#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Protecting Private HBCUs, White WVa Couple Uses Black Kids as Slaves, Fearless Fund Co-founder Quits

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

6.25.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Protecting Private HBCUs, White WVa Couple Uses Black Kids as Slaves, Fearless Fund Co-founder Resigns Two North Carolina HBCUs are struggling to survive, and some are trying to force a merger between Shaw and Saint Augustine's University to acquire their land. I'll talk to alums from both institutions about their mission to protect private HBCUs. A white West Virginia couple is accused of using their adopted black kids as slaves.  Two federal judges halted Biden's student loan debt relief program. We'll talk to one woman whose debt was forgiven and to the Senior Director of higher education policy at the Center for American Progress about what this ruling means for those growing in debt. #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. We'll be right back. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rolla. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Tuesday, June 25th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Barth, Unfiltered.

Streaming live on the Black Star Network. What's happening in North Carolina? You have, of course, St. Augustine. You have Shaw. You have folks who are trying to take the land where Shaw is on, saying no need for two HBCUs in that particular city will talk with folks representing both University about the drama unfolding there and

how white folks in North Carolina. They want the black land. We'll break it all down for you. Also on today's show, Virginia leader Senator Louise Lucas. Lord have mercy. She has some words for Governor Glenn Youngkin at yesterday's rally, focusing on the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Also on today's show, we'll talk with a woman, an activist in Brooklyn,

who both she and her husband have had thousands of dollars saved because of Biden's student loan program. Yet now a federal judge, federal judges, both appointed by Obama, are halting parts of that student loan relief program will tell you all about it. Also Attorney General Merrick Garland today spoke in Ohio where he also addressed the death of Tamir Rice. Today would have been his 22nd birthday. Also on today's show,

one of the leaders of the fearless fund. She is stepping down from the organization would tell you why. And lots of upheaval at HBCUs. Florida Memorial president, he resigned on Friday. Interim president today, named Talladega. Also, what's going on at HBCUs? Lots for us to talk about.

It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martel

Martel Folks, we know that many of our HBCUs face a tenuous daily struggle trying to keep their doors open while educating mostly African-American students. Well, in Raleigh, North Carolina, you have two HBCUs, Shaw University and St. Augustine's. Now, St. Augustine's recently ran into some serious accreditation issues. They have had some financial issues as well. And so you have the possibility of the university closing its doors. Then you have Shaw University. They've had issues in the past. But now what you've had is leaders in Raleigh, white leaders, really saying that, you know what, it's time for us to shut, that we don't need two HBCUs. Now, Shaw sits on extremely valuable land in downtown Raleigh, and there are folks who want that land.

In fact, there was a meeting that took place among several city leaders where one of them, the white owner of a television station, literally said, it's time for us to have these two schools merge, move Shaw to St. Augustine's, and we take over the land that Shaw sits on and we can develop that land. Well, let's talk about what's happening in Raleigh, the battle over these two HBCUs with a couple of individuals who know the situation well. First of all, joining us is Eugene Myrick. Eugene is a founding member of Save Our Shaw. He joins us from Raleigh. And Dr. John T. Larkins, St. Augustine's University alumnus, he joins us from Ormond Beach, Florida. Glad to have both of you here. So first of all, let's start with you, Dr. Larkins. Accreditation, critical issue. Without that, students can't get financial aid.

We know that HBCU's significant, upwards of 90, 95 percent of HBCU's budget is predicated on financial aid. And so let's first deal with that. What is the status of the accreditation of St. Augustine's. Okay. Currently, we're in the third leg of a process of appealing the decision by SACS, the accredited agency for the St. Augustine's University. I think I got somebody else on the line. No, no, no. Go ahead. Just keep talking. We got it. Go ahead. Okay.

Okay. Sorry about that. We went through a probation period where SACS had asked us to do certain things to improve our financial oversight and things, and that was not addressed very well. Then we went through an appeal process with SACS back in December. SACS again turned us down. We're on the third leg. They put in a new process to try to help support some of our schools, which is called binding arbitration. And we're currently in binding arbitration. And the group will actually be meeting this week, I think Thursday or Friday. So we're going to hear something back from that.

And that's sort of our third bite at the apple. If we can convince this arbitration group to come back, they'll go back to Sachs and tell Sachs that we probably should extend our probation or warning status. If we don't, then the only other recourse is legal action to try to get a stay against SACS and hold off the loss of accreditation for the next year or two. Quite honestly, I'm not overly optimistic about either of these. So we've been trying to do—a of us alums bring about some change that might inspire others to donate and give us another opportunity to correct some of the problems at St. Augustine's University. What is the current student body of St. Augustine's?

Right, well, last semester it was a little less than I'd probably say about 800 students. Okay, Dr. Larkins, let's talk about Shaw University. What's the current student body there at Shaw? I think that's for Eugene, right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my bad. Eugene, go ahead. So Shaw is currently probably under a thousand students right now. Okay. So under a thousand students. Gotcha. So under a thousand, St. So Shaw is currently probably under 1,000 students right now. Okay.

Probably under 1,000 students. Gotcha. So under 1,000. St. Augustine is about 800. Now, you have these two HBCUs in the city. Explain to people, again, who don't understand what's going on there, where Shaw sits and why there is such interest in the land of Shaw University. So let's go, because the first thing people are going to say is, why not call Willie Gary?

Well, let's understand something. Willie Gary pledged $10 million to Shaw. He never gave it. Well, first of all, let's be real clear. I would never ask that question because I'm quite familiar when he was on the Shaw Board of Trustees where he, yes, where he pledged $10 uh and did not follow through oh no so i'm familiar with the story uh so yeah so i you've never heard me say call gary okay so

shore university is uh once again prime real estate in raleigh so let i gotta go back to november of 2019 there was a study they did with a company called urban land institute now i understand something there's a there's a huge developer did with a company called Urban Land Institute. Now, I understand something. There's a huge developer, a multibillion-dollar cane realty. They're trying to create a whole new downtown. They use the same Urban Land Institute at the same time. So the question is, did John Cane Realty, did they pay for this study? Because if you look at the Kane study,

it says, oh, this is great. We're going to create jobs and affordable housing. But then when you go to the Shaw study, it says if Shaw doesn't liquidate 75 acres worth of land to get $10 million within the next six months, they're going to face systemic failure. So this was November of 2019. I just want to walk you through the process. Now think about it. They said do this within six months. The debt was $30 million to get $10 million. So show would have lost 75 acres worth of land, have no money and still be in debt and at the mercy of the developers. So here's the crazy part. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Before you go forward, again, so when you said they said you have a deficit, you need to sell this land in a period of time, who's they? Urban Land Institute did this study for Shaw University. Okay, Urban Land Institute did it for Shaw University. Yes. At the same time, they did a study for the downtown South development. Gotcha. Now, during the exact

same time. Urban Land Institute, are they black-owned? Who are they? No, it's a non-profit entity and they are what they say, Urban Land Institute, but they will tell you whatever you want them to tell you. So, their mission for Shaw, and they put out a story in the News & Observer front page,

land rich, cash poor. So once again, this happened in 2019, November. It had a... So Urban... Hold on one second. So Urban Land Institute was suggesting Shaw needs to sell the land. Yes, 75 acres.

75 acres. 75 acres. To get rolling, to get $10 million. Yes. 75 acres. 75 acres. Now. To get rolling, to get $10 million. Gotcha. Now, they didn't suggest that Shaw lease the land. No. See, Shaw can still own the land, and

Shaw can lease the land to developers or whatever, but still retain ownership. There's a thing, sell 75 acres for $10 million. Now, did the Board of Trustees of Shaw, did they ever commission an independent analysis or not even? I'm sorry, for Urban Lake Institute, who commissioned this analysis of the land of Shaw? The university did?

That's a good question because as far as we know it was the university but i'm pretty certain it was the developer that did it i'm pretty certain because not only do they have so there's no there's no there's no there's no paperwork no nothing has been presented to the alumni nothing so urban land institute does an analysis and y'all haven't seen any boards of board meet minutes or whatever that showed that this that these folks were hired to do this they they gave a presentation of what they found but once again while i'm trying to explain to you they did a study at the exact same time they were saying downtown south is going to be so great but shaw university which is blocking their development is in the heart of downtown raleigh so get this rolling within that

six months the horrible disease named covet happened right and shut and shut everything down so in march covet took place out of covet sh Shaw got bailed out of his $30 million debt. Government wiped it out. Yeah. So one second, I'm going to let you finish that. So for people who don't understand, and I've covered this a lot here, when the Biden-Harris administration forgave a number of construction loans for HBCUs. And as a result of those loans being forgiven,

it greatly impacted the university's balance sheet. Give me one second. I'm going to pull it up right here. Give me one second. So people can follow the numbers. And so this, for folks who know this show, y'all have seen me show you this spreadsheet on many occasions.

Go to my iPad. This is the spreadsheet that I personally received from Congressman Jim Clyburn, which came from the Department of Education. And you see right here, these are all of the COVID relief as well as the American Rescue Plan funds that were received by various institutions.

Now, let me go down here. You'll see right here, folks, this line here. Actually, I'm going to show you a couple. So first, actually, they're right on top of each other. So you see right there, St. Augustine's had $19.2 million forgiven by the federal government. Shaw University had $20.5 million forgiven. Now, if we go to the next line, you'll see there there's a $1.45 million for St. Augustine's, $2.2 million for Shaw. So you'll see these are the categories right here, folks. You will see CARES Act I, CARES Act II, and then you will see the additional programs,

American Rescue Plan. So I'm just going to go right across here for people can actually see what the numbers look like. So you'll see the net 1.75, 2.75, 2.75, 2.2, 3.5, 2.1, 3.23, 3.9, 5.9, 4.0, 5.9. So in terms of federal government relief from the CARES Act, as well as from the American Rescue Plan, St. Augustine's received $34,960,619. Shaw received $44,188,477. So as a result of that, you're saying that the debts that Shaw had were wiped out as a result of the proceeds that came from the Biden-Harris administration. Correct. Go ahead. In addition to wiping out the debt, the CARES Act gave Shaw $11 million in addition to PPP funds. So fast forward five years later, how was it that you're still operating off

the same plan? So they just put out some information. Oh, we're going to continue with the recommendations from Urban Land Institute. First of all, when you say they, you mean the Shaw University administration? The Shaw University administration. Okay, go ahead. So why would you be operating off a plan when you were $30 million in debt when these people told you to liquidate 75 acres of land to get $10 million and you would have still been in debt? So right now, there's a development that just got sold downtown, a little more than less than an acre. It was sold for more than $20 million that they're going to put a $400 million development on. Shaw has 27 acres in the heart of downtown, in addition to another 35 acres a mile away. Wait a minute. So you're saying a one acre plot of land sold for more than $20 million

in downtown, but this Urban Land Institute was recommending that Shaw sell 75 acres for $10 million. Correct. And then they estimated our land that we call Shaw Farm, which is also in Raleigh, Roland, less than about a mile away from the university, they estimated that that land was worth $1 million. It's anywhere from 35 to 40 acres. 35 to 40 acres. They estimated it's worth $1 million. All right.

