#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Rep. Pressley talks Roe v. Wade, Covid Boosters, Fisk's endowment, Black eyewear Co.

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

5.10.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Rep. Pressley talks Roe v. Wade, Covid Boosters, Fisk's endowment, Black eyewear Co. Barricades surrounding the Supreme Court keep protestors at bay, and security is tightening around court justices and their families.  U.S. Representative from Massachusetts Ayanna Pressley is here tonight talking about the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade and student debt cancellation. The family of a black Georgia man killed by police says officers failed to adhere to four policies that could have prevented Matthew Zadok Williams' death.  We'll hear from his mother and her attorney. Covid vaccine boosters may be more critical than ever.  Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Alexea M Gaffney will explain why. In today's HBCU Connect segment, Fisk University's president will tell us about the innovative endowment gift that will allow the institution, for the first time, to become an institutional investor in venture capital. In our Marketplace segment, we'll meet two friends whose black-owned eyewear brand is partnering with Nickelodeon to create a children's eyewear line.   Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Network. Barricades surrounding the Supreme Court keep protesters at bay and security is tightening around court justices and their families. But didn't they actually rule that free speech is protected?

Yeah, what do you think? I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. and security is tightening around court justices and their families. But didn't they actually rule that free speech is protected? Yeah, we'll talk to Congresswoman Yelena Presley from Massachusetts about the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade as well as student debt cancellation.

The family of a black Georgia man killed by police say officers failed to adhere to four policies that could have prevented Matthew Zadok Williams' death. We'll hear from his mother and her attorney. COVID vaccine boosters may be more critical than ever. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Alvia Gaffney will explain why, especially with the new variants now spreading across the country.

In today's HBCU Connect segment, Fisk University's president will tell us about the innovative endowment gift that will allow the institution for the first time to become an institutional investor in venture capital. And in our Marketplace segment, we'll meet two friends whose black-owned eyewear brand is partnering with Nickelodeon to create a children's eyewear line. It's time to bring the funk.

Roland Martin, Unfiltered, with Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. It's on go, go, go, y'all. to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling he's broke he's fresh's real the best, you know he's rolling Martel now. Martel! Ever since the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision regarding Roe v. Wade leaked, there has been an explosion of discussion all across the country, liberals and conservatives, those who are pro-choice, those who are anti-abortion. We've also seen the reaction from the Supreme Court. They've erected barriers around the Supreme Court to keep folks out.

But this is the same Supreme Court that previously ruled about buffer zones against abortion clinics. Now we have the United States Senate passing by unanimous consent increasing the security protection for Supreme Court justices and their families. But this is the same Supreme Court that ruled that it was protected free speech to protest outside of the homes of abortion providers. Hmm. Why it's good for the goose and not good for the gander.

Joining us right now is Congresswoman Yolanda Presley from Massachusetts. Glad to have you back on the show. Don't you find that to be interesting, that the Supreme Court could make these decisions, but then go, oh, but that doesn't apply to us. Applies to the rest of y'all, but doesn't apply to us. Look, peaceful protest and a healthy democracy is certainly fine. That should not come at the expense and the safety of any person or their family. But I would say that it is, or rather, and it is telling that they would want to move with urgency on that instead of moving with urgency on the Women's Health Protection Act

and protecting abortion rights, which is health care. And this is very consistent. With this Senate, we have seen an undermining of progress and a steadfast obstruction of justice. I'm of the opinion and the experience that this Senate has had their foot on the neck of black America and their knee on my body. When you make that point about how fast they move, that was something that people made a comment about yesterday.

Boy, that was real quick. Unanimous consent, no objection at all. And look, I'm all about keeping public officials safe. But the reality is we have seen peaceful protests. Senator Chuck Schumer commented today that he gets protests outside of his home three to four days a week. And he said he's gotten used to that. But then now you have Senator Susan Collins who called the cops because someone actually put in crayon on the sidewalk near her home, protecting a woman's right to an abortion. I mean, my goodness, you're now,

is Susan Collins now turning into a Karen? You're calling the cops because someone wrote some comments in chalk on the sidewalk? Again, it's telling that this is what they would like to fast track instead of all of the other issues which they have not advanced that are

consistent with the will of majority of American people and also that we desperately need. Everything from restoring voting rights to climate justice now to agency over our bodies, bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom and justice, or the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. So again, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. And what I want is for, I look forward to this vote coming to the floor so that we can get every senator on record. What side of history are you on? You have undermined progress, obstructed justice time and time again. You have another opportunity to do the right thing, to do the right thing consistent with the will of the people. Majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade and do not want it overturned. So let's get a vote, get folks on the record. And if they're on the wrong side

of history, then let's put them on notice. Because again, at this point, when you look at the layered systematic oppression and denial of black America, from voting rights to the George Floyd justice and policing bill, and now to this issue. Roland, let's remember the history of this. Abortion bans and this protest is rooted in white supremacy, and black women have disproportionately bore the brunt of this every time. We have experienced forced sterilization, forced hysterectomies. We have record high maternal morbidity. And now we're looking at a landscape where black women and the most marginalized, low-income, indigenous, disabled, LGBT could be living under a state of forced birth. And then, Roland, we have done nothing on universal child care in pre-K,

and we've done nothing on paid leave. Well, that's one of the points that I have long stated. Former NFL player Ben Watson, Benjamin Watson has a documentary out that deals with this whole issue of abortion, and he interviewed me for the documentary. I said, I think these folks are more anti-abortion than they are pro-life. I said, because you can't be the governor of Mississippi. Tate Reeves, and you're commenting on this,

but then you have done nothing about the infant mortality rate in Mississippi. You have all these conservatives who are talking about the importance of getting rid of Roe v. Wade, but they've been quiet about black women who have been in the military for a long Mississippi. You have all these conservatives who are talking about the importance of getting rid of Roe v. Wade, but they've been quiet about black women who have lost, who have died during childbirth. Then of course, when you talk about

prenatal care, when you talk about Head Start. So I said, what is it? Is it, do you only care about the fetus in the womb, but once it is a child, then you don't give a damn? But, Roland, but that's the point. The hypocrisy and the contradictions abound. You cannot lecture folks about civil liberties. And then the thing that is most critical to my freedom, my liberation, is agency and autonomy over my own body. It is. Again, I've yet to get an appropriate answer

whenever I ask that particular question. Let me ask you about student loan debt because this is also a critical issue. We've got midterm elections coming up in about six months. President Joe Biden, his numbers among young voters have fallen through the floor. His numbers among African Americans are down. People are saying, hey, how have Democrats delivered?

Now, a lot of things that y'all delivered in the House, but it's been blocked in the Senate. Say that, that part, that part. I do it all the time. I do it all the time. So when all these people come at me saying, well, the CBC hasn't done anything, I remind them that you only have two CBC members in the Senate, but you have most of them in the House. And these bills, George Floyd Justice Act got passed in the House.

Numerous other bills got passed in the House, but they're not in the Senate. And so I've heard you, I've heard Senator Elizabeth Warren and others say the president has the authority to cancel student loan debt. Why won't he? I'm trying to understand, what is the holdup? Yeah, well, first of all, let me just say this. We are closer than ever before to getting this done. And canceling student debt, since you contextualize it within the midterms, is both good policy and good politics. Because it's our job as lawmakers to be responsive to the needs of people. Where there is hardship to alleviate it, we're in the business of solving problems. This is a nearly $2 trillion crisis. And the multiracial generational movement which made this Democratic majority possible

was comprised of issues-based activists, many of them who wanted action on student debt cancellation. And myself, Leader Schumer, Senator Warren, Rep. Omar, and others, we have been leading this fight. We were successful in getting the administration to put a pause on student loan payments during the pandemic, three pauses. And we saw people, I heard from many, especially Black folk, Roland, who used those monies instead to remain safely housed, to purchase essential goods. Some became first-generation homebuyers. We see the presidents of HBCUs using federal funds to ARPA funds to cancel debt. And we know that

our HBCUs have been chronically and woefully underfunded, all the needs that they have from infrastructure, A to Z, and they're using those funds to cancel student debt, which proves it's a racial justice issue. Black students have 25 percent takeout loans, and then we are five times more likely to default. Black women carry the most debt, are burdened by the most, 20 percent more than our white counterparts, 50 percent more than white men. Joe Biden has the authority. We're closer than ever before. He has signaled that he will cancel some debt. And I'm going to keep banging the drum for broad-based student debt cancellation by $50,000, because that will support the uplift of 80 percent of those in the lowest

income brackets. Roland, there was a false narrative saying this was regressive in impact. It was only going to benefit white graduate students who went to affluent institutions. That is a complete falsehood. This, like everything else, like everything else, the burden falls the heaviest on white Americans. And because of policies like redlining, our families didn't get to build generational wealth. We borrow the most. We default the most. This is an economic justice issue. It's a racial justice issue. And it will jumpstart the economy role in its effective strategy as we begin to round the corner and head into a recovery from this pandemic-induced recession.

