because this is why we do it, because the other deal, and this is the last thing, I ain't got to ask nobody, Roland don't have a boss. Let me tell y'all the hierarchy. There's God, then there's me. My wife and my mama and my daddy ain't between me and God. So the hierarchy in decision is God, then me.

That's how we change stuff when black folk don't have to go ask somebody else, hey, can we please go to Baytown and cover the rally? No. I just looked into the mirror. In fact, I ain't even looking into the mirror. Ben Crump came on the show. I said, Ben, we're going to be here. Y'all's support makes this possible. Y'all's support allows for us to be here. Our cash app

is dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartin unfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash rm unfiltered. Also, Zell is rolling at rolling s martin.com rolling that rolling martin unfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RM unfiltered. Uh, also, uh, Zell is rolling at rolling. That's martin.com rolling that rolling Martin unfiltered.com. Uh, and so, uh, that's where we are. Uh, and we spoke, we certainly appreciate it. Uh, thank you so very much for everybody who tuned into the coverage earlier

today of our rally. Thank you so very much. Uh, the rally out of here, just for Pam, uh, for, for Pamela, uh, Again, May 25th, the trial date is going to be set. We thank all the folks who supported us. And, again, I appreciate the – I love our black people. Folks literally walked up to me to put cash in my hand. They want to contribute. They said they're not going to send it. And so y'all – and Anthony is real happy because that's going to –

that's going to pay for his dinner. So he appreciate that. Y'all, thank you so very much. Reesey, Greg and Amisha. Thanks a lot. Thank you, everybody back at the office. We're going to be broadcasting tomorrow from Houston. And more than likely, we're going to be talking with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.

And so we look forward to that. He's an alpha man, so you know, that's how we roll. So you know, Greg, I let them folks know how we roll. So folks, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. We'll see y'all tomorrow right here from Houston. Y'all take care. A lot of times

big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.

I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about

our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always I get right back there and it's bad. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.