So let's talk about this meeting that took place where a television station owner allegedly said, we need to we need to combine these institutions and sell the land. Who were either one of you in that meeting familiar with that meeting? What can you tell us about it? Well, this is what I can tell you. So I have a fraternity brother and I'm an Omega man. I'm glad to sit here with you two good alpha men here. I'm an Omega man. And so he was he was in dialogue with folks at St. Aug about trying to get them some funds to help alleviate their situation. And he was privy to that information over a month ago where he was he was asked, well, something going on with your president. We're sitting in a meeting, and they're already telling people

that they're in a position to start acquiring St. Aug's property. So they are literally to the point now where they're saying folks out here are basically blocking St. Aug. Now, I realize that the folks at St. Aug are dealing with their own issues with the Board of Trustees, and I'm telling them two things can be true. Y'all can have an issue with the board of trustees, and at the same time, y'all can be blocking them from getting funding that they're trying to receive to try to bail yourselves out. So I wasn't at that meeting, but I had already forewarned

the folks at St. Aug that this is what was already being said. So here's what I don't understand here. That jumps out at me. And Doc, if you could speak to this here. Okay, so I understand what's happening at St. Augustine's. I get that. But what the hell does it have to do with Shaw? And why are

folk not affiliated with St. Augustine's and Shaw who are not black, who are not graduates, having conversations about what to do with these two institutions and plotting to move forward? What's going on here?

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I was not at the meeting either, but I did get feedback from some folks who were there at the meeting. And I think it was a bit of a surprise to our chairman. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

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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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm the interim president about the meeting, but I know for a fact also that there have been meetings in the past concerning the land at St. Augustine's University and Shore University. We have approximately 106 acres for the campus, and we also have some off-site properties,

off-campus properties that we own. And the university, unfortunately, has been in such bad financial scrapes that they've been looking at ways to collateralize some of those properties. But when you're in a bad financial situation, people tend to want to take advantage of that. And I can add to that. I hate to cut you off that. I can add to that. I hate to cut you off, but let me add to that. So we have Dr. Dillard who was brought in at the president of Shaw. One of her first orders of business was she sold WSHA to a private bidder. It didn't go on the market.

We have alumni that's worked in New York, L.A., Chicago. We have alumni in music. It was sold for $3 million. One second. So, again, I'm familiar with LA, Chicago. We have alumni in music. It was sold for $3 million. And so, one second. So again, so I'm familiar with that too. So folks, that was a radio station in Raleigh that had wide coverage

around the city. Yes. Radio properties are extremely valuable. This was not a low-power radio station. Owned the tower. Owned the tower and everything. And so, they sold it for $3 million and many other analysts said they could have easily gotten anywhere from $10 to $30 million for that radio station. Once again, we have bad leadership that are doing bad business and we can get into that. So Dr. Dillard, once the radio station was sold, said we're going to be all

digital, state-of-the- art, new equipment, new studios. We're going to go online. We didn't do any of that. We didn't do any of that. We currently have a dorm that's been empty for over five years. Now, think about this. There are students for, you know, for obvious reasons that are fleeing St. Aug, but they're going to Central. They're going to Fayetteville State. Shaw is literally right across the street, right across the street. Why do we still have empty dorms? Well, first Dr. Diller said, nobody knows where Shaw University is. Now, I went to Shaw from 90 to 94. We had over 3,000 students. So nobody knows. Then she said, oh, the dorm is so bad that nobody can live in there. Then she said the dorms are being renovated

so then they went through this whole rezoning process rolling i'm going to send you the rezoning so you can see for yourself already in the rezone baked in is a public street for the city of raleigh also baked in it says shaw is going to house 100 students in the third building for five years. Is this what they announced as the Shaw U District? Yes. So, folks, at least go to my iPad. So, folks, you'll see this was the press release sent out on May 9th, 2024, where they announced, again, this Shaw U District.

This is the website right here where they laid out exactly what it is as well. Go right ahead. So the problem with this is the university's charter specifically states that Shaw's land is to be used for institutional purposes perpetually. To do the rezoning, they changed it from an institution to a business district. So we have a president of a university who once raised no money for the endowment, has no students. The students are actually protesting living conditions, lock the Muslims out of the mosque. But yet she sits on the downtown Raleigh Alliance as the chairperson with the same business leaders, Roland. How is she serving as the president of Shaw University and the chairperson for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance?

There's some backdoor deals taking place. And I believe that these things have taken place in 2019 and COVID stopped it because it makes no sense to be sitting on a billion dollars worth of real estate and to still try to implement the same plan from five years ago when you were supposedly land rich and cash poor. Let me go back to the good doctor. And so, all right, so you have, so you've got these two HBCUs, lots of drama going on on both campuses when, in fact, they're not intertwined. And so and so. So first and foremost, from an alumni standpoint at St. Augustine's, let's say you don't let's say you are unable to get SACS to agree to whatever the plan is regarding accreditation. You say the next step is going to be a lawsuit. Is that lawsuit going to come from the alumni of Shaw?

Who's going to actually be driving this lawsuit? Yeah. Before I address that, let me just follow up on something Eric said real quickly. Over the years, St. Aug and Shaw have shared resources. When I was at St. Augustine's University, I took classes at Shaw, and Shaw students also took classes at St. Augustine's University. So we have worked collaboratively over the years, and it was possible, if people got their heads together,

to figure out a plan to use some of our dormitories to house students from Shore University. Because first of all, let's be clear. I'll give you a perfect example. I gave the commencement at Wilberforce, and so Wilberforce actually rents or leases, if you will, dormitory space from Central right across the street. Yeah. Go ahead. I can answer that quite well.

Yeah. So we've worked collaboratively in the past. I think there have been some powers that be that do not, aren't pushing or prefer not to have us work as collaboratively. So we need to share resources. And it's easy to do as people sit down at the table and work together. But to answer your question specifically about who files the lawsuit, the university would

have to file a lawsuit to get SACS to hold off removing our accreditation. So once a decision is made by the arbitration board, then the university would have to go in the court and ask for a temporary restraining order, which could take a year or longer. This was a similar thing that happened with Bennett, except Bennett had a totally different situation. They were not as in debt as we are. You know, we're right now somewhere between $32 and $40 million in debt. So I'm confused. How did St. Aug receive? Give me just one second.

I just want to quote the number correctly here. $34.9 million. What was the debt before the $34.9 million? Well, I can tell you it was substantially higher. It was at least 12. Well, I was on the board around that time. It was about $12 to $13 million higher than what was asked for. We should have asked for more money, for one thing, but we didn't.

And we could have justified it. So, okay, but I'm confused. If you got $35 million, so the debt was what, about $50 million? I'd say probably close to $50 million, yeah. What we did, we paid off the mortgage on the dormitory,

which was roughly $22 million. Right, so if you owed about $50, you got $35, your debt's at $15, what is the debt now? Last I was told, about a month or so ago, it was $32 million. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, I'm confused.

How the hell do you cut, again, how the hell do you cut your debt from, you get $35 million. You get a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic that saves us a lifeboat. You get $35 million. Your debt gets cut from $50 to $35, down to $15.

How in the hell you add $15 million in debt? Because we didn't receive any money from Title III, Title IV money for the fall of 23 or spring of 24 because the university failed to file audits for the past two years. One of the requirements

from the Department of Education in order to get those monies, you need to file good audits for three years. So somebody Let me add something else. three years. So somebody... Let me add something else. Hold on one second. So somebody in the administration didn't do their damn job and file the report

so therefore you didn't get the money? Exactly. Are those folks still employed? No. But it gets worse. We didn't pay the FICA, the payroll taxes, for three years on our employees. So the IRS put a $7-plus million lien on St. Augustine University. We owed people

$670,000 for audits. We owed $607,000 for legal fees. So, and, you know, quite honestly, our employees haven't been paid for the last two to three months. So, Walden, let me jump in here. A couple million dollars in here. And on their instance, the same thing, the folks who have been messing up at Shaw, they still employ. And when you start saying, we need to get rid of these people, then you get the other folks from the alumni. Oh, let's not air out dirty laundry. And I keep telling them when your laundry stink, your house stink. And when you go outside, you stink. Those people who keep sure has had to pay million dollars, millions of dollars back to the government because of misuse of funds. But the same folks are still there rolling. But here. But here's what's going on in the city of

Raleigh and why it's a problem with Dr. Dillard sitting as the chair of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. There's a meeting, actually, this coming Thursday. One of the neighborhoods where Black people were told they would live is called the Prince Hall District. And once again, there was redlining in Raleigh. So you have this thing called the Prince Hall District was a historic overlay protection for the Black community. Now the city is looking to get rid of that. So when Shore was rezoned, they took a large portion of their property out of the Prince Hall District. And here's what's going on now, because I was looking for some office space. So I call a number on a little commercial building and this 80 year old black lady answers the phone. And I said, yeah,

I'm looking for some office space. And she goes, I would have gave it to you, but I'm under contract with a developer. Oh, wait, I can't talk about it. Call my realtor. So what's happening now is they're using these elderly black folks to say they want out of the Prince Hall District so the developers can come in and take up that land. And these are two hearings that are literally happening at City Hall on July 2nd. The committee meeting is on Thursday at 3 p.m. at City Hall. And then there's a hearing on Tuesday, July 2nd, I believe it's at 1 p.m., to determine if they want to get rid of this historic protection. Now, understand something. There are other neighborhoods in Raleigh that are historic

overlay protection, but they're in the white neighborhoods. There's no talk about eliminating those. Only from the Prince Hall District, which is downtown, prime real estate, back-to-back with Shaw. So this is why you put the president of Shaw as the chair of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, although she has no significant accomplishments. And she literally was up there. All the city council meetings are on YouTube. And she says, as the chair, I support expanding the downtown district. It's because they're trying to get a hold of that land.