And it doesn't require one vote from Congress. One vote. Unilateral action. Executive stroke of a pen. So just do it, Joe. Just do it. What is strange to me is when I listen to folks on the right who say that, oh, my mom worked hard to send me to college and we should be paying these folks' debts off. Didn't the federal government forgive a ton of PPP loans? Didn't the federal government give our financial institutions trillions of dollars or access to trillions during the economic crisis? So I'm just, it's just really interesting when I look, the proposal to send $40 billion to Ukraine. I'm just saying, if we're willing to send billions to Ukraine, how is it that we're unwilling to actually say, let's help American students with debt? Roland, it's society that maintains

that we live in a meritocracy. And they told black folks that education is the great equalizer. And if we pursued higher education, we would close the racial wealth gap. It has only exacerbated it. The fact that our families did not have equitable access to the GI Bill,

the impact of policies, discriminatory policies like redlining, we borrow more, we default more, we're saddled by more, he can do something about it. Economic justice issue, racial justice issue. And it's a winning issue. It's responsive to the needs of the coalition which elected this president. This is a hardship burdening people from every walk of life. Roland, I have parents saying I am in my upper 60s. I cannot retire because I signed parent plus loans for my kid.

Or I'm still paying on my loans and now paying on my kids' loans. 76-year-olds in my district still have fixed income, still paying student loans. A whole generation that can't start a family, grow a family, purchase a home, start a business. So this $2 trillion debt is choking at the promise of this country. And finally, Roland, for those people that would say, well, I paid my way. Look, the price of higher education has increased by 150%.

Well, not only that, I'll also remind people that, like, in New York, the city colleges in New York, it used to be free. So it's a whole generation of white people who actually got college degrees for free. Roland, that's right, but that's why we have to invest in education as the public good that it is. We do need tuition-free college. We do need to expand Pell Grants.

We do need to invest in our HBCUs. So this is not the whole problem, but this is a bold step in the right direction. And listen, Roland, at first, this was an issue they really marginalized. And as I said, there was a false narrative about it. But we have been vigilant in our advocacy. We have lifted the voices of those who've been burdened by this debt, and we are closer than ever before to getting this done. All right. Congressman Ayanna Pressley, always glad to have you on the show.

Welcome back anytime. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let's go to our panel here. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor to the EPA. Teresa Lundy, TMO Communications. Glad to have both of you here. Both of these issues are going to be major in November. So on one hand, Teresa and Mustafa, on one hand, people are saying it could be a rallying cry, if you will, to Dems

if the Supreme Court actually overturns Roe v. Wade or returns the power to the states. On the flip side, it's a lot of people who are saying they flat out are not going to vote if you don't see student loan debt. They say Biden promised it, Harris promised it, it hasn't happened. Mustafa, is this, the student loan debt, is this an issue that Democrats had better understand?

Unless you deal with, you are going to cause young voters to say, ain't interested in the midterms. Without a doubt. I mean, I talk and I work with young people all across the country, and this is incredibly important to them. One, as you stated, there was the promise from the president that he would move forward on this. And the other part of it is that in our communities, we understand the black-white wealth gap that

exists. We also understand that there is discrimination in employment, which continues to impact us. We also understand that our parents have less money to be able to help us to go to school. We also understand that there is predatory institutions that we are often pushed into, or our institutions are less resourced so that folks don't get that financial help from a school, if you will. And then, of course, there's discrimination in the credit market. All of these things come together for significant impacts and continue to expand the black-white wealth gap that exists in our country. So if folks want our vote, then they most definitely should be moving forward on addressing the student loan issues that are literally

stopping us from being able to pursue the American dream with any type of real vigor. When Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on a Joe Madison show, she actually talked about this. This is what Joe posted on his social media page. He's dealing from the interview on Sirius XM radio. People having to pay their student loans because, of course, during the course of the pandemic, people have suffered greatly in terms of their sources of income, their ability to work, and pay their bills. So we put a pause on it. You know, I will tell you, Joe, for me, this is personal. I had student loans. You know, I'd have to sit there. I finally paid them off, but sit down with that little, you know, that little coupon book and write that check every

month in addition to, you know, rent and everything else. And it's real. It's a real issue. And we really need to give people a little breathing room to get back on their feet during the course of this pandemic, after the pandemic. And so we're going to keep focusing on borrowers in need, and the pause, I think, will be a good lifeline for allowing people to rebuild from the pandemic. And I assume this will be revisited after the pause in August. I intend to revisit it for sure.

It's something I care deeply about. It's something I care deeply about. It is personal to me. I also know that when we look at how it affects different populations based on race, that our black students and graduates tend to graduate, especially if they're coming from an HBCU, with more debt than other students, and that it has a direct impact on whether that student, that graduate can buy a home or start a family, you know, or get through the month. It's a real issue. It is a real issue with so many different people. And again, the politics of this, the politics of this, that is, the White House has to understand

that it is real. And people are pissed that they have not moved. Yes, they've done loan forgiveness. It now is around $20 billion. But that's not the same as student loan, canceling student loan debt. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, if we do not pay attention to actually what's going on with people and their ability to live not only day to day, but month to month and year to year, especially during a pandemic, then I believe, you know, we're almost asking the American people to not pay attention to, you know, what's going on in our government. So, like, even during the pandemic, you know, yes, we've had about three to four months of not paying a student loan debt. But what happens after that? You know, what happens when the funds have been exhausted, right, as it just was with the EIDL loan for small businesses. So there are so many issues that, you know, are currently happening where, you know, it feels like, you know, as Rep. Ayanna Pressley already said, this could literally been taken care of with a stroke of a pen. But for some reason reason it's an issue that keeps going down the line

and into another scenario or situation, which again causes everyone to question, what is the real agenda here? What is the real priority? Because it seems like the priority is not to make sure financial wellness is happening. It seems like cities and states are doing new tax assessments, which are actually increasing property values for individuals who are currently in a home. And it's not eliminating the debt. It seems like once we get out the pandemic, we have to do more starting over and more preparation on what the future actually looks like financially than we actually do now. And it's actually a disgrace since we're sending money

to various institutions and organizations, but something that they could clearly do with a stroke of a pen is not something that is a high priority. Now, Mario, again, it comes down to elections, comes down to votes. And if you don't have people turning out in your favor, you're going to lose.

Right now, Democrats are not doing themselves any favors by not moving on student loan debt. And I don't know what the hell they're waiting for. Just like I have no idea what the hell they're waiting for when it comes to issuing executive orders dealing with criminal justice reform. To me, they're reaching a point of no return because if you do it so damn late, it's going to look like you're pandering,

but they better get a move on it. Otherwise, they are guaranteeing they will lose the House and the Senate in 2023. Absolutely. It's good to see everybody again this week. I missed you guys from last week. Listen, all we need to know about the Democrats is what we saw from

Nancy Pelosi, the video where she's talking about we need a strong Republican Party. This shows you that they're so out of touch with reality. What we need is people to do the actual bills and laws that helps regular Americans. And that's not what's happening. One thing about it is, Roland, you got to respect the Republicans, because they tell the truth to their base. They say, look, when we get in there, this is what we understand that we want to vote in every election. We understand the history of it.

We understand why it's important. But you're telling people that just came out of an election cycle saying, hey, you've got to vote. This matters. If you vote for me, I'm going to do this. And then they don't do it. So someone's saying, well, I'm going to go stand in line for eight hours again in the heat for them to again lie about it, it doesn't make any sense outside the fact that the Democrats are not serious about power.

They're certainly not serious about helping black people, and they're not even serious about keeping Republicans out of office because as Nancy Pelosi said, we need Republicans. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We come back. A Georgia family is asking why was their son killed by police?

It's a refrain we keep hearing from so many families across the country. We'll discuss that next right here on Rolling Mark, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. If you're on YouTube and Facebook, be sure to hit that like button, share button. Also, download our Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV,

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Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn about the silver tsunami, which means that a million people are turning 65 every day, and they're going to need some kind of care. You're going to meet two sisters whose situation with their own family

led them to start a business in this industry, and now they're showing others. This is our passion, our mission, our purpose, our ministry that's right here on Get Wealthy only on Black Star Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat at the Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole

from Black-ish, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. It has been a year, and a Georgia family still wants to know why DeKalb County police shot and killed their beloved son and brother. Matthew Zadok Williams was gunned down in his own home after someone called police, reporting him as suspicious. When police arrived, Williams panicked, went into a mental health crisis, and locked himself in his home. The police asked him to leave.

The police then kicked in Williams, kicked at Williams' door several times before shooting. Now the video we're about to play is certainly triggering to a lot of different people, so we want you to give an opportunity to turn away, to walk out of the room, or shielded from your children. And so, as we often do with these videos. And so, let's go ahead and play it now.

Sir, that is the end. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put the knife. Put the knife down. Put the knife down. This is your last warning. Put the knife down! Put the knife down! Put the knife down! This is your last warning! Put the knife down!

Put the knife down! Put the knife down! Put the knife down! No. Too many people right here. Too many people right here. Sir, put the knife down! My property, sir. Too many people right here. Too many people right here. Back away. What's happening right here? Sir, put the knife down.

My property, sir. Put the knife. Come out and talk to me then. I'm about to go to the city. OK, put the knife down. Come out and talk to us. Put the knife down, man. I'm coming out and defending my property.

Put the knife down. If you put the knife down, you ain't going to defend nothing. Sir, you broke into my property, sir. Sir. Put the knife down, man. Just put the knife down. Just put the knife down. Just put the knife down. 421, 3L, do you have a 10-2?

We're 41, 10-3. Sir, sir. He's still back there. Yeah. All right, we're going to back off with you. We're going to back off. The bullets that killed Williams came from Sergeant Devon Perry's gun. Williams was not rendered aid for more than an hour and a

half. Medical examiners say Williams died a slow, painful death. We're joined now by Matthew Williams' mother, Chris Ann Lewis, his sisters Hannah and Dr. Bulett Williams as well as attorney Mo Mowule Mel Davis from Atlanta. So, okay, I need to understand what I just saw. So someone called police because they say he was acting suspicious.