And with the situation that St. Augustine is in right now, this is why you can have a TV station owner basically sit there and say, literally, like, I own these people right here. So you need to determine what you're going to do. And if you read what it says, it says y'all need to merge. I don't care what you call it, but this needs to happen. The nerve of somebody to sit there and talk to you about the organization, the university that you run. Can you imagine that? It's a whole lot of drama here. We're going to reach out to you. It was in December when St. Aug fired the president, Christine McPhail.

She said this came out. She filed a discrimination lawsuit. I'm still perplexed. High in the hell, people don't file appropriate paperwork so you can get the money. That makes no sense to me. But certainly keep us abreast. We'll see what happens with the credit.

Can I just add one more before we go? Yeah, real quick. Let me add one more. So a part of the other reason I believe the radio station was sold because there was an audit by a company called BDO. And in that audit, a longtime employee, Dr. Emeka, was fired. And he said he was fired because he refused to sign off on a fraudulent audit. The audit, say if his budget was $200,000, they were saying that he had $400,000 in addition to paid interns.

And when he refused to sign off on that audit, he was fired. And I believe that radio station was sold to help cover that up. And I say that because all of this is documented lawsuit. Please look out for the email because I'm going to send you these receipts where you can read it for yourself. He said he refused to sign off on a fraudulent audit. Now, mind you, Shaw was getting matching funds from the Capital Broadcasting Company. So if you're only spending $200,000, but you're telling them you're spending $400,000, and then you have paid interns, where's all this other money going? Where's all this other money going? And I'm saying that to say these people are still in place at Shaw University. So now they're elderly, they're

sickly, and we literally had like three board members die in the last five years. These people are trying to cash out before they check out rolling and they don't care what's left behind for the rest of us with these universities. Gentlemen, we will. One last thing also. We are trying to make a change. the Dave SAU Coalition, which is mainly alums, former SAU employees, students and parents to have a change in the board such that we can reconstitute that board and bring some better business acumen to the way the university is run.

Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Keep us abreast of what happens next. Thanks a lot. Thank you. We come back. We'll chat with my panel about this and some other developments as well at HBCUs. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered

right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls, and the post-effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons,

along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people

be at the center of our politics. Living wages, healthcare, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard. Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org.

RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. And we won't be silent. And we won't be silent anymore. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ohut, unplugged, and undamned believable. All right. So my pal, Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali,

former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, joining us out of Washington, D.C., Randy Bryant, DEI disruptor, also out of DC. Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney, joining us out of LA. Glad to have all three of you here. I will start with the Tuskegee graduate, Randy. There are about 107 HBCUs, Randy. I have personally been to 58 of them.

I think I've done 21 or 22 commencements, 19 of them at HBCUs. I probably have more HBCU presidents on speed dial than any other journalist in this country. I have talked to numerous presidents over the years, dating back to my first internship with the Houston Defender in 1990. And I'm gonna say a couple of things and that some folk, and this is one of the issues, and I've said this before, and folk in the HBCU world get an attitude, get all mad. You heard the brother say, oh, man, we can't air our dirty laundry, and he's right. Your laundry is already aired.

When it's on television, when it's in the newspaper, when you owe tax liens, when you owe money, when you lose accreditation, your dirty laundry is aired. Here's the reality that we have to confront. There are a lot of people who sit on HBCU boards of trustees who have no business being on boards of trustees. There are individuals who don't have any real business experience. They have never, ever governed anything the size of the budget of these institutions. And so therefore, they've never been in positions of power. We also have to recognize that we often talk about racism, underfunding of resources, things along those lines.

But we also got to own up to that sometimes when you have issues, it's us. And there are people who don't do their jobs who should be fired. There is absolutely no excuse for a university not filing the proper paperwork to get federal funding. There is none. I don't want to hear the excuses. There are basic processes that you have there. I don't understand how if you're St. Augustine's leadership, you got a Hail Mary due to COVID and you got $35 million in federal go right back up to running deficits to put yourself in the existing position. This is one of those things that we have to be willing to call people out. And I don't give a damn if they are an HBCU graduate. I don't give a damn if they are a lawyer or a judge or the doctor or whatever the hell, there are individuals who look like us

who are causing the destruction of our institutions due to their sheer incompetence. You are absolutely right. I could not agree with you more. I do believe it is part of our culture I've said before, I grew up on Hampton University's campus because my mother was a professor there and then went on to Tuskegee University. I have a great love for HBCUs, but I think that we sometimes forget because there is so much love there. It is part of our souls and hearts that at the end of the day, it is a business. At the end of the day, where you decide to go to school is a financial decision, and the school ultimately must be run like a business, and we must conduct it like a business. That means who we hire to handle our business must have the appropriate qualifications to handle business. And when

they don't, they should be fired. They should be let go. All of this, oh, they went to the same school for years, or they love the school. We don't get jobs, unfortunately, based on love. And that could be a bonus. But at bottom, we're not loving our institutions if we are not ensuring that they stay open and continue. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain.

I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. To educate our students, period. This here is a story, Mustafa, from WRAL News there in Raleigh. It says, St. Augustine's in a crisis, a timeline to its loss of accreditation

and financial struggles. St. Augustine University asked students to move out by April 3rd, 2024 and switch to remote learning. That is the latest attempt to save money in an ongoing financial crisis at the school. Yet when you look at this story, it says the U.S US Department of Labor in May said

it would investigate the financial issues at St. Augustine's University, citing the university's struggle to pay its employees. Then when you go down here and you see this story, where a group of alumni sent the board of trustees a resolution demanding their resignation, it goes in here that they were put on probation in December 2022 by SACS,

by failing to comply with accreditation requirements regarding finances, governing board characteristics, and federal and state responsibilities. Then it goes on here in where you have board chair James Perry saying the university is gonna fight the decision. And then it goes on and on and on where it talks about in this story where, you know, it says in 2014, the school was scrutinized for losing three million dollars in tuition revenue due to falling enrollment at the time.

A contractor also filed a lien against the school for six hundred75,000 owed for work on the school's football stadium. The lien since has been settled. They regained the accreditation in 2018. They saw financial stability. Then all of a sudden, again, July, 2023, a contractor filed a $15,000 lien for unpaid work in the university's chapel. Wellfleet Insurance said the university

owed almost $430,000 for deductibles on student health insurance plans. In October 2023, St. Augustine took out a $7 million line of credit. In October 2023, North Carolina Division of Employment Security issued notice of delinquency. In 2023, another lien against the university. Then, of course, the IRS lien for unpaid taxes dating back to the end of 2020. Now, I go back to this here. Now, you look right here where you had the lien taken out in October 2023.

I'm sorry. The COVID money came in in 2021, 2022, 2023. How in the hell do you get a $35 million Hail Mary from the federal government and you still can't handle your damn money? That means whoever was in charge of the administration, whoever was in charge of the board of trustees, all of they sorry asses got to go. Well, you know, it definitely goes down to management. You know, that's one part. There's a whole lot here to unpack. But if you want to have a thriving organization, whether it's an academic institution or any other form, you've got to have strong management and

accountability. So, yes, individuals who are part of this, if they're still there, folks need to take a strong look at them and make some decisions if they have the skills that are necessary to lead a premier organization. And many of our HBCUs are premier. There's just different needs that have existed inside of that space. We see examples of institutions, our institutions, that have went through both financial and other types of challenges who have been able to come back. Morris Brown is one example down at the AU Center, which has been able to navigate these types of challenging situations. But there's more that's there. I mean, we can't take away the fact that in many instances,

these institutions, our institutions, have often been underfunded, which has created these ripple effects. So, yes, you've got to have strong management now to deal with what's going on. But we also, of course, have to understand historically how many of our institutions became destabilized. And when we find ourselves in this moment, I mean, there's a deeper conversation about some of these dynamics that are going on in relationship to people trying to take the land. And if you look at the history of North Carolina, that's not so unusual when it comes to black communities and black organizations. But we're focused right now on how do we help this institution to heal and how do we make sure that they have what's necessary to move forward. Now, the last point that I'll make is that the board, you know, they have a huge

amount of responsibility. I sit on 11 boards and a part of that is financial oversight. So if you're not doing your job in that respective space, then you also need to look of getting individuals who either have those skills or who are willing to do the hard work and make the hard decisions. You know, the thing that jumps out at me on here, Joe, is again, when I look at St. Augustine's situation, I mean, it takes a lot to lose your accreditation. Like, you gotta like really, really, really screw up consistently over a period of years to lose your accreditation. That is the one thing no

institution can ever jeopardize. Why? Because your students can't get a financial aid. You have to be accredited for them. When Morris Brown lost their accreditation, they were in the wilderness for more than a decade, and they had two and three students there because they literally could not, you don't have accreditation, you cannot get federal financial aid, which is the lifeline, the lifeblood of nearly all HBCUs. So you got that. What's happening over at Shaw, that's a different deal. And so I totally understand the brother demanding some answers. And so, and here's the question, and it jumps out at me. I'm sitting there going, hold up.

You got valuable downtown land at Shaw, and somebody's recommending you sell it for $10 million and 75 acres? Yeah, I'm going to give you the side eye there. Again, this is one of those things where you need full transparency because you can't be asking people to donate and support an institution if they're unclear as to how the money is being used. You know, a lot of us, you know, we're out on the West Coast and we heard about what was going on with Bennett all those years ago

and we donated. We've got money from all over the country. You know, I went to a small liberal arts college here in Southern California, and I pay attention a whole lot to how they're dotting the I's and crossing the T's. And I got to tell you, it's absolutely inexcusable when we lose accreditation. That's the part that I think we have some say in. This is something we can do well and do right. We can follow federal rules. We can follow state rules. We know that the loss of accreditation is the kiss of death in the college world, because now, who wants to go to

an unaccredited school? I wouldn't have sent my daughter to an unaccredited school. So the second your school becomes unaccredited, loses its accreditation, anybody that's there that wants their degree to mean something is going to transfer. And it's self-perpetuating. So it's this whole cycle that you've got to start to unwind back, you know. And so, yeah, you know, there's a land power grab going on here for sure. And it sounds like maybe the leadership of Shaw is working along with it, you know. And that's terrible. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, something has to happen. You know, Gwen Guthrie said, you know, there's no romance without finance. Ain't nothing going on

but the rent. I used to call my dad, dad, how you doing? May he rest in peace. What's going on, man? The rent. That's it. If you aren't paying your bills, if you aren't doing the things that you need to do, when you did get a Hail Mary, when you did get $30, $35 million clear from COVID, you've got to find a way, as difficult as it is, they're undercapitalized, the HBCUs, they don't have the same endowments. All of that is true. But if you get $30, $35 million, you've got to make it count. And so hopefully the alums and the people that really care about these universities really rise up and do what needs to be done so that they can grab this thing by the reins, take the reins, and make sure that this school survives. Look, it's a whole lot going on.