Who called police? And how do they define suspicious? What? Was he walking around his own front yard? Was he with a knife? Was he yelling, screaming? What was suspicious? Well, Roland, that's the question. It was a white woman who was new to the area and did not acknowledge that he lived there. In fact, she said that he didn't live there,

which was completely false. He had been a homeowner and owned that home since 2009. And so this white woman says that he was squatting, trespassing, and that led to this crazed police action. But it's this misinformation which sent the police down the entirely wrong track. And that's why the law enforcement officers should not have just believed what she said without doing their own due diligence. And it's unfortunate that we're here. But that's the quote-unquote suspicious activity is that he was locked out of his home. He had a plumber's knife trying to reenter his home. And that was it.

So is that true? Was he locked out of his home, and that was it. So is that true? Was he locked out of his home? Correct. He was locked out of his own home. He had a plumber's knife. We believe he was doing some repairs on his home, and that's when police approached him, and he's on his own porch.

But because this woman says that he did not live there, then they treat him as a trespasser versus treating him as a homeowner. Okay. So, Chris and Hannah and Dr. Buehler,

had your son, your brother, had he had mental episodes before? What was described here is that he panicked. What was his history when it came to mental issues or was it simply an isolated incident? So my brother, first of all, thank you for having us on the show. We appreciate that.

My brother, from what we know about his mental health, is that a couple of years, maybe around 2000, end of 2018 or so, he was robbed at gunpoint at a convenience store by his home. Since then, he progressively got to the point where he didn't want to leave his house.

We didn't understand why. We could not figure it out. It got particularly concerning in 2019. Now when you say we couldn't figure it out were you aware that he had been robbed? Yes, we knew that.

But his girlfriend told us that he had been robbed. And from that point, there was a progression of him not leaving the house. Yeah. That's a traumatic experience that we often have seen that when women have been sexually assaulted and there's fear of going jogging or leaving their home as well. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, so, you know, starting in 2019, it just got a little bit worse, right?

It was the point where he was only coming out of his house for maybe three seasons, and that was to get his mail, take out his trash, or work on his plumbing. When the 20K pandemic appeared, nobody was leaving the house, so it became less of a concern for us as a family to figure out what was going on. The entire time we're in close communication with my brother, somebody sees him at least on a weekly basis. We bring him food, we talk on the phone all the time, we have a family chat line. We still are in relationship with my brother, but we could not figure out why it was that he didn't want to come out the house.

And as a family, we just didn't know what that was. We tried to figure it out, but we couldn't. My brother was very highly intelligent. He was also, you know, just a person that would not allow, you know, a lot of questions for his sisters. He had five older sisters. He's a baby brother, so I just couldn't put him on the witness stand and interrogate him about anything.

So it wasn't as if he would answer our questions, but he had normal conversations with him. We were in a relationship with him. We knew something was going on. We just couldn't figure out what it was. But what happened on April the 12th, as far as his mental health crisis outside, he had never seen anything like that before. So this is a, so in watching the video, obviously the officers are trying to communicate with him, and they're trying to get him to come out of the home. You hear them say on numerous occasions for him to drop the knife. And I wouldn't be surprised if the reaction from the police department has been, look, they did their job. They tried to get him to come out

and talk to establish who he was. But what this still goes to, and I say this all the time, Chris, is that police are simply incapable of handling situations when there's mental illness involved. Their reaction is to shoot to kill. And this is what people have been talking about,

defund the police. Part of this discussion has been to shift resources away from just police departments and then send mental health professionals to be able to reduce the situation, the tensions, because here's the reality. They could have sat there for two hours or three hours or four hours.

There was no need to shoot to kill. There was no need to shoot in the first place. There was nothing that my brother did to deserve those shots before he was in jail. And, and, Roland. The county has a mental health policy. As my lord, as Molly can explain to you. The county has a mental health policy. That's the first of four policies that they broke. They should have

notified whoever is under, whatever their procedure is, they should have followed their own mental health policy and my son would be alive today. So the county has one, meaning those officers could have pulled back, made a phone call,

gotten a mental health professional out there to help diffuse the situation. And they didn't. Roland, it wasn't that they, it wasn't just a question of should they, they were required to. That's what people are missing. They were required, once he was in his home, barricaded in his home, and he was not coming out, they were required to contact SWAT and a negotiator and then contact the family. That's per DeKalb County regulations. They violated their own regulations by deciding that they just are going to kick the door in when there's no threat to them. He's behind

a closed door. There's the other side of the door. And they decide, we are going to kick the door in when there's no threat to them. He's behind a closed door. Right. The other side of the door. And they decide we're going to just kick the door in and start shooting. And that's totally inconsistent. And that's what I saw with the video there, in that he's behind the door. They're saying drop the knife. And again, it reminds me of the, first of all, there's so many other cases, but it reminds me of the Kajima Powell case in St. Louis where mentally disturbed, he had like a butter knife, cops come on the scene, and it's literally 16 seconds from the door opening to seven shots fired killing him, where he sort of flexes at the cops and they immediately fire.

They literally could have retreated behind the car. He did not have to be killed. Or the young man in Dallas whose black mom called the cops and the young man was playing with the screwdriver. He was not even charging the cops and within 20 seconds he's dead. And so, I mean, this sort of goes on and on and on, and these officers are simply incapable of dealing with this situation. And if you're sitting, he's behind a closed door, and you say a knife, he's not firing at you.

So your life is not in danger. Correct. That's exactly it. that's been our point um what about pound question comment man i'm just so sorry for this loss for your son this was ridiculous i just filed a case just today here in tulsa with a similar situation with a client. Unfortunately, she was not killed. There was no reason that the lawyer, your lawyer has already stated, there's no urgency here. Your son was not posing a threat. There's absolutely no reasons for those officers to be doing what they were doing.

And their tactics were so terrible. They're standing in front of each other with guns out. I mean, everything about this is ridiculous. They should all have been fired and actually prosecuted. Where are you in the stage of the case? Have you filed a case yet? What is the DA saying there? This is ridiculous.

And before you answer that question, I think this also speaks to, highlights the point, it's not about skin color. Everybody said, oh, we need more black officers. The officers I saw in that video were both black, but it's the culture of the police departments that they have no accountability and they can do what they want. We've lost your attorney, but if y'all could go ahead and comment on the state of the case, please. I'm an attorney as well, and I'm his sister. But yes, I love everything that you just said. As far as the status of the case, the DA has had the file since July, the GBI file, and she has yet to make a decision. The latest comment we got from her office is that she's close.

She's still investigating. So it's been a year. There's been no decision. The DA's not made a decision on whether she's going to start this from now. This is the issue we've all said in that county. As far as the administrative investigation, the CEO of Thurman's office, the officers are still working. They have not even been placed on administrative leave. We've had a meeting with CEO Mike Thurman and asked that these officers be put on administrative leave or fired.

The body can prove that these officers violated four policies that they killed my brother and left him to die. Yet they are still walking feet and they are still working in uniform and have not been disciplined. So that's the status of the case right now. And the thing that bothers me most

is although there are four policies that were, that they didn't follow, failure to activate mental health, failure to activate SWAT, use as excessive force, but the worst is when they refuse to render care. My son died from non-fatal gunshot wound to the shoulder. 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 sorry. Go ahead. Of all the policies that were violated... We can't hear you, so speak up, please.

Of all the policies that were violated, that's the one policy that just really sticks with us, the fact that they... After they fired those five shots, you can hear Officer Perry saying, we're going to back down now, and he just walked away. Those shots were fired at close range. So they had time to then regroup and just think about him as a person,

just think about his life. But they just walked away. And there was an N.S. professional on the scene who offered his help, and he was turned away. So we just can't get over that. It's just disgusting. You know, it's disgusting, and it's... And your lawyer knows this.

It's not just the four policies they broke, but it's unconstitutional policing. That is disastrous. It's outrageous. I'm so sorry you guys are going through that. I hope that you can get that DA to move. She's just sitting on this. The decision is clear, and I hope you can get this case moving when you get it filed, and you can get everything that you can from her. But I understand because I do these cases every single day.

Nothing can bring your son back. That was a horrendous shooting, and my heart just goes out to you, and I'm glad you have competent counsel to do this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So the case that you have filed, obviously you're waiting on the DA to make a decision. But for your attorney, what is the status of your case? Have you filed that case?

No. Go ahead. No, we haven't filed. We have, the way it works in Georgia is they will not release any of the files. We were able to, because of the diligence of this family and the community outrage, we were able to get police to release the body cam footage, which is really unheard of in Georgia. It just doesn't happen in Georgia. It's very different from most jurisdictions around the country. But what they won't release is the entire GBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, report.

And so we have really focused our energy with this family on hoping that this district attorney will prosecute the case. Once that decision is made and they release the file, then we'll file a civil litigation and move forward with the constitutional violation that these officers perpetrated against Mr. Williams. All right. Certainly keep us abreast of what happens next in this case. Indeed, it is sad. Thank you so very much, and again, we're sorry for your loss. Thank you. Mustafa, the thing that we constantly say on this show is, again,

how are police departments not realizing now, you cannot handle mental health issues with guns? Too many people. We've seen case after case, folks are dead because cops fired on them

having a mental health breakdown. They don't see us as human, and that's the problem. That means that we never get the benefit of the doubt. You know, they always go to the most dangerous way of dealing with us. There are examples of how some police departments have been forced to change. In Denver, there's a STAR program that's there where they make sure they have the mental health practitioners who are part of it. I think over the last year, there was about 1,300 calls that came in because those individuals were the ones who were engaging. You know, no lives were and talk them through the situations that were going on. It's unfortunate that the folks there in Georgia didn't follow, you know, the precedent that they have in place or the policy they have in place.

And that brother would still be with us. But, you know, it goes down to they just don't value our lives. And when they don't value our lives, these are the types of things that play out each and every time. Teresa. It's truly a disgrace. You know, here in Philly, we actually had a similar situation about a year ago. And, you know, it's like we keep advocating for training. We keep advocating, you know, for cops to do their job as they're asking for increased funding.

And it's like these things are happening. So, again, I'm going to go back to my point about how we need to look at leadership that has been entrenched in the police department. It looks like when police chiefs are in there, they've had over 30 and 40 years of experience, but sometimes their traditions are not allowing them to change their ways of how they're governed their police department. And so if they think things are just going to stay as usual

and they think it's just politics of, you know, what people are saying in those communities when their families are dying, that we're going to keep having these situations. That's why, again, going back to your point, Roland, about why voting matters. District attorneys matter. You know, police commissioners matter. Elected officials matter. But we have to start asking them questions when they are running on this progressive agenda, because progressive agenda sometimes isn't always right. Right. But we got to do something. So, you know, we got to go back to the point of being aware, being humane about individuals and people and not just about the badge. Indeed, indeed. So it just keeps happening.

And again, at some point, people are going to learn in this case, they literally didn't even follow their own procedures. Procedures were put in place to prevent this very thing. Cops didn't follow it.

I don't understand how they still have a job. Makes no sense to me. All right, folks, going to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk to the president

of Fisk University about some innovative things that are happening on that campus in Nashville, Tennessee. Folks, don't forget, please, if you're on YouTube, y'all hit the like button, okay? Almost 2,000 of y'all. Why we aint at 1,000 likes by now?

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We'll be right back. Why is it so hard to see Panthers? Right. The deal. I mean, if you go to AMA, I think I tried, so I have a collection of black DVDs. That's a hard movie to charge you $300 on AMA. I was like, I think I tried. So I have a collection of black DVDs. That's a hard movie. They charge you $300 on Ammo. I was like, I'm not about to pay no $400 for a VHS copy.

What's the deal? Man, it is interesting, Roland. It is the movie they don't want you to see. Power to the people. It's funny. I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you can see it anywhere. Posse, you can see it anywhere. But a movie that says that it is not an accident

that we medicated the black communities right around the time when they were getting militant, when you had the Panthers starting to organize, the people starting to vote and march on Washington. We let these communities get medicated. In fact, that comes up in The Godfather, you know, where they say, as long as it stays in the black communities. So we asked the question, they tried to say, ask us questions. I asked them, the reporters, when we did, I said, listen, why is it a 13-year-old boy in the hood can find a way to buy a gun, some liquor, or a church, or some crack,

and yet you can't find them to arrest those people? You can't arrest that dealer. Why is that? next on a balanced life with me dr jackie summertime when the living is easy or is it summer vacations class reunions kids in summer camp all but stressful. You need to get into a summer mindset and have a plan. Oh, yes. Our panel gives us their favorite summer planning hacks. On the next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here at Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives.

And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D.J. Hi, how's it doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seals. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What up? I'm Lana Wells, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, fam, Fisk University. I just completed a course being the Revis Mitchell Scholar in Residence at Fisk University. And a lot of great things are happening on the campus in Nashville. Joining us right now to talk about that is the president of Fisk University, Ben Newkirk.

Doc, how are you doing? Doing well, doing well. Enjoying the weather and enjoying being on your show today. So let's talk about what's been going on there. First and foremost, COVID impacted your university like so many others as well. And so tell us how you're doing now with Fisk, you know, as we are still dealing with it, but not in the same way as we were before. Well, we're a small university, but one of the things we did, we very student-centered university.

We saw our enrollment grow during COVID and our students were more engaged because what we did as a faculty and as a staff is that we were engaged in contact, constant contact with our students. We had activities for our students, and what we saw was that an enrollment surge at the university. So that was unusual because as a small institution, we've been under 1,000 students. Right now, we are just almost at 1,000. We plan to under 1,000 students right now. We are just almost at 1,000. We plan to have 1,500 next year. So all of that's going well because of what's happening with this university and the first that we have at this university.

So you saw a surge. Was that because folks were actually going to school online? Well, no, we didn't have that many online. We kept our campus operational, but we did have more online courses. But what happened here was that the name of the university and what we do for students, what we found out was right before the pandemic broke out, we had a lot of relationships that we submitted on Wall Street. We submitted relationships with companies across the nation. And what we have discovered was that students

who've been out of this university three years, the average income is $73,000. And so what we found is that there was a lot of interest in what we were doing to turn out turnkey ready students. And that interest permeated this nation right as the pandemic hit. So that helped us with our enrollment and that helped us with our retention because we saw our retention rates surge up to about 80 percent as a small institution. And and so obviously, you said again, you said you kept it open. And how are you now building upon that? getting your board of trustees to understand what Fisk should be looking like in the 21st century as opposed to its rich history because that's the one thing that as I travel around the country that talked to many HBCUs that

we and again I probably visited now up more than 65 and the fundamental problem that I continue to see is you have a strong contingent of alumni who want to hold on to the old university. Whether it's the old Fisk, the old South Carolina State, you know, the old Prairie View. But the reality is. 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 call 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.

You've got to be operating in a new world, new technology. All these things have changed. And you've got folks who are insistent on new buildings, but other people are going to technology and online learning. Others are saying that, oh, we should be building more dormitories. Well, others are that, oh, we should be building more

dormitories. Well, others are saying, no, we should be expanding our national footprint by driving folks online. So how have you been leading the university and getting your faculty, your staff, your students, your board to understand that you have to operate in a new paradigm, which requires a paradigm shift? Well, one of the things we started was before the pandemic, we started an academic inventory shift. We are a liberal arts institution, but we started a whole movement to new types of programs. We have digital media.

We have bioinformatics at this university. These are new majors that came about 2018, 2019. We started a bioengineering program. All of those programs came about to give us that new footprint that we needed to be into the modern world. And then we started tying our programs to industry, as we talked about Wall Street. So we have our first new building on this campus.

It will be in 50 years. That building is tying our academic programs to industry. So we have a whole facilities that is set up so that industry can come to this campus, meet with our students. They can help design our majors and curriculum. That's helping us to get into this modern world and ensuring that our students have a footprint that's going to be a footprint that people are looking for and not the footprint of old. And that's one of the things that's helping Fisk to actually transcend the pandemic and to move forward in the age that we're in right now. And as you know, we're an institution of first and going along with those new majors,

we're doing some things that we've never done before in an HBCU. We have our first gymnastics program, the first HBCU with a gymnastics program. And then we got innovative. We went online and went to eBay. We're a small school, don't have a lot of money. We bought a 5,000-seat football stadium.

We don't plan to play football on eBay, which is unique because what we wanted to do is have places for our students to actually have athletics and to experience sports. But we did that in a cost-efficient way, a 5,000-seat steel stadium for $30,000. Those things are the things that I think make an institution unique, and those are the things that I think help us to actually compete in this modern age, because those types of innovations, we're catching the eyes of industry across not only the nation, but across Tennessee and the world. And that's helping us tremendously.

So let's talk about this new initiative when it comes to Fisk now being involved in venture capital? Yeah, well this is very important for us because as we expand our footprint, as we said in the Wall Street, we're getting people who are investing in our university to venture capital. And that's helping us to actually build our endowment to grow this university. We had an endowment that was less than $20 million a few years ago. Our endowment right now is still small, but it's almost doubled as a result of having this new investment and people looking at this university as what it can do. And I think that's the important aspect for any institution, people and the investment in the institution and making sure that we have trustees who are buying into this process. That's what's helping us to grow and to build our university. Questions from our panel. Teresa, you're first. I think this is a great opportunity. So I guess what is more in store for the university? I'm sorry, I don't think Van heard your question.

So guys, fix Teresa's audio. Mustafa, what's your question? President, you mentioned two of the new programs that you instituted to be a part of the 21st century. Those new programs, are they actually pulling in new students at the same rate as some of the traditional programs that Fisk is known for? DR. We've started a program that ties us to our past. We started a social justice program, the only master's program in the nation in social justice. And as you

know, we are the birthplace of social justice, and those programs are helping us to compete. They're giving us the students that we once had and students that never thought about Fisk University are coming to this university to get what we have to offer. So I think that's the key part is having programs that tie us to the future, but also tie our past to the future. DeMario. Yes, really nice to talk with you tonight, President. You know, I represent the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and one of the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre was a doctor by the name of Dr. A.C. Jackson, and he was a graduate of Fisk University Medical School.

So my question is, is the medical school still in operation? I'm not for sure about that. And if so, what is the plans to continue to utilize that medical school to continue to bring people to your campus? Well, you know, Meharry is next door to us. And if you look at our main- And literally next door. Just across the street. And if you look at our main building, the steps to our main building lead down to Meharry. But that's because when students graduated from Fisk, the thought was that they'd walk down the steps and go to Meharry. We actually gave the land that Meharry sits on.