We're going to reach out to the presidents of Shaw University, as well as St. Augustine's, and the board chairs as well, to come on this show to explain to folks what's going on. Because here's the thing. People always, they're always like, hey, you know, we need folks to support

our institutions. And, I didn't go to HBCU, but fully supportive of HBCUs. I've given money to HBCU, but fully supportive of HBCUs. I've given money to HBCUs, spoken to HBCUs. I've actually, I've spoken at Shaw as well as St. Augustine's. But the thing here that the public needs is accurate information, full transparency in order for us to deal with the problem. So, well, hopefully they are going to respond to that and come onto the show. Let me go to Brett. We come back.

Change is at the top of several more HBCUs. We'll tell you about that when we come back. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join the Breeden Funk fan club. Send your check and money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 2003-710196. In just a case,

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Louder and prouder on Disney+. And you're watching Roland Mars Unfiltered. All right, folks, changing the top of a couple of HBCUs. Let's go to my iPad. Florida Memorial University, Dr. Jafis Hardrick has resigned from the university. The university said he stepped down because of a health issue. He is going to stay as president. William McCormick is going to be the interim president until the board of Trustees fills that role. Hardrick actually was doing quite well there. He actually signed a new five-year contract in 2022.

Now he is leaving two years inside of that particular contract. And so the Florida Memorial president is stepping down. Dr. Walter Kimbrough, we had him on the show about a week ago. Of course, he's the former president, Flanders Smith, as well as Dillard University. is stepping down. Dr. Walter Kimbrough, we had him on the show about a week ago. Of course, he's the former president, Flanders Smith, as well as Dillard University. Then he did some work at Morehouse. He's now the interim president at Talladega College in Alabama. Dr. Kimbrough is stepping into that job after Dr. Gregory Vincent left after only a couple of years at the helm there as well.

And so now Talladega has a new university president and Dillard University. Let me pull up here. Their president has also resigned. Dr. Rochelle Ford, she has stepped down after only a couple of years as president. According to this story here that she it says here she is stepping down as president to focus on her health and family. She had only been the university's 8th president for two years.

She succeeded. Dr Walter Kimbrough, of course, who was the president there for a decade. That is the shortest tenure of a Dillard University president. One of the things that we've seen in the HBCU world is what happens at a lot of these institutions in terms of a lot of change in leadership. Michael Sorrell, give me one second, I'm going to pull this up. Michael Sorrell, who is the president at Paul Quinn, he actually was tweeting about this just the other day.

He was talking about some of the issues that actually take place and what people have to expect when it comes to a lot of HBCU campuses, what you must be prepared to do. This is what he said. I read a series of tweets about the turn of HBCU presidents. The fact this isn't a new issue. Our jobs are hard and they aren't going to get easier. The resilience needed to operate in this space as a leader must be met with an equal resilience by all the stakeholders, he says, but that is rare. Typically, the folks who make it to the seat are people who have track records of academic success. It turns out that academic success isn't really what's needed to persist in these roles.

To me, one needs to have the ability to understand failure and what it feels like to stand alone. At under-resourced institutions, failure lurks around every corner. Because of it, we learn to distinguish between difficult, unlikely, and impossible, a very valuable skill. None of this is meant to belittle the well-established reasons that cause turnover. These are hard jobs and often with unrealistic expectations.

Many of the jobs are made worse by poor fits and a lack of a supportive infrastructure. Peer support is so important for a lasting tenure. I'm forever grateful for my crew of brother and sister presidents who provide safe harbor and so much more. Mustafa, I want to start with you. The thing here is, and let's be real clear, have I ever worked at HBCU? No.

Have I ever desired to work at any college? Absolutely not. I was an adjunct professor for a couple of years at the University of Texas at Arlington. I have never desired to work at any college, absolutely not. I was an adjunct professor for a couple of years, University of Texas at Arlington. But I do liken dealing with an HBCU to running black newspapers. And that is one, when you come into a black on media institution, you have to one,

understand the culture, understand the history, understand the reality of being under-resourced, but then you also have to come with a sense of reality of how do you now rebuild and reconstruct. A lot of times, and I'll be very clear, and I've seen this in both instances, individuals who come from mainstream media outlets, who come from PWIs into the HBCU culture, it's culture shock because they are expecting all these other different things. Well, if you don't come in and do the real analysis, then you're going to have a serious

problem. The other thing is that you also have to come in to a point that Randy said earlier, you have to come in not as an academic person, you've got to be a business person. You have to understand the reality of what you're walking into. And I dare say, and I reached out to the president, Flora Memorial, who's a brother who's an alpha brother. I have not reached out to Rochelle at Dillard.

But I'm telling you right now, when you serve a couple of years as president into your tenure and you leave before that four or five years, that was an underlying problem. But you see, Michael Sorrell said it. You also may not have a good fit. This is why it's incumbent upon having real folks on your boards know what you're looking for in leadership

to pick the right person to lead the institution in the future. Great insights. And I enjoy listening to the things that they share. You know, it's always interesting. I've known a few of the HBCU presidents. I've watched them over the years. You know, it's a job almost like the president of the United States, where you see someone come in, and if you see them three or four years later, you can see the enormity of the pressure that was placed on them. And to be effective in those positions, not only do you have to have great business acumen,

you've got to be able to also raise money. You have to be a cheerleader. You have to be a forensic accountant. You have to also, in many instances, be a counselor and a social worker and a number of other things that often are required in those positions. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. So as you said, you've got to have that team that's around you to be able to have real talk about the sets of challenges that are there. Of course, if you're somebody who is serious about moving into that position, you've already done your research before to know where the strengths are in the organization and where the gaps are, and hopefully have a somewhat of a strategic plan about how you want to move forward. I mean, it is a position that is not for everybody, but for those who can navigate it. I mean, the positives that come out of there, of all the

lives that you can touch, both in the community where your footprint is and those students, is something that's immeasurable. But it's not made for everybody. And one of the things that happens that is quite unfortunate, Randy, is that when you have this level of turnover, a new president after two years or three years, and this thing consisted, you have instability among an organization because you've got staff coming in and out. You've got new vision. You've got a whole new vision, throwing the old vision out. And so in order to build a lasting institution,

you've got to have stability in leadership. There absolutely has to be consistency and stability in leadership and a support system. I think that's oftentimes the problem is when somebody new steps in, it's not like it is with the president of the United States. You oftentimes are with the old administration and the old administration oftentimes can be slow to jump on board or to accept and embrace change. And so while you're already facing the financial upheavals, you know, what we have to do as a Black institution in this country, when you're not getting the support from the people that you really need, that's an absolute problem as well. So I believe that we need to, you know, as a whole, HBCUs as a collective need to talk

about why our turnover is so high. What can we do better to support our leaders? Because we need them and we need for them to stay. And at the end of the day, Joe, it comes down to when you have instability, you are impacting the folks who are most important, students. Yeah, absolutely. And so what we're hoping for is that there can be a bottom-up approach where students and students have concerns where their voices are heard, where they're always active and at the table. That's going to be really important. And, you know, when you have a president, there are regimes, just like with anything else, just like with any other tribal

type of thing, tribe or group or whatever else. And so when one president is gone, the things that are left over from that person's regime often end up getting resistance or resisting to the new president, right? And so that's why you really need an active alum contingent because an active alum contingent that really is thinking about the larger interests of the university, not, you know, using the university or using the board as a personal play thing or whatever else that gives you the best opportunity

that the right thing will always be done and that when you do the wrong thing, you make the change. So understanding the culture, dictating the culture, making the changes that need to be brought so that you're not setting up a president for failure. Often, even a successful president, like for instance, Dr. Kimbrough comes in for 10 years, somebody comes in afterward, there's resistance because there's someone new. So you have to really hopefully have an active intention that helps you. Well, you got resistance with someone new, but also you got new people who come in and want to turn over the apple cart just because, and they sometimes could screw stuff up. So it's all that goes into it. All right,

y'all hold tight one second. We come back. We're going to talk about student loan debt relief. One, a sister and her husband, boy, they are excited with a student loan debt relief that they receive. But also you have two Obama appointed judges who are putting a halt to some of President Biden's one of his student loan debt relief plans. We'll talk about that next right here on Rolling Modern Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at

what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You're not asking me about the pocket squares that we have available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here. It's all about looking different. Now, look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying to tell fellas, change your look, please. You can't

wear athletic shoes every damn where. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square, these shibori is because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares. But also, I like being a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey at Essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser.

I saw this feather pocket square and I said well I got some ideas so I hit her and she sent me about 30 different ones and so this completely changes your look now some of you men out there I had some dudes say oh man I can't wear that well if you ain't got swagger that's not my problem uh but uh if you're looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket squares saying, see, check mine out. So it's always good to see them.