Now, this is important for most people to know, is that our largest major today is biology, and it's been biology. We have more women in biology who leave this institution and go on to become medical MDs than any institution in the nation. And that's because of our relationship with Meharry next door. And that's still a very strong partnership, and it's a partnership that we cherish,

and we continue to kind of promote as we go forward. So Meharry basically is the medical school for Fisk University in terms of your partnership. Yep. All right, Teresa, I think we can hear you now. Your question for Dr. Newkirk. Yeah, well, congratulations on your, you know, receiving the funds. Just a question about, is there any new programs that you've developed in the midst of the pandemic or over time that's really engaged the students? Well, we have a new program in risk management

that we are developing and that's in partnership with a number of major companies out of Chicago. And what we wanna do is to make sure that our students are keeping in tune in our business program. Now, our business program is the second largest major on this campus. And what we're seeing in that new risk management program is that there's a renewed interest, a renewed buzz. We have a major industry right here in town who gave us money to endow a business professorship. And we have a second business endowed professorship in risk management that came about because of our initiative. So we see that that's going to be an area that we can grow, that we can get new

partnerships. And what we are seeing more than anything else is that the number of applications and deposits that we have this year, they're almost doubled than what we had last year. Last year, we had one of our largest freshman classes. As a result, we're building our first new residence hall on this campus since 1961. And because of the expected growth, and our growth has been pretty consistent over the last five years,

we're building our first new classroom building on this campus in science and in the STEM area since 1938. So we can see that it's all impacting our university and where we go. All right then. Well, Dr. Newkirk, we certainly appreciate it. Great things happening there in Fisk. And again, under your leadership, it is needed. A lot of people may not realize that a few years ago, things were looking real dire for Fisk. Folks were even talking about the possibility of the university shutting its doors due to financial issues.

And so we're certainly glad to see if that is not the case. Thank you so much for having us. And, you know, we'd love to have everyone down to visit our campus because we're on a growth mode. And we believe this university, we're love to have everyone down to visit our campus because we're on a growth mode and we believe this university, we're going to be, if not the best HBCU, but the best university in the nation. So we look forward to the growth

and thank you for having us on. And I sent, I'm in a chat group with your son and told him that he was, you're gonna be on. And he said, quote, tell the old man I want him to babysit next month. We're looking forward to it. All right, then. I'll tell him that. All right. Now, Dr. Newkirk, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. And again, had a great time being, of course, a scholar in residence, talking to the students there at Fisk. So,

certainly had a good time. All right, folks, let's go talk about Grambling. Grambling State University, they've launched an investigation into the university's women's volleyball team after the school's new head coach literally cut all of her players a few months into the job. The university released this statement about the investigation. Grambling State University has engaged the national law office of Lewis, Brist Boys, Bisciscard and Smith LLP to conduct an independent review of the allegations involving the

women's volleyball program. The review will be led by counsel who are experienced in legal matters involving collegiate athletics and NCAA compliance. A final report will be presented to GSU President Rick Gallo. As appropriate, any findings will be shared publicly. Now the review comes following the school's backlash after new coach Chelsea Lucas cut all scholarship players from the team, 14 players, soon after taking over.

Those students have taken to social media blasting her and the university. The athletic director says he stands behind her decision. This took place, you know, this first became public to Mario about a month ago. And I said to folks, this thing, this first became public to Mario about a month ago. And I said to folks, this is going to go national. I said, you know, it's gotten some pick up. And the bottom line here is if you're going to cut..

First of all, people have to understand something. That scholarships are not guaranteed. You know this. They're really called grant in aid. And that they can be pulled at any time by coaches. This idea is going to be a big problem. that scholarships are not guaranteed. You know this. They're really called grant in aid, and that they can be pulled at any time by coaches. This obviously is a lot different when a new coach gets rid of all the players, all 14, and it has caused many of them to scramble, their families to scramble,

how they're going to finish paying for school, how to graduate. And so it certainly has caused a lot of consternation down at Grambling, but especially among these students and their families. Yeah, I'm not really sure exactly how the rules work with a non-championship level or like a D1AA where Grambling is. So I don't understand how the coach was able to do this. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It's the same as he's in Oklahoma. And that is... Okay. Well, if it's the same... Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If it's the same as Oklahoma, there should be some regulations there.

But I don't understand why the university needs to pay for an outside law firm to come in and do an investigation. I mean, the university hired the coach. Aren't they on the campus with the coach? I mean, are they a legend? Normally when these investigations are like my case when I'm still in the University of Iowa when they're talking about, you know, racial discrimination

or sexism or sexual assault. So it's really unusual to me to see why they need to hire a university, hire a law firm. That's a very big law firm, prestigious law firm. It's going to be very, very expensive. I mean, what are they going to tell them that the university president or the athletic department director couldn't go to the coach

directly and find out why was this done? What are you trying to accomplish here? I mean, was it a scenario where she was saying, you know, you're cut, but you can reapply, you can retry out, and just trying to motivate the players? I mean, I just don't understand what's going on here, and I certainly don't understand what's going on here.

And I certainly don't understand why a grandma needs to hire an outside law firm to discuss this with their own coach. I don't get it. The thing here, Mustafa, is if you look at this, certainly the coach doesn't make the decision just on her own. Obviously, had to consult with the athletic director, likely the president, to make the decision just on her own. Obviously had to consult with the athletic director, likely the president, to make the decision. And if Grambling went with that decision, to me, just come out publicly and walk people through, explain what happened, what led to this decision.

Right. There should always be transparency in the process. When you don't, you leave, you know, these gray areas or folks just don't know what's going on, and they're going to fill in their own sort of narratives about what's up. I mean, I was an athlete in college. And usually, for you to have had, you know, those conversations about, we're about to make a significant change. This wasn't about one athlete losing their scholarship. This is about the entire team. Um, so for them to make that type of a move means a whole bunch of folks had to be a part

of the decision-making. And it's just really disrespectful also to these young athletes, because, you know, if you would give them a heads up, they could have made, you know, moves to another school. But when you. Because, you know, if you would give them a heads up, they could have made, you know, moves to another school. But when you do this, you know, you really put them at a significant disadvantage. And then you don't even think about, you know, the mental health aspects of the anxiety and depression that could come out of these types of things.

Did I do something wrong as an athlete that made you make this choice? There are all these different questions that I'm sure are running through a whole bunch of people's minds, both the parents and those young athletes. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out, and I hope that there's real restitution for those young athletes who have their whole lives in front of them, and these types of things could actually create some barriers moving forward. I remember when Steve Spurrier took over as head football coach at the University of South Carolina, Teresa, he came in and rescinded scholarship offers that were made to some players by the previous coach.

And again, a lot of people don't really understand the reality of these programs. They don't understand that, again, when someone awards you a scholarship, they say, oh, you get a four-year scholarship. Not true. They literally are one-year grant in aid. And so a coach can literally pull your so-called scholarship after a year if they feel as if you're not performing. A lot of people have learned about this in the last number of years as we've talked about what's been happening on these college campuses with sports. And this is an example. And so when you sign that letter of intent to attend, it doesn't say no matter what, you're going to get it.

They can actually pull it for a variety of reasons. Yeah, and I find that interesting, but we have to think about the students in this matter, those that have been putting in the athletic time and patience and also preparation to get to that point. And so when a student receives a scholarship, it's not, you know, just a welcoming of, you know, I'm going to do less work. It's in preparation. I'm going to do more work and hopefully, you know, be able to be on a collegiate level to do so. I also found it very interesting that this volleyball coach, Chelsea Lucas, said her decision was not to bring back some of the current student athletes on the team. But then it's like everybody's getting cut. So it's like you couldn't find, you know, at least one student that would be able to

maybe articulate the vision that you have. It almost seems like she did an episode of the movie, well, I guess a segment from the movie Coach Carter, but just a whole drastic way, you know, without really any purpose in doing so. But you're right, it is their choice. The NCAA and its independent investigation is definitely going to help anytime there is an independent investigation. That means something's going on with the politics on the inside of the institution. And so I'm hoping that, you know, we keep following this story because, again, we can't allow these students to lose out on the preparation of

essentially being a student athlete as they have to do a work-life balance. Again, so we're waiting to hear what happens there with this investigation. All right, final story. This is not an HBCU, but it is a predominantly black college. Lincoln College in Illinois has been around for 157 years. It is now slated to close. This is the New York Times story on Lincoln College. And they were impacted by COVID, but they also were impacted by a ransomware attack that locked up the university's data. In this story, they say that potentially the university had to pay $100,000 to get their

data back. Now, this is according to the Chicago Tribune, less than $100,000, but here was the problem. They then began to realize they had significant enrollment shortfalls and that it would require some $50 million for the university to stay open. Well, that is not the case. Again, it is a very small college in Illinois. Again, as you see, they're getting founded in 1865, named for Abraham Lincoln. And it's a predominantly black college, but it is not an HBCU. People keep saying HBCU, and folks got to remember,

just like we say PWIs, predominantly white institutions, when you have predominantly black institutions, they're not HBCUs, such as Chicago State University. That's right there in Chicago. They are a predominantly black college, but they're not an HBCU. They are a PBI. And so, it's a predominantly black college, but they're not an HBCU. They are a PBI.

And so it is certainly, I mean, it's a shame that, again, this ransomware attack impacted this school. But this is what the New York Times says. Last year, 1,043 schools in the United States were the victims of ransomware attacks, according to an analysis by IMSA saw of those 26 were colleges or universities. Howard University was also impacted by a data attack as well. And so we've seen a significant number of programs race to lock up their data as a result of this. But it's always a shame, again, when you lose an opportunity in a rural part of the country, in rural Illinois, Mustafa,

for students not being able to go to college. Every time we lose one of our institutions, we lose a ton of people. 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. You know, it's just a shame. And then the other part of it is folks got to better understand cold storage and keeping our information there so it's not accessible by so many folks, whether it's on the ransomware side or other ways that they're trying to get that information and then hold us hostage. And, of course, the last part of it is that we've got to better, you know, fund our institutions because we don't have the endowments to be able to bounce back when those things happen. So, you know, we've got a lot of work to do to protect those institutions of ours that still exist. And again, as people now begin to realize that, you know what, we're now living in a, in a world of technology, you've got to be able to protect your data and your assets, Teresa. And that means that's going to require a significant investment.

And I'm going to tell you how a university experienced it. They had a hard time trying to come back from that ransomware attack. You're absolutely right. And, you know, Congress and the Senate has bills just sitting there waiting for them to review so we can talk about cybersecurity and also the protection. Look, black and brown people are going to these institutions. They're getting educated. We're giving them the data that they asked for.

Right. So we're giving them name, contact information, credit card information, sometimes Social Security numbers if we're getting a loan. And this is all taken in, you know, we call it the bursar, but at the register office when you are signing up for a new educational institution. So we are hoping that, you know, since we're paying thousands of dollars to go to this institution, that they have the right system to protect their students. So if they're not willing to protect their students, institutions and organizations alike, then you should not be asking for our college tuition. And here's what's so unfortunate, DeMario. This is from Lincoln College's page. Abraham Lincoln's namesake college set to close after 157 years.

It is going to close effective May 13th. That is in three days. But this is what is even more sad. It said the institution experienced record breaking student enrollment in the fall of 2019 with residence halls at maximum capacity. But then COVID hit. COVID hit. Then the ransomware attack hit in December of 21. And as a result, there was no way that they could survive.

You know, I'm going to be a little bit on the outline, maybe a little contradictory here. I mean, all institutions do not have to continue to survive forever. As you said, Roland, things are changing. And so I don't know much about this university outside of the story that you sent over to us. Certainly don't want anyone to lose out on educational opportunities. But consolidating smaller schools into larger schools,

it may not be such a bad thing, particularly when it comes to resources in our community. We see this again a lot, like I say, here in Oklahoma for sure, like with churches. We have a church, three or four churches on every corner, you know, and is that really the best way to utilize our resources? Or should it be more consolidation where there can be more collective power, collective opportunities to have the type of security and resources that Theresa talked about

so you can provide your students with not only a good educational environment, but also secure their data. So, you know, obviously, again, I don't want to see anyone lose educational opportunities, but it may not be the best, worst thing for an institution to consolidate. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We come back. Our Black and Missing also.

How vital are COVID vaccine boosters? We are seeing an increase with the new variants that can't protect you if you've already been vaccinated. We'll talk with the doctor about that. Plus, in our Marketplace segment, we'll talk about a Black-owned eyewear company. All that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn about the silver tsunami, which means that a million people are turning 65 every day, and they're going to need some kind of care. You're going to meet two sisters whose situation with their own family led them to start a business in this industry, and now they're showing others. This is our passion, our mission, our purpose, our ministry. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're

going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Y'all know who Roland Martin is. He got the ass got on. He do the news. It's fancy news.

Keep it rolling. Right here. Rolling. Roland Martin. Right now. You are watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way?

Really. It's Roland Martin. The 17-year-old Maya Manuel disappeared from Lancaster, California on November 28, 2021. She's 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information on Maya Manuel should call the L.A. County Sheriff's Office at 661-948-8466, 661-948-8466. Folks, experts say we should see up to 100 million more people getting COVID-19 this fall and winter. Today, the U.S. has 83 million reported coronavirus cases and over 1 million deaths since the pandemic started. A new study finds the fourth dose of Moderna or Pfizer already authorized in the U.S. for people 50 and older is safe and provides for a substantial boost to immunity at similar or even better levels than a third dose. So, what is going on?

Where are we with our doses? Dr. Alexa Gaffney, the infectious disease specialist, joins me to answer that question. Doc, glad to have you here. First and foremost, before we get to the fourth shot, let's deal with the third. Where are we right now on the rates of people getting that third booster? I just got my third booster yesterday. I had to delay that because I got the antibody. After getting COVID in December, I got the antibodies, and so I had to wait a period of time to actually get the booster shot. Yeah. So unfortunately, we're not in a position where we are really changing people's minds.

Whereas in the second surge of the pandemic, we saw a lot of people who weren't initially vaccinated rushing out to get the COVID-19 vaccines. We're not seeing that kind of increase in rates of vaccination. So we really haven't moved the number in terms of the percentage of eligible children and adults in the United States, you know, rushing out to get vaccinated. Is that because there was so much attention on the initial vaccine that then people said, okay, fine, I got it, I'm good, not realizing that that dissipates, it begins to wane? Yeah, I think there's a mixture of issues or concerns. Some people are saying, you know, they told me it would be one dose, then it was two, now they're talking about a third, I'm just not getting a booster. And so the folks who didn't go out and get a third dose are certainly not interested in getting a fourth dose or getting a booster. There's been really a failure to communicate effectively about the difference between getting a booster for some folks and some people,

those of us who are moderate to severely immunocompromised, those of us who are very early, that third dose was not really a booster for those individuals. That third dose was the completion of the primary series. And now the fourth dose is being considered the same, a completion of a primary series for the people who are at really high risk. And it's a booster for those who are at average risk to have complications or for hospitalization from COVID-19 infection. So so so one of the things that's interesting, again, we're seeing like right now I'm sitting here. I'm going through some tweets here. And just about 25 minutes ago,

go to my, oh God, switch. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, announced Tuesday he had tested positive for COVID-19, experiencing mild symptoms, said he will isolate until he is again healthy. Then we also have, let's see here, Professor Peter Hotez, we've had him on the show down with Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. He said he tested positive.

Moderate symptoms of fatigue, headache, sore throat, isolating at home, doing Zoom meetings. He says, I'm grateful to have been vaccinated and boosted. We've certainly prevented more severe illness. Just started Paxlovid transmission up. Be careful. We have this new variant out that is even more infectious. Can you explain to people what you're seeing? to Paxlovid transmission up. Be careful. We have this new variant out

that is even more infectious. Can you explain to people how so? What is that? So the new variant, which is called VA.2, is considered a sub-variant of the Omicron variant or mutated form of the COVID-19 virus.

And viruses are smart. They want to live, they want to spread and propagate themselves. So the virus mutates in such a way that changes its behavior or changes its impact on people. So we're seeing even more transmission of these newer variants of the virus. So you can spend less face-to-face time with a person and still become infected. And people are becoming symptomatic in shorter timeframes than we saw with the original wild strains of the virus. And so we're seeing increased transmission. And to some degree, we're seeing milder illness. but some of that is because we're seeing the illness in people who are vaccinated and or boosted. We're seeing some milder illness

because people may have previously been infected, and we're seeing some milder illness just because the virus itself has changed. However, that does not mean that COVID-19 is behaving like a common cold. It does not mean that people are not at risk to get complications like the pneumonia, the blood clots, the long COVID or long hauler syndrome. We're learning more and more about that. And so even though some people have a milder illness, the hospital hospitalization rates are, again, creeping upwards all over the country, including in areas where people are highly vaccinated. And so we still have to be careful. The whole country has really pulled their mask off, including in the Northeast, where we were really, really aggressive about slowing down the spread of the virus in the beginning. And we've got bitten in the butt, you know, here in New York. Yep. Go ahead. Here in New York, you know, we were told by the mayor of New York City, you know, the mask mandates will be dropped and we want to open the city and we want to see our city flourish. And that's important for financial reasons, but it doesn't work

for public health issues and public health implications. So there was an increased number of cases and our mayor had to put his tail between his legs and say, you know what, I know I promised, you know, that we would be out of these masks, but they need to go back on. But once you have told people they don't have to wear their masks, it's really hard to get them back in without any state or federal mandates. So we don't have that anymore. People have gotten accustomed to being about out and about without masks and gathering in crowds.

And we are seeing the consequences of that right now. In fact, this is an AP story. It's another tweet. They posted seven hours ago. We're becoming blind to what is happening with the virus because COVID-19 testing has plummeted globally. Yep. Yeah, unfortunately, well, fortunately,

people have access to home tests, and they are being diagnosed, and they can, you know, call their primary and do a telehealth visit, but those cases are not being recorded. We don't open up our internet servers and see those COVID tickers anymore, so really people have turned a blind eye to the fact that we are still living in a pandemic and people continue to die. People continue to be hospitalized and that will continue to be the case if we don't take it seriously. But I don't think that we are going to be able to reverse people's behaviors back to the earlier stages of the pandemic. And so, you know, on an individual basis, we really have to assess our actual health risk and we have to seriously assess our risk tolerance and really hunker down. I've never taken off my mask. I could continue to wear my mask in my office,

in public places, outside. If there's a lot of people around, I'm just not willing to see what's going to happen if I get this virus. Now, here's what's interesting before I go to my panel to ask questions. And so I had never gotten this alert. And I don't know if any of my panelists have gotten this as well. And I was in a group chat with some other people. It was the first time this actually happened. So when I was in Los Angeles, I was at the Maxwell concert. All of a sudden, ping on my phone, and then it comes up.

It came from the D.C. Health Department, and it said that, give me one second. Let me do a screen share, one second, because I want y'all to see this. And again, this is the first time I'd ever seen this, and I'm like, okay, did I get enrolled in something I wasn't aware of? And it came up and it said, you might have been exposed to COVID-19. your cell phone constantly scans and exchanges random tokens with the phones of people you are near to for 15 minutes or more. Then it said one of those people has tested positive for COVID-19. Based on the strength and duration of the signals between the two phones, DC Health believed it is likely you were in close contact with this person and you may have been exposed.