And so this is what you do. Go to RollinThisMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. You can order Shibori pocket squares or the custom-made pocket squares. Now, for the Shiboris, we're out of a lot of the different colors, and I think we're down to about 200 or 300. So you want to get your order in as soon as you can because here's what happened. I got these several years ago, and the Japanese company signed the deal with another company, and I bought them before they signed that deal and so I can't get access to any more from the company in Japan that makes them and so get yours now so come summertime when I see y'all at Essence y'all could be looking fly with the Shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket

square again rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares go there now. with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, folks. The Biden administration will appeal two court orders blocking key parts of its student loan repayment plan. Two federal judges in Kansas and Missouri, both appointed by President Obama, have temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Education from implementing major provisions of the saving on a valuable education plan, or it calls SAVE. Now, until the cases are settled, the Biden administration cannot forgive any more debt under the new income-driven repayment plan or for the reduced borrower's

payments in July as scheduled. More than 8 million loan borrowers have enrolled in SAVE since the Biden administration launched it in 2023. The Education Department has already canceled $5.5 billion of debt for 414,000 borrowers. This, of course, is a huge, huge issue that we have seen across the country. A lot of people have been talking about this, including one of my next guests. She posted this tweet just the other day. We talk about because I love we talk about these stories and people always like, OK, I don't know nobody who has student loan debt relief. Come on, y'all pull the graphic up. This is a tweet that Eljoy Williams posted.

Give me one second. Y'all don't have it? All right, fine, let me find it. Let's see here. It was pretty funny because she tweeted that she said she was sitting there at the table paying bills and all of a sudden got the word about that student loans, that the student loans for her and her husband were forgiven. And here we go right here.

Come on, iPad. Sitting on the couch paying household bills and both me and my husband's student loans have been forgiven. That, of course, is always welcome news. We've talked about this from a lot of different people when they've had these issues with the student loans and so she posted that and I said well then of course then Eldra posted if you also find out your student loans have been forgiven congratulations to you too. There are multiple student loan forgiveness programs if you haven't yet, you should apply.

If you get denied, apply again and try a different program. She joins us right now. I'm glad to have Eljoy here along with Jared Bass, the Senior Director of Higher Education Policy at the Center for American Progress. Glad to have both of you. Eljoy, how much money are we talking about? Man, listen.

You know, I haven't calculated the total amount, but I mean, close to we were paying $800, $900 a month combined in paying back student loans. And that is going to have a real impact on our day-to-day, on our household, on our bills. And as I said in the tweet, I was sitting about to pay mine, right, to log in, to pay in the bills, and was like, why is it zeroed out? You know, what is happening? And so I'm going, I'm looking through the account. So you hadn't gotten one of those letters

saying, hey, your debt has been forgiven. I probably did. It's just in the stack of mail that's on the... Joy, you debt has been forgiven. I probably did. It's just in the stack of mail that's on the... Joy, you got to check your mail. It was probably in the stack of mail. So I, you know, it's just stacked up and I'm going through and looking through and I was like, everything seems to be zeroed out.

And then my husband was like, yeah, mine is zeroed out too. I think we got—like, the loans are forgiven. And I had applied, particularly for my husband. My husband is a public school teacher. He went to school specifically because of the public service loan program, got his master's, went all the way through. And I was applying mainly for him, because he had documented, obviously, being a public school teacher here in New York City. And then I was like, well, I guess I'll just apply. What does it harm me, right, to apply for what I might be eligible for as well in the income-driven program from that standpoint? And I worked for the government

a couple of times. I worked for nonprofits. So I was just submitting all of the required documentation. They had come back a number of times, submit this, add this. So I was just doing it as I sit down and do my bills and then, you know, happen to come across this. I was not expecting, though, Roland, so many people to just have so much vitriol for people celebrating, you know, decreasing the bills that you have on a regular basis. Well, and that's what kills me.

When I would post, whenever there's a new plan announced, and I would post that, people are like, yeah, you know, I don't know nobody who got it. Then all of a sudden, it'll be like 20 replies going, uh, hello, me, me, me. And here to me, what's so stupid, okay? I paid off my student loan years ago. I did not have a lot. I think it may have been $20,000, $30,000. It may

have been. And I paid off long ago. Tuition now, obviously, is totally different. But I'm happy for somebody today. I'm not tripping like, man, it's damn shame had to pay my stuff back. No, I'm happy that somebody is getting student loan debt

relief when I see these damn billionaires getting to write off yacht purchases and Gulfstream jet purchases due to Trump's tax plan. Well, not only that, just recently, right, I run a business also. And I remember during the pandemic, everybody was applying for the PPP loans

and things like that. I couldn't get my stuff together. I didn't. And then those were forgiven. You know, my only thing I was like, dang, I should have applied for that. I would have been able, you know, to write, to ship on one of the things. So it's not a situation of hating from outside the club. You know, it's being able to celebrate the fact that people are able to take advantage of these programs. You know, and the other thing, the other undercurrent, which I think is also a lot of bots, right, where people are talking about, oh, this is Biden buying votes, right, as if he's picking and choosing by name who he is forgiving loans for, or that it's somehow reparations to black people, right, that only black people are eligible, and not that this is a program

that if you meet the requirements and you apply, you also can enjoy. And so I hope that there are not people that are so, you know, staunchly opposed that you're just going to continue paying that student loan debt instead of applying for a program that you and your family may qualify for. But you also had to make clear,

stop running your damn mouth and sit your ass down and apply. See, that's the other thing. You had to post a tweet saying, okay, you got to apply. You got to do some work. It ain't going to happen just because. Right.

And I think that's a lot of the misinformation, too. You know, all the time, Roland, we see the amount of misinformation and disinformation, particularly that circulates on social media. And to see so many people saying, I keep checking mine. I'm like, but did you submit an application? Did you submit something? Like if you keep checking your mailbox, but you didn't send nothing off, right? Like you're never going to get an opportunity to

experience that. And so the more that we can communicate to people, hey, there's more than one program that you can apply for to be able to sit. You can do it based upon your income. Go to the page and just complete everything that you may qualify for and follow up on it so that you can get the reduction as well. Jeff, I'm sorry, Jared, I'm looking to hear it as a brother named Aaron Brown on our YouTube chat. He says my student loans were forgiven. When I got the email, I thought it was spam. A total of $200,000

of loans and interest was forgiven. What a lot of these conservatives and Republicans are complaining about when they're sitting here going, oh, the taxpayers are having a foot to bill. If they actually look at the program, a lot of this is interest.

Explain that to the folk who don't understand what's going on. Yeah, so under some of these plans, they basically will base your student loan payment based on the amount that you make per year, but sometimes that doesn't actually cover the full cost of your loan. So some of it's going towards interest, and most of your payment is actually going toward interest and isn't even hitting the principal. So all that just keeps, you know, getting capitalized and what we call amortized. So that's not free. Real clear. That's not free money people are getting when you cancel interest. That's not that's not like we gave you one hundred and fifty grand. And so therefore, oh, we're canceling. We're giving you free money. That's interest. That's money that's not actual money.

Yeah, so it's basically like they charge you for taking out money to better yourself. And then they tax you after you get the job to be able to, you know, live your life. So basically, it's the charge that you get just for trying to get opportunity, trying to better yourself. And so for a lot of people, they see the amount that they borrow or that borrow will continue to grow. So they end up owing more than they originally took out. And this is especially true for black borrowers and borrowers of colors. Some 12 years after they entered repayment, they actually see that they will owe more than they originally took out on their loans? When we look at these programs and for people who don't understand government, and they need to understand this, when Trump was in the Oval Office, you've never heard me call him President Trump.

I wouldn't even call him that to his face. Hell, I wouldn't even call him Mr. Trump. All I said was hi. When we talk about programs, when he instituted his tariffs program, which, by the way, American taxpayers paid for, when you impose tariffs, China don't pay that. Consumers in the United States pay for it. He essentially, because all these farmers got screwed, the federal government handed out some $25 billion to mostly white farmers in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and many of these Midwestern states. And so when I hear these people complain about, oh, this is unfair, the American taxpayer is paying for this. They also don't say nothing about all of these corporations that get

subsidies, all fossil fuel companies and so many others who get tax breaks, who get subsidies from the federal government. I mean, not only that, but the thing is, student loan borrowers are taxpayers. And I think we forget that as part of the equation, like somehow they don't pay taxes. They're not part of the system. They do. They pay taxes. They're part of the system. So it's not just like we're taking one benefit from one group of people and giving it to

the other. This is for everybody. I want my doctor to not have to worry about student loan debt when I'm in the examination room. I want our teachers not to have to worry about their finances when they're up in front of the classroom teaching my kids. So I'm invested in this because I'm invested in my community and making sure it runs well. And so if we want our communities to run well, whether that be at the local level,

the state level, and yes, of course, the federal level, then that means that, you know, we need to pitch in. We need to have programs that support, you know, public school teachers like, you know, our other guests here talked about. We need to make sure it's supporting firefighters, it's supporting our veterans. Like, that's who this money is going towards. It's just trying to make it easier for, like, current generation people who are trying to pay back, but also make it easier for people who are trying to go to school now not have to. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated And it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Worry about that burden, shouldering the burden of student debt. And, Joy, this is the benefit.

This is another comment in our YouTube chat. Alexandra Jackson, my loans, she says, Roland, my loans of $152,000 were forgiven. $25,000 was interest. My loans were forgiven in May 2023, which allowed for me to purchase my first home in July of 2023. So when these people are complaining about all these freeloaders

and they're paying for your art degree or your French philosophy degree, no. The people who are having loans forgiven, many of them are public servants. Many of them are people who are not out there, who are not trust fund babies, who are not sitting here making millions on Wall Street, regular ordinary people, as Jared said, who are still out there, who are not trust fund babies, who are not sitting here making millions on Wall

Street, regular ordinary people, as Jared said, who are still paying taxes, who now, as in this case, she's now a homeowner. Yeah. And, you know, there are so many stories and, you know, there may be people that say they don't know anyone. You know, around me, there are so many stories. You know, my husband tells a story of one of his former co-teachers who had applied several times to the public service forgiveness program, including my husband. My husband had applied many times before, but got denied. And with the refocus of the administration of fixing some of the problem of this program that existed before—and nobody was crying about it before,

by the way—but that fixed it, we were afforded the opportunity for him to submit it and finally, you know, receive the forgiveness. His co-teacher, not only a teacher, but worked in the Air Force, right? So, like, these programs were set up previously. It's not like just Biden created them all himself. And people are able to apply and then do more. People are not taking the money that they would ordinarily pay to student loan interest, as you mentioned, and as your guest mentioned previously. Now they can invest it in different parts for their home, to buy a home in their children, right, to be able to do more. So people telling me, oh, you know, are you going to pay for future children? Sure am,

because I got four foster kids, one of which is going to college in two years. So I'm going to have to pay something into a program between scholarships or maybe take out a parent loan or something to be able to send her to school and the other children that we're raising in this household. And so people have this mindset that they believe the people that they are investing in are all freeloaders, right? And we have the same attitude or people have the same attitude when we get to public benefits for people who may need support, whether it's SNAP benefits or anything like that.