If you're experiencing systems, recommend you self-quarantine. It goes through all the different directions there. I had not seen that before. Can you explain? First of all, can you explain how I got that notice? Did we enroll in something? So explain this pinging of phones.

Yeah, so they are using technology to, you know, try to help avert a public health crisis. The problem with the pandemic is by the time people realized that they were infected or by the time people became symptomatic, they had already spent two, three, four, five days engaging with other people, going to restaurants, going to wherever. And then they had already spread the virus to a number of people. In the beginning of the pandemic, there was this idea that you could use smartphone technology and, you know, the way our cell phones are tracked and pinged from towers to keep an eye on whether or not people were in proximity to other people who tested positive for COVID. But you used to be able to opt out of that. So it's not necessarily that you downloaded an app or that you're using something

on your phone or that you accepted, okay, I'm going to allow my phone to be tracked and to tell me if I'm in proximity to people who tested positive for COVID. It's happening. And it's kind of like the smart technology that when you start talking about something or searching for something, every time you browse, now you're getting an advertisement for that when you start talking about something or searching for something, every time you browse, now you're getting an advertisement for that thing you showed interest in, right? It's the same thing. This person who owns this phone tested positive for COVID-19 and their phone was next to Roland's phone. It was next to... And that means somebody tested positive, was entered into a system, and they still traveled. Yeah.

Well, there's no mandates, right? Unless you leave the country, there's no rule that says you can't get on an airplane, a bus, a train, et cetera. We're working on the honor system, but we're, you know, not a very honorable country these days. So... Any questions from our panelists?

I have a question. Go. So, one, thank you so much for the information. You know, it's been tough. Like, I'm here in the city of Philadelphia, and, you know, kind of to your point about, you know, telling people to get masks and then turn over, you know, three days later, you don't have to wear masks and then turn over, you know, three days later,

you don't have to wear masks anymore. It's really trying. I guess, like, maybe what is your recommendation? You know, so outside of just wearing a mask, you know, because now we're told that we may need another booster. Do you recommend that people still stay on the every six month regimen to get a booster shot or do we just mask up and see what happens? So there's very hard data and there's a very strong recommendation for people who are considered moderately to severely immunocompromised to definitely get that fourth dose. So that's our very elderly. That's people with conditions like cancer who may have chemotherapy treatments or radiation therapies. People who were born with immunocompromised states, and those people know who they are. People with HIV or AIDS, that's not

well controlled. Their immune system is suppressed. People who have autoimmune diseases, they take more than 10 milligrams of prednisone or steroids on a daily basis or other medicines that chronically suppress their immune system. Those people absolutely should get a fourth dose. And there's a very set schedule depending upon if you started with Pfizer, Moderna or a Johnson and Johnson vaccine. And those four doses actually pan out to occur over a roughly four month period, depending on when you started your vaccine series. We don't all necessarily need to go out and get a fourth dose. But for those people who are at high risk to be hospitalized from COVID or high risk to die from COVID-19 infection should definitely get the fourth dose. And then it can be on a case-by-case basis. There's no checks when you go to present for

a booster. You know, they're really going to just be looking at your vaccine card, but there's no documentation in the system that says Dr. Alexia is moderate to severe immunocompromised and Roland isn't. They're relying on people's self-report. And if you're uncertain, really definitely talk to your doctor about that. The other thing to take into consideration would be, you know, what is the likelihood that you are going to get exposed to COVID? Are you someone who is able to work from home or are you taking public transportation to a office space that may be filled with people with different vaccine status, different mask wearing behaviors and different levels of tolerance, right? If I keep my mask on all day, every day, and I'm vaccinated, it doesn't matter if the person sitting at the desk next to me is,

you know, hanging out with 50 people every time they leave the office, you know, that still poses some risk of exposure. You know, the thing we have to remember is that our vaccines are just that, they're vaccines. They help us avoid severe illness. They help us stay out of the hospital. They help not die and they prevent long COVID, but they do not prevent other people who are infected with COVID from breathing that virus on us. And it doesn't prevent us from getting an infection and potentially having symptoms. So it's not perfect, but it's absolutely better protection than doing nothing at all. And I don't recommend that anybody allow themselves to be a sitting duck because long COVID is real and people are having really severe symptoms. And that syndrome affects literally every organ system in the body. And we

have no definitive treatment or cure for long COVID. So beyond the initial flu-like illness or severe COVID-19 illness, however you experience it, still there's a significant proportion of people who will get long COVID without a vaccine protection. The President- Any other question, Demario or Mustafa? Dr. I don't have a question. I just want to say the doctor is so clear and concise. I appreciate what you're doing and explaining this to us. I have been thinking about do I have to get another shot?

We don't want to take another shot. So you really cleared up some things in my mind, Doc. I sure appreciate you. Dr. So you really cleared up some things in my mind, doc. I sure appreciate you. Absolutely. My pleasure. Doc, I've had five friends in the last two weeks who have gotten infected with COVID. A couple of them, 32, 33 years old and actually bedridden. The question is one of them said the reason that they hadn't moved. 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 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 one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Going forward, we're getting boosted. Was they heard that they now had to bear the cost of that? Could you clear up for folks? Is there a cost associated with either of the vaccines or the boosters? No, there's no cost at all to get vaccinated for COVID-19. In fact, I'll let people know,

like yesterday, I literally went to a grocery store, filled the form out, I was asked, do you have insurance or not? They only asked for the insurance for reporting purposes. It didn't cost me anything to get the booster. Right. Yeah. There's no cost associated with getting a COVID-19 vaccine. And that's regardless of where you go get it, whether you get it at your local pharmacy, grocery store,

whether you get it at your local department of health, I was about to name some big box stores, but you know, I don't want to do that. But regardless of where you get your COVID-19 vaccine, it should not come at any out of pocket cost to you. And, and again, I just want people to understand all you have to do is, so if you do this here, let me pull it up. So if you if you send a text, I'm just going to go ahead and do it so I can show you all. Let's see. Four, three, eight.

So if you send a text message to four38829. You should, and then you put in, let's see here. I'm putting our zip code here. So if you put in your, if you send a text to 438829 and you put in your, so again, y'all come on, come on, show it now. What y'all doing? So here's a perfect example. I sent a text message to 438-829.

I put in my zip code and they immediately gave me free sites near me where you can actually get the vaccine. And so it actually lists two CVS pharmacies near where our offices are. And so if you're watching, all you have to do to find out where you can get a free COVID vaccine, you literally send a text message to 438-829, 438-829. And they also still are doing free testing. So because I am traveling, I just got back from Los Angeles. I was in Miami. I was in L.A. for six days. I was in Miami for the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

I'm traveling to Kansas City on Thursday for a town hall. They have a town hall in Cedar Hill in Dallas next week. So I went online today and I found, okay, who was still doing free COVID testing. I got to do a PCR test tomorrow just to make sure that, again, with all the traveling, all things that I've been going on. And like perfect example, like I'm allergic to smoke. And so I came into contact with a lot of smoke when I was in Miami.

And so when that gets in, my system screws me up, but want to be make sure that it's not COVID. And what is it? So I said, finally, we have the PCR test. So you still can just go online and literally type in free COVID testing and put in your zip code and it'll come up. Yep. There's so many resources and they they're all, by and large, free. And the reason for that is because this is a public health issue.

You may do just fine with your COVID-19 infection, but the person sitting at the bar next to you, on the bus, the train, at the birthday party, wedding, engagement party, baby shower, whatever, may become critically ill from that infection. So, you know, we don't want to be responsible for getting somebody else sick. But we also, more importantly than that, want to take care of ourselves. And we need to know our COVID status just like we need to know our HIV status, right? In the short term, COVID has some really huge implications as well as in the long term.

And so it's important to know, you know, the masking behavior of the folks who you are visiting with, the people who you're socializing with. It's important to know what they're up to, right? Did they travel? Were they in a large crowd? Did they have symptoms? Did they test and make sure they don't have COVID? How did they test? Did they use a home test? Did they go get a PCR? What was the timing of the test? There's so much important things that we need to know and understand. But the most important thing to know and understand is that COVID is still with us. We're still in a pandemic.

We definitely need to consider getting vaccinated and figure out whether or not you are someone who is at high risk. And if you qualify for a booster, please do go get it. You know, a pain in the arm or a day of feeling achy or crummy or having fevers is a very small price to pay to prevent a critical illness, to prevent a death, to prevent

chronic lung disease, and to prevent long COVID, which is a very, very serious outcome that has no specific intervention and no cure. All right, then. Dr. Gaffney, we so appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me on. All right, then. Dr. Gaffney, we so appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me on. All right, folks, we come back. Our Marketplace segment, Black Eyewear Company.

You definitely want to hear about. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, summertime when the living is easy, or is it?

Summer vacations, class reunions, kids in summer camp, all fun, but stressful. You need to get into a summer mindset and have a plan. Oh, yes. Our panel gives us their favorite summer planning hacks. On the next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here at Black Star Network. A powerful movement is rising across America. From the Mississippi Delta to the Apache Stronghold. From the homeless encampments of Washington State to the coal fields of Appalachia or West Virginia. We are the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this country,

and we are building the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival. On June 18th, ahead of this year's midterm elections, while the Congress is still in session, we will hold a mass Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington to arrest the attention of the nation, to put a face and a voice on poverty and low wages in this country. This is a watershed moment for justice and democracy in America. There are those who say that transformative change isn't possible, but history teaches us that it is precisely in times like these that people must build a broad and deep movement from the bottom up. We must compel this nation to repent, to lament,

and to see the realities that have been hidden for far too long. On June 18th, we will come together to lift the voices of the poor and low war economy, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism and white supremacy are hurting us all. We will show the nation the faces of Americans who cannot afford to go back to normal. We will detail the policies that can move us toward a society that works for everyone. And we will pledge to go home and build power

for transformative change in this year's election and for years to come. Because the question should have never been, how much will it cost to address poverty? The real question is, how much is it costing us not to? Somebody's been hurting our people. It's gone on far too long. And we won't be silent or unseen anymore.