They have this negative image of who this person are. Meanwhile, we have the facts of who other people are who are not paying their fair share, right, who are—you know, whether they're corporate, paying their fair share in taxes, whether it's wealthy people, the 1 percent, right, who don't pay their fair share in taxes. We have the facts of who they are and how they are, you know, dodging paying their fair share. Meanwhile, we would prefer to demonize the parent, the teacher, the Air Force veteran, or any of them, because they receive public benefits or forgiveness of interest of their loans in order to further the support for their family. over this. This is about Republicans and conservatives trying to appeal to their non-college educated voters saying, see, see, those elites over there, they're getting your money. No one

is forgiving your money. That's what they're doing. But of course, one of the things they leave out is that many of those folks who support conservatives, who support Republicans, live in some broke-ass states where they get money from blue states that pay for their government. But it's amazing how they conveniently overlook those details. I mean, not only that, but like the people who, like, if you go to college and you don't get the degree, you still have student debt if you take out loans. You gotta pay those back. And that actually puts you in a worse-off position. So we're actually talking about some of those people in those communities who are disadvantaged. Maybe they didn't have a good time or didn't get the education that they needed, and they still have to pay back student loans. So it's not just that, like, if you have the degree,

you pay it back. No, even if you don't have the degree. And Vice President Kamala Harris, she spoke in Detroit as well as in Charlotte and in Atlanta on her economic empowerment tour, she said that, she said, remind people that even if you didn't graduate, you could also apply for these programs to have your student loans also forgiven. And so people out there watching and listening to understand that as well. Go ahead. Yeah. And so the other point about this, too, is that like and I think we've, you know, highlight this and mentioned that this isn't just a, you know, Biden policy.

Right. So the public service loan forgiveness program, you know, income driven repayment programs, they've been around for a while. Income driven repayment plans, you know, in particular, have been around for over 30 years. We've seen those revised three times and no one cried wolf there. Public service loan forgiveness itself, that debt relief program, was actually signed into law by President W. Bush, a Republican, signed that into law, that loan forgiveness program. It's on the books today because they wanted to make sure that people weren't struggling with the burden of student debt. So this is a problem that affects Republicans, Democrats, independents, poor people.

Like, it affects everybody. So it's not just, like, redents, poor people. It affects everybody. So it's not just red and blue states. It's in every state. And that's one of the things that we need to just remember in this is it's not just a rich kid problem. Rich kids don't take out loans. They don't need to take out loans. But the people who do are middle class people and low-income people who they have no other capital. They have no other wealth, they have no other means to be able to get an education, to better themselves, to have access to opportunity. And when we do stuff like we're seeing now with the courts and taking away these relief programs, we're hurting generations of people. We're hurting this generation. We're hurting future generations of people because people are going to question why even go to college

if we don't provide the relief for them to do so. From the panel, Joe, you're first. Yeah, I'm just, I'm glad that you guys, to the extent that you have been able to benefit from this program, what is the thing that you would want potential college students to know? What could we say to them collectively, people that are maybe being dissuaded because of the prospect of debt? You know, COVID really brought this out for folks, right? You know, when people were paying to be on campuses and it made them rethink on some level. How do we tell our kids and everyone to continue to dream and to know that if they're as wise and prudent as they can be, you know, faith and works will come together and we'll still find a way to do this and get your education funded. You know,

how do we talk to them about that? I mean, what I would say—please go ahead. You know, I can just give the real-world example of counseling not only our foster children but other children in the community and say, you know, it's your responsibility to dream your future, and it's the community's responsibility and everyone—your adults, your caregivers—to make sure that you have the resources and the opportunities to actually pursue that dream. And so I would say don't be limited, right? Don't limit your dreams. Don't limit your possibility about what's possible or what you can't see. Let the community, let your caregivers, let your family, let, you know, your state and your government put together the opportunities and the resources for you to be able to accomplish that.

Because we need, as was mentioned, we need teachers. We need those in the public service. We need doctors. We need those working in not-for-profits and social workers, which I hope is the next category of people, you know, that we are really investing in to make sure that they not only get the financial support that they need in their jobs, but also the forgiveness that they need for the debt that they have taken on as well.

So, that is their responsibility, is to continue to dream. And it's the community's responsibility, elected officials' responsibility, their caregivers' responsibility to make sure they have the opportunity and the resources in order to make that dream a reality. Mustafa? Yeah, well, thank you all for being here. You know, I think there's about 40 million folks who are still student loan holders. I'm curious, what would you like to see the president do next, excuse me, President Biden, if given the opportunity, is reelected? I would say keep fighting. So we have the safe plan that got stalled yesterday or various aspects

of it. That's not the only error in the quiver. So we have other opportunities to continue to push for student debt relief to, you know, lower that burden or alleviate that burden for borrowers. There are regulations that are, you know, going to be, you know, going into effect a little bit later that would provide debt relief. You know, we've got public service loan forgiveness. And the president has already been working to provide upwards of $160 billion, over $160 billion, just through what's on the books. So I would just encourage the president to keep going, to keep fighting for borrowers, and to keep moving forward with providing relief for those who need it. Joy? Yeah, I mean, I would encourage the same. Not only, as I mentioned,

social workers and other categories of people that really need that relief, and then going further, as I mentioned, and not only those that we encourage to seek the education to service their community and our greater good, but then how are we making sure that they have the salary necessary to continue to raise and grow their families and invest in their communities. And some of those public service workers that we're talking about, whether they be public school teachers, social workers, firefighters, any of those, they're also suffering from

low income, right, of being able to grow families, buy houses or things of that nature. So, I would encourage the president to not only continue these programs that continue to reduce debt, but what can we do to infuse more into the economies of these communities and these public servants and folks who are in our communities to make sure they have the resources necessary to continue to thrive? Randy? I'm so happy you both are here to show a real representation of who benefits from these loan forgiveness programs, because, you know, they try to put us in a negative light.

I would love to ask if you think that the pushback, the vitriol against these programs is race-based in some cases. Hell yeah. back, the vitriol against these programs is race-based in some cases. We know that, you know, black people are usually carrying about 200% more in loan debt after college. It very much holds us back, the debt that we carry. So do you think that that is where the vitriol comes from, this fight against these loan forgiveness programs? Absolutely. You know, and I can just tell from my anecdotal experience of what I've been experienced over the last 48 hours since I posted that, where there's a number of people just responding, assuming who I am, I do, right? From calling me a welfare queen to, you know,

mooching off of the system, just like my ancestors to everything, whatever. And I was like, whoa, how do we even break? Like, I didn't even say nothing about that. Right. It's clearly this underlying I think even rolling one point someone mentioned it was like, here's your reparations. Right. As if everybody isn't like eligible and this is only a race-based program. So I definitely think that that has something to do with it, because you see more and more people who are celebrating publicly are people of color, because it has such a transformational impact on our income, on our families. families, you then also see that, plus people on—you know, for political points are pointing to people that look like us as the only recipients of this program, that they're trying to buy

votes that way. Right. Jarrett? Yeah, I would just add, I think we have to be really careful in stewarding opportunity. So we're seeing this concerted effort to end forgiveness on the back end. We also have to think about opportunities for education on the front end. And so we saw the dismantling of affirmative action. We've seen the dismantling of forgiveness program that will alleviate debt burdens, not just for black borrowers, but in large part would support black borrowers.

So we need to make sure that we are defending opportunity for students of color, for black borrowers, for brown borrowers. So we need to make sure that we are defending opportunity for students of color, for black borrowers, for brown borrowers, because, you know, on both ends, we're seeing opportunity limited. And I don't think that's by accident. And I'm going to say this for the last time, but probably the last time when the question was asked, what advice do you have for the for President Joe Biden? This is really for him, for Vice President Kamala Harris, and for their campaign. My God, if you're going to take advantage of a win, do it.

I don't understand why, when they have rallies and other events, they don't say, before I get into my remarks, or when they are touting student loan debt relief, they haven't already identified five people in the audience from whatever city they're speaking in, and they say, could Jim stand up? Could Laura stand up?

Could Eljoy stand up? Could Angelica stand up? Y'all, these five people here standing up, they have collectively had $500,000 in student loan debt relief canceled. And like the sister who made a comment in our chat, if you have proper vetting, you can say, and because of that, she was able to buy a house. Because of that, this is what was done.

And then you say, as a matter of fact, if there's anybody else in this room who has gotten student loan debt relief, please stand up. And then that's when you say, and this is one thing that Trump does, you say to all the media in the back, cameras in the back, I want you all to get to this and feel free to talk to these folks afterwards so they can explain you the benefits of this program. I don't understand why they don't do that. That is the most basic. Every preacher, every preacher knows that when you say, who we sent to school. That's what you do. For the life of me, when they do this, they sit here and go, we've forgiven

167 billion. The average person don't understand that. But they understand that person sitting right next to them and that person right there. There's not an event that I wouldn't do that. And if I'm Biden, come the debate on Thursday, I'm naming folks specifically. Jim so-and-so from this Jim so-and-so from this. So-and-so from this. That's what you do. And I keep saying this.

This is my commercial. This is how I would do the commercial. My commercial would say it would be, it would show Eljoy's face and all she would say is thanks Joe. And beneath it would say,

L. Joy Williams, X amount forgiven. And then it'd be her husband next. Hell, I have both of them in the frame together. L. Joy and her husband. And he go, thanks, Joe. And she go, thanks, Joe. What they said together.

My whole commercial would be, thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joe. And at the end, it would be thanks joe thanks joe thanks joe and at the end it would be a slide 167 or 170 billion forgiven 4.4 whatever the number is and then boom uh i approve this message to me that's basic as hell and you show some white folks some black folks and Latino folks some Asian folks some Native American folks some folks with some blue hair some pink hair some black hair you show everybody because you send the message that this who benefits but that's just me all right Jared L Joe I

appreciate y'all thank Thank you so very much. No problem. Joy, tell everybody when your serious show, come on. Oh, my serious show is Sunday Civic.

You got all that big ass background behind you and the big ass microphone. You got to tell everybody. Girl, you got to learn branding. See,

just because you got your loan forgiven don't mean you understand branding. Let me help you out. Go ahead. You know, I'm neglectful to the Roland Martin School of Brandon.

Sunday Civics is 9 a.m. on SiriusXM Urban View where I teach civics using the current political landscape. Come on and join us. She teaches civics, but she don't teach Brandon. I need to go on her show and we can talk about civics and but she don't teach branding. I need to go on her show and we can talk about civics and

branding. All right. Jarrett and Jo, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let me go to commercial break, y'all, when we come back. Ooh, State Senator Louise Lucas in Virginia. All she does is pimp slap Governor Glenn Youngkin. Wait till I play for y'all video, what

she said yesterday at the rally they had dealing with reproductive rights. Oh my God, it's hilarious. Don't forget supporters of what we do. Join the bring the funk fan club folks. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each. A year is $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.

It allows us to be able to do what we do. All we do with this show in this network. Y'all is $195,000 a year. I started $350,000 of my own money, paying staff, all of that thing with one sponsor. H six years later because y generous. And so please c

senior checking money or Washington DC 2 0 0 3 7 d shop dollar sign, D.C. 2003780196. Cash app, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the mass Poor People's Low-Wage

Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls, and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons, along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate.

It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people be at the center of our politics. Living wages, healthcare, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard. Join us.

Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org, RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. And we won't be silent. And we won't be silent anymore. Hi, I'm Joe Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. I dare say one of the most gangster politicians in America is Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas.

Now, y'all, she gave Governor Glenn Young and that Republican fits in the last session and blocked his plans to bring the Washington Wizards and the Capitals and the Mystics to Virginia in a sweetheart deal. Well, yesterday in Virginia, there was a rally marking the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's doubt decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. She was one of the speakers there. And, Lord, I saw this comment, and I told my team,

y'all pull this comment with the quickness because I got to play this. Roll it. I know you're. Well, you all know why I walk. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. This came. I had total knee surgery for keeping my foot up Glenn Youngkin's ass all the time. Now, while it's my pleasure to join you on this beautiful morning. Okay, all right, so, uh, that was just too good. Y'all got to run that one back.

I got to run that one back, uh, because Randy enjoyed that just way too much. Well, you all know why I'm walking with this cane. I had total knee surgery for keeping my foot up Glenn Youngkin's ass all second. Now, while it's my pleasure to join you on this beautiful morning in the park. Rani, she is always locked and loaded to blast his ass. You got to love black women, man. We're just going to keep it real.

You just got to love us. Bravo to her. Bravo to her. I mean, she's all... I mean, first of all, she's always jamming up Yunkkin Mustafa. And again, he really thought that, you know, he was going to be able to run that.

Matter of fact, this was a tweet that she posted. It's funny Glenn Youngkin attended the March for Life today because his bills to restrict abortion all marched right into my trash can bin. That was a tweet that she posted in 2023. Right there, Mustafa. Yeah, the state senator, she's not playing with folks. And I appreciate her because she uses humor, but she also puts a spotlight on the injustices that the governor continues to do.

He's one of them smooth operators. You know, he figured because he has the right words and he has that look like he just stepped off of being a vice president on TV, that he can get away with the same types of injustices that those who wear sheets often do. So I appreciate her by not only pulling that sheet off of him, but also showing how the policies that he's been trying to move forward on are actually very hurtful to so many different types of people. So I appreciate her and I hope she continues to put that spotlight on. Joe, this here was a meme that went around after that arena bill was killed by Senator Louise Lucas. Y'all go to my iPad at least.

I love this one here. Youngkin and Leone's $5 billion arena. Oh, my God. That was just too funny. And she ain't got no problem sharing them. And, matter of fact, somebody, who is this?

Somebody sent her this DM. I don't know who this is. They said, get off Twitter, you old hag. She said, you get off Twitter

before I call you a parole officer. I mean, again, she ain't got no problem clapping back at folk. I love it. And I'm trying to find, oh my God, the photo I'm trying to find,

y'all are gonna absolutely love when I find it. Cause that was a photo of when Youngkin was giving his news conference and he was complaining about he was complaining about uh the senate of course she was over appropriations uh blocking the bill and and so here he was in the news conference and in the background uh was lucas standing on the steps overlooking him, looking like this here, and just smiling. Like, mm-hmm, I got you. Joe, that's the kind of pettiness, Joe, I love.

That's beautiful. They call me King Petty. And so I'm going to say State Senator Louise Lucas of Virginia is Queen Petty. You know, every now and then I have a case like this that makes me petty dealing with the other attorney, and I actually have one right now I'm thinking of. But

y'all, she's a real one. There's no question about it. And the state legislature is keeping Oh, here it is. Here's that photo right there. Here's that photo. He was talking, and she literally is standing back. Y'all I'ma zoom, look at this, she look like, mm-hmm.

Yeah, she like, you actually thought, she like, you thought you were gonna get this bill and you had to deal with this black woman right here. Oh my God, that's just too funny. She was just chilling. And you see, I don't know who it is right next to her, but both of them are smiling like, uh-huh, we got your ass. Right.

Sitting there with our arms folded like me when I'm at, as a Laker fan at a Clipper game, you know what I mean? So, you know, she's a real one. Let's be real clear. Y'all had to fire y'all coach because y'all sucked this year, but gone right ahead. See, you brought

that up. You brought that up, so you made me go get the baby powder to smack your ass, because y'all were awful. We did. We're in the wilderness. Yeah, go ahead. We'll find our way out. You should have finished your lip point. Yeah, for sure, but she's a real one, right?

You know, now, I'm not even focused on this anymore, but no, she's a real one, but fortunately, the state legislature is keeping them in the 21st century, keeping Virginia in the 21st century, despite what the governor's trying to do. I'm trying to I'm trying to find because I know that was some other ones. It just but again, but just the constant petty and what she's constantly doing, she's constantly reminding, Randy, she's constantly reminding Youngkin, you might be the governor, but you still got to come through the House and the Senate. And you know it kills this governor to deal with the fact that it's a black speaker of the House,

first time ever, and my frat brother Don Scott, and the most powerful state senator is this Delta, State Senator Louise Lucas. It's killing to yunking that his agenda has been stifled by these two bold black folks. Well, that's why he, that's why they're so against DEI, because they just mad when we get in those positions. And when we get in those positions. And when we get in those positions, you have people like Senator Lucas who are courageous. She makes her points. She's not scared to fight against him. And I am sure that he is not accustomed to that. So she's funny,

of course, but she's smart and she's getting stuff done and she's blocking him from doing things that hurt us. I just, I just, I'm absolutely tickled. Here was another video. I got to play this. Y'all pull audio up. Check this out. One person should be able to determine whether or not this arena goes through?

In this case, yes. Why? Because I have the prerogative to do that. And because I believe it's in the best interest of the Commonwealth not to bring that arena to the Potomac yard on the backs of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I love it because, again, so we know how power works. And so she was letting them know, hold on, y'all been having the power all these years.

This is what happened. This is the video of when she was overlooking Glenn Youngkin. Her tweet says, even when I was close to defeat, I rose to my feet. Watch this. ...permanent capacity or credit rating... ...still swimming down the D.I.A. Oh!

West Coast! ...still doing this country... Oh my goodness! Oh my... That's my goodness. Oh, my. That's my favorite line from that song. Oh, my God. That's too funny. Go ahead, Joe.

I stay close to defeat, and when I was close to defeat, I rolled to my feet. My life's like a soundtrack. I rolled to the beat in Virginia. Bam. Whoo. Y'all, go ahead and play that clip again. Go ahead and play that. I gotta

hear that one last time. I gotta hear that one last time when she spoke yesterday. Just too funny. Roll it! I had total knee surgery for keeping my foot up Glenn Youngkin's ass all time.

Yes! Yes! I had total knee surgery for keeping my foot up Glenn Youngkin's ass all Now, now while it's my pleasure to join you on this. Oh my goodness. I love my people. I love my people. Let me go to a break. I'll be right back. Rollerback on the filter and a black star network where we keep both feet up. A lot of folk asses on a constant basis. I'll be right back uh roller bar unfiltered on black star network where we keep both feet up a lot of folk asses on a constant basis i'll be back next on the black table with me greg carr dr gerald horn a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time he provides us a history lesson i'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox,

even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation. Only on The Black Table, right here on The Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life, it takes a village to raise a child, and truer words have never been spoken. If you're raising a child, you know that it's a blessed challenge like no other, even more so if your child has a disability. We'll talk to parents and our expert panelists about the best way forward for your child to help you maintain your own sanity on a next

A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. The car at Babb has been missing from Norfolk, Virginia since March 21st. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, pants and shoes. Anyone with information about Dakari Bob should call the Norfolk Virginia Police Department at 757-664-7000. 757-664-7000. Folks, this story about West Virginia is a true nightmare. A white couple is accused of using their black adopted children as slaves, locking them in a barn and forcing them to perform farm labor. Donald Ray Lance and Jean K. Whitefeather were initially arrested in October

following a wellness check during which authorities found two of the couple's five adopted children locked in a shed on their property. Authorities said the shed only had a small porta potty and no running water. A 14-year-old boy was reportedly found with open sores on his bare feet. The kids told authorities they were forced to sleep on the concrete floor without a mattress or padding. In court, Whitefeather claimed the shed was a teenage clubhouse and the children weren't locked inside. The couple's indictment alleges they specifically targeted the black children and forced them to work because of their race. Joe, what the hell?

And this just makes you sick to your stomach. I mean, this is, you know, there's no way to explain their way out of this. I believe in this case they recently raised their bond to, but it should be high in any event. They should

lock these folks up and throw away the key. And these children will—this will be a trauma that they'll have to deal with for the rest of their lives. And so just in case you're not sure that, you know, there's still these thoughts and these notions out there, even when someone is actually adopted and brought in, you know, and made family, you know, you still have to understand that there is a legacy and there's a history that has people treating even people that are supposedly adopted as their own in a way that implicates race and that implicates white

supremacy. It sounds like they treat the white, the black kids different than the white kids, too. So God bless these kids. I hope that they find a way to be OK day at a time. Mustafa? You know, the folks love to say that racism doesn't exist. It's something from the past. And this just highlights that, once again, these types of things continue to happen. We hope that this is a rarity, but we know that, you know, the feelings that folks still have THE FACT THAT WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE STORIES, WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE STORIES. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP

SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP

SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP

SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP

SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP

SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. AND THEN WE HAVE TO KEEP SHARING THESE THINGS. full letter of the law comes forward and they're held accountable. And three, we got to figure out a way in this country how to love each other. I know that's probably the most difficult of those three things that I just mentioned. But if we don't, this country is going to continue to just fall apart. So we'll see how we move forward over the next couple of years.