Join us in D.C. on June 18th. Build with us for a third reconstruction in America. Visit poorpeoplescampaign.org. Peace and love, everybody. I'm Purple Wonderlove. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Two successful black businesses are joining forces to help build and generate wealth in our community.

Greenwood's largest black-owned digital banking company just bought the gathering spot in exclusive members-only club for black leaders and creatives. This acquisition creates the largest combined financial tech and community platform for African Americans. Co-founders of The Gathering Spot, Ryan Wilson and TK Peterson will still be at the helm as Chief Community Officer of Greenwood and Vice President of the Digital Banking Platform. And so terms were not released but certainly congratulations.

It's good to see black folks making other black folks millionaires. All right, folks, this next segment is perfect for my staff because all of them are blind as hell. They all wear glasses. Have you ever been to the eye doctor or packing for a vacation and couldn't find any frames you liked? Well, Avantel Eyewear boasts unique frames with African-inspired themes and colors. The company recently linked a deal with Nickelodeon to create a children's eyewear line. Co-founders Nancy Harris and Tracy Green joined us from Brooklyn, New York. Glad to have both of you here.

Okay, so first of all, whose idea was to start this unique line? I would say it was me. I lost a pair of expensive glasses and just was tired of all the glasses looking the same and not really fitting well. And I called my best friend, Nancy. We met in Morgan State University, and she lost a pair of glasses, too.

Say that again? I said, and she lost a pair of glasses, too. We were both frustrated, and we wanted something different. Nancy, you made a comment there. Go ahead. I just said HBCUs in the house. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So the ambulance was losing an expensive pair of glasses.

That's how it started. Okay, and it started how long ago? It's three years now. It started the concept in 2019. And, Nancy you started how long ago? It's three years now. And, uh... We started the concept in 2019. And, Nancy, how has it grown? Well, it's been growing leaps and bounds. Um, we are getting a lot of attention, but one of the greatest things that we have done

most recently is that, like you said, we inked a deal in July of 2021. Vontel was awarded a licensing deal with ViacomCBS to produce children's eyewear, and we are the first women of color to acquire this deal. So these glasses will be inspired by Nickelodeon characters, so we're going to be able to expand our line from the adults of having the African prints to having the cartoon characters, et cetera, such as Baby Shark, Paw Patrol, Rugrats, and SpongeBob. And, I mean, obviously, you know, people wear glasses. And so did y'all say, you know what, let's get rid of the boring look.

Let's make it a little funky. Definitely. Absolutely. We wanted pattern. We wanted design. We wanted something that was not in the market. We wanted to see our culture. And, you know, you walk into any eyeglass place, they all look the same. And we started with fabrics.

And because we launched in the pandemic, we made masks to match. So we were like, hey, you know, everyone's on virtual meetings and it was actually the right time because everybody needed blue light blocker lenses because of all the computers that they were on. So we were able to, you know, sell people. All you see is your face when you're in a virtual meeting

and people wanted to show their personality and our glasses do that. Who designs them? Nancy and I. We do. Okay. All right, cool. Questions from our panelists.

Let's see here. Mustafa, you first. I have to ask, what's your top selling glasses right now or the frames right now? For the women, it's the pair of glasses that I'm wearing right now. They're called Rwanda Wayfarers and they're selling out really fast. We actually have to put in a new order for these particular pair of glasses. And for the men, it's the Akasha Aviators. They look really good on the men.

They're tortoise shell. They're really rich and really good on the men. They're tortoise shell. They're really rich and also inspired by the heritage. And then these rands as well, the black rands, those are selling out. I think we have three left. These we have one now. They have like three left. These are the Akasha aviators that the men and the women buy. They look beautiful. All right. But we made them with men in mind, but, you know, women always have to cross that line. Teresa. Well, congratulations, ladies.

I was very excited to read about your story. And the first thing I thought of was, okay, great, we got Nickelodeon. Let's go get Marvel. So I can't, yeah yeah i know that's the next market so um please uh keep us posted when that happens oh yeah we have a couple of things in mind that we want to do of course going after marvel and a couple of other deals that we want to ink but one of the other projects that we just did and we're really excited about is we just did a partnership with Sigma Gamma Rose Sorority Incorporated for their

centennial anniversary. And we have glasses that we have made and designed specifically for them, but anyone can wear them because we did not put the insignia on the glasses. But if you love the colors, gold and royal blue, these are the glasses for you. So these are going hot, and there's only a limited edition of these glasses right here, but we're really excited. And down the line, our goal is to get the entire Divine line. I am a Delta. I represent Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated, So it would be great for us to represent all. And we are giving back a portion of all proceeds to the sorority so that they can give back

to their scholarship fund. Awesome. All right then. So that is great. How many units are y'all moving every year? So we have... We're moving a lot of units, actually. We've done really well this year. We started in the pandemic and for the first six months, we moved maybe a couple hundred.

And now we're moving thousands. We had to pivot. Originally, we were only selling, we wanted to sell online only. And we realized that people need to touch and feel the glasses. So we pivoted and we are in 30 stores across the country. And we just started selling to Dominica, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. So we are expanding every day. The more people get to know us, they love it. They love the idea. They love the fit. No one has a line across their nose anymore. The temples are longer, so it's more comfortable behind your ears. If you ever had a headache wearing glasses, it's because the temples are too short and they're on your pressure points. And people with bigger cheekbones, nice fit for over your cheekbones, so it doesn't put a line here either, so you don't have indentation.

So we are finding people are loving the fit and how comfortable they feel, and we're selling out. We're moving units all across the country. All right, then that is absolutely great. Give the website that people can actually get, check it out. www.bontelle.com. And we're on all social media,

Bontelle Eyewear, Bontelle, Bontelle LLC, Bontelle, www.bontel.com. All right, then. We certainly appreciate both of you. Thank you so very much for joining us.

And we got a pair of glasses for you, Roland. Thank you for having us. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Say it again. I said we got a pair of glasses for you, Roland. Don't worry. No need. I can see.

He's looking at the sunglasses to block the sun. Well, sunglasses, fine. But in terms of other glasses, I'm good. Now, my brother and my three sisters, they all blind, but you can hook them up. So it works out. All right, folks. Thanks a bunch. And, of course, the way I roll, I'm an alpha, so they got to be black and gold. All right.

I appreciate it. Of course. All right. We got you. We got you. All right. Thank you so very much. All right. We got you. We got you. All right. Thank you so very much. All right, folks.

Let's see here. The final story I'm going to go with today. South Carolina state offices were closed today for Confederate Memorial Day. South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham shared this tweet about the, quote, state holiday. Today state offices are closed to observe Confederate Memorial Day. This is another example of how our state continues to live in the past. Honestly, it's embarrassing.

When I'm governor, we're going to end Confederate Memorial Day and make election day a state holiday instead. Of course, South Carolina is one of many states pushing to enact critical race theory bills. State offices in Alabama and Mississippi closed last month to observe Confederate Memorial Day. And of course, it's Republicans who stand ready to salute to Confederate Memorial Day. And, of course, it's Republicans who stand ready to salute Confederate Memorial Day.

Just want to let y'all know who y'all dealing with. All right, Teresa, Mustafa, Damari, I really appreciate y'all being on the panel today. Thank you so very much. Folks, don't forget, Thursday we're going to be in Kansas City for a citywide town hall focused on police abuse there, really a treatment of black police. Again, it's going to be taking place in Kansas City.

Again, Thursday, Thursday, May 12th, it's going to be taking place 5 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Central taking place there in Kansas City, in Kansas City. And so we're partnering with the Kansas City Urban League. All folks are invited to come out because, again, police officers have been dealing with racism in their department for quite some time. And so we're going to be there dealing with that. And so looking forward to that.

Racism in the Kansas City Police Department addressing the Black and Blue Divide. Also, you two, why are you taking so long? Okay, leave the graphic up. Y'all should be at 1,000 likes by now. Don't make sense y'all keep having me asking for 1,000 likes. Just hit the like button, okay? It ain't that hard. Hit the like button real quick so we can get out of here.

Hit 1,000 likes before we go, okay? So just hit the log on button, okay? We're at 928. Don't take long. Again, Thursday, 5 p.m., 6 p.m. Eastern, Robert J. Mohart Center, 3200 Wayne Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. So looking forward to being there and having that conversation. And, again, you know, our desire is very simple. That is to get African-Americans to unite behind these issues because, again, these police officers, we profiled the story

how these black officers in Kansas City are dealing with vast racism in that department and folks there really don't give a damn. And so we certainly wanna stand with them as they are fighting as best as they can to improve their lot in the police department. So we're looking forward to having all the folks come out for that citywide town hall.

Thank you so very much. And finally, you two, we hit 1,000 likes. We should do that in the first hour, y'all. Just hit the like button. It ain't that hard. All right, that's it. I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget, download our Black Star Network app, available on all platforms, Apple Phone,

Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Also, you can please contribute to our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to travel to places like Kansas City, for us to be able to travel next week to Texas. That's critically important.

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So that's it, folks. I'll see y'all tomorrow. HALLELUJAH! Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. So that's it, folks. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Ho! This is an iHeart Podcast.