Randy? What we're seeing is pure evil. And I don't just want the parents prosecuted. I want, where was the social worker? Where were the teachers? Now these neighbors are coming out and saying, oh, we saw them working. They were having to do farm work. Well, why in the hell did you not speak up?

I mean, if I saw some kid who obviously was being abused day after day, I can't imagine just turning my back and then the police have to come and say, oh yeah, now that you're mentioning it, I did see them out working fields, working in the fields like they were enslaved people. I mean, that is the part, the entire system failed these children. And so, you know, that's when I get just highly upset when our children are failed. And also, you know, this shines a light on transracial adoption. And I have seen some cases where it's been very successful. But we have to stop ignoring the idea that race and racism exist in this country. And it's very real. So before people are allowed, permitted to adopt outside of their race, there certainly needs to be some sort of psych evaluation, some sort of training and education to be sure that these people have the right mind.

I mean, that they don't have a racist mindset before we allow our black children in these homes. I'm not saying we need to stop transracial adoption, but we definitely need to treat it as if we live in a racist country, because we do, in a country that was founded on the separation of races. Absolutely. All right, folks. One of the co-founders of Atlanta-based

venture capital firm The Phyllis Fund is stepping down from the organization. Of course, this comes amid litigation from a conservative group alleging they racially discriminate. Ayanna Parsons, co-founder of The Fielder's Fund, who co-founded this in 2019

with Arianne Simone and Keisha Naipulian, was the fund's chief operating officer. Parsons told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the federal lawsuit against Fielder's Fund is not part of her reasoning for leaving the firm. We reached out to Ayanna to come on the show. We're trying to get her on later this week. Also, folks, let's go to Alabama, where a former Alabama sheriff's deputy is heading to federal prison following an investigation into his use of excessive force. On Monday, Elmore County cop Blake Hicks, 33 years old, was sentenced to 29 months in prison,

followed by three years of supervised release for violently assaulting an arrestee. According to court documents, Hicks used unreasonable force against the arrestee, identified as TQ, by punching and kicking them while they were handcuffed to the ground. The victim suffered a broken cheekbone, concussion, and lacerations from Hicks' assault. This right here, Joe, is another example I keep talking about of a Department of Justice that holds police officers accountable. Right. I mean, it's huge and it makes a big difference when you have a justice department that will seek out these prosecutions and not

just look the other way while these things occur. Seems like we've seen a lot of these lately. And I appreciate the fact that that has been happening because that's what needs to happen. This is still out here. Inmates are still being treated a certain way. When they do have rights, you can't write them off because they're inmates. They do have rights. They do have constitutional rights and you can't ignore them. And you have to applaud a justice department that seeks to make sure those rights aren't ignored. I still don't understand, Mustafa, why the administration does not talk about the level of accountability. Stop being scared of these white conservatives calling you soft on the crime. I have yet to hear one time White House Press Secretary

Karine Jean-Pierre talk about the great work from the White House podium of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. I mean, damn. Cop after cop, Wharton after Wharton, jailer after jailer. They didn't even talk about

holding the Phoenix Police Department with their paths and practice investigation. We talk more about this stuff than they do. Yeah, I mean, missed opportunities. They have, you know, these chances to actually highlight for people who have had to deal with an unjust, you know, legal system that there's somebody who actually is paying attention and moving forward on actions to try and eliminate, you know, some of these individuals and organizations that have continued to just do nefarious types of things.

Now, I don't know if they continue to chase that mythical voter and hoping that if they don't talk about these issues that somehow, you know, the white male voter who's never voted for Democrats might be convinced to do so. But, you know, if that's the case, then you have really sort of you're just so far off the mark. So, one, they've been doing great work. Two, it should be highlighted. And three, if you don't, you're missing an opportunity to help people to know that not only do you care, but you're doing something about it. Randy? Mustafa hit the nail on the head. I do believe that oftentimes the Democrats are scared to highlight what we're doing that's right for people that some people think are wrong.

And we're not going to have those people on our team anyway. So we need to start highlighting what we're doing behind the scenes and put it up on stage and say this is what we're doing and we're fighting for every man. Absolutely. And so for folks to understand, you know, this is who was attacked wasn't a black family. It was a white inmate. Let's see if I can pull this up here. Because it was Tristan Quinn. Give me one second. Let me pull this up. Tristan Quinn speaks to the media, the law office of McPhillips. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Shine Balm in Montgomery.

So this is the inmate. He was the one who was beaten by the cop. And so again, a white inmate. So these are the things that we see. I was trying to actually and it was it was it was a white sheriff who actually did the beating here. And so, you know, these are the things that that that we see happen all the time. So, again, I don't understand why folks, why this administration doesn't focus on this. Check this out.

Also, a Kentucky man was spent one year and one day in prison after pleading guilty to committing a federal hate crime. 24-year-old Brian Adams confessed to threatening a fifth-grade student over Zoom in October 2020, the Department of Justice sued Adams, said Adams hurled racial slurs towards students and teachers. He threatened to hang them by a tree after serving his prison sentence. Adams must complete one year of supervised release in the District of Eastern Louisiana. Same thing. I keep talking about it. We know from the FBI report, Joe, that hate crimes is on the increase. African-Americans, highest group. This is the DOJ holding folks accountable. We've done numerous other stories of them getting guilty pleas for folks committing hate crimes. And the numbers let you know that this is still a problem.

The numbers are going up, OK? There's a political climate that seems to facilitate it. There will always be people that will benefit from being divisive, et cetera. But what we've seen are more people that feel that they're justified, that they have a righteous indignation in terms of treating people, others, a certain way. And so this is what you have. He probably felt justified in doing what he was doing. He certainly probably didn't think he'd go to jail related to it. And so that's why it's important for folks like this to be prosecuted, for us to have our eyes open and our ears open about the reality of these particular situations.

And hate crimes should not be hate crime language. Hateful language should not be allowed in threats under circumstances like these. And hopefully that will happen less. But the beginning point of it happening less is making sure it's prosecuted when it does happen. And of course, what he did here, Randy, he hacked into that particular Zoom to hurl these racial epithets. Oh yeah, he made efforts to be hateful, but I'm glad that his butt got caught.

And I'm glad that people are reporting it. I mean, I think there's another, we need to talk about not just that, yes, we are holding people accountable, but I believe that we are now more outspoken when it happens. At one time, we used to just tell ourselves, be strong. I tell people, tell it. Tell it.

Let people know so people will stop because people don't stop things because they have a change of heart. But if it starts to inconvenience them or they suffer in some way, they will think twice about harming us. And again, these are fifth graders, Mustafa. Yeah. You know, that just goes to show the depravity of the individuals who are, you know, getting caught. But of course, there's a whole bunch of other folks who play these games and try and come into these rooms and say all kinds of things. What I'm curious about is when he went to prison, does he still use that same language when there are brothers and others who are standing there

to check you real quick? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. But I say try it because you're going to F around to find out. All right, y'all.

Programming note, Thursday, we will not be live at 6 p.m. Eastern because Thursday is the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and the convicted felon, Donald Trump. So beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern, we will be live right here on the Black Star Network. We've got an amazing panel lined up. If y'all want the best black coverage out there of the best coverage period of the debate,

y'all come here. Y'all know y'all barely gonna see any black people on CNN, MSNBC. Ain't going to be no black people on Fox News. I don't know who going to have ABC, NBC, CBS, but ain't going to be many of us. News Nation, too. And so if y'all want to have real analysis, well, we break it all down. Y'all come right here.

That's 8 p.m. Eastern. Begin debate coverage. Of course, the debate begins on CNN at 9 p.m. We'll be simulcasting it, and then we'll have post-debate coverage, so y'all know how we gonna do it right here on the Black Star Network. It's gonna be straight up brain to funk, because that's the only way we roll. Let me thank Joe, Randy, and Mustafa for being on today's panel. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, that's it for us. Be sure to, again, support the work that we do.

Actually, the movie's here. You know what? I'm going to say that tomorrow. I was going to talk about some comments that Reggie Jackson made on Sunday with my man Roy Johnson in Alabama. I'm going to say that for tomorrow. So support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club.

Send your check and money order to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash, yep, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. YouTube folks, what the hell y'all taking? We're 45 likes away from 1,000 likes. Can y'all hurry the hell up and hit the damn button? It ain't that hard. Dot com. YouTube folks. What the hell are y'all taking? We have 45 likes away from a thousand likes.

Can y'all hurry the hell up and hit the damn button? It ain't that hard. Come on. Get moving before I get to go off. Also, download the Black Star Network app. Apple phone. Android phone. Apple TV.

Android TV. Roku. Amazon Fire TV. Xbox One. Samsung. Smart TV. And of course, be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores

nationwide, Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books a Million, Target. Get the audio version of Audible. Y'all hurry up. There's 32 more likes. Y'all slow as hell today. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going to do this here. Here are the folks who have given to us

via Cash App during the show tonight and yesterday. Monique Pierre, Gloria Frederick. We also have Wytonia, Cynthia Hart, Cynthia Thomas, Erica Brown, Belinda Williams, Bradrick Bennett, Diane Johnson, Stacey Robinson,

William Cunningham. We also have Margaret Keynes, Terry Jones, Nurse Linda White, Dawn Gibson, Tori Husband, Angela Parham, Carolyn Washington, Joan Venore, Carolyn Jackson, Alfre Conklin, Jacqueline Thomas, Rosalind Kinlow, and let's see here, Terry Ezell, Landry Spruill Jr. I appreciate all of y'all supporting us on the Black Star Network. I'll see y'all tomorrow. And we'll have results tomorrow of some of the elections taking place, including that of Congressman Jamal Bowman there in New York City.

Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. I thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN.

You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. It's kind of star studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter. And it brings a face to it. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the war on drugs podcast season two on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home.

For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer,

donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. This is an iHeart Podcast.